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: Sometimes God offends our minds to reveal what is in our hearts (Anaheim, CA: Vineyard Christian Fellowship, 1989.) http://www.christlife.org/faith/articles/C_offended.html
Offended by God?
Sometimes God offends our minds to reveal what is in our hearts by John Wimber
It happened on a Sunday night several years ago. I had just finished preaching in the gymnasium where we held our meetings when one of the men who often brought a prophetic word stood up. Speaking in the first person for the Lord, he said, "I am telling you now that I am about to act, so that you will know that what is about to occur is something I am bringing to pass." Everybody stood breathless for a few moments. Then, all of a sudden, in different parts of the room, twelve people-by actual count-flipped out. Literally. One man did a somersault from a seated position (try it sometime), shrieking like a banshee and landing in the middle of the aisle. Every one of these people was afflicted by demons. The Lord was moving on them, and the demons were coming out, screaming and blaspheming. Folks standing in the bleachers had to pass a couple of these people over their heads to get them down to the floor where they could be ministered to. I grabbed the microphone and said, "Well now, sometimes these things happen, you know, and, uh, well . . ." I actually did not know what to say. I was trying to get some kind of control. And I wanted to communicate to people that we really knew what we were doing; we were not really this weird. happening when you're trying to preach your first sermon?) I was offended by what had happened at the church. Would I have been any less offended by what happened in the synagogue? A week later, the man who had spoken the previous Sunday prophesied again: "I made you a marketplace. Why do you try to protect your reputation? I have given it to you, and I can take it away." The Lord was saying that we must not be ashamed of what he directed us to do, even when it was incongruous with everything respectable in society. He wanted us to be prepared for the shame and criticism that would come our way over the next few months if we proceeded along the lines that he was moving us in.
And as soon as our praying for the sick started having some effect, demons showed up. That blew all propriety to the winds, because demons do not behave at all. They manifested themselves any old place they wanted to. More recently, we have experienced the phenomenon of offense with the advent of several prophetic voices in our church. On the one hand, these men have demonstrated sterling Christian character and a powerful anointing. The fruit of their ministry has been very good. But at the same time, they operate in a different way than I am used to. Some of what they do would seem strange by many people's standards. I am finding that, as a general rule, moving toward the heart of God may put us, even as believers who genuinely want to know the Lord's will, in a position where we are offended by the things of God. God's actions often offend human expectations, human ways of thinking, human pride. Why?
The rebellious may very well be Christians. Within the Christian community there are some who are in hidden opposition to any kind of authority. They have never come to terms with Jesus' lordship over the church. They may be well schooled theologically, and may even be quite visible within the church system. Their rebelliousness may never have shown itself. But when some intervention by God offends them, they react against it swiftly.
A Sign of Division
God offends the mind, I have come to believe, to reveal the heart. Jeremiah 17:9-10 says that "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? I the Lord search the mind and ex amine the heart, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." On the surface the text sounds relatively harmless. After all, we are in harmony with the Lord, aren't we? And he has every right to search our hearts, to sort things through, and reward or discipline as the situation merits. Most of us think of God searching our hearts privately. But what if he chooses to do it in public? Sometimes he does shine his spotlight on our hearts through some public action. Something in his dealings with us embarrasses us or humbles our intellect. How we respond reveals what is in our hearts toward him. God's shocking interventions bring to light whether we are characterized by righteousness or rebellion. When the minds of the righteous are boggled by something God does, they seek him for under standing. They may have fears; his action may make them uncomfortable. But they are teachable. They patiently learn to cooperate with what they discern are God's initiatives. The rebellious use the same circumstance to justify their hidden desire to dismiss God's will and do things their own way. The offensive element in God's action exposes the antagonism in their heart toward him.
appropriately, in terms of his consciousness of who he was. But his answer did not meet the expectations of his hearers at all. They did not get it. "It's taken 46 years to build this temple, and you're going to rebuild it in three days?" They did not realize that the temple he spoke of was his body.
Peter then stands up and preaches a 43-second sermon (it takes about that long to read it). He preaches under the anointing of the Spirit of God, and soon people in the crowd are shouting, "We agree with you! We're in trouble! What can we do?" Peter says, "Believe and be baptized, and the Lord will give you the Holy Spirit, too." And they were, and the Lord did. (If only you and I could preach 43-second sermons so impregnated by the Spirit that they produced 3,000 converts!) And so the one action of God that shocked everyone revealed what was in every one's hearts. In some people a rebellion against his lordship was revealed; in others, a willingness to be corrected by him and respond to his initiative. One group was driven away by what God did, while the other crowd persevered and received some thing from God.
. . . And Friends
Neither, at the time, did his disciples. They probably stood there frightened out of their wits. Here was a new side to Jesus! Up to this point he had been healing people, saying nice things. Everything was going fine. Now, all of a sudden, he is acting like a maniac, and giving an explanation that no one can understand. The disciples may have been as offended as the money changers and the dove sellers. They probably went home just as confused as the religious leaders. "We've got to talk. I thought he was all right. He was great at the wedding. But you saw what he did today. I don't think I'll ever be able to show my face there again." Years later, of course, the disciples understood. When John came to write the gospel, he could ex plain that the temple Jesus had spoken of was his body after he was raised from the dead. But at the time, Jesus left them in the dark. They had to simply stay with him until his purpose became clear. They had to walk with him even though they had little or no understanding-and were being criticized as fools. "Here they come again, those dingbats, following that crackpot preacher."
But the same mysterious working of God's plan that has driven some out has driven him on. Again, this man's prayer has been, "Father, I don't understand. But I trust you." He has continued to lead many people to Christ. I am one of them. One evening years ago I knelt in this man's living room, and he prayed for me as I turned my life over to Christ. Something that was in this man's life was placed on me. In the two or three years after that I led as many or more people to Christ than my friend had-not because I am anything special but be cause God blessed me and gave me great opportunity. I carry today in my being the mantle that was passed on to me by this man. I am sure that if I were designing a program to prepare an evangelist, I would never come up with anything like that. God's ways are not my ways. But God's action in
this man's life produced a broken and contrite heart, and a highly motivated personality. He went out and has done the job the Lord gave him from that day forth. If we are going to pursue the things of the Lord, we will often not understand what he is doing, and at times we will be embarrassed by it. Nearly everything of God that we come in contact with has offense in it. We are constantly being brought to that rock of offense and having to deal with it. The rock of offense is not comfortable to lean against. As my friend always used to tell me, "Sometimes God crushes a petal to bring out its essence." Sometimes he offends our minds to reveal our hearts. The Rev. John Wimber is[was..] pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim, California.
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