Breakthrough Church Podcast

In this episode of the Breakthrough Church podcast, the speaker reflects on the themes of love, intimacy with Jesus, and boldness in evangelism as they enter the new year. They share personal experiences of prayer and adoration, emphasizing the importance of beholding Christ crucified. The conversation highlights the transformative power of intimacy with Jesus and the call to pursue revival together as a church community.

Chapters

00:00 New Year Reflections and Themes
02:04 The Power of Intimacy with Jesus
05:17 Experiencing God Through Prayer and Adoration
12:58 The Revelation of Christ Crucified
20:51 The Burning Heart and the Presence of Jesus
24:25 Invitation to Pursue Revival Together



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.

Breakthrough Church (00:10.319)
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Breakthrough Church podcast. Grateful to be with you. Hope you had an awesome Christmas and a happy new year. I'm guessing this is gonna come out after New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. And I'm praying that 2026 starts off with purpose and meaning. I just really sense a couple of things as we enter the new year. I sense just, and I don't.

maybe this is just for me, but I think it's for people, maybe the church, maybe at least breakthrough. But I just sense a couple of themes, one of love and intimacy with Jesus, and then one of boldness, boldness and evangelism. And it's a season to be bold where we've maybe been timid or maybe been complacent. I believe the Lord is wanting us to start to be bold in relationships that we are in with people who don't know Jesus. And I think the Lord is calling us.

as church always has been, but even more so in this next season where I think we're going to see an uptick in just salvations and baptisms and signs and wonders. think that we're heading into a season like that and what can accelerate that and partner with that as a people who are bold with their faith. But that boldness really comes as a result of intimacy with Jesus. So when you really behold Jesus, when you see Him for who He is and you commune with Him.

He empowers you to share the gospel, which is the message of Jesus and message about Jesus. And so I heard a pastor once say that when you spend time and intimacy with Jesus and in prayer and you really prioritize the secret place, you leave the secret place not with sermon series or topics, but you leave the secret place with a person that you want to communicate. And that person is Jesus. So I want to share actually a couple of things related to that.

and how it's already affected me. I want to share a story from a couple of weeks ago. was the Thursday before Christmas. And I believe that's right. I believe that's right. that morning I woke up and I had a response to the newsletter that went out the week before, which if you listened to this podcast, you would have known what that newsletter was about. It was about

Breakthrough Church (02:31.94)
the pre-service prayer that we had before service a few weeks ago, where we focused in on the lamb who was slain on Genesis 22, Abraham and Isaac, and Abraham telling Isaac, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son, and how God demands a sacrifice, but then he becomes the sacrifice for us and just the love that he has for us. And as we were praying into that, really felt the power of God come on me and the presence of God enter the room and felt an invitation.

in that moment to really focus on the pure gospel which is Christ crucified. And as we preach the pure simple gospel that the power of the Holy Spirit was going to move. so I shared that in a newsletter, I got a response that Thursday morning from the newsletter saying from a guy that I love, haven't spent a lot of time with, but when I did spend time with him, really felt a kindred spiritness to him.

And he might even be listening to this or reading this, but he's a church planting director, executive director of a church planting network in Utah, Oregon, that area in the Northwest. he responded to my newsletter saying, brother, your passion and love for Jesus and His presence is going to ignite many in your church and also ignite many churches. And what you're doing is holy work. Keep it up. And I was so encouraged by that.

was interested in what they were up to, his church planting network. So I clicked on his website link and went there and I saw a quote and the quote says this, it's by Leonard Ravenhill and it says that if a man can get believers to praying, then he will usher in the greatest revival the world has ever seen. And I loved that. And I had just had a conversation with a couple of friends about prayer and revival. So I sent it to them, that quote. Well, I a text back immediately from my friend who says, hey, guess what book I started?

this morning and he sent a picture and there's a book called Why Revival Terry's by Leonard Ravenhill. And I'm like, whoa, that's crazy that all this is happening. And it was like, okay, nothing's really happening in the natural, but in the supernatural and in the spirit, felt like things were shifting and realigning. And it felt like things were speeding up. you ever like, I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but when things are changing and shifting and realigning in the spirit, it goes from zero to a hundred like,

Breakthrough Church (04:50.32)
that. I mean, in an instant, you're going from zero to 100 miles an hour in the spirit. And that's what I felt like. I felt like, okay, something's happening today. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I know it has to do with the focus on the Lamb of God, the pure, simple gospel, a focus on prayer that's going to lead to revival. And something along the lines of beholding the Lamb in prayer will usher in revival. Beholding the Lamb in prayer will usher in revival. And

That's what I was in hindsight, that's what I was sensing. And I got to that conclusion because as I was meditating on this and trying to figure out what the Holy Spirit was saying, I got a text from somebody. It was a friend of mine who is Catholic and she said, hey, I read this this morning and thought of you and would love to invite you to it. And it was a write-up on adoration. So if you don't know what adoration is, it's a Catholic program. I guess it's not really a program, but

It's a thing that Catholic churches do where they set aside a room, a chapel in their church, and they put on display the Eucharist or the bread. And in the Catholic church, they believe in transubstantiation where when you eat the bread, becomes a literal flesh of Jesus. And you drink the cup, becomes a literal blood of Jesus. And so because they revere the Eucharist, the body and the blood or the bread and the cup so much, they actually have a set aside room.

where they put the bread on display and you can go into the room and it's called adoration because the goal is to go into the room and meditate on the body of Jesus and just adore Him and just love Him. Well, I don't necessarily subscribe to transubstantiation, although I probably would make some evangelicals mad in my reviews of the Eucharist that I do believe the presence of Jesus is in it. It's more than just a reminder of a past event, but it's communion with the one who died.

in that moment and there's healing in life that can happen in the communion meal. So anyways, I get this invitation and I really immediately think, God is, He has invited me to do this today. And so I blocked off the morning. I didn't have much going on that morning anyways, no meetings or anything. So I said, okay, I'm to go to Adoration. So I went to this little chapel at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Farmers Branch and I walk in, it's so quiet and I feel like a foreigner.

Breakthrough Church (07:11.036)
I know I've never been to one of these before. I've been to Mass a few times in college, but I walked in and it was dead quiet. There's like three or four people in there. I was like, gosh. I start like tiptoeing and I'm like, I don't know what to do. I mean, there's pews. And so I go sit down on one and I begin to look around and notice what people are doing. And some are kneeling and some people are walking in and when they walk in, they dip their finger in holy water and they do the sign of a cross. And some people kneel or at least like kind of bow.

towards the front of the room and I'm like, what are they bowing at? Excuse me. Like, what are they bowing at? What are they kneeling at? I don't really know what's happening. So it took me 45 minutes to figure out that there was a big old box at the front of the room called the tabernacle and in the box there was a golden door and in the door was a circle, a sphere,

that was glass and in the glass was the host, which is the bread. The bread is called the host because it hosts the presence of Jesus in the bread. I'm texting my friend, Sal. He's a worship leader at Breakthrough. I'm texting him and I'm just like, hey, what am I looking at? I send him a picture of it. He's like, yeah, that's tabernacle. That's the host. That's why, know, adoration is you adore the body of Jesus. And so I'm like, okay, well, now that I know kind of what I'm looking at, now I got to really settle into the awkwardness of staring at a piece of bread.

And that's really what it felt like at first. I was staring at this piece of bread and I told the Lord, I'm like, I feel like you totally invited me here, but I just have no idea why I'm here. I'm looking at this piece of bread and I feel so silly. I'm staring at a piece of bread, a wafer in a glass jar, an enclosed, I didn't really know what to do. And so I just admitted that to the Lord and just settled in.

I maybe read a couple of passages of scripture and I would look at the bread, I'd look around, I kind of just close my eyes, pray in the spirit. I would kneel down, I would get back up. And so I just was trying to settle in. Well, over the course, I was there from nine to 12. Actually a little after 12 maybe. And I'm not saying that to boast. Obviously, you know that my heart's not to say like, look how spiritual I am. It's like I was constrained. It's like I couldn't leave because I knew God invited me to that space and I wasn't going to leave until I got what he wanted me to get.

Breakthrough Church (09:35.507)
And so I was in that room and there was a moment where I knelt and I knelt and I immediately sensed the presence of Jesus in a way that maybe I never have. It was specific, like his attention was on me. Oh, I'm just remembering it now. So precious. I sensed the presence of Jesus on me, looking at me, his attention, his eyes on me. And I just was kneeling there. here's what I felt like.

I was dying to the opinions of others. I was dying to my own perception of what people thought of me. And I was coming alive to the eyes of Jesus. I was growing in my, well, I just began to not care as much about what people in the room thought of me and how I was engaging with the Lord. And I know that was true because it was four five of us, maybe at this time there was eight or 10, I was kneeling and my arms are raised and it's dead quiet. There's no music. I'm not singing.

I'm silent, maybe praying in the Spirit softly or saying Jesus softly. And my arms were like in front of me, palms up, just in the presence of Jesus, just enjoying Him, adoring Him. And it was so beautiful. And I would open my eyes and look at the host and something began to happen in me. And I heard the Lord say, get lower. And I was like, okay, I'm kneeling. So you want me to get lower? I hesitated, very like hesitantly got up.

and got into the aisle and I knelt down and it's on hard cold floor like it's not a place that's like comfortable. But I get on the floor, I kneel down and the Lord says get lower. I'm like gosh, I'm really dying to what people think of me and what you know how I am presenting myself. I was really dying to that. I think this was part of the invitation the Lord was giving me like you have to die to this. And so I get on my face.

And people are probably seeing, I don't know, I don't even know, but when I got on my face, I thought, this is home. There's no other place I'd rather be than in the presence of Jesus right now. And I sensed Him and I was like, so in love. I'm telling you, I'm not saying this because I'm spiritual. This is all God's grace. I just was laying there on my face encountering the Lord Jesus. And at one point I look up and I look to my left and I'm still on my stomach and I look over and I can see the host.

Breakthrough Church (12:00.913)
And my heart leaps when I see the host. I'm like, Whoa, that's weird because my mind is saying that's just a piece of bread. But my heart is saying there's something there. There's someone there. And so I, I felt like the Lord said get closer. And so out of obedience, I'd get up and I walk over to the host and I sit down within three or four yards of it. And I sit crisscross and I just gaze at the host. I'm staring at this piece of bread. And then there was a moment where,

The only way I know how to describe it was pure love that I was sharing with Jesus. I was experiencing his love and I was giving him love. And all I could say was precious Jesus. I love you Lord. And I remembered that the time I was in was called adoration and everything faded. There was no agenda except to just adore him. That was the only agenda was to adore Jesus. And there was a moment, I'm telling you, it was brief.

It wasn't like I stayed there forever, but there was a moment, maybe 10 or 15 seconds, maybe longer. actually don't know. It felt short, but it felt eternal at the same time where I was sharing this love that was so pure. There's no motive other than just loving Jesus and him loving me. And I start, my tears started to come into my eyes. And the moment that happened, there was a woman to my right who started to cry. The same moment she started to cry. Her hands were in her face and she was weeping. She was like sniffling.

And I thought, Whoa, that was weird. And then the moment after that, I looked at the host and I saw a face on the, on the bread and it was taking the form of the host and I was looking at it and I saw an eye. I saw some facial hair and I, but I only saw one eye and I had the thought, why, why am I only seeing one eye? And I heard in my spirit because the other one is swollen shut.

I'm not lying. This is what was happening in this moment.

Breakthrough Church (14:02.135)
I immediately felt this, it was this revelation of the beaten, bloodied, swollen face of Jesus that he really did go through that for me.

Breakthrough Church (14:15.997)
that he really did submit himself to torture of his own volition. No one forced it. He submitted to it himself. And here I am just on my crisscross applesauce just staring at this piece of bread and encountering the bloody Jesus, the swollen face of the Savior. And there was like nowhere else I'd rather have been in that moment.

And I wanted to stay there forever. I never wanted to move away. I had meetings, so I had to go, but it changed me. It marked me.

There really is only one version of Jesus and it's the suffering servant. It's Christ crucified. Not because we don't, well, I'll get that in a second, but I shared this candlelight service because not because I wanted to boast, but because I want Jesus Christ crucified to be real. And that when you, with the eyes of your heart, behold Christ crucified, your heart leaps, it burns, you feel that love.

And there's nothing, nothing left. There's nothing left. That's the goal is to enjoy love with Jesus forever and ever. And even mission is unto that. Why do we go on mission to share the gospel and to witness that people can enjoy the love that Jesus has for them and share it with him? Jesus doesn't save us from mission. Mission's great. I mean, you've heard me share stories of me going to UTD and witnessing and

All that is awesome, but why is that? am I doing it? Because I want people to know the love that I know, to know the man that I know, Jesus. After I got back to the office from that encounter, I wrote down a few things. I'm just going to read them to you. says, I wrote down, Jesus is coming back very soon. To love and adore Jesus is to feast on Jesus.

Breakthrough Church (16:20.357)
Jesus, I didn't write this, but I'm going tell you why I wrote that because in the time of prayer, I was asking the Lord to teach me how to feast on Him. And in the course of time, felt like, no, no, no, I'm not going say I felt like what I learned is that in order for me to feast on Jesus, which is why He gave us bread and wine to remember Him because He's not to be admired from afar, but to be feasted upon, consumed. And so when I see Him, when I adore Jesus, that's me feasting on Him.

To feast on Him is to love Him. So if you're hungry spiritually, come to Jesus and tell Him how much you love Him. Adore Him for who He is. Don't ask for anything. Just adore Him. To love and adore Jesus is to feast on Jesus. Then I wrote, Jesus is real. His presence is life. The only accurate picture of Jesus is Him beaten and bloodied. Jesus is precious. To behold Him is life and purpose. It's the end of all mankind.

I want to put a scripture to this briefly because what I experienced, believe the guys on the road to Emmaus experienced in Luke 24. Jesus has died, He rose again, and He appears to these two guys. They're on their way to this village called Emmaus and Jesus appears to them, but He keeps their eyes from recognizing Him.

Jesus says, what is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things? And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed in word before God and all people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.

Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see, but him they did not see. And he said to them, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Pay attention now. All the prophets had spoken. What have the prophets spoken?

Breakthrough Church (18:35.707)
Was it not necessary, this is Luke 24 verse 26, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? What things? What they've already described. Jesus mighty indeed was delivered up to be condemned to death and crucified. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer those things and then enter into his glory? And what did he do? Jesus beginning with Moses.

that's the first five books of the Old Testament and all the prophets and later in the chapter he'll include the Psalms, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

So Jesus, after being resurrected, appears to two guys and veils his identity to them. He doesn't let them know who he is. He asks them questions. He reveals like he always does. He exposes their hearts, their own, their unbelief. And after their unbelief is exposed, he doesn't open their eyes to see who he is. He takes them to scripture, specifically the Old Testament. He takes them to the Old Testament. And what does he do? He doesn't just talk about

yeah, generally points to me. He talks about everything in the Old Testament specifically points to the suffering of Christ. That's where he starts in the Old Testament to interpret it correctly. You start with the suffering of Christ. Later, it says that did not our hearts burn within us when he opened to us the scriptures. What the fruit of this is a heart burning. When you behold the

The suffering of Christ in the Old Testament, it should produce by the spirit, a burning heart. What does that burning heart produce? Let's keep reading. So they drew near to the village to which they were growing. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly saying, stay with us for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. What does a burning heart produce? A desire to be with Jesus. The burning heart is hunger for his presence.

Breakthrough Church (20:43.067)
And so they say, stay with us, because why? Their hearts are burning and they don't know why yet, but they know they need this man around.

So they say, with us. So he stays. And what happens next? When he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to him. And then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. When were their eyes opened to the identity of Jesus? Only when the bread was broken.

What is this saying? It speaks of the true identity of Jesus is the man who was broken. There is no other version of Jesus. There is no other revelation of God. If you want to know who God is, you look at Jesus on the cross. That's who your God is. That's the conquering King. The one who goes to the cross and is bruised, but crushes a serpent's head in the process. This is how he conquers its broken body.

It's poured out blood and it's when the body, the bread is broken. That's when their eyes are opened. But here's the progression. You want to be after the presence of Jesus. I'm not talking about Jesus isn't here and I need to get him here. I'm talking about Jesus is here. Jesus was with these two guys the whole time and the process he took them through was first Old Testament scripture.

which created a burning heart, which led to them saying, stay with us, which led to him breaking the bread. You want to be after Jesus, His presence, find the cross, the sufferings of Jesus in the Old Testament.

Breakthrough Church (22:25.467)
and seek His presence in communion.

Breakthrough Church (22:31.251)
This is what I feel like God is calling me and Breakthrough Church into in the New Year, is to be a church that discovers the suffering servant, the crucified lamb of God, the darling of heaven, who came, gave up the heavenly throne for a cross on Calvary. We're going to discover him in the Old Testament. Our hearts are going to burn. And then we're going to encounter him and our eyes are going to be opened in the communion moment. And as our eyes are opened to Jesus and who he really is, I believe as we behold him.

Revival will come in our own hearts, in our church, maybe in churches around us. Because just like in that moment a couple of Thursdays ago, when I beheld Jesus and adored Him, in that moment, the woman next to me started to cry. I believe as we learn to adore Jesus for who He is, as the lamb who was slain, others will encounter His presence. As a few go after Him, others will glean from the presence of Jesus and will encounter Him.

So here's the invitation. Either come to breakthrough and encounter him with us or wherever you are, discover Jesus in the Old Testament. I mean, the New Testament is what it's all scripture. I think that there's something unique about going to the Old Testament and discovering the suffering servant, Jesus Christ, his body broken, his blood poured out.

Breakthrough Church (23:56.497)
And as you discover your heart's gonna start burning, I've been there, it's happened to me. I promise you by the power of the Spirit, open the Old Testament, start in Genesis one and say, Holy Spirit, open my eyes to see Christ crucified, the cross, the sacrifice of Jesus, His love on the cross. Show me that in the Old Testament. He will and your heart will burn. And when your heart burns, then I want you to just say this, Jesus, stay here with me. man, He's gonna answer that and your life is gonna be marked for.

This is what we're going to be after in the new year as a church. Sorry, I just hit the mic. So what we're to be after in the new year as you know, as breakthrough church. So.

Join us in that pursuit of this year. I'm excited to see what God's going to do. We know that there's going to be a great revival that happens, not just at breakthrough, but in the nation. I think it's coming. I don't think there's not a risk in saying that because if I'm wrong, whatever, but I don't think I am. There's a revival happening specifically in the younger generation and we want to partner with that. join us on Saturdays, 5 p.m. We'd love to pursue the lamb who was slain, to love him and to adore him with you this year. So...

Have a great start to your 2026. Love you all. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time.