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Anger or Righteous Indignation? Part 3

10/24/2012

4 Comments

 
                                                 Anger or Righteous Indignation?

                                                                   (Part 3)

Remember the prodigal son in Luke 15, starting with verse 11?  A certain man had two sons; the younger one said to his father, “I want my share of your estate now instead of waiting until you die.”  His father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.  The younger took a journey into a far country and there he wasted his substance with riotous living.  But in verse 17 it says, “When he came to himself he went home.”  He was broke; he confessed that he had sinned against heaven and against his father.  His father was instant to forgive him and welcomed him back by throwing a party, a feast.  But the older son when he returned from the fields and saw what happened he was very angry and wouldn’t join them.  He even accused his younger brother of spending his money on prostitutes.  Although the Bible doesn’t say that he spent it on prostitutes but on riotous living. 

Is the oldest sons anger justifiable anger or is there a root growing out of his anger that is not of God?  The Bible says in verse 22 that the father said to his slaves, bring the finest robe in the house, a jeweled ring for his finger, shoes, kill the calf and we will have a feast.  The older brother reacted out of a jealous spirit.  Remember the jealous spirit that Saul had for David?  The jealous spirit took Saul to this death.  Haman’s jealous spirit for Mortecai took Haman to his death.

If these examples of anger cause sin and death, what kind of anger is righteous anger or righteous indignation?  Jesus in Mark Chapter 3 entered the synagogue on the Sabbath.  He noticed a man there with a deformed hand.  Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely.  Would he heal the man’s hand?  If he did they planned to arrest him because no work at all was allowed on the Sabbath.  Jesus asked the man to come and stand in front of the congregation.  He didn’t want to do anything behind their backs.  Then turning to his enemies he asked, “Is it alright to do kind deeds on the Sabbath days or is this the day for doing harm? Is it a day to save lives or destroy them?”  But they wouldn’t answer him. 

The Bible says, “He looked around at them angrily for he was deeply disturbed at their indifference to human need.”  Who are ‘them’?  The Pharisee’s.  It says “He was angry and grieved for the hardness of their hearts.”  Righteous indignation.  He knew their plans to kill him, he had keen discernment, active word of knowledge and wisdom.

Did this frighten Jesus?  In verse 5 he told the man, “Reach out your hand.”  He did and instantly his hand was healed.  Were they thrilled to see a man’s hand recreated that was deformed?  Not at all, but in verse 6 it says, “At once the Pharisee’s went away and met with the Herodians to discuss plans for killing Jesus.  Good deeds, my friend, are not appreciated by those who have a hard heart and a hatred for the true things of God.

Was that the only time Jesus was angry?  Turn to John chapter 2, verse 14.  In the temple Jesus saw merchants selling cattle, sheep and dove for sacrifice and money changers behind the counters.  Jesus made a whip from some ropes and he chased them all out and drove out the sheep and oxen scattering the money changers coins over the floor and turning over their tables.  Would you say he was angry?  Verse 16, “Going over to the men selling doves, he told them, “get these things out of here, make not my father’s house a house of merchandise.”  In verse 17, “The zeal of thy house has eaten me up.”  Jesus was indignant, anger aroused by something unjust and unworthy.  They were defiling the house of God and he rose up against it.  Yet, the Bible instructs us Jesus never sinned.

The enemy has an assignment and that is to keep you from reaching your highest potential.  Even to keep you from knowing what that potential is.  If he can put up smoke screens along life’s way and keep you in anger, frustration, bitterness and strife he renders you helpless.  But when you feel anger rising at times, instead of accepting the guilt and condemnation that seems to accompany it from past experience and from the gainsayers look into the core, the root and analyze what that anger is connected to.  Often time’s anger can be directed and redirected at the injustice of a situation rather than a particular person or group of individuals and this gives birth to change.

Boldness blossoms and indignation for offense must arise before action against it is implemented.  We will not rise up against something that does not move us in the depths of our soul and spirit.  Let justice rise up to speak out of every fiber of your being.  You can make a difference.  Rebuke fear, and accept your God given boldness.  First come boldly before the throne of grace and make your requests known.  Let God fill you with His wisdom, his knowledge, understanding and His keen sense of direction so he can lay His strategies for the solution into your very being.  For hasn’t he said in ‘all these things we are more than conquerors through him that love us?”  Romans 8:37.

The problem we see today is not that many do not have righteous indignation, they do.  But laws, more rules, regulations and sheer twisted justice is prevalent to the point that when the righteous step up to stop the injustice and reverse it we have a stronger foe who is listened to more due to so very many in high places who’ve wormed their way in.  These individuals are just as unrighteous as the ones they are letting go.  They are angry themselves and when they set themselves in high places of influence and judgment they see it as a way of ‘getting even’ with all the perceived injustice done to them, on a personal level.  It brings them a sort of twisted high to be able to do things in secret and get away with it.  And of course many are paid to make sure that the unrighteous get away with sin. 

Who am I talking about?  Use your imagination.  When was the last time you saw and heard an evil person or group get away with an atrocity?  Don’t you think many others felt the same way? Of course, look at the news, television, read books.  But why aren’t Americans doing anything about it?  We’re too busy trying to fight our own personal battles like finding a job to pay the bills.  How about trying to find a way to save your home that the bankers are determined to take from you.  They love to take and then sell and resell your home many times over and over again.  But you’re not supposed to know they are doing this.  They know most can’t afford to hire an attorney to defend them.  Oh where are the Job’s of today?  Why won’t more step forward to help?  The rich get richer and the middle class disappears.

No, I’m not thinking like Obama.  I do not hate the upper one percent like he does. Are we not supposed to know that President Obama will retire with approximately seven million dollars? Why is it that no one is talking about this?  Doesn’t that place him in the one percent he so seems to hate?  Do you hate yourself Mr. President or are you hoping most people will not see your wealth, your expensive, huge home, your bank accounts and your pensions?  I’m not against people having money, neither is God.  God says he hates covetousness of the money.

Do you know who the angry one is?  The one who’s angry is the one who’s been stripped forever of his position in the kingdom of God.  Satan and his every thought are to continually find ways to tie up and yes, annihilate your efforts and my every effort to bring about the good and abolish the evil.  He uses anyone who will yield to him and his devices.  He uses anger which is connected to destructive behavior, rather than the anger which Christ talks about and yes experienced.  That anger speaks loudly against the wiles, deceit, secret sins and corruptive devices of this world which spring from all walks of society; those people who have taken oaths to support and protect us.

I wouldn’t give a dime for someone who never gets angry.  If righteous indignation doesn’t rise up against the injustice in this world, we won’t make it.  Would we have MADD today, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers if a mother who lost her child to a drunk driver hadn’t gotten angry and rose up to strengthen law against drinking and driving?  What about ADAM, a little boy abducted, brutalized and killed.  His father got angry and now organizes and hunts down perpetrators, gets them sentenced accordingly.  Did you know perpetrators are favored?  Yes, even protected by your tax dollars.  Their sin covered over and their victims are often ignored and or blamed for their attacks.  God warns, “Because of the hardness of your hearts you have cut off the goodness of God from coming to you.”

Let’s stand against those things that fight against the truth of God.  God is there to support us.  He says in Romans 2:8 – “He will terribly punish those who fight against the truth of God and walk in evil ways.”  God’s anger will be poured out upon them.  For down in their hearts they know right from wrong.  God’s laws are written within them.  Their own conscience accuses them or sometimes excuses them.

God is calling a people to stand up in boldness of Him.  To stand for what’s truth and right.  To put on the whole armor of God.  To be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might and to know that He will help us to stand against the wiles of the devil.  This is not a war of carnal means, but of spiritual warfare, fought by the greatest weapon, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

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Anger or Righteous Indignation?  Part 2

10/24/2012

2 Comments

 
                                              Anger or Righteous Indignation?

                                                               (Part 2)

What happens when anger becomes bitterness, bitterness becomes hate and hate, jealousy?  The Bible says that when King Saul kept a jealous watch on David that suddenly he hurled a spear at David, intending to pin him to the wall.”  This happened another time took for it says, “Saul was afraid of him and jealous because the Lord had left him and was now with David.”  So now we see another spirit working here, the spirit of fear.  Jealousy now works into fear and the spirit of fear wants to stop the person that you feel threatened by, which in turn causes another spirit, the spirit of murder.  Fear grows and as it says in verse 29 – “Saul became even more afraid of him and grew to hate him more with every passing day,”

Listen to this, anger and hate can grow.  Just as when we eat food our bodies grow and just as we feed our plants and they grow, so can we ‘feed thoughts’ by accepting, receiving the thoughts without weighing ‘where they originated.’  Then, once we accept the thoughts placed in front of us as ‘ours’, we feed them.  We accept thoughts which are placed in front of us.  They seem logical or we see others who have already accepted these ‘thoughts’ and we do not want to be ‘the outsider’ so we feed them by ‘putting them into action.’  These thoughts are now no longer just thoughts because we put action to them.  We have unknowingly accepted spirits which grow and multiply.

David reacted to Saul’s anger in love, but in confrontation.  He confronted Saul numerous times and said, “Why are you doing this, what have I done to you?  And David grew in the wisdom of the Lord as he humbled himself not to touch King Saul in retribution, yet was forthright to his perpetrator, exposing Saul’s heart and sin at every turn.  David would not allow Saul to cover his hatred or justify it but demanded he look at it and judge himself.  Saul would not judge himself, nor would he cease his ungodly actions toward David, and so God judged him and he died.

We are not to continue to take injustice perpetrated upon us by the devil’s crowd and never speak against it.  By speaking against it we are exposing the enemy’s camp.  Unfortunately many will call us judgmental when we stand up for truth, they will label us as angry and prejudice, along with many other labels.  It’s okay to speak out and speak up.  We must expose evil for what it is.

In the book of Esther, Chapter one, King Ahasarus gave a feast where he invited governors, aides, army officers, princesses’.  The celebration lasted six months and he displayed the wealth and glory of his empire.  He gave another party for his palace servants and officials, janitors and cabinet officers.  For seven days they partied with gold goblets of many designs and royal wine was served.  On the final day, feeling half high, he told his special aides to bring Queen Vashti to him with the royal crown upon her head so that all the men could gaze upon her beauty for she was a beautiful woman.  But when they conveyed to him that Queen Vashti refused to come, the King was very furious, in fact it says, “His anger burned in him.”  Have you ever been so mad you could feel heat rising up inside you?  Was his anger righteous indignation?  I think not.  It stemmed from his own pompous ego, braggadocios spirit; his pride.

He had been bragging for months, showing off his entire kingdom, flashing his every piece of wealth for all to envy, but that didn’t satisfy him, because envy and jealousy can never be quenched.  He had enticed them and dangled all except his bride and now he wanted to flash her before their eyes hoping to get some sort of self-gratification in watching their countenance drool over something else which only belonged to him.  The ‘look what I have that you don’t’ syndrome.  The ‘you can look but not touch game.’  How the devil entices us through covetousness and envy of the eyes.  The anger in the King toward the Queen for not allowing herself to become a pawn in the hands of the enemy, was anger not justified.  The Bible says this type of anger ‘burns inside a person.’  His pride was injured so he forever banished her from his presence and he chose another queen.

In Esther Chapter 3 the Bible says there was a certain political climber named Haman who was appointed prime minister.  Next to the king he was the most powerful official in the empire.  All the kings’ officials bowed before him in deep reverence whenever he passed by for so the king had commanded.  But there was a man named Mordecai who refused to bow for he was a Jew and he knew the scripture which says, ‘you shall worship the Lord thy God and him only will you serve.”

The king’s servants became angry and told Haman saying, “Why is it that Mordecai doesn’t have to bow to you?”  And even tough Haman was given great wealth, had many children and numerous  promotions along with celebrating no greater man in the kingdom next to the king himself, he said, “All this is nothing when I see Mordecai the Jew just sitting there in front of the king’s gate refusing to bow and tremble before me.”  He was furious.  Was his anger justified?  What was the root of it?  Verse 11 says, “He boasted about his wealth, his children, his promotion.  So the root of it was pride, the same spirit that’s at the root of other political climbers.  It’s a big me, little you world.  And the only way the insecure people of this world can feel like they’re worth anything is to put as many people below them as possible.

People who want worship and praise, obsessed with people looking up to them as though they were gods.  Haman became so obsessed with the idea of Mordecai bowing to him in worship that he devised a plan that would cause the king’s laws to be higher than God’s laws and that all those refusing to obey the king’s laws would not live.  He was obsessed with the death of Mordecai and even ordered a 75 foot gallows to be built to accompany his death.  But that night the king had trouble sleeping and by a sequence of events God revealed to the king the true motives of Haman and the king ordered that Haman be hung on the gallows he built for Mordecai.  God heard the prayers of Esther, her maids, Mordecai and the Jews.  Why?  It’s because God’s not interested in anger that’s maliciously used to destroy the lives of the righteous.

Have you read the Book of Job?  If so maybe you’ve wondered why Job’s friends were so angry with him?  You’d think that when you are at your lowest that your friends would try to comfort you and lift you up rather than speak words to put you even lower.  Instead, many scoff and scorn at the destruction of those around them.  What angered them the most was ‘truth’.  That Job maintained his innocence and righteousness through the whole trial.  He refused to agree with their lies spoken about him.  The more his friends determined to prove his wickedness and sins the more Job retained his innocence.

As his three friends ran him down, a man named Elihu became angry with Job and his friends because Job’s words would not convince them that he was innocent of their charges.  Job 32:2 says, “They became angry because Job refused to admit that he had sinned and to acknowledge that God has just cause for punishing him.”  But the classic chapter is Job 29 which points out that when the righteous speak truth it angers the religious.  Religious people always want to pull righteous people down to their level.

Job said in verse 29, “For years gone by God took care of me, he lighted the way before me and I walked safely through the darkness.  In my early years the friendship of God was felt in my home, when Almighty was still with me and my children were around me.  When my projects prospered and even the rock poured out streams of olive oil to me (verse 7) those were the days when I went out to the city gate and took my place among the honored elders.  The young saw me and stepped aside and even the aged rose and stood up in respect at my coming.  The prices stood in silence and laid their hands upon their mouths.  The highest officials of the city stood in quietness.  All rejoiced in what I said.  All who saw me spoke well of me for I as an honest Judge helped the poor in their need and the fatherless who had no one to help them.  I helped those who were ready to perish and they blessed me and I caused the widows hearts to sing for joy.

Job goes on to say; All I did was just and honest for righteousness was my clothing.  I served as eyes for the blind and feet for the lame. I was as a father to the poor and saw to it that even strangers received a fair trial. I knocked out the fangs of the godless oppressors and I made them drop their victims.  I thought surely I shall die quietly in my nest after a long good life, for everything I did prospered.  The dew lay all night upon my fields and watered them.  Fresh honors were constantly given me and my abilities were constantly refreshed and renewed.  Everyone listened to me and valued my advice and was silent until I spoke and after I spoke they spoke no more for my counsel satisfied them.  They longed for me to speak as though in drought time for rain.  They waited eagerly with open mouths.  When they were discouraged I smiled and that encouraged them and lightened their spirits.  I told them what they should do and corrected them as their chief and as a king instructs his army and as one who comforts those who mourn. 

So if Job did all these things why were his three friends coming against him?  I think the clue is this in verse 17 – “For when you are truly righteous and you refuse to lie and cheat and you help the poor in acts not in just words, your adversary the devil seeks to destroy you.  Verse 17, “I knocked out the fangs of the godless oppressors and I made them drop their victims.”  Job was an advocate of the poor, the helpless and widows.  He encouraged the down trodden and lightened their spirits.  He comforted those who mourned.  He was a prime example of a God fearing man.

Yet, notice, he sat with the dignitaries, elite, leaders and people of importance. Job had influence from high up, yet he used his influence for good, unlike the politicians today who take bribes, set up their own pensions and healthcare but make sure it’s only for them, not us. They approve instead for us the Obama care, knowing that this kind of set up will take American’s down the toilet.  Is it so difficult to look at what it’s caused in Canada alone? The people are miserable, left sick for months without hope and die prematurely due to their same type system, but congress doesn’t care, at least they’re safe.  Why won’t someone rise up and insist we have the same healthcare system they are guaranteed? If they don’t like, kick them out! 

People like Job are far and few in-between.  Try to find one in congress. Satan could not get Job to sin, so he tried first to turn God against him and second to turn his friends against him in shear jealousy.   They were being used of the enemy to bring him down to their level but Job knew that when God had tried him, he would come forth as gold.

Was God angry with Job for his honest reply to his friends?  In Job 42:7 – the Lord said, “My wrath is against your friends, Job for what you have said is right and true, but what they have said is not.”  And God ordered Job to pray for his friends in order that their sins of slander against Job could be forgiven.  What they spoke concerning Job was not true.  Were they righteous in their anger?  No, their motive was unjust.  And in the end Job won out.


For more see Part 3 (Archives)
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Anger or Righteous Indignation?

10/24/2012

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                                                     Anger or Righteous Indignation?

                                                                      (Part 1)

Are anger and righteous indignation the same thing?  Webster’s defines anger as emotional excitement induced by intense displeasure or strong feeling of displeasure.  And Webster’s describes indignation as emotional excitement induced by intense displeasure; but anger which is aroused by something which is unjust or unworthy.  So, is there a difference between anger and righteous indignation?  There certainly is…one is displeasure, it could be for any reason, but indignation is displeasure because of something unjust or unworthy. 

Now, is anger a sin?  Let’s look at the scriptures to answer that.  Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be ye angry and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath; neither give place to the devil.”  In the Living Bible it says, “If you are angry, don’t sin by nursing your grudge; don’t let the sun go down with you still angry.  Get over it quickly.  For when you are angry, you give a mighty foothold to the devil.”  The Bible doesn’t say that anger is a sin.  It says that WHEN you are angry you do not give over your anger to the devil.  One way to give over to the devil is to nurse a grudge…hang on to it, which is nursing it and causing it to evolve into other things such as bitterness, hate, vindictiveness, jealousy…and it’s the enemy that uses these to cause you to sin against God and man.  It’s not the anger in itself; the anger in itself is not a sin.

Today, we’re going to go over some accounts of Bible characters, some who displayed anger which was connected with roots of bitterness and vindictiveness, jealous and anger which was directed to destroy rather than to heal and deliver.  We will also look at righteous indignation which arises out of a spirit which loves good and not evil.  Righteous indignation displays righteousness and comes against sin.  It believes in values, morals and fights injustice. People who are forthright and candid have been labeled as bitter rather than those who stand up for truth.  Some reading this will be relieved by this message and I hope more directed.

Satan deceives us concerning our emotions and behavior so he can keep us in chains of guilt and self-condemnation.  My prayer it that the Holy Spirit brings light on some dark areas and that that light dissipates the darkness and guilt and condemnation.  I pray that condemnation leaves and boldness, strength and assertiveness as well as Godly aggression supersede these areas.  We are going to look at the root of anger today and find that through the great prophets described in the Bible that anger directed in the right direction can be used as a catalyst to change many great minds and many nations from deception and lies into truth and righteousness.

What causes anger?  What is at the root of it?  A mockery of what is good and just.  When we look at verse 25 of Ephesians it says, “Stop lying to each other…tell the truth…for we are parts of each other and when we lie to each other, we are hurting ourselves.”  So, lies cause anger to rise within us.  Also evil speaking and words of malice not only grieve our spirits but also grieve the Holy Spirit.  Verse 29 says, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.”  Verse 30 – “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God”.  So not only do lies grieve the Holy Spirit of God, but also grieve our own spirit.  We are admonished to be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ sake has forgiven us.”

So, would you say that hearing someone lie about you could possibly steal your peace?  The Bible says in Hebrews 12:14 – “To follow peace with all men, that staying out of quarrels and seeking to live a good and clean and holy life will cause God’s blessings to fall on us but that when we lose our peace it causes a ‘root of bitterness’ to spring up and this root of bitterness causes deep trouble.”  In Ephesians 5, we are admonished to walk in love as Christ walked in love.  Does this mean to walk in love that we are never to speak out against the injustice that we see in front of us?  By speaking out, does that mean that our anger towards the injustice is unacceptable to God?  No, it says in Ephesians 5:11 we’re to “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”  In the Living Bible it says, “Take no part in the worthless pleasures of evil and darkness, but instead to rebuke, and expose them.”  That’s what prophets do, they expose.  Did you know that prophets were despised and hated by many…they were loners.

Those walking in corruption and evil don’t want their blanket pulled back and they hate those who expose their ungodliness.  Jesus didn’t let the wrath of the Pharisee’s stop him.  If he saw sin, he spoke out against it, whether they called him angry or not. 

Take the Genesis account of Cain and Able.  It’s a classic example of anger, used by the enemy to destroy a family.  Genesis 4:3 – describes Abel offering the best of his lambs to the Lord as an offering, however, Cain offered a gift of his farm produce.  The Lord had respect unto Able and his offering, but not to Cain’s and this made Cain both dejected and very angry.  It said, “His face grew dark with fury.”  In verse 6, the Lord asked Cain, “Why are you angry?  Why is your face so dark with rage?”  Then in verse 7, it explains the root of Cain’s anger.  God told him, “Your face can be bright with joy if you will do as you should, but if you refuse to obey, watch out; sin is waiting to attack you, longing to destroy you.”  So we see here, anger is connected to rebelling and when unjustified comes from a root of bitterness and is not acceptable to the Lord.  This anger of Cain’s did not happen overnight, but his bitterness and jealousy toward his brother Abel eventually gave place to the devil and Cain slew his brother Abel unto death.  So we see that anger can evolve into sin of we give place to it…the sin is waiting to attack us, longing to destroy us and can conquer us.  Notice, in this case where Cain’s anger arises out of jealousy toward his brother and his rebellion against God to make the proper sacrifice acceptable in the eyes of God.  Cain wanted his own agenda.  Anger can be directed and cause the good to come about or it can lay in bitterness and fester.

Let’s look at the account of King Saul and David.  It begins in 1 Samuel 9 - David spent many years running from King Saul, who hated him so much be became obsessed with finding him and killing him.  What angered Saul so much that he wanted the life of David?  Was Saul such a bad choice by God for a King?  He didn’t start out that way.  1 Samuel 9:2 – says, “Saul was the most handsome man in Israel, a choice young man and goodly.”  And God told the prophet Samuel, “He will rule my people.”  But when Samuel told Saul he was to be King, as instructed by the Lord, Saul replied in verse 21, “Pardon me, I’m from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest in Israel, and my family is the least important of all the families of the tribe, you must have the wrong man.”  But Samuel told him, “I’ve received a special message from the Lord.”  Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it over Saul’s head and said, “I’m doing this because the Lord has appointed you to be King of his people Israel.”  And God described how he caused his own Spirit to come mightily on Saul and that he would prophesy. And Saul was so humble that when Samuel went to crown him he couldn’t find him, for he was hiding in the baggage.  So initially Saul was a good King.

After a period of time Saul began despising the word of the Lord rather than respecting it and he walked in great disobedience to God and his word.  So God raised up King David.  Saul not only rejected this decision but fought God and David on this violently.  God tried to tell Saul his anger was arising out of rebellion against God’s word, but Saul would not listen.  God told him in 1 Samuel 15, “To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken, than the fat of rams, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry, but because you have rejected the word of the Lord, I have rejected you from being King.”

Saul rebelled again and would not accept God’s words but fought against his new choice for King, which was David.  Next the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul (his anointing for King lifted) and instead an evil spirit came and troubled him.”  1Samuel 16:15.  This confirms what God said in Hebrews 12:15 that “a root of bitterness if you allow it in will trouble you, thereby many be defiled.”

Saul’s root of bitterness was centered on his anger of rejection from God, but directed toward David, God’s new choice.  Here again, misdirection of anger leads us into sin.  However, David was not angry in return for Saul’s anger towards him, but prayed for Saul.  David came and took a harp and he played with his hand to sooth the spirit of Saul and to be instrumental in causing the evil spirit to leave him.  The years of rejection toward David caused David to react by praying for Saul, rather than turning his hurt and frustration against him into wrath.

Saul’s anger on the other hand grew as he continued to feed it into a deep hatred which eventually destroyed him.  Yet David, determined to walk in love became better instead of bitter.  The pain and rejection caused an ultimate public awareness of the awesomeness and specialness of David.  His fruitfulness to walk towards God’s Spirit caused men, women and even children to admire and publicly applaud David.  The anointing on him for his faithfulness became heavier and more powerful.  Even songs were sung, Saul has his thousands but David his ten thousands, which only caused Saul to become angrier.  The higher God lifter David, the angrier Saul became.  Finally, it says, “Saul was very wroth with attention that David was receiving, so from that time on King Saul kept a jealous watch on David.”

Now, we’ve gone from anger to hate to a jealous spirit.  Verse 10 says, “And the very next day Saul received a jealous spirit, a tormenting spirit from God, it overwhelmed him and he began to rave like a madman.  Friend, continued anger, continually fed catapults and opens further doors for the enemy to get a foot hold.  Walking by our emotions causes roots of bitterness which festers over a period of time.  Letting the sun go down upon your wrath, night after night, gives place to devils.  The jealous spirit is a very prevalent, potent demon; it’s one of the worse spirits for torment and trouble that is accepted into the human mind.

The Bible says it starts out as a root of bitterness.  Just being angry and getting over it, is not a sin.  Getting angry and directing it properly, as we’ll discuss later is not a sin.  It’s giving place to it, where the enemy takes hold, that it becomes sin through our actions.  Because the devil gives me a thought is not my fault.  But when I choose to place action to that thought, action that is contrary to God’s word, that thought now becomes sin and I, by my own decision have given place to the enemy.  It’s not the thought that is sin…it’s the action attached to it.  We must gird up our minds against evil thoughts when they come against us and others.

The Bible says, “Casting down imaginations and every thought which exalts itself against God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”  2 Corinthians 10:5

For more see Part 2 (Archives)

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