In Proverbs 25:28, he that has no rule over his own spirit, if you can't actually deal or manage with anger - so the Bible says, it's okay to feel angry at times, but if you can't manage it and deal with it properly, it says you're just like a city that has got no walls in it. It's got no defences. The city's been broken down, an enemy has breached the city, there's nothing to defend it. So in the old days of course, they'd build a wall around the city, you defended the city against enemies. You had no walls, you had no defence. The enemy could come in and take what he wanted, so today it would be equivalent saying a person who's got no rule over their spirit, or a person who can't manage this emotion of anger, is like a person who leaves his doors and windows open every night for the thieves and burglars to come in. That would be the best way to describe it. Foolishness isn't it? But we still tolerate it. So there it is, so always unresolved anger opens the door to demons.
Now look at this. In Genesis, Chapter 4, Verses 4 to 8; Cain, the first example of someone getting angry. That's good, and we'll see what resulted from him getting angry. You've got to remember, if we just take the Bible account that there was Adam and Eve and two sons, that's four people in the world, and one quarter of them get put to death because one person got angry. Look at this. Here it says, Verse 5, the Lord did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, why are you so angry? Why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, you'll be accepted. If you do not, sin lies at the door. Its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. Now Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. The Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? He said I don't know, am I my brother's keeper? I don't care about him. [Laughs]
Okay, so you notice here that Cain was angry. He was angry. Now one of the first ways you can see someone's angry, is look at their face. They get broody, moody. They get a darkness over their countenance. See, you can always tell what's in the heart comes out on the face, and so when people are angry it usually shows on their face, so his countenance fell, meant he got moody. He got the black look, you know, the black look. They look black. You know people get like that, they give you the evils, means they stare at you, and you can feel and look at the anger, ooh! [Laughs] So his face, his unresolved feeling of anger, and he was warned that if he didn't deal with it, it would get worse. Of course what happened is he didn't deal with it at all, and what happened then was he was resentful and angry, because of something he felt was unjust treatment. He felt he should have been accepted like his brother was, and when he looked at his brother - isn't it interesting? He looked at his brother, and how God favoured his brother, because the offering was an offering of faith. He looked at how his offering was not accepted, and he become angry, and the anger expressed first on his face, and then against his brother, then in the field he rose up and slew his brother.
I would think over the course of my ministry life, I would think that the greatest miracle that I have seen, is that I'm still here [Laughter] because of the words that have risen up to slay me. Simple, they hurt you, they do. People can be extraordinarily abusive and hurtful, and you need to see here, there's something - let me give a definition for anger, so you define it. I want to just talk a little bit about anger, because I want you to get a handle on this. Then we'll show you what to do, because you've got to learn how to deal with it, okay?
Anger - this is what it is - anger is a strong, violent feeling. How many - when you've got anger, it seems to fill you, have you noticed? In the Bible, actually the word means to flare the nostrils, so that's kind of like when someone's really wound up [Laughs] see, so it's a strong, violent feeling, coming out of a sense of injustice. There is of course various levels of it. Resentment, now resentment's the one most people have. Church people tend to get this. Resentment is like the smouldering fire. It doesn't kind of break out. It's just like a smouldering anger, cold, quiet. You know, granny gets it, and there's this coldness in the atmosphere. Is anything wrong? NO! [Laughter] The whole atmosphere becomes unpleasant, unsafe, and you want to run away and hide. That's what you do. That's what disconnects families of course, because see what happens is, when people are in that environment, they become afraid of the anger, and feelings of anger. They actually are afraid of the spirits, which are in the atmosphere. They don't understand that's what it is, but they're fearful of what may happen to them, and then they will find a way to retreat and find a way out. Of course one way is just to disconnect from everyone, withdraw, hide, read books, watch television, go play on a computer, disconnect, get busy, do a hobby, all kinds of ways it happens. But see often when people are resentful, it's like a dark scowl on the face, or moodiness, or sulking.