Spiritual suicide

In our practice, we sometimes see people who do not survive their physical illness. Terminal. That hurts. Not only for the ill person, but also for the people around them. The grief of that loss is enormous. It affects us deeply as well.

Every so often we also see people who commit suicide. Their mental illness has won, despite the hard fight they put up. That loss is also great. What a struggle they must have had and what pain. And for those left behind, the grief remains enormous. It impacts us deeply as well.

And then there is another group. People who commit spiritual suicide. They consciously “pull the plug,” so to speak. They stop living in connection with God. And that is a complicated one. You want a beautiful future for them, but somewhere they have made a choice. It impacts us deeply as well.

Think back to Adam and Eve and that “apple.” They, too, had a choice: to listen to God (and have a good life) or to go their own way with the consequences that come with it. Mind you, God does not set rules to nag you; He wants to protect you, but the choice is ours whether we listen to them. And that is still true today.

A rule everyone knows:

“You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13)

It is about murder. Suicide is not only physical. It can also happen spiritually.

2 Thessalonians says (referring to 1 Thess. 5):

“Do not quench the Spirit; do not utterly reject prophecies, but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21)

This is about the Spirit of God in you. By consciously making choices against that inner guidance, you can turn off the Spirit. Your sense of right and wrong slowly fades, because that sense comes precisely through the Holy Spirit.

John writes the following about the Holy Spirit:

“And He, when He comes, will convict the world regarding sin, and righteousness, and judgment.” (John 16:8)

If you consciously turn that off… then that voice within you—what is sin, righteousness, and judgment—disappears. We call that spiritual suicide.

The consequences are visible when you look around you. People do evil without it registering, destroy someone else’s life without losing sleep over it, etc. etc. etc. It is terrible to see… But even more happens when you do that…

They also lose the gifts and talents that God has given them. God gives you “gifts of the Spirit,” and those too… they go away.

“But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:7)

“But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:11)

It is a process that continues further and further unless someone consciously returns to God. So you don’t “just” lose your “inner voice of what is right and wrong,” but you also lose your “gifts of the Spirit” that God has given you. And God warns you not to do that, because the consequences go even further:

“How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29)

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.” (Matthew 12:31-32)

Wow! That is spiritual suicide, for eternity. If you have reached that level… then we have a problem. Then you have made a choice from which there is no way back.

And, perhaps you are reading this and thinking… “oops, what now? I think I am already fading out!”

Good news. That unrest you feel, that feeling that you need to go back to the fire… that comes from the Holy Spirit! He is still there. He is still in you! Matthew 12:31-32 does not apply to you yet. You still have a choice today. Yes, today.

Return to God. Let Him, together with you, make that flame larger again. Let the fire burn again.

And on this side… in our work… dealing with people who consciously commit spiritual suicide… that is one of the most difficult things we encounter. It affects us deeply, and it is difficult to let go. But God has given each of us a choice, and we must respect that choice, no matter how much it hurts.