Suspicion – Fruit of Jealousy and Fear
June 3rd, 2007
Priscilla Van Sutphin
There is a good king of jealousy and a bad kind. Paul says in the New Testament, I am jealous for you until Christ is formed in you. God’s very name is JEALOUS, which is Qanna in the Hebrew. So we know there is a good form where there is no malice of heart, but only a desire to see the best for others, but there is a kind that comes from insecurity and fear that leads to a paranoid suspicion. We know that perfect love casts down all FEAR. So when we have enough LOVE, and understand how much God loves us, then we are not prone to suspicion, jealousy and fears.
But when we have grown up in very dysfunctional situations and have been abandoned, neglected, abused in various ways, then there is a propensity for the enemy to play on our fears and provoke us to the perversion of jealousy and suspicion. In this hour there is much in the news that is fear provoking. There is much violence and neglect and abuse, war and threats of war. But God’s solution is not vigilence to the negative, but to be FILLED WITH THE FULLNESS OF HIM.
Eph 3:18-19 AMP
18 That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; 19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!
So the root if you will is not only fear, but when fear and other things are there, it means there has been a lack of TRUE LOVE in your life that would make you secure. When a baby is nursed often and held a lot it develops trust in the parent. But if that is NOT the normal treatment of an infant and a child, then aberrations in behavior occur. Neglect, is a form of abandonment, and abuse is also, in violent form. That victimizer is destroying bits of your soul and causing distrust, suspicion, fear and anger, rejection and rebellion to have an open door in the life of a child. Sometimes it takes a whole lifetime to get rid of it all. Then on top of that those victims often become also victimizers out of their hurt. I may say “those” but I have been that. I have walked in defensive pride, fear, anger, rage, rebellion for authority and all those things. So I know that which I speak of. I’m not being flippant.
Suspicion also is a part of witchcraft CONTROL that we see in the church and Jezebel spirits that rule in many. Control is undergirded by FEAR and PRIDE in both of these entities, so suspicion is a part of it. Lack of trust is rampant.
If we trust in the LORD fully, then all these things will be muted. For HE is in charge of our lives, and nothing happens that He doesn't know about or doesn't use to make us better.
These things in the chosen of God reveal the depth of healing that is needed in the church. The church unfortuneately has had few true fathers and mothers in it that know how to love unconditionally, and like the world has become sick and emaciated from a lack of love and intimacy with their Saviour Who is the answer to all our ills.
There is a principle taught in 2 Peter 1:4-8… AMP
4 By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.
5 For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence), 6 And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience , endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety),
7 And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love. 8 For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed one).
You will note from these scriptures that there is a progressive, developmental PROCESS in all of this. That we start in disciplining ourselves in speaking the promises, declaring the WORD of God, and as we are diligent, then grows FAITH, and as we exercise our faith, then we develop virtuous living and as we exercise virtue, we develop knowledge of God’s ways.
Then as we exercise knowledge of the TRUTH, we develop SELF CONTROL. And as we exercise self control, it becomes easier not to sin, there is a steadfastness that develops in us to do what is right and to endure hardship and testings. Then as we continue in steadfastness, we develop godliness and as we exercise that godliness we are more convicted even as temptations come, and we avoid them, and are able to express godly brotherly affection, which leads to the ability to have true Christian love.
So that even if you do it without having your heart completely right, but by knowing it is the right thing to do, God will work into you more love for one another. Now all the while HE is doing all this, He is also giving you more and more of His love and GRACE to do it, AS you exercise your right to worship Him , commune with Him, listen to Him, sit at His feet and learn the WORD, not only the logos, but Holy Spirit teaches you and sheds His love abroad in your heart as you go from one grace to another, and glory to glory.
The Bible instructs us to PUT AWAY the old man. The above is how we put it away. Step by step we learn what is TRUTH and proclaim His promises, asking Him to transform us, and He does. Some people have been so abused and wounded, that this process is one that is worked out over and over through much trial and testings. And love can sometimes be so rarely received, that the growth is stunted. I want to tell you that GOD IS NOT SLACK concerning His promise to deliver us from ALL EVIL. What He will soon do, will make all that pain and suffering through the things you have done, you don’t want to do, pale in comparison to what HE will pour out in you through His great and awesome love and glory.
If you find in yourself suspicion, we have to discern, is it true discernment or suspicion out of fear of someone’s character. This is not always an easy process. We are not called to condemn others. We are called to intercede and be part of PROCLAIMING and PRAYING them out of the jail they are in spiritually and emotionally. Truly HE has done that for us, loving us even when we have failed over and over again to keep His Word. He continues to not give up on us or get tired of us. He is ever patient and will continue to work with the one whose heart is bruised and broken till it is all healed up !
Job 6:28-29 AMP Now be pleased to look upon me, that it may be evident to you if I lie [for surely I would not lie to your face]. 29 Return [from your suspicion ], I pray you, let there be no injustice; yes, return again [to confidence in me], my vindication is in it.
2 Cor 8:21 AMP For we take thought beforehand and aim to be honest and absolutely above suspicion , not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men.
Num 5:30 AMP Or when the spirit of jealousy and suspicion comes upon a man and he is jealous and suspicious of his wife; then shall he set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute on her all this law.
Num 5:30-31 AMP Or when the spirit of jealousy and suspicion comes upon a man and he is jealous and suspicious of his wife; then shall he set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute on her all this law. 31 The [husband] shall be free from iniquity and guilt, and that woman [if guilty] shall bear her iniquity.
Nah 1:2 NKJV God's Wrath on His Enemies
God is jealous , and the LORD avenges; The LORD avenges and is furious. The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies;
Ezek 39:25-27 NKJV "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name — 26 after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid.
Josh 24:19-20 NKJV But Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good."
Deut 6:15 NKJV (for the LORD your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the LORD your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.
Deut 5:8-10 NKJV 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image — any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Deut 4:24 NKJV For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Ex 34:14-15 NKJV (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous , is a jealous God),
OT:7067 qanna' (kan-naw'); from OT:7065; jealous: KJV - jealous. Compare OT:7072. OT:7065 qana' (kaw-naw'); a primitive root; to be (causatively, make) zealous, i.e. (in a bad sense) jealous or envious: KJV - (be) envy (-ious), be (move to, provoke to) jealous (-y), very, (be) zeal (-ous).
