A Year Marked by His Presence

In this episode of the Breakthrough Church podcast, the speaker shares insights on the church's vision for 2026, emphasizing the importance of seeking Jesus through prayer, scripture, and worship. The conversation highlights the transformative power of adoration, the significance of communion, and the call for radical boldness in sharing the gospel. The speaker invites listeners to participate in upcoming prayer sessions and outreach activities, fostering a community centered on the presence of Jesus.


Chapters

00:00 New Beginnings and Church Vision
04:45 Seeking Jesus Through Prayer
09:55 Understanding Scripture Through Christ's Suffering
15:13 Worship and Miracles: Adoration's Power
20:00 Living Boldly for Christ

Creators and Guests

Host

Josh Brake

Lead Pastor at Breakthrough Church

What is Breakthrough Church Podcast?

Josh and his family are planting Breakthrough Church in Richardson, TX. Their prayer is that Jesus would use them to advance His Kingdom and to see many receive healing and deliverance in His name. Josh is married to Abby and has three kids, two boys and one girl.

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Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Breakthrough Church podcast. Good to be with you and excited to share some updates on last Saturday. It's Monday, January 5th as I'm recording this, so I hope you're having a happy new year and I hope it's been off to a great start. I wanna share a couple of things. The first is Saturday before service,

I really felt, I don't know, I felt the Lord tell me to, or I don't know, feel the Lord told me, it might not be the right thing. I felt this nudge, which I guess is the Holy Spirit, to just write down some clear statements of this is what we're emphasizing this year as a church. And so I want to read those for you and talk a little bit about.

what I really sense the Lord inviting us into in 2026. And by us, I mean breakthrough church. And then give you guys an invitation to be a part of that. The first one is this. Revival will come as we seek the face of Jesus in prayer. I shared last week about my encounter with Jesus in adoration at a Catholic church. And now I was staring at the wafer.

the host that is the presence of Jesus, his body. And as I'm staring at it, I just feel pure love for Jesus. And in that moment of adoring him for just who he is and how beautiful he is, a woman in the room started to cry. And I feel like one of the things the Lord was teaching me and showing me was as you learn to adore Jesus with pure love, with no other agenda, but just to lavish him in love, others in the room or others connected to you will begin

to encounter him as well. And to not underestimate the pursuit of the face of Jesus in a moment of prayer. So for us, prayer is not just about asking God to do things, which is intercession, very important part of prayer, but that's not core to what prayer is. And we're not experts by any means, but what we've learned just in a short amount of time, a little over a year, what we've learned is that

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First and foremost, prayer is fellowship with God. It's communion with the Holy Spirit. It's entering into the realm of the presence of Jesus, the kingdom of Jesus. And it's fueled by love. It's fueled by and sustained by first, Jesus' love for us displayed on the cross, and then therefore our love for him in return. The only response

Excuse me. The only response that we have that's appropriate when we see the love that Jesus has for us is love. That's the only response. It's love displayed as a laying down of our lives for Jesus in service and in gratitude. So in prayer, that's all happening. In prayer, we've learned

that when we seek the face of Jesus, and there's a way that we've been doing that, but as we seek the face of Jesus to behold him, his love, his power, his mercy, his beauty, the room, just the God opens up his heart to those in the room and there's encounter. I can tell you story after story of people being released in so many ways, experiencing forgiveness, healing, new giftings, a gift of tongues.

or it could be a prophetic word or it could be a physical healing. It could just be a fresh revelation of the Lamb of God that unlocks love in their hearts. just, I don't know, when you get close to the Lord, you just feel it and you're changed. And that has happened so often in this place of prayer for us at Breakthrough. And so we're actually gonna start doing it on Wednesday evenings at 6.30 p.m. at Loft City, where we've been meeting for church on Saturday evenings. And I believe, I really believe that there's gonna be revival that happens in the hearts of those who come.

and those in the hearts of those who are connected to those who come because that's how the Lord works. So we're going to seek the face of Jesus in prayer on Wednesday nights at 6 30. We're calling it breakout based on Micah 2. says one breaks through and the many break out. So as Jesus has broken through for us, we will then break out. We will experience the freedom he's offered to us as we seek his face in prayer. So we've been doing this. It's core to who we are.

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and will always be a core to who we are, is prayer, being a house of prayer, a place that people can come and know that there are going to be people praying regularly that they can be invited into. so Wednesday nights at 6.30 p.m. at Loft City is where we're going to be doing that. And we're also doing it Tuesday mornings at the Farmers Branch campus of the branch. We're going to continue to do that, but we understand not everybody can make that. So we're going to try to make it a little bit more accessible for people Wednesday nights at 6.30. This isn't a typical program. We're going to show up and we're going to pray.

I'll lead us in prayer. and Sal are gonna lead us. We're gonna usher in, usher us in the presence of Jesus and it's gonna be powerful. I really encourage you to come. Number two, our hearts will burn as we behold Christ crucified in scripture. We have a hermeneutical lens that we found in Luke 24 when Jesus opens the scriptures to the two guys on the road to Emmaus. He opens them the Old Testament and shows them all of the things concerning himself.

and how they point to his suffering. And so when Jesus is reading the Old Testament, his starting place when it comes to interpreting it is the suffering of Christ. So when we read the Old Testament, we should be looking for, this is a clipping for you, I'm telling you right now, this is how you should be reading scripture, because this is how Jesus read the Old Testament, to look for the suffering of Jesus. So for example, when you're in Genesis three,

And you see the fall of mankind Adam and Eve sinned they fall there being that there's God is kind of pronouncing these curses on them. The curse that he pronounces on the serpent is that there will be enmity. I will put enmity between you and the woman and your offspring and her offspring and he will bruise or crush your head and you will cruise bruise or crush his heel. So at the very beginning of

the Bible, right after the fall, we see the first declaration of the gospel by the Lord himself saying, I'm going to send an offspring of Eve, a man who's going to come and he will deal a fatal blow to the serpent's head, even as the serpent deals a blow to his heel. This speaks of the crucifixion of Jesus that he will come to a place of the skull. That is what Golgotha means. He will go and he will ascend the hill called the place of the skull and in his death will crush the skull.

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of the serpent. So at the very beginning, the way that we should interpret the fall narrative is that creation has been disturbed and not just disturbed, but completely destroyed and fractured by sin entering in the world and death entering into the world. That the only way to recover it is for another one, another man to come and take on sin and to take on death and to then restore what was

supposed to be true of creation back in Genesis 1 and 2. The only way that comes is through bruising because Jesus isn't just trying to start over. He's trying to redeem what was lost, which is life in the garden in the presence of God. And so so that's just an example. When you are looking at the Old Testament, you start with the suffering of Christ. So if you are in a Bible reading plan and you're five days in, you're in Genesis.

and you're studying scripture, I'm telling you this will light you up. When I say hearts will burn as we behold Christ crucified in scripture, when you discover the suffering servant, Jesus Christ, and the cross, specifically the beaten, bloodied, swollen face of Jesus, his piercings, his crushings, his suffering and passion, when you discover that in places you've never seen it before in the Old Testament, your heart will burn with love and hunger for the man who was slain.

So look for Him in Scripture. That's what we're gonna be doing in Breakthrough. We're gonna walk through the Old Testament. We just did Genesis 1, 2, and 3 this last Saturday, and it led to confession of sin. It led to tears. It led to us just offering to the Lord worship and praise for all that He's done for us. It was anointed. It was powerful. There's more to come. just, I feel in my spirit right now that as we prioritize Christ crucified in the Old Testament, specifically in this season, hearts will burn at Breakthrough Church.

And so revival will come as we seek the face of Jesus in prayer and hearts will burn as we behold Christ crucified in scripture. The third is miracles, signs and wonders will break out as we adore Jesus in worship. This goes back to what I shared about adoration, that when we really learn to forget everything else and to simply adore Jesus for who he is, not for anything he can do for us or through us, but just to love him in pure adoration, I believe in that moment,

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He will pour out his spirit to bring miracle signs and wonders, to heal the sick, deliver the oppressed. Cancer's gonna flee, colds are gonna flee. All of this is going to happen as we simply adore Jesus in worship. And that's all it's gonna take, which is so beautiful, because he's gonna get all the glory. We're not even gonna have to lay hands on people. I do believe we're gonna adore Jesus in worship, and then he's gonna break out and just start doing stuff that we can never do on our own by the Spirit. So, amen to that. The fourth is our eyes will be opened.

and blindness will be healed. I'm not talking about physical blindness, although probably that too. I'm talking about spiritual blindness will be healed as we feast on Jesus and Holy Communion. I say this every single week on Saturday. I believe communion, the presence of Jesus is in the bread and the juice. It is more than just cracker and juice. It's the body and blood of Jesus. That's what scripture says and that's what the first 1500 years of church history would tell us.

There may be some deviation on how language is formed over time, but nobody in the early church history said, yeah, it's just a symbol, just to remember something that's happened in the past. Every church father, Ignatius, Tertullian, Ambrose, they all said that the presence of Jesus is in the meal and that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood. So I believe as we feast on it, just like in Luke 24, when Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and then their eyes were opened,

Go read it in Luke 24, their eyes weren't opened, their hearts were burning, but their eyes weren't opened until his body was broken in front of them, the bread was broken in front of him. Then they recognized him. And so I believe the eyes are gonna be open as we prioritize the body and the blood of Jesus Christ in the moment of Holy Communion. lastly, people will be saved and delivered and healed as we commit to radical boldness in our everyday life.

Let me give you an example. This might not seem radical to you, but five years ago, Josh would have thought this was radical. I went to the gym this morning. I canceled my membership at the gym because we're going to switch memberships at a different gym. And I felt kind of bad because I've gotten to know some people there. There's a guy there that I've gotten to know. I told him that we're canceling membership and he was really bummed. And I felt bummed because of that. And I'm like, I like this guy. He's really, really great. And I don't know if he knows the Lord, but maybe he does. Maybe he doesn't. But I don't know.

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And so I walked out thinking, man, should I have not canceled? Should I go, should I, should I re up our membership again? I know I just canceled, but is there a ministry opportunity? And I thought, wait a second, what am I thinking? I just can go, I can just go in there get his phone number and hang out with him. And so I turned around, I walked back in, I said, Hey man, I would love to get lunch or coffee sometime just to get to know you and hang out more. Cause I'm not going to be here as much. Would you like to do that? And he was like, bro, I would love to. Yes, that's amazing. Let's do it. So he gave me his number. I got his, he got mine.

and we're texting about finding time to get together. That's what I'm talking about. This radical bullness of like, I'm gonna get coffee with this guy because this guy needs Jesus. And if Jesus is real and really did die for his sins, he needs to know that and I wanna share it with him. I wanna be the guy that shares it with him. It's almost the stubbornness, like, I wanna be the guy. I wanna be the guy that shares this with him. And so I don't know where you're at. You might feel like that's not that radical or maybe you're like, that is pretty radical. I know that me,

A few years ago would have thought that's kind of crazy. Like what if he turns you down? What are people going to think if you just left cancel and you're walking back in like all those things? But I just like don't care about that. I mean, there's a job to do like the kingdom is here. Let's go. It's go time. And so I think that as I think that the Lord is looking for a people that don't care about reputation, don't care about optics, don't care about perception that are forsaking and rebuking the fear of man.

and they just go for it with people because they're trusting that the spirit will move. And so the scripture that's been on my heart personally has been Zechariah 4.6, which is, by mind, not by strength, but by your spirit, says the Lord. And that was actually given to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4.6, because Zerubbabel was one of the few that went back after the Israelites were in Babylonian exile because of their disobedience to the Lord. They go to Babylon for 70 years, and then God calls them back.

to rebuild the temple. And one of the leading guys was Zerubbabel. He was charged with going back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. And he gets there and he lays the foundation. And as soon as he lays the foundation for the temple, which is interesting, the first activity they begin to do in worship is the daily sacrifices on the altar. Blood, blood was spilled. The first thing that they did was they went and they began to kill animals and to get right with God.

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through the sacrifice of another. That was the first priority that they did. They laid the foundation, they put the altar back in its place and started slaughtering animals and spilling blood on top of it. The nations around them hear about it and they go discouraged and they send a letter to the king and they say, hey, these guys can't rebuild the temple because if they rebuild the temple and then the city is next, if they rebuild, they're a rebellious city that has conquered the kings around them. So we can't let them do this. And the king says, great, we're not gonna let them do it. You're right.

So they by force and by power, says by force and by power, they stopped. This is Zechariah three. They, I think Zechariah three, they by force and by power stopped the people of Israel from rebuilding the temple. And then it says, and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged them to keep going. And what is the encouragement? Not by my, mean, there's among other things. One of the things is not by might, not by strength, but by your spirit says the Lord.

In other words, God's like, I know that they stopped you by force and by power, but you're not building by force and power. You're gonna build by my spirit. And he says other things like, the eyes of the Lord are on you. So I just, feel like that being the priority is we want to build a house for the presence of Jesus. We did not get into ministry and into church planting, because we longed to run a church. We wanted to, with a few.

or many, however God brings us, radically commit to running after the presence of Jesus, to burn for him, to love him so much that our worship is anointed by the Spirit, that our preaching is anointed by the Spirit, taking communions anointed by the Spirit. It's not legalism, it's just love that we want to build this thing by the Spirit of the Lord. Not by might, not by strength, not by strategy.

but simply by the Spirit of the Lord. That's our heart. We want to be a place where God, when he looks at it, says, I love this place. I want to dwell in the midst of those people. I want to reveal my heart to break through church. And when he reveals his heart, guess what he reveals? Jesus Christ crucified. That is the center of the Father's heart. There's nothing more deep in the heart of the Father than the beaten and bloodied.

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pierced one, Jesus Christ, the man from Galilee. That is the heart of the Father. And so I just know that we're in for it. I really feel like beholding the face of Jesus in prayer, in communion, in scripture, in evangelism, in worship, it will mark us and change us. And everything we want to see happen will be fruit of that. And we won't have to try.

because it's by the Spirit, not by might, not by strength. So I hope you're encouraged. The invitation is, we'd love to see you on Saturday at 5 p.m. We are running after this stuff. And pre-service prayer starts at 4 15-ish, four to 4 15. If you wanna come early just to pray with some of the team, the Lord is there. Again, this last Saturday, pre-service prayer, the Holy Spirit showed up. It was intense. People were crying. I mean,

praying in the Spirit, raising hands, worshiping the Lord. It was like tangible, like whoa, thick, oily air. Like, my gosh, the Holy Spirit's here. And that was before church even started. So come to that, come to service at 5 p.m. We go about an hour and a half to two hours. We seek the presence of Jesus. And then a lot of us go out to dinner afterwards, just organically. love for you to come. And then the other invitation is we're praying Wednesdays at 6.30. I can't tell you how expectant I am for that time.

It is unstructured and not hindered by time and we are gonna get after the Lord and we're gonna remember the gospel and it's gonna be fire And I don't mean just exciting I mean the fire of the Holy Spirit the zeal of the Lord is gonna come and I can't wait So I'd love for you to come to any of those We're also gonna be doing once a month outreaches, which I need to get those dates on the calendar But we're gonna do once a month outreaches where we either canvas the neighborhood or we go to a park or a mall

And we simply just walk up to strangers and ask them if they need prayer for anything and engage in spiritual conversations. People are really open to that, more so than you'd probably think. All right, God bless you. So excited for 2026. I'm gonna close with this quote I heard. I don't remember who it's by, but it was in the book, Why Revival Terries by Leonard Ravenhill. And this guy said, it was a quote at the beginning of a chapter. He said, the gospel is not an old, old story freshly told.

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The gospel is fire in the spirit. And what that speaks to me is that the gospel of Jesus, his death, I feel this, his death, his resurrection is not something that we look at once and move on from because now we're Christians going to heaven when we die. Jesus Christ crucified, resurrected, ascended to the right hand of the Father. Jesus himself is someone to gaze at.

without looking away. And as we do that, the fire of the Spirit, the love, which is the love of Jesus, will sustain us in the gospel reality that Jesus purchased for us on the cross. The gospel is not just a message that gets us in.

I heard somebody say this, J.D. Greer of a church in North Carolina. He said, gospel is the diving board and the pool we swim in. We don't get in by Jesus's death and then begin to navigate in the flesh. We get in by the Spirit revealing Jesus and we stay in the Spirit by remembering the love of Jesus. That love that Jesus has is the flame that keeps you burning by the Spirit. So I just don't.

ever move on from reflecting on every morning the gospel of Jesus. This is how you abide. This is how you kill the flesh. This is how you stay in the spirit and experience life and peace on a daily basis. The most spiritual people I know and the most effective in ministry are the ones that spend the beginning of their day not just asking God to do stuff, but enjoying Him, loving Him, being loved by Him, being a friend of the Holy Spirit, just carving out time just to be with Him.

This is the life that we're after. It's a lifestyle of awareness of God's presence, of boldness and witness, and desire to adore Jesus in worship and prayer. Whew, man, I'm so excited for 2026 if you can't tell. So join us for all the things. Love y'all, have a great week, see ya.