WHY DID WHITNEY HOUSTON DIE (4)

'This brings me to what I consider the most puzzling issue in the Whitney case. She had such spiritual heavyweights in her orbit. ... Why were they unable to help her? Did they, like many are wont to do, put her plight down to her failure to manage fame and fortune; and therefore failed to perceive the hand of the enemy in it? If this was the case, whatever happened to the spirit of discernment…If they did discern it, were they unable to cast out the demon, as Jesus said all those who believe have been equipped to do… This, I believe, is the core issue. Are the gifts still in evidence in the Church?'

“Now what? Is drug addiction demonic? Is involvement of the occult in the entertainment industry the trigger? Or is it a pathological or psychological problem resulting from inability to handle the fame that comes with success; which then results in its victims, in hallucination, seeing demons where there is none?” 

Those were the concluding words of last week’s piece in this serial. They mirror my seeming confusion on the subject of why a young lady brought up in a godly environment; by a gospel singer mother with a heart for God; who, in spite of becoming a world renowned pop singer, continued to sing for the Lord as often as she could; became entangled with drugs, went in and out of rehab and then died at a mere 48 with drugs fingered at the cause.

Testimonies like that given on her to Christianity Today magazine’s Mark Moring by Jetro Da Silva, a friend of 12 years described as a veteran musician who played in the late superstar singer's band, and a professor at Berklee College of Music, makes things all the more complex.

Jethro, also said to have led Bible studies with Houston while on her world tour, remembered her in 1999 as “a loyal wife who was doing her best to please her husband and take a great care of her daughter, even with the challenges of having the fulfil her professional obligations and demands. She included her family in everything.”

On her growth in the faith, he said: “She grew in her desire and hunger for God. There were people in her life who played a great role in that, including Patrice Houston, the wife of Gary Houston, Whitney's elder brother. Pat is a God-fearing woman and a prayer warrior. When she came on board as Whitney's personal manager, she would not make a decision without prayer. She and others covered Whitney with prayers…Like all the Christians who seek the Lord, she was growing and learning. Whitney was always a spiritual woman. She enjoyed praying and reading the Bible.

Life's struggles led her to know and understand grace and mercy on a deeper level. Nippy (Whitney’s pet name) was real about her challenges, but she also knew the Lord in a personal level. She was not a hypocrite. I often witnessed Whitney praying for a lot people. When one of her friends was seek, and she asked the whole band to join her in her dressing room, and she began crying out to the Lord, asking for healing. Nippy was a woman of prayer. I believe that she was in peace with the Lord when she died.”

Now, let’s attempt some answers. First, I must state that I am fully persuaded that there is considerable demonic interest in music and other forms of entertainment. This is simply because entertainment generally set out to appeal to the flesh and whatever is of the flesh is has all the potentials of becoming anti-Spirit. The massive appeal that things of the flesh attract makes successful entertainers very rich and influential. They are therefore very good tools for drawing people into darkness. The devil knows this better than most people because he has been there. As Lucifer, he was the diva of heaven who became so influential that when his fame led him to rebellion against God, he had a horde of followers, who were eventually expelled along with him.   

The extent of this incursion into the industry at an institutional level in the United States has been widely highlighted, discussed and debated. The so-called Illuminati cult remains, at least, an ever present myth in that country. With names, dates, events etc listed in a video documentary still in wide, global circulation, it is a myth uncannily close to reality. But even here in Nigeria, Shina Peters, a veteran musician, recently told an interviewer in passing that entertainers were constantly under spiritual pressures their fans no nothing about.

I am also convinced that if there is demonic interest and therefore a certain level of demonic influence, the character alteration that we see in children of God who go into secular entertainment, can only be spiritually induced. In other words, whether the problem is drug abuse or sex including homosexuality and lesbianism; whether it be child molestation or some other weirdness, the source is the same – satan.

Now then, if the source of the problem is spiritual, doesn’t it follow that the solution must be spiritual? Any wonder, then, that campaigns to “just say no” and sojourns in rehabs don’t cut it?

It can be argued, correctly, that in the case of Whitney attempts were made at finding a spiritual solution because as J Lee Grady wrote in his article quoted substantially earlier, “Christians in the music industry reached out to…and prayed with her during her up-and-down battle with addictions”

This brings me to what I consider the most puzzling issue in the Whitney case. She had such spiritual heavyweights in her orbit. They include Cissy, her mother, Pastor Mavin Winan and the rest of the Winnan family, and even T. D Jakes, with whom she co-produced her film that will be post-humously released in a few months. Why were they unable to help her?

Did they, like many are wont to do, put her plight down to her failure to manage fame and fortune; and therefore failed to perceive the hand of the enemy in it? If this was the case, whatever happened to the spirit of discernment which is one of the gifts apostle Paul told us belongs to the church (see 1Corinthians 12:10)? If they did discern it, were they unable to cast out the demon, as Jesus said all those who believe have been equipped to do in Mark 16:17?

This, I believe, is the core issue. Are the gifts still in evidence in the Church? Consider for a moment what great evangelical value, a Whitney from whom a demon has been exorcised, would have been? Satan successfully robbed us of that! And I am reminded of one of the questions the Lord Jesus asked during His earthly ministry: “…when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)? This is food for thought for all of us, this writer not excluded. (CONCLUDED)