Josh Brake: Hey, what's going on guys?

Excited to be back with you.

I have some updates that
I'm excited to share.

Um, uh, lots of things have been going
on from prayers for people to admin

behind the scenes operations to make
a church plan happen, and it's, um, I.

It's crazy.

The life of a church
planter is so different.

Um, every day feels, uh,
like a different day.

Like you're doing a new job almost, but
it's all working towards the same thing.

So, uh, it's cool, but I'll,
I'll just share some updates.

First off, I'm not sure if I, uh, if I
shared this publicly already, I don't,

at least on the podcast I've shared
publicly, but not, maybe not here, but

the name of the church that we feel
called to plant is Breakthrough Church.

Um, the story behind that is, uh,
just really briefly, it came up.

Uh, a friend brought it up months
and months ago as a potential

for the name, and he was kind of
joking, but he was serious because,

you know, my last name is Break.

So Breakthrough Church naturally.

My first instinct is, no, that's
the worst possible name, because

that's my name and I don't want my
name being the name of the church.

That also kind of made me,
sounded corny, I don't know, but

I didn't love it the next morning.

Uh, a mentor of mine.

Said he was praying and felt like the
Lord may have given him a name for the

church and wanted me to pray about it.

And I said, okay, what's the name?

And he said, breakthrough church.

And I was like, are you serious?

I started laughing.

He's like, no, I'm serious.

I'm not laughing.

I'm serious.

And I was like, you, you guess
what happened last night?

I.

I told him about the dinner with the fam,
the couple that said breakthrough, and he

was like, I would pay attention to that.

So I didn't pay attention to it
'cause I still didn't like it.

Um, forgot about it.

A few weeks later it came up, it
came up again on a Wednesday morning.

I remember Wednesday morning it
came up and that night I was praying

while I was putting my son Bo down.

And as I'm putting him down, I'm,
I'm reading him the Bible though.

There's a lot of pictures in the
Bible that we read and I tell

the Lord, all right Lord, if it.

If breakthrough comes up one more time
tonight, I'll pay attention to it.

So I continue reading
the Bible with my son.

Turn the page.

There's a picture of Joseph and
Chains after he's accused of

sleeping with Potiphar's wife.

And, um, uh, we're looking
at it and, and Bo's asking me

questions about the picture.

And, and he looks at the chains
on Joseph's wrist and says,

daddy, can he break through those?

And I thought, wow.

My heart like leapt.

And sunk all at the same time
because I realized I have to really

take this name seriously now.

And also it seems like the Lord is making
it very clear what he wants the name of

this church to be, which is cool because
I don't wanna just make something up.

So I prayed about it for a couple
weeks, told Abby, uh, we struggle

with it, but I'm like, Abby, we
have to pay attention to this.

And she's like, I know we do.

And prayed about it and eventually
landed on, on Breakthrough Church.

And since then have received a lot
of jokes, uh, about it being our

last name, uh, which is totally fine.

And, uh, and jokes, not, not, not
nobody's actually making fun of us,

but they just make the connection and
it, and it's just kind of a laugh,

but, but we do believe, uh, that
God wants to do that type of work.

Breakthrough type of work
through Breakthrough Church.

Um, I, I believe that we will genuinely
see chains fall off of people I.

Um, we'll see people experience
breakthrough from chains, from

prisons that they've been held up in.

From, uh, strongholds mindsets,
uh, physical illness to,

uh, demonic oppression.

We will see people's
experience breakthrough.

And if you've listened to this podcast
at all the last several months,

you've, you've heard testimonies
of that already happening, and we

believe it'll happen more and more so.

Breakthrough Church.

There you go.

Uh, this last weekend, another
update, this last weekend, uh, I

was, uh, honored to go and preach
at a church in Blanchard, Oklahoma.

Called Restore Christian Church.

Uh, it's about 10 years old, and
the lead pastor invited me out.

He's in the network of
churches that I'm a part of.

He's also my fundraising coach.

And I went out there to preach and a
highlight for me, uh, was after the second

service, a woman came up to receive prayer
from me and my, this guy, I'm discipling.

Uh, he was with me and, um, she says, Hey,
I, I grew up Pen Pentecostal or Assemblies

of God, and, and I, I, I left the church.

I ran away from God for
18 years, but I'm back.

And, um,

and I, I just want, I miss the
fullness of the Holy Spirit.

I want more.

I, I'm, I'm not content with where I
am and will you please pray for me?

You know, when someone says that, I
mean, you're like, oh yeah, come on.

This is gonna be awesome.

And I sensed so much faith and hunger
and almost desperation from her.

And I know Jesus loves to
respond with, uh, to that.

So, uh, we said, okay.

So we laid hands almost immediately,
or all, let me rephrase that.

Immediately after laying
hands, she begins to shake.

Her head begins to shake, and then her
whole body begins with this tremor.

And she's shaking and vibrating
from her head to her toes.

And the Lord gives me, uh, some prophetic
words for her that it was a picture that

was unique to her that I shared with
her, and it increased the intensity of

God's presence and power in that moment.

She continued to shake.

At one point she said, I'm so tired.

And I was like, um, is that a good thing?

Or a bad thing.

So when you're praying, you're not
just praying for God to God and saying

Amen, and then walking away from the
person, like it's a ministry moment.

It's a partnership with the spirit
and with how that person is responding

to the spirit in the moment.

So that's why I, I regularly have
conversations with people as I'm praying

for them in conjunction with the spirit.

So I asked, okay, you're feeling tired.

She's feeling something.

The spirit is doing something and
that something is, she feels tired.

So I asked her what.

Is that a good thing?

Do you feel like it's a good tired?

She said, yeah.

So I took that to mean that,
that that exhaustion and

tiredness was leaving her body.

And so I, I basically, I asked
the, the lord to fill her with the

energy, uh, and wind of the spirit.

And then she just starts like, like
squat, like not squatting, but she

just, she just can't stop moving.

And she is vi like, not, not violent,
violent, but kind of violently shaking.

And, uh, she begins to like bend up
and down and kind of get on her tippy

toes, like she's just getting filled
with this life, this animating energy.

And she begins to speak in tongues
and it started with like a syllable.

And then over time just became
this full language that she

just was like yielding to it.

It was so beautiful.

It was like you could just
sense this yielding happening

in her heart to the spirit.

And it just gives me.

It just gives me, like, I feel the
presence of God even just saying this

because it's such a beautiful thing.

This is what the Lord wants.

He wants full surrender to his spirit.

And she was doing that and
it, and it became this full

beautiful, uh, prayer language.

And she's crying, she's snotty, she's
praying in tongues and she's shaking.

It's like, wow, this is the full thing.

This is it, man.

And um.

Then at one moment I
just have this thought.

I'm like, God is so present and
touching her so powerfully, what

would he not do for her right now?

And so I said, I said, I asked
her, I've got her attention and

said, Hey, is there anything you
want God to do for you right now?

And she was like, I want
him to heal my body.

And I said, okay, what's
wrong with your body?

She said she needs to
have a hip replacement.

So there's pain there, pain in her
lower back and she has diabetes.

And I said, okay, let's pray for this.

So very simply and quickly, I.

Uh, prayed with authority that
those things would be taken away.

And then we kept praying a
little bit and said, amen.

And, uh, man, she looked up and
her countenance was shifted.

That desperation was turned into
gratitude and she was overjoyed that

the Lord gave her what she wanted.

Ah, it was beautiful.

She's like, I feel so much life.

And I was like, well, how does
your hip and your back feel?

And she goes.

Pain is gone.

It's completely gone.

I texted her, oh, this is so exciting.

Um, I texted her and let me read
to you what she responded with.

I asked her generally,
how have you been feeling?

She says, I've been feeling great.

Closer to God, letting the
Holy Spirit intercede for me.

Thank you very much.

Um, I felt the Holy
Spirit shaking my body.

I didn't tell you.

That, but it was a fantastic experience.

Again, it's funny, she didn't notice that.

I noticed her shaking that was noticeable.

She said, oh, God is so good.

I can't thank you enough.

And then, um, I texted her specifically,
how is your back hip and diabetes?

She said, back and hip have been great
and my blood sugar has been good.

Thank you so much.

Um.

Uh, and I just was like, amen.

So glad to hear that.

So it, it seems like the Lord healed
her of some sort of hip ailment,

back ailment and of her diabetes.

Come on, man.

Like, that's, that's
breakthrough right there, right?

This woman who comes up basically asking,
I need breakthrough in these areas.

And God says, okay, you got it.

Bam.

And just delivers it to her in
power and presence right there.

Whew, man.

Come on.

That's why we're doing
this thing, you know?

Um.

And then Luke, uh, the guy that was with
me, he had never seen anything like that

before and he's very open and hungry.

But, um, we debriefed the whole way home,
two and a half hour drive debriefed on it.

And, and just the, the idea of faith
and desperation as you approach

the Lord and hunger, and when
you come into God's presence and.

Um, you know, why did I ask those
certain questions in the ministry

moment and why did I do those things?

And just debriefing with him.

And that's discipleship, right?

Jesus invited people in and did
the stuff with people, watching him

do the stuff, and then eventually
sent them out to go do the stuff.

So oof, so exciting.

Good stuff.

Gold everywhere there.

And so grateful to the Lord for that.

Um.

Uh, and it's those types of stories
that keep me excited and motivated.

'cause I, I would do that all day.

But the reality is when you're
starting a church, there are, are a

lot of backend things that need to go
down, uh, in order for that ministry

to continue and for you to have the
funding and the things you need.

So, some updates on that from this week.

Finally, open a bank account.

Let's go.

There is currently zero money in it.

Uh, but we have a lot of funding.

Um, a lot of, we have another,
I had another church on a couple

days ago, commit $25,000 to the, to
Breakthrough Church, and that puts us

well over $400,000, uh, committed and.

There's gonna be a large chunk of that
get transferred to the bank account.

Um, at the end of this month,
I'll, I'll get a payment from

all the, from the church planting
network that's collected the funds.

I'll get that delivered next week.

So we'll have money in the
account next week and at the end

of this month there'll be, I.

A good chunk of money in there for
me to go and, and get stuff done

and just get the startup going.

And I just, oh, it's just so grateful.

It was really empowering and
exciting to open the bank account.

It makes it real.

This is a real business.

This is, this church is officially
started, you know, and there's elements

of this that I want to keep forever.

I hear the problems and the struggles
and the tensions that people experience

in established churches, and I lived it
for 10 years too, so it's not like I'm,

I'm just hearing it from the outside.

But the, the, the problems and struggles
of a startup and of a church plant, I pick

those over the problems of an established
church building Culture seems to me

a lot more fun than steering culture.

I would rather build it and then protect
it than try to change it over time.

I'm not built for that, and maybe
God will use me to do that one

day, and I'm open to that 'cause
I wanna follow the Holy Spirit.

And ultimately that's why I'm
having so much fun and there's so

much life in this work is 'cause
I'm following the Holy Spirit.

But it does seem like there's
something unique about church

planting that resonates deep in my
heart and I'm really grateful that

God has positioned me to do that.

Um, and it's really fun.

So that's, let's see,
was there another update?

Um, I have more interest
meetings coming up this weekend.

Uh, by the time you listen to this, it'll,
we'll probably already have had them.

Um, but, um, I'll look forward to
giving you guys follow up on that.

Um, yeah.

I just wanna encourage everybody, um, to
continue praying about your involvement

with Breakthrough Church, whether
that's partnering with us financially.

You can go to my website, Josh
Break Church, which God willing will

change quickly to, uh, breakthrough
and have our own website, my own

email, all that stuff as well.

Uh, but uh, go to Josh Break
Church and you can donate there.

Um, if you have my number, text me
and I can send you the giving link.

And, uh, if you feel like God is
stirring you to be a part of the launch

team, don't like, like pay attention
to that, that's the Lord, uh, reach

out to me and uh, I would love to have
a conversation with you about that.

We have 16 adults on the
launch team right now.

Four kids.

We have four more adults with potentially.

Four more adults and two of
those adults have adult kids.

So potentially seven more people,
uh, that might be on the launch team,

which would put us, uh, at about 27.

Or if you had the six month
old 28 trying to count kids.

So we're almost at 30.

Um, I mean, that's if those others
commit, which I, I think they will, but

I mean, that's up to them and the Lord.

So.

Yeah.

Um, and then obviously prayer
requests, uh, for continued funding

for more people to be stirred for a
facility, uh, in Richardson to meet in.

All of those are needs and we're,
we're just prayerful about those.

So, um, I think those are
the updates for today, guys.

Um, I.

Super grateful for you guys.

Whenever I hear that you guys are
listening, whether a lot of you will

text me or just see me in passing,
uh, at the branch and, and tell me

you've listened and you're encouraged
or send a lot of, you send emails and

say, Hey, this was great, or whatever.

Uh, I'm just en I'm really encouraged
by, uh, the fact that you guys actually

are listening to this and so, um, I know
that's the work of God in you because.

Yeah.

Uh, yeah, just, I just know
that's the work of God in you.

So, alright, uh, praying for you guys.

Reach out, let me know how I can be
praying for you guys and continue

to pray for Breakthrough Church.

Love y'all.

Bye.