The words jealousy and envy are not synonyms. Jealousy is positive. God is jealous over His people. (Deut 4:24) We should be jealous to some degree (but not paranoid) over our spouses. God loves us and does not want our affection to be for other things.
We are passionate for Him, proud of Him, defensive for Him, fond of Him. We also love our spouses, our family, our children and our friends but our love for God is the foundation of our love for others. We cannot truly love others without the love of God in us. God is good and He is jealous for His people. Jealousy is good.
On the other hand, “envy” is related to hatred. Translations don’t always translate the words right but if you look them up, you will see that envy can cause people to hate, slander and murder. Covetousness and envy are perversions of jealousy. When we envy someone we conceive a hatred for them that is evil. Envy is selfish and destroys people from the inside just as any sin does. Satan’s sin against God was envy. He wanted God’s glory.
When we begin to flow in supernatural favor and blessings as we should, certain things will start to happen, You will find that to your blessings will affect those around you in two ways. You should be provoking others to jealousy in a good way. (Rom 11:11) They should want to be blessed just as you are blessed. I am still very blessed even though I’m still in a wheelchair. As I pursue healing for myself and others, I flow in blessings and favor. I had a spinal cord injury on the honeymoon of my first marriage at 19 years old; but I’m blessed with five children from that marriage. They are all saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit! I have five grandchildren. This has provoked many people to jealousy and even envy. Even though I’ve been through hard times, my blessings speak louder. I was divorced for ten years, living as a single mom in a wheelchair but I victoriously rose above my circumstances; I found a job, raised my children and kept my house, all whilst dealing with paralysis. After ten years, I supernaturally found a husband who is a wonderful spirit-filled man of God! His children are now also saved! When we married, I found out that some women were not happy for me, not congratulating, no comment. Envy is ugly. I was surprised at the reaction of people watching me get blessed. Some people would rather pity you. I am preparing myself for the reactions I may get when I walk out of this chair, fully healed. Will there be rejoicing? Yes, some will rejoice; yet I’m learning that people have strange reactions to miracles. I’m prepared for the best and worst reactions. Unbelief and envy or rejoicing and gladness. My expectations are for ministry; I will provoke the world to jealousy for God in their lives and to be freed from the schemes of the devil.
You can find the story of how I met my second husband, Mark, inside my book, “First Wash The Inside.” (Amazon.com, Xulonpress.com Barnesandnoble.com and more) I finally realized that being blessed will provoke jealousy so I’d better get used to it. Provoking jealousy is good. We don’t want envy; we want people to want what we have – Jesus- because they can be blessed too by learning to believe in what Jesus died to give us freely.
If your life is not attractive, you aren’t flowing in blessings yet. “If you’re not embarrassed by how well things are going in your life, you aren’t living in the blessings God wants for you.” (AW) You need to adjust your beliefs, listen to ministries teaching about being blessed! Andrew Wommack Ministries and Joseph Prince ministries are two that will teach you to believe in being blessed. When you find people getting jealous, you share what you know with them! Point them to Jesus.
Amen to that! ..and the great thing is that Jesus is big enough to share – the more the merrier!! Sharing the goodness of God increases the blessings, the more we give the more we get…. He’s unconditional and limitless, His love has no bounds and will never run out! The lights in heaven won’t dim if we use up too much of Him – there is plenty to go round!! Thanks for sharing!!
Wow! That’s true wisdom. Thank you for sharing.