Offence quenches the Power

In my time of morning prayer and reading the Word, I read Mark 6. God revealed something to me that I never paid attention to. When I read this scripture I was mainly focusing on the fact that Jesus could not do mighty work. God opened my eyes on the reasons why Jesus as anointed and powerful as He was could not do mighty work among the people that you would ordinarily think because they knew Him they would believe Him.

Mark 6:1 starts by telling us that Jesus came to His country and His disciples followed Him.
Jesus was not alone when He went to this meeting, He was with His disciples. This is important because it shows that there were people who could testify of His power and the miracles He had performed before.

Secondly, we are told that the people were astonished and greatly impressed by His teaching of the Word. He displayed unmatched wisdom that they never experienced before.
They also marveled at the mighty works that He did.

It was this unmatched wisdom and unmatched power of the Holy Spirit that challenged their mindset. They started to reconcile the amount of wisdom and His background and what they knew about Him and could not understand.
They knew that He was a carpenter, He grew among them, they knew His mother, sisters and brothers. There was nothing extraordinary about His background that could have resulted in the wisdom He possessed and the power He displayed.

This was a mindset warfare. They could not get themselves to ignore what they knew about Him and embrace what God could do through Him.

The bible tells us that in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can they he know them because they are spiritually discerned”
The same thing happened to these congregants, they discerned spiritual things, naturally.
This is by far the main reason why Jesus could not continue with the revival among His own people.
They knew too much about Him to receive from Him.
They looked at Him through their natural goggles.

It is very important to be spiritual because if we are not led by the Spirit we will reject God’s solutions for our lives. We will trivialize the answers that God is giving to us because they challenge the status quo.

As I write this article, In South Africa we are on day 23 of a nationwide lockdown due to Covid – 19 pandemic. As the world is affected by this, God can give us a solution that is not packaged the way we expect, it may come from a place where we did not expect it, the question is, are we ready to receive it, can we win the mindset to accept what God is giving us as nations and as the church?

A lot of things will have to be done differently post Covid – 19 by the nations and also the church, are we willing to embrace the new normal that this pandemic has brought to our families and work spaces?
How are we going to harness the benefits of technology moving forward?
How are we going to continue with hygiene in our spaces and what about social distancing?

In a service that had Jesus Christ as a preacher, men and women returned home the same way because of their mindset. He was there with them, ready to heal and deliver but could not because they were offended at Him.

When God called Moses for his assignment, He said “O my Lord, I am not eloquent…” Exodus 4:10
When He called Isaiah he said “Woe is me, for I am undone!” Isaiah 6:4
The people concentrated on the physical qualities and could not received from Jesus.
I’m sure the children of Israel knew Moses’s weaknesses but this did not change the fact that He was the chosen of God same with Isaiah.

God is and will still use His vessels whether they are weak in our eyes or not, He will use them.
The fact that Jesus was not received in one meeting did not stop Him from performing miracles. He continued with His ministry and those that received the Prophet got a Prophet’s reward.

May God open our eyes today so that we do not miss His plan because of being carnal.
May His grace rest upon us to perceive and move with Him.
The woman in 2 Kings 4:9 (NASB) said “Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually”
May you also perceive right in Jesus name Amen.
If you have not given your life to Jesus Christ, it means these things are foolishness to you. You need to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior for you to be able to perceive the things of the Spirit. If you would like to do that now, say this prayer:

Heavenly Father
I come to you as I am
I believe that Jesus died on the cross and paid for my sin
Forgive my sin
I believe with my heart and I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and He is Lord of my life
Write me in the ht book of life
I accept Him as My Savior
In Jesus name AMEN!

If you prayed this prayer, you are born again and the Holy Spirit dwells in you and will help you perceive spiritual things and help you understand the bible.

Join a bible believing church where they speak in tongues and join a family that will help you grow spiritually and live your purpose on this earth.

God bless you!

Do not forget to leave a comment if this article helped you in any way.

Shalom.