Why Your Backup Plan Is Killing Your Breakthrough

You’re exhausted because you’re living halfway. You want freedom, but you also want a safe path back to your old life. Our modern culture tells you to keep your options open, to always have an escape hatch, and to hedge your bets just in case things get hard. You’re waiting for God to suddenly elevate your life, but you refuse to close the door on your backup plan.

Your pain isn't just from the devil; it's from indecision.

Before V1 Church ever existed, I was a pastor in Indiana, living on less than $300 a week to support my family of four. God had given me a wild, impossible vision to plant a church in New York City, but the messy gap between the promise and the promised land was breaking me. I didn't have the money, I didn't have a venue, and I didn't have the connections.

I drove to a church planting conference feeling utterly defeated, looking at all the fully funded planters in their skinny jeans and expensive sneakers. Sitting in the parking lot, I looked at my wife Julie and told her I was absolutely done. I told her I was tired of watching our family suffer, that I was going to abandon the ministry, start my entrepreneurial businesses back up, and take her on a Disney vacation. I literally tried to bribe my own wife to sabotage the plan of God for our lives. Julie looked me in the eye and refused, telling me we were going to New York.

I still wanted to quit. But then, in the very last session of that conference, a leader named Juan Verican got up and prophesied from the stage. He told the crowd that he heard a conversation in the spirit between a husband and a wife in the parking lot about canceling their vision to plant a church. He declared that God was saying it was time to "go V1". He explained that in aviation, V1 is decision speed—the critical point on the runway where the plane is going too fast to abort the takeoff. Once you hit V1, there is no turning back.

You are not stuck; you are just afraid to make a decision you cannot undo.

I grabbed Julie's hand, shaking under the fear of God, and we went V1. We killed our escape hatch. If you want to see God elevate your life, you have to do the exact same thing. Here is the process every believer must go through to take flight.

Battle Your Giants Like Caleb

God promised you the land, but He never said it would be empty. When Moses sent the spies into Canaan in the Book of Numbers, ten of them came back terrified of the fortified cities and the giants. But Caleb had a completely different spirit. He looked at the exact same giants and believed they would take the land fully.

Modern Christians want the promised land without the problems. But what you don't realize is that the problems are your teachers. God doesn't need the giants, but you need the giants because they are the process God uses to make you fit to sustain the weight of the blessing He is about to give you. If God handed you the promise without a battle, you wouldn't appreciate it, and you certainly wouldn't have the spiritual muscles to keep it. Stop complaining about the fight. Battle for your marriage, battle for your purity, and take the land by force.

The greatest battle you will ever face is not against demons; it is against your own indecision.

Break Your Alabaster Box

In the Gospel of Mark, a woman comes to Jesus with an alabaster flask of incredibly expensive perfume. Notice what she does. She doesn't just unscrew the cap. She doesn't spritz a little bit of fragrance to show everyone she's spiritual while secretly holding the rest in reserve. She literally breaks the flask and pours the oil over His head.

She destroyed the vessel. What was done could not be undone.

Too many of you are treating your relationship with Jesus—and your commitment to the local church—like a trial subscription. You want to dab a little bit of worship on Sunday and keep the rest of your life for yourself. You leave a trap door in your marriage, and because of that, you constantly look through the lens of negativity to justify why you might walk out. Displacement only happens when you fill the cup completely. As Pastor Mike Signorelli says, "You have not gone V1 until you've made a decision that cannot be undone.".

Burn Your Plow and Kill Your Plan B

If you have a fallback plan, the moment things get hard, you are going to fall back.

When God called Elisha to follow the prophet Elijah in the book of First Kings, Elisha didn't just politely put in his two weeks' notice at the farm. He slaughtered the oxen, boiled their flesh, and burned the wooden plow to cook the meat. He set his past on fire so he couldn't return to it.

Look at the very first sons of Adam and Eve. Abel brought God the firstborn of his flock—the absolute purest DNA of his sheep. Giving that away meant he was damaging his own future wealth; it cost him everything. Cain brought vegetables. Carrots are easily replicated. It cost Cain nothing, it required zero faith, and God absolutely rejected it. Are you bringing God a handful of cheap vegetables, or are you bringing Him the firstborn?

"If you have a plan B, you will always do the plan B. How did V1 Church succeed? Very simple. We killed our plan B in order to go V1." - Pastor Mike Signorelli.

Surrender is greater than strategy, because in the Kingdom, surrender is the strategy.

Here is my direct challenge to you today. In the book of Second Samuel, we read about a warrior named Benaiah. Benaiah was born into a Levitical family of worshippers, but God called him to break his generational mold and become a warrior. One day, he chased a lion down into a pit on a snowy day and killed it.

He didn't have to do it. There was no crowd, no applause, and absolutely no escape hatch. He fought a private battle in the worst possible conditions, and it became the foundation for his massive public elevation.

It is time for you to jump into the pit. Confront the secret addiction. Step up and lead your family. Stop playing professional Christian in the stands, pounding hot dogs while you judge the people actually sweating on the field. Get in the game. Kill the lion. Burn the plow. Break the box. Make the irrevocable decision to go V1, and watch what God does with a fully surrendered life.

If this resonated, watch the full sermon series at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtyymG6QlTpfNfLNQEiFt-LEiPn_W7E39 

Visit a V1 campus at v1.church/times-locations.