THE REASON YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED YOUR BREAKTHROUGH.

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Have you been asking yourself these questions: why are you still in the wilderness? Why have you not received your breakthrough? Have you been going through the same mountain repeatedly? Perhaps you have been doing the same thing but not seeing any results? Maybe God gave you an assignment and you know it is the key to your breakthrough. But it seems like the door wouldn’t budge.

• And to help bring the word today, I want us to look at the book of Esther.
• How then does this story help you understand why you have not received your breakthrough?
  • The process is for your own good.
  • Another reason you have not received your breakthrough is your old self has to die before you can embrace the new
• Conclusion

Have you grown weary in the wilderness because you seem to do the same thing with little to no results? Maybe God gave you an idea to do something. And you have been at it for a while now but are yet to reap the fruit of your labor. And now you have grown so weary, that the very thing that brought you excitement before leaves a bitter taste in your mouth now.

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Have you been on the same journey for a long time? And have you yet to see light at the end of the tunnel? Maybe you have even started questioning if it’s worth it. Or maybe you even want to forfeit the promise altogether, because it does not look like the end is in sight. Does God still take you back to the same thing, even when you grow weary? Does He ask you to keep going even after you have given up? If you relate to any of these scenarios today, I have a word for you. This word will help you understand why you have not received your breakthrough.

And to help bring the word today, I want us to look at the book of Esther.

Then the king’s attendants proposed, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners in every province of his realm to bring all these beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; and let beauty treatments be given to them. Then let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This advice appealed to the king, and he followed it. Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither a father nor mother.

This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his daughter when her father and mother died. When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many young women were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. She pleased him and won his favor.

Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned her seven female attendants selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her attendants into the best place in the harem. Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to see King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. Esther 2:2-4, 7-9, 12 NIV

The backstory is that Queen Vashti-Xerxes’s wife had turned down the king’s request, and this angered him. And because of this, the king wanted nothing to do with her and was looking for her replacement. And that’s where Esther came in. Anyway, that’s not the focus for today. What I want us to center on is verse 12.

Before a young woman’s turn came to see King Xerxes, she had to complete 12 months of beauty treatment prescribed for the woman, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfume and cosmetics. verse 12

Now before we even go further, let me put this out there. The Bible tells us that Esther was beautiful and had a lovely figure. So she already had one up on her competitors. The Bible rarely describes outer beauty. The Bible described only a handful of women as beautiful. So Esther already had what it took.

Do you feel you are familiar with the industry that God is taking you? Maybe that’s what you studied in school and now God is asking you to take a training program and it makes little sense why. Or maybe you have been a Christian for a while now and you feel God taking you back to the basics and you are hesitating because you feel you have already been there before. Has God been asking you to do something that you have already done before?

Esther was beautiful already, so you would think that she did not need to do all these beauty treatments. Yet she went through 12 months of preparation. Even with her beauty, she still had to go through the process. What is God asking you to do that you are already familiar with? The Bible tells us that the king’s eunuch even gave her extra beauty treatments. This begs the question, why would she need extra treatment if everyone already considered her beautiful? And this reminds me of a scripture in the book of John where Jesus says that the branch that beats fruit, HE prunes it even more for it to hear more fruit.

Could it be that God wanted Esther to be the best and win the favor of the king? God had already destined Esther to be queen. But this did not mean that Esther did not have a role to play. God operates in a spirit of excellence. No wonder God gave Daniel the spirit of excellence. Esther had to stand out. So she had to go through the process, although she was beautiful, to begin with.

The Bible tells us that the women had to go through 6 months of preparation with the oil of myrrh. Imagine waking up every day knowing that you were going to have the same oil applied all over your body. The same smell, the same procedure, every day for 6 months. You know initially, it must have been exciting, but after a while, because it was routine, it probably became boring. And maybe others gave up along the way because it became routine. But there was a reason for it.

You see, myrrh had several properties which include.

• Antioxidant
• Antiseptic
• Antibacterial
• Antiparasitic

Myrrh was used for

• healing
• purifying
• beautifying
• nourishing
• bring certain texture to the skin

How then does this story help you understand why you have not received your breakthrough?

Esther had to go through a season of exposure for her to experience healing. She had to be vulnerable every day for 6 months for her to have myrrh applied all over her body. She had to go through the discomfort of being vulnerable and naked so that they could beautify her according to the king’s standards. Remember, the king ruled over nations from India to Ethiopia, so he was used to seeing beautiful women. So Esther had to do something extra. And that was why she went through the 12 months of the preparation process.

Maybe today God is taking you through a healing journey. Maybe this journey requires you to be transparent and vulnerable before God. and we know that when a wound is healing there is pain involved. Is God revisiting the same trauma you went through repeatedly? Maybe He is having you interact with the same people who have mocked you for years. And it seems like your life is getting worse. Could it be that God is doing all that because He wants you to heal before you can go to your next season? Could it be the reason you have not received your breakthrough is that God wants you to experience healing first?

Healing is very uncomfortable and most of the time we, as human beings, prefer to avoid it. But healing is necessary. Healing involves taking on a new identity and letting go of the identity that does not serve you. Healing reveals the beauty that is within you. And as you go through the healing journey, it gets worse before it can get better. There will be days when you will feel like quitting because the pain is too much to bear. But it is in those times that you will have to persevere. Get to the other side.

As you go through the healing journey, God will have you go through the same process repeatedly. Remember, you are dealing with a mindset and it will take time for you to have a renewed mind. Esther could not go looking like the trauma she had gone through. That she came from a humble background meant that her skin was not as pleasant as the skin of those who had come from wealth. The fact that she was raised by her male cousin meant she lacked some aspects of femininity. And her preparation season trained her for all that.

The place God wants to take you is grand. God knows that you already are at a disadvantage because you lack experience. Or maybe you are not well cultured or whatever the case may be. Therefore, God is taking you through the healing journey. He wants you to let go of the limiting mindset. He also wants to heal you from your past. And God is doing so by exposing the skeletons in your closet. The season of preparation is for your good.

The process is for your own good.

Esther had to go through the process to get to her promise. While it is true that God had already destined her to be queen, she still had a role to play. Psalm 139:16 says that God destined a path and purpose for us even before we were born. He already laid out our lives before we came to be. So God knew Esther would be queen. But for her to walk into that promise, she had to prepare and go through the process. Her beauty would not cut it. She still had to get the extra help, she still had to go through the healing, and nourishing, before she could walk into her promised land.

Don’t be afraid to go through the process. It might be routine and even boring to some extent. But God knows what He is doing. Get vulnerable before God. Allow Him to take you through the healing process and remove all the pain from your past. Remember, you have to be ready for your promised land. Once you get there, there will be no time to prepare. There are giants there that can destroy you and God wants to heal your identity so that you can face them with confidence. God wants to restore your identity. The confidence to slay giants comes from knowing your identity. And you will discover your identity after you have gone through the pruning and the healing. Your mind has to be renewed for you to know your identity.

The reason you have not received your breakthrough is that there is a process that God wants to take you through. You cannot be effective in your next season if you don’t go through it. You have not received your breakthrough because God is taking you through your preparation process..

Another reason you have not received your breakthrough is your old self has to die before you can embrace the new

Could it be that you are not whole and that is why you have not received your breakthrough? You cannot go to your next season looking like your past. There has to be a shedding of the old skin and identity. The preparation that Esther had to go through was so that she could shed the old skin and reveal the new one. She had to go through death to experience the new life. She had to accept that although she was beautiful, there was more.

Yes, you might be the best at what you do now. But there is more. And God wants to take you through that process. But you have to let go of the old and embrace the new. Esther was not used to being vulnerable before people or even having others attend to her. But she had to be okay with that. She had to embrace the new season she was in. Although she was in the palace, she had to be teachable.

Are you flexible enough to let go of the old and embrace the new? You don’t have to be loyal to your past. Yes; you went through pain, trauma, and all these other terrible situations. But you should not let them define you. You don’t have to wear your trauma like a badge. Therefore, preparation is key. God wants you to dissociate from your past and step into the new. Had Joseph focused on his past, he would not have been an effective leader. The same goes for you. Stop being loyal to your past. Behold, God is doing a new thing. Can you not perceive it? Could it be that you are stuck in your old mindset and that is why you have not received your breakthrough?

Conclusion

You have not received your breakthrough because God wants you to go through a mind shift and renewal. He wants you to let go of the past. God knows that there are lessons you need to learn and He also knows that there is a shedding you have to go through. You know Jesus was fully man and fully God while on earth. But He still had to go through the process. He still had to study the Bible be teachable and lean on the Holy Spirit.

The same goes for you. Although God has destined you for greatness, you still have a role to play by partnering with Him. Nothing just happens by chance. You have to prepare so that you can get to the other side. It is so unfortunate that the Israelites remained in the wilderness for 40 years. Yet it was an 11-day journey. Some even died in the wilderness.

You might even be in your promised land already, but your season of revealing has not yet come. Today, I want to encourage you to go through the process. Lean into what God is doing in your life. Allow Him to refine you and beautify you. The benefit of going through the process is that you will become your best version. Once Esther finished the process, she was unrecognizable, and not only that she gained an additional dimension of favor that allowed her to be crowned queen.

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Could it be that the reason you have not received your breakthrough is that God is still preparing you for your promise?