The leader of Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN), Prophet T.B Joshua has said that suicide is not the answer; that whatever one may be going through, it is for one’s obedience to God’s will.
Concise News reports that T.B Joshua was responding to a question on ‘Good Morning and Win Today’ – a new series on SCOAN’s Emmanuel TV.
The clergyman was asked about Jarrid Wilson, a famous pastor at a Riverside megachurch, USA and the founder of a mental health advocacy group who killed himself recently.
Hours before his passing, Wilson, 30, officiated the funeral of someone who was said to have also committed suicide, and days before taking his own life, he wrote on Twitter: “Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure suicidal thoughts.
“Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure depression. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure PTSD. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure anxiety.
“But that doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t offer us companionship and comfort. He ALWAYS does that.”
But reacting to the pastors’ suicide, Prophet Joshua says: “Whatever your situation is as a believer, a Christian, a pastor, it is meant for your obedience to God.
“We grow in character through obedience, just as spiritual growth is a function of obedience to God.
“A man may be sick in the body or be poor and yet be a Christian, a candidate of Heaven.
“It is important to guard against misjudging ourselves when we are circumstances such as hardship, trials of many kinds, temptation and failure, etc.
“The Book of Hebrew 5:8 says though He (Jesus), was a Son, yet He learned obedience, by the things which he suffered: name-calling, rejection, slanderous remarks, jeering at him, etc.
“What you are going through now as a believer, as a Christian, or a pastor is for your obedience to God’s will. We grow in character through obedience.
“Often times, we run from the very things that will bring strength to our lives – such as trails, temptation, pain of various kinds, all of which are meant for our spiritual benefit (2 Corinthians 4: 16-18).
“Are you a Christian, a believer, a pastor? If you are a Christian, a believer, a pastor, His grace would be sufficient.
“Apostle Paul said he had a thorn in his flesh from the pit of hell. That thorn could be cancer; it could be depression.
“We never learned that this killed Paul or caused him to see God in a bad light; he continued his ministry.
“It means God manifested his strength in that thorn.
“As Christians, God speaks strength and courage through our troubles, as he did with Paul, Stephen, and a host of others (2 Corinthians 12-10, Act 7:59-60, Acts 16:16- 34, John 16 – 33, Galatians 2:20).”
