VICTORY OVER THE SPIRITS OF
ANGER, RAGE, AND HATE
9 Days of Prayer Day 23
Written By Pastor Michael Heil
“This you know, my beloved brethren.
But everyone must be quick to hear,
slow to speak and slow to anger;”
James 1:19
Sadly, the last four years have been a time of escalating hatred in America. After the 2016 election, when Donald Trump became President, it triggered an explosion of bitterness and hatred. In the last four years, it seems that every headline, every news story, every political decision from the left was driven by one motive, stop President Trump; and as always happens with hate and bitterness, it does not remain in one area but metastasizes into all areas of life. Quickly, hate turns into rage which, left unchecked, turns into violence. Soon, people who stated political opinions the left did not like were physically assaulted or yelled at in restaurants or intimidated into quitting their jobs. As bad as all this has been, it got worse on May 25, 2020 when Minneapolis Police Officers detained and ended up killing George Floyd, which triggered riots throughout most American cities. To this day, five months later, the riots continue to some degree, the burning, looting, and murders of police continue. The hatred, anger, rage, and violence between races and political parties, tragically, is still burning!
America does not understand the reality of what happened. They seek natural answers. They call in commentators who have no awareness of the spiritual realm to explain it. Specialists, doctors, psychologists, sociologists all try their best to dissect and define why this all arose in society. But they can no longer explain it than a baker could explain brain surgery; the two areas do not relate. So, it is with the spiritual and moral destruction of anger and hate. With very good reason, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone” (Mark 11:25), and “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him” (Luke 17:3). Jesus knew and warned us to quickly let go of feeling and thoughts of hurt, rejection, anger, and hate. He knew, and warned us, that if we do not let those thoughts and feeling go, they will march into all our life and destroy us. It is a spiritual truth as consistent and deadly as the law of gravity is to someone jumping off a bridge.
Not only did Jesus warn you and me about hatred, anger and rage, but God through the Apostle Paul gave a deeper and more chilling revelations of what happens if anyone coddles, nourishes and pampers their hate. In II Corinthians 2:10, 11 it states, “But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” I specifically and purposefully used the word “chilling” to describe the truth God reveals here. If anyone, male, female, black, white, Democrat, Republican, Christian or non-Christian feeds their anger and hate, refuses to repent and let it go, demons and evil spirits are waiting. As I Peter 5:8 says, “Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Look at those words: “seeking someone to devour.” Satan and his henchmen (demons) do not have authority to randomly destroy; they must seek to find people who open the door for them to oppress and, even, possess. Like flies searching for dead flesh to lay their evil eggs on, demons look for dead flesh that is angry, hateful, and full of rage. This is a consistent spiritual principle that, sadly, works every time, so Jesus and scripture command us for our own protection, forgive quickly and fully so the devil cannot take advantage.
Of course, for the saints (and the world if they would avail themselves to Jesus) the victory over anger, hatred, rage, and violence happened two thousand years ago. God tells us that when that old rugged cross, with our blessed Savior on it, was lifted to the sky and Jesus died for our sins that “canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” The cross for all time destroyed Satan’s authority over us. He was “publicly” defeated. No longer can he claim any right to harm or abuse the saint of God. But we must forgive quickly and fully so we are not of our own volition yielding authority to him. Right now, the world is not doing that. By their rejection of God and their mockery of Jesus, Satan has control of them; the result is the anger, hate, rage, violence we are currently seeing in America. But, for you, for me, for those who have been redeemed and given the life of the Holy Spirit, we can be victorious over hate and anger by turning from those cancerous emotions and forgiving. Not only do we have that victory in our own life, but, by prayer and confession, we can break the power of the evil one over the world, so they can also turn to Jesus and be free.
PRAYER: Lord, quickly and clearly reveal any root of bitterness in my life, lest it turn into anger and hate. Lord, as You have forgiven me much, I choose to forgive (state name here) for any offense or rejection to me. I pray for them, that their heart and spiritual eyes might see You, oh Lord, and yield their life to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Praise & Worship: Worthy Is The Lamb -Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAplJ0_jDFc