Jealousy and Envy

A number of folk have asked me to transcribe the word I gave in church this morning.


"I believe the Lord wants to talk to us about Jealousy.

It would be very foolish of us to think that as Spirit-filled believers, that Jealousy has no part on our lives. But I firmly believe that in this Season of 40 Days, Satan is going to get really dirty. We have to be on guard, because Jealousy is one of those strange things. In Galatians 5:19-21 it says quite clearly:

‘The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like’

Jealousy and Envy are not the same: Jealousy sees what somebody else has and says, “I want something just like that – I should have something just like that” (not from a sense of “Gosh, this is really good”).

Envy says “I should have had that instead of that person”, and wants to rob them of it. I believe that as God gives us new ministries, and re-distributes ministries, that there is the potential for Envy and Jealousy amongst us. We must guard rigidly against it. What I believe the Lord would say to us this morning is that if something in your spirit reacts to somebody else, saying “I wish I had that” or, “I should have had that, not them”, then you are to do three specific things;

First
You are to go to the Prayer Closet and repent of the thought, because until you’ve done that, God can’t use you. That’s where you start – in secret.

Second
You start praying in an opposite spirit, because this is of Satan. If Satan makes you jealous of a person, then you deliberately pick up the prayer burden for that person. Where Satan seeks to cause division, you start piling on the prayer. You turn it into a prayer burden, and intensify the other’s gift rather than seek to rob them of it.

Third
Once you’ve done that, you find a way of specifically affirming that person – make it personal, so that they know that you value them, and in so doing, Scripture teaches that you are piling coals on the enemy’s head.


I felt very deeply this morning that God would have us be on guard against this, so that where there is Envy and Jealousy, we completely turn it around, because Satan cannot work with that, and God can.

We are expecting God to bring new anointings, and we should possibly expect Satan to try and rob us of them. So as a Fellowship, be on your guard, repent, pick up the prayer burden, and then specifically affirm. We are blessed in this Fellowship – and we should be encouraging one another in their anointings."