Prophetic Word – When God Offends

This prophetic word is titled When God Offends.  This is based on two dreams and an encounter with the Lord

Who is this word for?  Everyone.  This is a BIG word and somewhere in here I am sure something will speak to you.

The Greek word for offense is skandalon: a stick for bait (of a trap), generally a snare, a stumbling block, an offense.  4625 in Strong’s Concordance.

4625 skándalon – properly, the trigger of a trap (the mechanism closing a trap down on the unsuspecting victim); (figuratively) an offense, putting a negative cause-and-effect relationship into motion.

4625 /skándalon (“the means of stumbling”) stresses the method(means) of entrapment, i.e. how someone is caught by their own devices(like their personal bias, carnal thinking).

[“4625 (skándalon) is the native rock rising up through the earth, which trips up the traveler, hence, of Jesus the Messiah, to the Jews who refused him” (Souter); “properly, the bait-stick of a trap, a snare, stumbling-block” (Abbott-Smith); “the stick in the trap that springs and closes the trap when the animal touches it” (WP, 1, 46).]

You’ve probably heard sermons or teachings about being offended by others.  But what about when God offends you? How would you recognize it?  And what should you do if you are caught in this situation?

You may not have even considered that God can offend you so let me first point you to the scripture in 1 Peter 2:7-9 where Jesus is referred to as “the rock of offense”.

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Dream #1

I walked into a restaurant to order food.  It’s a breakfast place.  As I was walking towards the cash register to place my order I noticed that the wall that divided the kitchen from the restaurant seating area had all kinds of bugs and insects crawling all over it. I mean, more bugs than you can imagine.  It was like a scene out of an Indiana Jones movie.  Here’s a clip of the movie with the bugs

 

There was only one wall that was completely covered in these insects and bugs and noticed no one else in the restaurant seemed to see it, or at least they didn’t care.  They were all sitting there eating their breakfast and didn’t seem to mind that the wall was crawling with all these various kinds of bugs.

Believe it or not, I went ahead and ordered my food anyway and paid for the meal.  Walking back past the wall and looking at it, I noticed stuck into the wall was dirty underwear.  Ewww.  And there was ledge next to it with frames with various photos in them.

I didn’t recognize anything or anyone in particular in the photos but guess what?  As I took a closer look at the underwear I realized they were mine! I was puzzled because I couldn’t understand why it was there. It also appeared that it was the dirty underwear that attracted the insects and bugs to the wall to begin with as it had the most of these critters around it.  (I know this sounds gross but I promise you this gets better).

The dirty underwear had cobwebs all over it  as if it had been there for awhile. When I saw that it was my underwear I moved closer to the wall with the intention of retrieving it.  As I was stretching my hand to take it from where it was stuck in the wall, the ledge holding the picture frames fell off the wall and crashed to the ground, then with the vibration of the wall the underwear also fell off the wall and they were now both on the floor. I didn’t even touch it, they both just fell to the ground on their own. This startled the bugs and then I noticed that more bugs started crawling from holes that they had burrowed into the concrete wall. It’s like upsetting an ant nest and watching them crawling around frantically. Then I heard someone say “Duck, watch out for the ________” (sorry I don’t remember the name but they had a specific name) it was a type of insect/bug that had wings. It looked like a very tiny bird but it was an insect.  They came flying out of a hole in the wall.  Like bats flying out of a cave.  I had to duck and cover my head and they flew over my head.

I backed away from the wall at this point because I realized that they were riled up.  At that point, I just thought what is the point in picking up the underwear? And I just walked away.  So I left them laying there on the ground with the bugs crawling over them along with the photos.

Then I moved over to the counter and waited for my food to come out of the kitchen.  As I waited, I saw other people’s meals being delivered as they sat there and ate. Omelettes, various different egg dishes, pancakes, waffles, porridge.  It was all breakfast food.  Then I woke up.

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I woke up scratching my head after seeing those insects, ewww.  And, the dirty underwear, eww.  I went into repentance over the underwear trying to figure out where I went wrong here and asking the Lord for clarity on it. Nothing was coming to me. And the Lord said nothing about it either.  I kept it in my mind and was just swirling it around in my head for about 2 weeks waiting for some kind of interpretation but every interpretation I came up with just didn’t resonate and I knew I needed to keep waiting on the Lord to get the meaning of it.

A 2 weeks later, the Lord then gives me another dream.

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Dream #2

The Lord instructed me to go visit someone (let’s call her Carla), she is in the process of building something.  She is a new acquaintance, so I don’t really know her that well.  We’re just getting to know each other but the Lord instructed me to help her. It was a construction site.  You could see that the rooms were marked out because the partition between each room and the steel posts for the walls were in place.  In one of the rooms the concrete foundation had not yet been poured so it was the ground, earth, that I needed to walk on to step over to the room where I was supposed to meet Carla.  Imagine the walls are not yet up so I could see that there was a room where the concrete foundation was poured and there were tables and chairs in that area. I knew that I needed to go into that area and sit at one of the tables and wait for Carla.

As I am walking across the room that just had earth, I could feel that I was stepping on something, not just the ground, I looked down to see the ground was completely covered with the same insects/bugs!!!  Have you ever been in a dream and you know you’re in a dream?  Well, I remarked “oh no not the bugs again, these are the same bugs from my other dream!”  In a sense, at that moment I felt I was going on an adventure and was about to find out what the first dream meant.

Now I am looking out for those ones with the wings that fly and sure enough as I am stepping trying to avoid the bugs I’m riling them up even more and the ones with the wings started flying out of holes in the ground.  Imagine trying to dodge a flying cockroach!   Now I’m running and jumping across the ground looking for spots with no bugs to land on. It was a large room so it took me a little while to get from one end to the next. I could see that the room where I was headed with the concrete foundation had no bugs there so I was happy knowing it would come to an end.

I finally jump unto the ledge that separates the two rooms and I am now checking my pant leg to make sure that I’m not transporting any bugs from one room to the next.

As I am checking and shaking off any bugs that were on my shoe and pant leg, I hear someone call out to me.  I look to see who it is and it’s Jane (the names have been changed; therefore it has no bearing on the interpretation). An old friend from over 10 years ago that I haven’t seen her since then.  She is sitting at a table and chair outside of the construction site but remember there are no walls there so she could see me. For your reference, Carla and Jane do not know each other. I put my purse down at the table and chair where I was suppose to meet Carla and stepped outside of the area of the building to the outside to go talk to Jane.

As I was almost over to Jane and I’m smiling as I go to hug her, I heard the Lord say “what are you doing here?  You’re suppose to be waiting at the table where I told you to wait for Carla“.  In my mind I went “oops“, because I knew that I was outside of His will at that moment. He did not send me there to go catch up with old friends, therefore, I was being distracted and I out of His will for the brief moment once my feet stepped outside of the construction site where He sent me. I quickly greeted Jane and basically said I can’t stay here with you, I’m here to meet with someone and I need to wait over there.  So it was a quick “Hi and Bye” and I made my way back over to the table quickly.  As I sat down I saw Carla walking towards me.  Then I woke up.

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This dream was very clear to me but offered no further clues on those bugs.  But what tied the two dreams together were the insects.  And I knew for a fact they were not good.  These are two different settings, one place is an established restaurant and the other is a construction site.

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The interpretation of the dreams

The day after the 2nd dream I was getting ready to go into an encounter with the Lord. I was doing my usual repentance, taking communion and just searching my heart to be sure that there was nothing there separating me from hearing Him clearly.

I saw the Lord walk up to me and He reached over put His hand in my hair and what did he pull out?  A bug.  YIKES!!!!

I said “Where are they coming from Lord? What do they mean?  Can’t you get rid of these bugs once and for all?”

He said “No, they’ve always been there, you just didn’t notice them before and they will always be there.  You need to make sure you don’t get them on you”

For those of you who don’t know this, when you are in an encounter with the Lord, it is very easy for you to get interpretations to your dreams and visions.  His presence just brings clarity without you having to do much research.  You think a thought, He answers it.

In my encounters with Him during this 2 week period of these two dreams, this never came up and I forgot to ask Him about it. Since He took the bug out of my hair it was now top of mind and I knew all the answer were going to be given to me.

With that, I focused my mind on the first dream. My first thought was, the bugs were on the wall.  Only one wall, the one that separated the kitchen from the dining room area.  Why were they just on that one wall?

What do walls do?  Walls protect. Walls keep things out.  Walls keep things in.  Walls create boundaries.

Walls are necessary.

Every time you see a wall you can be sure of one thing, someone is offended.  Because no matter how necessary they are, people don’t like walls. The people who are outside of the walls are usually the ones who get offended.  The people inside the walls know why there needs to be a wall there.

Not everyone can have access to the kitchen.  It is a place of preparation and care needs to be taken when preparing food for others. There are requirements to work in a kitchen.  You need a permit.  You have to wash your hands, wear gloves in some instances, you need different clothes (apron, chef’s uniform), your hair has to be covered, even the shoes in some instances (clogs).

There are requirements to work in a kitchen.  Hence, not just anyone can walk in there. This wall is necessary

Then it clicked immediately, the insects are the spirits of offense.  They are offended by the wall.  That is why they were covering just that one wall.  They weren’t on the ceiling or the ground, or on the food or anything else.  Just the wall.  They congregate over the thing that offends them.

Now you may be saying to yourself, surely God doesn’t approve of us erecting walls?!  Well, He kinda instituted the wall.

This is the tabernacle.  Let’s think of it as church…or ministry.  Everyone can run around and play on the outside.  Only those who are saved get to go past the first wall. The minute we get inside those white walls there is a separation of saved and unsaved. All of us can run about and do backflips in the courtyards.  Otherwise known as the outer courts.

Then you have the inner courts, otherwise known as “The Holy Place”, not everyone is allowed in that area. There is a wall inside the wall that separates the Holy Place from the Courtyard.  Not everyone is allowed there.  There are requirements.  Then within that wall is another wall which is really a curtain/drapes as depicted in the photo which separates the “Holy of Holies” from the Holy Place.

 

That’s 3 different walls so far.  Each level and area has a different set of rules and requirements.

Sometimes the walls are for your own protection.

Did you know that in the Old Testament they put bells at the bottom of the priests garments so that when he’s in the Holy of Holies they can hear him moving around? (Exodus 28:33-35).  Basically if he was not in line with the requirements he could drop dead (Leviticus 16:2-4). Now you may be thinking, this is Old Testament this doesn’t happen today.  And, you are correct.  But you are dealing with the SAME God.

So while there is no physical tabernacle, it still exists in the Spirit.

Reflect on this when you come up against a wall and you start questioning why it is there.  And, think about how different your life would be if you approached the Lord with the same level of reverence they did back then.  I think a healthy dose of the fear of the Lord would completely transform your relationship with the Lord.  Don’t play with God.

When you honor and respect something or someone, you receive at a different level than someone who dishonors and disrespects that place or that person.

Read Matthew 10:41 and Mark 6:4-13.

The fastest way for you to short circuit a blessing or a miracle directly from God, or one of His servants, is to get offended by the message, move into dishonor and then disrespect.

It is a spiritual law that will shut off the blessings that you can receive through that person or that place.  Don’t do it.  Not to any ministry where you are looking to be blessed, any church that you attend or anywhere that you go for spiritual help and counsel.  If you move into dishonor and disrespect, just expect to get NOTHING.  You’ve broken a spiritual law.  Because it is not the person that is giving you the blessing, it is the Lord and so when you do this it is the Lord Himself who determines that you will never receive a miracle or a blessing there.  Read Matthew 10:41 and Mark 6:4-13.

If for some reason you have no idea what constitutes as dishonor and disrespect, there are many YouTube videos on this subject, watch them so that you can educate yourself on this. It would be a shame for you to be waiting on a promise that never comes because you’re sitting under someone who you don’t honor or respect.

When you see a wall or you feel the offense coming on because you feel like you don’t have access to something that you should, what you need to do is step back and say “Lord, did you put this wall here?  Is this You?”

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The Nature of Offense and how to handle it

1.  All offense is rooted in pride.  The other person said or did something to you that was rubbing up against what you deem to be true and correct therefore you are offended by it.  It is pride.

1 Corinthians 13:5

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

If you are easily offended focus on your love walk and humility.

2.  Sometimes people don’t mean to offend you.  It could be a cultural thing.  Always ask for clarity on what was said or done before you judge it.  You may have perceived something that they did not mean.  By getting clarity you are sure of what they said and what they meant.

3.  Extend grace.  You forgive them and you move on.

4.  When God is the one who offends you that is because you came up against God’s Truth and it shattered something within you that you have held onto.  This is the pride.  The only remedy for this is for you to sit with the Lord and ask Him to change you. You cannot be offended at the person that has control over your blessings.  You need to align yourself with the Lord.

It is pointless being offended at the servant of God delivering a word from the Lord.  You are actually offended at God and not the person.

When you are offended ask yourself the question, what is it about what they are saying or what they did that offends me?  You will be able to clearly decipher if it was God who offended you or not.

5. If you are in a situation where the same person habitually offends you, and it has nothing to do with a word from the Lord, follow the instructions in Mark 6:4-13, you forgive them, shake the dust off your shoes and keep it moving.  You separate yourself from them.  A person who habitually offends you has a problem with you and won’t be able to receive from you anyway so it is best you part ways.

6.  If you are thinking that you will just avoid every and all situations where you could get offended, I don’t think that is possible.

Luke 17:1

“Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come…”

Yikes!  This is why the Lord told me in the encounter “they’ve always been there, you just didn’t notice them before and they will always be there.  You need to make sure you don’t get them on you”

Offense is always going to be there.  That is why it would be crippling to be easily offended.  Set your mind on Christ and think the best of everyone so you don’t even know if someone is trying to offend you.  Then if you recognize it, just forgive it and I move on.  Forgive it and move on.  Forgive it and move on.  70 x 7.  Forgive it and move on.  You’ll start to notice it when it is the same person that keeps doing it.  At this point, you Forgive it, shake the dust off your feet and move on permanently. Think of it like this, if the same person is continually doing it, then they know exactly what they are doing and each offense is a trap they are setting for you and they will keep setting the trap until you fall into one of them.  Hence, sever the connection permanently.

7.  If you caused someone else to be offended and it had nothing to do with bringing a message from the Lord, then you need to apologize for that. And then ask the Lord to forgive you for it.

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So then I said to the Lord,  what about my dirty underwear?  Why was that on the wall and appears to be what ignited the offense?

Then the thought comes to me immediately “Look it up in the Bible.”  As quickly as the thought came, I was saying to myself there is no bible verse about dirty underwear, I’ve never heard of such a thing.  But I knew it was the Lord telling me to look it up.  So I grabbed the iPad and Googled it “dirty underwear in the Bible”.  <<< Geez! What a search term?!

Well good golly Miss Molly, there’s a scripture!!

Jeremiah 13 NASB

13 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.” ² So I bought the undergarment in accordance with the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist. ³ Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, ⁴ “Take the undergarment that you bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.” ⁵ So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me. ⁶ After many days the Lord said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the undergarment which I commanded you to hide there.” ⁷ Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the undergarment from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the undergarment was ruined, it was completely useless.

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁹ “This is what the Lord says: ‘To the same extent I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have followed other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this undergarment which is completely useless. ¹¹ For as the undergarment clings to the waist of a man, so I made the entire household of Israel and the entire household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so that they might be My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they did not listen.’

Some versions of the Bible refers to the underwear as loincloth.

In other words, God told Jeremiah to buy underwear, not to wash it before he wore it, wear it for many days, then take it off while it is still dirty and put it in crevice of the rock, then go back and get it after several days and then prophesy about it.  Ewww.

What was the prophesy?  Underwear is worn close to the body and signifies intimacy with the Lord. The Lord wants to have a close personal relationship with you.  He has given instructions of how His people need to move forward.  Instead of listening to the instructions the people were being stubborn.  Instead of cleaving to Jesus, they want to do it their own way chasing after idols instead of seeking the Lord.

Basically, I am Jeremiah in the dream.  This is why it was my underwear on the wall.  I’m delivering the word of the Lord to you and there are many who don’t want to hear it.  There is stubbornness.  They want to receive the blessings without cleaving to the Lord.

They want to eat the food from the restaurant but they don’t want to pay the price to eat the food. They don’t want anything separating them from getting that food and they want it without cost.

You want to just walk through the kitchen any ole way, put your dirty hand in the pot, grab a piece of chicken, eat it while walking out to your next stop.  With no wall.  A free for all.

You want to enjoy the blessings of God but you don’t want to follow the requirements to get the blessings.  Rebellion is the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is idolatry.

Stubbornness.

1 Samuel 15:22-23 The Message

^22-23 Then Samuel said,

And, no matter how offensive the wall is, it’s not coming down because God was the one that put it there in the first place.

The rock of offense has tripped you up.

No matter how offended you get, that kitchen will still be cranking out the food.

Do you think they liked what Jeremiah said?  NOPE!  They were deeply offended and here’s what the Lord said to him

Jeremiah 15:20

I will make you strong. The people will think you are strong, like a wall made of bronze. The people of Judah will fight against you, but they will not defeat you. They will not defeat you, because I am with you. I will help you, and I will save you.” This message is from the Lord.

In other words, Jeremiah became the wall. Impenetrable.

According the the scripture about the underwear I was to go back, take it from the wall and then prophesy.

But look at what happened, I did not take out the underwear or pull down the ledge from the wall with photos.  GOD DID THAT!  That means, times up.  There’s no more time. There’s nothing for me to prophesy to give you time to get right. No, God is basically saying that He’s done warning you!

Then I started thinking that  I didn’t really recognize anything in the photos so what was that?

Photographs – a still/image of the past.  An event happened and you captured a photo of it.  It’s being memorialized.

Keeping records of wrong.

And, love keeps no record of wrongdoing.  Love covers a multitude of sins.

Something happened to you, and you’ve held on to that thing.  Instead of letting it go, you have memorialized it.  Now, you are using that thing to make decisions in life.  You may not even realize that what you have memorialized is affecting your decisions.  It is affecting how you hear God and the fact that you choose to listen to some things and close your ears to others.

It has created a blind spot for you and the enemy will use it to access you if you don’t address it.

In essence, you have built a wall keeping out any message that is rubbing up against your photos.

Jeremiah 6:10

To whom can I speak and give warning?
    Who will listen to me?
Their ears are closed
    so they cannot hear.
The word of the Lord is offensive to them;
    they find no pleasure in it.

Therefore, anything that challenges this in your life, you don’t want to hear it.  You may believe you are well within your rights to keep those photos in your memory but I’m letting you know now that this is going to impede your progress.

This past event, whatever it is, is controlling you. It is time for you to remove the photos.

To give you an analogy…

It’s like you have a corn/callus on your toe from when you were young and poor and had to wear ill fitting shoes but now you’re wealthy and you can actually go and have it surgically removed but instead of doing that, you avoid anyone with young rambunctious children because they might step on your corn!  You refuse to visit your relatives with young children because the kids might step on your toe and then get mad that they can’t “control” their kids.  When the truth is, the kids are being kids.  You have the ability to fix the problem but you don’t want to do that because it’s going to “cost” you.  Don’t get offended when the messengers of God deliver a message that touches your trauma. That is God telling you that you need healing in that area.

Prayer:  Lord, please bring to mind now what happened to me in the past that caused me to be stubborn in receiving Your word.  Allow me to release these things to You so that I can move on with my life in freedom, in Jesus name, Amen.

As He brings it to mind, you need to release it back to Him.  You have to let it go.

Now for the final piece, the breakfast foods being served in the restaurant.

I had to pay for the food before I could partake.  It is going to cost you.

Break Fast.  You break your fast with food.  You may need to fast to get this off of you.

If any of this is resonating with you, God is telling you to go on a fast and break off that spirit of offense that is on you.  And if He showed you what the photos mean, you need to fast to put all of that away from you.  Ask Him to remove them.

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Now unto the interpretation of the 2nd dream

I was going to visit Carla because the Lord told me to go help her with what she’s building.  But as I walk across the soil, there are those bugs again.  The spirit of offense was already there and this had nothing to do with me.  I just happened upon the scene where it was already going on.

I had to pass through it to meet with her.

Some of you are in the process of building something for the Lord right now and people are offended by it.

You may not even know all the people you offended by following the Lord, but there are many who are offended by what you are building.

I get the feeling you moved into a new area, this is why it is new construction.  It’s a new church, new ministry, new home, new job, new marriage, new relationships, new baby.

Whatever it is, they are offended by it.

How dare you come into our city and build that?  Why didn’t you come to me and ask my advice, I’ve been doing this for years?  How come you had a conference and you never invited me to speak there? Basically, the story of the old prophet and the new prophet in 1 Kings 13.

They’re offended from the very foundation of what you were building.  That place was still being built and they were already offended.  It’s not even done yet!  That’s why the bugs were on the ground, the foundation.  They want to destroy it before you even finish building it.

Your very presence there is offensive to them, because what it does is that it shows that GOD didn’t use them to do it, HE CHOSE YOU!!!

Why?  Because He knows that when He told you to build it a certain way, you’re going to do it the way He tells you to do it!!

It’s like your OBEDIENCE is offensive, if I can say it like that.

When they see your progress, because it is EPIC, they are offended because you never invited them into the kitchen!!!  They had no part in it.  Believe me when I tell you, like 1 Kings 13 they are going to try to find a way in.  Watch out for that.  Not to help, to sabotage.

What happens when you pick up offense?

I was given instructions by the Lord, go over to the building and walk into that room with the concrete foundation, sit at that table and chair and wait there for Carla.

What happened is that as I began to walk on the ground to my destination (transition) those bugs were trying to crawl up my pant leg.  I was shaking them off because I didn’t want it attached to me.  I thought I got them all off BUT apparently, I didn’t.

How do I know this?  The distraction of Jane.

Jane was not inside the building.  She is not a part of what was being built there.  She had no part in it. She was sitting outside of the perimeter of the building at her own table and chair. I see her and because she has a familiar face, I put my purse down where the Lord told me to sit, went outside of the bounds of where I was supposed to be to say hello to her.

When you pick up offense, you are going off track.

It causes you to miss your destiny!!!

I was not planning on staying out there, but the point is that I wasn’t supposed to be out there in the first place.  Hence, the Lord asked me what I was doing there and told me to go back to where He told me to stay.

I wasn’t “planning on picking up offense”.  I wasn’t even a part of the original offense but somehow by being in the environment, I picked it up.

Let me paint you a picture of what this would look like in real life.  You have a young couple getting married and the mother in law is accustomed to running her son’s life.  Now he gets married and he has to “leave and cleave” to his wife but his mother doesn’t get that she needs to step back from his life.  So she continues to insert herself into his life.  As a result, the couple has to establish boundaries (a wall).  Their kitchen is off limits to her.  She’s offended.  She’s now going to look to level blame somewhere so even the slightest thing that her daughter in law does she will be offended…because of the wall. The mom goes home after a small misunderstanding with her daughter in law and starts telling it to her husband.  That bug with wings just landed on him.  He wasn’t there neither did he see or hear first hand what happened.  He now has a decision to make, he either chooses to get offended too or ignore it because he knows what his wife is like.  He ignores her. She gets no satisfaction from her husband so now she’s off to tell it to her sisters, her best friend, the other children, and the church prayer team.  And now there’s a group of people fasting and praying over a “Jezebel” daughter in law because the mom was offended!  That bug with the wings landed on all of them.  Even the father who didn’t pick it up the first time, what happened is the “seed was sown”.  So while he’s moved on if for some reason he gets into a little misunderstanding with the daughter in law, he’s going to remember what his wife said….and now he’s offended too.  All of this started with one wall called boundaries.

People do not like boundaries when they are the ones on the outside of it.  But boundaries are necessary. In marriages, in ministry, in your relationship with your friends, in business.

That’s how people get caught up in things that has nothing to do with them.  It’s those bugs with the wings.

Just don’t let them land on you.

You pray it off you immediately!  Direct them in love to reconciliation.  Don’t get involved.  The main reason you need to pray it off you is remember once you hear the offense, a seed was planted.  Dig it up at the root!

Let’s say I heard a story about Carla from several people and they’re all talking about it on the internet.  I do not believe it because the Lord told me it’s not true.  This was a vicious lie started by people who were offended to destroy the foundation of what she’s building.  What I needed to do was pray that thing off of me.  Ask Jesus to wipe my mind clean, but I didn’t do that.  Not realizing the bug is actually still in my hair.  That means, Carla just has to do one little thing.  She may not even mean it, I am going to instantly think “OMG, it’s true!”  You understand how it works?  Those things plant seeds because they are there to destroy people.  To destroy what God is building. You gotta be strong to stand up against it.

And I know Carla is a wall of bronze!  Because God made her like that.  But I have to be careful to walk in such a way that these things don’t attach themselves to me. Otherwise, the blessing of what Carla is building will never come to me because I aligned myself with the offense.

Love keeps no record of wrongs.  You move on from it and tell God to wipe your mind of that.  No memorializing in Jesus name!

I knew it got on me because it was the day after the dream that the Lord pulled the insect out of my hair. I wasn’t offended by anything she did but He showed me that a seed was planted and it needed to be dealt with.  DIG IT UP!!!

You cannot eat from the place where you are offended.  You will never be able to partake in the blessing of the place where you are offended.

Because it wasn’t the person that brought the offense, it was God.

The person in the restaurant didn’t put up the wall, God did it!  You didn’t send yourself into that city to build, God sent you there.  So the foundation was established by God.  What God is doing is what offended them.  It’s the whole story of Sanballat and Tobiah, offended by what GOD is building.  Pissed off that they can’t access the kitchen so they will try to sabotage it at all cost.

No matter how offended they were of what Carla was building, it didn’t stop the building.  The concrete was poured in the foundation of all the rooms.  There was only one room left to do.  She will build this thing whether they like it or not.

How can they ever partake in the blessing of it?

They are hurting themselves by having the offense.

Jeremiah 7:19

Do they offend and provoke Me to anger?” says the LORD. “Is it not themselves [they offend], to their own shame?”

Back to Jane at the construction site…

Jane, I have not seen or spoken to in nearly 10 years!!!!  I’ve never dreamt about her before.  And, she’s not a bad person, there are no negative experiences there but when I was getting ready to work on a project with her the Lord told me not to do it.  Not because there was something wrong with her but because that was not the Lord’s will.  That means she represents, a counterfeit of sorts.

Something can be a good idea but it’s not a God idea and you can get caught up doing busy work that God never intended for you to do.

I was really happy to see her in the dream because I like Jane and I think that is why God used Jane and not a person I had a bad experience with.

Pay attention to cycles in your life.  There are seasons, especially when you are in transition, when the people from your past show up again!  People that God has already said “No” concerning them. Right at the moment when I am supposed to step into what God asked me to do, here comes Jane!!!

Why???

Let me ask you a question, have you been receiving emails, texts, DMs, voicemails from people that you have disconnected from a while ago?  Your past suddenly wants to follow you on Instagram or friend you on Facebook? Suddenly, they are all showing up.  They left your church and now all of a sudden they are back.  Why are you back?  I thought you didn’t like it here? Just when you thought you got rid of them, here they come!  Please do not let them distract you.  They are going to take you outside of God’s will for your life.

I honestly believe that the reason I went outside of the building to go hug Jane was because there was a bug in hair and I didn’t know it.  I didn’t see it.  I thought I got all of them off of me, but I missed one.  The seed of the offense led me off track.

But the Lord is ever so gracious, He knew that I didn’t know it was there so He had to remove it for me.  I’m not intentionally hanging on to offense and HE knows that, so He is going to make sure that thing is not on me.  Why?

I did not pick up myself and go over to Carla’s building just because I was “inquisitive”, I went because I was SENT.  The One who does the sending is the One who does the keeping and will make sure you don’t miss it!!!  Even if you wobble for a second you will get right back on track.  Praise the Lord!

Lord, should I go…

Nope.  Stay right where you are.

The minute I obeyed the Lord and went back to sit at the table where He told me to wait, here comes Carla.  This is the project God wants me working on.  Not the one with Jane.  Jane is a distraction sent by the enemy to take me off course.

And Carla wasn’t going to arrive until I was in position.  I am where I am supposed to be.

Are you where you should be?  Get in position.  What you are waiting for will not show up until you get there. Some of the walls that are being erected around you, should not be taken as offense but rather as a redirection from God to get you to where you need to be.

Instead of seeing it as offensive look at it like this…

God’s redirection.

Remember Revelation 3:7, if God shuts a door, NO MAN can open it.  If God opens a door, NO MAN can shut it.

Are you offended, take it into prayer and God may very well tell you He was the one who told them to put up the wall.  And, He was the one who told them to lay that foundation of the building.  Which means, you are in the wrong.  Don’t get offended just find out where you need to be positioned and go there.  Otherwise, you will miss out on your own destiny while you get yourself entangled in offense.

And whatever you do, don’t repeat it!!!  Stop. Giving. Wings. To. The. Bugs!

Proverbs 17:9

He who covers an offense promotes love; But he who repeats a matter separates best friends.

It’s a spirit of division and offended people like to congregate together over the thing that they are all offended about.  Do not be counted among them.  Step away, pray it off you and keep it moving.

Prayers

I have already prayed for you on this but I want to also give you two prayers below that you can pray over yourself, especially if you are in ministry, and also a prayer to pray over whatever it is that the Lord has called you to build that is offending others.  Sometimes it is good to get out ahead of these things.  So even if you are just beginning to build, just burn up those spirits before they start taking root.

If you have a property and you’ve been praying over the building, consider going outside and laying your hand on the ground.  Because looking at the dream it was the ground/earth that had them attached to it.  The outside perimeter. Call the fire of the Holy Ghost down on that place to burn all of that.

Prayer to cover you from Offense

Lord, I thank you for bringing this message to my attention.  I ask that You would protect me from any ward curses associated with others being offended by what You have called me to do.  Please cover my family,  and make us strong like a bronze wall to stand through this.  I pray You give us a heart of forgiveness so that we can release anyone who may be offended by the work You are doing in and through us. The ones we know and the ones we don’t know. Wash us clean and do not allow any of these spirits to attach themselves to us.  I pray You open the eyes of those who are offended to understand Your word and Your way.  I pray that Your fire falls from heaven and burns up all these evil spirits associated with the offenses, wherever these insects are hiding, may your fire fall and burn them to ashes, especially those that have the wings and travel to gather others that are not even involved.  Don’t allow any of them to survive.  Give us a clean slate and show us how to navigate through this.  I have committed myself to do Your will at all cost.  Continue to keep my eyes focused on You and never to get distracted by those who are not a part of Your plan for my life, in Jesus name, Amen.

Prayer to cover what you are building from Offense

Lord, send Your fire from heaven to burn the foundation on which I build.  Make it pure and holy so that it glorifies You. Destroy every evil diabolical spirit that was sent to destroy Your work.  Make me the wall of bronze and give me feet like bronze to crush them as I walk through this land, place, territory, business, job, relationship, marriage, friendship that You have given me.  Let the enemy never be victorious in his schemes.  Let not the spirit of offense attach itself to me.  Give me clarity in my decision making.  You said if You are not building the house the builders build in vain so I pray that You build this place.  If ever I step off track bring me back in line quickly.  Accelerate the process for the time that I may have lost battling these spirits.  I pray You open the eyes of those who are being led astray by these spirits and restore them according to Your will.  I pray Your spirit would speak to their hearts so that they can clearly see that what is being built here is Your will.  I pray You lead and direct all those who have left because they were offended to the place where You are calling them. Lead them to find the door that You have opened for them.  Freely I forgive them as You have forgiven me. I release them from any hurt or damage they may have caused. I ask the the ones You have ordained to help me build would find me and that they will watch and pray and not be entangled by the devices of the enemy.  Thank you for the resources that You will bring so that I can finish what You have started here and I praise You for choosing me to do it, in Jesus name, Amen.

I pray you gleaned something from this post.

Blessings