WHEN SILENCE RESULT IN SUICIDE

Jonelle Maxwell

Many times we hear about someone taking their own life. Unfortunately, this have crept into the church at an alarming rate especially amongst leaders. But why?

Throughout my life, I have found people to just sit down at my desk or call me to tell me their problems. I did not quite understand it until recently when a Prophet gave me a Word about counseling. It was about 13 years ago when I truly started to have a heart for leaders and mostly wept when I heard of one committing suicide. I wanted to know how can I be of some assistance of keeping this from happening. I wanted to help leaders and other fellow believers overcome the issues they may have been suffering in their lives that nobody knew about, including their congregation.

I remember the Lord teaching about deliverance ministry which is connected to counseling. This is an area many are not familiar with. Counseling and deliverance.

One day the Lord told me to listen to a good friend of mine and not to say a word, but to just listen. I sat for 2 hours listening to all he experienced in life. As he was talking, I heard the spirit of hopelessness and depression. The Lord did not tell me to say anything to him about what I picked up in my spirit, but instructed me to pray.

As I prayed during my alone time, the spirit of depression and hopelessness was broken. A few months later, he told me every since that night he did not want to committ suicide anymore.

From that crucial moment, I knew how important to take immediate action when the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart to just listen to a person. No matter how long they wanted to vent.

I share this because as leaders and fellow believers, we tend to just a person is just wanting attention so we through them to the side as such. We don’t really discern why people do what they do.

So many times I have heard leaders tell people to sit down and be quiet until they get healed not knowing that through their talking is bringing forth healing. We don’t know that silence is a silence killer. The longer a person stay quiet or told to be quiet the more the person will remain quiet.

I believe we must be careful and mindful that we could be the only ear that hear before one decides to take the plunge into suicide. You may be their only hope.

So, let’s work together in being discernful in taking time out to listen and more caring in this area by dealing with this ongoing war against suicide in the midst of fellow believers.