Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences must come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
Matt. 18:7
Offence is one of the baits that Satan is using to destroy many people in churches today. The Lord knows that offense will always come, that it is why He taught us to learn to forgive. Jesus says if you come to pray
and you remember that your brother has anything against you, you should leave
your gift and go and apologize to him.
One of the things that is clear in the Scripture is that Love covereth a multitude of sins. There are certain things a brother or sister can do for you and your love can cover them. If your love can’t cover them then go to him or her and try and resolve it.
When you go you should also go with the right attitude. Sometimes when a brother offends us we go to them with a bad attitude to show him we are offended and at the same time we are trying to pull him down. We should go with the attitude of resolving the matter.
When we go with venom to pour upon the people who have offended us, it does not work the righteousness of God.
I believe the realm of offence is the realm of satan that we need to overcome. But you have to make the decision yourself to overcome that realm in you. It is the Lamb that was slain that would sit on the throne. If you are not slain or wounded and healed you cannot sit on the throne. It is only those who have been wounded that would be given the throne to exercise authority because they have been wounded and they have been healed and they have become gracious and merciful and kind and meek in spite of the wounds they suffered. That was what Joseph faced. He was hurt, he was wounded and so many hurtful things happened to him but he was healed. When he was given authority and power he did not use it to oppress.
If you are wounded and are not healed when you are given power you will use it to oppress those who have wounded you. Our Lord Himself was a lamb slain and wounded but He was healed. That is why He was given the throne and any one of us who seeks to be enthroned with Him must pass through the same path. The throne is never given to anyone who have never been wounded and healed. You must be wounded and you must be healed and you must show that you are healed before you are given the throne.
If you are wounded and not healed it would show in what you say. When you sing it would come out of it, when you talk it would come out of it. Listen to someone who is wounded the sourness of it would flow out of his mouth because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Before you know it he will be negative with his word on people. That is just the beginning. For somebody who has been healed even when he remembers the offence it is not going to be spoken with venom because the strength of the offence had been taken away. This is what is troubling churches today and not only churches but marriages too (Husbands and wives who have not been able to forgive each other).
In marriage you will offend one another and sometimes very deeply. When a man has not forgiven the woman and the woman has not forgiven the man the enemy rules. The only way you know you have forgiven is that when you
remember the past and it is no longer with bitterness. When your partner say “You did this in the past”, You will say, “The past is gone, it cannot come back again”. But if the husband says “you did this to me two years ago” and the wife says “three years ago you did the same thing”; who is on the throne now? satan. Satan is on the throne rejoicing and dancing around your room saying to you, Remind him of what he did, yes, remind him.
The Arabs say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. What that means is this; when you hate somebody I hate, at that time we are together. That is why you see two people who would never have agreed before but when they hate the same person they would then team up to fight the person they see as a their common enemy. When they finish their fight with the other person they will then turn against each other.
That is what happens and churches split. When someone has offended us we team together fight our perceived enemy and when we have finished with him our own forgotten offence will break out again. It is a spirit. What the Lord is saying to us is that offence is one of the spirits of the last days. But before the Lord will come there will be believers who will overcome. I want to be one of those who will overcome. That is the choice I have made. Offence will always come. You cannot stop it and the people who will offend you are the people you relate with and are very close to you. What should you do? Will you pray that there should be no offence? No. But you have to get ready for it and trust God to give you a large heart to forgive and overcome it.
Another thing brings offence is expectation. This does not mean we should not have expectations but if you don’t live up to my expectation I should not for that reason pick offence. Once a person picks offence because of unmet expectation, it will grow from offence to betrayal and from betrayal to hatred if we do not quickly deal with it.
The fact that you have heard this message does not mean that you have already overcome. You have just started. You have to ask the Lord for strength and grace to bear the pain that offence may bring and a large heart to forgive and forget and bear the cross.
John AdejoroOluwa
