Anger, Murder, and the War Inside the Heart | Decoding the Torah Season 3

The first murder recorded in scripture is when Cain murdered Abel. Cain killed his innocent brother because of his own anger. We need to distinguish between the positive commandments and the negative commandments. Of the 613 mitzvot, and again mitzvot is another word for law or commandment, some are positive, for example, thou shalt honor thy father and mother, and some are negative. And we're going to look now at a negative commandment. It simply states, for example, if someone gets killed in a war, that's not considered murder. Someone is hung or is put to death because of a crime they committed under the law, that is not considered murder. But killing somebody with murderous intention, that is what this commandment is addressing. The first murder recorded in scripture is when Cain murdered Abel. And why did Cain murder Abel? Because both Cain and Abel brought a sacrifice to the Lord, and the Lord accepted Abel's sacrifice, but he did not accept Cain's sacrifice. And as a result of this, Cain was angry. So Cain killed his innocent brother because of his own anger. Let's read, God said to Cain, why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. This teaches us a great lesson that murder isn't just about an outward act, it originates in the heart. And we have to put ourselves under the responsible blade of God's truth and recognize that anger actually has a murderous intention to it, and we have to root it out of our lives. In fact, Yeshua taught that he that hates his brother in his heart is a murderer. First John 3, 15, we read, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And Yeshua said about Satan, he was a murderer from the beginning. And so murder has to do with the heart. And if we hate somebody, we're actually guilty of the sin of committing murder. And this should wake us up because a lot of us think, oh, I've never murdered somebody because we're only looking at ourself through the prism of our outward actions. But if we'll be real and examine our heart, I think we'll find that every one of us is a murderer or has been a murderer at some point in our life because we've wished, we've wished or cursed other people in our heart. We've wished for their ill will. We've wanted them to suffer. We rejoiced when they were hurting. And this is the spirit of murder. And so this is why Jesus said that our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of a Pharisee, that we're not just

guilty of murder because we've never physically put an innocent person to death. We're guilty of murder if we've ever wrongfully hated somebody in our heart, rejoiced at their downfall, wished for their ill will to happen, wished ill will towards somebody. And we have a choice to make. This is why the Lord said to Cain, choose what you're going to do. Life and death are before us, the scripture says. Choose life that we could live. The book of Proverbs tells us that from our heart issues the spring of life. We have to guard our heart. And this involves being really introspective in our walk with God. I think a lot of us lack the ability or are unwilling to be self-aware in our walk with God. But we cannot grow spiritually if we're not willing to examine ourself, beloved ones, and be self-aware. And we need to be aware as we're walking through life and journeying on this earth when there's a murderous intention or impulse coming from our heart towards somebody. And when that happens, what we do is we lift it up to the Lord. and say, Lord, forgive me. I realize that this impulse in my heart, it's not you. It's not good. It's a spirit of murder. Help me, Lord, not to yield to it. Sanctify me from this. And as we do this, as we root the spirit of murder, the spirit of hatred, the spirit of anger out of our heart, we ascend into the love and into the peace of God. But it takes warfare. Jesus taught that even sinners love their friends. But for those of us that have grown a big enough heart spiritually that we can love our enemies, we're truly then walking in a fullness of God's spirit. Judaism teaches that murder also happens when we speak ill of somebody with our tongue. Sometimes we don't realize that our gossiping and our criticizing and saying things about people to other people, that's actually committing murder. In fact, Judaism teaches that the tongue is so dangerous. It must be guarded by two walls, the walls of the lips and the walls of the teeth, because from our mouth flow the springs of life. And we can either put a curse on somebody or we can bless somebody. And James in the New Testament tells us that our tongue should not be a source of both cursing and blessing. He said, this ought not to be. So as we're examining from the Torah today, this command not to murder, we need to put ourselves under the blade of God's truth and under the authority of his spirit and ask ourselves, is there murder in our heart? Are there people in our life that we're wishing ill will towards? Are there people in our life that we have a murderous intent towards? In other words, that we're projecting spiritually hatred towards them and anger towards them? Remember the Lord

said to Cain, why are you, get this word now, angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and it's desirous for you, but get these next words, but you must master it. So the problem Cain had was his anger. And the Lord said to him, you must master that anger. I don't know about you, but I've struggled with anger in my own life. And as I've wrestled against anger and resisted anger, I found myself bringing, being brought up more and more into God's fullness and into his peace and into his love. And I feel better about life and about relationships. And it's something that I had to resist and to warfare into. And just because you're perhaps struggling with anger yourself, it doesn't make you a bad person because you start from that place. But the place that you start from is the platform for you to send into greatness. In other words, the challenges that you have are God's opportunity for you to overcome and to excel into something great. In fact, the more you overcome, the bigger reward that you're going to have. So you might be struggling with the spirit of anger, a spirit even of murder, but don't beat yourself up and feel defeated. Recognize what it is, confess it to the Lord, ask him for help, and then begin to warfare into it and against it. And as you're consistent in doing this, you'll overcome and you'll find yourself being expanded in the love of God even more so than somebody that never had a problem with anger or hatred towards other people. You see, the challenges that you face in life, beloved, don't define who you are. They're the opportunity for you to excel into greatness. Your problems are God's opportunities. And the more that we overcome, once again, the bigger reward we're going to have. I remember years ago when the Lord first convicted me of my anger, of blaming other people for my anger. And he showed me that your anger is your own problem. It's not because of what somebody else did. It's not because of your circumstance. It's not because of what somebody else said. Your anger is your problem. You need to stop blaming people and take responsibility for your anger. And immediately after I recognized that and made a decision to own my own anger and to not blame people and to not speak anger and the spirit of anger out there, as soon as I recognized that and made a commitment to overcome it, I had a... huge test, something that previously I would have just exploded at somebody about, I was so upset and so angry about it, and in the natural would have been understandable, why I would have been so frustrated. But the Lord has spoken to me, you need to take responsibility for your own anger.

Because when I exploded at somebody in anger, that was the spirit of murder I was releasing on that person. That was a destructive spirit that destroyed, it was a spirit from the realm of darkness. So I held in my anger, I resisted it. And you know what happened? After I resisted that spirit of anger that day, all those years ago, it was like I was supernaturally changed. It took every spiritual fiber in my being, all my strength to resist that anger, but I held on for dear life, I resisted it. I didn't speak my frustration, I held my temper, and something happened that day, a transformation took place. And from that day forward, it's been easier and easier for me to stay in control, to stay in peace, and to not really release that destructive spirit of murder into the environment. Beloved, God's given you a choice, just like he did Cain. Will you resist the spirit of murder in your life? Will you resist hatred? Will you resist ill will? Will you resist revenge? Beloved, we'll be known by our love, and the two great commandments are to love God with all our heart, and to love our neighbor as ourself. We need to learn how to turn the other cheek, own our own soul, and stay in Jesus's love and peace, regardless of what happens to us. I know that's easier said than done, but by the grace of God, beloved, we can gradually ascend in to unshakable peace, and we can master anger and the spirit of murder in the love and in the shalom of God. I want to encourage you today, you're a warrior. Let's keep pressing in. We're on the journey of perfection, and if you'll stay faithful, you're going to get there. In the book of Numbers, chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people, and the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. V'chun'echa Yisra'a v'pnav'lecha V'asem'lecha Shalom The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by his countenance, and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.