“When we come into peace, our body begins to heal of many things—our relationships get better and we grow closer to God.”
— Neil Elmer, Author & Workshop Facilitator
Regeneration Workshop
8 Sessions to be presented weekly
beginning Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Long Lake Friends Church
4172 Church Road
Traverse City, Michigan
For more information, call 231-360-0097
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Anger management is a teaching tool used by many of today’s secular counselors and psychotherapists to control physical abuse and prevent violence. On the surface it sounds like a good thing, but does it meet all health objectives? Recent medical science research has connected anger to cancer, heart disease, strokes, depression, and other health issues. Managing anger may not be enough to save relationships, achieve sufficient health, and gain peace of mind.
Teaching people to manage anger is conceding that the anger is still present and that it won’t go away. I’ve worked for several years with the prison population. They generally acknowledge that the anger management classes they’ve been through didn’t help them to solve their issues with anger. And it didn’t free them from the pain and misery associated with anger.
Anger management amounts to repressing emotions which accumulate and build up in a person’s life. Anger management is like taking a pill to suppress the pain without attempting to discover and treat the cause.
A lot of anger starts in childhood through abuse, rejection, abandonment, and traumatic experiences. There are many issues which can contribute to the development of anger. The issues may be real or based on inaccurate perceptions of events starting at the beginning of a person’s life. Early childhood anger is a precursor to rebellion, which results in even greater anger because of tension against parents, teachers, and society in general.
In my jail ministry experience, I have never found anyone that is, or has been, incarcerated not having had a major anger issue. Once a prisoner told me he did not have an anger problem. I asked him why he was in jail. He said it was from domestic assault. I asked him, “And you weren’t angry when you did this?” He said, and I recall this verbatim, “No, I was just pissed off.” I asked what the difference was between being pissed off and being angry. The whole group of prisoners in the meeting roared with laughter. The following week, the same prisoner said that he had been thinking about this and he said that he discovered he had a major anger issue. The point of this is that many people don’t realistically see their own anger and that the problem is more prevalent than people would think or admit.
When people are willing to deal with their anger, I have never seen the act of forgiveness fail is alleviating the accumulated anger. Forgiveness puts to death the root of the problem and accomplishes what anger management cannot.
Forgiveness is not easy and it may take time because we may not have just one issue—we may have 100 issues. It is a process to identify the issues of anger and to forgive. To get free of the bondage of anger and find peace, a person must contend with all the experiences that have led to anger and forgive the offender(s) for each offense. Some people have to be reminded to forgive their selves for failures and mistakes.
Forgiveness must be totally unconditional, not expecting anything in return such as an apology, justice, or restored relationship. Forgiveness does not require meeting with the offender, and in fact, it is best not to meet until you are in full peace.
We can get free and healed from our anger. When anger isn’t present, what’s there to manage?
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For more information on forgiveness, see the author's blog: Forgiveness, The Antidote for Anger and Pain
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Neil Elmer is author of the book PreScriptures for Life: A Believer's Guide to Praying Scripture. His ministry helps people achieve peace in life and be set free from the bondages of sin and oppression.
PreScriptures for Life
$15.95 Harvest Day Books
Fear is a natural God-given emotion to protect us from danger. When faced with danger, our immediate fear response alerts us to do something to protect our selves. It’s like the sounding of a fire alarm.
When Faced with Fear You May Feel These Discomforts:
Our bodies weren’t designed to operate continuously in fear. The stress fear causes leads to chemical imbalances that lead to chronic disease. Uncomfortable feelings and symptoms of fear manifest when a person is under the stress of fear and worry. In more advanced stages, the condition can be present continuously.
Fear: Protector or Tormentor?
Here’s how you can distinguish the difference between the protection mechanism God created in us and the tormenting aspects of our emotions. When faced with a dangerous situation like a “scare” while driving on the freeway, the fear mechanism alerts us and prepares us within a fraction of a second to take immediate action or react in the situation. This is the protective side of fear.
By contrast, there are times when the discomfort of fear result when there is no imminent danger. It is not helpful to have this lingering emotion when there is no clear-cut action to get us out of our condition. This undefined fear is better known as anxiety. This is the tormenting side of fear.
While the world’s antidote to anxiety is pills, those with a little more insight realize that there are deeper causes. The symptoms of fear, anxiety, and panic attacks should be telling us to address underlying causes—not cover the symptoms with drugs.
Many people trying to be helpful will often relate the popular Christian verbiage, “Take it to the cross.” We hear this solution expressed many times but the vagueness of this statement leads many wondering, “How do I do that?”
Let’s remove the ambiguity about “taking our problems to the cross.” Paul writes in Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
The figurative phrase, “to nail an issue to the cross,” literally means to express it, to acknowledge it, and to agree to it. The single word that expresses this, by definition, is to “confess.”
The second part of the crucifying process is to kill it. How do we kill it? We don’t do it alone! The Holy Spirit completes the process. Galatians 5:24 explains how we obtain the Fruit of the Spirit. Our part of the process is to confess it and the Spirit’s responsibility is to kill it by removing the belief and replacing it with God’s truth.
This is still confusing until we consider Romans 12.2 which tells us that we will be transformed by the renewing of our mind. I am convinced that the renewing process is changing our old beliefs, which came from past experiences, to the standard of God’s truth so that we live aligned with His beliefs.
In the case of fear, confess it and ask Jesus to remove the fear from our mind. It amazingly will happen. See my blog entry Prayer to Get Free for more specific details on how to do this.
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Neil Elmer is author of the book PreScriptures for Life: A Believer's Guide to Praying Scripture. His ministry helps people achieve peace in life and be set free from the bondages of sin and oppression.
PreScriptures for Life
$15.95 Harvest Day Books
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works …
Ephesians 2:10a
Do you believe that you are God’s workmanship? Scripture says so! But before we gloss over the meaning of Ephesians 2, allow me to pose a couple facts and hard questions.
If your decisions and actions don’t reflect the value God has placed on you as His workmanship, then you don’t firmly believe that you are His workmanship and that you are highly valued by God. In other words, if you have negative thoughts about yourself, you do not completely believe that you are God’s workmanship.
To know about God’s truth is not the same as believing His truth.
The great moral government of God teacher, Harry Conn, often said that the word “belief” is made up two Anglo-Saxon words meaning “to live in accordance with.” So to believe God’s words in the purest sense, we must live in accordance with them.
You likely have beliefs that are already established which are not in accordance with God’s truth. Our beliefs start formulating from the beginning of life and they develop through experience. Not all experience is Godly in nature. For example, rejection, abandonment, neglect, and similar issues lead to unhealthy beliefs of unworthiness, low self-esteem, or even self-hate.
Why do people still not believe they are valuable?
If this is you, your mind needs to be renewed by God’s truth. Be encouraged by this:
In Mark 9:24, the father of the child with the mute spirit says to Jesus; “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” You can ask Jesus today to help you with your unbelief in the case of unworthiness (or anything else).
First acknowledge your unbelief about being God’s workmanship. Then ask that this unbelief be removed from your life and be replaced with God’s truth. See this article Prayer to Get Free to accomplish this. PreScriptures for Life has hundreds of scriptures categorized by topics. It is a great resource for building your beliefs in God's truth.
Satan’s ability to deceive us and do damage to us is because of our unbelief. Paul wrote in Romans 12:2 that we will be transformed by the renewal of our minds. To live a victorious Christian life, our mind needs to be fortified with the beliefs of God’s Word and purged of the beliefs that lead us to deception.
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Neil Elmer is author of the book PreScriptures for Life: A Believer's Guide to Praying Scripture. His ministry helps people achieve peace in life and be set free from the bondages of sin and oppression.
PreScriptures for Life
$15.95 Harvest Day Books
Depression greatly reduces quality of life. It causes misery, contributes to addictions, and reduces our energy level. Beliefs about reality and hope for our life have more to do with why we are depressed than some may realize. God has the answer to help you get free of depression.
Consequences of Depression
Depression is characterized as a mood of sadness and irritability of greater intensity and duration than normal sadness and grief. A depressed person will have negative thoughts and behaviors such as crying spells and physical symptoms that include body aches, low energy, eating, weight, and sleeping problems.
Depression frequently coincides with other illnesses such as: heart disease, stroke, cancer, arthritis, chronic lung disease and diabetes.
Neuropsychiatric illnesses such as depression are known to be associated with chemical imbalances. Although drug therapy is prescribed to correct the chemical imbalances, it shouldn’t be assumed that such therapy is treating the cause. Current research is finding that chemical imbalance is just another symptom. Prolonged use of psychiatric drugs may cause permanent brain damage.
Current research is finding that stress contributes to all sorts of disease including depression. For example, it has been found that a mother’s stress during pregnancy can increase the chances of child having depression as an adult. The environment and belief structure also play into this. Research has found that the stressful incidents in a person’s life are cumulative. The ACE Study which deals with adverse childhood experiences has found that stress affects later outcomes of physical and mental health.
Feelings of hopelessness within depressed people are very common. They feel their situation will not change and they feel helpless and powerless in the ability to control their life. A child certainly would feel that way if they were growing up in an adverse life situation. Yet many adults feel hopeless and powerless.
Symptoms of Depression
Causes of Depression
When we have been hurt in the past, we accumulate beliefs and feelings of anger about the people and situations that have hurt us. These beliefs will continue to affect our thinking and actions until they are renewed.
While fear, shame, guilt, frustration, and unworthiness may influence and support a state of depression, anger is probably the biggest contributor. Fear within our life will also make us feel hopeless, which contributes to depression.
These are causes which any sort of drug therapy cannot address.
God’s Answer to Depression
What we believe about our life will determine how we feel. In order to change how we feel, we must change what we believe.
The answer is to get rid of anger and frustration. This will change a person’s perspective about their feelings of hopelessness. The way to do this is to totally forgive all that you have anger toward—for all the things that have happened that have made you angry. My article Forgiveness: The Antidote for Anger and Pain provides specific detail on how to do this. As you go through this process, depression will begin to lift.
Anger is not the only contributor to depression even though getting free of anger will go a long way toward achieving freedom. Many people who are depressed also suffer from anxiety disorder which is fear and worry. Fear can lead to beliefs of hopelessness because it stops a person from accomplishing goals. As in anger, the solution to depression is getting free of fear, worry, and anxiety.
Low self image is another issue which affects depression. A person’s self image can be damaged from issues of abandonment, rejection, and failures of the past—all of which direct anger to someone, some thing, or one’s self. Low self image and other emotions such as shame and guilt need to be cleansed from our life.
The way to achieve freedom from depression, therefore, is to acknowledge your fears and other life-controlling beliefs to God and seek His renewing of your mind. You can utilize The Prayer to Get Free to accomplish this.
Truly, there are alternatives to psychiatric drugs which only treat the symptoms. God’s way is get to the root causes. When you invite God to deal with the heart of the issue, the symptoms of depression will go away.
http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psychiatric-drugs/antipsychotics/neuroleptic-brain-damage
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/drugs.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ace/index.htm
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Neil Elmer is author of the book PreScriptures for Life: A Believer's Guide to Praying Scripture. His ministry helps people achieve peace in life and be set free from the bondages of sin and oppression.
PreScriptures for Life
$15.95 Harvest Day Books
A Pick-Me-Up From Rejection
by Neil Elmer
We all have experienced rejection. From not being accepted for a job opening to being the last one picked for a team on the playground, from being overlooked for a promotion, to your opinions not being heard, rejection is prevalent in everyday life.
Rejection defeats our longing for acceptance. It deflates our need for love and belonging. The fear of rejection can stop us cold—preventing us from being confident and from asserting ourselves into endeavors that could greatly benefit and advance us.
In ministry, I enjoy helping people overcome feelings of uselessness, loneliness, and forsakenness which can come from the trauma of rejection. Past hurts truly can affect the quality of our lives today. I’m finding that there are truly a lot of people out there who are hurting.
I knew a person who had many good things going for them: an advanced degree, success in business, attractive physique, and they were very articulate. Most would admire these outward characteristics, yet the story was much different on the inside. This person suffered from rejection issues which caused much anxiety, fear, and internal turmoil. These feelings immobilized this person and kept them in pain and discomfort. Prescription medications sometimes helped with the symptoms of anxiety but never dealt with the root causes.
Children are especially susceptible to the hurt of rejection. When a person is told that they are stupid, a failure, or a mistake of a human being, they are being rejected. In these cases, their worth as an individual is being severely attacked. Children, young people, and many adults lack the experience or maturity to know that what someone says about them doesn’t have to define and establish their worth or value in the sight of God, their Creator.
All people have been rejected for some things in their life. An emotionally healthy person can go through set-backs without it becoming a traumatic experience in their life. People need to understand that they aren’t going to be winners at everything all the time yet that they DO have intrinsic value all of the time.
You know? Words are very hurtful things—so are broken promises. Rejections lead to mindsets or paradigms that are life-guiding. Destructive mindsets act as negative strongholds. Because rejection hurts, people develop defense mechanisms to avoid the pain.
In the long-run, this is not a peaceful or joyful way to live life. Scripture tells us that we are so loved by God that the Heavenly Father sent His only begotten Son into the world for us. His sacrifice is because He loves us; He gave Himself for us. In other words—we have value!
In PreScriptures for Life, I wrote a chapter on loneliness and feeling forsaken. I wrote another chapter on your value. These chapters can help you; here are some key verses I share from the Bible that speak to your value and the fact that you truly are never alone. God (and others that maybe you have yet to meet) really do care about you:
John 14:18
“I will not leave you desolate (alone, forsaken): I come unto (to help) you.
Deuteronomy 31:6b
“…he (God) it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are his (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works …”
Galatians 2:20b
“…the Son of God, who loved me, and game himself up for me.”
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Neil Elmer is author of the book PreScriptures for Life: A Believer's Guide to Praying Scripture. His ministry helps people achieve peace in life and be set free from the bondages of sin and oppression.
PreScriptures for Life
$15.95 Harvest Day Books
Limitations to Healing
Post-modern day beliefs which run contrary to the Gospel prevent people from receiving healing from God.
It’s difficult to imagine but it’s true that many who walk through the church doors each week believe that miracles ended in the first century--after the ministry of Jesus and his early disciples. That false doctrine is propagated by several--but not all--mainline denominations. If I may borrow a phrase from popular Bible teacher, Joyce Meyer, I’d have to say that this is “stinkin’ thinkin’.”
Others believe in God’s miracles but don’t understand that sin can limit healing and miracles. Another limiting factor is that some Christians assume that salvation takes care of all the issues and consequences they had prior to salvation.
So, if everything is taken care of at salvation, then why would Paul write in Romans 12:2 that “we will be transformed by the renewing of our mind”—a process more than a single event?
F. F. Bosworth, a powerful evangelist through whom God had bestowed a great number of healings during the course of his long ministry, certainly believed that sin restricted healing. Read several quotes from his book which was first printed in 1924:
“Many people miss healing by trying to confine God to miracles.”
- F. F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer, pg. 95
“After we hear the Gospel, and know what it offers, Jesus says Repent and believe the Gospel. Only those who are right with God can follow these instructions. When seeking healing for our bodies there should be no compromise with the Adversary of our souls, because it is he who is the author of our diseases. Jesus may but He has not promised to, destroy the works of the devil in our bodies while we are clinging to the work of the devil in our souls. It is hard to exercise faith for the removal of one part of the devil’s work while we allow a worse part to remain. Until a man squarely faces and settles the question of obedience to God, he is not on believing ground. James says, confess your faults to one and another…that you may be healed. It is God’s will that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prosperth. If I regarded iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.”
- F. F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer, pg 85-86
There are specific diseases mentioned in the Bible that are the result of sin (disobedience to God’s Commands).
Deuteronomy 28:1 (NLT) “If you fully obey the LORD your God by keeping all the commands I am giving you today, the LORD your God will exalt you above all the nations of the world.
Deuteronomy 28:15 (NLT) “But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey all the commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:
Deuteronomy 28:20 (NLT) “The LORD himself will send against you curses, confusion, and disillusionment… 22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, fever, and inflammation…27 “The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured.
28 The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic.
Very current medical science research also points to sin as being the culprit to much disease. It has been thought that our faulty genes that we inherit from mom and dad, was the cause of much disease. A new field of study, called epigenetic or epigenome is changing these long held thought that disease is largely controlled by an unchangeable gene code. Scientist has since discovered that our environment can change the expression of a gene leading to disease. In fact, it has been found that the altered gene can be inherited three to four generations. This idea is collaborated in Bible scripture. More on this in a moment—because the effects of a generation curse can be stopped and reversed!
The ACE Study (www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ace) found that adverse child experiences (ACE) leads to disease and negative social consequences mentally, emotionally, and socially. The memories of abuse, neglect, and abandonment don’t resolve themselves. These are devastating events which result in beliefs connected to emotions of anger, fear, shame, guilt, and other negative paradigms and emotions which reside in the memories.
While childhood experiences are more tragic, adult experiences can also cause great difficulty in a person’s life. Rejection and abandonment (including the death of a loved one) or traumatic experiences that result in post traumatic stress are examples.
Unforgiven anger and fear in these memories corrupt the thinking and paradigms of a person. The reason: what we believe is the substance of our thinking! What we believe directly affects how we react to our present situations.
Titus 1:15 (NLT) Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are defiled.
God’s command regarding anger, for example, is very clear. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:26: “… don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,” Anger is just one of the things that can corrupt the mind and defile the heart.
So, in receiving God’s healing, these three areas need to be examined:
Each of these roadblocks to healing can be removed as our mind is renewed in obedience to God’s Word. Briefly, here’s the way to do it:
1. Remove stinkin’ thinkin’ by getting your mind on God’s truth and deal with issues head on (such as anger, fear, unforgiveness, etc.). All the while, allow God to renew your mind with His Word—replacing our error with His truth.
2. Our point of salvation isn’t the end! But rather, our coming to Christ is the beginning of our new life where transformation and sanctification (cleansing) is ongoing. Old consequences and issues from our former life may still have a hold on us. So, it’s important to understand that transformation and freedom come both instantaneously and progressively as we surrender more of our life to Christ.
3. Regarding sin, when we come to Christ our past and present sin is taken away. Yet, as the Holy Spirit reveals specific sins, even from before our point of salvation, He is requiring our repentance to allow our heart and mind to be cleansed of all unrighteousness. It is not God’s will for us to remain in sin and disobedience to Him. If and when we sin after coming to Christ, we must still confess and repent of that sin for “God is faithful and just to forgive us of sin” according to James 1:9.
Now that these limitations to healing have been revealed and ways to overcome the roadblocks have been discussed, I encourage you to take action.
Many who go to church don’t want to acknowledge that unconfessed sin may be the reason for continued affliction. What happens next is people bypass their spiritual responsibilities. Instead they ask for prayer, get their name on the prayer list, request miracle healing, and pray that God will guide the doctors. While these are good things to do, they are not getting to the heart of the issue if we are ignoring the possibility that we may have unconfessed sin and disobedience to God.
A right relationship with God is the first key to eliminating roadblocks and limitations to healing. Check your spiritual pulse first and be open to God’s Word and guidance by the Holy Spirit.
Mark 4:22 “Everything that is now hidden or secret will eventually be brought to the light.”
Authors’ Note: Christ the Healer is still in circulation and on Kindle; I highly recommend the book to all who desire healing.
Neil Elmer is author of the book PreScriptures for Life: A Believer's Guide to Praying Scripture. His ministry helps people achieve peace in life and be set free from the bondages of sin and oppression.
PreScriptures for Life
$15.95 Harvest Day Books
By Neil Elmer
What motivates a person to construct and place a car bomb in New York City Times Square in order to injure and kill many people? Extreme hate has to be the emotion that stimulates a person’s passions to do such a hideous act.
Anger is a natural human emotion that can intensify into more potent forms such as resentment, hate, violence, and murder. Anger is a belief about something. Our lives don’t start with beliefs; beliefs are learned.
Most anger is learned from experiences. Children who are abused or neglected learn anger, which leads to rebellion as they grow older. From a state of rebellion, anger can escalate to much anti-social and self-destructive behavior.
Many terrorists on record came from privileged backgrounds. Is their anger learned from neglect or by other means? In the case of religious terrorists, cultural and generational training are the more likely factors. Parts of the Muslim religion, for example, are very legalistic (harsh rules) with strict expectation of adherence and severe consequences for disobedience. This can be a breeding ground for anger--especially when taken to the extreme.
So why isn’t there mass rebellion against or exodus from that sort of religion? There are two reasons. First, fear is used to manipulate and control. The threat of death cannot be ignored. Second, the teaching which starts at an early age deflects the anger away from the family and the religion--the "infidels" are made out to be the problem. So, their anger is justified and pain is the price of being faithful to the religion.
However, anger and pain are not unique to the lives of religious extremists. Unresolved anger within any segment of humanity can simmer and burn within hearts and minds. Often, anger, no matter how mild, leads to destructive behaviors to self, relationships, or society--even in America. Certainly, the stresses surrounding anger are detrimental to physical and emotional health. My article Forgiveness: The Antidote for Anger and Pain deals with the problem of anger and pain facing so many of us. Though anger may not lead most of society to make a car bomb or destroy the World Trade Center, we are all deeply affected. True peace can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Neil Elmer is author of the book PreScriptures for Life: A Believer's Guide to Praying Scripture. His ministry helps people achieve peace in life and be set free from the bondages of sin and oppression.
PreScriptures for Life
$15.95 Harvest Day Books
Envy, Jealousy, and Covetousness
By Neil Elmer, author of PreScriptures for Life
As you may noticed from recent posts, I have been sharing information and ideas to help people gain freedom and peace in life. There are many things within ourselves that limit achievement and happiness. We are not helped much by our culture and society.
This week we’re going to expose the negative aspects of a few strong emotions—envy, jealousy, and covetousness—and reveal how to be set free of the consequences of these destructive beliefs.
Definitions of envy and jealousy from Wikipedia
Envy (also called invidiousness) is best defined as an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another's (perceived) superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it.
Jealousy is an emotion and typically refers to the negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something that the person values, such as a relationship, friendship, or love. Jealousy often consists of a combination of emotions such as anger, sadness, and disgust.
Merriam-Webster online dictionary meaning of covetousness:
1: marked by inordinate desire for wealth or possessions or for another's possessions
2: having a craving for possession <covetous of power>
As we can see, the meanings of the three words are very similar. Dealing with these three emotions can be handled in the same manner. The common thread is the desire for something that does not belong to one’s self.
This desire leads to such destructive consequences that God set out to protect His people by informing them of how harmful it is. In leading us away from certain problems He incorporated sound guidance in the tenth commandment of the Old Testament.
Deuteronomy 5:21 (NIV) You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Scriptures say that covetousness is idolatry.
Colossians 3:5 (NIV) Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Scriptures say that covetousness is a form of lust.
James 4:1-3 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Mark 7:21-23 (NIV) For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.
Envy, jealousy, and covetousness lead to social unrest and trouble. Examples include: robbery, stealing, violence, murder, rioting, bribery, perjury, extortion, intimidation, and war. Squabbling and discontent due to jealousy tears apart a family. This especially comes to the surface at times when inheritances are being distributed. Envy for power and authority or personal recognition and approval can be divisive, causing disunity, and the splitting of business associations and even church congregations. It is easy to see why God hates covetousness.
Covetousness opens the door for lust to gain strength in our lives. Lust gives Satan tremendous power to tempt us at our points of weakness. When and if we give into the temptation, it becomes a negative, downward spiral as we continue to reap negative rewards which rob us of God’s best. To make matters worse, Satan further condemns us for taking his suggestion.
Let’s further expose the work of the enemy here! What began as envy grew into lust and then proceeded to shame and guilt after acting on the original emotion. It’s a serious matter to understand how one weakness can lead to such devastation.
Desires of other’s possessions lead to expectations. When we fail to get these expectations, anger sets in. The anger can be directed at those who have what we want, at God, or at our self for our own failures and shortcomings.
Desires, when acted on in ways that wrong people, can open the door for guilt to set in. When we feel we are at risk of not getting or losing the things we strongly desire, our fears and anxieties grow. It should be noted that a simple emotion doesn’t operate independently but often affects other emotions.
Comparison and competition open the door for desiring what someone else has. For example, in childhood, the skills and gifts of siblings are often compared. The more this comparison was heard, the more it hurt. Then the desire to have what the other had becomes important in order to get free of the pain.
Getting Free of Envy, Jealousy and Covetousness
Using the Prayer to Get Free as posted in a previous blog, confess the specific instances of desiring other people’s possessions, skills, or gifts in Part One of the prayer. In Part Four of the prayer, ask Jesus to remove the envy, jealousy or covetousness.
If parents or others have hurt you by comparing you to others, forgive them in Part One of the prayer. In Part Four, ask Jesus to remove the bitterness and anger. If you have been responsible for the comparison, then forgive yourself. This can be accomplished in Part One of the prayer. In Part Four, ask for any self-bitterness or anger to be removed.
If you grew up in a family that was always concerned about what other people have, then there is probably a generational root of covetousness. Break this generational curse by renouncing the generational curse off past, present, and future generations. In Part Four of the Prayer to Get Free, ask that the curse be removed.
There may be words and vows that need to be renounced whether said or agreed to within yourself. Examples might be “I never will be happy unless I have…” or “if I am like them, people will like me.” Seemingly innocent words can set-up a person for major struggles and pain. Renounce the words and vows in Part One and ask that these be removed in Part Four.
In Part Five of the Prayer to Get Free, truth can be replaced for the lies that have been controlling our life.
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Neil Elmer is author of the book PreScriptures for Life: A Believer's Guide to Praying Scripture. His ministry helps people achieve peace in life and be set free from the bondages of sin and oppression.
PreScriptures for Life
$15.95 Harvest Day Books
