Esther 9:22: “As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.”

Sorrow comes as a result of the activities of the enemy who does not want good people to have rest of mind and be glad. Enmity in most cases is borne out of hatred and jealousy based on sheer wickedness against the victim. The enemy, Satan, the devil, employs the afflictions of sickness, poverty, barrenness, and all other evil strategies to attack God’s people with the aim of bringing sorrow into their lives. The devil was not born to be bad, rather he was self-made in heaven.

Lucifer, who turned out to become the devil, was the chief soloist in heaven; leading the host of Angels in worships and praises of the Almighty God. He became so proud that he wanted to take the place of God, but he was stopped. The Bible puts it this way in Revelation 12:7-12: “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. 8: And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9: And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

Having caused war in heaven due to his pride and by plotting a coup against the Almighty God, he was thrown down to the earth. He was cast out of heaven, and he knows he can never enter heaven again, so, he is fighting tooth and nail to see that he is not the only one that will be in hell. He is here on earth seeking whom to destroy by making them to sin and lose heaven like, himself.

There is no place for him in heaven, because he challenged God and lost. Since, it is impossible for him to overthrow God, he resorted to attacking God’s people. His first place of call was the Garden of Eden, where he deceived Adam and Eve to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit. Their disobedience of God’s instruction brought sorrow to them as the Bible reports in Genesis 3:1-6,14-17: “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God hath made. And he said unto the woman, yea hath God said, Ye shall not eat every tree of the garden? 2: And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die…And the woman saw that the fruit was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.” As the devil deceived them to disobey God, it attracted punishment and sorrow to them. Gen3:16-17 says: “Unto the woman he(God) said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, in sorrow thy shalt bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. 17: And to Adam, he said because thou hath harkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hath eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, thou shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shall thou eat of it…” Both Adam and Eve were given specific punishments, which are even prevalent to date.

Man has continued to be in sorrow since the days of Adam in the Garden of Eden. The punishment for the woman is to bring up children in sorrow, while the husband is to labourfor his daily bread and up-keep of the family. All those things, including sicknesses, poverty, barrenness and other things that bring about sorrow are prevalent even today. The devil is constantly ensuring that the afflictions continue, in order to keep people of God in sorrow. The devil knows he is not entering heaven again, so he has tofight God’s people, keep them in suffering to make them offend God, so that they will follow him to hell fire.

The only remedy to come out of sorrow is to come close to God, He is ready to honour the people that serve Him and do His will. The Bible in 1Samuel 2:30, says: “Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever: but now the Lord saith, be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” God is ready to lift the people who serve Him above the afflictions of the devil. The people, who despise God and follow the devil’s footsteps are bound to continue in sorrow until they repent. But whosoever repents and serves and honours God will be helped out of sorrow. That is why Psalm 50:15 says: “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” God is ready to answer the call of the people that serve him. It is, therefore, important that everyone should have the knowledge of God and come close to Him. That is why the Bible in Mark16:15 says: “And he said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” The word of God needs to get to every individual, make him or her to accept God and come out of their sorrows. Obedience to the word of God will bring one closer to God. The believers should go all out at this time to preach the gospel to the needy, the sorrowful to accept our Lord Jesus Christ and allow the spirit of God to come into their lives. When the spirit of God comes into one’s life, the devil and his poverty, sicknesses and all that bring sorrow will give way.

Today, God is ready to help the sorrowful come out of their problems and make them to rejoice.

In the lead scripture above, the Israelites in Shushan were able to rejoice when God intervened in their affairs. All their enemies were eliminated and no nobody planned ethnic cleansing against them. Hold unto God, he will fight your battles and make you to rejoice in Jesus’ name.

Testimony Of The Lord’s Doing
From Rags To Riches

MY name is Brother Christian Chimezie and I reside in Oke-afa, Lagos. I became a member of the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries in 2005. I came to the church for solution because I had problem with my business.

Initially, my business was flourishing, suddenly everything nose-dived and I could not make ends meet again. I went to a friend to help me raise money, so that, I could start again. He said he had no money, but he would direct me to a place, where my issue will be resolved. I thought he would direct me to where I would borrow money, instead, he directed me to Ijesha.

He directed me on how to get to the venue, which I followed and got there. I still remembered vividly that it was on October 1, 2005; the church was having its men’s programme. As I came in, I sat down, then listened to the message of our G.O. and I was very much fascinated by the message. So, l continued to come.

One day, I had the opportunity to meet G.O. one-on-one and told him that I had nothing doing and that my children were all in secondary school. He asked whether l had paid my tithe; l said l had nothing doing. So, he brought one finger and pointed it on my forehead and said: “Go and prosper.”

When I went to my shop that day, because I still had my shop, but somehow it was empty, even the small goods remaining, no one asked how much, let alone to buy. But after the G.O.’s prayer that day, I got to my shop and made sales of N4,500. It surprised me because this money was like one million to me then. So, I began to think on what to do with the money since G.O. said l should not sell alcohol again?

With the money, l went to Abule Egba market and bought second hand pullovers and sweaters for sale. I did this, because that year, there was this chilling cold in the country, so by intuition I did this. Surprisingly, God helped me, and sales were good. The business boomed and I had good savings; I was able to save N200,000. It did not take long, l began to travel to Togo to buy shoes. Oh, God of Chosen is so great!

While in that wilderness experience, I owed a lot of debt, including my children’s school fees, which was N150,000. With the help of God, my business thrived and I was able to clear all my debts including the balance of my children’s school fees.

Truly, God of Chosen is great. Please join me to praise the Lord. There are other testimonies, but for time, let me stop here.