Before You Begin
Sometimes it takes very little for an entire day to change direction: a poorly chosen remark, an unanswered message, a broken promise, public criticism, an injustice, or someone who does not treat us the way we believed we deserved. The hurt may be real. The anger may feel justified. And yet what reaches us is not always what ultimately harms us most. The danger begins when what happened on the outside finds a lasting place on the inside.
This series focuses precisely on that moment. It does not assume that a mature Christian never feels pain, disappointment, or anger. It begins with a more demanding distinction: offense may be offered to us, but we do not have to receive it, feed it, and give it permission to govern our thoughts, our relationships, or our decisions.
The image running through all four teachings is bait. Bait has no power unless it is taken. In the same way, other people's words and actions may wound us, but the spiritual issue becomes what we do next with that wound: do we bring it to God, or do we allow it to become resentment, bitterness, division, and eventually a new way of living?
“1Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!”
Luke 17:1 · KJV
Jesus does not promise a life in which every opportunity for offense disappears. Offenses will come. Real preparation is learning what we will do when they do.
Offense Is More Than an Emotion
In these teachings, offense is more than an unpleasant feeling. It often begins with hurt or resentment caused by an insult, disrespect, or a wrong we have experienced or perceived. But it becomes spiritually dangerous when it acts like a stumbling block over which the heart trips.
We can lose our peace, retreat behind walls, interpret other people's motives through our wounds, replay the same scenes in our minds, and begin making decisions from a place of offense. What began as an event becomes an inner position.
That is one reason offense can be difficult to recognize. It does not necessarily stop us from going to church, praying, serving, working, or smiling. We can continue functioning outwardly while carrying a conversation inside that we have replayed for months. We can say we have forgiven while the mere mention of a person's name still awakens the same anger.
The purpose of this series is not to make us suspicious of every emotion. It is to make us honest. If something hurt us, we can acknowledge it. If offense has remained in our hearts, we can deal with it. Grace does not ask us to pretend that nothing happened.
Why Take This So Seriously?
All four messages return to the same warning: offense can move far more than our mood. When it is held onto, it can affect the way we love, our ability to trust, our fellowship with others, our attention to the Word, and our sensitivity to the Holy Spirit's leading. It can also push us to act too quickly, to leave a relationship, a community, or a responsibility under the pressure of hurt rather than from clear conviction.
Lesson 3 uses several biblical figures to show what could have been lost if offense had taken control: Joseph could have become imprisoned by bitterness toward his brothers; David could have taken the throne prematurely by killing Saul; Jesus, Stephen, or Paul could have allowed violence, rejection, or persecution to silence their mission. The point is not that their suffering was insignificant. Quite the opposite: forgiveness becomes all the more powerful when the wrong was real.
The series therefore emphasizes an essential choice: we cannot always control what other people do, but we can learn not to surrender lasting control of our peace, our character, or our direction to them.
Forgiveness Does Not Mean Denying the Hurt
This distinction matters from the very beginning because it runs through the entire series. Forgiveness does not mean calling evil good, minimizing an injustice, automatically returning to a dangerous relationship, or removing every boundary. Someone may truly have lied, betrayed, humiliated, abandoned, or wounded us. Forgiveness does not rewrite the facts.
It changes the place those facts are allowed to occupy within us. It refuses to let the person who hurt us continue governing our inner world long after the event. It gives up feeding revenge and places in God's hands what we cannot repair ourselves.
“31Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”
Ephesians 4:31-32 · KJV
The model is the forgiveness we have received in Christ. Under the new covenant, forgiveness is not a performance designed to earn something from God. It begins with what God has already done for us and invites us to let that grace transform the way we treat others.
The Wound Must Be Addressed Before It Becomes a Root
Another important thread in the series is time. An unacknowledged wound does not necessarily stay the same. It can ferment. We can repeat it, defend it, tell it to others, assign new motives to it, and gradually build a story through which everything else is filtered.
“15Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;”
Hebrews 12:15 · KJV
The picture of a root matters. What is hidden eventually produces something visible. Bitterness begins to show up in our tone, our conversations, our reactions, our pessimism, our difficulty celebrating others, or our tendency to see every new situation as further proof of what happened to us.
That is why one of the most important words in this series is quickly. Forgiving quickly does not mean feeling perfect peace immediately. It means deciding quickly not to feed the offense, then allowing God to work through the emotions, the pain, the memories, and the boundaries that may still need attention.
Grace Does Not Only Command; It Empowers
Some offenses are small. Others touch deep wounds. This series does not assume that everything can be resolved by mechanically repeating a sentence. Instead, it continually brings us back to dependence on the Holy Spirit. There are things we do not know how to forgive through willpower alone, especially when the wound has been severe, repeated, or traumatic.
The answer is not to conclude that forgiveness is impossible. It is to recognize that we need strength beyond our own. God's grace meets us in weakness, helps us face the pain honestly, and returns us to our identity in Christ: loved, forgiven, accepted, and free.
This is where the series becomes deeply practical. We are not only going to understand why offense is dangerous. We will learn to guard our thoughts and words, pray for those who have hurt us, remain rooted in love, recognize signs of bitterness, exchange retaliation for restoration, and let gratitude expand a world that offense had narrowed.
The Four Lessons in This Series
The series follows an intentional progression. Each lesson revisits elements from the previous ones, but with a different purpose.
1. Can Offense Move You Out of the Will of God?
The first lesson defines offense, introduces the image of bait, and shows how a wound received inwardly can affect peace, relationships, maturity, and direction. It also asks a foundational question: what is offense already causing me to do?
2. How to Guard Your Heart From Offense
The second lesson becomes highly practical. It offers several ways to guard the heart: expect offenses to come, choose forgiveness quickly, stay rooted in love, guard thoughts and words, keep your eyes on Christ rather than people, pray for those who hurt you, and depend on the Holy Spirit.
3. Don't Let Offense Derail Your Journey
The third lesson shows what can be lost when offense begins making decisions for us. It uses Joseph, David, Jesus, Stephen, and Paul as reference points, then begins a process of release: acknowledge pain without condemnation, shift from retaliation to restoration, and replace bitterness with gratitude and blessing.
4. The Spiritual Progression of Offense
The final lesson brings the full mechanism together: offense, hurt, bitterness, resentment, division, cold love, a hardened heart, an advantage given to the enemy, abandonment of the Word, and spiritual misalignment. Most importantly, it shows that this progression is not inevitable: grace can interrupt it at every stage.
How to Use This Series
Do not read these four lessons only to identify people you believe are living in offense. The series will be far more useful if you read it as a personal examination. Whenever a situation or sentence makes you think of someone else, begin with another question: what is this revealing in me?
You can take one lesson at a time with your Bible, then leave a few minutes of silence after reading. Do not focus only on whether you were right about the facts. Ask the Holy Spirit whether a wound has begun to occupy a place it should no longer have, whether certain words have hardened your heart, or whether an important decision was made under the influence of resentment.
If a serious wound surfaces during this series, the goal is not to force yourself to resolve everything in one sitting. Begin with honesty before God. Acknowledge what hurt. Refuse to feed the offense. Then move forward in forgiveness, wisdom, and whatever boundaries are needed, one step at a time.
For Reflection
- When I think about offense, do I see it mainly as something other people do to me, or as something I can choose not to let govern my heart?
- Is there a wound I say I have moved past but still tell, replay, or feel with the same intensity?
- Have I made an important decision under the influence of anger, rejection, disappointment, or the need to prove something?
- Does my forgiveness still depend on the other person admitting the wrong, changing, or asking me for forgiveness?
- Am I willing to ask the Holy Spirit to show me what is truly in my heart, even if it challenges the story I have been telling myself?
About This Series
This introduction is a Selani editorial synthesis built from four Creflo Dollar teachings on offense: Can Offense Move You Out of the Will of God?, How to Guard Your Heart From Offense, Don't Let Offense Derail Your Journey, and The Spiritual Progression of Offense. It provides a framework for the four lessons without replacing the original teachings.
Links to the original YouTube videos are included at the end of each lesson so readers can listen to the complete teachings in English.
Scripture quotations in this introduction are from the King James Version (KJV). In the four lessons, Scripture versions follow the versions used in the original teachings whenever they are identifiable.