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You have been pushing against the same thing for months, maybe years. The door hasn't opened. The situation hasn't changed. You are starting to wonder whether the door leads anywhere or whether you were wrong about what you were promised. Breakthrough in Scripture is not evenly distributed across time. It arrives suddenly, after long waiting β and the suddenness is part of what it means.
Get These Verses Daily β FreeβAnd David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim.β
Baal-perazim β the Lord who breaks through. Like water bursting through a dam. The breakthrough David named was total and sudden, not a gradual loosening. When God breaks through, the language the Bible uses is of walls and water.
βFor the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.β
An appointed time β not an indefinite someday, but a specific moment already set. The vision has an appointment. Appointments are kept. The waiting is not uncertainty. It is the interval between the promise and the time the appointment arrives.
βBehold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.β
A way in the wilderness β not a path that was always there, but a new thing. God makes roads through places roads don't exist. The desert is not evidence there is no river coming. It is the context for the miracle.
βHe that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.β
Doubtless β the harvest is certain for the one who goes out weeping, carrying seed. The weeping and the sowing happen together. The sowing while weeping does not disqualify the harvest. The rejoicing at return is the same person who went out bearing both tears and seed.
βNow unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.β
Exceeding abundantly above is a triple superlative in Greek β Paul runs out of language trying to describe the scale of what God can do. According to the power working in you: something is happening in you during the wait that is part of what the breakthrough requires.
βAnd let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.β
In due season β the season has a due date, a when. The harvest is conditional on one thing: faint not. Don't stop before the season arrives. The weary person who keeps going reaps. The one who stops just before due season does not.
The word breakthrough first appears in Scripture in Second Samuel 5:20, where David defeats the Philistines at a place he names Baal-perazim β meaning "the Lord who breaks through." Perazim is from the verb paratz β to break through, to burst, like water breaking through a dam. The image is violent and complete. David's comment is "The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters." A wall of water does not slowly seep through. It breaks through.
The pattern of suddenly in the New Testament is striking. Acts 2:2 β "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven." Acts 16:26 β "And suddenly there was a great earthquake." Luke 2:13 β "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude." The Greek word is aphno β instantly, without preceding indication. God's interventions in Acts are characterized by absence of gradual buildup, long waiting followed by immediate and unmistakable movement. The suddenness is not described as unusual. It is the normal mode of divine breakthrough.
The theology of the appointed time runs through all of this. Habakkuk 2:3 β "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." This is not a promise that it is coming soon. It is a promise that it has an appointment, and appointments are kept. The waiting is not empty. It is the interval between the promise and the appointed time.
Commentary is from a charismatic Protestant perspective, drawing on KJV text and public-domain sources including Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and Matthew Henry.
Ephesians 3:20 uses a phrase that has no parallel elsewhere in the New Testament: "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." Exceeding abundantly above β the Greek is hyperekperissou, a compound triple superlative. Above. More than above. More than more than above. Paul stacks language to exhaustion trying to describe the scale of what God can do compared to the scale of what you have asked for.
The phrase "according to the power that worketh in us" is important. The breakthrough you're waiting for is not entirely external. Something is being built in you during the wait that is part of what the breakthrough requires. The power that worketh in you β energoumenΔn, actively energizing β is part of the mechanism. The delay is not waste. It is preparation. What comes through on the other side of the wall is larger than what went in.
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