I am not trying to split theological hairs or make a semantic mountain out of a molehill but I believe there is an important issue involved. When we use the terminology of a breakthrough we can be guilty of an unbiblical dualistic worldview
Let me explain. Dualism simply means there are two. It has a long and varied use in the history of philosophy. Simply put it can mean there are two realms; good and evil, a spiritual realm and a natural realm, visible and invisible, sacred and secular, and God and the devil. The revelation of God in the Bible implicitly and explicitly rejects this view. There is only one universe and it is God’s. God and Satan are not equally presiding over opposing kingdoms, fighting it out to see who can be victorious; rather the Bible presents God as sovereign over all and who mysteriously allows evil to serve His own purposes for a determined period of time.
This unbiblical world view makes it into our churches when a preacher makes the erroneous statement: “God has cast a vote, Satan has cast a vote and you have the deciding vote.” The logic of this statement implies that God and Satan are equal and you have more power than both!
This unbiblical worldview makes its way into the modern church growth movement as well. In the Dallas Ft. Worth metroplex where I live there are an abundance of church starts based on the premise that God will grow a church that is relevant to modern life. I have had people knock on my door and ask what kind of church I would like to see in the community. The idea they present to me is that we want to build a church people want to attend. I take this to mean that God is in His world and I am in my world and God would like to break-through and show me He can be relevant to my world. I rather think that I am the one that needs to adjust to His world. The whole idea that God must be made relevant to His own world has always been an unusual one for me to understand.
The leading “scientific” worldview of our modern era is naturalism or more specifically reductive naturalism. According to those who hold this view, everything must be reduced to a natural explanation. There is no room for “spirit” or anything that cannot be observed naturally. Therefore if man exists we must seek a purely natural explanation for his existence. Modern technology such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that shows part of the brain “light up” when the body is presented with certain stimuli have led some of these scientists to go as far as giving a “natural” reason for a person to have a certain religious disposition.
What does all of this have to do with the language of “breakthrough?” When we speak of God breaking through or “interrupting” our life we are inadvertently giving credence to a dualistic worldview.
Scholar James K.A. Smith writes in Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy
:Thus phenomena that might be described as “miraculous” are not instances of God “breaking into” the world, as if God were outside it prior to such events; rather, they are instances of a unique and special mode of participation that always already characterizes creation (p.102).Simplifying all of this, I would say what we need is not a “breakthrough” but a radical realignment of our lives to the already present Spirit. Jesus was continually calling people to do this very thing. In John 21 the exasperated, demoralized disciples have gone back to what they knew best; fishing. The only problem is these expert professional fishermen are not catching anything. At this point a mysterious figure from the shore exhorts them to align their nets from the left side to the right side. When they obey Jesus and radically align their lives with His word, purpose is fulfilled and resources flow.
When Mary and Joseph traveled from Jerusalem back to Nazareth after the festival, they “supposed Jesus was with them” (Luke 2:44). When they discovered that he was not they did not pray for a breakthrough but radically realigned their lives with his presence back at the temple.
I have been accused of thinking too much through the years and this may be one of those instances but I truly believe words have consequences and it is important to have a world view that is based on Truth. I will certainly not be in the habit of rebuking anybody for using the term breakthrough, I may even use it myself, but it is important to understand what our words mean. After all, it is the Truth that sets us free.
