Breakthrough

The Triumph of the Last Words

“(Christ) disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.
He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

Colossians 2:15 (NLT)

QUICK LINKS

Introduction
Virtual Retreat Guide
Day One
Day Two

As we continue to navigate the new-normal world, we are challenged with the way we live as Christians. What does God want to teach us about living afresh amidst a world of chaos and suffering?

Thousands of years ago, our Savior Jesus was intentional in obeying the Father to suffer crucifixion. He was a man on a mission, a Messiah who was mandated to nullify the curse of sin and death so that redemption and restoration for mankind are made possible. Times are changing but His last words remain triumphant for a complicated world, “It is finished.”

This Holy Week, let us walk through the seven last words of Jesus on earth and savor anew its meaning and significance. Let His life-giving words be a refreshing reminder of our identity in Christ and begin to live each day more fully. Together as a church, let us engage with our Savior and experience fresh breakthroughs like never before.

Introduction

BREAKTHROUGH is a two-day fully online retreat designed for personal, family, and small group.

It is comprised of seven breakthrough sessions from the last words of Jesus with two main components in each segment: Soaking in the Word and Breakthrough Prayer. Each session is a time of solitude, worship, Scripture meditation, with various prayer exercises guiding us to a meaningful encounter with the divine.

While we cannot be physically present with one another, small groups are encouraged to meet and engage online. In the process, we pray for personal spiritual breakthroughs and decisions for baptism to happen. 

Schedule (suggested)

A Guide for the Virtual Retreat

Download the Participant's Guide (PDF)

Platforms:

Personal:

  1. Plan ahead to spend two full days of uninterrupted retreat with God on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
  2. Find a quiet place at your home for your personal meditation and prayer.
  3. Prepare your Bible, journal, and the Breakthrough Retreat guide you are reading right now.
  4. Follow the schedule or your own pace as the Spirit leads you.
  5. As you go through the Breakthrough sessions, allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Engage within and spend time to write your reflections.
  6. To avoid online fatigue, follow the virtual coffee and journaling breaks.
  7. Respond to God in a time of worship through songs via CCBC’s Spotify Playlist.

Small Groups:

  1. Plan ahead with your small group to spend two full days of uninterrupted retreat with God on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. You may decide to have it in a day.
  2. Orient and pray with your small group before you go through the Breakthrough sessions. You may use this page as a guide.
  3. Remind your group to prepare their Bible and journal. Encourage them to engage within and spend time to write their reflections.
  4. Follow the schedule.
  5. To avoid online fatigue, follow the virtual coffee and journaling breaks.
  6. Debrief with your small group and share each other’s breakthrough encounter with the Lord.
  7. Prepare for the LORD’s Supper on Maundy Thursday at 6pm. Remind your group to prepare their bread and juice.

Retreat Sessions

DAY ONE (Maundy Thursday)

“Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34, NIV
As Jesus was hanging on the cross, he uttered the words, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” This is a major theme in the crucifixion. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…” Jesus suffered on the cross that we may be released from the guilt of sin. His words also demonstrate His merciful heart and release of forgiveness.
  1. Take this time to ask God to examine your innermost

“Search me, Oh God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)

  1. Get a red pen and write down the specific sins you want to surrender to God.
  2. Pray the sinner’s prayer: Receive God’s forgiveness and cleansing from your sins.
  3. Just as Jesus forgave the prisoner, He is also speaking to you today to pray the prayer of releasing forgiveness to others.
    • Ask God to reveal to you and make a list of the people you need to forgive.
    • Write down the offense of what each one did to hurt you next to each name. Acknowledge the hurt and the hate.
    • Make a list of all the people from whom you need to ask forgiveness. Write the hurts you did next to each name.
    • Bring the list to God. Spend time in confession and mourning before God.
    • Understand the significance of the Cross. Decide to forgive.
    • Destroy the list. Pray for God to heal your heart.
    • Do not expect that forgiving others will result change in them.
    • Ask God to teach you to love and understand the people you have forgiven.
    • Write in your journal what God impressed you to do.
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43, NIV
The crowds sneered at him. “If you are the Messiah save yourself!” Clearly, Jesus presented himself as the Savior. But only one among the crowds, plead for His mercy. Jesus assured this condemned criminal with words of salvation. That is a sure hope of his place in paradise. These words should counter doubtful thoughts about one’s assurance of salvation. It is not merited, but it is given to those who are, by faith, called on Jesus.
  1. Pray the prayer of faith: Faith is making a choice to believe what God has said and promised, the assurance of salvation.
  2. Recite in prayer:

I am secure

      • I renounce the lie that I am guilty, unprotected, alone or abandoned because in Christ I am totally secure.

God says that:

      • I am free forever from condemnation. (Romans 8:1-2)
      • I am assured that all things work together for good. (Romans 8:28)
      • I am free from any condemning charges against me. (Romans 8:31-34)
      • I cannot be separated from the love of God. (Romans 8:35-39)
      • I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God. (2 Cor. 1:21-22)
      • I am confident that the good work God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1:6)
      • I am a citizen of heaven. (Phil. 3:20)
      • I am hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:3)
      • I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. (2 Tim. 1:7)
      • I am born of God, and the evil one cannot touch me. (1 John 5:18)

Find a secluded spot where you can sit quietly. Be silent for a few minutes, contemplating over what you have just encountered and received from the Lord.

  1. When was the last time your wondered about your identity and place in life?
  2. What negative thoughts run through your mind when you are down on yourself?
  3. Look back on the list above of “I am secure”. Ponder and savor each statement. Which ones resonate with you?
  4. Look up the verses in the Bible. Highlight the ones that remind you of who you really are in Christ.
When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, [b] here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” John 19:26-27, NIV
At the cross, Jesus displayed His tender care towards His mother. Even as He performs the greatest feat the world has seen, His affection and concern for His mother remains. How do we value the family that we have? Distinctly, He turned over His responsibilities of caring for His mother to one of His disciples, John. This provides us a picture of the family that is formed out of our faith in Jesus, that is, being part of the family of God. It is the practice of caring for each other in fellowship with believers.

  1. Pray and renounce any rebellious spirit. Pray for a heart that submits to His will.
  2. Pray against generational sins.
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7
  1. Pray to commit to be part of a local church and engage in one anothering through a community of small groups.
“Eli, Eli lema sabachthani?”, which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46, NIV
Misunderstood, unwanted, isolated, lonely, and abandoned. This was how Jesus felt as He uttered the words of Psalm 22 on the cross, expressing the anguish of one who was facing trials.  It was Jesus’ pain to experience the holy God turning away from Him as He bore the sins of mankind. Here, He models for us the openness to grieve in pain before the Father. Moreover, the good news of Jesus’ pain is that He bore our estrangement from God due to our sinfulness. The curse, guilt, shame, and isolation that Cain experienced were lifted up due to the redemptive work of Christ!
  1. Jesus’ pain of isolation was our pain. What area in your life do you sense abandonment?
  2. Jesus understands your insecurities. Ask God in prayer, “Lord, search my heart for any source of guilt, shame, isolation, and abandonment.”  Write them down and bring them to the Cross by faith and surrender.
  3. Read Psalm 23 and receive the assurance of security in Christ.
  1. Share with your group (or write down) the most significant breakthrough you experienced today.
  2. Pray for one another.
  3. Join the Live Communion Service through Zoom at 6:00 PM. Click here for the Zoom Link

DAY TWO (Good Friday)

“Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.” John 19:28-29, NIV
Jesus is fully human. He experienced all the appetites created within a healthy human being. On the day of His torture, He experienced an immense sense of thirst due to the loss of blood and fatigue. He also longed for a little act of compassion and mercy through the sponge drenched with sour wine and bitter hyssop. It is the incarnation of the Divine that makes this otherwise common means of painful death a special means to fulfill redemption for mankind. Our fallen state was also brought about and magnified by sin’s distortion of our bodily appetite.  What was created for healthy pleasure by God has become a source of perdition. Thirst and appetites were distorted toward addiction, drunkenness, lust, greed, and obsessions. Jesus died on the cross that our appetites may be redeemed and that we may find satisfaction in God alone.
  1. Appreciate the Son for His willingness to take the form of humanity. He is the high priest who could identify with us.
  2. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal every addiction, lust, obsession, vice, and greed that does not honor the Lord. 
  3. In the spirit of Romans 12:1, consecrate these fallen appetites to the Lord in prayer.
  4. Resolve to seek help and guidance especially for deep addictions.
Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30
The death of Jesus on the cross is the ultimate ransom for mankind’s debt of sin against the Holy God. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all— the testimony that was given at just the right time.” I Timothy 2:6 NIV) He had accomplished His mission as He reported. He used a merchant word to describe His completion – tetelestai. It is a transaction that is completed. He has paid it in full by His death on the cross. He was willing to bear mankind’s debt on Himself that anyone who would trust in Him would be redeemed.
  1. Praise the Lord for how He has paid in full the debt of our sin.
  2. In what areas of your life are you most likely indebted to others:
    • Unfulfilled obligations?
    • Failed promise?
    • Oppressive financial indebtedness?
    • Offense against others?
  3. Ask God to open your eyes to any areas or situations that need His redemption and restoration. Pray for release from debt.
  4. In your journal, write or outline initial steps to be free from debt as listed above.

Find a secluded spot where you can sit quietly. Be silent for a few minutes, contemplating over what you have just encountered and received from the Lord.

  1. Engage with the Savior. What areas of your life that you need to invite Jesus to experience breakthrough?
  2. What areas and situations in your life will you surrender to Jesus today as an act of worship?
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, He breathed his last. Luke 23:46, NIV
Uttering the words of Psalm 31, Jesus says this prayer as he breathed his last. It is prayer of surrender and trust. It is a prayer of one who is about to sleep in the midst of danger. The circumstances surrounding this moment displayed God’s immense sovereign power at the most vulnerable time in the Messiah. The heavy temple curtain separating the most holy place from the common area was torn into two. Jesus’ death bridged the chasm that separated mankind from God. He brought peace. Paul describes the work of Christ in Ephesians 2:13-14, “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” His death accomplished peace with God and should compel us to have peace with ourselves, others, and creation.
  1. Peace is not the absence of difficulties. It is a Person, the presence of Christ. Thank Him today that we can live a life of peace amidst a broken world because of Jesus.
  2. Spend time in praying to break down the wall of hostility between God, our fellow, and creation.
  3. Is there a part of your story that you sense a need for His peace? Are you willing to open this area of your heart to Him? Pray for consecration and restoration, “I commit my spirit.” 
  1. Share the most significant breakthrough you experienced today.
  2. Challenge and encourage baptism.
  3. Pray for one another as you end the retreat.

JOIN US THIS WEEK!​

Let’s celebrate and remember the good news about the Lord’s resurrection together! See you on Maundy Thursday at 6:00 PM via the Zoom link below:

ZOOM LINK