Thursday, May 4, 2023

Releasing Offense - by Brent Lokker

Very few things cause more pain than being hurt or betrayed by someone who is important to you. Our protective reaction is to hold an offense without realizing that this offense wears us out because of the negative energy it consumes. Not one person is exempt from going through times of feeling betrayed and deeply hurt. When it happens, our flesh wants to defend ourselves, fight back, or wall ourselves off because the pain just is too much.
 
Not too long ago, I was hurt in such a way that I had to navigate all of these feelings. My initial fleshly reaction was to defend myself, but God spoke his wisdom to me instead: “Son, why don’t you not respond until you can rest in me and we can process the pain together.”
 
The following morning, I had a significant vision (I share the details of this vision in the video below). The bottom line is that the Trinity—Father, Jesus & Holy Spirit—invited me to see myself in the perfection of their love…a love that included me! This happened as I was reading this Scripture:
 
It is my desire for each one of you, that the realization of love’s completeness in you will increasingly burst through all boundaries and that every sphere of your relationship with others will be greatly impacted by your intimate acquaintance with love. I urge you to examine this
agape-love with the utmost scrutiny, just like when a diamond is viewed in the
full sunlight to prove its flawless perfection. I dare you to take love to its ultimate conclusion.
There is no offense in love, as evidenced in Jesus Christ who is the light of day.”

Philippians 1:9-10 (Mirror)
 
Through tears, I peered into this diamond of the pure love of the Trinity…and there I was with them! In that moment, I saw with crystal-clarity I was included in this perfect love…I was created in love…I WAS love!  And I was invited to love this person who I felt hurt and betrayed by in the very same way I was loved—without offense! In love, there is no offense.
 
I was reminded in that glorious moment that I had been loved by my Creator and Father with a love that didn’t keep track of any of my offenses…not one!

I will erase their sins and wicked acts out of My memory as though they had never existed.
Hebrews 10:17 (VOICE)
 
The tears flowed freely as I reflected on the betrayal Jesus experienced. All Jesus did was love people with a perfect love and expand his Father’s kingdom, and in the end, he was rejected and betrayed by nearly everyone around him. And what was his response on the cross? “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”
 
In one sense, we could say, “they knew exactly what they were doing!” This is what our flesh wants to cry out when someone hurts us. We want to make a case against them. But Jesus was saying something completely different. “Father, they don’t know who they are yet. They can’t see themselves in our perfect love, so they are operating out of a false self instead of the truest nature of love in which we created them.”
 
We can’t love with this kind of love, except by letting Jesus be the vine feeding his very life into our branches, his love supernaturally flowing through us in a way that, apart from him, would not be possible. In this supernatural invitation to me, with the love and presence of Jesus flowing through me, operating in my truest self was the natural response: “I am love and in love, there is no offense.”
 
Friends, I encourage you to peer into the purest, most radiant diamond you could possibly imagine. A diamond of the Agape-love shared by Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit. “Lord, open the eyes of our heart to see ourselves where you have always known us to be—right in midst of your perfect love. A love that we share together.”
 
Now, agree with the only way the Trinity sees you:
 
I am love
I’m created in love
This is my truest self
In love there is no offense
 
With love in my heart for each of you,
 
Brent



No comments:

Post a Comment