 God is so good and he has something in store for you because he loves you. He's been in high pursuit of you. It may have taken him a year, 15 years, or your whole life but he waited for you to be here today, amen. He is so good. And I believe that 2022 is gonna be even better for you. Amen. I believe that there are some things though that the enemy has been using or is about to use to have you stop growing in him, to put you at a halt. But today I believe the word of the Lord wants to come and break some lies, to take off some things and leave some things behind in 2021 for you not to carry it anymore into 2022. So I'm gonna pray and I want you just to join me and just believe that Holy Spirit is going to do his work in your heart today. Amen. Father, I just thank you that you are here in this place and we feel your presence. I pray to Holy Spirit that you do your work, melt hearts. Lord that you heal hearts, that you bring deliverance and breakthrough salvation and healing and testimonies. Lord, we thank you for your goodness. I thank you God that you're going to touch the hearts of your children today in the mighty name of Jesus. And everybody said, amen, amen. My message that as I was preparing for today, I came up with the title, leave it behind. Because I truly believe that as you're going to walk in the next few days into 2022, it's gonna come into a new level. I want to be optimistic and believe that God has something great in store for you because that is how God works, amen. He wants us to go from glory to glory, amen. Not to stay stagnant or go lower or lower. That's not how God works. And I believe that there's three things that I felt in my heart to share with you today for you to leave behind so you don't get left behind, amen. So that we don't watch everybody else go and we're circling around the mountain one more time. I know it's very cliche to say, wasn't that year so fast? But isn't it true? I know it's cliche. I know everyone says it all the time, but I don't know if it's age or what, but the older you get, the faster life goes. Am I right? Come on. But I want to just touch a little bit because I truly believe that the Lord is wanting to equip his soldiers in this place today. He's edifying us. He's getting us ready for what is to come. And I think that there's a couple of things that the enemy has been using to stunt our growth or have put it to a halt. And I want to address them today. So with an open heart and with the word of God ready, I want you just to be ready to receive for this word to speak to you, amen. In Luke 17, verse one, there is a scripture that says to, to us, Luke 17, verse one, it is impossible that no offenses should come. You know what I love about this verse? That it makes us all equal in this very moment. That it's impossible that no offenses should come. What it's telling us that it happens to everyone. It doesn't matter if you're a preacher or a pastor or a leader, if you're a father, mother, CEO of a business, a sister, a brother, if you're 30 years old or 15, it doesn't matter. It happens to all of us. All of us get offended. And the scripture says so. So what's great to know is that all of us get affected by offense. And what's going on right now that I think is quite, I believe all of us could agree, that the spirit of offense has really been loosed in our nation right now. Am I right? That it's very difficult that as if, breathing is offensive at this point. It's getting serious. But truly it is a spirit that is operating. Because the thing is that offense almost seems like, oh, it's my right because my feelings got hurt and may it be so, it may be that you were offended. But see, the thing is with the enemy, he never works with just offense. He always works to destroy, to kill and to steal. He's not ending there. He wants you to go from offense to bitterness and he wants to rob your soul from anything that's going to be prosperous. And the way to do that is to offend you. Come on. So it happens to everyone, but the impact is not the same. Our response towards an offense determines our future. It truly does. You like it or not, that offense that you have gotten, even if it's buried from 15 years ago, five years ago, and you might not even remember exactly what triggers you. Maybe it came from your home, from your father, from a teacher, from a pastor or a leader, whatever you wanna call it. Somehow it's buried inside and you can't even recall. But I want you to know that because we've held it so long, bitterness, it starts to seep in into other areas of our life. You cannot be offended and pretend you're not. Not for too long. It begins to show in all areas of our life. Not just that relationship offense, but it then begins to have a ripple effect onto every other relationship. On your children, on your best friends, on your parents, on other people, people will begin to start getting offended by your offense. It doesn't stop. But our response towards an offense determines our future. But I like how John Bavir said this in his book, Bait of Satan. By the way, I highly recommend reading that book, Bait of Satan by John Bavir. It will highly impact you if that is something that you're dealing with. It goes on a deeper level. If you stay free from offense, you will stay in God's will. If you become offended, you'll be taken captive by the enemy to fulfill his own purpose and will. And you're probably wondering how on earth that when I get offended, I tap in to working in Satan's will. How does that work? Because you become a mouthpiece for Satan. As soon as you get offended, you cannot help but talk about it. See, the thing is, is that there's, everyone gets offended, but the impact is not the same because a person that gets impacted by it either harbors it or deals with it. We are one or the other. And the thing about it is that two of those people that harbor it or deal with it will talk about it. They'll either talk to the right people or talk to everyone about that person that affected you. Either way, you're talking. But it's about how you deal with it. So offense leads to bitterness and bitterness poisons the pure in heart. Offense darkens our understanding. The thing about offense is that it darkens our understanding of the situation. We are no longer able to see clearly. And that is the hardest truth to swallow. Because as if the offense is a magnet itself, you start to see, oh, he or she did it again to me. Did you hear that? Did you see that? Oh, they did it on purpose. But the thing about offense, it's so personal, right? Because we take it personally. But what's crazy or the irony to it is that it's hardly ever personal. Hardly ever that that other person that has offended you just has issues of their selves. And they're just trying to be humans and trying to learn how to deal with it. That husband that you're offended with, that wife that you're offended with, they are just trying to understand themselves. But through the process, unfortunately, we get offended. Am I right? But I truly believe that the Lord wants to deal with that bitterness inside of our souls because what it's doing is it's robbing us from growth. It is robbing us from a relationship with the Lord and it's robbing us from our relationships in our life to be prosperous. I wanna give an example, an illustration. Years ago, I started coming to this church about 14, 15 years old. And I have to share this because it's so funny, but it was extremely impactful in my life. I was in Larissa's life group and she was my mentor, my leader still is till this day. But at that time, she said something, I mind you again, I'm 15 years old, and she said something about me in front of everybody. I was so offended. I was like, how could she say that? I was insulted. She said something I can't even remember exactly what she said, but I sure remember how it made me feel. I was so hurt. I was so offended. And as soon as I left that home group, I started as if a theatrical movie was going on in my head. And all of these thoughts and ideas started coming and every encounter I would have, another thought came into my head. Does anybody ever experience that, right? Oh, we have a good entertaining thing right here in this box. And what started to happen, I started to harbor offense and I started to feel really hurt. And I wanted to walk away from that friendship and mentorship because I was so hurt by her, by this one insult or whatever I thought in my head. So, but because she was gold to me and still is, I was like, you know, I'm just gonna bring it up to her. I'm not a very confrontational person, so it took a lot out of me. So I brought it up to her. I said, you know, you said A, B and C in front of everybody and it really hurt my feelings. And she looked at me stunned. She's like, are you serious? She's like, I didn't even mean that. This is what I meant. And I was so puzzled because I thought I was right. But because I thought she did wrong, but the thing is I saw wrong. Take that in for just a second. I was this close of losing an incredible relationship because I got offended in my own perspective. How many of us feel that right now? Have maybe lost relationships, connections, have stopped certain things because of an offense that happened in our own minds. Of an expectation they didn't even know about. Let's be real. Has that happened to us? An expectation that they didn't even know you had. It's not really fair, is it? But here's the thing. How do we overcome this offense because it happens all the time? It is impossible that you will not go without offense. How can we protect our hearts as it says in Proverbs 4.23, to guard your heart above all things for it flows the issues of life? How do we protect this so that when other people may say something or do something that it doesn't affect our growth or affect our hearts. I like to use this reference. Please understand my reference here. It says, get some fact checkers. Get some people that will surround you, that will be real, that will tell you like it is, that will not just be like, oh, yeah, I can't believe she did that. No, get some people that will be like, you sound a little bit victim. You sound a little bit petty. I don't think that's what they meant. Pray instead of constantly gossiping or vomiting it out. Have someone that will be real with you. See, I have a husband. I love him for it, but I hate him for it at the same time because he's my place where I can talk things out. All the woman said, amen. Okay, so, but here's one of the things is that with all of that dealing, I have to be accountable, but he's like, babe, that's really petty. I'm like, okay, thanks. Fine, I'll go pray about it. And I'm better. Or he's like, yeah, I can see that. I understand that, but let it go. And he does those things all the time. So things do come up for everybody. No one is invincible at this point when it comes to offense, okay? Let's be real. But what you do with it is what matters. So I have a fact checker, which is my husband. Pray for someone to be real with you as well. That's one thing is accountability. Have accountability to our minds and to the words you say and who you say it to. Don't run your mouth to everybody about it because what you're doing is you are literally tearing down the body of Christ. You become the mouthpiece for Satan. It's very hard to swallow, but it is absolutely truth. Be very careful because not everyone is as mature of a believer as you are. So when you say that about this leader, they're going to question them coming to this church. And when they question coming to this church or that church or this, they're gonna start thinking that every Christian is a hypocrite. You don't understand how you become a mouthpiece for Satan and it affects their growth for God. It is very dangerous. It is a tool of the enemy for you to bite his snare and for you to become so bitter that the only thing you talk about is what has happened to you instead of what was done for you. And that is what God wants you to do is to get over it, let it go so you can be free. Amen? You have to be hard on yourself with this area because this is guarding your heart. We cannot be in a playground with Satan. We cannot play in his playground. We have to destroy his tactics. We have to destroy how he works. And this is his code. We have to uncode it, amen? And that means that if you start to see that it starts to come out of your mouth, silence your mouth and go to pray about it. Pray for them instead. Because I assure you 95% they didn't mean it. The Ephesians 4, 29, 31. And this is how I want to transition to the next point. You can't get closer to Holy Spirit with bitterness, but you can with forgiveness. Our aim is Holy Spirit. And if you're like, I can't get a spiritual breakthrough. Something's happening. It's because you're harboring that bitterness. He's like, you can't get to me with that. You must let it go. I remember reading Dr. Yungi Cho about fourth dimension and he said, if you want actually your prayers to be answered and if you want to get closer to the Lord, you must be pure in heart. Those that have the pure in heart will see the face of God. It's hard to see him when all we see is brokenness and bitterness, amen? It's hard to get a breakthrough when we are constantly breaking things with our own mouths, amen? Ephesians 4, 29, 31. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. But what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers? And verse 30. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away with all malice and be kind to one another, tend to hearted for giving one another, even as God and Christ forgave you. Come on. To overcome offense is to be accountable with your mouth, to be accountable to the people around you and be accountable to the word of God. That's how you get out. Because when lies seep into our minds, the truth comes through, amen? The word of God and the people around you is to keep you accountable to where you're at, amen? Come on. The next thing that for us to let go so we can dive into 2022 with God's promises is our wrongful pursuit. See, we are about on the time of resolutions. Those that have gym memberships, you're about to get so many people in there, you'll have to fight for that treadmill because it is 2022 and that's what happens, right? We have our goals on getting out of debt, all the financial goals, all the relationship goals, all the diet goals, and you know what, it all has its place, amen? We need those goals. We need to keep pursuing, we need to be ambitious, but here's the problem, is when God is no longer in the picture, amen? We begin our pursuit for everything else, but Jesus. Matthew 633 says, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added onto you. It seems simple, but we don't do it. We have to talk and be asking ourselves these questions. Our goals are God and God is no longer the goal. If you're writing down on your list and you have all of these goals and ambitions and God doesn't even make to list in your mind, you have a problem. You became a lover of self over a lover of Christ. Look, we need to love ourselves. It has, again, its place. As you can see, the second point, it's all about putting God in the right place and that's putting Him back on the throne and that's putting Him back number one as where He belongs, amen? And then everything else shall be added onto you. Such a truth, but it's so hard to do. So when you're going into your next goal, take God with you. He is your senior partner, Holy Spirit is. Take Him with you as you do your goals, but let Him be your goal. And that is where we ask ourselves, is Jesus the way for our lives, or is He in the way? Is He constantly in the way? Is church and praying and fasting just another thing for us to do, or is it what we are coming to do? The thing that we're aiming for. So all of these lists and goals and the wrong pursues is starting to take away our love and our passion for God where we become lukewarm. See, we are after deliverance, but we need to be more for the deliverer. We are after our healing, but we need more, our healer. We are after the person that's going to be a Jehovah Jireh, but we're more after Him than what He can provide, amen? So as we're sitting here and the many people are about to receive their freedom, this is just the beginning of you getting closer to the Lord because He's the goal. How do we get to the goal? Is where you start making hard choices by fasting when you don't want to fast. You can join us on the 21 day fast that we're about to do as a church in January. Everyone said amen. Or three days or seven days or whatever the Lord guides you to do with your body of sacrifice. It could be even social media. My gosh, that's consuming your mind. Maybe you just need to be off of it for a whole month so that instead of scrolling through the social media, you can start flipping the pages in the Word of God, amen? Maybe transition that. Make some personal goals. I will fast with the church. I will go and pray on the morning prayers that when the church opens, sorry. When the church opens, I will join and come to prayer. Maybe I can't do it every day, but I'll come once in a week. Make those personal goals where you're like, God, I don't really desire you right now, but I'll make steps to desire you. And just watch you will start to happen where you say, I will pursue, he says that as you draw onto me, I will draw onto you. I assure you the desire will follow after that one day fasting, that one time you're bringing the Bible, reading the Bible instead of social media. Make those goals. Get yourself connected to a home group. Surround yourself with people that actually love God or on fire, that can help you, push you to being where you want to be, even if you don't feel like it. Come on, no one feels like going to the gym, but you make that membership happen. You go there, maybe a friend will come with you, whatever it takes to get you there. Come on, making those practical small steps to get there. Join us this January. Let's go big on 2022 with a big hit to the enemy's kingdom, amen? Together, fasting and praying and making those small goals for ourselves. The next thing that I wanted to talk about which kind of aims as I was talking about home group is number three, let's leave behind doing life alone. See, God didn't design this life of ours to do it alone. In Genesis 2.18, the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. He made it very clear that in the very beginning of the word of God, he wanted to make one clear to all of us, it is not good for you to be alone. This life was not designed for you to do it by yourself. All of us, humbly speaking, need help. And that's hard to swallow. That that business to be successful, you need partnership. For you to make it to what you're doing takes partnership, takes a team to do what this all you see, the dream team is the camera, the lights, the action, the worship team, it takes all of us, a community to do and achieve certain things. But here's the incredible thing. For you to draw out your potential, people help you with that. Mentorship, leaders, home groups, community helps you with that. How can we get there? I wanna tell you before we can get there on how to do that is I have a really incredible analogy that I learned a few years back. I went to South Africa with my husband a few years ago and we went on this like small safari thing and the guide, we came across zebras and he shared a very interesting fact about zebras. And they have two strategies, the zebra herd has two strategies against the predator, which is the lion. The first strategy that they have against the predator, the lion, is by they run together as they herd. Always together, running. Because see they have an incredible print on them and that print that as they come together creates an optical illusion for the lion. They see no beginning and they see no end. It becomes such a haze of a lion that they don't see a prey no longer. Isn't that powerful that when you run together you escape the predator? But when you isolate yourself, it's so much easier to get to you, come on. Now the second strategy of the zebras, which I found phenomenal, is that if one zebra is wounded, hurt, even if the predator actually started hurting that, what the herd of zebras do is they go to that wounded zebra and they begin to run in a full circle around the wounded zebra over and over, running, running, running, until the predator leaves. So that circle of herd of zebras protects the wounded one. I wanna ask you, where is your circle that will protect you when you're wounded? Because we all get wounded, amen. We all get hurt. We all get offended. We all withdraw from the goal. But we gotta have that circle of people that will protect us when we're wounded, to help you out. And that is our community here. That is your home group. People that God has given to you, the enemy uses for you to get offended so that you can lose them. It's all in His plan. But I encourage you, it's for you to make that step and join a home group, for you to get connected, for you to maybe restart that relationship or to start a new one. But we cannot do it alone. Don't get so COVID isolated that we do life completely alone. God wants us to do it together, amen, to build the kingdom of God together. I encourage each and every one of you to join in the sense of volunteering. Sometimes that helps for you to be around people by volunteering, ushering, being greeters, being on the welcome team, doing all of those things for you to get ignited, for you to get connected to other believers. And it becomes a family instead of just coming to a church service where you see this is not just a church service, but it's a family unit, amen. And we're building the kingdom of God. So I encourage each and every one of us is that the enemy is after our yes. He is after you, that if he can't get you to sin, he's going to try to weaken your yes to him. So that means that for you to get offended, for your eyes to get distracted by your own pursuits instead of pursuing him, he wants you to, by the way, to pursue those things that you're after, your desires. He just wants to join in. He just wants to be your partner and help you out, but that he is constantly the first, amen. And he doesn't want you to do this life alone. He wants us to be in a place of community so that you're accountable, so that you can grow and that you can expose your potential that you have in Jesus' name, amen. How many of you are ready for 2022? Letting go those offenses, amen. Pursuing God, amen. Hey, thanks for watching this video. If you enjoyed this content and this was a blessing to you, would you help us and hit thumbs up so that it could help more people to discover this video? It cost you nothing, but it can go a long way to help with the algorithm. As well as if you're not subscribed to our channel, hit subscribe, click on the bell so that you can be reminded each time that we upload videos. Thank you so much for being a part of this community. If you're interested in learning more about hungry Jen, our internship, our conferences, our deliverance, and so many other things, go to hungryjen.com for more information. And as always, remember, better is not good enough, the best is yet to come.