Grace, the Forbidden Gospel - Online Christian Library

John the Baptist’s Offence
John the Baptist, the mighty prophet and forerunner of the Messiah, who had seen the Spirit of God descend
and remain on Jesus, had been imprisoned by Herod. Now John could have chosen to keep on believing
because of the things he had seen Jesus do, but instead he became offended and began doubting in Jesus
because of his own sorry circumstances, so he sent messengers to Jesus to ask Him if He were really the
Messiah. Jesus sent him this reply:
Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John again those things which you hear and see: the
blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are
raised, and the poor have the gospel proclaimed to them. And blessed is he, whoever shall not be
offended in Me. (Mat 11:4-6 NKJV, emphasis added)
Offense can never be given, it can only be taken. No matter how bad the insult, the denial or betrayal, we still
have to take offense. Jesus, our role model, put up with the most offence anybody could ever have suffered.
Yet with His dying breath He forgave us. So we can choose not to be offended at God, even though we don’t
always see our breakthrough manifest immediately.
Offence and unbelief in the goodness of God can creep in through years of indoctrination by powerless
preachers who form theologies to make excuses for their lack of power, instead of adjusting their theologies
to conform to the level of God’s Word.
…making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have delivered. (Mar 7:13
NKJV)
Heidi Baker from Iris Ministries 3 (Mozambique) often lets her orphan children pray for the sick and they have
a success rate of over 90% in healing deaf people, as well as seeing many other breathtaking miracles occur
daily. She says that the reason why she mostly has her children pray for the sick is because children still
believe that God does miracles, that He can heal cancer and open deaf ears. And they will keep on believing
it until an adult tells them differently. As kids they have not been “ruined” yet by materialism and unbelief, but
instead they have pure hearts that believe in the mighty power of the kingdom of God. Perhaps this was part
of the reason why Jesus said the following:
But Jesus said, Allow the little children to come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the
kingdom of Heaven. (Mat 19:14 NKJV)
…and said, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you shall not
enter into the kingdom of Heaven. (Mat 18:3 NKJV)
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