Suspicions can be dangerous. Mostly suspicions are just mere suspicions that have not been confirmed. Yet people tend to believe them as factual.
Generalized suspicions have caused hostilities among people, destroyed relationships, and wrecked homes.
The indwelling of God’s Spirit transforms our spirits and empowers us to love each other as God loves us. The Holy Spirit enables us to live righteous lives. Milk turns water milky and tasty like milk. Similarly, the Holy Spirit transforms the human spirit and gives the human spirit divine power. The water does not change itself. It is the milk that transforms the water. In the same manner, the Holy Spirit transforms the human spirit (Acts 2:4). Jesus said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you (Acts 1:8).
Among Christians, (and non-Christians), are people who believe that their suspicions are factual revelations of people’s intentions. They believe their suspicions are factual divine revelations from God. And these people have caused unrest in their communities with their so-called revelations.
I live eighty (80) kilometers from Bawku, an area embroiled in conflict. Conflicts have caused peace to elude Bawku and its environs. People live daily in fear of being physically attacked. They live daily in fear of being terrorized by miscreants. Infiltrations by evil-minded people from other communities, some from outside the country, have added to fears as unscrupulous persons take advantage to cause mayhem and panic.
Evil and lawless people, riding on motorcycles, shoot and kill people at random. Even the presence of military personnel has not curbed the violence, nor allayed fears. The situation has resulted in the Government imposing curfews, and sometimes restricting the use of motorcycles. Yet violence and shooting have continued.
The curfew and restrictions make life unbearable. Law-abiding citizens who do not indulge in bad behaviors are also affected by the ban and restrictions.
Countless educational fora and advice by religious bodies, government agencies and NGOs have failed to make violence-minded persons embrace peaceful co-existence.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “People only see what they are prepared to see.” Therefore, making some people to understand and accept peace can be an uphill struggle.
Pete Wehner is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the director of EPPC’s Faith Angle Forum. He is a writer on political, cultural, religious, and national security issues. He asserts, “As human beings we’re wired to interpret new information as conforming our beliefs and reject it if it runs counter to those beliefs.”
People readily reject beliefs or ideas that do not conform to what they want.
Young ones look unto the elderly as role models. They learn from what the elderly do. They grow up emulating the elderly. In communities associated with violence, elderly ones with violent mindset usually urge children and the young ones to be hard and fight all who offend or oppose them. They instigate violence by urging them to resist violence with violence. They urge them to be brutal and offensive against people who oppose them.
Children growing up in these communities, therefore, unconsciously train their minds to respond angrily to whatever they do not like and end up patterning their minds with violent thoughts. Each time a child emphasizes on violence, the child enhances the violent habit. As the child grows up, he or she learns to live as a violent individual, distrusting people, getting angry easily, and relegating patience to the background. He or she grows up believing that patience is a sign of cowardice.
Thus, we are constantly creating violent, impatient and non-forgiving societies.
Sadly, the canker of suspicion has engulfed the Christian community, too. And some Christian leaders believe their suspicions are revelations or divine inspirations from God. These religious leaders equate their unhealthy suspicious feelings and thoughts with the Word of Knowledge. And others equate them with prophecy (1 Corinthians 12:8,10).
I know a Christian woman who suspects everybody who disagrees with her. When anyone says something that displeases her she jumps to the conclusion the person is insinuating her. I have explained to her that she should first analyze her feelings and thoughts and pray about them before conjecturing. I tell her to ask anyone she suspects has defamed her for clarification before concluding that she is right in her accusations. But she rejects my advice.
Neil Strauss said, “People believe what they want to believe. And what they want to believe is whatever allows them to justify what they want to do.”
Her suspicions of people make her to hate people. Especially those who disagree with her. She even suspects her husband to be a womanizer. Her proof is only her suspicions. Her behavior makes her husband now to suspect that she could be living with a guilty conscience. People who struggle with a guilty conscience because of what they have done, tend to suspect every other person. They reason that if they could cheat on their spouses, then it is possible that their spouses, too, might cheat on them. Liars struggle to believe others. Liars use themselves as the standard to judge others.
Some people will never accept anything that is not what they believe. Francis Bacon said, “Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.”
If you suspect that someone has offended you, go to that person and tell him or her what you suspect. Enquire from the person if what you suspect is true. Jesus tells us to deal with problems by talking to people we think have offended us, (Matthew 18:15-17).
Do not aver that your suspicions against people are factual until after you have authenticated your suspicions.
Suspicions start in the inner space of our being (our mind). Some people feel that the spirit is speaking to their inner being. And some pastors and prophets believe that these feelings and thoughts are inspirations of God’s Spirit speaking within their spirits.
Moreover, people who do not live righteously see all others the same way. If they are dishonest, they consider all (or most) people to be dishonest. Therefore, they can’t believe that other people can have high moral principles. They think every person has low moral principles as they have.
But they are wrong because there are many people who are righteous and who will not compromise their integrity.
Participants in conflicts tend to respond based on their own feelings of the situation, rather than an objective review of the situation. We don’t see other people’s point of view when we allow emotions to dictate our responses. We must, therefore, learn to control our emotions. We must learn to take logical approaches in dealing with happenings we don’t like.
On June 7, 2012, there was a news report from the Central Region in Ghana that two people had been killed in ethnic clashes between indigenous Fantes and Ewe settlers at Ekumfi Narkwa, in the Mfantseman District.
The clashes ensued when a 50-year-old man, who was the Ebusuapanyin (the head of the family) of the Narkwa royal house, was beheaded by unknown assailants. His mutilated body was buried in his coconut plantation. Initially his body was found without the head.
Five others sustained gunshot injuries and were receiving treatment at the hospital.
The police reported that the Fantes suspected the Ewe settlers of the murder. Relying on suspicion and not on facts, the Fante indigenes ran riot and torched seven thatched houses belonging to the Ewes. A second report later gave the number of houses burnt as eight.
The Ewes retaliated in defense. Later reports revealed that several more people sustained various degrees of injuries.
The Daily Graphic, on 12 June 2012, reported that two suspects, Kweku Mensah, 37, a coconut seller, and native of Narkwa, and his 30-year-old sister, Aba Koba, were arrested for the murder. Mensah led a team of policemen to the location where he buried the severed head.
The suspects, Kweku Mensah and Aba Koba, were not Ewes. Yet the Fantes had earlier suspected that the murderer was an Ewe. If the indigenes had delayed action, or done the right thing by allowing the police to do their work, innocent lives would have been saved, and damage to houses would have been averted.
Investigations revealed that Kweku Mensah, a coconut seller, often went into the coconut plantation of the murdered person, Eguasia, to steal coconuts to sell. And Eguasia had confronted and warned Mensah severally to stop stealing from his farm.
On Wednesday, June 6, 2012, Eguasia went to his coconut plantation and saw Mensah plucking his coconuts. A confrontation ensued. Mensah managed to overpower Eguasia and beheaded him. He dug a grave near the farm, buried the head and covered it. He then buried the body on top of the head in the same grave.
Mensah then took Eguasia’s mobile phone home and gave it to his sister, Aba Kobah. Aba Kobah warned Mensah not to tell anybody about the incident else the people of the community would lynch him.
The police later had information that a woman was in possession of the deceased’s mobile phone. So, the Police made calls to the phone. Kobah kept misleading the police as to who she was and where she lived. Eventually, the police were able to arrest Mensah and Kobah, and the two confessed.
Proverbs 29:11, “A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back,” (ESV). And in Proverbs 17:27-28 we read, “Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent,” (ESV).
If the Fante indigenes had restrained themselves and not attacked the Ewe settlers, violence would have been averted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson rightly said that “People only see what they are prepared to see.” And Francis Bacon said people prefer to believe what they want to be true.
Suspicions can be dangerous. Suspicions generate anger. And anger can generate hate. As happened between the Fante indigenes and the Ewe settlers, anger and hate can generate conflict, and can cause destruction, pain and even deaths.
Jesus said whenever we think someone has offended us, we should reach out to the person, discuss the issue with the person, and settle the matter (Matthew 18:15-17).
When we pray, the Holy Spirit synchronizes the words of our petitions (or declarations), taking into consideration our attitudes or inner character (Jeremiah 17:10; Job 34:11), and God then gives us our answers, (Job 22:28; John 14:10, 13-16; John 16:24).
The Holy Spirit cannot perform freely in our lives while we are living unrighteous lives. The indwelling Holy Spirit cleanses us of impurities if we allow the Holy Spirit free access in our lives. He transforms our lives by cleansing us of our unrighteousness, (1 John 1:9). And we receive from God our prayer requests.
The Holy Spirit detests lies, hate, bitterness, and all negative attitudes. Lies are lies; there are no big or small lies, and no white or black lies. All lies contaminate our souls and do not allow the Holy Spirit free access to our spirits. And so, a person who bears false witness against another is a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow (Proverbs 25:18).
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