THE SPIRIT OF SUICIDE
AND HE THREW THE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER INTO THE TEMPLE SANCTURARY AND DEPARTED; AND HE WENT AWAY AND HANGED HIMSELF. Matthew, Chapter 27, Verse 5.
The Spirit of Suicide is one of the most powerful spirits in the Kingdom of Darkness. It is under the authority of the Spirit of Murder. Most of those in the Bible who committed suicide had sinned and failed God in one way or another. Judas Iscariot hanged himself. King Saul committed suicide by falling on his sword. Samson killed himself by taking hold of two pillars in the Temple of Dagon causing the Temple to fall upon him. Over 3000 Philistines in the Temple died with him that day.
Influencing agents such as depression, deception, and paranoia can play a big role in the hearts and minds of suicidal people. Suicidal people feel like they are powerless to change their circumstances. The loss of a loved one, fear, poverty, and hopelessness are also influencing agents which drive people to commit suicide. When people commit or desire to commit suicide, the underlying influence is always a spiritual one.
Fear and Poverty are also spirits which cause people to commit suicide. A friend of mine knew a man in Texas who was despondent because he could not find a job. He was depressed and “feared” he was going to lose everything he had. One day after he had committed suicide he received a call to come to work from one of the largest automakers in the country. If he would have held out one more day, his financial problems would have been resolved. A little more patience would have helped to solve the man’s financial dilemma.
Suicide is never the answer. Jesus is always the answer to all our problems. Many suicidal people feel like the world is closing in on them. They are without hope. Some feel betrayed by loved ones or others around them who do not understand their problems. The Spirit of Suicide will relentlessly hound them about how worthless they are or how they and everybody would be better off if they were dead.
Some suicidal people feel that the only way to get relief from their depressing thoughts and the constant bombardment of demonic activity is to “end it all” by taking their own life. They think death would bring closure to their adverse circumstances and resolve all their problems. Unfortunately, these thoughts are all strongholds which the Spirit of Suicide, along with other demonic forces, creates in their minds to deceive, confuse, and manipulate them into taking the “final step.”
A lady I knew in our Church came to me one Sunday morning and told me her son had committed suicide. Her son had been pastoring a church in Ohio for years. She was very distraught and concerned about what would happen to her son because he committed suicide. She wondered if he was in Heaven or Hell. She feared the worst. I told the lady that according to the Bible there is only one unpardonable sin—the sin of blasphemy.
People who commit suicide are not in their right minds. They are under the influence of the Spirit of Suicide and other demonic spirits depending on what problems they are facing. They have been ambushed by spiritual wickedness in high places which dwell anonymously and secretly in the Kingdom of Darkness.
One day I received a telephone call from a man in Florida. He was staying in a motel room, and had been drinking heavily and taking Prozac which is very dangerous to take while drinking alcohol. He was having a lot of marital and financial problems and wanted me to pray for him. During our conversation he mentioned that he was contemplating suicide. I immediately started rebuking the Spirit of Suicide and casting it out of him. While I was casting out the Spirit of Suicide, the man started complaining about his back. He yelled out “My back, my back, it is hurting my back. It hurts so bad. It hurts so bad.” Then he said “It came out my nose. It came out my nose. I saw it come out my nose.” Then he started yelling he was free.
After casting out the demon, I told the man he needed to study the Word of God and gave him scriptures on spiritual warfare. I told him the spirit would return and bring other spirits which were more powerful than it and that it would try to reenter his “former home” again. I told him he needed to be prepared to “defend his spiritual home.”
The Spirit of Suicide puts heavy burdens on people which they were never meant to carry. Instead of “casting all his cares upon the Lord,” the man was trying to carry his burdens by himself. He was using drugs and alcohol to help ease the heavy burdens and temptations which the enemy was trying to saddle him with.
I have cast many demons out of people. However, they usually came out of the mouth and not the nose. Demons usually enter into people “through their mouths” because of demonically inspired words which they speak, or words their parents speak over them when they are young. Many people who are bipolar, schizophrenic, or are tormented by other demon spirits had demonically inspired words spoken over them by parents or guardians when they were young.
I had never heard of a demon coming out of an individual’s nose before. Prophetically speaking, the nose speaks of discernment or strife. People without spiritual discernment are easily drawn into strife. Strife is a tactic of the Spirit of Confusion. Wherever envy and strife is, there will be confusion and every evil work. (James 3:16). I believe the Spirit of Suicide came out of the man’s nose because it had entered into him by way of his nose. When people lack spiritual discernment, they are leaving themselves open to many different demonic entities which come to oppress, possess, and manipulate.
Poverty is one of the most common reasons why people commit suicide. The Spirit of Suicide and the Spirit of Poverty work together many times in order to cause people to commit suicide. Like the man in Texas, poverty can and will take a heavy toll on the hearts and minds of people causing depression, oppression, and anxiety.
In the chapter on poverty we saw that “poverty” is a mindset. Carnal mindsets are strongholds which exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Demonic mindsets often leave people without any hope of ever finding true freedom from depression, oppression, anxiety, and hopelessness.
Indian Reservations across the country are among some of the poorest places in the United States. Poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide run rampant among Native Americans who live on Reservations. The suicide rate among Indians who live on Reservations are the highest in the country. The Spirit of Suicide takes a heavy toll among those who are poor and addicted to alcohol and drugs. Hopelessness breeds desperation, depression, and emotional instability. Unfortunately for many, they think suicide is their only hope for change. There is always hope in Christ. However, many do not look to the only person who can and will help them.
Today the number of people committing suicide is at an all time high. People are giving up on life and taking what they believe to be the “easiest way out.” Society is completely failing many of our youth, our elderly, and those who are living without hope. Society is failing the desperate, the depressed, the downtrodden, the poor, and the sick.
Satan is hard at work infiltrating the Church and is causing many believers to lose hope for a better tomorrow. Many Christians have laid down their “cross and crown” for idols of gold, a frown, and a soiled gown. Rejecting the Lord and falling back into sin after having come to the saving knowledge of Christ will bring depression and oppression through demonic aggression upon believers. Many have exchanged their “garment of praise” for a spirit of heaviness, condemnation, and disrespect of God.
Many Christians have traded their shield of faith for a shield of doubt, disbelief, and distrust. Many have fallen away from “the faith” and are being deceived by seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. They have become oppressed, depressed, sick, and many have become suicidal. Many unsuspecting souls have been beguiled by the Serpent into believing there are other ways to Heaven besides Jesus. Without Jesus, there is no hope, only Hell. For people who once were on fire for Jesus but lost their godly focus, there is nothing left for them except spiritual drought, depression, and despair.
Many thoughts of suicide are associated with illness, helplessness, and hopelessness, and guilt. People who are suicidal need to be assured they are loved and that there is hope for them. They need to hear that “Jesus is the answer” to ALL their problems.
People who are suicidal need to know their enemy is not themselves or others around them. They need to know that the demonic forces around them are trying to destroying their lives with suicidal thoughts and manipulation. They further need to understand they are “loved” by God, and that He is their only hope for deliverance from ALL their destructions.
Prayer is the best solution for suicidal thoughts and tendencies. The Bible tells us that “prayer changes (fixes) things.” People cannot rely on their own carnal thoughts and earthly desires to “free them” from spiritual cares and snares which have been laid by the enemy. Jesus is the ONLY way people will be able to find peace and rest in the time of trouble. The Bible says that God sent Jesus to heal and deliver us from “ALL OF OUR DESTRUCTIONS.” (Psalm 107:20).
Mass suicide is uncommon but not unusual. People who commit mass suicide usually commit suicide together for the same reason or reasons. Some mass suicides have been committed by defeated military personnel fearing reprisals, torture, and slavery if they are captured. Other mass suicides are committed because of hopelessness, depression, oppression, manipulation, and deception. Some groups who commit mass suicide just want to “make a statement.” For whatever reason groups commit mass suicide, we know the Devil is the instigator of all suicides and attempted suicides.
After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, a group of Jewish zealots took refuge inside a fortress outside of Jerusalem called “Masada.” Masada was an almost impregnable fortress which sat atop a mountain in the Judean Mountains. Masada was the last remaining outpost held by the Jewish rebels who opposed the Roman Empire. In 72 AD, a Roman Legion surrounded Masada and laid siege to the fortress. The Jewish zealots numbering approximately 950 men, women, and children, were able to hold off the entire Roman Legion for almost a year. Realizing they could not hold out any longer, the zealots decided to commit mass suicide. Rather than allowing themselves to fall into the hands of the Romans, ten men were picked to kill everybody inside the fortress, including women and children. After killing everyone except one woman and five children who were hiding in the fortress, the 10 men killed themselves.
The Jewish zealots did not want to live under Roman subjugation. They feared the Romans would torture all of them, including the women and children. Unfortunately, they were wrong. The Roman Army had no intentions of torturing and killing the zealots. When they finally reached the top of the mountain and entered into the fortress, they we appalled and sickened by what they saw.
Fear causes masses of people to do many things which they normally would never do. Compounding their problems are leaders who give up hope and expect that their worst fears will become reality.
In 1997 there were 39 people in California which belonged to a cult called “Heaven’s Gate” who committed mass suicide. They believed a spaceship was following a comet called Hale-Bopp which was coming close to Earth that year. They believed the spaceship would pick them up and take them into a “new reality.” They were all “dead wrong!”
These people did not commit suicide “out of fear,” but out of ignorance. They were looking for a “higher consciousness.” They were sorely deceived by the Spirit of Suicide. Instead of waking up in “Shangri-La,” they probably woke up in the fires of Hell. I am not judging the life of anyone, only their motives and beliefs.
In the nineteenth century, a Baptist Pastor named William Miller thought he had worked out a formula for the Lord’s return to “rapture His Bride away.” Miller proclaimed the Lord would return on a certain day in October of 1844. Many people believed in Miller’s prophecy. They called themselves the “Millerites.”
Days before the expected event, many Millerites made “white robes” out of bed sheets, went up to the top of a mountain, and jumped up and down practicing the “rapture.” Many gave away ALL of their possessions because they did not think they would have need of them anymore. One farmer made a robe and placed it on his cow. When asked why he had made a robe for his cow, he replied “the children will need milk on their journey to Heaven.”
On a sadder note, several men killed their wives and children and then committed suicide. They did this because the Bible says, “the dead in Christ shall rise first,” and they wanted to be among the first ones to be “caught up in the clouds” with the Lord. I know all this sounds ridiculous and hard to believe, however these incidents are true. They have been documented and there are many more which are similar to them.
Ignorance can be a powerful motivator. Believing damnable lies have sent and will send many people to Hell. Deception and manipulation are some of the underlying reasons why people are depressed, oppressed, and spiritually defeated. Following the subtle suggestions and doctrines of devils will always lead to spiritual subjugation, death, and destruction.
Suicide is never the answer to any problem. It only makes things worse for everybody concerned. Family and friends who have lost someone due to suicide have a hard time dealing with the death of their loved ones. Death is never the answer to life’s many problems. LIFE (Jesus) is the answer to ALL our problems. Jesus said “In this world you shall have trouble, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). Jesus is the Truth, the LIFE, and the Way. When we do not have the ability to change our circumstances, we can take comfort in knowing God is watching over us, and HE will take care of all our problems IF we will trust in Him.