Coveting is a fanatical desire to own or possess what another person has and/or what they can never have. The catch is this: The person coveting doesn’t want anyone to have “what they are coveting” but them.
So, they enter into emotional, mental and behavioral methods of operation riddled with anger, jealousy, envy, sabotage, manipulation, theft, etc. and a host of other associated sins that may start out subtle… but begin to become visible.
It’s described this way in the scriptures:
Exod 20:17, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Rom 7:7, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
1 Tim 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this CRAVING that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
Luke 12:15, “And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
There are so many scriptures and examples of this in the Word that I chose the best scriptures to share and stopped. Clearly, this was a REAL PROBLEM among the “saints.”
Coveting manifests itself in some obvious ways that THE HEART can’t hide. It starts out subtle at first, but the more the person covets… the more the sin “manifests” in actions, words, deeds and interactions.
FOR EXAMPLE:
- A CRITICAL SPIRIT EMERGES. What ever a person covets in the life of someone else (especially in relationships) they begin to criticize, minimize or devalue.
- PEOPLE BEGIN TO COMPETE. This act, however, is rooted in establishing superiority over someone else’s effort or achievement. The cloning and copycat mindset will emerge. The conveyer begins duplicating absolutely everything the other person is doing while still operating in an overtly critical nature.
- AN UNHEALTHY COMPARISON BEGINS TO EMERGE. Whether apples and oranges OR bananas and grapes, there wil be this fanatical effort to always force comparison “WHERE THERE IS NONE.”
- UNMITIGATED ANGER. Unexplainable hostility appears in the relationship combined with indifference and strong dismissal concerning the “thing that is coveted.”
- INABILITY TO CELEBRATE WITH OR ENTER INTO THE JOY OF SUCCESS OF OTHERS. Why? Because the person thinks “they are more deserving” of the goodness than the person they are coveting. They are angry that goodness or greater goodness is happening to the object of their coveting nature.
- THEY KEEP LOOKING UNCONTROLLABLY. People are unable to put their list in check… and enter into fanaticism if the murdering kind over the object of their coveting turned to lust.
- THEY PULL OTHERS INTO THEIR DELUSION. By the time coveting gets into this place of the heart, the person they are coveting has already been declared an enemy through NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN. There is absolutely nothing the target can do stop a coveting person at this point but elevate all points of access where possible. As we know from scripture examples, coveting leads to murder.
COVETING IS A HEART POSTURE THAT WE CAN CONTROL AS SONS. There isn’t a single scripture in the entire Bible that blames coveting on an evil spirit or the devil. Not one.
This is a “wicked heart” issue that the scriptures clearly identifies and states that people must stand against before God — like unforgiveness and bitterness. However, if it goes unchecked…. it can leave the soul open to influenced by greater darkness.
COVETING IS A CHOICE.
COVETING IS WICKED DESIRE.
COVETING IS DESTRUCTIVE, DANGEROUS.
COVETING OPPOSES GIVING, UNITY & LOVE.
COVETING HINDERS PROSPERITY.
COVETING DESTROYS THE SOUL.
COVETING NURTURES HATE.
SOLUTION:
Work overtime to love others as ones self with the help of Holy Spirit. Walk in truth, confession and repentance with ones self before the Lord. Be quick to admit this sin is trying to take hold of you… and fight it’s entrance with Gods word.
Move deeper into embracing your own unique identity in Christ. STOP LOOKING!!!! STOP LOOKING!!!! STOP LOOKING!!! Do what’s necessary to separate yourself from the object of those unnatural desires.
Coveting IS unnatural desire and fixation on things that do not belong to a person.
Finally, don’t be deceived. Every believer has or will encounter some level of covetness in their lives. No one is immune, but every cognizant believer can stand against it in the Lord.
YOU CANNOT HIDE THIS AREA OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT. IT ALWAYS REVEALS ITSELF IN THE HEART AND BEFORE OTHERS.
