TD Jakes - Divine Immigration
Using the story of Naomi and Ruth's migration from Moab back to Bethlehem in the Book of Ruth, the preacher portrays life as a series of divine immigrations—uncomfortable shifts into new territories and seasons—where God disrupts comfort to position us for harvest, turning emptiness and handfuls of seed into abundant bread through faith and adaptability.
Immigration in Life
When we started talking today, I am going to talk to you a little bit about the importance of understanding and realizing that immigration—no matter what we are seeing played out at the border and people stuck at the border and all the chaos that is going on—that whether you realize it or not, immigration is something that we all go through.
Yeah, we all go through it, we all go through it—even if you stay in this country the rest of your life and you are a citizen of this country, the concept of immigration is something that you are going to face all of your life.
The definition—let me give you the definition, you can put it on the board. “Immigration is an international movement of people into a destination country of which they are not native or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle or reside there, especially as permanent residence or naturalized citizens or to take up employment as a migrant worker or temporarily as a foreign entity.” Somebody say amen.
So when you think about immigration I do not want you to just think about it within the context of what we are seeing played out, but I want you to understand that immigration is when you are used to being one place and you migrate to another place, and you are in another place but you are foreign to the place.
Anytime there is change, there is immigration, and anytime there is immigration there will be discomfort. So immigration even at its best is difficult.
Naomi's Story
And in our text today, this is not immigration at its best—this is immigration at its worst. This is Naomi, who comes from a wealthy family in Bethlehem, has left Bethlehem because of a famine and a drought that was so persistent that she moved to Moab, and has now lived in Moab 10 years.
And she and her husband and her two sons have lived in Moab for 10 years, but over 10 years—how many of you know a lot can happen in 10 years? You would be shocked what can happen in life in 10 years—that is why you ought not look down your nose at anybody, because the person you are talking about, you may have to face what they are going through in the next 10 years.
And now this woman has, over the course of 10 years—she has lost her son and she lost her other son and left two widows as daughters-in-law, she lost her own husband and she decides I am going home.
And she gets ready to go home and she gets ready to go through the transition again, back into an environment after 10 years of living in Moab.
The Emptiness of Naomi
She is at a bad place in her life—has anybody ever been at a bad place in your life? She is in a terrible place, she is in a terrible place. She is in a terrible place because she has gone through hell and high water and she needs to believe that things are going to get better but the reality is, it is hard to believe for better when you have had 10 years of worse.
Worse becomes a culture, worse becomes indelibly imprinted in your soul where you—she says I went out full, I had everything when I started and I came back empty.
Now do not confuse empty with tired—empty and tired are two different things. If I am tired I can take a nap, if I am tired I can get some rest, if I am really tired I can go on vacation.
Tired can be resolved easily but there is a difference between being tired and being empty—this girl is empty, and she does not have the patience to deal with the empty.
Empty is when you have given out all that you can give and you do not have anything left for yourself—empty is when everybody is taking from you and nobody is giving back to you, and you wonder when is it going to be my turn to receive anything at all.
Empty is when people take you for granted and they keep asking you for more and more and more and more, and finally you are so depleted that you are empty.
You are empty when you go to bed, you are empty when you get up that morning—you are just empty. I do not have another smile, I do not have another word of wisdom, I do not have another prophecy, I do not have an answer, I do not feel like encouraging you—all my courage is gone.
Tortured by Memories and Regret
She is tortured by the bad memories, she is tortured by the emptiness, she is tortured by the regret. Her other daughter-in-law turned around and went back—she got to the border and went back like so many people do.
They come to the border of better, they come to the border of better and go back because better feels funny—because you do not really think that you are worthy of better.
Because you do not want to deal with the migration and the discomfort of having to retool yourself, you will go back into something that is lesser than what you have an opportunity to go in.
Orpah said, “See ya, would not want to be ya—I am going back home to Moab because I understand it.” It is not because it is good—people do not go back because it is good, they go back because it is safe.
Walking with a Moving God
See, you cannot begin to understand this unless you are walking with God—and if you are walking with God you understand me already because if you are walking with God, then you understand that your God is a moving God.
From the first book of Genesis, when the Bible says that “the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the deep,” to the book of Revelation where it says “even so, come Lord Jesus”—God is always on the move.
And if you are going to walk with him, you have got to walk by faith, not by sight—you have got to be willing to walk into new, scared and empty, and say, “Though he slay me, yet shall I trust him—that he that hath begun a good work shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.”
I am scared but I am going—I am empty but I am going—I am tired but I am going—I am nervous but I am going—I am frustrated but I am going.
The Lord sent me here this morning to tell you, things are about to shift in your life—my life, my personal life, my financial life, my spiritual life—my whole life has been a series of shiftings, of migrations, of changes, of development.
And you have to have the liquidity of thought and the nimbleness of mind not to fall in love with where you are—you have got to be prepared.
A Change Is Coming
I have got to be someplace Tuesday—my bags are already packed. I am telling you the facts—my bags are packed and ready to go. You got to live with your bags packed ready to go to the next adventure—you do not have time to get ready, you have got to be ready—a change is coming.
Slap your neighbor and say, “A change is coming!”
I am going where I do not speak the language—I am going where I do not understand the rules—I am going where I have got to re-tool myself and put more thought into what I should have—that haircut and this haircut, that dress or this dress.
I am going somewhere new and I am going by faith.
Divine Setup Through Disruption
What Ruth started out working in she ended up owning. Naomi did not understand—her destiny was not in her husband, it was not in her children, it was in her daughter-in-law and she was created to bring Ruth to Bethlehem.
Now Bethlehem means the house of bread and Naomi was born to bring Ruth to the house of bread—because through Ruth, the bread would come.
The Bible said that when Ruth married Boaz, they created a child called Obed, and Obed had Jesse, and Jesse had David, and out of David came Jesus.
If the house of bread would not have let the immigrant in, they would have locked out Jesus—that is why Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem.
The whole thing was a setup—the transition was a setup, the shift was a setup. Touch your neighbor and tell them, “Excuse me, but I have got to move again”—change seats, change seats.
It is a setup—it is going to be unsettling, it is going to be uncomfortable, it is going to be disruptive—you are liable to get out of order but it is a setup.
I prophesy to you, if you let God disrupt what you had in mind, he is going to shift you for divine immigration.
Timing and Harvest
Everything I have been talking about all morning has been geographical—it is about changing territory, it is about moving into new lands, into new territory. God is getting ready to put you into new territory.
But the last verse in the text is not about territory—it is about time, and it almost feels like it is a footnote, and it said, “They arrived in Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest.”
It is not just about territory—it is about timing. If you do not move right now, you are going to miss it because the harvest is in the right time—you can be in the right territory but if it is not the right time you cannot receive what God has for you.
Touch your neighbor and say, “It is my time”—it is my time. It is my harvest time, it is my harvest time.
From Handfuls to Harvest
The little notation says, “They arrived in Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest.” Bethlehem is the house of bread and the barley harvest is what makes the bread—and Ruth is what she is gathering. She is what is going to make the bread.
The little immigrant is going to make the bread. Now, when you are in the barley harvest you do not go out in the field and gather bread—you gather seed, handfuls of seeds.
You are getting ready to harvest—you are getting ready to harvest seed—you snatch your hand full of it.
They were harvesting seed but the seed was turned to bread. Touch your neighbor and say, “I am getting ready to make some bread.”
I know it does not look like I got nothing but seed but I am getting ready to make the bread.
Quick review and I am through. She started out gleaning over in the corner, just catching handfuls—some of you have caught some handfuls. It is not so much that you succeeded but it was enough to sustain you—but what you have been catching handfuls of is about to come into full harvest—from handfuls to harvest.
Divine immigration means that you will never harvest if you stay in Moab.
What is Moab? Moab is what is comfortable—Moab is what comes easy to you—Moab is what is simple—Moab is what is normal—or Moab is where you are known—Moab is where you understand everything.
God said your blessing is outside of your element—and if you have the courage to be adaptable, to adapt to new environments—something just broke loose in the heavens, something just broke loose in the spirit world, something just broke loose over your life.
God's Fast Track
This word is for people—it is not even in your nature to do what God has put you in to do—it is pulling stuff out of you you did not even know you had—it is stirring up stuff that is not even in your comfort zone to do.
You do not have the background for it—you do not have the training for it—you do not have experience for it but God is getting ready to fast track this thing.
It is coming through your connections, Ruth—it is coming through your hookup—is who God is going to connect you to.