Supernatural Transformation: Change Your Heart Into God’s Heart (17 page)

6. Offended People Are Prevented from Reaching Their Purpose and Destiny

When a believer is offended, he does not live in the eternal “present” of God but rather dwells in the past—he remains trapped in the moment when he took offense. In this state, it is impossible for him to fulfill his God-given purpose. Let’s look at the Old Testament example of Moses, who had a glorious ministry. By God’s power, Moses did extraordinary miracles, including supernaturally freeing hundreds of thousands of Israelites from Egyptian slavery and leading them toward the Promised Land.

But, one day, he became offended by the people because of their unbelief. His offense was justifiable. He had every right to feel righteous anger. The Israelites were in the Wilderness of Zin (see Numbers 20:1), and the Scriptures tell us, “Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron.…Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank” (Numbers 20:2, 11).

The patriarch made several mistakes during this incident. First, his action was motivated by the offense. He did not obey the instructions of the Lord, who had told him to speak to the rock—not to strike it—so that water would flow from it. (See Numbers 20:8.) Years earlier, God had told Moses to strike a rock in order to bring forth water for the people (see Exodus 17:1–7), but that was not His instruction this time. We must always heed what God is saying to us in the present. Second, Moses erred by indicating to the people that he himself would perform the miracle: “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” (Numbers 20:10). And third, he operated the power of God in anger rather than in righteousness and truth.

Tragically, when Moses sinned after taking offense at the people’s rebellion, it cost him his entry into the Promised Land. “Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them’” (Numbers 20:12).

Moving to the New Testament, let us look at the case of the rich young ruler who went to Jesus because he wanted to know how to attain heaven or to find out what else he must do in order to earn it. He missed his opportunity to enter the kingdom of God and follow Jesus because of corruption in his heart that caused him, in a sense, to become offended with Jesus’ reply, so that he rejected God’s will for his life.

[The rich young ruler asked Jesus,] “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”…[Jesus] said to him, “…You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17–22)

That young man turned away from Jesus because the love of money had become his master—it had taken over his heart. Christ stood before the young man as El Shaddai, a Hebrew term that indicates “the One who is more than enough.” Therefore, if the young man had given up all that he had, God would have become more than enough to him. But his wealth blinded him. The challenge from Jesus tested the condition of his heart and measured how much he was really willing to surrender to God—and what his limit was.

If the young man had given up all his wealth, Christ would have returned it to him a hundredfold. Directly after this incident, Jesus said to Peter,

Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
(Mark 10:29–30)

If it offends you to give to God, then it should also offend you to receive from Him.

Whatever you give to God’s kingdom, the Lord will return to you 100 percent. The rich young ruler believed that what he owned belonged to him, but the truth is that we human beings are just stewards of everything God gives us; we are the administrators of His goods. However, if our heart becomes corrupted by a love of money, we will not give our resources to the Lord as an act of worship. Instead, we will use our money to gratify our sinful nature. We will allow our love of money to exert power over us, and it will define our life—it will define us. To keep our heart from becoming corrupted in this way, we must seek God first in our life, surrendering to Him and exercising self-control over what we do with our money and the way in which we spend it, so that we can invest our finances in His kingdom and toward other positive purposes.

Some people become offended when they are asked to support various ministries of their church, to make a donation to help the poor, to fund relief efforts to assist those who are victims of a natural disaster, or to do anything else that may not be to their personal profit or give them pleasure. Yet they aren’t offended when they receive a bill requiring a car payment on their luxury automobile, when they are handed their receipt after purchasing expensive clothes or fashion accessories, or when they must pay admission to a sports event or another form of entertainment.

If an individual is insulted when someone teaches from the Bible about financial stewardship, the likely reason is that the person considers his true “god” to be under attack. I have seen people leave a church service just before the offering is collected. Their behavior indicates that having money is their priority. They are not concerned with being a steward of God’s resources; rather, they believe they personally own the resources God has provided for them.

If God has blessed you with financial resources, I believe that you and your family should be able to enjoy them; however, your first priority should be God and the expansion of His kingdom. (See Matthew 6:33.) There are many people who, having received abundant financial blessing from God after they were delivered from the curse of poverty—and after they learned that the key to prosperity is to sow finances into the work of God’s kingdom—stopped giving to God once their finances prospered! Why? Probably because it hadn’t been difficult for them to give God a tithe of their income when it amounted to $100 a week, but it became very difficult for them when the tithe totaled thousands of dollars. The true condition of their heart was revealed when they ceased to be faithful in their tithes and offerings, and when they placed a limit on what they were willing to give God. Accordingly, those people should not be offended if God puts a limit on His provision for them. We cannot expect God to pour out abundance on us while we give Him our “leftovers.”

7. Offended People May Be Removed from God’s Presence

When the first human beings sinned, God was offended—in a holy sense. His righteousness was offended by their sin and betrayal. It was necessary for Him to expel them from His presence; yet, at the same time, He announced His plan of redemption for humanity through Jesus Christ. Whenever we commit sin—including the transgression of holding on to an offense—we need to be restored to a right relationship with our heavenly Father. We can be assured of that restoration as we accept Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf and receive forgiveness through Him. “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1–2).

We must release any offenses we are holding on to, because we cannot remain in God’s presence with offenses in our heart! The reason some people do not feel the nearness of God is that they have been trying to present themselves to Him while, at the same time, they are harboring offenses. Sometimes, they aren’t even aware that they are doing so. This is a primary reason why we must regularly monitor the condition of our heart according to God’s Word and allow His Spirit to convict us of sin so that our heart may be transformed.

Always remember that you have full access to redemption in Jesus Christ. Do not isolate yourself from God’s grace, which enables you to be forgiven by Him, to be restored to Him, and to begin anew in Him. Additionally, because we have been forgiven and reconciled to God in Christ, we, too, can forgive others who have offended us, and we can seek reconciliation with them, because His grace works in us “both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

The Solution for Offenses

Because offenses are inevitable in our fallen world but are also opportunities for us to discern the state of our heart, the healthiest thing for us to do when we are offended is to deal with the issue immediately. Therefore, right now—before any new offense occurs—make a conscious decision that you will forgive anyone who offends you in the future, and that you will pursue reconciliation with anyone whom you offend in the future. If you neglect to do this, your relationships will be weak—and brief.

The following steps, which are based on what we have discussed in this chapter, will enable you to be liberated from the trap of offense.

1. Confess Your Offenses

“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). To be free of offenses, confession is necessary—first, confession to God; and, second, confession to those whom we have offended and those who have offended us. If we are truly contrite, we should express our repentance. So, begin by confessing before God that you have held on to offenses in your heart, acknowledging that they are sins against Him and other people. Only through confession can the process of healing begin in your heart.

2. Ask God to Forgive You, and Forgive Those Who Have Offended You

It is important not only to confess our offenses but also to ask God to forgive us for them and to forgive ourselves and others for the offenses that have been committed. If we don’t go beyond confessing the offenses in our heart, our “confession” may turn into a bitter complaint, serving only to verbalize our resentment but not heal it. Forgiveness is the antidote that will bring healing. So, again, we should ask God and others to forgive us for our offenses, and we should forgive everyone who has ever offended us.

We should practice forgiveness as a lifestyle.

3. Die to “Self” and the Sinful Nature

If we want to progress to greater dimensions of God’s power and glory, we must give up our self-centeredness that demands a right to compensation and/or vengeance when a wrong has been committed against us. To be “dead to self” means that we withhold nothing from God; He is the Lord of our heart, soul, mind, strength, finances—everything! We no longer belong to ourselves but to Him.

In addition, we must die to the sinful nature by not letting it control us but rather allowing the life of Christ and God’s Holy Spirit to direct our thoughts and empower our actions:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.…Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 2:20; 5:24–25)

When you have died to your sinful nature, you will no longer be easily offended; you will not be affronted by trivial matters. When you have died to self, you will have released your self-absorption, surrendering your life to your loving Creator and His purposes. You will know that, when a true offense occurs, God will ultimately bring about justice in the circumstance and/or use the offense for good in your life. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

4. Commit to Maturity

It is time to leave immaturity behind so that we may grow stronger, spiritually and emotionally. As we mature, those offenses that used to gnaw at our inner being will no longer find a way to stay within our heart. We will consider it irrelevant and unnecessary to spend time on such matters, not wanting to risk the health of our soul for the sake of a mere offense. We will have the love and patience to understand that those who offend us must travel the road toward maturity, just as we must.

The following is the story of Kenneth, who constructed and maintained a barrier against God for years before receiving deliverance and the healing of his heart. Kenneth writes, “In 1997, I was working in a chemical plant in New Jersey when I was in an accident that almost took my life. I was trapped inside a machine for six hours. One of my arms suffered serious damage, and a tube pierced my chest. When I was rescued, the doctors and other emergency personnel couldn’t believe that I had survived.

“What is certain is that while I was inside the machine, I kept hearing a voice that said, ‘Give up. God doesn’t love you! You were always a nice person; there is no reason for Him to do this to you. If you surrender now, the pain will go away.’ Then I heard a second voice say to me, ‘If God wanted to kill you, He would have done it by now. Giving up is your decision.’ It was then that I decided not to give up, but I still felt that God was unfair, and I was very angry with Him. For a long time, I chose not to speak to Him because of all the years of suffering I endured after the accident, during which I underwent thirteen surgeries and physical therapy.