He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. Revelation 21:7.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Opportunities to shine are all around you. Do you not perceive them? But in all these things there is one opportunity that encompasses all and it puts you with Jesus on My throne with Me.
He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Revelation 3:21.
Yes, it is the opportunity to be an OVERCOMER—the victor, the conqueror and more than a conqueror. Why would you want to spend your life in fear and depression, lack and oppression, when you can be reigning in life with Christ as an overcomer?
For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17.
But you may be asking, “Overcome what?”
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:31-36.
You must overcome all that the devil has trapped you with. The sin that so easily ensnares you. The wickedness and snares of the devil. The slavery to sin and death.
Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper; the snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 124:7-8.
I am talking here about a number of things—the opportunity to overcome hate with love, the opportunity to overcome fear with faith, the opportunity to overcome evil with good, the opportunity to overcome darkness with light, the opportunity to overcome lies with the truth, and the opportunity to overcome depression with joyful praise.
But where do all these evil things start? With offense. Offense, anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness, if not checked immediately, will grow and these are the things that are holding most people captive under the devil’s snare. He has taken them captive to do his will. And these things bring the evil and oppressive things that end in quarrels, strife, fighting, revenge, war, and destruction.
Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. Hebrews 12:14-15.
It is time you shook off the chains and lived free of offense. It is a joy to let offense roll off your anointed head like water off a duck’s back (that is, criticisms and rude remarks have no effect on you), they cannot penetrate the anointing of the oil of joy.
“You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy above Your companions.” Hebrews 1:9; Psalm 45:7.
Offense comes from pride and selfishness. It is always looking at yourself on a pedestal and the other person as abrasive and ungrateful. Offense comes easy, resistance to it does not. Taking offense causes strife among brethren, in families, at the workplace, at school, and even at church, indeed, wherever it lifts its evil head. It began with the devil and it is of him.
Refuse the opportunity to be offended the moment it rises up and you will have peace.
But how do you do that? By constant communication with Me. Keep your conversation in Heaven. If you will do this, if you will keep your eyes on Me and do all you do unto Me, it becomes harder for the devil to take you into offense. When you are looking at your audience of One it is not so important what others think or say about you or to you—it is just another opportunity to shine for Me as I shine on you.
With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. Ephesians 6:7-8.
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Colossians 3:23-24.
Many times offense comes because you are not willing to serve another person’s needs, especially a relative or member of your household, because it seems to you that they never do anything for you, in fact, they refuse to do the slightest thing that inconveniences them for you, but command you around and expect you to wait on them immediately or they are angry. But if you are angry and bitter in your heart and walk around them in offense you have forgotten that whatever you do for the least of your brethren, you do for Me, and that I reward you as a good a faithful servant. Follow Jesus in not taking offense at others but doing good for them instead.
Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. Matthew 5:41-42.
You overcome evil with good.
Jesus, in the face of rejection, ingratitude, and a refusal to so much as lift a finger to help Him in His tremendous sufferings and death, His disciples could not even watch one hour with Him and almost all of them fled when He was arrested or even went so far as to deny Him. But He still had joy in His heart that He could give you the gift of eternal life and release you from your sins and reconcile you with Me, making peace through the blood of the cross at His own expense. Why? He knew it pleased Me and that I was going to raise Him up and bestow upon Him the Name above every name that is named so that every knee must bow to Him, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth and every tongue proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord!
And He has made you a kingdom, priests unto Me and given you the opportunity to rule and reign with Him now and forever. He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Join the ranks, but offense will never take you there. Once Moses took serious offense at the people he was leading and shepherding across the wilderness, it disqualified him from going further with them as their leader. He did not lead them into the Promised Land after that but Joshua did. Joshua never took his eyes off Me, he kept them only on My Word and consequently he became more than a conqueror.
Moses finally after so many accusations, blame for anything the people found fault with, rebellious behavior, ingratitude for the great trials he had gone through to lead them out of Egypt, and constant complaining for things they had caused, Moses gave in to offense and it even made him refer all to himself and not to Me in getting the water out of the rock.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. Numbers 20:10-11.
Later Moses again showed his offense to the people when he told them that even though he pleaded with Me, I had denied his request to lead the people into the land I had promised them because, “the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me.” Deuteronomy 3:26.
Offense is an ugly thing. You cannot lead someone you are offended with to salvation. You just want them to die and stop giving you trouble. And that is murder in your heart. Do not pray that people who are taking you captive die, instead pray they may live, be converted and be saved.
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:44-48.
That is what Jesus did, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” He qualified you all for the sin offering He fulfilled as it was only applicable under the Old Covenant to those whose sin was not intentional.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:31-32.
And how did I forgive you in Christ? By His blood poured out for you in ransom for all the sins you had down. He released you from your sins by taking all your sins into His own body and giving His life for the eternal life you lost. And the life is in the blood. And He did not just do that for Me, He did it to pay every one of you for any sins others had done to you and even for your own. You have been paid in full by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of My testimony. And that is the way you overcome the accusations of Satan against you night and day as well.
But if you take offense at others and refuse to forgive, you are telling Me the blood is not enough for you to take away sins. And the spiritual law is that I must judge you with the same standard with which you judge others. So if the blood is not enough for you to forgive others, then it is not enough for Me to forgive you. Think about that next time you harbor bitterness and unforgiveness in your heart.
Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and strife exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:13-18.
Always remember you are Mine, you are precious in My sight, and you were meant for a life of joy shared with Me. You are blood bought, beloved and blessed. All are My creation but only certain ones are My delight. You are that one. Celebrate. When I am with you who can be against you? Every tongue raised against you My Word will prove false, I am your vindication. I am your righteousness. I am the lifter of your head. I have made you an overcomer. And that is who you are. And I made you that by the blood of the Lamb and My Word of testimony about you. And My Word is the final one, it is the first and the last.
I love you. You are Mine. It does not matter what anyone thinks about you for they just see outer things but I know your heart. Do not worry so much about others, your business is to follow Me and that is where the joy is. Keep your eyes on Me and you will be freed from the snares in your path.
My eyes are continually toward the LORD, for He will pluck my feet out of the net. Psalm 25:15.