“God it’s not my fight. You did NOT
call me to this”
“Oh really?... Just wait and see”
I, in all
my ignorance, told God one night that I was not called to Turkey. I wasn’t
called to work with Muslims. I was called to Africa. I was called to orphan
care and I was comfortably settled on pursuing the image of my life that I had
dreamt since I was 16.
Then one
night at a late night conference during worship I fell to my knees as the
weight of the Lord’s heart for the Muslim people hit me like a train. I found
myself weeping “God YOUR heart if for them. YOU want them. And I want what YOU
want.” I don’t know how long I laid there, but when I got up I sent a text that
will undoubtedly have lastly effects far beyond what I can see right now. It
read “I’m taking a team to Turkey. Don’t let me try to back out again.”
So here I
am. I prayed for a team and God gave me four of the most incredible team
members. I prayed for provision and the Lord has been pouring out resources
from the most unlikely of places. We prayed for the Lord to open and close
doors to get us right where we were supposed to be, and He has been doing just
that.
We are two
months out. I don’t know what this trip holds for me, but I do know that the
Lord is ordaining our steps and wreaking my heart for these people I have yet
to meet. As I watch the news and hear
stories of what is unfolding in this area of the world, I get excited because
God’s heart is beating for these people.
I have this
running picture in my head as I pray. It’s of a man on his face crying out to
his god begging for his attention, weeping over the happenings around him.
Every time I hear so clearly the Lord say, “Oh that he would just say MY name!” The Lord is longing for these
people and He so desires that they would know Him. He has not given up on these
lands. He has not forsaken those He formed. He is desperately seeking them out,
waiting for the moment that they would say “Abba Father”.
So it has
become my fight. It has become my heart’s burden. I still have dreams for other
places and what the Lord will do through our journey together. I’m not upset or
discouraged that the Lord is shifting my direction for a season. Instead I am
honored that the God of the Universe, the only God who hears, has trusted me
enough to reveal His heart. To uncover a
vulnerability, He is desiring something that He refuses to force, intimacy. The only true God desires
intimacy with a people so far from Him and He is allowing me to somehow go and
show them His heart. I am deeply honored.
Two Months.
Will you pray with me for two months? Will you take two minutes every day for
two months and pray? Pray for a people who the Lord desires to say His name.
Pray for opportunities to share the Lord’s heart in eye opening ways. Pray for
God’s desire to come true. He longs for them! Pray that we would be obedient
even when it’s hard. Pray for my team by name (Ray, Ren, Justin, Kyle, and
myself).
Pray for a revelation of God’s
heart in your own life. Know that He desires you in the same way that He
desires those utterly lost. He is longing for intimacy with you. When you find
intimacy with the King, oh the joy!
You might be saying the same thing
I did, “it’s not my fight”. But I am challenging you to pray for two months and
take up the Lord’s fight. He is fighting for the lost to be found, and if we
love Him then that is our fight as well! So join me, and let’s watch as God
pushes back darkness with immaculate light!
