Shake yourself free

Ruth was a woman disadvantaged in many areas of her life. Born a Moabitess, living in Moab, bound by the culture and religion of the Moabites and living under a limitation imposed against them by Moses for refusing to help the Israelites. She had all the valid reasons not to succeed and or become anybody in this life; to stay down and defeated, but she didn’t. She must have stayed longer with Naomi and put her ears on the ground to realize and know that the God of Naomi was not like the idols of Moab. She knew that by hook or crook her life had to change. So she made a very hard decision. To follow Naomi back to Jerusalem and cling to her. It wasn’t going to be easy, but then again, she knew that she had to pay the price for her life and destiny and God didn’t disappoint her.

We all have our own backgrounds, different upbringings, cultures, belief systems, experiences and so forth all of which have shaped our thinking in a certain way and set our lives moving in a certain direction. Ruth is a representative of so many of us who are still stuck in Moab. Some are in Christ Jesus, while others are not, but all have a common ground, Moab. Anyone stuck in Moab is under the bondage of culture, religion and operating under limitations. Definitely not where God wants them to be. Moab is not your place of destiny and just like Ruth, you must make the hard decision to get out, detach and disconnect yourself from Moab. As long as you are in Moab, limitations, hardships, and cycles will be inevitable for you.

One thing about being stuck in Moab is that it affects your way of thinking. There is a way you were brought up that has affected how you think, see and perceive things as well as how you interact with your environment and those around you. There is also a way your culture has affected your thinking as well as your religion. What were you taught about God? What were you told about yourself, future and destiny? What were or are the words that you were told or were spoken to you that have shaped the way you respond to life, see yourself and others as well? Some people were brought up around so much punishment, so much so that such people are afraid of making mistakes because they have the fear of punishment. This kind of fear is usually instilled in us as we grow up in harsh environments or with parents and guardians who are always punishing us even for the slightest mistakes. As a result, insecurities begin to build up in our lives and the enemy takes the advantage to build strongholds in our minds. Such a person, in one way or another, will always be limited and living at a disadvantage because they are caged, whether or not they are conscious of it.

On the other hand, there are those who choose to live carelessly and or go with the flow of life because according to their thinking, the end result is always pain and heartaches. Their response towards life is always negative and they always expect nothing but pain, heartaches, disappointments and frustrations. This is also a limitation and most of the people who are in this kind of mental bondage think that they are doing themselves a favor, but at the end of the day, they end up hurting themselves and living lives that are inconsistent with the will of God for their lives. Your situation may be different; maybe you were abused as a child or as an adult, rejected or suffered in the hands of people you trusted, betrayed and so forth. Maybe it’s your culture that has bound you and taught you to live life as it comes and so forth. There are so many contributors that have led to so many of us being stuck in Moab, and you can assess your situation and see where you are.

Ruth was under a very serious limitation that had the potential to hinder her destiny. Its seriousness was due to the fact that it was a decree which Moses had pronounced prohibiting the Israelites from having anything to do with the Moabites and Ammonites. Watch this;

“An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. Nevertheless the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you. You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever ~ Deuteronomy 23:3-6 NKJV

This decree alone was enough for Naomi to decide not to help Ruth or for the people of Israel to mistreat her in Bethlehem, but it never happened. She was shown so much favor to the extent that she became a partaker of the blessings of God and even grafted into the family of Israel through marriage covenant. Likewise, you can decide that the limitations that have been imposed on you will not hold you down any longer. Limitations are barriers that put you at a disadvantage to the extent that you can only move this far but not that far. They are in your life to deter or hinder you from accessing what God has ordained for you, move forward or keep you forever stuck without ever accomplishing anything worthwhile in life.

A situation existed during the days of Esther when the Jews were put under the judgment of death. A decree had gone forth that they were to be exterminated on an appointed day and they had a disadvantage that they couldn’t fight back. But Esther and Mordeccai were able to rewrite this decree and the Jews were given the power to fight back. I don’t need to tell you that they defeated their enemies. During the days of Elisha, there was serious drought in Samaria and people were starving to the extent that they were eating their own children. God had released a word through Elisha that there was going to be abundance of food the next day. Four lepers outside the gate of Samaria decided to take a risk and invade the camp of the enemy. Watch this;

Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die.” And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise no one was there. For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses – the noise of a great army; so they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!” Therefore they arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact – their tents, their horses, and their donkeys – and they fled for their lives ~ 2 Kings 7:3-7 NKJV

A leper is a limited person because he has an infirmity that won’t allow him or her to move with freedom and with the speed he may want. It was worse for the lepers in the O.T because they were considered unclean and couldn’t mingle with other people. This of course was enough for these four to resign to their fate and decide to sit and die with the others, but they had a different mindset. And this is what differentiates all of us. Your mindset will determine what kind of life you will live no matter what you have been served in life. These guys, even in their leprosy, decided to take action and move out of their place of limitation and do what they had to do. God honored their decision and through them, the prophetic word that had come through Elisha was fulfilled. Ruth’s decision to break out of Moab led her to a happy and glorious ending.

Isaac put his son Esau under the yoke of his brother Jacob. He told him;

“Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; and it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck.” Genesis 27:39-40 NKJV

In other words, you shall remain under bondage only as long as you want. The moment you get tired, the power to break free is right within you. Look at what Isaiah is saying;

Awake, awake, Zion, clothe yourself with strength! Put on your garments of splendor, Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again. Shake off your dust, rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, Daughter Zion, now a captive ~ Isaiah 52:1-2 NKJV