This word is submitted by Teresa Seputis [ts@godspeak.net]

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                     Do Not Be Easily Offended

Child of Mine, you must allow Me to strengthen that in you which is
weak. You must learn to release all unforgiveness, bitterness, offense
and relational hurt back to Me; for when you hold on to any of it, it
weakens you more than you realize. It reduces your capacity to function
in all that I have called you to do, and the enemy of your souls will
try to use it as a strategy against you. The more you hold on to these
things, the more powerfully your enemy, the devil, is able to use them
against you.

Dear child, I want to break the backbone on the spirit of offense over
you, but I require your assistance to do so. You must learn to cooperate
with Me in this, putting aside all unforgiveness and resentment. Be like
My Son Jesus, Who did not hold His own life dear and Who choose not to
defend Himself. I would like you to learn to trust Me to both defend you
and take care of you, instead of turning to offense. Offense doesn't
accomplish anything on your behalf, it simply adds to your problems,
leaving Me an even bigger mess to clean up.

Dear child, offense is a choice that you make, and it weakens you more
than you realize. It is also your choice to refuse it, to let it go, to
not hold onto it. It doesn't have power to consume you unless you grant
it that power. But once you do grant offense power over you, its effect
on you can be overwhelming. You think you can go about your normal
tasks when it carry it, and you don't realize how it reduces your
ability to function. Then you find yourself unable to do something you
could previously do with ease, and you wonder what happened. You find
yourself reacting to situations in ways that are not how you would
normally react. You find yourself making messes that you had no
intention of making.

Dear child, who do you want to serve? Do you want to serve Me or do
you want to serve the spirit of offense? You cannot have two masters,
for they will give you conflicting instructions and you will not be
able to obey them both. If I am to be your Lord and Master, then you
must choose to release forgiveness in all things. You must choose to
forsake offense and you must look to Me to empower you to do so. If
you determine in your heart that I be your master, then I will indeed
empower you to break free from the bonds of offense.

It may seem like a battle at first, for this spirit desires to hold
on to you. It does not want to release you, and when you first try to
leave it, it will tighten its grasp on you. It will attempt to work
in your life to bring even more offense to you, that it might tighten
its hold on you. Do you expect Me to work in your circumstances to
protect you from situations designed to bring offense, for that is not
how I work.

It is not My way to keep you from situations that might give rise to
offense. It is My way to transform you from the inside out to be more
like Me, that these offensive situations will have no power over you.
That is right, My indwelling Holy Spirit will not protect you from
attack, but He change you and empower you to rise up in My victory
and completely defeat the spirit of offense in your life. That is
what I desire to do for you--to set you free from the power of offense.
will you choose to cooperate with Me in this, and allow Me to do it
for you?