THE SPIRIT OF OFFENSE
Let’s begin by giving a definition of offense.
Offense: Displeasure; anger, or moderate anger.
Scandal; cause of stumbling.
Offenses;- The Greek word is (skandalise)-verb- “to put a stumbling block in the way, cause to be caught (or) to fall, cause to fall away, be led into sin, offend, anger, shock.
The Hebrew word (ma aquash) pronounced (mak-ak-awsh) – meaning a crook (in the road), crooked thing or a quash-a prim root word, meaning to knot or distort, prevent, make crooked.
There are two kinds of offended people:
1. Those who have been treated unjustly.
2. Those who believe they have been treated unjustly.
The second group of people believe with their whole heart that they have been wronged, their conclusion was drawn from inaccurate information gained through assumption, appearance and hearsay, or their information is accurate, but their conclusion is distorted.
How many of us have ever had a conversation with someone, and what you heard them say and what they really said was two different things. Often offenses kept hidden are cloaked with pride, which keeps us from admitting our true condition. Some people try to bury their wounds or hurts, but if not dealt with, it will surface again and again.
An offense, if allowed to stay in your heart will produce more SIN. God is so faithful, He has the HOLY SPIRIT within us to reveal to us our sin. He does it in a way that it seems separate from us, so we feel convicted, but not hopeless and condemned. An offended believer is one who takes in life, but because of fear cannot release.
In the New Testament there are two kinds of love:
1) Agape— This is the God given love with no strings attached and is unconditional.
2) Phileo– This is the human kind of love that is conditional. It is selfish love, you do for me and I’ll do for you.
But know this, that in the last days grievous times will be upon us. But know this, that in the last days grievous times will be upon us.
Gen 37:26 And Judah said to his brothers, What gain is it that we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
It is righteous for God to avenge His servants: It is unrighteous for God’s servants to avenge themselves. According to the Scriptures, God sets the members in the body just as He pleases. When God places you in a body to let your roots go down and bear much fruit; the enemy will do all in his power to distract you and uproot you, because he does not want you to bear fruit. If you are offended and don’t take care of it, it will follow you and come up again and again. Many people float from church to church because there roots don’t go deep, leaving them so weak that they find themselves unable to endure any hardship or persecution.
God didn’t create us to live separately, but in unity, and to learn to work through our problems with each other, dealing not only with their flaws but our own and maturing thereby.
Spiritual growth involves neither time nor learning, it comes through obedience. When Jesus asked His disciples: “Who do you say that I am? “Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” We need more than head knowledge, we need heart knowledge. A person who is not rooted or stabilized in the revealed Word of God is a candidate to be moved along by the storm of offense. A house built on the Rock (Christ Jesus), can endure the storms beating against it. It has been said that tests and trials really serve to locate where a person really is spiritually. Jesus is your sure Foundation!
We are told in Scriptures that God allows and brings shaking to our lives to show us what we are made of and if we are on a good foundation. God knew that the shaking in Simon Peter’s life would help him emerge from this experience not being independent, but interdependent on God. It is usually not the big things that shake us but the little things. The enemy tries to pervert our attitude about who God is to deceive us.
Before Jesus returns, God’s nature will once again be seen in God’s leaders, and this will cause a great healing to take place for many. We have to learn to trust our Heavenly Daddy even if we don’t understand. God gives grace to the humble, Peter understood this grace, because he experienced it first hand after Jesus’ resurrection when Jesus told Mary Magdalene these words at the tomb: “Go and tell my disciples and Peter.”
1Pe 1:14 as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves to your former lusts in your ignorance,
.
God is a just Judge and He will see to it that justice is done. God avenges us, it is unrighteousness for us as believers to seek to avenge ourselves. God is a just judge, His rule of judgment is the same for all mankind. You obey His laws, you will be blessed; but if you disobey His laws you will be punished. When we try to correct wrong done to us we become the judge, trying to take God’s place. Jesus likened the condition of our heart to soil. The ground can only produce what is planted. If Unforgiveness, offense, and debt are planted, then instead of God’s love, another root comes up, the root of bitterness.
The Absalom sprit is one that overtakes assistants to leaders, even in churches. When someone is overtaken by a Absalom spirit they make statements like: “If I were in charge,” If I were the Senior Pastor of this church,” If I had been given that ministry.” Remember, what you sow you will reap. A root of bitterness is barely noticeable in the seed stage, but as it grows it becomes visible. Paul says the way to escape the trap of offense is to exercise. This means to train or discipline yourself not to let yourself become offended.
The way to exercise to stay free from offense is to pray for the one who offended and hurt you. Once you have released the person in forgiveness and you are healed, them a confrontation is needed at some point to complete the process. Therefore if we are to become mature in Christ, we must endure the hardships that will come our way when we stand against selfishness.
Some steps to healing and freedom from an offended spirit:
1) Admit you are offended and hurt.
2) Open your heart to the LORD’S correction.
3) Forgive and release the person from everything they have done.
4) Now exercise and strengthen your heart, mind and emotions by staying open and tender to the Holy Spirit’s voice and obedient to His Word.
5) Choose to not let negative thoughts reign in your spirit.
Jesus is saying, anger can lead to hatred, and hatred not dealt with can put one in danger of hell. No matter the reason, when we offend, the offended person’s understanding is darkened. So we must be willing to humble ourselves and apologize. Reconcile even if it isn’t your fault. Do it for your brother’s sake. It takes maturity to walk in humility to bring about reconciliation.
When one is submitted to godly wisdom they are not afraid to yield to the viewpoint of the other party involved in the conflict as long as it does not violate the truth.
In Matt. 5:9, Jesus does not say “peacekeepers” here but “peacemakers”.
Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the sons of God.
Peacekeepers avoid confrontation at all cost to maintain peace even if they must compromise truth, but the peace he keeps will not last, it will surface again and again. However, a PEACEMAKER will go in love and confront, bring truth which results in reconciliation that will last.
The bottom line: If I don’t forgive, I’m not forgiven by God. Forgiveness is a life and death decision for us spiritually.
If you have someone in your life that you are holding a grudge against, you need to confess it to God and ask His forgiveness. Then you need to go to that person and forgive them and ask them for their forgiveness. Don’t waste another day of your life with Unforgiveness hanging on your heart. Remember, God looks at the heart.
If you’ve never made Jesus the LORD and Savior of your life, now is the time to secure your future. Confess your sins and ask for forgiveness. He loves you and
If you always desire the approval of men, the anointing of God will not fall on you. Another word for liberty is privilege. The major difference between a slave and a servant is: A slave has to serve, but a servant wants to serve and he lives to serve.
Many Christians serve resentfully, give grudgingly and complain about it, in their heart they are still slaves. Jesus offended people through His obedience to His Father not by demanding His own rights. Others were offended by what He did for others, not what He was doing for Himself. We are to edify and encourage others not destroy them.
We need to check every area of our life in light of this Scripture passage in
To God Be The Glory,
This information was so helpful. I have a better insight of what is going on in my family.
Thank you so much.
The Spirit of Offense is a great piece, may I use it in a sermon. Its so well put together.
Blessings to you and keep up the good work.
In His Service and Yours,
Martin
Yes, I am honored that you would want to use it. God Bless you as you endeavor to spread the Word.
Praise Jesus! This is wonderful word. Thank you so very much!
Thank you for sharing this. Through your teaching, I really understand how this spirit operates now. I had just been offended by someone very close to me but after reading your teaching, I now understand that I was not walking in unconditional love. I must love others with God’s love not this selfish, self-centered love. I thank God for your wisdom and for you allowing God to use you to minister to others. May He expand your territory. My life has been made better because of this teaching.
Thank you for this message. I understand offenses and their plan to reek havoc on relationships but when you are in the midst of an offense from someone it helps to here this all again. This message helps clear the blurring areas that come to deceive after an offense. Thanks again,
Earl
wonderful information. Very convicting and eye opening, Thank you for letting God use you to reveal the truth to me.
I’d like your permission to share this with my friends on facebook. I know it will help families the Lord has placed in my midst.
I’m blessed that the Lord woke me up early to find your study and teaching.
Blessings to you and yours, af
Thank you, woman of God for this Mighty Word of Deliverance!!! It really ministered to my spirit and confirmed what the Holy Spirit has already spoken to me! Please continue allowing the Lord to use you for His people! God Bless you!!!
I so needed to read this and release unforgiveness towards my daughter. She is not a Christian and constantly
insults me and is rude to me. However as a Christian it is my duty to forgive her and release hurt and pain to the Lord.
I thank God for this clear message. God bless you.
This teaching is very clear and understanding, very powerful!. Me and my husband are beginning a new ministry in january of 2012 and are laying the foundation with our founding members. Offense is one of topics that will be taught in order to expose the way this spirit operates. We would love to be able to use this in part.
Dear Yolanda, please feel free to use this. This word was given to me by the Holy Spirit, and I am more than happy to share. God Bless you in your ministry.
Thank you! I needed this badly! I immediately repented and with the help of the Holy Spirit, I am on my way to healing!
Dear Donna.
I am so happy for you. What most people don’t realize is unforgiveness and unrepentance doesn’t hurt other person, It hurts us. The sooner we repent and forgive, the quicker we will heal and be set free. God Bless you.
Thank you for revelation knowledge on the Spirit of Offense, I have been blessed by the insight God has given you on this spirit. I would like to use this to teach others as many in the body of Christ are hurting because of offenses. May our Father continue to use you and greater in his kingdom. God Bless. Jean
This is a very on time message for an end time people.(no pun). I shared this blog with a pastor friend of mine as I was confronted with a sister about a situation that occurred yesterday. He concurred as I was reading it to him directly from the post. I would like to use a portion of the message on my weekly blog at http://www.The Empower Networks. com. Thank you for this timely message and may the Holy Spirit continue to use you.
GODSPEED
The glory belongs to God and His Holy Spirit, please feel free to use any portion of this message. We are all enlisted and empowered by the LORD God Almighty. To God be the Glory!!
God Bless you in your ministry. May the Word of God go forth, because it will not return to Him void.
In Christ,
Grace
I’ve recently started out in my calling as a worship leader. I have already had to deal with offense with others serving in the worship area at the moment. I was just about ready to step back and completely stop singing, but I felt a pull to get into the Word about it. I found your article, and I have to say, I was very blessed by it; it’s exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you so much for submitting yourself to God’s Word and allowing Him to speak through you. You are truly a blessing to me, as well as countless others I have read about. Keep your faith strong and God bless YOU! =)
Harriet
God bless you for your helpful and inspiring teaching on the spirit of offence. I’ve just started processing my thoughts on a book on the topic. I hope to pass the message on by the help of the Holy Spirit. Thank you and more anointing for more revelation.
Wow… It is no accident when I typed in “scriptures about offense” that your link popped up. I was clinging to every word as the Holy Spirit was letting me know “the spirit of offense” is what has been going on with me the past week. Ahhhh… God bless you; I’m on my way to prayer with so much more understanding, and can’t wait to see Him pull me through this… Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this. I realy need it. I’m struggling with offense and I have a question???
Most of my offenses are at church. This past Sunday I got offended a couple times. It was during our Sunday evening Corporate prayer time and I was struggling with the offense I was trying to let it go. How do you deal with an offense on the spot? I know I came home and dealt with it through tears but my greatest trial was trying to let it go on the spot and I couldn’t. I felt so heavy. We were walking around praying and I went up to the altar to kneel to try to get rid of it, but I didn’t stay there too long as I thought It wasn’t appropriate during our prayer time. I felt I needed to get rid of it so I’d be effective but I tried and just couldn’t seem to shake it. How can I do that so I can enjoy my time at church and deal with it on the spot????? Any Ideas????? I also felt like speaking up and telling my pastor and the group that I was dealing with offense and asking if we could break that, I think I should have/ I guess I need some input.
I also will be having a talk with my Pastor about this too in what to do. I really should be talking to him.
Thanks. God BLess.
Dear the heartofgodschild,
We will all deal with offense and it is not always easy to get over it. Also, sadly, many of the offenses we experience come from memebers of the church. If we remember that we all “fall short of the glory of God”, it will remind us that though difficult, it is within our power through the Holy Spirit to forgive and move on. Going to the altar is a great way to prepare our hearts. Humblying ourselves under the Mighty Hand of God and letting Him exalt us is the best thing that we can do. I find that the more I dwell on the offense,the harder it is to shake. So, my first step is to confess it and ask for God’s forgiveness, then I ask Him to show me what kind of thing I can do to show love to the offender. Remembering that our time on this earth is limited and wanting to do all that I can to bring glory to God is incentive enough for me to forgive and forget. Jesus loves each and everyone of us and it is His desire that none should perish, and if He can forgive and forget our sins, it behoves us to do the same. I will continue to keep you up in my prayers. Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR!!! God Bless,
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Grace
I really needed this word tonight, thank you
What a rich blessing it is for God to show how much He loves us by revealing what is in us to us. To me, the Love of God is not about how much material things I have or can have……but when He reveals a truth that is in you that you didn’t know and then helps you through the process of confronting and dealing with your heart with the end results being deliverance and filled with more of Him….is priceless!!!! Thank you so much for obeying the Lord by teaching truth.
Thank you for this post. I am dealing with this concerning my husband right now. He is one you can call a peacekeeper so a lot of stuff just goes undealt with in our relationship. It makes me feel neglected. When I bring things up, he says I am being argumentative and then things just fall apart from there. It has been a rough two weeks. I truly understand the message but how do I deal with him as he constantly offends me in this area and his refusal to discuss it even though I try to find the right time, talk softly etc does not make communication any better? It is really terrible because I have to deal with him everyday. It is easy to let go of offense when it is a one and done but every day? I just don’t know what to do…. I have prayed and fasted about it for so long. what am I doing wrong?
You’re not doing anything wrong. Sometimes people just don’t understand. Be patient. Remember Jesus was and Is very patient with us. Continue to pray. The fervent, effectual prayer of a righteousness man avails much. God sees all things and He is there for you. Trust Him and as much as possible, try to keep your focus on Him and His goodness and mercy.
I will keep you and your situation in my prayers. God bless you.
Thank you so much. I truly appreciate people like you who avail themselves to God to receive fresh word to share and impact lives. God richly bless you!
Thank you and may God continue to work in your situation. May He bless you with wisdom and discernment. May He make His face to shine upon and be gracious to you and May He fill your heart with His Joy, His Peace and His Love.
I enjoyed but answer this! How are we to act when Muslims try to tell you to
convert or die?
The answer is: If God be for us, who can be against us. Jesus was willing to lay down His life for us. Are we willing to do the same for Him? Jesus said: If you deny me before men, I will deny you before the Father. The answer is clear. We must we willing to say YES to Jesus and NO to the world. God Bless You.
Christ is Lamb of God and the Father sent him here to be the perfect sacrifice
for to allow man to be able to come to him. We weren’t asked to lay down our lives for him, he didn’t need to be saved we did. I am not asking about denying
Christ or not but I am a Dad and Grand-dad and when Muslims come and try
and take my family as to them we are Infidels then do I take and protect my family or just stand by and watch the slaughter?
I’m not even remotely suggesting that when we lay down our lives for Christ that we do so to save Him, only Jesus saves. What I’m saying is that Jesus predicted that there will come a time when we will have to stand for what we believe in. Jesus didn’t promise that it would be easy, He promised that He would never leave or forsake us. Heb. 13:5 He said in John 15:18 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. Also: If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. You mentioned that you are a Dad and a grand-dad, I am a Mother and a Grandmother, Jesus addressed this issue also in Matt. 10:37-39 Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take us his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Jesus has overcome the world, John 16:33 so we can be confident that when we are faced with difficult decisions, He will always give us what we need. God Bless you.