Spirit of Offense | Spiritual Leadership Podcast with Landon Schott

Every church is toxic, if every pastor is controlling, if every leader is abusive, at some point the common denominator is you. Offense is a demonic trap. You're constantly offended with people on social media, your pastor from the pulpit, other spiritual leaders, the president. You're constantly offended. Constantly. Why? Because you're spiritually immature. Decide now if you're submitted, if you are committed. Don't wait till you're offended and now you're trying to determine if you're really submitted or not. Many people are looking for wars and rumors of wars and natural disasters but they miss what God's word says. The spirit of offense is what brings on the last days or the antichrist. The same way psychos acted in COVID, you should be acting around the spirit of offense. I'm Lannon Schott and this is Spiritual Leadership where we're helping leaders become spiritual leaders. Today I'm going to be addressing the spirit of an offense, how offense keeps you bound in a demonic trap. Its goal is to destroy your future. I'm going to teach you what the Lord has taught me, how to overcome the spirit of offense. I'm going to give you some practical advice and answer your questions about the spirit of offense. Let's get after it. Today we're talking about the spirit of offense. It is one of the greatest demonic traps that Christians fall into today and offense is what takes most emerging leaders out. I want to be very clear about this. I don't care how mature you are in ministry. I don't care how spiritually mature you are, how long you've been involved in church. This is a demonic spirit that the best and highest level, most mature spiritual leaders can fall in if they're not aware of it. So from immature leaders to very mature leaders, all of them can fall into the trap of a demonic offense if you're not careful. Today when we open up, I'm going to give you 10 signs that you may be offended. Number one, you haven't found a healthy church in over 20 years. If every church is toxic, if every pastor is controlling, if every leader is abusive, at some point you have to look at the common denominator and the common denominator is not churches, even though there are dysfunctional churches and plenty of them, but the common denominator is you. In every city in America, in every state, there is a healthy church somewhere, but unhealthy people have a hard time recognizing healthy churches. Number two, you constantly say, I'm not offended, but you constantly bring up your offense all the time. If you told the same story of what people have done about you over and over and over for years and years, you haven't forgived them and you haven't moved on. If you're constantly bringing up what people have done to you, I could assure you

you're dealing with the spirit of offense. Number three, if you rehearse conversations that never happen, you're in the shower winning arguments with people who you aren't even in the room, you might be offended. Number four, if correction always feels like spiritual abuse, the moment someone challenges you, all of a sudden, suddenly you become a victim, you're dealing with the spirit of offense. Number five, you secretly enjoy when bad things happen to certain people. You won't say it out loud, but part of you thinks, yeah, this is what they deserve. They got what's coming to them. Your heart rejoices when people go through trials, you got a spirit of offense. Number six, you're more passionate about what other people did to you than what God did for you. This one needs to be a glaring sign. If your biggest testimony is about people who hurt you, offense is running rampant in your life. We should be talking about the goodness of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, not how people have hurt you forever. Number seven, if you avoid people instead of resolving things, so instead of having honest, truthful, lean-in conversations, you change churches, change teams, unfollow people, and disappear from community, you might be offended. Number eight, you turn people into villains in your story. You're always the hero. They're always the evil character. You did everything right. Everybody else did something wrong. If you cannot honestly evaluate and say, hey, I made mistakes here, I didn't handle this right, I didn't do that right, then you're dealing with the spirit of offense if you're always right and everybody else is wrong. Number nine, you recruit people to your side. You're building cases. Instead of resolving offenses, you're starting group chats about it. You're constantly getting more people on your side. You just need to hear my side of the story. You just need to hear my opinion. You haven't got all the facts yet. You're building a case. is because it is a demonic ploy in a demonic courtroom. Number 10, this is a big sign, you've lost your joy. See, offended people are rarely joyful because bitterness and joy can't live in the same heart. And so what they've done is they've replaced the joy of God or the joy of your salvation with the unforgiveness and with the bitterness of offense. And here's what I wanna warn you, offenses will lead people to offenses with God.

You heard me right. The first step is you are offended with people, but the second step is you will be offended with God because people become offended with God when they think their sacrifice for God outweighs God's sacrifice for them. You heard me right. You're constantly saying, I did this for you, God. I served this, I did this, I gave this, and my offering was this, and I volunteered here, and I was part of this ministry, and you're constantly telling God what you did for him and the comfort of your cushy American life when Jesus sent himself to the cross for your sins in mine. What God did for you and what you do for him are not on the same scale. If you think what you do for God is equal to what God has done for you, then you are for sure dealing with a spirit of offense. So today, I want to teach you, let me show you what God has shown me. So there's five things that you need to know about the spirit of offense so you can recognize it. Now, remember, we're calling this a spirit because it is demonic. Number one, offense is a demonic trap. This is really important. You are not dealing with the feeling. You're not dealing with the personality. This is not a character flaw.

This is a spirit. This is a demonic spirit, and I need you to begin to recognize demonic spirits. It's kind of like what I taught about Jezebel. You could watch the link to the teaching of the spirit of Jezebel. But I told this story of, I was in my mid-20s, and I walk out of my house, and I smell this smell. And my brother-in-law says to me, hey, you smell that skunk? And I was like, I smelled that smell, but I didn't know it was a skunk. And he kind of laughed at me. He's like, you don't know what a skunk smells like? And I was like, no, no, no, I recognize that smell. And instantly, I could remember campouts and driving at night in summer times, being raised in Seattle, all these times that I smelled that smell, and he told me what it was. It's the same way when you're dealing with evil spirits or demonic spirits. You will recognize, oh, I have smelled this thing before. But if nobody tells you what it is, you stop dealing with it, with what it really is in a spirit, and you try to handle it in the flesh instead of dealing with it spiritually. Let me show you. Matthew 16, 23, okay?

So this is Jesus and Peter. Jesus, or Peter, is rebuking Jesus. So Jesus is teaching how he has to go to the cross. He's gonna suffer many things. He's teaching this. And Peter was a zealot. He wanted to see the Roman Empire overturned by Jesus. He wanted to see Jesus be not just king, but a political leader. He's rebuking Jesus and saying, no, Lord, you can't go to the cross. Verse 23, I wanna point it out to you. So Jesus turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan. You're an offense unto me. He goes on to say, you're setting your things, your mind on the things of, not on things of God, but the things of man, okay? So this is wild because Jesus looks to Peter, his friend, his disciple, and what does he call him? Satan. And I just wanna stop for everybody that messages me and constantly tells me, why do you have to say things so intense? Why are you so mean? Why do you challenge people? Why do you say it like that? This is not how Jesus would do it. So I wanna point back to you real quick. This is how Jesus talked to his disciples.

So obviously Peter is not Satan, but Peter aligned himself with the demonic spirit from Satan and Jesus called it out. Jesus called out a spirit that's in operation. And when he used that word offense, in the Greek, it's the word skandalon. It's where we get our English word scandal. Skandalon means a trick, a trap, or stumbling block, a snare with live bait or an occasion to fall. Here's what it means is that offense is a demonic trap that leads people into sin. And guess who the live bait is in the trap? You are. And the enemy has caused the church and the body of Christ to fall into a demonic trap. It is an epidemic. It is a pandemic in the body of Christ today. We see an offense that has spread like wildfire throughout America, because offense has spread like wildfire in the church. We have become more intimate with the spirit of offense, which is a demonic spirit. we have with the Holy Spirit. And if you are more tender, if you are more intimate with an offense than you are the Holy Spirit, it means this. You have a closer relationship with the demonic than you do with the Holy Spirit. I want you to look at this. This is wild. Jesus was willing to put up with almost anything, all kinds of abuse, but he would not put up with offense. I want you to picture this for a second. Jesus said, you can slap me in the face. I'm going to turn the other cheek. They ripped his beard out. They punched him in the face. They whipped him almost unto death, that many lashes. He was crucified, nail of thorns into his head. He carried his own cross. He was willing to suffer. Scripture says that he was beaten so

badly he didn't look like a man anymore. So he was willing to do that. Not only that, but his disciples left him. Peter denied him. Judas betrayed him. So it's friends. It's family. It's from all sides. It's physical abuse. And he is saying, I am willing to tolerate. I am willing to endure. I'm willing to suffer. But where he draws the line is a spirit of offense. Jesus did not tolerate the spirit of offense. And let me talk to the spiritual leaders in this room, and neither should you, because we are dealing with the spirit. Number two, offense is a sign of spiritual immaturity. So Jesus gives the parable of the sower, and he says some go on stony ground and some go on good ground. And here's what he says in Mark chapter 4, 16 through 17. He says, those that are sown on the stony ground, when they heard the word, immediately received it with gladness. Verse 17 says this, but they don't have any root in themselves. So it does not endure for a time. And afterwards, when affliction or persecution arise, immediately they are offended. This is wild. The spiritually immature are immediately offended. What does it mean to have stony or rocky soil? It means that you have no depth. So those that are spiritually immature, those that have no depth are instantly offended. Scripture says, great peace who love thy law and nothing shall offend thee. So those that have spiritual maturity are not offended. You're not easily offended. You have to, people, someone has to work hard to offend you, but those that are spiritually immature are constantly offended. You're constantly offended with people on social media, your pastor from the pulpit, other spiritual leaders, the president, you're constantly offended. Constantly. Why? Because you're spiritually immature and you won't spiritually grow if you have an offense that stays in your heart. Proverbs 18, 19 says, a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong fortified cities. His disputants are like barred gates. What that means is, is that immature people, like a prison, begin to protect the offense. And that's why they stay offended for so long, because they build a prison around his offense. I love what happened with Jesus and his disciples. In John chapter 6, Jesus, again, is teaching a hard teaching. He's talking about eating his flesh, drinking his blood, which he's referring to, communion, that we'll later understand. But in the moment, it's a little confusing. And I like this, John 6, 66, okay? So you got 666 here. And it says this, many disciples left at a hard teaching. They said, who can handle this? And Jesus turns around in verse 61 and says to his disciples, does this offend you? And then he turns around and looks at his disciples like, hey, you guys could leave too. Now I want you to see this. According to John 666, 666, excuse me, many

disciples left because they were offended with him. This is why most disciples leave Jesus. This is why most Christians leave the body of Christ, okay? It's not because of outside attacks. It's not lust. It's not pride. It's not money. Majority of Christians are taken out because they tolerate a spirit of offense. Matthew 11, 6 says, and blessed is the one who's not offended by me. Like I told you before, it's important you understand this. If you are spiritually immature, you are more susceptible to the spirit of offense. I'll give you a story. There was a young adult minister that I was encouraging to wait a few years before he planted a church. I think it's really important that people plant in submission, they plant in covering, and most importantly, that they are sent by spiritual leaders. And this specific youth pastor felt like I was trying to get him to disobey God. I told him, I'm not trying to get you to disobey God. And he's like, well, the Lord told me a date and the date's really important. And I was like, great. I don't care about the date. Did he tell you about the year? And he couldn't see past this date, and he could not submit to leadership. And what he did was instead of submitting to spiritual authority, he didn't even go to our church, instead of submitting to his pastor, he rebelled. And so he started getting a bunch of people in the ministry to leave the ministry and go be a part of his church, and he started it in rebellion. And I remember the pastor asking me, what do you think I should do? Should I try to talk to these people? Should we try to go after them? Should we try to counteract his lies? My response was, no, you've already lost them. And here's the thing, is if someone has not been made aware of the spirit of offense, you're going to lose them. If you are spiritually immature, you will eventually get taken out by the spirit of offense. You need to teach it in advance and be aware of it in advance so you are not blindsided or fall into the trap of that spirit of offense. I tell our leadership school students all the time, decide now if you're submitted.

Decide now if you are committed. Don't wait until you're offended and now you're trying to determine if you're really submitted or not. Make a decision in advance. Be spiritually mature. The spirit of Jezebel is a foul, demonic, wicked spirit that makes its way into the church to destroy churches, destroy families, and destroy lives. I've seen it personally absolutely wreak havoc in some of the most amazing churches and the closest families. It uses tactics of witchcraft through fear, control, and total domination to completely dismantle the people of God. Do not let this spirit destroy your church, your family, or your ministry. Don't tolerate it. Jezebel, the witch is back. Available now on Amazon. Number three, offended people are constantly deceived. See, most offended people start out conversations by saying, I'm not offended. And the reason why they're doing that is because they're trying to justify their offense. It is a blinder and it doesn't matter how long you've been serving God, the enemy can get in. Scripture says even the elect will be deceived. So, Solomon was one of the wisest men who ever walked the face of the earth and he fell into deception. You have to make sure that you keep your guard up with this spirit. Matthew 24, 11 says false prophets will arise and they will deceive many. So false prophets make their way on the scene through offenses. So when people are already offended, their hearts are prepped for deception. It's kind of like in worship services where we worship and love on God and get our spirit sensitive and then our hearts are ready for the word. Well, that's what offense does.

Offense makes your heart ready for the lies and the deception of the enemy because he conditions you to receive lies because you're already receiving a demonic spirit. See, offenses are so dangerous. Let me show you why these are so dangerous, because you can't go through the process of forgiving and reconciliation with something that wasn't even done to you. So here's what happens with offenses is you go around telling people about what someone else did to you. You're building the case. You're getting people offended. They're getting mad at the church and they're taking on offenses for you. And then they don't know when God has ministered to your heart, when you have repented, when there's been reconciliation, when peace has been brought. So now you have peace in your heart, but everybody that you gossip to, everybody that you brought into offense with you, they still have to walk out that offense when you are free of it. That's why it's so evil because it is the poison that keeps on poisoning. It's the enemy's dart that keeps on firing. It could be used over and over and over. Let me give you a warning. When you spread your offense, you are sowing seeds of discord. And according to Proverbs 6, 16, and 19, seeds of discord are an abomination. God says this, I hate seeds of discord and it is abomination. Abomination is a stench in the nostril of God. It's an heightened sin. You need to be aware a spirit of offense is a heightened sin that God hates and it makes you susceptible to deception. Number four, offenses prepare the way of the Antichrist. So this is where you need to understand how demonic it is, because not only is it offensive demonic spirit, but offense is the conditioning for the spirit of the Antichrist or the Antichrist himself.

Matthew 24, 10, I'll read it, the New King James Version. It says, in the last days, many will be offended. It is one of the signs of the last days, a spirit of offense. Now, if you grew up in church like me, you know, Bible stories, you know, you know, Bible verses and many people are looking for wars and rumors of wars and natural disasters to bring on the Antichrist in the end days, but they miss what God's word says, the spirit of offense. It's right in front of them. The spirit of offense is what brings on the last days or the Antichrist. Matthew 24, 12, it says, and because the lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. So the offense that is inside our hearts, the people of God's hearts, the people in the world's hearts, it produces this lawlessness or this rejection to righteousness or this rejection to submission. So this is important. The lawlessness that's coming in the world is going to prepare the way for the lawless one who is the Antichrist. So offenses will be at an all time high because spirituality is at an all time low. And that is when the Antichrist will come and wreak havoc because people will be too spiritually immature and weak to stand against him. I want to warn you right now that not only is this coming after our future in the body of Christ, but the spirit of offense comes after your future personally. I want to make this make sense. The spirit of offense will try to get you in a trick, a trap, or a stumbling block. What happens when you're trapped, you're not moving forward. So it will keep you from your future. It will keep you from your destiny, or more importantly, it will keep you from the call of God on your life. Go read the book of Exodus. The entire book of Exodus is about Moses trying to bring the rebellious, offended children

of Israelites into the promise. But because they were so rebellious, because they were so hard hearted, they couldn't do it. They embraced the spirit of offense and they never made it into the promises of God. And if you do not recognize the spirit of offense in operation, it will always come after your future. It will pull you out of the church that you're called to go to. It will pull you out of the relationships that you're called to be in. It will pull you out of the kingdom friendships that you're called to build. It is coming after your future. I'll tell you a story. I was an evangelist for many years, and I was on a prayer run, and I was reading a book called Needless Casualties of War by a man named John Paul Jackson. When I was reading this book, I was listening to this book on audio, and I started listening to some of his teaching, I began to be offended. And how John Paul worded things, how he said things I've never heard before. And I was instantly just offended. That doesn't sound right. I don't agree with that. I was judging it. And then all throughout the book, he's backing it up with words, the word of God. And then I'm on this prayer run, struggling with some of this theology, and I hear the Lord speak to me. And he says this, you need John Paul Jackson in your life to accomplish your life's assignment. That sent me on a journey of obedience. I called his office. I said, hey, I'm not a weirdo. My name's Landon. I'm a traveling minister. But this is what I heard the Lord say.

And his assistant, whose name's Amanda, she goes, I feel God, I'm going to get you a meeting. One 30-minute phone call turned into about a six-hour face-to-face that turned into a multi-year weekly discipleship where John Paul Jackson was the first man who ever unconditionally loved me, mentored me, discipled me, and spiritually fathered me. John Paul Jackson was on his deathbed going to be with the Lord. And when he's on his deathbed, I said to him, if I have another son, I'm going to name him after you. And I end up naming my youngest son, Jackson Porter, after JP, John Paul Jackson. I had this pretty powerful moment. We're about to start Mercy Culture Church. I was in a time of prayer. I said to the Lord, why'd you give me John Paul's mantle? Why did you put that anointing that was from him onto me? I'm not a prophet like him. That's not the giftings I prophesy, but that's not the office that I operate in. And as soon as I asked that to the Lord, he gave me a vision. And in this vision, I see this mantle of John Paul's come down and falls in my hands. And I was holding it like this. And then I let go of it. And when I let go of it, it rested upon my son, Jackson Porter. About a year and a half later, I'm walking up to the stage of Mercy Culture. And over and over this has happened. When I'm walking up the stairs, God speaks to me. And I'm walking up the stairs and I have another vision or spiritual daydream. And in this vision, I'm holding John Paul's mantle again. And in the vision, I let go of it again. And when I let go of it, all of the spiritual leadership school students are underneath it. I got goosebumps as I'm sharing the story with you. I believe that as an apostolic minister, God gave me this mantle to steward so that it

could be released on a generation. Not just my son, but on spiritual sons and daughters that didn't have spiritual fathers like John Paul or what I'm able to do now. I want you to hear this. So not only did John Paul mentor me, train me and prepare me to be the man of God that I am today, but he also gave me an assignment to release his mantle, that prophetic mantle from mercy culture in this house onto our leadership school that will go out to the nations and the nations. Now hold on a second. I'm going to go all the way back to when I'm listening to a book he read and I'm offended with what he said. Could you imagine if I partnered with the spirit of offense and I said, I'm going to judge it. I'm not going to receive it. I hardened my heart to it and say, I don't want anything to do with this guy. I would have missed out on my spiritual father. I would have missed out on the name of my son and the anointing that's on my son's life. And I would have missed out on a prophetic mantle that I'm supposed to steward and help release along with others into a next generation of leaders. Guys, I want you to be aware of what is at stake when it comes for the spirit of offense. You need to be aware that offense is coming for you. Genesis four, seven, God is warning Cain and he warns them. He says, don't you realize that sin is crouching at your door. You need to understand that offense is coming for you and you have to be aware of it so that you can rule over it. Number five, offenses thrive when we don't forgive like Jesus. At Mercy Culture, we say this all the time, where you stop forgiving, you stop spiritually growing. Do you know why? You can't move forward when you're in a trap, when you're stuck.

And what is the trap? It is a trap of offense. I'll tell you this. You are never more like Jesus than when you're forgiving. And possibly the most dangerous aspect of the spirit of offense is it causes your love for God to grow cold because you have to turn your heart off to the Holy Spirit. That's why Jesus says, Peter, get behind me. Why did he say get behind me? Because he said, I can't get to the cross and move forward with an offense in front of me. You have to learn how to get a fat, how to get offenses behind you, how to get the tricks and traps and the plans of the enemy behind you so that you can stay on the path that God has called you. Offenses thrive where there's a lack of forgiveness. So I want you to realize this, where you have an offense, it is rooted in unforgiveness. So what you do in your daily encounter, what you do with your time with your Lord is you're constantly searching your heart. This is part of the Lord's prayer, Lord, forgive me and forgive others. You're gonna have to search your heart of what is maybe inside your heart that you need to forgive. Now, I told you earlier in this episode, it doesn't matter how mature you are. It doesn't matter how many years you've been in ministry, a spirit of offense will come for you. And it came for me recently. There was a well-known minister that said something to me privately in a direct message that royally offended me. I would say next to what I went through with my dad was probably the most offensive thing anyone could ever say to me. And the moment they said it to me, I felt my heart turn off. And I said, I'm done with this person.

I'm not gonna do ministry with this person. I'm not gonna be seen with this person. I'm gonna have no relationship with this person of any kind. And then the Lord started dealing with me. And if I'm honest with you, it took too long. I'm in my daily encounters, maybe for months, and when I would go search my heart, Lord, who do I need to forgive? That person and that offense was there. And here's what I know is if I have offense here, I can't get to the place that God is trying to take me. You need to know this. An offense inside you means that you're not in the place that God is calling you to be. You have to get the offense out. And it doesn't matter if you're like me and been in ministry for years, or if you're a young Christian, the enemy's strategy is the same, to keep you trapped in a spirit of offense. See, when you walk in unforgiveness, what you're really doing is you're inviting demonic activity in your life. When you walk into forgiveness, you are inviting the Holy Spirit into your life. I want to let you know that there's probably most likely... somebody here today that you need to forgive. There's probably somebody that you need to release. There's probably someone maybe close to you, because a lot of offenses come from people that you're in relationship with, that if you're going to get out of that trap of an offense, you're going to have to forgive them. And then you're gonna have to learn how to do it over and over. I'll share one more story with you.

And this powerful moment, where it was the morning my son was born. And so this is January 8th of 2019. We're about to launch Mercy Culture Church, and it's cold in Texas, and so I'm not outside running. And I am by my fireplace, in my time of prayer, my daily encounter. And I hear the Lord speak to me, and he says, I'm gonna give you a building. So I grabbed my phone, opened up my notepads. I wrote down, heard the Lord say, wrote down the time. I always do that when I hear God speak to me. And I just wrote it down. Well, fast forward about four hours, I get a message on Facebook from a guy. And he says, hey, I felt like the Lord told me to give you my building. I was like, oh my gosh, the Lord told me this morning. He was gonna give me a building. This is God. So I go to coffee with him, and he's like, hey, I got this building on the other side of town. And I felt like the Lord told me to give it to you. And I'm like, amazing. So we're going through this process. I said, would you give it to me in writing? He's like, yes, he gives it to in writing. And so we're about to go and film it, and share it with the church. We're about to launch the church,

and I'm gonna share the news. And this is exciting and pre-launch. And so I messaged him, I was like, hey, can we get together and film a video so we can share this news to the church? And he's like, I don't know about that. And I was like, you don't know about the video? You don't know about giving us the building? He's like, both. I said, so let's meet. So I'm driving to go meet with him, and I am ticked. I'm like, this guy is a liar. He's not honest. He's not a man of his word. Like, I'm building up the case. Like, I could feel the offense like building up in me. And I hear the Lord speak to me. Here's what he said. He said, release him of his word and bless him. I'm like, oh my goodness. I'm driving there. I go meet with him. I'm like, what's going on? He's like, I don't think it's gonna work for you in the parking. And I don't, I was like, bro, that's not it. What's really going on? He's like, well, you have women in ministry and the Holy Spirit stuff. And it just, I don't know if this is a fit.

And he had some of his theology friends get ahold of him and talk him out of obeying God. And he's like, I feel really bad because I gave you my word. And I said, then I release you of your word and I bless you. I left that meeting and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and says, I wasn't teaching you how to release buildings. I was teaching you how to release people. Here's what you need to learn. If you're gonna help yourself get out of the fence, then you're able to help other people get out of the fences. And when you release, when you forgive, when you bless, the enemy has no hold on you. And you're able to walk in the freedom, in the blessing, in the favor of God. If you want the favor of God on you, if you want the freedom of God on you, if you want the blessing of God on you, you have to be free from the spirit of offense. So let's recap. Offense is a demonic trap. Jesus put up with everything except the spirit or the demonic trap of an offense. An offense thrives where there's a lack of forgiveness and you're never more like Jesus when you're forgiving. Can I pray for you? So Lord, I pray the same way you've had such grace and patience with me, I pray you would have it with my friends.

Lord, the same way that you have helped me forgive, Holy Spirit, how you've walked me through forgiveness and how you have rid me of the demonic trap of offense, I pray you'll do it for my friends. Lord, I pray that you would give them a revelation of forgiveness. I pray they would be so in love with Jesus, it would be easy to forgive. And I pray right now for spiritual maturity. That's why people watch this podcast, because they want to spiritually grow as a spiritual leader. So I pray spiritual discernment to recognize the foul spirit of offense. I pray you would make them sick to their stomach. I pray they would feel it. I pray they would smell it. They would discern it. Lord, I pray there'd be such a great realization when a spirit that is not the Holy Spirit is in operation. So I pray over them right now, no spirit but the Holy Spirit is welcome. We say, Holy Spirit, only you are welcome. I pray, Holy Spirit, would you come? I pray for offenses to go. I pray this now in Jesus' name, amen. Wanted to take a moment and talk about one of the greatest injustices of our time. It's human trafficking. Right now, there are fewer than 700 long-term restoration beds nationwide

for survivors of human trafficking. I'm gonna say it again, 700 nationwide with millions and millions of people that are trafficked, only 700 places for them to go. To answer this cry of justice. Our church has birthed a ministry called The Justice Reform. Right now in Fort Worth, Texas, The Justice Reform is building a long-term restoration home called The Justice Residence. It will house up to 100 women rescued out of human trafficking. The Justice Residence is a biblically-based and presence-driven facility that will disciple hundreds of women into healing and restoration with Jesus. I wanted to ask you and invite you to become a monthly partner with The Justice Residence. Help it make it possible for these women to have a safe place to learn and grow in their relationship with Jesus. To join us in this fight and to partner with us, text PARTNER to 59090 or visit thejusticereform.com. Let me give you some practical advice. I got six things for you today. Number one, treat an offense like an infection. Get it out. Do you remember how insane the world was with COVID? Do you remember people driving around in their cars wearing masks by themselves? Now, some of you, you don't even have to go back to COVID because last week I saw some lady driving with gloves—this is 2026—gloves, masks, things, the whole thing in her car by herself in her Tesla. And so the behavior was insane and you couldn't get restaurants. I lost track of how many stores I was kicked out. I feel myself getting on a tangent. Here's my point, is the same way psychos acted in COVID is the way you should be acting around the spirit of offense, that you cannot allow that offense to get close to you because you understand it is a demonic trick and a trap and you don't want to get stuck in

it. Treat it like a demonic plague. Number two, pay attention to the areas that you easily get offended in. Everybody has sweet spots. Maybe it's your children. Maybe it's your calling a god in your life. Maybe it's something with your personality. I don't know what it is. It's different for everybody. But whatever it is, those are things you need to be aware of. Where am I sensitive? And those things could be things I could be easily offended with. Number three, if you're constantly offended, tell more people. You want to make sure that you tell as many people as possible that are trusted. Give you an example, in mercy culture, I'll say stuff to leaders all the time like, how fast do you want to grow? And they're always like, I want to grow fast. I was like, okay, then you need to get this more public. I'm not talking about embarrassing yourself, but to a degree, when you tell people about things that are offending you or things that you're dealing with and you get it out of you, here's the thing, is the further you get it out of you, it's the more people you tell. So the more leaders, the more public you can be about things that you're struggling with or dealing with or things that are offending you, it pushes it further away from you. Because if it's out of you, it means this, that it's not in you. Number four, repent to people you may have led into the trap of an offense. This one is so powerful. There is nothing that is more embarrassing than telling people that you were used by demonic spirits to infect them. When you go to them and say, hey, I need to repent.

I said things, I did things because I was offended and I spreaded this offense and I want to be right with God. I don't want to be intimate with demonic spirits. I want to be intimate with the Holy Spirit. And you repent to them, when you go through and do that, you will not want to do it again and it'll stop you from spreading it in the future. Number five, take your forgiveness to the next level. Hear me, fast forgiveness. What do you mean by fast? In the moment, the day of, 24 hours or less, you got to forgive quickly. So you should be daily encountering every day. It's the fastest way to spiritually grow. When you're daily encountering, pray through the Lord's prayer. You're asking the Lord to search your heart. If there's anything, you're quickly releasing forgiveness. Do not let things build up. Don't let those cases be made. Don't let the enemy get a foothold. Get better, get faster at real forgiveness. Number six, this one's intense. Leave room for God's wrath. So some of you are justice warriors. I say some of you, I mean, in mercy culture, thousands of you, okay? My wife's a justice warrior person, okay? And I love the righteousness of God. I understand the justice of God. But some of you are justice at a next level. I mean, I've watched my wife at times wait on a receipt to get 50 cents back because they got it wrong on a receipt. And I'm like, man, you're cheap.

And it wasn't that she's cheap. It had nothing to do with 50 cents. She was justice-driven. She's like, no, they got it wrong. And if you're a justice warrior, you're like, no, they need to repent. They need to get what's coming to them. No, this is not right. I need justice. And I'm like, hey, relax. You focus on the mercy of God and you let God focus on his justice and wrath, okay? So God will avenge. God will bring order. God will bring justice. Let's Let's lead in mercy and let's let God handle justice. Ministry was never meant to be done alone. The Presence Driven Church Network exists to equip senior leaders and their teams to lead Presence Driven Churches. A Presence Driven Church is one that is built around the presence of God and has a defined, healthy culture that pleases the Lord. Our network offers relational and spiritual leadership for the lead pastor and their spouse, as well as community with other network pastors. We help develop and implement a healthy culture for you and your church. We help equip your church in outreach and discipleship of new believers, as well as provide a membership platform that assimilates new members and equips them in their own daily personal encounter. If you're interested in learning more about the network or how to join, text NETWORK to 599-ELEVEN. Asking questions is a great way to spiritually grow. I'm going to answer your questions about the spirit of offense.

First question, is being offended the same as partnering with the spirit of offense? The differences between momentarily offended when someone cuts you off in traffic versus when Jesus said to Peter, you are an offense unto me. It's a great question. I would say in a moment, that's not an offense. In the moment, it's an opportunity to be offended. How you handle it in the moment determines if it goes into an offense. In that moment, it's trying to make its way from your mind into your heart. It's trying to lodge itself inside your heart. Once it's in your heart, then it begins to affect your mind, your spirit, and your emotions. See, Peter had allowed something to build up for some time where he had partnered with that spirit of offense. Now he's living in offense. When Jesus is teaching about how he must go to the cross, Peter is rebuking Jesus. Imagine that for a moment. He is rebuking Jesus because he's not doing what Peter wanted him to do. A lot of us get offended with God when God doesn't do what we want him to do. The difference is, a moment is an invitation into an offense. You need to deal with offense moment by moment. Next question, how can you tell when someone is operating in the spirit of offense? Great question. It seeps out of them. Every time you're with them, the same things are coming out. It's not a one-time occurrence. It's not, hey, I need to process this with you. I'm struggling in my heart. I want to do what's right. I want to be godly. I need to forgive. I need to process this.

Would you hold me accountable? It's not that conversation. It's, can you believe, and they did this, and they did this, and they did this, and they did this. It's when you're sitting around card tables, game tables, hanging out with friends, and every month when you hang out, you're talking about the same thing, the same people, the same offense, the same church, the same years, the same problems. It is a spirit. You are stuck. If the conversation never changes, they are operating in a spirit of offense. Next question, I know that I'm going to be offended at some point. How can I position my heart so that I don't get offended at God? I love this. The first thing I would say is go watch the episode I did with Pastor Josh McPherson on being unoffendable. And what we talked about is creating a lifestyle where you are offense-proof. Psalms 119.165 says, Great peace, the love thy law, that nothing shall offend them. And here's what you're doing. You are making decisions in advance that you will forgive. If you are constantly forgiving, it is impossible to stay offended. Even if your offenses linger, even if it's a big deal, even if it takes months or sometimes even years to get over something, you are daily forgiving and it doesn't rule you. It's like someone that's battling lust. There's a difference between the battle or the fight in lust and when someone is completely giving themselves over to it. The battle is in the tension. So what you want to be looking for is that you are ready and willing to forgive like Jesus continuously. Remember when the disciples came to Jesus, how many times do we need to forgive? Up to seven times?

He's like, no. Seven times seven, a ridiculous amount, amount that doesn't even make sense because it is not practical, it's spiritual. Next question. I am spiritually immature and I get pre-offended before somebody even does anything to me. I love this question. If you are self-aware enough to know you're spiritually immature and you get pre-offended before it happens, I have great excitement about the spiritual leader you're going to be one day if you're that self-aware. Bad leaders and people with low IQs, low emotional IQs, low spiritual IQs, they don't realize they're immature. They don't realize they get offended. They think that they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. They think that they're the greatest minister, the greatest musician, the most. They're constantly tooting their own horn because they are completely blind to the immaturity that they live in. So if you're aware of your spiritual immaturities and you can see offenses before they happen, I would say this, keep stewarding your heart and soul well and you're going to be a great spiritual leader. Last question. If I've constantly been offended or continually been offended by the same person or the same group of people, how do I guard my heart that that doesn't happen anymore? This is a great question. This is another self-awareness question. And I would have to say it's in two parts. It depends on who the person is. If this is someone that you're in relationship with, or is this someone outside? Is this a political figure? Is this an online pastor? Who is this person?

And so I'd say if it's someone that is outside of your sphere of life and influence, stop following them. So don't follow people that offend you. Don't go close to people that are leading you into offense. Have boundaries so that you're not falling into that offense anymore. Now, if it's somebody that you're in relationship with, a friend, a family member, a coworker, you need to be honest with yourself and honest with trustworthy people. So you need to go to accountability partners, friends, spouse, pastors, oversights at work, people that are spiritually mature and say, Hey, I'm constantly getting offended with this person and I need accountability for it. I want to expose it. I want you to be aware of it. Then go deal with the issues that are causing that offense. And so some of it could be a lack of communication. Some of it can be, you know, random different things. I'll give you an example. We have one of our worship leaders named Pastor Danny. He is the worship leader of the Orange County campus, and he's one of the main songwriters of Mercy Culture Worship, one of the first members of Mercy Culture Church. And there was a season where I got offended with him and I was texting him and he just wouldn't text me back. And I'd message him and he wouldn't text me back. I'm like, who doesn't text the pastor back? Like, man. I let this thing build up inside of me. So finally, after stopping one day, I was like, Hey, can we talk? I sat him down. I was like, Hey, I just need to be honest with you. I feel offended. And this is why.

And I shared the story and I'm like, man, it just feels weird that you don't text your pastor back. And he looks, he finally like leans in to interrupt me and he's like, did you know I got a new number? And I'm like, I am so stupid. I'm like, no, I didn't realize you got a new number. He's like, yeah, I'm sorry about that. I got a new number. He wasn't even getting the stinking texts and I'm letting something build up in me with the guy that I love and one of our team members, staff members, because of miscommunication to a stinking text. And I know I'm not the only one. So many of us have different things like that, that we need to get into the weeds. So we find out, ah, this isn't something in them. This is something in me and I need to deal with it. If you desire to spiritually grow, I want to invite you to join me on this journey. You can follow me on socials at at Landon A. Schott, and if you value this content, I would really appreciate it if you'd share it with a friend. I'm Landon. Thank you for joining me on Spiritual Leadership, where we're helping leaders become spiritual leaders.