Greetings!
"My husband, who was loving, giving, kind-hearted, encouraging, handsome, hilarious, give the shirt off his back husband - went on to be with Jesus last night."
– Wife of Jarrid Wilson
My heart goes out to yet another family faced with the loss of their most precious loved one. Even though I didn’t know Jarrid personally, I am all too familiar with his story.
I am certainly NOT called to judge
the heart of this now passed troubled soul. Being in the “people helping” venue for now over 40 years, I find most people-helpers trying to find a psychological or tainted Biblical reason for their demise. The facts are –
we don’t fight flesh and blood but powers of darkness & principalities of the air.
This is not a news-flash to any of us. Whether we want to admit it or not, we live in a spiritual environment super-charged by two forces. The two questions become, “
What nature does the enemy have available to overpower?” “Is the nature of Christ available within the ‘believer’ to empower?”
Even though I am not saying
Jarrid suffered this deception but…in my experience, Satan goes after the souls that think they are indwelt by Christ when they’re not. He leads most of them into the ideation of “mental health” in order to deliver the final blow of despair – suicide. Even though I believe that true born-again, indwelt, Christians can suffer from despair to the edge of death, I believe the normative target for the enemy is to go after those that believe “following Christ” equals authentic Christian. Only God knows if this was the primary deception of Jarrid’s demise. As God is separating the “goats from the sheep,” I believe we will see “Christ-followers” leaving the “faith” by the droves and/or leaving life as they see it. Suicide is now tending. Without 13 reasons!
I learned an important truth from my Sunday School teacher back in the early 70’s – John Stevens, who wrote the book, “
Suicide An Illicit Lover.”
In personal discussions with him, he said something that has stayed with me throughout my ministry. He said,
“The flesh remains in a constant state of suicide ideations – saved or unsaved
.
It is always searching for death
.”
Saying, it literally
carries the DNA of death
. As Dr. Solomon taught me in those early days,
suicide is a great solution, not unto physical death but death to the self-life
.
Someone needs to die
. Since followers (those who practice the principles of Christ) confuse the message of the flesh with physical death, the enemy uses this confusion to terminate potential converts through suicide. Our enemy knows what we know, and certainly, Christ knows, this ends the opportunity of authentic conversion.
The dark-place of despair separates flesh from Spirit.
This is why this place is so important. In conclusion, from my own dark-place experiences, we should welcome the invite to this place. Most do what Jarrid allegedly did, make use of "pretty flesh" to avoid the reality of God separating the flesh from the Spirit. When the enemy deceives us into thinking that we are fighting flesh and blood (mental illness), we dig deep into our self-help bucket for deliverance, resulting in more despair, which leads to the final flesh-driven alternative - suicide. How can we tap into the Divine power to pull down these fleshly modalities unless we allow the dark-place to separate the lies from the Truth?
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”
(2 Corinthians 10:3-4)
Screaming Lies. I have learned a valuable lesson being in these dark-places. The enemy causes confusion between the phases of "fellowship of His sufferings" and the dark-place of despair. This is where deception is birthed. I was reminded that high-impact emotions are present during each phase of this journey. So, how do we know we are about to enter the dark-place? The soul will hear screaming lies! Not generalized lies, but...custom made lies that appeal to our flesh. These lies are specific in nature – lies that are eruptive half-truths surfacing from our formidable past. One of the most confessed lies is, "
Nobody cares
."
Lies never work unless they are dressed up in sheep's clothing
.
Satan knows this trick of the trade well. Let's take the example of "
Nobody cares
." The facts are, most people don't care - minimally enough to come and rescue us. Two, by way of our past, we typically can count few who DID care enough to rescue. With these two being facts, the enemy throws in his twist. The lie comes into play with the word "nobody." He knows that the flesh of man clings to half-truths that represent the DNA of the flesh - death. Lies are fruitless to the enemy unless they produce death. There is no death in "some" don't care. But, there is certain death in "
nobody cares
." He knows that the "nobody" produces hopelessness. He also knows that where there is hopelessness, the heart grows sick. In sickness, he finds his canvas to colorize a self-identified identity from the trash the old-nature left behind. If the person is NOT save, he taps into the Adamic nature directly. Once this is accomplished, he leaves us to our flesh. If anyone knows the objective of the flesh, it's Satan. Death is certain. Either by way of withdrawing from the Truth or by taking our own lives -
suicide. Death will have its way. Count on it. Finally, he is assured that once in this dark-place, the person classically takes the road of "self-pity" to cope. It is in “self-pity” where the ideation of suicide is birthed.
Here is the key.
Go ahead, agree with the Truth hidden within the lie. This is the gateway of deliverance. Instead of resisting the fullness of the lie, which causes a relapse of the lie itself. We are called to extract the truth out of the lie. This is why I believe the dark-place is healthy - it separates the flesh from the Spirit. The Lord has reminded me often of the mandate of extracting the truth from these lies, laying them down at the feet of Jesus, embracing His Truth, which releases me to join Him in an intimate dialogue with Him directly. Here is how it plays out.
The truth?
There ARE people who don't care. This is the truth hidden within the walls of the lie. At this point, we are called to lay it at the Lord's feet, and appropriate His Truth - He cares. This helps us to secure our identity in what God says versus mankind or what our flesh says. The end results? We become more confident in the Lord by way of what He says IS true about us. Done deal.
Reader, we need to be on our faces in prayer during these final days of deception. We need to be on our keyboards, and preaching from our pulpits - warning the assumed “Christians” to recheck their proclamations of salvation. Each of us needs to help those in the dark-place separate the truth from the lie. We must assist them in placing these fleshly ideations at the feet of Jesus. We need to be bold enough to speak the Truth in a culture without hope. Bluntly speaking, we need to challenge the lazy, lukewarm “Christian” leaders & authors from placating their “followers” into becoming “sleeping disciples.” Remembering, Satan never sleeps.
In the past month,
I have wept uncontrollably over the state of the Church – for many hours. Every time I think of Satan “winning” one more Laodicean to his pit-of-hell, minimally dark-place, I grieve deeply. Every time I hear “Christians” use the excuse of “mental illness” or some Christianized excuse, I am outraged within my soul. Satan is a thief. He is a liar, destroyer, and killer. As long as he can couch this madness in the psychobabble of man’s simple-minded beliefs, he can keep doing what he does. Here is our reality check – Satan killed Jarrid.
Would Jesus push one of His own Bridal members to suicide and call it His sovereign will? Was Satan able to do this through God’s allowance? Is God a respecter of the will of man to the point of death? All great questions with transforming answers. My burden? Who bothers to ask anymore? I do. Most chalk it up to another chemical imbalance believer falling to “mental illness,” which somehow excuses the dead from facing a Just God.
If you know someone
who is suffering from the ideations of suicide, don’t ONLY call the Suicide Prevention number – call a Christ-as-Life pastor, teacher, or discipler. It is these leaders who are required to know the Truth that will set the people free!
