The apostle James wrote, “For where there is envying and strife, there is confusion and every evil work” (James 3:16).
I have struggled with jealousy most of my life. Jealousy wears many masks. Sometimes it calls itself discernment as it searches the heart of its victim looking for reasons to discredit them. But the gift of discernment, anointed by the spirit of jealousy, is suspicion. Suspicion is discernment’s wicked stepsister. Jealousy is pure evil. It opens the door to demonic spirits in our life like no other sin.
Jealousy inspired Cain to kill Abel, Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery and King Saul to want to destroy David, his greatest and most loyal soldier. Like the women who lined the streets and sang, “Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands,” jealousy is often inspired by someone getting more attention or being more popular than we are. Saul’s jealousy opened the door to the spirit of insanity and murder in his life (1 Sam. 18). It transformed a once humble farm boy into a mass murderer!
Jealousy Has No Friends
Although jealousy has many faces, it has no friends. A person can like you and promote you one day, and view you as a threat the next. As long as they feel more popular, more talented or more powerful than a person, they can promote them, but the second that person’s notoriety, favor, talent or power surpasses their own, the war begins.
Jealousy leads us to try and reduce that person, highlight their weakness, build structures to control them, develop a case against them and/or incite a crowd to persecute them.
Jealousy can build a beautiful palace, but a destroyer is lurking in the basement just waiting for the opportunity to mastermind some ploy to bring down its victims.
4 Steps to Overcoming Jealousy
So what do we do? Here are four steps to overcoming jealousy.
1. First, we must admit that we are jealous and stop justifying our sin! If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s a duck. Telling people how much we love or admire the person we resent is a bunch of lies and is masking our sin, which allows it to grow into a monster in our lives.
2. If we are jealous of someone, we need to invest in them. Then their victory will be our victory.
3. Refuse to embrace it! War against that spirit. Don’t give your mind permission to compare yourself with them. Cultivate a truly thankful heart for them.
4. We must remember that our Father has plenty of love, provision, fame and so forth for all of His children. When someone gets what we long for, there is still plenty left over for us. One person’s promotion is not another person’s demotion. But if we can’t celebrate the victories of others, the Lord will not let us have our own. On the other hand, if we humble ourselves He will exalt us in the proper time!
Do you struggle with jealousy? Tell me about it in the comments below. {eoa}
Kris Vallotton is the senior associate leader at Bethel Church in Redding, California, where he has served with Bill Johnson for three decades. He has written several books, including the best-selling The Supernatural Ways of Royalty and Heavy Rain.
For the original article, visit krisvallotton.com.
