2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)
For we live by faith, not by sight.
In 1989, Kevin Costner starred in a hit movie called “Field of Dreams.” Costner played the part of Ray Kinsella, a man who owned a large farm in Iowa. While living on the farm with his wife and daughter, Ray hears a voice whispering to him from the beyond. “If you build it, he will come.”
At first, Ray believes that his wife is yelling at him from the house, or that someone is playing a prank. However, the voice continues calling out, “If you build it, he will come.”
Prompted by nothing more than a voice that he couldn’t trace and a gnawing instinct, Ray Kinsella mowed down a large portion of his crop and built a baseball field on his farm. Immediately, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and the rest of the infamous Chicago “Blacksox” players’ ghosts who were banned from baseball start playing on the field.
For a large portion of the movie, Ray assumes that he was supposed to build the field so Shoeless Joe could go back to playing baseball from beyond the grave.
However, the call to build the field was much more than that. The “he” that the voice kept telling Ray about was his father, John. In the movie, the two of them had endured a rocky relationship that ended when John passed away, never realizing his dreams of being a professional baseball player.
The end of the movie ends with a tearjerking, heartfelt scene where Ray and John play catch on the baseball field.
Obviously, the movie is a work of fiction, but it paints a beautiful picture of a spiritual principle. In the same way that Christ used parables to illustrate spiritual points, we can take some spiritual concepts from some secular sources.
If Ray Kinsella had never mowed down a portion of the cornfield, he would have never been able to reconnect with his father over the game that they both loved. He didn’t have a lot of direction to go on, but he moved forward based on what little he had and did something that would change the course of his life.
No, God doesn’t tell us to mow down a farms so we can play baseball with ghosts. That’s not the point of today’s study. However, there are times where we have to take the next step before we know where the destination is.
Paul told the Christians in Corinth that we live by faith, not by sight. That means that we go forward in life based on what we know about God, not what we see in front of us.
If you’re struggling to move forward in faith instead of living by sight, take a look at some Biblical heroes who brought that idea to life.
Noah
Genesis 6:13-14 (NIV)
So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.”
If there was ever an example of, “If you build it, He will come,” in the Bible, it’s Noah. When we first met Noah in Genesis 6, it had never rained. Previously, God had caused a dewlike mist to come up out of the ground to water the grass and the plants of the earth.
Only a few generations after Adam and Eve had committed the world’s first sin, violence had become even more prevalent. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as by this point, Cain had killed Abel in the world’s first murder.
Noah didn’t know what rain looked like, but when God told him to build a boat, he started building. He had never seen a vessel float on the water, but he had the designs that God gave him for the boat. He had the promise that God would bring the animals to him. He had the faith to act before he saw the first drop of water.
God did exactly what He said He would do, and Moses’ obedience saved himself, his wife, their sons, and their wives. Sometimes our faith doesn’t only impact us.
Abraham
Hebrews 11:8-9 (NIV)
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
Have you ever set out on a road trip with no particular destination in mind? While that idea doesn’t seem completely foreign to us, let’s take things a step further. Have you ever considered packing up and moving away with no destination in mind? That seems ridiculous, doesn’t it?
Even the missionaries who give up their “normal” lives to carry God’s message to the remote corners of the world typically know where they’re going. Abraham, a man who was called a “friend of God,” didn’t have that luxury.
In Genesis 12, God called Abraham to take his wife and set out for a new home. He didn’t tell him where the place was or how they would get there. Instead, God wanted Abraham to start building his future before he could see what that future was going to look like. Abraham did it, and it earned him a spot in the Hall of Faith found in Hebrews 11.
Abraham’s move would also impact future generations. No, he didn’t do everything perfectly, but He started moving without seeing the fulfillment of the promise. Sometimes we have to take our next steps without knowing where they’re going to take us. That’s faith.
Moses and the Israelites
Exodus 25:8-9 (NIV)
“Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.”
Finally, God told Moses to tell the people of Israel that if they would build a tabernacle for Him, He would dwell among them. The people of Israel had never built a tabernacle before. In fact, they had never seen a tabernacle before. However, God gave them the exact directions that they would need in order to build the tabernacle to His specifications.
In the years leading up to this part of Exodus, the people of Israel had seen the presence of God. He took on the form of a cloud during the daylight hours and appeared as a flaming pillar during the night. He not only directed them, but He also protected them. However, He wanted to have a place where He could truly interact with them. That was the purpose of the tabernacle.
The people of Israel had to construct something they had never seen based on directions given to them by God. However, if they built it, He promised that He would come.
Sometimes if we want to experience something with God that we have never experienced before, we have to do something we have never done. Noah had to build an ark, Abraham had to pack up his life and move, and the people of Israel had to build a tabernacle. Whatever your “build it” moment looks like, just do it. Take the step. Trust God. If you build it, He will come.
A Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me have the kind of blind faith that prompted Noah to build a boat, Abraham to move, and Moses to build a tabernacle. I’ll believe You before I see the end results. In Christ’s name, Amen.