Spiritual Suicide -By Olateju Oluwatosin Rildwan

Spiritual suicide is the act of deliberately causing ones own spiritual death, also known as the act of killing slowly that part of oneself that is associated with the feelings, mind and the killing of real meaning or significance in ones life. It’s also been defined as the act of destroying ones usefulness for God.

Simply put, Spiritual suicide is the death of the soul. The soul is the most vital part of human, it is the seat of feelings and emotions. It elicits empathy, sympathy, understanding, love and all other affective emotions in the appropriate manners irrespective of place, time and those involved.

Paths to spiritual suicide:

Habitual sin: We all know what’s good as well as what is bad. When we consistently defy the sacred rules, we are killing a certain parts of ourselves at a time.

Declination of the Holy Commandment : We all know what’s pleasing to God and what’s not, for instance, God is more likely to be happy with you when you spend your money helping the poor or your night praising Him than when you spend your money on porn or your night in the clubhouse. We all know these things but we are obstinately wired to disobey Him though few of us are wired otherwise.

Backsliding : according to http//wikitionary.org , backslide means to regress; to slip backwards or revert to a previous, worse state. When you go back an action which you have once renounced especially one considered immoral or displeasing to God. This is usually the case for addicts who relapse after days, months or even years of abstaining from a certain things or activities.

Waywardness: Lifestyles like smoking, inabstinence for the singles and infidelity to one’s spouse, pornography, masturbation, doing drugs, alcoholism, cheating, lying, stealing, backbiting, fetishism, among others. All the aforelisted leads directly and implicitly to spiritual death. To be celibate is to be a moron, if to be a moron pave ways to spiritual well being, the journey is worth it.

Keeping Bad Company : A popular Maxim says “Evil communication corrupts good manners”. Being around evil people is bad for our spiritual, emotional and sometimes physical well being. Interacting with evil people kill a part of our heart one period at a time.

Prayerlessness : someone once said “But how is a life, in a great measure prayerless, consistent with a holy life? To lead an holy life is to lead a life devoted to God; a life of worshipping”. Edward M. Bounds (2007), wrote in Power Through Prayer,
Salvation never finds its way to a prayerless heart. Living a prayerless would retard ones spiritual growth and eventually leads to spiritual death.

There are times when our internal space become unhabitable, because we’re operating two powers that are antagonistic in nature. Until one is kicked out for the other, our soul shall know no peace.

Consequences of spiritual suicide:

Lack of peace

Emotional cripple

Loss of internal locus of control

Mental health issue

Becoming a materialist

Lack of progress in life; to mention but a few.

Spiritual awakening is a must for everyone of us as that would protect us from silent spiritual death, spur our spiritual growth and improve the quality of our internal space (self) which would consequently affect our external experience ( Interpersonal). Your spiritual well being is imperative to your general well being.