Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
While I was in Paraguay the Lord spoke to me about anger. He showed me the difference between His anger and our anger. There is a purity and power in God’s anger; it is nothing like human anger. He also showed me that when we are full of anger His righteous anger is hindered from flowing through us and destroying the works of the devil (James 1:20). Basically, anger can hinder or even disqualify us from fulfilling our destiny.
Anger-driven behavior is something I suffered with growing up and as a young believer. Fortunately, over the years the Lord has helped me and brought a lot of healing and deliverance from a stronghold of anger that I had. It was only when the roots of anger were confronted and dealt with that I got healed and freed from the influence of demons of anger. I say demons of anger because the bible is very clear about the direct connection between demons and unresolved anger.
BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. Ephesians 4:26-27
God makes a place for us to be angry, but He does not give us a license to sin when we are angry. It is important to understand anger itself is not sin or violence. It is not screaming, being hostile or being sarcastic. These are anger-driven behaviors and that is where we sin. Anger is really just an emotion and what we do with that emotion determines if we sin or not. Most people who suffer with anger problems typically have some type of unresolved fear or pain in their lives and that is the root cause of negative, anger-driven behavior.
Paul tells us anger must be quickly resolved and not be allowed to continue beyond a day. If I get angry at the beginning of the day I must have it dealt with by the end of that same day. I know that sounds strange and almost legalistic to say it like that, but there is a big reason Paul is telling us to resolve anger quickly. If you do not, it gives the devil an open door into your life.
In the spirit world like attracts like. If we allow anger to continue and not be resolved speedily, demons that reside in hell are attracted to us and will begin to influence and build strongholds in our lives.
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. Matthew 5:21-22
Here the Lord is talking about the progressive nature of anger and how it progressively attracts the negative into our life. When I was a child I was told not to call anyone a fool because I would go to hell. It is good not to call people a fool, but that is not exactly what Jesus was saying. He was saying hell fire, meaning demons that reside in hell (and these are really bad demons), have access to us if we do not resolve our anger and resultant anger-driven behavior. That is pretty serious.
Many Blessings, BW