“And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him… Love does not envy” (Ac 7:9; 1Cor 13:4)

Envy is defined as an unpleasant angry feeling or a bitter longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities or success. Envy is the desire to have a beautiful thing belonging to someone else. Envy wants to take the wealth that belongs to another and leave that one poor. Envy is wicked. Envy is one of the works of the flesh. It is the desire that others should not have what you do not have! Envy says: ‘If I don’t go to heaven, you should not go there too; if I don’t have Jesus, you too should miss Him.’ Envy is criminal. Envy is sin. Envy is deceptive. When envy rises in your heart, you may miss its true identity. Pray that the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to see any sin that still dwells in your flesh. Chose to live a life of sacrificial holy love. That life will kill the root of envy in your flesh! Give God all the glory!

MY TESTIMONY This incident happened about 20 years ago. I still remember the moment and the place when the Holy Spirit convicted me of the sin of envy. Somebody told me that a woman I did not like got promoted at her job. Something like a tornado started turning my stomach. I felt sick. I felt angry. I felt like vomiting. The feeling was so strong that I forgot about my ‘enemy’ and I prayed asking God: ‘What is this sickness, Lord?’ The answer came immediately: ‘It is the demon of envy that you have allowed to stay in you’. I was shocked. I thought that God will tell me it was poison, or typhoid fever or high blood pressure… But envy? I was sure that I never envied anyone. I was proud thinking myself free from the shame of envy. I thought that I am a woman who always minds her business. If it was a human being who confronted me with the sin of envy I could have argued. But it was the Holy Spirit who spoke the Word. I could not argue. I just knelt down in my kitchen, among pots and pans yet to be washed, and I prayed for forgiveness of sins, of envy in particular. I also prayed for deliverance. Something ugly left me that day. A troublesome burden fell down from my back. I gained a new peace, a new wisdom, a new strength and a new courage to pray for others. Since then, I am free. Occasionally, that familiar demon tried to deceive me and come back to my heart. But the Holy Spirit helped me to identify it before it came too close. God helped me to raise my shield of faith against it! The victory is permanent! This testimony is to the glory of God!
I want to encourage you to do the same. In the name of Jesus, be free! Be filled with the Holy Spirit! Be satisfied with what God gives to you! Do not compare yourself with others. Live a life of thanksgiving! Confess and repent of envy! There is enough room for you, for all of us, at the foot of the Cross of Christ! Glory!

In Christ I declare: I shall always love God and His people! I shall never envy! I shall be satisfied with God’s provision for my life! I shall be grateful for the blessings God bestows on me and my family! I shall pray for others! I shall be grateful for the blessings God gives to others! I live a life of thanksgiving! In Jesus’ name, Amen!
(From my diary, April, 2019)