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The Well Church, Rockville – Women's Gathering
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The Bible tells us in Genesis 32:25, "When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip. So that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man." This is the foundation for understanding what it means to be out of socket.
Imagine a runner at the starting line. When the command comes—"On your mark, get set, go"—your body immediately springs into action. Your arms pump, your heart races, your feet move with propulsive power. But here's what most runners aren't thinking about: their hip socket.
You trust your hip socket to do what it's supposed to do. You're focused on your breath work, where you'll place your feet, whether your eyes are up. But the hip socket is actually the central anchor of a runner. It's the hub of movement. It dictates your stride, your balance, your power, and your endurance. The hip socket is the connection point between your upper and lower body, transferring force with every step.
You may not be thinking about your hip socket, but that doesn't mean you don't need it. If that socket goes out of place, suddenly your stride feels uneven. You lose your balance. Your whole run is off.
Our mission is clear. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 9:24, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. Run in such a way as to get that prize." The Apostle Paul uses this athletic metaphor to illustrate spiritual discipline, encouraging believers to train with purpose and dedication, with an internal prize in view.
Hebrews 12:1 reinforces this: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run the race that is set before us, laying aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely." This encourages believers to persevere in their faith.
But then Galatians 5:7 hits hard: "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?" Paul was asking who had deceived the Galatians. Some of you are running well. You can congratulate yourself on your stride length. Your hip socket is still in place. That's awesome. But this raises a crucial question: Are you running the race God called you to, or the race you designed for yourself?
Jacob had two major encounters with God. The first came in Genesis 28, where he received reaffirmation of God's covenant. God was telling Jacob, "As I was with Abraham, as I was with Isaac, I will be with you." Jacob didn't ask for that affirmation—God volunteered it based on the altar of Abraham and Isaac.
In that encounter, Jacob saw something unprecedented: a ladder with angels ascending and descending. The Bible tells us in John 1:51 that this ladder is Jesus Christ. Jacob was engaging with his heavenly Father in a way that predetermined the coming of Jesus Christ.
Jacob named that place Bethel—the house of God. He recognized that the place of his encounter was the environment of God's presence. But here's the key: this environment wasn't set up by Jacob. It was set up by Abraham and Isaac. God came into an environment that had already been prepared for Him and blessed Jacob because of that environment.
Jacob was a supplanter. He had deceived his brother Esau out of an inheritance. He used all his efforts to win at his own race. His hip socket was perfectly in place because he had made sure it would be. Yet God blessed him anyway, even amidst his trauma and false identity. God will bless you amidst your trauma and your false identity, because He knows you're not yet aware of what it takes to run your race depending on Him.
But then came the shift. In Genesis 32, Jacob moved from a transactional, self-serving faith to actually seeing the face of God. He called that place Peniel. This was where he received a revelation of God's supremacy over his life.
Jacob sought to wrestle with a heavenly Father who had given him a blessing unprovoked. He sought to wrestle in the same manner through which he had acquired Esau's blessing. But here's the truth: Just because God has promised you a blessing doesn't mean it's your responsibility to bring it to pass. Your responsibility is the posturing of your heart, not the activity of the hand of God.
Jacob wanted Genesis 28 to repeat itself. He wanted another divine encounter where God would bless him again. But in Genesis 32, his hip was touched. Suddenly, the hip that had been working without thought now demanded his attention. He had to think about a part of his body that would now determine his success in the future.
The Bible tells us Jacob was on his way to meet the person he had deceived. In Genesis 28, he was fleeing that person. But God was going to bring him right around to face the very same place, the very same idol of his self-serving run.
Jacob had spent his whole life depending on his ability, his cunning, his strategy. Then he went to Laban's house, and the seed he had sown in Esau's life, he began to reap. For 14 years, God was touching his life. God was reframing his experience. God was showing him: "I may have given you the promise, but I didn't expect you to fulfill it on your own."
God will touch what you rely on. When you're relying on yourself instead of on Him, God will interrupt that pattern.
If you're running with someone and you notice they begin to limp, you get concerned. You wonder what's happening. But there's nothing like a limp that's given by God.
The Bible says Jacob left that encounter limping. Same man. Same calling. But now he walked with a limp.
Your calling doesn't change. You may not change. But now you walk with a limp. When God touches you for real, you can't move the same way. You don't respond the same way. There's a humility that touches your life.
When you're touched by a limp, you prioritize God's presence over His gift. When you're called by God—yes, He has blessed you and called you blessed—that's not your focus anymore. You focus more on His face than His hand.
If I am not known in the hallways of men, I will still serve God. My calling is not dependent upon the applause of man. My calling is dependent upon the applause of God.
For years, after receiving my PhD, I battled about staying in the United States. It was a sore point in my marriage. I grew up in ministry. I saw ministry. And in my own cunning, I thought I was supposed to do ministry a certain way because of my experience.
I had a husband who had spent most of his years in Nigeria, and God was calling him to locations I did not want to be in—to spaces and places I resented. I wanted to go back home because I felt that was where my calling would be fulfilled. I thought my Bethel was somewhere else.
But then God said, "Shift. Peniel. I'm calling you to My face, not to your thinking of how I would express the calling upon your life."
God will dislocate to relocate. It might be as practical as relocating geographically. Don't move unless God tells you to, or you will be frustrated. If God hasn't called you to a place, you will go without and stay in lack. But if God calls you to a place, you may start off with lack, but His grace is sufficient for you.
None of what God does can be contrived by human hand. For one month after we were told to launch a church, I did not talk to my husband specifically about anything ministry. I needed to go to Peniel. I was familiar with the environments of God. I knew how to orchestrate a moment. I knew how to predict a moment. But I needed to shift gears. God needed to dislocate me to relocate me to where He wanted me to be. And I met God at Peniel face to face—not because I was just submitted to the man of God, but because I was submitted to God Himself.
You're still called to run, but you can't run the way you used to. You have to lean on God differently.
Being on your face in the presence of God looks different than when you're trying to orchestrate something for yourself. When you're trying to orchestrate something for yourself, you're actually much more busy. That's why I love the name Selah—it means "be hushed up and be still."
If you're in a place where God is trying to relocate you, you can't run the same way. Your dependency has to look different. Jacob now walked with a limp because he now needed to depend on God. God had given him revelation of Jesus to come, but now he had to make use of that revelation. He needed to depend on God for his daily sustenance, for his mind being clear, for his strategy.
God, should I go and have this conversation? Should I meet with this person? Where should I be? You have to run differently. There has to be an awareness—not arrogance, but an awareness of the Spirit.
If the Holy Spirit hasn't told you to reach out to somebody, don't. You cannot orchestrate your blessing. If He hasn't given you divine instruction, we need radical obedience—meaning you will look foolish, meaning you will be the only person who believes God has said something. If God hasn't told you, don't move.
God is looking to place women of influence in different environments. He's looking to take the church outside the walls and cause them to be influential in their communities, in the spaces He has called them to. But here's the deal: You've got to walk into that room with a limp. You can't walk in straight-laced as if God hasn't touched you. You can't walk in without divine strategy.
Think about Elisha. When Gehazi was panicking, Elisha had been touched with a limp. Gehazi was still walking without consciousness of his hip socket. But Elisha said, "God, do me a favor. Open up his eyes to see Peniel. To see the spaces of Your face. Open his eyes to experience what he cannot experience in the natural."
We need to pray: "Open up my eyes, God, to see what You want me to see, not what others are feeding me. Open up my eyes that the grace of God rests upon my life, not my striving. Open up my eyes that if You want me to shut something down, I'll be quick to shut it down. If You want me to start something, I'll be quick to start something. If You want me to go and be a witness to somebody, instead of trying to figure out how to say it, I'll just share my testimony. I will be a witness. God, give me a limp."
I want each woman here to walk out with a limp—a limp where you're prioritizing the power and presence of God. When you live out of your house, out of your room, out of your corner with a direct connection with the Holy Spirit where the Holy Spirit is your best friend and not a side conversation. Where the Holy Spirit is not just a feel-good moment, but a constant companion.
If you've been touched with a limp, both heaven and earth will know. You'll show up in each environment differently. You'll be able to command the forces of heaven because of how you walk with that limp. Why? There is someone else holding up your hip socket. And that someone else is not ordinary.
You will begin to move into environments you could not have predicted. You'll have access to rooms, to spaces of influence, that you could only have dreamed of—because you walk with a limp.
Can you not question God when limp moments happen? We're in a microwave generation. If we don't get what we want immediately, we question God. But who's willing to wait for 15 years for a promise? Who's willing to allow the Holy Spirit to turn off your mind for just a moment? Who's willing to take their relationship with Jesus Christ seriously?
Every time I'm invited into a space where I know the name of Jesus is lifted, I come early. Because angels keep time. Every church here on earth is accounted for in heaven. Every movement and moment of God is accounted for in heaven. Our responsibility is to respond when God provides an opportunity for your hip socket to be touched.
When you respond, you'll receive a grace upon your life that you would not have received otherwise. God touched Jacob's hip to save him. If God didn't touch Jacob's socket, Jacob would have kept running in his own strength, unaware that Esau had already been settled by God and no longer bore a grudge against him.
If Jacob didn't receive that secondary encounter with God, he would have walked into that meeting with his brother the same way he always had. But God's touch changed everything.
God is allowing a disruption in your life not because you weren't running, but because you were running wrong. Allow God to touch your hip. Let Him dislocate it so He can relocate you to where you need to be.
You're still in the race, but now you run with a reminder: there's a dependency. I had a 10-year plan where I was going to medical school to be a doctor because my calling was misplaced. I have strong compassion for those dealing with cancer and infertility, so I thought I was called to be a medical doctor and heal physical sickness. Then a wise mentor told me, "Ambi, that's not your calling. You are called to heal the sickness in the heart first."
I had to go from Bethel for six months to Peniel. I said, "God, I'm messing this up. Who am I? Reveal to me what You've called me to do. Realign me. Dislocate me from my priorities and relocate me in Your perfect will."
You don't need another certification. You don't need another degree. You don't need another seminar. You need your hip dislocated so that the strategies of heaven will be downloaded to you for all parts of your life.
Even if your walk is different, you'll still run your race. We need to show up next year different. Don't go from conference to conference wearing the same hip socket. We need to see dislocated hips. Coming in here with a limp. The presence of God has ruined me for people's approval.
Father, in this moment, these women have placed their hips on the surgical table of the Holy Spirit. They have wrestled with You and it's time for them to experience a dislocation of their hip. Right now, in the name of Jesus, break them for it breaks Your heart. Remove all their agenda. Let only the agenda of heaven remain. Let the kingdom of God come in each of their lives like never before.
I pray, Lord God, that their posture would be face down in Your presence, seeking You not for what they can get, Jesus—not for what they can get, but for the kingdom of God to be established here on earth. Father, You are raising up a generation of women who have a limp attached to them, who are called to prayer, standing in the gap for others and for Your kingdom to be established. Father, I bless You, Lord God, for each of their lives. I rededicate them all back to You. And I ask, Lord God, that they have distinct Peniel experiences in Jesus' name. Amen.
