As a young lad at school I learned to fight.

When I was 9 we moved from Paisley to Edinburgh, as I had a strong west coast accent, I was picked on at school, so, I learned to hit first and ask questions later. This behaviour is unacceptable and I’m not condoning it in any way, it is part of my testimony and I mention it to make a very important point, which I will come to in a moment.

By the time I reached high school, I had a reputation for being a “hard nut.” At age 15 I was at home when I saw a large gang of youths arrive on bicycles, there were about 40 of them brandishing chains and obviously looking for trouble. I watched from my bedroom window as they spread out in the courtyard in front of my house. I saw them speak to a few of the local kids who were trembling with fear. Eventually they dispersed and I went down to see what they had wanted. One of my friends told me they were looking for you Gordon. I realised then, that it was time to get rid of my reputation before it got rid of me. It was only going to get worse and it was time to stop this nonsense.

I left school soon after and started a job in Edinburgh. I was walking down the street one day when a truck stopped and a young lad jumped out, I didn’t see him as he came up behind me and kicked the stuffing out of me…I offered no resistance. He then got back into his truck and drove off. Stunned by the attack, I went into the shop where I worked with blood streaming down my face. At the same time 2 police officers came in behind me saying they had seen the whole thing. Apparently they knew the lad and wanted me to charge him with assault. I refused. After some stern talk from the police officers, they went away shaking their heads. The people I worked with asked me why I didn’t charge him and I told them “because I wanted it to stop.”

I got born again at the age of 29 and began to read the bible where I saw how Jesus considered violence. He expanded on the commandment which said, thou shall not commit murder by saying, if any man is angry with another person, he has already committed murder in his heart. There is no doubt about it; anger, of any kind, against another human being is extremely bad, in fact… it’s murder.

Having accepted this scripture, I had a dilemma, because scripture also says “be angry and sin not” (Eph 4:26). Is this a contradiction? Let’s look at the text, the context is, putting off the former life and putting on the new by the renewing of the mind.

Eph 4:22-27 “That ye put off concerning the former

Don't let the sun go down on your wrath.

Scripture clearly teaches that anger at another human being is expressly forbidden, so how can we be angry and sin not? And how does this give place to the devil? First let me deal with the statement, “let not the sun go down on your wrath…” I have listened to countless sermons on marriage where this scripture is used to teach couples that if they ever have any altercation in their life; make sure it’s dealt with before bedtime. If you read this scripture in context you’ll see this is utter foolishness. For one thing by teaching this they are implying that being angry at each other during daylight hours is ok as long as you deal with it before you go to bed. Hear is my paraphrase of what this scripture is saying.

“There is a place for anger which is righteous, never let the sun go down on this anger and never, never give place to the devil!”   

When is anger righteous?

When it is directed at the devil! This anger should not be put down; it is to be stirred up! The anger I felt as a young lad was sinful, the anger I feel as a mature Christian, at the devil and his despicable host of demonic spirits is righteous. As a mature Christian I have learned that getting angry and doing battle with the hooligans in the kingdom of darkness, is a requirement and to be practiced at every opportunity. In this spiritual battle there is no option to “make it stop.” If you are a Christian you are in a battle for your life, the only way you are going to make it stop, is if you die or are taken up with Christ when He comes back. Even then, the Lord is coming back to do battle with His enemies.

Listen to the language of King David in Psalm 139:21 “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.”   David expresses deep hatred for God’s enemies; we need the same fire in our belly for every work of the devil that comes against God or those created in His image. How then do we express righteous anger?

Neither give place to the devil   

Learn to fight the enemy BEFORE he attacks you, then fight on behalf of anyone he is taking advantage of. We see this in the life of the Lord as he went about doing good and setting the captives free. When He came across anyone

David kills the uncircumcised Philistine

There may be times when the devil jumps us from behind and gives us a thrashing. As a lad I decided to take the beating in order to get a quiet life, in the spiritual battle, there is no quiet life! If I had turned on the lad who beat me in the street I would have given him a run for his money, make no mistake about it. However, my desire to make it stop knocked the fight out of me. It also rendered the law powerless as I refused to uphold my legal right against an unlawful act. Christ defeated our enemy, Satan and his entire hellish host, on the cross. Consider this…

Luke 1:70-75 “As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,  That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,  In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

Because of the cross we have a legal right to rout the devil every time. “Neither give place to the devil!”  Luke 1:70 – 75 above is our legal position as sons of the most High God. If we are attacked IN ANY WAY we are to turn on the enemy and enforce our legal right to serve our God without fear. James 4:7 “Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This is the duty of every believer, to submit ourselves to God first, and then RESIST. 

The Lord led me and my wife to go to Canada for 10 days in October. We have two precious friends over there that we loved and wanted to fellowship with. There were also two people we had prayed for on the phone who were in hospital. We knew we were going to see these people for sure but God showed us there was much more he wanted us to do there. We had no idea what, but we knew we needed to trust him totally.

When we got to Canada, doors were open to ministry that we could not have imagined. We were walking through a shopping Mall and a man came up to us, who was known to our friend Giselle, as a prophet. He prophesied over me and what he said more or less happened while we were there. We saw people healed and demons were fleeing left right and centre. I was given the pulpit at a church and took the whole meeting. At the end I asked if anyone wanted prayer and the whole congregation came forward.

Now please hear me, I’m only telling you this because I want to make something else perfectly clear. God did great things whilst we were there, but on our return we got reports that some of the people we prayed for were still in a battle. Much of the work done was completed whilst we were there, but some are a work in progress. It is to these “works in progress” that I speak to in this message. I also want everyone reading this to be aware of the nature of our calling in Christ Jesus.

We need to realise that every believer has responsibility to fight like a lion for themselves first then for others. I want to encourage you dear friends to get out of the “I just want a quite life” mode and get into “I want to destroy the works of darkness” which is fighting mode. 

Turn on the enemy and he will flee!

When the enemy starts to gather in the courtyard in front of your house you can’t afford the luxury of watching, like a coward, from the window as he prepares an attack on your household. If he jumps you from behind, turn on him and give him the thrashing of his life!”  The force of the law is watching ready to back you up!

Some of my friends in Canada are still in the battle, to you I would say, rise up men and women of God and fight the good fight of faith.  The force of the law of God is poised to give you the victory, but if you do not resist the enemy he will run you over with the force of a Sherman tank. 

When you are born again you speak with a different accent which will attract the attention of the enemy. He will try his best to bully you into becoming a member of the sleeping church which Christ will spew out of His mouth. I was just a foolish boy dealing with my situation the only way I knew best. However, in the spiritual battle, we are to deal with our enemy the same way I did in the natural. In the natural it is wrong to behave this way, in the spiritual, it is dangerous not to!   

DON’T CRY OUT TO GOD TO “MAKE IT STOP” YOU STOP IT, IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST AND THEN GO HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME! 

Whilst you are getting to grip with this authority in Christ, if you need help… contact Gordon. We love you and thank God for you all, with every blessing in Jesus name… Amen.

Gordon McGill: Revival Scotland, November 2009.