Field of dreams

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29:18

“If you build it, he will come.” - The famous movie line from ‘Field of Dreams’.

Kevin Costner (Ray) heard these words and felt compelled to build a baseball field in the middle of his corn field. He heard this, envisioned it, and then worked towards the dream. The words he heard weren’t: “dream it and he will come” or “wish it and it’ll happen”, NO! The words were “IF YOU BUILD IT.”

He was thought of as crazy but nevertheless he pressed on and was rewarded. Remember Noah? Everyone must have thought he had lost his mind, nevertheless he persisted. He put in lots of hard work and followed the exact instructions that God had given him for the command to build the ark. Noah had to have pictured this boat in his mind before he ever built it, even though it was probably hard to wrap his head around it. Can you imagine the feeling of completion he felt after he was finished? Then what? Not suddenly but yet suddenly the flood came, just as God had told Noah it would.

We must get a vision for our lives. God already has one for us but we must get our vision in alignment with His: His plan and His will, then walk accordingly. It doesn’t just happen, we must dream and build. David wanted to build the temple for God, but God told him that it was for his son to build. David wasn’t upset because it was for God. He had first envisioned it but then he prepared for it so that his son, Solomon, could build. He wanted it to be excellent for God. God wasn’t just going to do it for them. David put his heart and soul into it. The point is: what we envision doesn’t just come, it requires work and faith.

“But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” James 2:20

What you envision may look foolish to everyone else. It may seem so distant, but it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks as long as we are aiming to please God. I’ve worried about this my whole life and have found that it’s just a waste of energy and time. It’s just a fear and fear is just a lie. You can’t just hope for things that God has called you to do. You must step out.

God is the Master Planner, the Master Creator, and the Master Builder. Until we realize this truth, nothing else really “fits”. Our lives don’t just happen for us. We were created for good works and to do good works but if we don’t do the work, who will? Not only is there a whole big wide world out there full of lost souls who need to be saved, but unless we each are in the will of God, then we aren’t doing what we should do with our own lives; His temple. He called us believers and doers. We aren’t to just be hearers only or we are deceiving our own selves. We have a part.

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Matthew 9:37

There’s a whole field of dreams just waiting for us to tap into but we have to dream for a specific thing before we can achieve it. We first have to see it in our minds before we ever hold it in our hands. We have to then build it with our hands, aka: talents and abilities, because we do believe that we can achieve it. We have to utilize what we do have in order to gain what we don’t. “Build it and it will come.” The fruition of the dream follows the action. The vision comes first but the fruition comes after the labor. This is not only a method for getting worldly possessions, it’s more about doing the will and work of God.

There are times when we have to trust God to achieve certain things that we have no control over or that we can’t accomplish on our own but we still have to do our part, even if it is just trusting Him. Other times, it sounds like: “God please do what I can’t and I’ll do what I can”, or else there’s just excuses and delay. It’s all about being honest in order to change it. Sometimes that part may be to wait, to trust, to stand still or to act when he says act but that is how we obey. We act on what God speaks to us or what we feel that He is calling us to do, letting His Spirit lead.

Do remember this: unless the Lord builds the house, we do labor in vain when we try to build it on our own. We are His temple. He’s got the Master plan for our lives. He’s given us the keys. We need to work with Him, not against Him. It’s His Spirit that’s working in and through us and so that we can walk by faith. Ultimately He knows best and He sees ahead what we cannot see. That’s why He wants us to trust and follow Him.

Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
BUT it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

Seek God’s counsel and follow His plan.

Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43;19

He says “Behold”. That means to See! Look at! Observe! The NIV version says: “Do you not perceive it?” In order for our spirits to get in alignment with His and for our spiritual eyes to be open and on the outlook for new things to come, we must look to Him. We are not made to just look down and we aren’t to keep looking back, that is why our head and eyes were made on the front of our body and our feet facing forward. We steer where we stare.

He wants our faith active and that means that we are to keep our eye on the prize and our hand to the plow. We are either going forward, backward, or back and forth (stuck). That’s where I have been for a lot of my life. Cars come with Forward, Reverse, and Park. Some even have 4 wheel drive. Hopefully the reason we purchased our car is to GO & and to go forward. Reverse is just for backing up in the moment, to quickly maneuver, only to go forward again. We don’t just hang out in reverse or park in the middle of the road. The 4 wheel drive is so you don’t stay stuck.

Most people that know me can tell you that I haven’t always been an expert in going forward, I was in stuck for many many years, more than I’d like to say and I have never been a natural or confident decision maker. I still struggle with this and there will always be change and seasons. However, I do consider myself an expert in telling you what doesn’t work: stuck or looking back. There’s nothing there for you and nothing there that you can change. The only thing that you can change is the next moment, your here and now; your new chance to make it right. A do over is a new opportunity to make the next moment right. Try something new. The obvious is the thing that’s kept being done doesn’t work. This is the season i’m in.

“We can’t go forward looking back and if we only look down, we will eventually get tripped up.”

I have found this out the hard way. I have had visions and dreams for lot’s of things. Some of the things that I had set in my heart to do came to pass because I truly believed that I would have them, and it’s what I went for, even if just subconsciously. A lot of the things that I had envisioned didn’t come to pass because I didn’t really believe for them, so I didn’t pursue them. Other times, I had no vision and that’s exactly what came to pass, nothing. I was stuck, only looking down. I blamed lots of people and used many scenarios and excuses but now I realize the only one who has the power to change it is ME. The only person who can move my feet, use my talent and think for myself is again, ME. We each are accountable for our own lives, what we do or don’t do. We will also be accountable for how we treated others and if we helped or hindered. At some point we gotta take back our reins from the enemy in order to give them to back to our Creator, God. It’s called surrender.

God tells us to have vision but just because something is a fact or commanded, doesn’t mean that we automatically do it. Can you think of any time in your life when a dream or vision came to pass? What about a time when your life wasn’t moving forward because you didn’t have a vision, much less actively moving towards something?

Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory. Deuteronomy 11:24

What do you set your foot to? Do not expect for your foot to have where it does not first step. If you are only wishin’ and you aren’t willing, you won’t achieve it. Even when Joshua and the tribe was to cross the Jordan, the waters did not part until the men went towards the water and then put the soles of there feet in it. That’s how you ‘get to’ the promises. You walk in them purposefully. There are always crossroads but God will guide you if you seek Him with your whole heart. A delay is sometimes for your protection or growth.

We all have a job, a call, a purpose and a life for a reason. God didn’t just put us here to tease us and cause us not tap into what He created us to do. Again, things don’t just happen for us. Lot’s of people die with untapped potential and dreams left to the wayside. I don’t believe that some people just don’t dream, I believe that most of them give up on it before they even start because of doubt.

Where there is no vision, we perish. (Proverbs 29:18) Think about that.

How do we know what we are aiming for or going towards if we have no aim or vision? It’s easy to think that God will just do it all for us but that’s simply not true. He gave us a mind to use. He will steer us but we must walk, move, act and live by faith - however that looks for you...

How ridiculous would it be if we were supplied a car, just to expect it to drive itself. I understand that’s probably not too far off but the world is going more away from work and more towards not using the body and minds that we were given by God TO USE. If we don’t use what we have, then we eventually just get lazy and unfruitful. Our bodies don’t work unless we use them and that leads to atrophy spiritually just as much as physically. It’s all the same scenario. Muscles were meant to be exercised because they can’t exercise themselves. When we use them, they profit us. We must not get spiritually lazy. We have a mind, a body, and a Spirit and it’s up to us how we use them.

In the same way God gave us a life and we are to do what He has called us to do while we are here on earth. There are many blessings and opportunities along the way just waiting for us but many times we settle, delay or aren’t even looking. We can miss them. Blessings can’t chase us down unless we are moving and in the right direction. Think about it: Nothing will chase us standing still when we’ve been called to move. I use to think that faith meant things would just fall out of the sky. Wrong! God blesses those who have faith and believe.

Gods Word is alive and active. He gives us the instructions but we must apply them. Back to the scripture without vision we perish, to perish is a pretty serious deal! The word also says that Gods people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Destroyed! What?? That sounds a little extreme but it isn’t. We can’t know or use what we don’t first know or have knowledge of, but does that mean that we shouldn’t seek?

If we continually use our lack of knowledge as an excuse not to grow then it will only lead to our own demise. We have the tools but we must learn how to use them in order to get the job done. God will teach us if we are willing to do the work. If you go to a new job with a piece of machinery you’ve never ran, you’d hopefully get a run down or a course first. Every piece of equipment should come with a manual to teach you how to operate it. Just because you’ve never done something, doesn’t mean you can’t. We have the greatest manual: The Word of God. He said He’d never leave or forsake us but we with us every step of the way. He’s already gone before us and we are hemmed in from behind and in front.

“We can’t have something we’ve never had or do something we’ve never done until we are willing to DO something we’ve never done. Are you willing? It’s time to step out to find out.”

Whatever we do, we must do it with heart or it won’t last. Our mission should be to do whatever we do with our whole heart, to the best of our ability and as unto God. Can you imagine how differently the world would be if we all had this mindset and attitude? Even just in your own life.

God expects a perfect heart, not perfect performance. That comes with time. A willing person with a good attitude can be worked with but you can’t do much with a made up mind and a bad attitude. I have learned that, quote myself: “perfectionism murders creativity”.

We have to study and then just do it…try it, step out and then don’t stop till your finished. We will mess up here and there, that’s not a question but instead that is just proof that we’re trying. Trying is the only way to perfect or master something. Trial and error. The reason we don’t obtain is because we don’t try, we quit, or fail to recreate. We can adjust and make changes AS WE GO. IF something doesn’t work, and it will happen, try something else. I feel God frowns more upon doing nothing than in doing something. Again, as long as your heart is right, you will not be doing anything to hurt God, yourself or anyone else. With faith and belief you’re already on the right track. It’s the only way to find out what your natural talents and likes are. God gave us each the desires of our heart for a reason and He wants to give them to us.

No work is No faith and No faith is sin. He actually says so. Read Matthew 25:14-30. I was that 1 talent man for many years and just now coming out.

That’s why I am finally writing this. I have written much but I haven’t been faithful in my call to share it. I haven’t yet mastered it but I am called to share it and I commit to. You are called also, have you answered?

We are all just here for a little while, an allotted amount of time. That’s not a question. The longer we wait, the longer we suffer for it. It does not mean that God cannot redeem the time that we have lost, He does however honor prompt obedience. Simply the blessing comes with obedience in keeping His commands, the curse for not, perfect or not. Ready or not, here I come. Once we know what we should be doing, we do not need to delay. He’s waiting on us.

We all have a life and just one life here. A start, a middle, and a finish. We must have aim or we will miss every time. It’s not a sin to dream, it’s commanded. What better time to start than today? Today is the day of salvation. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come. The only thing that is stopping you, is you. Start with what you do have and He will provide the increase. He wouldn’t have called if He couldn’t sustain what He called you to do and if He hadn’t already equipped you to do it. God is not a man that He should lie. Trust Him. Try.

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

God wants you and I to be confident in this work He began in us. We may have made some wrong turns but what we do now and each moment on determines how we finish.

My heartfelt prayer for you:

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.” ’ Numbers 6:24-26