Incessant Trust

The book of Ruth is truly inspiring. I love this part in the story that occurs right after Boaz has agreed to go ask the "closer relative" if he will relinquish his marrying rights. Everything is up in the air right now. He needs permission from this other man or no marriage between him and Ruth will take place.

Ruth 3:18 Then she (Naomi, Ruth's mother in law) said, “Wait, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out; for the man will not rest until he has settled it today.”

The Hebrew word for WAIT is yashab: to dwell, remain, sit, abide.

The commentary goes on to say: this is often the most difficult part of faith- when no more action can be taken and nothing remains but to wait patiently for God to work out His will. It is at this moment that doubts arise and anxiety creeps in.

Will you allow God to work this lesson in your life? He is asking you, "Will You trust Me and just abide with Me when there is nothing else you can do in the situation? Will You let go and just be with Me? Will you belive that I have good things in store for you My beloved?"

What an incredible quality to posses: a incessant trust. Every moment a moment of restfully being with Him because…well…He loves me.

The Ultimate Prayer Partner

I've been focusing in on Romans 8. This chapter has so much wealth in it that I could spend a week on each verse if I wanted to. Powerful phrases that we hear all the time as Christians show up in this chapter.

"All things work together for good to those who love God."

"If God is for us, who is against us?"

"Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ."

So much brilliant love and promise pouring out of every corner of it! Then I ran across some verses that I knew had more than what I was seeing.

Romans 8:26 - 27

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings toodeep for words;

and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

As I thought about this I felt the discouragement of my prayer life rush over me. I feel a desperate need to pray more for other people, but so often I feel I just don't have enough information. I get cut short because I only know bits and pieces of their situation and my own guesses at what the root issues may be. I don't know how to pray as I should.

Then it hit me. That's what the Holy Spirit does! He fills in the blanks! He meets me on my knees where I pray for people and situations and whatever I don't know to pray for- He does! I don't have to be afraid that my friend will only get the meager portion I prayed over them just because I didn't know everything. I can pray confidently knowing that the Father hears my prayers as well as the prayers of the the Holy Spirit who does know my friends heart and the real issues going on!

So what was the point of verse 27? It seemed obvious that the Spirit would pray according to the will of God. I mean, He is God. I must be missing something. There was magic here and I just couldn't see it. As I was walking that day I asked God to show me something new in this verse that I had never seen before.

And He did. He put that in there to be an example for us! He's stating the obvious so that we will follow along. Pray according to the will of God! Pray what you see in the Word and pray it in faith! An excitement grew inside me and my pace quickened. I began to pray, right there in some little neighborhood and out loud for any person or squirrel to hear.

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that Lisa has an abundant full life in You!

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that Cynthia is healed of all of her pain by Your stripes and suffering on the cross!

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that Stephen finds the freedom and salvation that you freely offer him!

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that there is a future for me and my hope will not be cut off!

God I thank you that YOUR WILL is that Jennifer's situation will work together for her good and You will bring about the great purposes for her life!

I don't know how many blocks passed by as I went on like this. But it was exhilarating.

Wreckage to Wonder

What would happen if we allowed our lives to be wrecked for God? That word- wreck- may disturb you. It may even strike fear into your heart. If it does it is only because you don’t fully understand what it means to be wrecked by God. Our basic understanding of wreckage on this earth is pure destruction. Something was whole. Something is ruined; rendered broken and useless. The end. That is what we know of earthly wreckage. That is what we understand from what we’ve seen of broken relationships, natural disasters and car accidents. Wreckage is bad and should be avoided. I would like to suggest that the opposite is true with God’s wreckage.

Look at the Bible. Look at the lives. God told Abraham to leave his home, his land, his friends: to ruin everything in his life and start over somewhere else. Joseph had plans of rising up in his father’s household and taking over the family lands. His brother’s sold him as a slave. His life was wrecked. Paul was held in the highest esteem among his peers. No one could outwit him or prove more knowledgeable when it came to the law of God. He encountered Jesus on the road one day and the encounter wrecked all the years of knowledge and experience he had built up for his own purposes. His skill was now useless for his plans.

These lives were undeniably wrecked. But it didn’t end there. There is another factor in God-wreckage that we may refuse to acknowledge because of our own fears. We see our worlds falling apart around us and look into the future imagining the worst. What we see- we think- is what we get. Ruin. The end. But what if while the pieces of our world were falling down around us like debris and ash, we looked into the future and saw the end that God-Wreckage brings: Wonder. Human wreckage and sin-destruction ends at the point of the breaking and ruin, but God turns wreckage to wonder. Abraham walked with God. Joseph ruled a nation. Paul wrote life-fueling words that would span through generations. Through the ash, through the tears, through the impossible thing that God has told you to fearlessly take ahold of, look ahead and believe for the wonder. It is there, waiting for you.

Deliverance from Mental and Physical Slavery

Deliverance from mental and physical slavery is a desperate need in our world today. The enemy of our life and our love would like nothing better than to enslave us. History is full of people who needed deliverance from mental and physical slavery, and the world today continues in that pattern. Slavery takes many different forms. For people who have experienced the bondage of worldviews like Communism in their country the slavery begins in their minds, causing them to make choices that may enslave others or continue to enslave themselves.

God created us to be cherished, valued and loved. But if we don’t see ourselves as having any value, that will lead us to make decisions that can lead us to further emotional slavery, as well as physical slavery. In countries all over the world mindsets like this lead to circumstances where men and women will make rash decisions in an effort to feel value, or take advantage of someone that they see no value in. This mental enslavement leads people to make decisions based on very little thought or information, or to use people like items to use and sell.

A young girl with this mindset will quickly trust a stranger promising a great job in another country, and only later discover she has really been enslaved. The rest of her life will be spent working endlessly for little or no pay, or being forced to deliver her precious body to a daily string of men. It can all start with that despair and slavery of her mind. She feels she has no value and the first chance she sees she grasps at. But a woman who knows that she is cherished and adored by her Heavenly father will offer Him her trust and know that He will take care of her. She doesn’t need to act rashly in desperation.

Pray for deliverance from mental and physical slavery for Bulgaria and the world. Pray that these strongholds and damaging mindsets will be broken through the brilliant power of Christ. Pray that He will refresh them with the knowledge and understanding of true value and purpose a plan He has just for them!

Human Trafficking, Sex Slavery, and Poverty

Human Trafficking, Sex Slavery and Poverty can be overwhelming and excruciating topics. Just bringing up the epidemic of human trafficking or sex slavery tempts us to feel despair and hopelessness. When we hear a statistic such as 27 million people are in slavery around the world today we want to throw up our hands and breathe sadly, “Well, what could I ever do to change that?” But what are we looking at? The number of people in poverty or human trafficking around the world? Something like sex slavery that seems “bigger” than we could ever comprehend much less attempt to tackle? So our focus is on something big. This brings us to a simple shift in focus to something even bigger: God. Yes human trafficking, sex slavery and poverty are tragic, massive, and mind-blowing. But the God we serve has a history of taking “big” things and dwarfing them with His love and greatness.

What it requires from us is faith. Faith welded to action. We are not called to be God and make the change. We are called to obey in what He has put before us and watch Him take our faith & action against slavery and poverty to make a miracle. I believe that Bulgaria is the next launching pad for a great miracle from God. Compared to many countries in the world, Bulgaria is not very large. But the darkness and strongholds it faces are looming over it’s future with ravenous intensity. Human trafficking. Despair. Poverty. Lies about self worth. Sex slavery. Worldviews that inflict hopelessness and bondage on the lives that it preys upon. These may all seem like giants. Especially to those who have lived in countries that enjoy wealth and freedom. But these giants are particles to God. And what would seem to take ages to change or improve can transform with one breath from God, or one person sent in His name.

Don’t let facts or circumstances grow to be larger than God in your own mind, whether they are the heart-breaking issues in your own life or gruesome injustices like sex slavery in the world. Remember that He is bigger, and then take a step to activate your faith with action. It could mean changing the course of your career and joining yourself to a Kingdom pursuit. It could mean surrendering the money God has blessed you with (from the job HE has blessed you with) to feed and clothe those in rags of poverty and despair. It could mean sacrificing time to pray and rally behind someone who is fighting for the orphans, widows and slaves. Decide to take action today, in whatever way God is calling you, to be a part of the big miracle He has brewing. I dare you to let God transform you through your obedience to help transform the lives of others.

Child labour

Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking.

Modern day slavery and human trafficking. When we think of slavery, we usually think of the past, not today's society. However, modern day slavery and human trafficking remains a shockingly present, if not hidden, part of our global world. In fact, according to the extensive research done by the Polaris Project on modern day slavery and human trafficking, "actual statistics are often unavailable and sometimes may be contradictory due to the covert nature of the crime, the invisibility of victims and high levels of under-reporting." As I researched slavery in modern day, and sought to compare statistics, my heart felt stabbed by the amount of human trafficking that occurs; even at its lowest estimate, the numbers are high. With this article, I set forth the definition and general global impact of modern day slavery and human trafficking in hopes as to bring awareness to the problem.

Abuse of others is considered human trafficking when an individual uses another for forced labor, prostitution, debt bondage, slavery, forced marriages, and child transfer for various exploitive purposes. Trafficking often involves recruitment or transferring of the human beings through such means as abduction or fraud. Modern day slavery involves the practice of forced labor and/or confinement. Both modern day slavery and human trafficking takes an unwilling individual and thrusts them into inhumane and often horrific conditions.

The most shocking statistic comes in the fact that an estimated 27 million human beings are trapped in modern day slavery. In Europe, human trafficking is the second largest global organized crime today, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In fact, there occurs one sale every 47 seconds, according to the same statistics. The nature of slavery occurring from human trafficking varies from country to country but on average, 70-90 percent of females trafficked end up in the commercial sex industry, while most males endure forced labor and abusive slavery. Many of these are young children; those that aren't should be considered "children" still, averaging between the ages of 12 to 14.

Modern day slavery and human trafficking is just coming to the forefront of awareness in today's world because, as mentioned at the onset, the crime is generally hidden. Those trafficking keep actions highly secretive, are often seductive individuals, and threaten victims with death which in turn causes the trafficked to hesitate to cry for help. However, the greatest reason that the mass amount of slavery in modern day has been hidden for so long is that money speaks, or, in this case, it gives the incentive to keep quiet. The total yearly profits generated by human trafficking as an industry comes to 32 billion dollars! And, $15.5 billion of this total is made in industrialized countries – countries that should be leading by example and respecting all humanity. I have to agree with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she says that human trafficking and modern day slavery "is an affront to our basic values and our fundamental belief that all people everywhere deserve to live and work in safety and dignity."
Especially as a Christian, we are called to "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute" (Proverbs 31:8). Those stuck in modern day slavery are being denied their God given right to speak out, and the trafficking is leaving in its wake lives destitute and hearts broken. The first step to speaking out comes in being informed, then partnering with others taking action. Ceitci Demirkova Ministries interacts with children and families touched by the various forms of slavery and human trafficking, especially in Bulgaria and Uganda, highly impacted areas of this crime against human beings created by God. In fact, Changing a Generation may be rescuing a child every day, for the programs are providing food, education, and hope, which helps keep families from selling their children into slavery, and children from agreeing to any "opportunity" in a desperate attempt for survival.