Are you lonely? Are you going through separation or divorce? Do men despise you? Do your loved ones forsake you? Does your spiritual leader desert you? Do men hate you for no reason? Do men judge you because of your past? Are you going through sickness or you’re in pain? Are you going through emotional problems? Are you going through addiction? Are you going through financial difficulty? Does your life seem miserable? Are you engulfing in confusion? Do people laugh at you because you have no child? Does life look as if there is no hope? I have good news for you; The Most High God who created you can turn your situation around and still usher you to the place of greatness. As long as life endures, you can still make it. Do not give up trusting in God. He created you, He alone can straighten the crooked path of your life, and your dead bones shall come to live again. You are passing through all these because you’re special in the hand of God. Satan knew who God created you to be. Congratulate yourself because you will laugh by the end of the day.
A few years ago, Satan came to me in the form of a grey haired old man. He asked me if I think I can ever make it in life. I told him I would surely make it! No matter how terrible your situation may look like, there is hope. People might have written you off, but the One who created you has not written you off, this is why He still gives you life to live. I want to assure you that though weeping may endure for a night, as long as there is a morning after the darkest night, your joy will come. Job went through tribulation and overcame. Joseph languished in prison and later became Prime Minister in a foreign land. David still held his position as “The one after God’s heart” despite all the atrocities he committed. Mary Magdalene was written off by men, but redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and became the first person to preach the Good News. Rahab was justified before God and later got married to Mr Salmon (though people still call her Rahab the prostitute). Jephtah’s brothers drove him away from his father’s house because his mother was a prostitute. Those who drove him away later called him to be leader over them. All these people went through this because their sins and the sins of their parents. Your past life does not matter to the Creator if He decides to favour you. You can still achieve your God given goal as long as you are not yet in your grave. Give thanks unto God for giving you life to live and tell him to give you the grace to move on. Forget about your past and move on. What are you thinking? You cannot dwell on the past and move forward to the future.
When I was in distress, I had to encourage myself like David. Many times, it seemed as if I should take my life and end everything. I only held on to the visions God gave me. These were what gave me hope that God is still highly interested in me. I used to count losses and I did not know where to start. Whenever I took a step forward, I would take three steps backwards. Satan thought my life was finished. God gave me a powerful revelation that scared me. By faith, I carried a dead child about three years old, who had gone through autopsy (post mortem), she was brought back to life and I sat her down on her mother’s lap. Then I said I am coming back and I stood on my feet. In fact, I came to love those who were against me. I thank them sincerely because they were the reason for my strength. Those people who laughed at me, where I finished my own suffering is where they started their own. They laughed too early, now it is my turn to laugh because the Lord has filled my mouth with laughter. I have begun to be the solution to their problems.
What then is the way forward? Confess all your sins, every sin you’ve committed right from your childhood and the sins of your parents, the ones you can remember, to God in the presence of holy servant of God. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sins shall not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy.” The root of every man’s problem is sin. The earlier you understand this, the quicker is your deliverance. No matter how much you serve God, hence you conceal your sins, prosperity is far from you. Confess your sins and let all the demons leave you. Go for baptism again and continue to pray. Give God a chance to cleanse you. That problem you’re nursing did not come upon you in one day. Therefore, allow God to repair your life in His own time. Do not be in haste.
If God could take a wretch, a fool, a coward, a nonentity like me, redeemed me with the precious blood of His son and chose me as a His favourite son to lead His children back to Him, then God is highly interested in you too. I am appealing to you in the name of the Most High God to stop counting your losses. Soon you will begin to count your blessings. God can still make you great to the extent after you might have passed away, people will know that somebody like you has walked the face of the Earth. God has deposited something good in you. He did not create you to waste away. He has designed your life for a specific purpose. Stand up on your feet right now and begin to pursue your God’s given goal and let men know that you truly can make it. Those who laugh at you will come and rejoice with you. When they see you next time, they will be the one to welcome you and usher you to a place of honour. I prayed some prayers because I wanted God to do things in my own way. I thank Him because He didn’t answer those prayers in my own way. God wanted to open my eyes to see many things I didn’t know which I came to know now. Continue with God friends and He will surely lift you up because my God is a God of hope.
Friends as you humble yourself before God, He will carry you through and you will be able to look back and say truly, “There is Hope".
Pastor Radiant Ayowole Jesudairo
London, 6th January 2007, Revised 22nd January 2014.