Tonight as I was tucking one of our girls to bed she said “mom, I need to tell you something. I’ve been jealous of my friend and I know it’s not right. How can I stop being jealous?”
I love that she recognized at an early age that the spirit of jealousy is not from God. We talked about what God’s word has to say about jealousy and how it is so important to Him that He put it in the Ten Commandments(Thou shall not covet). I admitted to her that even I, a grown woman, struggle with jealousy from time to time. We talked for a while and prayed about it but as I left her room I couldn’t help but feel burdened to get rid of this spirit of jealousy. I have never met a person who hasn’t struggled with jealousy at some point in their life. As I thought and prayed about this tonight God brought me to Genesis 3:1-5.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
As I re-read this passage that most of us have read multiple times God showed me something about satan and the woman I had never seen. Satan was jealous of Eve. Eve was beautiful. Satan was once the most beautiful angel in heaven until he was removed from his position. Satan cowered at Eve and went to her and began to manipulate her view of God. He convinced Eve to believe a lie that God was holding out on her and she began to be jealous of God and His position. The saddest part? God had so many blessings in store for Eve but she missed out on them because instead of receiving His blessings He had for HER she got jealous and wanted was intended for only HIM.
It was out of jealousy that sin was birthed and it is through jealousy that the enemy drives walls between us and other people. When we allow those walls to stay up we miss the blessings God has in store for us.
As I write this my stomach sinks. How many times have we missed a blessing because we looked at what God was doing in our friends life and got jealous? Ladies, how many times have you cowered at and been jealous of the beauty of another woman? Guys, how many times have you been jealous of the amount of money another man makes in his career?
How many times have we belittled, lied to, discouraged or gotten bitter towards someone because they got an opportunity that we have been dreaming of for years? How many friendships had walls put up and ultimately broken relationships because of a root of jealousy?
Satan may have been the most crafty of all the animals in Adam & Eve’s day BUT GOD sent Jesus to give us the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Revelation 12:11 says “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death”.
When we are spirit lead He will open our eyes to see when satan is trying to deposit a spirit of jealousy in us towards our friends, family members and co-workers. Jesus came not only to save us and give us eternal life but also to set us FREE from the enemies evil schemes and ugly root spirits that keep us in bondage.
Would you join me today in letting God into your life and asking Him to show you any roots of jealousy that have taken up occupancy in our hearts for far too long? Instead of cursing others in our hearts let’s instead cheer them on and bless them publicly!
The truth is that God has more than enough blessing for everyone. We don’t need to get jealous when we see someone receive something amazing. In fact, it should instead increase our faith that if God can open doors for them He can open them for us too. God is no respecter of persons, He wants to bless all of His children! But it starts with us being obedient and opening our hearts to Him today. Let’s regain the territory the enemy has stolen and rebuild what the enemy has torn down.