Ecclesiastes 7:9 9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.
Some time ago, something profound happened. I believe it was a great big lesson straight from the Almighty Himself.
For you to truly understand what happened, I have to start from Friday night. I attended a service at church, and the Pastor was preaching on divine guidance. He said if you did not obey God’s last order; don’t expect to be lead further.
That really touched my heart. So I went home, fine.
Saturday morning, I was on my way to church, walking and praying and I was asking God to lead me in all areas on my life.
All of sudden, God impressed on my heart the words that the Pastor had said.
If you did not obey God’s last order; don’t expect to be lead further.
The Holy Spirit then reminded me about my ex boyfriend. How God had spoken to me, through my Pastor and told me to cut him off. And I hadn’t. I still spoke to him on WhatsApp and called him at times and sent him SMS’s. I didn’t keep the friendship between us going because of any shady motives, rather because I felt he still needed guidance.
I basically pulled a Saul. I didn’t obey; I sacrificed obedience for what I felt was “the greater good”. (1 Samuel 15:1-23).
Yeah.
Thank God for the Holy Spirit. I immediately went about blocking my ex anywhere and everywhere and deleting his number. Cool.
Fast forward today.
I get a call from a strange number. When I pick up, there’s this small, unfamiliar voice on the other line. After a few words, I realise it is actually my ex boyfriend. And he is not pleased with me. In fact, it is safe to say he is quite ANGRY.
He said some things which I will not repeat but just rest assured, he called me a bunch of names, used vulgar language, and then he hung up on me.
THE END.
So here I am, about to go on my prayer walk, and I am just confused.
What just happened? So I picked up my phone (which I never take on my prayer walks, but I was just confused) and my prayer points and I went out.
I was hacked, to say the least. For the first ten minutes, I just ranted. I ranted and raved.
I’m sure God was looking down at me, ranting and just shaking His head.
But then, I realised it for what it was.
An attack of the devil. The devil isn’t happy with me. I’ve been praying, as God leads me, for the salvation of many. I’ve been reaching out as much as God leads me and it has been bearing fruits.
That wasn’t the voice of my ex boyfriend. That was the devil. Telling me he isn’t happy.
Well guess what? I prayed in tongues and gave it all over to the Holy Ghost and he did the job for me and sent prayer points. Eventually I was calm. After asking for forgiveness.
The point of this tale is to warn of the pitfalls of anger. It looks tempting. It seems you are well within your rights to get angry. But you’re not.
NEVER.
The bible says give no place to the devil. No place. No place. Anger leads to sin. Sin is the very place of the devil. Even allowing anger in your heart for just a few seconds is dangerous. The devil wants to pop in and bring sinful thoughts. Self-righteousness. Heh. Anger is poison.
Blessings can be stripped away from you just because of your anger.
You can lose your eternity because of anger.
It’s a slippery slope to hell. A simple way to escape anger, don’t allow offense. My pastor says let offenses slide off you. That’s a good idea. When something happens and it builds some small resentment or offense, get rid of it.
Just bask in the joy of the Lord. Be like Jesus, nothing anyone did offended Him. Except when it came to His Father’s house. But concerning His own person, He let things slide. It’s so much easier. No matter what the other people are saying or how they are behaving.
Remember, you can only draw from the wells of God with joy, (Isaiah 12:3). And as you walk in joy, God will lead you faithfully.
May God help us all!
Faithfully yours,
Lerato