Death wishes must be renounced

In His great love for us, Jesus came to earth to die for us so we can live abundantly through the power of the Holy Spirit who raised Him victoriously from the grave. Jesus conquered death for all mankind, He is the good Shepherd of our souls. By wishing for the death of oneself or of another, however, we grieve the Holy Spirit and ridicule Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for us. Not only that, we take the side of Satan, who only kills and destroys. Thankfully, all death wishes can be renounced in the powerful name of Jesus Christ.

(See Chinese versions: 简体中文 > 必须放弃死亡愿望 | 繁體中文 > 必須放棄死亡願望)

1 Peter 2:25 ESV For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Romans 8:11 ESV If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

John 10:10 ESV  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Wishing death brings judgment

Every prayer is a type of wish, and a death wish is one of the most ungodly prayers we can speak over ourselves or other people. We were meant to think of or speak words of life, not words of death.

Proverbs 18:21 ESV  Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Philippians 4:8 ESV  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Many people fantasise about death without even realising its consequences. In fact, the world romanticises death. Shows and songs exalt it as the ultimate solution to pain. We may even be tuned to see it as a form of sacrifice or heroic act. Some cultures also use words of death in their everyday language. The Cantonese language uses the word “死” as an expression e.g. 笑到死, 餓到死. The English language has phrases such as, “cross my heart and hope to die.”

Such subtle influences can lead us to think about death and dying. For example, we may:

• Curse ourselves
  • “Dying is better than living.”
  • “It would be better if I was never born.”
• Curse others (see Matthew 5:22)
  • To wish death or disaster on other people
• Be cursed or hated by others (see 1 John 3:15)
  • Be the target of attempted abortion
  • Be the target of other people’s hatred or death wishes
• Wish for a permanent end to our pain
  • “Lord, please cut my life short.”
  • “I want to see Jesus early.”
  • “Life is too painful, I rather be dead.”
• Become fascinated with death
  • “What will dying be like?”
  • “What will it be like to be murdered?”
  • “Who will attend my funeral?”
  • “What’s it like to be murdered?”
• Attempt suicide
• Think about or suggesting abortion
• Afflict self-harm on ourselves
• Play-act death
  • Slept in a coffin or graveyard
  • Dressed as a skeleton or the dead
• Celebrate death
  • Halloween
  • Ancestor worship
  • Festivals of the dead e.g. ghost festival or the Day of the Dead (Mexico) etc.
• Wish to die in order to be united with dead people

1 John 3:15 NLT  Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.

Matthew 5:22 NLT  … if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

Teaching Humble Hearts once conducted a survey of 25 Christian men and women, asking if they had even entertained the following thoughts. Here are the results:

• “It is better I am not around anymore.”  71%
• “I wonder what my funeral will be like.” 42%
• “I wish God will take me to heaven early.” 42%
• “Life is painful, death is peaceful.” 38%
• “Dying is better than living.” 33%
• “I want to die now / be dead already.” 33%
• “I wish God will shorten my life.” 21%
• “I don’t want to live beyond the age of ( ).” 21%

Death wishes are not uncommon and they grieve God’s Spirit, who is the Spirit of life. As His children, we need the perseverance to hold on to the promises of a greater reward for our earthly sufferings so that we have the awareness to flee the temptation to make a death wish.

Romans 8:18 ESV  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Even if people do not die immediately from a death wish, the consequence is always some form of spiritual death, or in other words, a curse. God says that if we choose to live the way He determined for us, we will be blessed abundantly. However, if we rebel and choose death, we risk deadly consequences because we give Satan permission to destroy or even take our lives!

Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT  “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. 

Deuteronomy 30:15 NIV  See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 

Overcoming death wishes to live fully in Christ

Thank God that He readily forgives us for our death wishes when we repent and even gives us the privilege of being co-heirs with Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:16-17 ESV  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 

1. Repent

First, we need to repent if we ever tried to be the Lord of our own lives by deciding that death would be better than the life that God has given us – even if we gave in to such a thought under extreme duress or very innocently as a child. God is not legalistic about our mistakes. It is Satan who is legalistic and he will cling on to the “right” we give him to destroy us through our thoughtless acts, even if we forget ever making such grievous wishes for ourselves.

In addition, we should also repent if we have cursed another person, so we are not destined for “the fires of hell”, as Matthew 5:22 warns.

By repenting, we take the careless desires of our past and crucify them to the cross, so we no longer have to carry the curses from the death wishes we once made.

Galatians 5:24 ESV  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

2. Break our covenant with Satan

Next, we need to declare that we belong to Jesus and break any “death contract” we made with Satan in Jesus’ name. We also need to command all spirits of darkness that came into our lives as a result to leave us in the Jesus’ name and go to the pit, never to come back. The Holy Spirit will help us identify the names of those spirits when we ask Him to.

Romans 14:8 ESV  For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

3. Give our lives fully to Jesus

After breaking any ungodly covenant with Satan, we ought to surrender our lives to Jesus and invite Him to redeem us for the good works He had prepared for us to do before we were even born.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

In times of pain and suffering, we may feel as if God has forgotten us and abandoned us. Pain often blinds us to the truth. This is particularly true for those of us with soft and tender hearts. Jesus went through excruciating pain and suffering too. His flesh was ripped open through whipping and He hung naked on the cross.  He chose to suffer like that so that He can truly empathise with our greatest pain and comfort us deeply. We need not run to thoughts of death or suicide. Instead, we ought to run to God. He is closest to the brokenhearted. He promises to deliver us.

Psalm 34:18 ESV  The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

4. Seek to turn suffering into praise

Finally, let us ask God to use our suffering as a testimony to His wonderful redemption and healing. God is faithful, merciful and generous, and deserves our highest praise.

Genesis 50:20 NLT  You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

Psalm 30:11 NLT  You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,

Testimony: Expelling spirits of death and recognising true salvation 

“I had lived in fear throughout my childhood. My dad is loving yet extremely strict. He worked so hard to provide the best for our family but would scold my sister and me almost every other day for not meeting his expectations. Once, he scolded me so loudly for not achieving full marks in one exam paper that I passed out in fear. 

Then when I woke up from passing out, he scolded me for passing out. This was one of my most significant memories of my dad. I had forgiven dad years ago but didn’t know that my weariness was related to my childhood experiences with him.

I asked the Holy Spirit, “Why would a loving father be so harsh?” I was actually confused and even torn. It was very hard for me to understand Father God. I thought that Father God never spoke to me because I was not good enough to be loved.

Without a way out to escape from my dad as a child, I wished him dead. The moment I cursed my dad, the spirit of death entered my life (Exodus 21:17, Leviticus 20:9, Proverbs 20:20, Matthew 15:4). I started watching horror movies and thinking about death and darkness, and basically everything that was opposite to life. This darkness slowly corroded the light in my life and occupied my heart.

In my teenage years, I became rebellious towards my dad. Without the kind of love I wanted, I turned to an ungodly relationship for years. After we broke up, I felt guilty, ashamed and unclean. I asked God for forgiveness, but I could not forgive myself because I felt unworthy for His love.

With all this, I allowed the spirits of death, exhaustion, hopelessness and shame to dominate my life. I doubted God and did not talk to anyone about my suffering – until God met me in a prayer retreat and miraculously healed me of my back pain.

Why would God show His amazing power of supernatural healing to someone as insignificant as me? As I prayed to reject Satan’s lies about myself and commanded those spirits connected with death to leave me, I realised I had underestimated God’s salvation.

I do have a life that God has specially prepared for me, that is just for me. I have a future to look forward and can put my hope in God to renew my strength. Like Ephesians 2:10 has repeatedly spoken to me, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” That day, I bound the spirit of hopelessness in Jesus’ name and rejected the enemy’s lies!”

May this sharing be a blessing to you as you seek to love God with all your heart and turn from wishing death on anyone.