The Power of Breakthrough Prayer: Stepping Into Your Destiny
As we stand at the threshold of a new year, there's an invitation before us—an opportunity to experience breakthrough in ways we've never imagined. This isn't about making resolutions that fade by February or setting goals that gather dust. This is about tapping into a spiritual power that can literally transform our lives: the combination of prayer and fasting.
Taking the Driver's Seat
Life presents us with a fundamental choice: we can either sit in the driver's seat or the passenger seat. When we're driving, we're focused, intentional, and making constant adjustments to reach our destination. We're watching for obstacles, avoiding distractions, and staying on course. But in the passenger seat? We're just scrolling through our phones, gazing out the window, maybe taking a nap while life happens around us.
God never intended for us to be spectators in our own lives. He created us to be active participants, fully engaged in the journey He has for us. And here's a beautiful truth: God blesses us not just for our own benefit, but so we can turn around and bless others. We're conduits of His grace, not containers.
The Great Equalizer
Prayer is the great equalizer. It doesn't matter if you feel weak, powerless, or insignificant. Prayer can do anything that God can do. Think about that for a moment. When we pray, we're inviting the Creator of the universe into our circumstances. We're connecting heaven to earth.
Jesus told a parable about a widow woman and an unjust judge. The widow had no money, no family connections, no power, no influence. Yet through persistence—through refusing to give up—she eventually received what she needed. This isn't a story suggesting God is reluctant to answer us. Rather, it's a powerful lesson about perseverance. Sometimes prayer isn't rainbows and roses. Sometimes it's wrestling, struggling, and engaging in spiritual warfare. But God hears every prayer we pray.
The instruction is clear: ask, seek, and knock. But more than that—keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.Because delays are not denials.
The Missing Ingredient
If prayer is powerful, then prayer combined with fasting is explosive. Fasting multiplies our prayer power. It's not reserved for spiritual elites or church leaders—it's for every believer who wants to see breakthrough in their life.
Throughout Scripture, we see people who fasted and experienced remarkable results:
Daniel fasted for 21 days and received breakthrough
Paul fasted and received his calling
Peter fasted and received revelation that changed his life
Esther fasted and received divine favor
Jesus fasted for 40 days and became strong in the Spirit
When Jesus spoke to His disciples, He didn't say "if you fast" but "when you fast." It was an expected part of the Christian walk, a spiritual discipline that sharpens our vision and opens our ears to hear what God is saying.
Beyond the Natural
We live in a world where people have eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear—at least not spiritually. Fasting helps us see more clearly. It's like putting on 3D glasses at a movie theater. Without them, everything is distorted and out of focus. With them, suddenly details emerge that were always there but invisible to the naked eye.
Fasting isn't about starving our bodies; it's about strengthening our spirits. It's bringing our flesh to the altar and saying, "You're not in charge. I'm following God's plan." It's refusing to let our physical desires become our god.
When Nothing Else Works
There's a powerful moment in the Gospels when Jesus' disciples encountered a situation they couldn't handle. They prayed, they tried everything they knew, but nothing worked. When Jesus arrived and resolved the situation, the disciples asked why they had failed. His response was revealing: "This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
Some situations in life are stubborn:
Some strongholds won't budge
Some family members seem unreachable
Some circumstances appear impossible
These are the moments when we need more than good advice, more than another book or podcast. We need to seek God through both prayer and fasting.
The Heart of the Matter
In the book of Joel, God extends an invitation: "Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments."
This is crucial. God isn't interested in religious performance or empty rituals. He wants genuine heart change. And here's the beautiful part—God isn't angry with us. He's gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. For anyone who feels distant from God, who carries guilt or shame, who wonders if they've gone too far—fasting can help break down the walls we've built and draw us back into relationship with Him.
Looking Forward, Not Back
Perhaps you remember a time when you felt closer to God than you do now. Maybe there was a season of spiritual vitality that seems like a distant memory. The good news is that God doesn't want us living life looking through the rearview mirror. He wants us looking through the windshield, focusing forward on what He's doing next.
God is a God of the new. He does new things. He creates all things new. He invites us to sing new songs. Whatever was good in the past, the best is yet to come.
The Invitation
As a new year unfolds, there's an opportunity to set spiritual goals, to see things change, to experience breakthrough. Prayer and fasting aren't about impressing God with our spirituality. They're about sharpening our spiritual senses, putting an edge on our faith, and positioning ourselves to receive everything God has for us.
The invitation is simple but profound: step out in faith. Take small beginnings and watch God activate His hand in your life. Move from the passenger seat to the driver's seat. Stop trying to fix everything yourself and trust God to do what only He can do.
This could be the year of tenacity, the year of stepping up instead of stepping back, the year of breakthrough. Not because of our strength, but because we've learned to combine persistent prayer with fasting, inviting God fully into every area of our lives.
The question isn't whether God is able. The question is whether we're willing to engage the spiritual disciplines that position us for His power to flow through our lives. The answer to breakthrough may be closer than we think—it's found in drawing close to the One who has been waiting for us all along.