I believe you are going to a new level in the next few days between 2021 and 2022 because God wants us to go from glory to glory, not to stay stagnant or go lower and lower. I felt in my heart that there are three things you need to leave behind so you don’t get left behind. The Lord wants to equip His soldiers today, to edify us and get us ready for what is to come.

Luke 17:1 is a verse that makes us all equal because it happens to everyone. Offense often seems like it is your right because your feelings got hurt. The dangerous thing about offence is that the enemy never stops there. He wants you to go from offense to bitterness and thereby rob your soul of anything that would be prosperous.

Once you hold onto offense bitterness starts to seep into different areas of our lives. You cannot be offended and pretend you are not for very long. It begins to show.

As soon as you get offended, you cannot help but talk about it.

Everyone gets offended but the impact is different because a person can either harbor it or deal with it. Offense leads to bitterness and bitterness poisons the pure in heart. Offense darkens our understanding of the situation and then, we are no longer able to see clearly.

The Lord wants to deal with that bitterness inside our souls because it is robbing us from growth. It is robbing us from a relationship with the Lord and for our lives to be prosperous.

I was so close to losing an incredible relationship because I got offended by my perspective of what happened between us. Many have lost relationships, connections, businesses and opportunities because of an offense that happened in our own minds. Since it is impossible that we can go without offense, how can we protect our heart? Proverbs 4:23.

First, get some people around you who will be real with you. This will enable you to have accountability to your mind, to the words you say and who you say them to.

Ephesians 4:29-31 shows that you can’t get closer to the Holy Spirit with bitterness but you can with forgiveness. If you are wondering why you can’t get a spiritual breakthrough, it may simply be you are harboring bitterness. It’s hard to get a breakthrough when you are constantly breaking things with your mouth.

To overcome offense is to be accountable with your mouth, to the people around you and to the Word of God. That’s how you get out.

The next thing we need to let go of to dive into 2022 with God’s promises is our wrongful pursuit.

Our ambitions and goals become wrongful when God is no longer in the picture, Matthew 6:33. Our goals become god when God is no longer the goal. We must put God in the right place, which is as the most important thing in our lives – where He belongs.  Then, everything else shall be added unto us. Ask yourself, is Jesus the way or in the way of your life? Wrong pursuits take away our passion and love for God, making us lukewarm.

The third thing is leave behind doing life alone. God didn’t design this life of ours to be done alone, Genesis 2:18. All of us, humbly speaking need help. It takes partnership and a team to make it. Mentors, leaders, home groups, communities help you with that.

We all get offended and withdraw from the goal but we have to have a circle of people that will protect us when we are wounded and help us get out of the offense. God wants us to build the Kingdom of God together.

Salvation Prayer

Jesus is drawing you to Himself today. He is calling you and wants to help you to let go. Say it out loud: Lord Jesus, forgive me of all my sins. Wash me and cleanse me with the blood of Jesus. Deliver me. I accept You into my heart in Jesus’ mighty name.

Sermon by Mariana Parkhotyuk; Blog by Edward Gardiner