TD Jakes - The Second Chapter
Go to the Book of Ruth for just a few moments today. Ruth chapter 2, verses 1 to 3: «And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, 'Let me go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.' And she said unto her, 'Go, my daughter.' And she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. She gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.» Can you say amen?
Remain standing; I’m going to pray with you. The real thing that I want to focus on is not so much the text but the heading of the text: Ruth chapter 2. I want to use the subject «The Second Chapter.» So if you miss the wording, remember the number. Look at somebody and say, «This is the second chapter.» The Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on us today. I wake up to the dew falling on the roses. I recognize your mercies are new every morning. You have assembled us out of our homes and from our towns and villages, and some have driven a ways to be in this place today—not that we might hear me, but that we might hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church. In times like these, we need a word from you. In times like these, we need direction from you.
In times like these, we need prophetic utterances from you. For that, here’s your word: if you don’t speak, we can’t move. If you don’t speak, we can’t breathe. If you don’t speak, we can’t talk. If you don’t speak, we can’t walk. If you don’t speak, we can’t think. If you’re not going to speak, we can’t decide. We need a lot from you. If we don’t hear from you, what shall we do? If we don’t hear from you, where shall we go? If we don’t hear from you, what shall we say? Take over the service. Throw your weight around. Show hell who’s boss. Move cancer out of the building, disease out of the building, affliction out of the building. Turn them all out of the building: distress, depression, and fear. You can take anything that says «exit» on it; you’ve got to go today in the name of Jesus. I thank you for what you’re about to do. Spirit of the Living God, have your way. Ah, I’ll be careful to give you the praise, the honor, and the glory. In Jesus' mighty and righteous name we pray. Every believer in the house, shout amen! You may be seated in the presence of God.
It is distressing to note that the particular book that is before us today is reserved for Mother’s Day, Women’s Day, First Ladies' Day, and things of that ilk. This is because of the hidden misogynistic philosophy of our society, where we have categorized the value of the text by gender rather than by the depth of the revelation. If the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible, there would be no Book of Judges, no Book of Kings, and there would be no books of history. The psalmist would never sing the psalms if the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible. If the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible, Zephaniah would never utter a prophetic word. Can I take my time? If the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible, Malachi would have never been written.
If the Book of Ruth were not in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John would not be categorized among the scriptures. Twenty-seven books of the New Testament would be obliterated; they are all predicated upon this particular book. This book, the Book of Ruth, is really about change. Somebody shout «change»! The Lord said to me at the beginning of the pandemic, «When you pray for change, I answer with disruption. And when I send disruption, don’t allow the disruption to become a distraction, because most people think solving the disruption is victory, when in fact, I sent the disruption to facilitate the change. You can’t have change without disruption; everything has to be disrupted in order to change. You can’t keep your waistline and have a baby. Change is disruptive. You can’t plant an acorn in the ground and tell it not to disrupt the soil because growth itself is disruptive. Wherever there is change, it will always manifest itself through the level of disruption that precedes it.»
The Book of Ruth is more than a display of femininity; it is, in fact, a book of disruption. It starts with disruption. How you handle disruption determines how far you can go. Hear me good: if you can’t handle disruption, then stop praying for change. Most people can’t handle disruption because they allow the disruption to become a distraction, and they stop their mission to settle the disruption, as if settling the disruption was victory. This is why Nehemiah did not respond to Sanballat and Tobiah, because they were a disruption; the victory was in ignoring the disruption and staying on the wall. The second thing He said to me is that in the midst of disruption, it will always want to be a distraction, because every disruption presents an opportunity that will only mean something to people whose lives have been disrupted, whose jobs have been disrupted.
By the way, y’all sang your faces off! Excuse me, that doesn’t have anything to do with the text. You know a person can sing when they sing, so where you think you can, brother? Got the moaning in the mic? I tried to moan too, but I sound like a frog with a sore throat. Disruption comes into all of our lives, but we don’t always realize it because poor people think that rich people don’t have disruptions, and some rich people think that poor people don’t have disruptions, because they don’t have much of anything. They don’t think they have real problems, and poor people look at rich people and say, «Look at how much money you have,» as if you could buy peace.
The problem, however, is that peace is not for sale. Disruption comes to attractive people, and you look at them and you’re amazed at their beauty, and you think, «Oh, if I could just look like that.» Then you get to know them, and you find out that some of the craziest people I have ever met in my life were fine. Somebody ought to back me up in here: you’re cute but you’re crazy; you take nice pictures but you’re insane; you’re gorgeous but you are a lunatic. You don’t understand that disruption comes both to the intellectual and to the illiterate, often in the same degree of intensity. Disruption comes; no one is exempt from disruption. Before us is disruption because disruption is always the gateway to opportunity.
Look back over your life at the times your life has been disrupted, and you thought it was over, only to discover that it was the gateway to a new beginning and a new opportunity. Can I get ten witnesses in the building? Such is the case in the text today: how you adapt to change determines how far God can take you. Your adaptability—your ability to adapt—there are certain people that are inflexible. They’re gifted, but they’re inflexible; they’re talented, but they’re inflexible; they’re married, but they’re inflexible; they can preach, but they’re inflexible; they’re intelligent, but they’re inflexible. You cannot couple yourself with somebody that’s inflexible and expect to grow, because they cannot go; they cannot grow, because they are inflexible.
In order to survive the vicissitudes of life, you have to be prepared to go at a moment’s notice—to reevaluate your circumstances, to reconstruct your position, to change your plans, and alter your strategy. You can’t be more married to your plan than you are to your purpose. I’ll say again: you can’t be more married to your plan than you are to your purpose. Some of us love the way we praise the Lord more than we love the Lord. Oh, y’all gonna make me get started early! It’s too early for me to grab my head yet, but I feel something creeping up my spine in here. Something is about to happen in this place! We love the way we praise, and we enjoy what we do more than we do the One we’re doing it for.
You haven’t really praised the Lord until you praised Him alone; until you dance in your living room, you don’t have a praise. What you have is a show. Until you have had tears running down your face while you’re driving, and you were wiping tears out of your eyes and said, «Lord, you’re the only real friend I got,» you don’t have a relationship. Until all hell has broken loose in your life, and you said like Job, «Though He slay me…» Yes, our civilizations have survived for years, because we had the adaptability to move, to change, to evolve, to travel, to be nomadic in our essence—it has produced our survival—because our culture was not predicated on geography.
Our culture was not predicated on geography. So we went where the food was, and we went where the water flowed, and we never lost our identity because we changed locations. We were never defined by our location. If you study the history of Africa, you’ll begin to understand that before there was Nigeria or Ghana or Congo, there were people, there were teachings, and there were communities. There were people of different tribes and origins who did not define themselves by the territory they dwelt in, but by the language they spoke, the food they ate, the culture they had, the blood in their veins, the way that they moved. It was only when colonialism came in that they started cutting up the land, because the Europeans thought the land was valuable, not the people.
So they split the people to get the land, never really recognizing that the land is only as valuable as the people that are on it. In our own country, we are here because we migrated here. And I’m not just talking about us as a people; I’m not talking about even the people that we found here when we got here. I’m not just talking about white people, but even the people they found when they got here migrated here. Migration has been essential for our survival; the ability to be flexible.
How do you know change is coming? Because I just spent the last 400 days watching God push a reset button. Whenever God pushes a reset button, it’s a sign that change is imminent in our society. Can I get a witness in the room? Is there anybody in here that’s been sensing in your spirit that something is about to happen? Your normal has been shattered; your predictable cannot be predicted; and all of a sudden you’re in a place of instability and vulnerability. If you hear me, holler at your boy! If you hear me right now: in chapter one, we understand that Naomi migrates to Moab because of the famine that existed in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a semi-modern name for Ephrata. Bethlehem means «the house of bread,» but the house of bread had developed a famine. And when the famine got bad enough, Naomi said, «I’m out of here.»
When the famine—when the famine! I know you’ve been working with somebody, trying to get them to see, and they will not hear you. Don’t worry about it; when the famine gets bad enough, people will migrate. The only reason they stay where they are is that it hasn’t gotten bad enough. When they get hungry enough, when they get sick enough, when enough people die, when enough distress comes, you won’t have to get into an argument to get them to do better. You won’t have to push them; you won’t have to beg them; you won’t have to cry; you won’t have to sleep with them. When it gets bad enough to leave—if they got to leave on a tricycle, they’ll get out of there!
Shove somebody and say, «I got to go! I can’t stay in the famine!» Suddenly, we grabbed her husband and her two sons, put them in a wagon, and headed out for Moab, willing to risk the rejection of the Moabites rather than to die in Bethlehem, because all change has risk factors. Some people don’t experience change because they are so afraid of the risk factor that they are not willing to have a new experience. Because they’re not willing to risk rejection, they choose to die in the famine, rather than to risk not being accepted where they’re going. Oh, y’all hear what I’m saying? Develop all the programs you want to feed everybody; you will start all your STEM and your STEAM and your this, and we do all of that.
Start all of that; do your financial literacy. But there are some folk who are more comfortable to stay where they are than to evolve to the next level. But there’s a few of us that refuse to die in the desert of despair and ignorance. There’s something more that we want out of life, and if we gotta crawl, if we gotta cry, if we gotta scratch, if we gotta dig, and we gotta take night classes, if we gotta take courses after school, and we have to go back to class, we’re going to get up from here! Look at your neighbor and say, «I’m leaving! I’m leaving! I’m leaving! I’m leaving!» If your bags ain’t packed, I’m leaving you! I got to go; change is imminent! I know I was not created to die like this.
So then, my brothers and sisters, when we are introduced to the text, we are introduced to it in the midst of a grievous famine. The famine is so severe that the cattle have succumbed to it, the sheep have withered in it, and all lifestyles are affected. In a famine, fish die, men die, people die, cattle die, sheep die, goats die, and chickens die. In a famine, when a famine gets severe enough, a whole life begins to suffer preceded by drought, for it is the drought that is the cause to which the famine ultimately comes. As long as there is water, there will be growth. Oh, that’s why I got to be in a wet place. That’s why I get happy when He says He leads me beside still waters.
I want to be where the waters are because if there’s water, I can grow; if there’s water, I can live; if there’s water, I can survive. I got to be in a wet church. I got to have a wet pastor. I got to have a wet wife. I got to have wet children. I got to have a wet house. I got to have something I can grow in, something I can move in. Deliver me from dried-up people; I don’t need any dried-up people. Look at your neighbors: are you dried up? If they say yes, move! Run away from them; get away from them! I gotta have wet because wet is possibility. And so Naomi loads up the wagon and decides to change, for some reason. The deliverer-like is not really present; it doesn’t have a strong voice in the text.
This is much about the decision made by a radical woman. Where are my radical women in the house? A radical woman is sensitive enough to sense when it’s time to move on. A radical woman can sense more in her spirit than you can discern with your metrics and all your tests and all your science. I need some radical women to make some noise in this house! Some radical women, who know when it’s time to leave. The beginning of wisdom is understanding when it’s time to get out. Enough is enough! I’m done! Excuse me, it’s over! I resign! My good God Almighty! My God! My God! Naomi puts her family in a wagon and says, «I’ll take my chances. I’ll take my chances with Moab. If I die, I’m gonna die in motion. I’m gonna die on my way somewhere. I’m gonna die clawing and scratching. I’m gonna die moving with my wheels turning. If I perish, I perish. But I’m glad!»
Somebody holler, «I’m going!» I don’t mind following you as long as you move, but don’t expect me to submit and get behind a parked car. I will not line up behind a car that isn’t moving. I can’t spend the rest of my life ticking, tocking. I’m running out of time; I don’t have time to sit behind your car if you’re not going anywhere. I’ve got to go! I want 30 seconds of crazy praising! All of that happens in the first chapter, and she gets to Moab, where she stays for many years. In the first chapter, her sons find wives and marry there, and she has a family and a good life. Over time, things happen: she loses her husband, people die, she loses her husband, but then it gets tougher because she loses her sons. Suddenly she finds herself in another kind of famine—a famine for love.
A famine for love can be as detrimental as a famine for food. No one ran in the house and hugged her; no one wrapped their arms around her at night. No one told her she was a beautiful woman. No one appreciated her as a mother. The love on which she thrived had ceased to exist, and she found herself in a famine again. She says, «I’m going back home.» All of this is in the first chapter. So what happens as she announces what she’s going to do, it’s kind of like this: I don’t know what you came to do; I can’t speak for nobody else but me. I am going home! I’m leaving! Then comes this character in the Bible, one of her daughters-in-law named Orpah. Orpah is seldom talked about, but I want to spend a few minutes on her.
Can I talk about Orpah? I want to talk about Orpah because Orpah came out to her mother-in-law, kissed her goodbye, and decided to stay. All three women teach us about different kinds of people we will deal with in life. There are some people who just cannot go with you, even though they started with you. They can’t stay with you; even though they were connected to you, they ate with you, they were related to you, they laughed with you, they followed your customs, and they seemed like one of you, but when push comes to shove, they identify themselves as not being fit to make the journey with you because their roots are in their past and not in their future. Their roots are in where they came from, not where they’re going.
In other words, she was related to Naomi but wasn’t as related to Naomi as she was to Moab. There are people who are related to you, but deep down they’re more connected to other things than they are to you. They will be with you as long as you stay in those other things, but the moment you move out of them, they will drop off because their real commitment is not to you; it’s to the environment you’re in. And if anything changes, they will kiss you goodbye. Look at somebody and say, «Kiss me now if you’re leaving! Kiss me now!» Ain’t no need dragging this thing out for ten more years. Kiss me now! If I’m gonna cry, let me cry right now. If I’m gonna have to get over it, let me get over it right now, 'cause I’m gone! And if you’re not going, Judas, kiss me now!
Why did you turn on me with a kiss? Because you can’t go in the spirit of Judas. Orpah kisses Naomi goodbye; it means I will not be in the upper room. I will write no amazing books of the Bible; I will establish no churches; I will do no great works. I was with you as long as you were doing what I expected you to do, but when you change your expectation, I said that for somebody trying to understand why somebody else left you. They left you because they were more attached to the situation than they were to you. And when you started growing, they were willing to kiss you goodbye. I know you don’t want to blow your cover in here, but if you don’t care what nobody thinks and you have that experience, make some noise, make a sound! All relax the elasticity, the nimbleness of wit, thought, and strength to be flexible enough.
She is not dexterous enough; she lacks the capacity to evolve with the times, so she stays in Moab rather than take a risk. You’d be surprised how many people in this room have allowed fear to paralyze mobility. The paralysis of fear has kept you trapped in a situation that you’ve called the devil. You’ve rebuked it, you’ve pleaded the blood on it, you’ve anointed yourself with oil, and it doesn’t change. And the reason it doesn’t change is that it’s not a demon; it’s you! It’s your fear! It’s your fear of taking a risk. You can cast out a demon but you can’t cast out you! You talk yourself out of every blessing, you talk yourself out of every progress. If I put you in a good situation, you self-sabotage because you don’t think you’re worthy to go forward to the next dimension.
If I give you new friends, you’ll mess it up every time because deep down inside you’re only comfortable among the Moabites. Have you ever tried to raise someone who refused to be raised? Next time you run into them, just say, «Okay, Orpah.» They won’t know what you’re talking about, but just tell them, «Okay, Orpah.» Okay, or I understand. You are a friend of evolution; you are afraid of migration; you are afraid of movement; you are afraid of a flow. You can’t walk with God if you’re not going to get in the flow, because our God is a moving God. The very first thing that Genesis teaches us about God is that in the beginning, the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; and from the book of Genesis, where it moved upon the face of the waters, to the book of Revelation, where it said, «Even so, come, Lord Jesus,» throughout the texts, the cloud moved, the pillar of fire moved, the rustling in the trees moved, the glory moved.
Whenever you want to be with God, you’ve got to be ready to move, because God will migrate from place to place. Most people are staying where God was rather than to be where God is. But I’m too old to be where God used to be and build a monument to where He was. I want to be in the movement! Look at two or three people and say, «Get in the flow! Get in the flow! Get in the flow!»
Our God is a moving God! Our God is a moving God! Our God is a flowing God! Our God is an evolving God! If you’re gonna walk with God, He is Ruach; He is breath, He is air, He is breathing, He is motion, He is movement, He is flow. And because He is a moving God, everything that He created moves: the earth moves, the solar system moves, your breath moves, your blood moves. The rabbis come to the Wailing Wall, and they move because everything about God is moving. If you’re not moving, you’re not with God because God is moving! Look at your neighbor and say, «Move! If you can’t walk, crawl; if you can’t crawl, get in a wheelchair and spin around in a circle! But you got to move, or you’re going to die!» Oh, you’re going to get stiff if you don’t move! You got to keep moving! Somebody said, «Keep moving!» So, I talked about Orpah.
Now let me talk a little bit about Naomi. Naomi has lived life; she is an older woman. She has seen spring; she has seen the leaves bud; she has smelled honeysuckle in the air. She has seen the blossoms peek through the buds and add just a touch of color to nature itself. She has smelled the fresh air of springtime; she has felt that misty dew cascade upon the ground and could almost hear the grass grow in the yard. She has been in the morning of life when love was fresh and everything was simple. She had survived the hot summer heat when everything was warm and growing. She raised her children, enjoyed her life, and went to the graduations, crying from the balconies as they graduated in the summer of her life. She has survived autumn in her life; she has watched her face change, her hair change, her friends change, her world change, her situation and circumstance change.
Obviously, her perspective is going to be different because whenever fall hangs out with spring, they always have a different point of view. So, fall—do you hear what I’m saying? For Naomi to hang out with Ruth is fall hanging out with spring. Fall understands things that spring will eventually evolve to encounter. It’s hard to have a conversation when you have a spring mentality talking to a fall experience. Naomi has a fall experience; she has lived life. She has had such experiences that even though she is bitter, and even though she has lost her husband, and even though she has lost her sons, she has kept it moving! Baby, you can say whatever you want to say about her being bitter, but even in her bitterness, she’s kept it moving! Because Naomi comes to teach us that you cannot allow your emotions to stop your movement.
Feel however you want to feel, but keep it moving! Cry if you gotta cry, but keep it moving! Hurt if you gotta hurt, but keep it moving! I need some Naomis in the house! Make some noise! Some survivors! Some survivors! I’ll take a man! I’ll take a woman! Anything that survives the death of something, make some noise! Let me hear you! Come on, let me hear you! Look at somebody and say, «Keep it moving! I’m hurt, but I’m gonna keep it moving! I may be bitter, but I’m gonna keep it moving! I may cry sometimes, but I’m going to keep it moving!»
Naomi has learned not to make decisions out of her emotions. She said, «You may be bitter, but you’re going home.» You know why? Bethlehem is a house of bread, and there is bread in Bethlehem! Naomi is going where the bread is, where the fulfillment is! Are you hearing what I’m saying? And so Naomi teaches us not to make permanent decisions off of temporary emotions. Oh, that was worth coming all by itself! Most of the time I see people who allow their emotions to make decisions for them, and then they suffer the consequences of regret because the emotion passes, but the decision remains! Naomi is not responding to her emotions in making a decision. She’s bitter, but she’s moving because she is not rooted in her circumstances; she is rooted in her identity! And even though she has been with the Moabites, she still knows who she is!
Now to all possible candidates for marriage: don’t marry anybody who doesn’t know who they are! No to every CEO! I don’t care how many degrees they have; if they don’t have a good sense of who they are, leave them alone! Because they’re going to find out in the middle of the job, and it may not include you! And you don’t have time to deal with a trauma case while you’re trying to build a building! Because some of us are traumatized and half out of our minds, and we don’t know who we are! All we know is who touched us last! You are not who touched you! You are not defined by what you got on! It is not the name you wear; it’s the name you have! God says, «I will make your name great,» and you won’t have to wear all those brands!
Names, when your name is great! Hallelujah! I can’t find anybody’s name to put on that’s any greater than the name He gave me because God said, «I’ll make your name great,» not your title, not your office, not your suit. God said, «I will make your name great.» I don’t know who you are, but someone in this room—God is about to make a name for you. He’s about to establish you; He’s about to lift you up into a better place. He’s about to give you something that He couldn’t give you earlier because you were unstable, but now that you’re getting stable, God is ready to give you what He promised you years ago. You’re now going to come into it. You were anointed to be king, but you weren’t ready to be king until you killed something.
Now that you’ve got some heads under your feet, now God is about to crown you as king. If that prophetic word is for you, I dare you to praise Him like you’re coming into your kingdom. Come on into it! Come on into it! Come on into it! Come on into it! Come on into it! I know I’m gonna come into it! I know I’m gonna come into it! Six hundred thousand people died in the last four hundred days in America, and thankfully I wasn’t one of them. God kept me alive for a reason! I know I’m gonna come into it! Some of you got sick, but you survived. God didn’t let you survive for nothing; you’re about to come into something. The devil wouldn’t have fought you like he fought you if you weren’t about to come into something. Whoever I’m talking to, you might be online—throw your computer in the air, hit yourself over the head with a pillow, because God is about to bring you into something!
Somebody give me praise! I mean old-fashioned Pentecostal Holy Ghost praise in this house! Come on, Marcus, give me praise in this house! Do you hear that? Do you hear that? That’s the way you praise when you know you’re not ordinary! That’s the way you praise when you know God’s got a future for you! That’s the way you praise when you know God is about to unlock something for you! Oh God, oh God, I feel it in the room. I stopped preaching and started prophesying; somebody’s about to step into something! Somebody’s about to move into new territory! If I’m talking to you, give Him a praise! I don’t care if you look like a fool; I don’t care if it looks silly; I don’t care if you mess up your makeup; I don’t care if you tear your dress—give God a praise in this room! I said I said give God a praise!
And so Naomi is about to leave, and Ruth said, «You ain’t leaving me!» Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about! That’s what I’m talking about! That’s what I’m talking about! That’s what I’m talking about! That’s the way you praise God when you’re telling hell, «I’m not staying where I was!» That’s the way you cut the fool in the house of God when you’re rebuking every devil that’s trying to cement your feet to the ground! Make some noise! That’s what I mean by «Lord, give God praise one more time!» One more time! One more time! I’m gonna give you another chance to tell hell, «I’m not staying in my past!» And so Ruth says to her, «Can I catch a ride? Can I catch a ride? Can I catch a ride? I’m going with you.»
Naomi says, «I can’t have any more sons.» She said, «No, it’s not about your son; it’s not about who touched me less; it’s not about who kissed me on the hand. I got a future! If I got to have it by myself, I got a future! If I gotta go alone, I got a future! And mama don’t go, if daddy don’t go, if sister and brother don’t go, I got to go for myself!» Am I talking to somebody? «My God shall be my God; thy people shall be my people. And where thou dwellest, I will dwell; and where thou diest, I shall die.» Chapter 2.
Now Naomi is at home. She has been an immigrant in Moab; now she is a resident in Bethlehem. All of her relatives live here; she speaks the language; she knows how to cook the food; she understands the music, and she dances like they dance. Somebody that’s home say, «I’m home! I’m home!» Isn’t it funny how your spirit knows when you’re home? You know when you’re there; your belly knows it, your gut knows it, your smile knows it. You’re walking around with a silly grin on your face because you know you’re home! Look at somebody and say, «I’m home!» Naomi, who was an immigrant, is now at home. Ruth, who was a resident in Moab, is now an immigrant. This is why Ruth is important—and I’ll be done. If Ruth had not moved to Bethlehem, David would have never been king. His birth was predicated on Ruth’s courage to be an immigrant.
It takes courage to be an immigrant; it takes courage to come out of your familiar and be in an unfamiliar place. It takes courage to walk into an atmosphere where you don’t have the beat, and you don’t understand the rhythm, and you don’t understand the flow, and you don’t understand the protocol. But the Lord sent me here with a prophetic word: You are in chapter two; you have just turned the page. You have just stepped into a revolution; you have stepped into a new place, and you got to be prepared to approach it with the thoughts of an immigrant. Everybody’s been prophesying to you, telling you that you’re next, and you’re coming into your kingdom, and it’s about to happen in your life. But what they didn’t tell you is that your destiny always feels like immigration because your destiny does not line up with your history.
So when you come into your destiny, okay, when you come into your destiny, you’re not going to feel the sense of celebration that you expected. Because even though you prayed for it and you asked for it, you’re going to feel strange in it because you stepped into it as an immigrant. You come into it as an immigrant. Chapter two: Ruth is now an immigrant in her destiny; she’s an immigrant in her prophecy. When God gives you what He told you He was going to give you, it’s not going to feel like what you thought it was going to feel like. I keep trying to teach people that success doesn’t feel successful because when you first walk into it, it’s going to feel foreign.
And if you’re weak-minded, you’re going to go back. If you’re not willing to feel strange for a while, if you’re not willing to have people looking at you funny, if you’re not willing to have people rolling their eyes, if you’re not willing to glean behind the reapers, Ruth said, «I may look funny, and I may dress funny, and I may move funny, and I may talk funny, but I ain’t going anywhere!» I need some tough people! Now you’ve got to be tough to be blessed! You’ve got to be strong to be blessed! It takes courage to be blessed! Right now, lift your hands! Right now I hereby declare and decree that you will have the courage to walk in the door that God is about to open up for you. At the end of this message opportunity is going to come to you that is going to feel foreign, and it’s out of character and it’s out of your norm.
But I decree and declare that you will not back up from it; you will step into it; you will seize it; you will give birth in it; you will make it your own in the name of Jesus! If you receive it, receive it with a praise! Receive it with a praise! Receive it with a praise! Receive it with a praise! You may be laying on your couch, but receive it with a praise! You may be at your kitchen table but receive it with a praise! You may be watching from your phone, but receive it with a praise! Praise Him until hell gets nervous! Praise Him until demons tremble! Praise Him until sickness gets up off you! Slap your neighbor and say, «Praise Him!» I just turned the page! The devil should have killed me in chapter one, but the devil is a liar! He’s a lion; he’s a liar! He’s a liar! I just turned the page!
Everybody turn the page and give God a praise like you lost your mind! I just turned the page! I just turned the page! The reason I blocked your number is I turned the page! The reason I unfriended you on Facebook is that I just turned the page! Somebody shout in this house! Make some noise in this house! This is a place—this is a place where you give birth; this is a place where the door is open; this is the place! The Bible says she came in as an immigrant; none of the other women would have anything to do with it. They were getting all that they could get, going about their business. She said, «That’s all right, I’ll catch what I can; I’ll grab what I can get.» But while she was moving, the Bible says she hopped up on Boaz’s field!
Listen to that! She hopped up on Boaz’s field! You’re just going to happen to be at the right place at the right time and meet the right person! You’re just going to happen—who am I talking to? Your Holy Ghost ought to let you know I’m talking to you! You’re just going to happen; it’s just going to be happenstance. You didn’t plan it that way; you didn’t expect it that way; it just happened that way! Who am I talking to? Make some noise! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! I want everybody in the room to shift; change seats with somebody, change chairs with somebody, change anything you got to change! Tell them, «Something has got to change! Something has got to change! Something has got to move! Something has got to flow! Something has got to break! I can’t stay where I was! I just turned the page! Every yoke has got to break! Every wall has got to come down!»
Somebody help me praise Him! I got this anointing on me, and I can’t get it off! I need some thirty-something and forty-something to give God some praise for me! Help me dance this off! Help me shout this off! Help me lead you! Everybody in here, just leap forward! I’m gonna move into it! I’m gonna step into it! I’m gonna move into it! I’m gonna flow into it! Give me my praise! Come on, give me my praise! Come on, give me my praise! I said give Him a praise! I said give Him a praise! Don’t make Him take it! Give me my praise! Give me my praise! Out of your belly! Out of your spirit! Out of your soul! Open up your mouth and give God a praise! Quickly, quickly, I got to give you the rest of this prophecy.
When she stepped on it, she didn’t own it. When she stepped on it, she didn’t own it! She was an immigrant; she wasn’t even a rightful worker; she was gleaning behind the reapers, and somebody saw her! Somebody saw you! For her it was Boaz! She just happened! Somebody’s getting this word; I can feel it! I can feel virtue going out to somebody! I can feel the spirit of prosperity going into somebody! Who’s pulling that spirit of prosperity down? Who’s pulling it down? Who’s pulling down that spirit of increase? Who’s pulling it down right now? Who is pulling it down? Who’s pulling down that spirit of influence? You just happened! And this is the word of the Lord in chapter two. In three verses, she goes from working in the field to owning the field! She used to work here—you all can’t handle it! Let me try! Y’all can handle it over there!
Can y’all handle it over there? Do you believe that you could start out working in something, and you’re going to end up owning it? Do you believe that? Do you believe that you could start out catching whatever they left for you? The Bible said there are handfuls on purpose! And she was just catching whatever they dropped, not complaining, didn’t get mad, didn’t get bitter, wasn’t spiteful—she was just catching whatever they dropped, just glad to be in the number! She was an immigrant; she was an immigrant in a field of dreams. She was an immigrant! Anybody who saw where she came from would not make a connection with where she is! Anybody who saw what you used to be would not make a connection with where you are! And that’s why you don’t complain about nothing!
Whatever they drop, you just go ahead and take it up! You’re just grateful because you got the spirit of an immigrant! You’re gonna do whatever you have to do to pull up, to get up on your future! Just working—whatever door God opens, you just go through it! And somebody saw her, and all of a sudden, she ends up married to the owner of the field, which by virtue of that marriage makes her the owner of the field she used to work in! Now, I’m finished—all of this—the Holy Ghost told me to tell somebody in this room: Own it!
Watch this! The Holy Ghost said, «Own it!» You’ve been playing with it! You’ve been visiting it! You’ve been hoping for it! You’ve been praying for it! Own it! You’re already in it! You’re already doing it! But in your head, you haven’t owned it! Let me tell you why you haven’t owned it yet: Because you’re scared! You’re scared it’s gonna leave! And you can’t totally settle into it because you’re afraid of it! If it looks like I’m looking at you, I am! You’re afraid it won’t stay! You’re afraid it won’t last! You’re afraid it’s not real! And you don’t want to be hurt again! And you don’t want to be disappointed anymore! And you don’t want to go through any more heartache, and you’re scared to relax. You already know what you’re going to do, but you’re afraid to own it because of the intensity of the rejections from your past. You take the bows; you get their applause, but you won’t own it because you’ve been abandoned before.
And the Holy Ghost said, «Own it!» What God is getting ready to do in your life is so real that if you don’t own it, you might just want to stay in Moab. Do you not know you are living in the field of your dreams? Your today’s reality was yesterday’s miracle; it was yesterday’s miracle, it was yesterday’s fantasy. It was inconceivable that it would be possible for that to happen for you. And God said, «All I need you to do is just own it.» This isn’t about changing anything on the outside; this is going to change on the inside—it’s just how you perceive it. I’m not talking about changing anything on the outside; I’m talking about something in your heart. I’m not talking about signing any papers; I’m talking about your heart. The Holy Ghost said, «Own it.»