A Picture of Biblical Prosperity: RUTH, Part I
- Danika Thompson
- Apr 26
- 12 min read
The story of Ruth is a story of both forsaking all to follow God, and being restored 100-fold in HIS perfect plan.
I showed up empty, with nothing to give
Aside from my heart which I place in Your hand
I come to You weary, I come to you lost
I come to You fully aware of the cost
Forsaking the past, I leave it behind
With all that I once thought was mine
But now I am Yours, I trust in Your way
To lead me to living in victory
Where I was empty, now I am filled
Where I was lost, I'm found in You still
Where I was burdened, now I am free
The old me is dead, crucified on that tree
Crucified with You, in Your great Love
Now I am brand new, and seated above
In heavenly places, right at Your side
In the arms of my Father, the Father of Lights
All that I lost, was truly gain
For everything that I now have in Your Name
You are my Desire, You are my Delight
And forever I am Yours,
Saved
Healed
Prospered
In Your Eternal Life.
Surrender
Just as Ruth gleaned from the fields of Boaz, we can glean golden bushels of heavenly wisdom from her story.
![So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley [an entire basket full]. Ruth 2:17](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/08de48_5d528f1f56474795bb4ed02df8ea0786~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_928,h_1232,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/08de48_5d528f1f56474795bb4ed02df8ea0786~mv2.png)
Ruth was in a hard place. She had lost most everything. Her father-in-law, her brother-in-law, and her husband had all passed away. All she had left was her mother-in-law, Naomi, and her sister-in-law Orphah.
They had been living in the land of Moab, which was actually the land of Israel's enemies- the Moabites. Due to a famine in Israel, Naomi and her husband left Judah and sojourned in Moab with their sons. After some time, they decided to remain, and Naomi's sons married two Moabite women- Orphah and Ruth. After all the loss, Naomi heard that there was food in Israel again so she decided to return to her homeland. She urged Ruth and Orphah to go back home to their families and their people, and try to remarry. By the third time, Orphah heeded Naomi's pleading and turned back to Moab. Ruth, however, refused to turn back. She sternly voiced her devotion to Naomi and said,
“Do not urge me to leave you
or to turn from following you.
For wherever you go, I will go,
and wherever you live, I will live;
your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.
Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried.
May the LORD punish me,
and ever so severely,
if anything but death
separates you and me.”
Ruth 1:16-17
This is a picture of a life surrendered and wholly given over to Christ.
Ruth forsakes all-
her land, her people, her family, and the false gods of Moab,
in order to follow Naomi.
She pledges her devotion to Naomi's land, people, and God; and Ruth even consecrates her life to following Naomi to the grave.
Even when her sister-in-law finally turned around, it says-
Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye,
but Ruth clung to her.
Ruth 1:14
Ruth forsook all to join her life to Naomi's, in life and in death.
When we come to Christ, we are literally reborn into new life in Him, and as Ruth clung to Naomi, our regenerated spirits are joined as one spirit with the Spirit of God.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:17
Ruth joining herself to Naomi in life and death, is a type of how we join ourself to God through Christ. Just as Ruth declared that she would die where Naomi died and be buried where she was to be buried- we must understand that we too, have died with Christ and have been buried with Him.
I'm sure you're wondering,
how can it be that I died and was buried with Christ, when I'm standing right here alive and well. There's no dirt on my clothes, I never walked out of a tomb in Israel. How is it that I died with Christ?
Colossians 2:11-12 says,
In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but by the [spiritual] circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of the flesh [the sinful carnal nature],
having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God, [as displayed] when He raised Christ from the dead.
AMP version
The New Living Translation of Colossians 2:11-12 says,
When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
(This is what died with Christ- our sinful nature literally died IN HIM when He was crucified on the cross, and was buried WITH HIM in the tomb.)
For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
In Christ, we died to sin. With Christ, our sinful nature was buried in the tomb. But in and with Christ, we were raised to new life in our regenerated spirits born of God's spirit, by faith.
Ruth was a type and a shadow of the real event, which we experience as born-again believer's today. Unless we actually reckon ourselves dead to sin, and alive in Christ, we will forever struggle to fully grasp who we truly are in Christ Jesus and what He has made us to be in the new creation.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:1-9
We died with Christ, spiritually baptized into His death (which conquered sin and death while fulfilling the Law) and we are now risen to new life in Christ by the Spirit of God that makes us new creatures.
We were once walking with dead spirits and a sin nature. But through Christ Jesus, we have been given a new nature- the nature of GOD by the joining of His Spirit with ours. We walked out of that tomb with Jesus, in the power of His resurrection, the day we became born-again, baptized believers. We are now partakers of God's divine nature, by the Spirit of God within us. All things are now new, and all things are of God.
When we understand that the crucifixion of our sin-nature was an actual event that occurred with Christ on the cross, along with the resurrection of our new nature as sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus, we realize that we are truly free from sin.
I can hear you now, wondering,
Wait, if I am free from sin, then why do I still sin?
You have been set free from the sin-nature. Your identity is no longer a sinner. Your spirit is made perfect, and does not sin. When God looks at you, He sees your perfect spirit that is one with the Spirit of the LORD. When you were saved, your spirit was regenerated, but your soul and body were not regenerated. The reason that you still sin, is due to when you are living under the influence of your soul (mind, will, and emotions) and your body (physical senses) and not under the influence of the Spirit. The mind must be renewed, because the un-renewed mind is what causes a born-again believer to sin. When your heart fully aligns with God's WORD, thus producing God-thoughts, God-words, God-actions, and God-character, we see in real-time the transformation that takes place when our minds are renewed to the WORD of GOD and we are conformed into the image of Christ. But I am here to tell you today, that you are not a sinner anymore. You are a new creature in Christ Jesus, created after righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24, 2 Corinthians 5:17), and you are dead to sin and alive in Christ. GOD DOES NOT SEE YOUR SIN. He communicates with you in spirit and in truth, therefore He sees your perfected spirit. The more you align your life with God's WORD, the more you will renew your mind, and the less you will struggle with sin. However, God does not even remember your sin. He only sees the Spirit of God within you- His own Spirit. When you understand this, then you will never doubt that God wants to prosper you ever again. Why would He not want to prosper His own Spirit within you?
From Death to Life
Ruth forsook all, and become one with the life of Naomi.
We too forsake all, and we are now one with the life of Jesus Christ.
No longer did Ruth see herself as a Moabitess, but she made Naomi's people to be her people.
No longer are we to see ourselves as sinners, but we are sons and daughters of the Most High God, and we are joint-heirs with Christ.
No longer did Ruth see herself as an idol worshipper, but she made Naomi's God to be her God.
No longer do we have a sin-nature, but we have God's divine nature and we partake of it as much as we are willing. To the degree that we renew our minds to the WORD of God, is the degree to which we will partake of God's divine nature.
By following Naomi and consecrating her life to hers:
Naomi's land became Ruth's land (Israel)
Naomi's people became Ruth's people (The Jews)
Naomi's God became Ruth's God (Yahweh)
Naomi's death and burial became the place of Ruth's death and burial
By following Jesus and consecrating our lives to Him:
His land becomes our land (The Kingdom of God & The Kingdom of Heaven)
His people become our people (Born-again Christians)
His God becomes our God (The Triune God)
His death, burial, & resurrection is our spiritual death, burial, & resurrection
Ruth died to her old nature, and chose to have new life in Naomi's land, Naomi's people, and Naomi's God.
We die to the sin-nature of our old man when we choose to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is LORD, and we receive new life in Jesus Christ, in His Kingdom, and in GOD.
New Beginnings
Just like Ruth, we walk in newness of life in Jesus Christ. The surrender and the death are not the end, but they are only the beginning. This is where God's Prosperity can take root in our lives- because we are no longer living in the death of sin but are living in the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Like Ruth, we show up empty. After all, what do you give the One Who already has everything? You give yourself. This is the surrender. Ruth gave herself wholly unto Naomi and thus gave herself wholly to the LORD. She had nothing to give, but her heart. Yet the heart is what GOD desires of us. And He only requires more from us, when there are things that are taking HIS place in our hearts.
The more we empty ourselves of the old, then the more we empty ourselves of the thoughts, words, actions, and character of the un-renewed mind. This emptying makes room for the God-thoughts, for God's WORD, God's will, God's plans, God's purposes, God's character, and God's entire life and nature to be made manifest in and through us. The more we renew our minds to the WORD, the more are we empowered by the WORD and enlightened by the Holy Spirit to walk in our new nature and our true identity:
as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17)
as the spirits of just men made perfect (Heb. 12:23)
as being one spirit joined with the LORD (1 Cor. 6:17)
as being created after righteousness & true holiness (Eph. 4:24)
as being washed, sanctified, and justified (1 Cor. 6:11)
as being predestined, called, justified, and glorified (Rom. 8:30)
as being overcomer's (1 John 5:4)
as being more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37)
as being new creatures in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17)
as being dead to sin and alive in Christ (Rom. 6:11)
as being healed by the stripes of Jesus (1 Peter 2:24)
as being redeemed from the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13)
as being seated in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6)
as walking in the blessing of God as the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29)
as being co-heirs with Jesus to all that the Father has given Him (Rom. 8:17)
as having authority over all the authority of the enemy (Luke 10:19)
as reigning in life by receiving the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness by Christ Jesus (Romans 5:17)
as being blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (Eph 1:3)
as being forgiven by God, Who remembers our sins no more (Heb. 8:12)
as being qualified by GOD to partake of the inheritance of the saints in light (and all that He offers us through the cross and by His grace) (Col. 1:12)
I could go on, but most of us don't even have a foundational revelation of these scriptural truths! This is who we are in Christ Jesus. This is what the cross has made us to be! These truths are the core of a renewed mind in light of God's WORD and the identity of a born-again believer. The WORD of God is our mirror, and when we look into it, it tells us exactly who we are!
By emptying herself of all that didn't align with GOD and His WORD, Ruth made room within herself so that He could fully prosper her... His way. This is what God desires for all of us- to prosper us, not to harm us; to give us hope and a future. He delights in our prosperity, when it is in and through Him. But when it is through the ways of the world & the nature of the flesh (not depending on God but on the self), we miss out on the perfect prosperity that God has planned for us.
Paul said,
Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ,
and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death,
Philippians 3:8-10
Just like Ruth, Paul forsook all for Christ. He considered everything else to be worthless so he emptied himself, that he might be filled with the revelation knowledge of GOD. He deemed nothing else to be worth more than knowing God. To know Christ is of infinite value, meaning the value increases without ever stopping, never hitting a ceiling. This is biblical prosperity. Paul had a revelation of the profit of knowing God established and rooted within his heart. He understood the significance of the free gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus. He comprehended the surpassing worth of knowing Christ & the power in His life- a power that raised Him from the dead. He wanted to take part in the fellowship of His sufferings- a fellowship in which persecution supernaturally yields increase and brings forth a harvest in the Kingdom of God. And just like Ruth did with Naomi, Paul saw the value of being conformed to Christ in His death because it gave him new life in the Spirit of God.
If you desire to step into biblical prosperity, then take the same steps of Ruth and Paul from Old Testament to New. Give your heart wholly over to God, ask the LORD to empty you of anything that is not of Him, so that He can fill you with all that He is. God is prosperity. He never fails. His ways are perfect. He makes every crooked place straight. His life is abundant. His heart is gentle and lowly. And in Him, we find rest for our souls.
Ask the LORD today,
Show me Your good way, that I may walk in it.
Empty me, that You may fill me.
I let go of what You have not given, I fully embrace all that You have.
I want to truly know You and have a revelation of Your perfect Love.
He will not deny you.
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