APPLYING KINGDOM OF GOD PRINCIPLES IN OVERCOMING ANGER


According to Colossians 3:13 we have been delivered out of the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of God. We are still physically in the world, but we are new creations - our spirit has been regenerated and we no longer have a sin-nature. This is generally referred to as being “born-again”. We have been freed from the law of sin and death which rules over the kingdom of this world. When we are born -again, we receive the nature of God and God lives in us by His Spirit. We become citizens of the invisible Kingdom of God and are governed by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. Everything that happens in our lives is to be handled in obedience to the principles of the Kingdom of God; no longer are we to be led by the ways of the kingdom of the world, the visible kingdom in which we live. These two kingdoms overlap, but are totally opposite.
Among Jesus' first instructions was the admonition to “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” In other words, He was telling us to that we are no longer to follow the ways of the kingdom of darkness over which Satan is the ruler but to live by principles of the Kingdom of God. That is, we are to handle every situation according to principles set forth in the Word of God – find out God's way of being and doing right and do them. Jesus demonstrated how we who live in His Kingdom are to live, applying Kingdom principles in all that He did while on the earth as a man. He did this as an example for us to follow.
There are numerous scriptures which reveal God's position concerning anger, many of which are in Proverbs, but prior to reviewing them, it is necessary that the matter of man's three-fold nature be discussed. Man is a spirit, which is eternal. It is the spirit of man that is regenerated (born-again) and becomes new when he gets saved. Man possesses a soul (1 Thes 5:23), and he lives in a body. The soul consists of the mind, will and emotions. Man's soul must be saved also, but that does not happen at the time of new birth. James 1:21, and Romans 12:2 tell us how to “save” the soul:
1) be a doer of the word,
2) receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save the soul, and
3) be transformed by the renewing of the mind. This is something each believer has to do for himself.

The natural man's mind has been trained through the world in its ways. Therefore, after a man is saved, his mind must be renewed to think in line with the principles of God's kingdom. When the mind is not renewed with the word of God, the believer, even though he is saved, continues to think like the world. He is carnal or body/sense ruled and can't hear from God because his mind takes sides with the body and rules over his spirit. He lives in the flesh, unable to overcome the dictates of his mind, will, emotions and flesh. God's plan is that man's spirit rule over the body through the "renewed" mind. The spirit can only keep the body and its lusts, his emotions, and his will under control when man's mind is renewed with the word and sides with his spirit. God's Spirit can then lead man by his spirit and transform him into the image of Christ. The mind is renewed through reading, study and meditation on God's Word, spending time in His Presence and being a doer of the word, a huge part of which is walking in love.
(TO BE CONTINUED)