Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those days. The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses. Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy! The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon, as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon. There the Lord will display His glory, the splendor of our God. With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands, and encourage those who have weak knees. Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you! Isaiah 35:1-4
This passage sums up this last year for my husband and I! We entered into a wilderness but in it there has been a rejoicing and blossoming in our lives! We have watched the Lord display His glory but not before He allowed the desert heat to scorch our resolve and our parched tongues cling to our mouth thirsting for Him. All of us, in some ways, fear these hard and difficult places, we have been judged while in these places, and certainly we have been stripped in these places and everything we think we are… Changes.
These last two years the Lord has fundamentally changed who we are. How we view the Lord has changed, How we pray has changed, How we read the Bible has changed, how we view the church has changed. That’s what the wilderness does… it changes you. God called us to step out in faith and we did! He beckoned us, called us, drew us deep into His wilderness because He knew we would come and we did! There He personally, craftily started molding us and shaping us. Every time we would look at the world, He shifted our gaze back to Him. Every time we wanted to pick something up to fix it, he firmly grasped our hand and set our gaze back to Him. Every time we saw the depravity in the church and wanted to speak, He silenced us with His words and fixed our gaze back to Him. Then a move of His Spirit came into our lives unlike we have ever seen, nor could I ever be able to put it into mere human words. I understood and caught of glimpse the whole trinity, the full and complete godhead of God. The mere power of the three in One, our Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit! He displayed His glory, His splendor! He had this message for me… “Strengthen those who have tired hands, encourage those who have weak knees. Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to SAVE YOU!”
God had an intricate purpose for this wilderness and it is in the wilderness where His vision for me unfolds.
A year ago the Lord spoke to my husband and I through multiple scriptures that we were to move to Corona, Ca. I nor my husband would ever chose to move here and we knew what it would personally cost if we did. So we put it off for a year. Well God who was so patient with us, used that year to bring us to our knees in deep intercession. His words began to unfold in our lives and it was more than clear that He was asking us to obey and move. The series of events that got us here were more than miraculous. We were overwhelmed by the greatness of His Spirit in our lives. We knew it was Him beckoning us, even though we did not know what that road looked like, it was unfamiliar ground but we knew we heard and we went.
We were determined to glorify the Lord in our lives and the Lord tested that by taking us through a time where profound faith was required. Faith to believe we heard from the Lord, faith to believe He was going to provide, faith to believe His presence remained when the sand storms came full force and we could not move. God was ever faithful because it was God who was doing the work. There were times when my faith was weak and I cried out to the Lord for rescue and sometimes it felt like He did not hear me. Little did I know what God was preparing me for. He was preparing me to know the depths of His heart and He was getting ready to share it with me.
This last January I went to a conference on Human Trafficking. I went not for me but to talk to someone there about a situation that happened in Kenya and was getting information for my best friend. But what I came away with was the staggering and startling problem of Human Trafficking that we have here in the Inland Empire (This is now where I live). Human Trafficking is the fastest growing crime in California. The average age of a girl sold into prostitution is 13. Local gang members redesigned their business from selling guns and drugs to selling people because people you can sell over and over, increasing their profits. They will often times brand these girls, through tattoos, to claim ownership over them. 85% of those who are in prostitution/ commercial sex industry are being trafficked. the average life span of a prostitute is 7 years that means if a 13 year old is trafficked then she/ he will be dead by the time they are 20. We have 2.8 million runaways in America and within 48 hours 1 out of three will be taken into the commercial sex industry. That means right now we have almost 1 million kids who are in a life style so horrific and so dark my mind cannot even wrap around it.
I felt the Spirit…I knew His tug… I felt that touch when the sandstorm hit it was a small but gentle touch but it refocused me and I knew God was there… I knew then I MUST do something! God was going to ask me to do something.
Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death. Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know” For God understands all hearts, and He sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people, as their actions deserve. Proverbs 24:11-12
So I started praying! My husband started praying with me! Then the Lord did something amazing, He brought my sister back into my life, who had just accepted Christ and is now on fire for the Lord. Little did I know she is working as a DDA in Riverside County and since we started praying together she was moved into the unit that prosecutes those who victimize these girls. Immediately, the Lord started giving me scriptures about His decrees. Which meant, His prescribed task or civil enactments. The Lord started speaking to me about His ordinances, which means His justice, sentence cause/case. The scriptures kept coming.
I started looking into how we can change laws that would make it harder on Johns and Pimps to continue enslaving other people. I knew the Lord was starting to speak and He was slowly revealing to me what His heart was. BUT that was the beginning of what the Lord wanted to reveal. He wanted me to go deeper… deeper in prayer… deeper in His word because He had a deeper vision.
I was determined to hear the Lord, I dove deeper in scripture; it wasn’t just reading on the surface I wanted to know what every word meant. I questioned God about everything I asked Him for His meanings and clarity. God was more than willing to show me His heart!
He gave me a scripture that I wrote in my journal intending on sharing it with someone else. It was Hosea 2:4 I will win her back again and I will lead her to the desert to speak tenderly to her. One night my husband and I were watching a video on Human Trafficking and at the end my husband said “its almost as if you need to remove them far away so they can heal.” The next morning the Lord woke me up early, took me downstairs and their on the couch was my journal open to the verse I wrote down, Hosea 2:4. The next 12 hours he unfolded His heart to me. I still am blown away at the detail of His vision and His heart. The Lord showed me a home a place these girls can come to hear and see the beauty of the Lord. He wanted to win these girls back; He wanted them to know His tenderness. Then the Lord brought to my remembrance the cry of my heart last year when I asked the Lord to rescue me and I thought He didn’t hear. The Lord affectionately showed me that each girl, each boy, has cried out once for God to rescue them… but nobody came. So they stopped praying. They stopped hoping to be rescued. God expressed to me right then that He needed me to understand what it feels to cry out and have nobody come to rescue you.
The floodgate broke, my heart was overwhelmed, my suffering was nothing in comparison to the hope that was stripped away from them. For a moment I could see the Holiness of the Lord in all His Glory seated between the Mighty Cherubim as He came to me and was asking who can I send? I was undone at that moment. I confessed my selfishness; I confessed that it took me so long to find out about His heart, I confessed that my insecurities became my excuse for taking the easier road. Then I begged the Lord to please send me! And He said YES! GO!
The whole day was full of Him unfolding this vision. Hosea 2:15 I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a Gateway of Hope. The Lord showed me that He wanted a ranch for these girls where the gate that they enter will actually say “Gateway of Hope”. When they drive up to the house on either side will be beauty. The home will be beautiful. Their rooms will be beautiful. The Lord wants to show them they are valued. There will be gardens and horses. This will be their home.
Yet it’s more than a home! This is not something that is going to be easy and this is a commitment for life with these girls. The home is just the first step. Yes it will be beautiful but the deep work that needs to happen in their hearts only Christ can do. They need a family, they need to know they are loved even when they are grieving, angry, discouraged or condemned.
Just like the verse above the Lord is coming! He is coming to save you! Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return. They will enter Jerusalem singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear and they will be filled with joy and gladness. That is the beautiful work of the Lord! These girls we will will be the Lords crown of glory!
There is so much more to this vision; I have only begun to touch the surface. How can I share with you in one blog the hours of what God revealed. The vision will be in three parts:
- We will REACH – identify the victims and change the laws that would protect them.
- We will RESCUE - give them a place they can dwell in, a beautiful place where God dwells, a place they call home. (We already have overwhelming favor with those who decide where these girls go yet we need a place soon.)
- We will RESTORE – God wants to give them a life of victory so as adults they can see their dreams come true. They will need mentors to help through life, they need a family.
We also need to reach the boys. And it would take much longer than I have here to unfold it all. But I realize this is something I cannot do on my own. The Lord also gave me this scripture:
Isaiah 13:1-3 Raise the signal flag on a bare hilltop. Call up an army against Babylon. Wave your hand to encourage them as they march into the palaces of the high and mighty. I, the Lord have dedicated these soldiers for this task. Yes I have called mighty warriors to express my anger, and they will rejoice when I am exalted. The Lord needs an army for this. We need people who will pray! We need people who are called to put their hands to the plow. We need people who can give financially to get these homes established. There are some of you out there who may be called to help. Is the Lord speaking to you today? Just the other day I told the Lord I am not worthy to do this. I can’t I am the last person He should ask. But once again the Lord was so great and He told me:
Isaiah 28:25-29 Listen to me; listen, and pay close attention. Does a farmer always plow and never sow? Is he forever cultivating the soil and never planting? … The farmer knows just what to do, for God has given him understanding... The Lord of heavens armies is a wonderful teacher, and He gives the farmer great wisdom.
HE IS GOING TO DO IT! This is His work. His heart beats to save these kids! The name of this organization will be called Run 2 Rescue:
When the people cry to the LORD for help against those who oppress them, he will send them a Savior who will rescue them. Isaiah 19:20
You can also go to Run2rescue.com for more information and keep updated as the vision starts unfolding. We are praying for at least 10-20 acres of land to build on. So please commit to pray for us, as we are getting word of kids already who need a safe place to go.
If you want to be part of the prayer team or be trained to be a house parent, mentor or case worker email me at Shannon@run2rescue.com
If you would like to donate to Run 2 Rescue to help us get established you can click on this link to donate http://www.run2rescue.com/donate.html We are in the process of getting are 501c3 tax exempt status. So currently any donations made to Run 2 Rescue will not be tax deductible but will be available soon.
I want to encourage you the Lord’s heart aches for those who are suffering. If we are willing He wants to share His heart with us. I want to encourage you to not read on the surface of scriptures but go deeper there is so much more that He has for you. This season in your life, though difficult, may be the most rewarding as you allow the Lord to take you to the cross. This place of death will give you a deeper understanding of what makes His heartbeat. You will find with the suffering you go through that true fellowship with the Lord happens. Then at some point, you will look back and realize that everything has changed… you have CHANGED!
