Sovereign Offenses

(In light of where the Holy Spirit has me now, as well as what He’s showing me about my walk with God, I wanted to post this article by Martha. This is such a clear and powerful word on the big struggles of this life, yes, but also the smaller, more confusing “blips” that can cause me to stumble. May the Spirit use it to bless all of you with as much hope and LIFE as He’s brought me, too!  —Jennifer)

Reading Hebrews 12:1-11

God is the Brooding Father to His children, knowing all their weak spots and unexposed sickness. He is in absolute control of what touches His growing children and is the Blessed Controller of their experiences and…enemies.

We are after ease. God is after emptiness that His Son might be the fullness. God is in relentless pursuit of the Old Man/Woman, to hound them into the rightful grave of their hopelessness. Father God is out to destroy – in us – the Old man and resurrect – in us – the New Man. New-Man being “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

God is intent on bringing children into the likeness of His Cherished Son by the indwelling Life of Christ. But we resist in ignorance of the level of our depravity and by arrogance that insists on living for God “on our own assessment.”

So…the Cross of our solution, becomes personal wrongs by daily confrontation. God sends the proud to expose my preening pride, the evil to uncover my latent wickedness, the angry to spark my fire of rage. Offenses that bombard me are a frightful mirror, forcing me to see the face I have not known—and to ask forgiveness for attitudes that shock me. Things my Father knew all along.

His scourging hand is behind every wound and is a Lovely Father’s perfect correction for a secret Divine Purpose, a Joseph-in-the-making in me…

Offenses begin with family, the closest most vulnerable ties… The wrongs extend to the workplace of Potiphar, where miserable prison is the reward for fidelity. And Joseph, in the brilliance of his comprehension, saw the Hand behind the many cruel hands of his history, truly every person on his journey. Joseph bowed to that Divine Hand, burning and chiseling the vessel of his soul into a Sterling Chalice, trusted with containing God in a foreign place of reigning.

God chastens those He loves with “scourgings” like those He allowed His Son to experience. With death blows to pride and wrestlings with Jacob-strength to break his “thigh.”

For whom the Lord loves He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives.
Hebrews 12:6 NKJV

The offense is easier to accept if the Ruling Father is seen as Supremely Right and Sovereignly Loving in all He sends.

And, as with Joseph, forgiveness becomes the crisis of my own destiny but the very means to its discovery! Forgiveness of others yields to me the secrets of God’s amazing plan for me! Healthy fear of this Mighty God, His power to orchestrate my history, is the great inspiration of forgiveness.

I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of lords, who alone dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
1 Timothy 6:13-16 NASB (emphasis mine)

Copyright © 2001 Martha Blaney Kilpatrick