Offending the Mind….A Strategy Used by God?

 

I remember the first time I saw Todd Bentley minister and I must admit I was “offended” by what I saw.   Everything about him was what I was opposed to; the tattoos, the piercings, the outlandish behavior.   Didn’t he know how to act in church?  Didn’t he know that tattoos are unbiblical?   These were thoughts that came into my mind until I heard that still small voice say, “Check his fruit”.    And, I did just that.   I found out that the man who so offended my mind was responsible for hundreds of thousands of salvations all over the world.   I discovered that his ministry goes all around the world and healing miracles are performed.   I repented of my religious spirit and judgmental attitude and admitted I would desire a fraction of what Todd Bentley’s ministry has accomplished in my own life and ministry .

 

This is not an article about Todd Bentley; it is an article about how our mindsets and our religious spirits can prevent us from seeing what God is doing in this earth.   And, this attitude is not new.  Jesus was persecuted and subsequently crucified by the religious spirits of his day.  I’m certainly not comparing Todd Bentley to Jesus, but we must understand the Lord can and will use those people who do not conform to the religious mind mold of the day to accomplish His will.  

 

We do have Biblical precedence for God using men in a strange way to get His will accomplished.   Noah built a boat when it had never rained. Can you imagine the criticism and ridicule he must have received?   Abraham was told to offer his son as a sacrifice, and of course God intervened.    What about Isaiah walking around naked and barefoot for 3 years? (Isaiah 20:1-3)  Or, what about God commanding Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days and then on his right side for 40 days? (Ezekiel 4:1-6).   These people today would be committed to a psychiatric facility.   Even in the NT, we find the odd appearance and behavior with John the Baptist dressing in animal skins and eating locust and wild honey. (Mt. 3:4)

 

Can it be that the Lord is trying to shock us out of our apathy and intellectual arrogance by using personalities such as Todd Bentley to wake up the religious world to the presence of God in our lives?  Flannery O’Connor was a Southern female Catholic author who often used grotesque characters and situations to get her point across and, she was often criticized for her style by her literary peers.    In “The Fiction Writer and His Country,” Flannery O'Connor defends her style of writing by saying, “to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures”. Could this be what is happening? Is the Lord introducing “startling” personalities into His ministry to shock the rest of us out of the spiritual apathy and arrogance often seen in the western church world today?   Could the Lord be offending our minds in order to reveal our hearts? I believe this could be possible. 

Is your heart offended concerning a minister of God? We must be careful not to judge or criticize that which is outside of our own religious experiences and understanding.     Jesus said in Matthew 7:15-16  ¹⁵ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. ¹⁶ Ye shall know them by their fruits   Jesus tells us to check the fruit and then we will know the character of the prophet.   In Mt. 7:18 we are told a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.   

 

Let’s not miss what God is doing because it doesn’t look like it’s the way we would do it or it’s not the way we’ve seen God move in the past.   If we find ourselves offended, let’s check the fruit.