Recently, the Lord has shown me a great deal more on this topic.  He showed
me when anger entered my life for the first time and where it came from.  He
also showed me a number of places the Enemy used against me related to
anger.  I have been working on the below article for a couple of week so
based upon new information the Holy Spirit just showed me in the last few
days, there will be a follow up article explaining things in more detail
about how anger is used and how it blinds us from hearing the truth of God's
voice.  I thought this much would be a good place to stop so I can explain
what recently happened to me in more detail at a later time without writing
a book.  I can write a book very easily on my personal experiences with my
anger.


Killing The Spider And Eliminating Anger Management


By Phil Scovell






     A few years ago, I recall hearing about the small toys sold
for personal anger management.  They were soft toys that one
could pick up from their desk, or which they could pull from a
drawer, when they felt anger or frustration, stress or pressure,
and throw them against a nearby wall.  The soft toy would then say
something such as, "Oh, that felt good," or, "What a relief."
They sometimes just made a noise like breaking glass or a groaning
sound.  This was advertised to assist office workers to passively
diminish, or otherwise, manage their feelings of anger.  Did it
work?  Sure, to a point but the anger never went away.

     My favorite all time Christian joke is about the little boy
who had the right theological idea.  The story goes this way.

     Every Sunday night, the pastor of the small church would call
on elderly Brother Jones to close in prayer.  the man prayed
eloquently, with flowing glowing words of majesty, and then, just
before saying, "Amen," he would say, "And Lord, just clean all
those spider webs out of our lives."  Sunday night after Sunday
night, these exact words by the same Godly man were spoken in his
closing prayer.

     finally, one night Johnny, now 10 years of age, and who had
heard this same prayer for literally years, couldn't stand it any
longer and following the closing prayer by Brother Jones, went to
speak with the elderly man.  "Brother Jones," he said honestly and
sincerely, "instead of cleaning out all those spider webs from
our lives each week, why don't we just find that spider and kill
him."

     I tell this story so many times, the people in my church
grown every time they hear it now.  The story has such great
spiritual application, though, I use it every chance I get because
it proves a very good point.  It also fits this topic of our
problems with anger.

     Anger is a natural, or should I say, unnatural, coping
mechanism.  Throwing a soft toy against the wall that squeaks or
says something funny upon impact, slamming a door hard, smacking
your fist into your palm, throwing something, swearing, honking
the car horn and screaming in your car at someone getting in your
way, giving someone the finger, kicking a chair across the room,
are just a few of the more mild forms of released anger.
Slapping your child or your wife, driving recklessly, committing
road rage, getting stone drunk, throwing a chair through a window,
kicking the family dog into unconsciousness, punching the guy out
at the ball game because he is in your way, punching a hole in the
sheet rock, for which you'll have to repair later, unless, of
course, your fist hit a stud and you broke your hand, waving your
unloaded handgun around and acting like you are going to shoot
your wife, are a few of the more violent forms of anger release.
All, however, are indications of something much deeper and that is
exactly where you are going to have to go, that is, deeper, if you
want to be totally free from anger.  That's right.  I said you can
be totally free from anger.

     Now, lest the reader think I am perfect, I have kicked a
door down, pounded my hands on the table top so hard, the bruises
hurt for a couple of weeks, thrown a small hand held tape recorder
across the room, threw a glass of water at the wall, kicked a few
things until they were broken, slammed doors so hard glass broke,
and a few other things I don't even specifically recall now.  I
never thought I had a temper or a problem with anger either.  In
fact, whenever I did such things, the anger felt good.  I was
remorseful afterwards, of course, but I figured, since I was a
Godly Christian, that was a good thing because it meant I must not
really have meant it in the first place.  Plus, I used to always
say, "It takes me a long time to get mad but when I do, I really
get mad.  Once it is over, it's over and it is ok."  Yeah, sure it
was.  Besides, I always confessed my anger as sin to the Lord so
that made everything ok.  Right?  I was being Biblical, wasn't I?
So, if you said you were sorry later, it was ok to release a
little anger once and awhile.  Right?  Sure, of course.  Let me
ask you a question.  How much is too much, or not enough, anger?
Of course, you realize I am not asking you that question but Jesus
is.

     Today we have specialists, highly educated professionals,
getting thousands of dollars an hour to come to corporations to
conduct management anger classes.  It almost always focuses on how
to defuse, or otherwise short circuit, the anger when it begins to
surface.  Quite simply, lets side track the anger before it is
released.  Sounds great.  Does it work?  It helps, most likely,
but why not kill the spider so we don't have all those sticky
disgusting spider webs around in the first place.  At your next
anger management class, ask your instructor or therapist about
killing the spider and see what they say.  If they don't
understand, tell them the joke I just told you and ask them for
comments.  You won't like what they say.  The bottom line is,
they don't believe it is that easy and they don't believe you can
be anger free.

     A few years ago, during a very desperate time of my life,
thinking I was going crazy due to anxiety and panic attacks that
were off the scale, I had a single sessions with a psychologist.
she told me, whenever I felt the anxiety attack coming, to picture
a huge stop sign in my mind and focus on it.  Did it work?  What
do you think?  Do these government and private industry anger
management classes help?  That is, do their management coping
techniques work?  Sure they help.  The real question is, does it
kill the spider?  Maybe the question should be, which do you
prefer; coping or eliminating your anger?

     Back in the late seventies, I was an assistant pastor in a
small town in western Colorado.  Just before moving to this small
town, someone gave my wife a box of canning jars all packed very
nicely.  In the small church we were working in, a lady called me
one day and asked if I would find that box of canning jars for
her.  She said she would come over, they didn't live far away, and
pick them up and do some canning for my wife and I.  I went out
into our attached garage, dug around until I found the large box
and as I began pulling it free in order to carry it into the
house, my hands came in contact with some spider webbing.  It felt
totally different than any spider web I had ever felt.  It was
tough, strong, and when I tried pulling it off the box and away
from my fingers, it felt almost as if it were made of elastic.  I
thought nothing more about it.  The box had hand holes cut into
the side of either end so sticking my hand into one end, I pulled
the box free and carried it into the house.  I sat the box on our
counter top and a few minutes later, the lady stopped by and
picked up the box.  About a half an hour later, our phone rang and
I answered it.  Jo Ann said, "Phil, I am unpacking the canning
jars.  Did you know there was a black widow spider inside?"  I
told her about the spider webbing I had pulled away from the box
and she informed me to stop screwing around with stuff in the
garage because those types of webs were characteristic of black
widows.  I was indeed careful from then on.  Let me ask you this
question.  Do you think just knowing there was a spider got rid of
it?  Of course not and just knowing you have anger, and ripping
away the cobwebs won't make the spider go away either.

     Anger isn't the problem.  Anger means something hurts some
place deep down inside.  The display of outward anger allows for
some emotional relief but anger, carefully guarded, suppressed and
repressed, and held in, can, and does, create physical problems.
In other words, the anger dumps into the body somewhere and there
are physical responses to that anger.

     $A few years ago, I was attending a small church.  The pastor
invited me to sort of work as his assistant pastor.  I did so.  As
I got to know him, I really grew to love him.  His preaching and
teaching was as good as any I had ever heard and he seemed to like
people.  He was humorous and enjoyed having a good time even in
church.  He could sing well, was excellent at leading worship, and
I felt he should have been pastoring a church of 500 people
instead of 20 or so we had in this particular church.  He had one
problem, though, and that was anger and he didn't know it.

     As I got to know him and learned about his early life as a
child, I learned why he was angry.  He used his anger to push
people away.  Yes, it worked every time.  His anger was right down
alarming at times.  He had taken a church of about 100 people and
in 12 years, he was down to about 6 members.  The church bills
were not being paid, the pastor wasn't getting enough to live on,
and he began blaming his own church.  He also experience horrible
back pain at times which would, on occasion, take him out of
ministry for several weeks at a time.  Was this due to anger?  I
know it was for a fact based upon things he would tell me
personally.

     Eventually, since he was using me as a sounding board for his
anger and he was literally naming individuals in the church to me
privately, I felt, as his brother in the Lord, the need for
accountability.  During one of his angry displays one day, I
pointed out to him what he was doing to him and his own people.
This man prided himself on knowing the Word.  In order to allow a
place for anger to exist in his life as a pastor, he insisted
upon arguing from a strictly Biblical standpoint.  Let me
illustrate what I mean.

     during one of his down times due to his back being out, I was
taking his place.  He had called and told me to tell the handful
of people we still had at that time, that we needed about 250
dollars for church expenses.  His wife played the piano and she
was there that day.  I felt led for all of us to gather around her
and to lay hands on her to pray for her, the pastor, and their
physical and financial needs.  I think she had a cold herself that
day.  I then said, after we prayed, that I had 160 dollars left
from my income tax return that I would put toward the church
financial need.  Others began saying what they would put in.  My
youngest son and his wife, for example, spoke up and he said he
would cover the balance.  Others spoke up and said they would put
in certain dollar amounts and we ended up with over 300 dollars.

     Later, the pastor was complaining to me over the phone that
people were not giving enough and that was our problem.  Our
problem wasn't that at all.  You cannot have six members in your
church, three of which are in their seventies and living on social
security, and have big Sunday offerings.  The problem was we were
not reaching anyone with the Gospel.  The church, in other words,
was spiritually dead.  Yes, can you believe that?  A spiritually
dead Charismatic church?  By the way, the number of people you
have does not determine if your church is alive or dead.  We have
had Holy Ghost worship and praise and shouting times in the living
room of my home many times.  You don't even need, for that matter,
a church building.  Why?  Because, if you are born again, you are
a part of the Body of Christ and where 2 or 3 are gathered
together, Christ is in their midst.

     During this angry outburst my pastor was experiencing, he
said, "Nobody even came and offered to pray for me and anoint me
with oil."  The tone to his voice was harsh, bitter, and hostile.
He said this right after he complained that we, the church, were
not giving enough to the church financially.  I pointed out to him
his attitude was wrong.  I told him that I personally thought of
having my son drive out to his home, which was 30 minutes from the
church, to anoint him with oil and to lay hands on him but I
didn't for two reasons.  First, the pastor never asked.  Secondly,
I didn't think, even if I went, he would allow me to pray for him
based upon his attitude.  Yes, I told him both things.  He wanted
me to prove what I said from the Bible so read the following
instructions given to us by James.

"14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the
church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the
name of the Lord:  15  And the prayer of faith shall save the
sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committee
sins, they shall be forgiven him.  16  Confess your faults one to
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," (James
5:14-16).

     Do you see it?  If you are sick, you are to call for the
elders of the church.  Our pastor was too proud to call for the
elders of his church to anoint him with oil.  I pointed out to him
that it was his responsibility to call for us to come and pray for
him and not the other way around.  He backed down and admitted
that was Biblically right but his pride kept his anger in place.

     That is another element of anger which is rarely seen, that
is, pride.  You will always find pride under anger.  How do I
know?  I have experienced it myself following an almost fit of
rage I had one evening arguing with my youngest son.  I said
things, and thought things, that were so unchristian, when my son
left, I sat in my office and cried like a baby and tried to figure
out why I had exploded in cataclysmic rage.  As I prayed, sobbing,
begging God to show me what was wrong, He told me it was caused by
pride.  I was so emotionally upset, I was unable to pray about
this one by myself.  Two days later, as I sat in a man's office
and we shared a prayer session together, the Lord healed me in
many places I never knew existed.  If you want to read about this
experience of healing, read my personal testimony called, "I Flew
Kites With Jesus."

     I have learned from both personal experience, and through
praying with others, anger is used to cover the truth.  What
truth?  The truth about how we really feel about ourselves, the
fear that frightens us so much, we has suppressed it almost out of
our consciousness, The doubts we have about how others see us, the
guilt that we maybe just aren't good enough and God isn't happy,
and the fear the somebody, maybe even in the church, is going to
find out what we are really like and if they do, they won't like
us.  The fear generated by rejection alone is Titanic and we will
do anything to keep that from happening.

     Fortunately, there is a way of living free from anger and
from the fear of anger.  No, there is not a single answer because
everybody is different.  Yes, there are common elements to anger
and frankly, most people, when prayed with, discover they have
anger that they never knew was there.  Like me, for example.

     How about you, now?  Isn't it time you let Jesus show you the
truth about who He is and who you are so you can be anger free?
Let Jesus show you how to kill the spider creating all those webs
in your life that are trying to hinder your intimate relationship
with Him.


It Sounds Like God To Me.
www.SafePlaceFellowship.com