Victory over anger

Do you have that one sin that you struggle to overcome? That one besetting sin? Beset means to torment, harass, assail. Not a pleasant experience at all. 
Mine is driving through peak hour traffic. I have all the patience in the world for everything else, but please don’t place me into peak hour traffic! I pray as I get into my car and five minutes down the road my face is already turning red. Yes. God has patience with me – I am a work in progress!

South Africans are known to be one of the most aggressive drivers in the world and there is a highway in Johannesburg that is more aggressive than its drivers. The highway is never spoken well of – there are accidents on that highway every day, trucks always breaking down and people flipping each other the bird. Some have even claimed that it is cursed due to how awful the accidents are on there. And that’s not coming from Christians! Many lives have been claimed there. Everyone on that highway is always angry. I drove that highway for three years in my last job, and I was always so aggressive and angry. It got too much and I asked the Lord, “Lord, help! Please! Why am I always so angry on the way to work?”
I find there’s a remarkable difference between that highway and the one I drive on now. Both are just as busy and just as a long, but very different in their “personalities”. No matter how slow the highway is on the one I drive now, people are patient, wait their turn, and it is a far more relaxing and comfortable drive than the other one.

Why the difference, I wondered?
Ephesians 4: 26-27 says, “Be angry, and do not sin… nor give place to the devil”

When reading that verse I always thought it meant that we should not give the devil an opportunity to allow us to sin. However, the word ‘place’ here means a literal geographical place – giving him legal ground on which to operate! The Greek word for place here is ‘topos’ which means place, any portion or space marked off. This is where we get the word for topographical map.

So the anger on that highway completely makes sense! There are so many people getting angry, most often for silly reasons, which ultimately causes accidents, and every time they get angry, that place is cordoned off especially for the devil to make the next person who passes by even angrier! It is now his territory within which to operate.

I read a testimony from Rebecca Brown about her husband Daniel Yoder on this exact incidence. This is what happened to him:

“We live 15 miles away from Clinton. We get our mail at the post office in Clinton, a town of 3,000 people. There is one main highway that runs through the center of town. People drive pretty fast on that road, usually in excess of 50 miles per hour. On this particular day, Daniel went into town by himself to pick up the mail. As he was driving through the center of town on the highway, he witnessed an incident. He was not involved in it in any way. He simply witnessed the incident. He was driving along, and a young man in a pick­up truck was driving along on the road going the same direction some distance in front of him. Suddenly, an old man in an old car pulled right out onto the highway directly in front of the young man and proceeded to drive about 15 miles per hour. The old man never looked to see if anyone was coming! The young man in the truck had to slam on his brakes and skidded all over the road trying to keep from hitting the old man in the back. When he finally got his truck under control he was obviously furious! He pulled up beside the old man and honked his horn, rolled down his window and shouted and shook his fist at the old guy. I think the old man was so deaf that he didn’t even hear the young man. The young man squealed his tires and went on his way.

Now Daniel was not involved in this incident at all. However, when he arrived at the place in the road where it had happened, suddenly, he realized that he was furious. He was so mad he wanted to hurt someone or something! But he didn’t have anything to be mad about! As he thought about this Daniel prayed. He said, “Lord, why am I so furious? I don’t have anything to be mad about.”
As Daniel asked the Lord that question, immediately the Holy Spirit flashed into Daniel’s mind the scripture:

“Be angry and do not sin . . . . nor give place to the devil.”  Eph. 4:26­27

The Lord went on to show Daniel that that word “place,” is a geographical term. Your home is a “place.”  The spot in the road where the young man nearly had the accident was a “place.” When we get angry, and sin in our anger, such as that young man did, we give demon spirits the legal right to inhabit that “place.”  “

How often have we allowed spirits into our homes and relationships because of our uncontrolled anger? Satan is constantly on the prowl waiting to seize any opportunity, and place, he can control. Don’t allow him to! Remember Matthew 5:22 warns us that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment!

What I do now is as I get into my car I command all spirits of anger to leave me in the name of Jesus. If I find myself in a situation that makes me feel angry, I again command all spirits of anger to leave me in the name of Jesus and I invite the Holy Spirit in its place. God is very faithful in dealing with it then and there and I do highly suggest every Christian practices this in their home and allow the Holy Spirit to be the Victor as He should be!