Welcome to today’s church service — the Global Church Without Borders, without walls. I am glad to reach you from Delta State. As usual, please mark your attendance register and let us know where you are joining from. People are joining from all over the world. Please share this message and subscribe to this channel. This is the concluding part of our study of the book of Ruth and the character of Ruth.
I will take my bearing from Ruth 3:18:
“Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens, for the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”
I marked this passage about 30 years ago, and it is still relevant today.
Ruth had done all that was humanly possible. She left her people and her gods. She declared her faith in the God of Israel. She stayed with Naomi. She trekked about 100 to 120 kilometres. She provided for her mother-in-law. She gleaned, maximising the little opportunity provided in Scripture. She even broke protocol to approach Boaz for marriage. Usually, men approach women, but she stepped forward.
Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter… the man will not rest until the matter is settled.”
Waiting is not idling. To wait means to anticipate the next move of God, like a waiter attending to a diner — alert to every signal.
Naomi spoke prophetically. She said the man would not rest.
I pray for you today: you have done your best. You have struggled enough. Rest. Wait. The person who is supposed to attend to your case will not rest until your matter is settled in your favour.
I decree that your desire, your right, your privilege — the person assigned to effect it will not rest until it is accomplished.
There was a projected number for our webinar. A few hours before it began, some numbers were still missing. I told my manager, “Call them into existence.” He hesitated. I insisted, “Call them.” Minutes before we started, the final registration came in.
Call forth what is yours. The person meant to help you will not rest.
You have struggled as a widow, as a single mother, as a contractor, as a student, as a black person in a foreign land. The one assigned to your case will not rest.
I command their heart to be troubled until your matter is settled in your favour, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now look at Ruth.
Her past was not impressive. She was a Moabite. There was a 300-year restriction against Moabites entering the temple. She was a widow. She was a stranger. She was poor. Boaz was an elite. Nothing was mentioned about her beauty. She was ordinary.
But it was her time.
Romans 8 tells us that those He predestined, He called; those He called, He justified; those He justified, He glorified. God qualified Ruth. Despite what seemed like disqualifications, God qualified her.
God was more interested in her future than her past.
The nearest kinsman rejected her, seeing her as a liability. He did not know she was a divine appointment. Today, we do not remember him. But there is a whole book about Ruth.
When God is for you, who can be against you?
There were many other women in Israel — perhaps more beautiful, more socially acceptable. But God crossed the border and picked Ruth.
If God finishes with you in mercy, it will be as though what went wrong never went wrong.
Who is he that condemns?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
There is something incubating in you — something royal, something glorious. Even Boaz did not know that the Messiah would come through that lineage. David came from that line.
God will change your identity. Protocols will be broken for your sake.
Naomi once said, “Shall I have children again?” Yet she carried Ruth’s child and said, “Now I have a son.”
That thing you admire in others, that place you think you will never reach, that association you think is beyond you — God will arrange it.
You will stand there and know it was God.
You will become a testimony because you passed through many tests and did not fail.
I remain your friend, Dr. Charles Apoki.
Somebody said I talk slowly. If I talk fast, your brain may not catch up.
We still have properties for sale. Send us a message.
God bless you.
Say amen.
This is your testimony.
