Field of Dreams: God whispers

The scene begins with our main character who seems to be doing something that seems quite usual for him. Nothing out the ordinary, nothing strange. He is doing what he always does.
Then it happens......

"If you build it, He will come."

Build what? Build where?....
You see, much like our character, we want clear direction and clear purpose before we move into the unknown.
Over the last few year of my life, I have discovered how similarly God speaks. I've learned valuable lessons in discerning the voice of God, and although He seems cruel in His whispers, He really is showing you the utmost love.
God is not unprepared for what He is asking, we are. If He were to give us the full picture, the complete story; could we handle it? Would we even begin the journey? The question I believe He is seeking: Will you trust Him?
I learned for the first time in my life, how very little I did trust Him.
Waking up everyday, doing my ordinary life, living under the protection and provision of God, I never really needed to depend on God. I was trained from an early age to be a self-reliant. Depending on someone or some thing made you vulnerable to hurt and disappointment.
"If you want something done right, you might as well do it yourself," and I was content to lead my life the way I saw fit, just as long as I remember to play within the boundaries of morality.
February 5th, 1995, I realized for the first time I couldn't rely on my own ability to keep me from eternal separation from God. I needed Jesus Christ to be my advocate, and pay the price of eternal fellowship with God that I couldn't ever pay.
September 17th, 2011, was the day I heard the voice. I had been fed up with the life I was living. I wanted a life with purpose and meaning. So I did what any Bible believing Christian would do, I demanded that God giving me an audible word on what He wanted from me. Essentially, I came to the end of myself and told God I was done giving orders. My efforts were only producing empty successes and broken relationships.
I would love to tell you, the skies opened and a dove descended onto to my shoulder and a thunderous voice spoke from heaven, but what I heard was silence.
I was out for a midnight walk when I hoped for such a message, but even though I heard nothing, I began to feel an ease to the burdens that I carried.
A scripture verse came to my mind, but I couldn't quite remember it accurately, so I hurried inside and grabbed my Bible to hunt down the verse that escaped me.
I never found that verse, nor can I remember what it was, but I believe the verses I did find were the whispers of God.
When I began to see the pattern of the scriptures I then heard a voice well up from the depths of my heart. It said, "I've already told you what I want for your life, I even wrote it down for you, I will not repeat myself just so you will believe."
That's when I was left with no other choice. I could go back to the life that left me lifeless or I could take a step toward the will of God and truly live.
I want to recap the events that happened to Ray Kinsella, our main character, so below you will find it listed in bullet points. For me, the call to take up my cross and follow (Luke 9:23) has been exactly in line with Ray's call to build a baseball field.

"If you build it, He will come."

• the voice hits you when you least expect it

• question everything, nothing seems to make sense

• can't sleep, it consumes your thoughts

• you begin to feel a bit insane

• start to become irritable with the family, because you want concrete answers

• you feel very alone to what is happening or in your understanding

• when you tell people, they think you're nuts

• then it happens, you find the vision that has been nagging at your heart.

• nothing else seems to matter until you see that thing begin to take shape

• your spouse wants to be supportive, but she can't see what you see

• both of you begin to discuss how improbable that the voice could be real

• then it hits you....you've been living your life trying to find significance, only to find your significance could only be found by following the whisper. 

Don't wait to truly live. Call upon the name of the Lord and He will answer, but be quiet so you don't miss the whisper.

And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind whipped the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire there was a still, small voice.  

1 Kings 19:11-12

Sleeping with the Enemy?

 

 ^"You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God."  

James 4:4[a]

Social acceptance, prestige, or wealth are all described by James as friends of the world. Divided loyalty toward God is like adultery against one's spouse.
When we say "yes" to God, we find ourselves ushered into a strange and painful reality. Our defiance and self-reliance has kept us separated from our creator. The very one who breathed life into us and planned our life while we were being formed in our mother's womb.
What begins to transpire has been described as Holy Surgery. We were born into a sinful and fallen world as children of a sin nature. Relying on our own understanding of the things we see, taste, touch, and smell. We gather information from those who have been charged with caring for us, and as we grow older, we begin to develop "common sense." I believe this is the most stifling quality to the Good News of Christ we possess. Everything we do in our life is governed by our own framework of "common sense."
Since the beginning of time, man has been searching for the throne of God. We can't find it on our own, so we resolve to create a throne room in our minds or our homes, and we worship the god of us.
When you say the words of Isaiah, "here am I, send me" to God, you've given Him permission to check you into hospital. You are wheeled into surgery and He begins to remove everything that was never supposed to be there.
The greatest misconception of the work of God, is that He must change my surroundings and environment so that I can not be tempted to fall away. Although, that's not a bad idea, it never really deals with the core issue, YOU.
God wants to have a relationship with you, but to do that He needs your trust. Every lesson of self-reliance you have ever learned must be cut out of you and replaced with dependence on Him. God will never force Himself on you, or strap you on the surgeon's table, or even knock you out so that you feel no pain. In other words, this process could last a lifetime. Oh yeah, did I mention it was going to hurt?
John Piper writes that pain is not for nothing, but that it is producing a peculiar glory in us. Oswald Chambers writes, through pain and circumstance is the only way we build character.
As a man, I tend to always seek the affirmation of others. This helps to galvanize my way of thinking. God has been clear in His desire to severe that way of thinking.

If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.  

Luke 14:26(b)

Once you take a step of faith in the direction of Jesus Christ, the next thing you will face is the people who should understand you the best. This is where it gets REALLY hard. You've spent a lifetime leaning on the knowledge and experience of these relationships. James makes it very clear what divided loyalties will produce, you will become an enemy of God.
One of the biggest blows to our self-help mentality, is that the pain we experience is not FOR you. When you accepted Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are presented before God blameless and righteous.

 " I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me...."

Gal 2:20a(c)

So then why must we experience so much trouble?
Your choices and behavior influence everyone who is in contact with you. If your life looked like anything less than the redemptive life of Christ, then the world would never recognize their need for Him.
So how do we reflect Christ to the world?
When we say "yes" to Christ, we enter in to the "undeserved privilege" of the new covenant. Our everyday life is transformed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Which reminds me of the old hymn:

"Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."(d)