Activating Love 3 - Jealousy - David Mitts

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. (1Co 13:4-8)

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Love never fails!  This is the core reality and power source for humans fulfilling our God-ordained destiny both individually and collectively.  For us to become our true potential and possibility, it will require love. Love is not just an attitude or even a perspective, but a living reality that unleashes the resources of heaven into and through our lives.  God is love.  The creation is imbued with Him through His Word.

The Scriptures tell us:

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."  Mat 12:34 (NKJV)

Out of the abundance of God’s heart, He speaks what is in His heart, which is love. If we want to have the abiding reality of God’s intention promised by His Word, which reflects His heart then we must come into alignment with His love.

Over the last 2 weeks, we have pressed in for the first 2 aspects of God’s love being activated purposefully in our hearts.

Love is patient....

Love is kind….

I encourage you to revisit the messages as will I. They are now posted both on the blog and on the new Facebook page for BEST Shabbat.  A special thank you to Charles for creating the page and all he does to maintain the blogs. By the way, this is a great way to reach out to family and friends and include them easily in what God is doing here with us.  I believe it will bless them, so share it with those you care about.  It will be an act of love!

OK, today we are going to deal with the first anti-attribute of love, jealousy.  Love is NOT jealous!

When you make a distinction with a negative comparison it is usually because there is a black and white nature to the comparison. God is by nature inclusive.  So, for Him to define something as NOT of Him, it must be so completely of darkness that it must be pointed out.  Jealousy is the first of these anti-Christ natures.

So, what is jealousy and what is its essential nature?

Jealousy reaches back to the corruption of the garden.  It is founded on a fundamental lie that God is keeping something from us that makes us lesser somehow.  Like any lie that corrupts us, it is based in a true act but with an untrue motive.  If the lie can get us to doubt the Goodness of God, then it can cause us to lose trust; and in losing trust, we lose love.

Let’s look at the mechanism or scheme of the enemy:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'" The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:1-5 NASB)

The word translated “crafty” or “subtle” in some translations is the Hebrew word “arom.” One verse earlier at the end of Chapter 2, we read:

The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:23-25 NASB)

This is the verse that Paul uses to parallel the oneness of man and woman, and Messiah and the church.  In the place of oneness, called basar echad or “one flesh” there is a transparency with no shame.  The word translated “naked” here is also “arom” derived from the same root word as the one translated as crafty or subtle.  So, the oneness of Adam and Eve shared some quality with the craftiness of the serpent.  How can this be?

Let’s get to this in a minute because it is the same as with the word jealous.  Paul tells us love is not jealous.  But then James tells us that God is jealous for His spirit in us:

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? (James 4:5 NASB)

Clearly, there is a difference between Adam and Eve’s oneness and the serpent’s craftiness, and the jealousy of God for His Spirit and the jealousy of man.

The words “arom” share the same concept which is transparency or purity of “essence.”  Adam and Eve were transparent, one in essence, naked, no cover-up and thus without shame.  The serpent, in sin, was also naked but his nakedness revealed his true nature, crafty, deceptive.  You see the nakedness, the transparency, isn’t the issue.  The issue is what it reveals.

In a similar way jealousy is a revealing word.  Jealousy is the power behind the craftiness, the influence of the serpent.  For Satan, and those he influences, jealousy is based on lack; on comparison.  He influenced Adam and Eve to consider lack, what they perceived that they didn’t have.  In this case, they perceived they didn’t have what the devil defined as what was missing to make them like God; knowing good and evil, being able to judge right and wrong.

The irony is that they already were good! There was no lack! There was just a protective boundary.  

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food;” and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:26-31 NASB)

Man was already good, actually very good, “tov meod” and had no need to “know” evil.  But through words of lack, rooted in fear, Adam and Eve choose to trust in their own perspective, violated the protective boundary, and broke trust with God.  Jealousy had done its work.

You see, jealousy from man’s need to fill the lack causes us to try to decide what is good for us.  Since those thoughts are rooted in lack and fear they cause us to constantly try to get things that will make it all good.  The problem is, we cannot get something outside of us to make the inside of us good. It is what is inside of us that determines our goodness.

And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. (Mar 7:20)

Only when that which is good, comes into us and transforms us, can we return through love to our original state of being good, created in God’s image and likeness.

God’s jealousy, by contrast, is like Adam’s nakedness before trust was broken.  God is one and so His jealousy is not rooted in lack but rooted in abundance.  His jealousy is protective of a treasure He has, not of something He lacks.  It was God’s jealousy that had Him place a boundary on evil. You see the difference?  So, God’s love is His jealousy.

Our jealousy is rooted in lack and fear and is anti-love.

God put His Goodness back inside of us when we receive our salvation.  This is His act of love and places His love in our heart.  This is His Holy Spirit.

and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5 NASB)

Jealousy, of the human kind, is the statement that I am not enough.  God in me is not enough and by getting something you have I can be more.  This attitude transforms me from God’s love and His abundance to the place of lack and fear.  What is lost is oneness which manifests trust.  Once I consider lack and then become fearful, I have traded my oneness or “knowing” of God’s goodness for the deception of the knowledge of good and evil, which is really just the loss of trust in God and the need to provide my own covering for my missing-ness.  

Shame is the conclusion of someone who is “not good enough.”  That is the product of losing my goodness, my oneness and choosing lack and fear which produces jealousy.

The solution to shame is self-acceptance, which can only come through the knowing that God has declared me “good’ through the price He paid for me.  In this place, I am good and one with the Source of all goodness in the world.  This allows love to be my heart condition and I can return to the mandate of my destiny as a good and faithful son or daughter in whom He is well pleased.

Performance no longer determines my goodness.  That produces jealousy, competitiveness.  No! My goodness is determined by the Good One who lives in me and is one with me. Yeshua said:

"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. 

(John 17:20-23 NASB)

Perfected in unity! This is the condition of living in the reality that He has declared us good. God doesn’t take a bad person and makes them better. God takes a good person and perfects them in His goodness.  This is what draws the world.  Only when you accept that you are good because He makes you good by living in you as the source of goodness, will you relax into that goodness and manifest the perfection of who you are in Him.  Nothing you can do can ever separate you from Him who lives in you as goodness, which is love.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:31-39)

Activation: Love is NOT jealous

It’s time now to take our eyes and put them back on Yeshua, not on the desire to become wise in our own eyes.  As the Lord, who or what have you compared yourself too?  Where are the comparisons that are stealing your joy?  Where have you been jealous?  Be honest.

The opposite of jealousy is thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is a heart that appreciates or adds value.  What do you need to be thankful for?  What is unique to you?

Finally, decide to think on what is pure and lovely in your life and the life of others. Decide to be generous and a giver because it is hard to be a giver and be jealous.