Go Ahead, Get Mad as Hell, part 2

Warriors Arise: August 19, 2020

Eleven years ago, when Selah was about one, we were living in South Carolina. Abigail, Josiah, Lydia and I were playing in the front yard. I had kept Selah in the stroller at the front of the garage so she would not get too much sun. I looked back and saw something slither out from under the steps 12 feet behind Selah's stroller. This mama plays a lot of games but not that one! I told the kids to stay where they were as I ran to get the hoe. I lopped off the head of the snake. It did take a few chops because I wanted it completely severed. It didn't matter to me what kind of a snake it was. It was on my territory and I wasn't having it! It was perfectly okay for me to get mad as hell and kill the snake. God has given us the authority to remove the head of the enemy, especially when the enemy comes around on our domain.

Romans 16:19-20 (NKJV) ...I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. 20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly...

I'd rather use a hoe than my foot. As long as Satan is crushed, it doesn't really matter what you use. Sometimes you just have to get mad as hell. I was calm on the outside but I was furious as a bear on the inside. That snake was not going to get to Selah without my attempt to protect her.

Last week after the wind storm Derecho hit, I kept hearing in my mind, "Are you mad as hell?" Daily this happened, even a couple of times a day. It was like I was being challenged. But it wasn't a challenged; it was permission. It wasn't the devil trying to provoke me to anger; it was the Lord giving me permission to be angry. Not only giving permission but God wanted me to be angry.

Honestly, years ago I struggled with my anger. I didn't know what to do with it, so I stuffed and stuffed and stuffed. I didn't know how to turn it over to God. I didn't know how to push it into the Spirit and fuel my prayer life with passion and the power of God to move the mountains before me. I didn't know anger is not a sin. How we respond in our anger, that can be a sin.

Ephesians 4:26-27 (NKJV) “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.

When I read this verse and recognized what it really said, I had questions for God. "How can one be angry and not sin? I always thought if someone was angry, they were sinning." God began to teach me, anger is not the issue. They issue it what you do with your anger. How do you respond? Are you hurting someone or are your freeing someone? Anger out of control, fed by emotions, without a person's brain attached and Spirit of God leading, is a sin. That person operates through their emotions and is hurtful, against all God stands for. But a person who learns to lay hold of the anger, identifying why they are angry, can then see who is really at fault for the situation being what it is. When we see the situation that has caused our anger, we open ourselves to see God's solution to the problem.

The secondary issue with anger is we tend to fuel our emotions by rehearsing the situation over and over in our minds. We keep entertaining the enemy's lies and letting him be the puppeteer of our actions, instead of cutting the strings and putting the enemy under our feet.

The third issue with anger being out of control and pushing us into sin is when we ultimately believe God caused the problem one way or another. When we blame God, we will refuse to pray for His intervention. If He wouldn't stop the problem before it happened then why would we believe our prayers would cause Him to intervene on our behalf? If God won't intervene on our behalf then I don't have the power to remove the problem correctly either.

Anger is a problem when we do not know how to "Be angry and do not sin". This verse challenged me. I sought God because I didn't want to be an angry person. How can I allow myself to be angry and keep from sinning?

1. Acknowledge the problem, especially where it came from. I felt my life would always be extremely difficult. What worked for others wasn't working for me. I could work as diligent as the next person and would not be noticed or advanced. Those being given the opportunities would seek for my help to be successful but that was all I was ever going to be, a person helping others achieve but not the one to get the opportunity to advance. Everything I did seemed to be the hard way, always swimming upstream. Until I realized this was not God's way for me. I had bought into a lie from the enemy and he held me captive to that belief.

2. See who is really the cause of the problem. If it is me then I need to be responsible and make the change. If it is another person then I need to extend grace. Because everyone makes mistakes or sins against someone else. I was not exception. Reality: I need grace given to me on a regular basis; therefore, I need to be ready to give grace on a regular basis.

3. If it is the enemy trying to cause division between me and someone else then I go for the jugular. It is easy to identify the enemy; because any problem that derives from something being stolen, destroyed, devoured or killed has his fingerprint on it (John 10:10).

Sometimes I could prevent the anger from accumulating by giving grace to people. In some situations I would be picking myself up by my bootstraps and working harder. There are times when I didn't realize God had a different solution. I have worked myself to the bone and when I finally called out to God He would say, "You didn't have to work that hard, if you had come to Me first." When we go to God first, He gives us a plan: the best to resolve the problem. He provides resources and help. Nothing is ever as difficult and more costly than when we do it without God.

When Derecho hit last week. I was at work, safely doing my job surrounded by cinderblocks. No worries. Scott had dropped my dad off to have eye surgery and was at work. They continued to tell my dad he was going to get to his surgery. My mom was home alone. Josiah and Lydia were at marching band practice and had been sent to the locker rooms for safety. Selah and Charis were at home. No one could get ahold of them so I prayed. I continued packing groceries and prayed. What could I do? They weren't sending us home. And driving home in the midst of the storm would have put myself in a deadly situation. So I continued to pray for God to protect each one in my family. God was faithful, again. All were perfectly fine. We were without power, but no one was hurt! I was rejoicing in that fact and continued to pray for the people working to get our power back. But I was not angry. There was an assurance, totally knowing God would keep us.

As I heard of the devastation and loss others experienced. I would hear, "Mad as hell." After a couple of days, electricity still not on and the possible loss of everything in our refrigerators and deep freeze, I still wasn't angry. My prayers continued. Just in passing, a small voice within, "Mad as hell."

It wasn't for a couple of days before I realized I needed to pray against the enemy who had destroyed so much farm land, corn bins, machinery and barns, stealing the food people had put up for the year in their freezers, etc. The list goes on when you don't have power.

That's just it, I wasn't praying with power and fortitude. I wasn't angry at the devil for this devastation. Just like someone said, "Iowans are going to do what Iowans do: take care of each other and put themselves back together." It really is the Iowa way. We are helpful people. We do what we have to do to get ourselves back together to keep moving forward. We would take this one on the cheek and get back up for another day. But God wouldn't let it rest, "Are you mad as hell, yet? Because the devil is mad at you."

God got ahold of me. It wasn't a time to sit back in my faith and ride this out. He wanted me to get angry. The devil was reveling in the destruction he caused through Derecho and most people were ready to just pull themselves up by their boot straps and take on all the work themselves. This is a situation of fighting fire with fire.

Get mad as hell and take the devil to God's courtroom over the devastating losses accrued from Derecho and the power outages across Iowa.

Father, I position myself before You today. I walk in the authority given to me by Jesus Christ. I bind the devil from stealing our provisions through Derecho and the power outages. I loose the provision from heaven to replenish what has been stolen from each family across the Midwest. In the name of Jesus, I bind the devil from devouring our finances and declare he will pay restitution up to seven times what each farm, family and business has lost. I bind the devil's power to destroy the opportunities You have set aside for Your people. I loose the abundance of opportunities to be released to Your people in the name of Jesus. We will not let go of what You have set aside for each one of us. We will lay hold of the promises and see them fulfilled in us. We will achieve what You have dreamed we would be. What You have promised the enemy cannot touch. What You have said is for us will be established in our lives and our family line in Jesus' name. We will walk in the fullness of all Jesus died and rose to give us. We will walk in the freedom of Your amazing love because Your love never fails. Amen!

A Warrior in the Lord’s Army,

Veridee Joy

My hope is for Believers in Jesus Christ to join together each day to pray, to push back the enemy as we release God’s power here on earth against the coronavirus, riots, and lies. The prayers will be listed each day as Warriors Arise. I will put a date with it so we can keep them straight. If you have any questions please feel free to make a comment or private message me. If you would like this to come to your email directly please go to verideehand.com and subscribe.