Getting Back Into the Swing Of Things: Letting Go Of Offense
““Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.” ”
Tis the season of getting back into the swing of things. Schools have started, universities have commenced another semester, fashion weeks have begun around the world, the UN General Assembly has reconvened, parliaments have gone back into session, and people have finished with their summer escapes. It’s a new season for the world though a pandemic still rages.
One thing God has really dealt with me the past few years is offense, and in order to get back into the swing of things and move in this new season, offense has to go. Oh, how it plagued me in past years. Holy Spirit has been giving me a different perspective, as this issue that once plagued me isn’t in the way that it used to.
All humans are flawed and imperfect, and dealing with people is a messy business. But because we’re imperfect we will be offended and will offend others. Offense is bound to happen but it’s really just a distraction from operating freely in our giftings and callings. I had a Zoom this week with an influential man in the fashion and music industry worlds, and I asked him how he has been able to navigate these industries as a Black man, who I’m sure had been offended one too many times. He said one poignant thing: “offense is a distraction.”
There comes a time that we have to let God deal with people. When we’ve offended others, we have to let God deal with us if we’re truly teachable surrendered people, and when a person offends us, we have to let it go and trust that He will get a hold of that person in some way, in hopes that they may learn from how they treated you.
I know that in moments when I have been plagued by offense it has held me back because I held onto the pain. In these moments my heart has been contaminated and I wasn’t fully able to operate in my calling. Pastor John Bevere calls offense the “bait of Satan.” For the Christian believer, when we can’t forgive and move past offense, we are forgetting the free gift we took into our lives of the Gospel message. “The man or woman who doesn't forgive has forgotten the price that Christ paid for them on the Cross,” Bevere has been known to say numerous times.
God is fully capable of getting the attention of offenders, but He needs us to continue moving forward with gusto, not being crippled by the offendable act that we can function in what He has placed in our hands. “Offended people still may experience miracles, words of utterance, strong preaching, and healing in their lives. But these are gifts of the Spirit, not fruits. We will be judged according to fruit, not gifting. A gift is given. Fruit is cultivated,” notes Bevere in his book, The Bait of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense.
Luke 4:18-19 states:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
When we’re offended we won’t fully operate in our anointings to share the Gospel message, to help people become free, and to help people see because we’re all wound up and holding onto things that happened years ago. If you need to confront someone for something they did, and if it’s wise to do this, then do it. If they apologize then great, and if they don’t move on without offense and let God deal with them. Don’t think that God who parted the Red Sea can’t deal with humans in our sin. He’s been parenting for thousands of years and He knows what He’s doing.
At the end of the day, our attention should focus on multiplying what God has put into our hands, which is carefully stewarding the mantles and anointings God has placed on our lives. (Matthew 25:14-30). It’s His opinion and final grade on the life He has given us to live on this earth that should matter, and being focused on what someone did and said- which could have the power to hold us back shouldn’t be where our energy is placed. If find great comfort in letting go, letting God, and focus on the race He has set before me (Hebrews 12:1-2).