During a particularly tough era around Willow, I felt prompted to remind our congregation on a weekly basis that the only way G.o.d's kingdom moves forward is when a Christ-follower is willing to take a hit. I was taking my personal share of hits during those days, and I would tell those gathered in our auditorium the same thing I told you at the end of chapter 1: I would much rather stand before G.o.d someday having done his bidding to the best of my understanding than to face him knowing I ignored his voice and sidestepped the tougher promptings I received. Even when the stakes are high-perhaps especially so-I seek to be a relinquisher, not a clutcher.

So, what do these "hits" look like? Surely you have taken a few in your life. If you are a Christ-follower, then by definition your pride took a hit when you admitted that you were a sinner, desperately in need of G.o.d's saving grace. Submitting to the Spirit-who was whispering, "Humble yourself. Receive Christ. Enter the family of G.o.d"-meant taking a huge independence hit. Do you remember that experience? Sure, it was a demotion from an ego standpoint, but great gains occurred on the heels of that daring decision. G.o.d's kingdom expanded, and your life forever was changed.

Maybe soon thereafter, your vanity took a hit as you considered the waters of baptism. n.o.body likes having a bad hair day and standing sopping wet in front of a crowd, but think of the encouragement and example offered to those watching, because of your willingness to lay that superficial stuff down.

If you have grown to the point where you no longer count your life as your own but have given your remaining days to G.o.d, I guarantee you've taken some hits. Your agenda has taken a hit. Your finances have taken a hit. Your priorities have been rearranged. Your entire life has been turned upside down as you put Christ first in all that you do. In fact, almost every time you hear a prompting from G.o.d, something safe or predictable most likely has to go. But you persevere, knowing that when you take the risks he is asking you to take-as you conform to his mission in yet one more way-the kingdom moves forward.

This is what it looks like to live a life fully surrendered to G.o.d. It's rarely a walk in the park. Obeying the Spirit instead of your own self-centered whims will lead you to places you've never been, challenge you in ways you have never been challenged and invite levels of sacrifice you never dreamed you could make. This is the power and the promise of full-throttle faith, of living a life fueled solely by G.o.d.

There is a second reason average people like you and me sign up for a demotion-laden life. Based on that pa.s.sage from Philippians, we voluntarily loosen our grip and find a home in humility's grasp because we know that a serious reward awaits our arrival in heaven someday.

Philippians 2:9a11 says that after Jesus took these seven voluntary demotions, "G.o.d gave Christ the highest place and honored his name above all others. So at the name of Jesus everyone will bow down, those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And to the glory of G.o.d the Father everyone will openly agree, 'Jesus Christ is Lord!'"6 He honored Jesus Christ for completing his a.s.signed mission-and someday he will glorify you and me too.

I CONSULTED A WEBSITE THIS WEEK THAT BOASTS THE infamous "death-clock"-a program that claims to calculate when you will die based on various bodily statistics. Evidently, I'm good until November 9, 2025. I can't speak to the reliability of this particular estimate-I checked the site several more times just for fun, and each time, remarkably, my day of death radically changed. But this much you and I can hang our hats on: A death date with our names on it does exist, and whenever the day may be that G.o.d chooses to take us home, that day will undoubtedly seem too soon. Psalm 39 says: "Show me, Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you" (vv. 4-5a).

As we looked at previously, the apostle James refers to humankind as "wildflowers"-brittle blooms that are here today, gone tomorrow-just like that.

For anyone living in the Middle East during the days James penned those words, the metaphor of the wildflower rang true. Spring rains would fall for a time and the rocky hillsides of Palestine would become like an artist's palette of rich, vibrant color. But too soon, a stiff breeze would blow and those dry, scorching winds would shrivel the Monet-like landscape in a matter of hours, leaving behind a tangle of twisted, dry vegetation.

"That's just like you and me," James seems to say. One day we are here, looking altogether alive, and then the next moment we are gone, as quickly as a windswept wildflower on a hill.

This is the brevity of life: one day a person is robustly going about his activities, and the next day people are streaming by his casket, saying, "I can't believe it. I just talked to him yesterday." One day a businesswoman is committing to a ten-year strategic plan at work. The next day her family and friends are putting together a different plan-a plan for her funeral service. Or one day a young person is driving to work; the next day her car is in the wrecking yard and her brain-dead body is awaiting organ-donation surgery. Death comes unannounced.

James makes two observations about death: it is often sudden, and it is universal. Here today. Gone tomorrow. We don't get to choose our death, but what remains ours alone to choose is how we'll spend our life.

MATTHEW 8 TELLS THE STORY OF A ROMAN SOLDIER WHO approached Jesus with a request. The man was a centurion, someone who had rank over many subordinates and who was a respectable leader in life. Here's how verses five through thirteen record the appeal he made that day: When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly."

Jesus said to him, "Shall I come and heal him?" The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, Go, and he goes; and that one, Come, and he comes. I say to my servant, Do this, and he does it."

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.

According to this story, the faithful centurion understood his position, relative to Christ's. He also knew the profound power of a single whisper from G.o.d. "You just say the word," he essentially told Jesus Christ that day, "and what is wrong will be made right. You have authority over all people, over all rulers, over all events, over all kingdoms, over all of life. You say the word, and your will today will be done."

The text says that the centurion's faith took Jesus' breath away. In one translation, it says Jesus "marveled"7 at the centurion's a.s.sessment, a reaction I have found nowhere else in Scripture, regarding Jesus' impression of a human being's faith. This man had ma.s.sive faith. Unwavering faith. The sort of just-say-the-word faith I covet for you and me.

Every time I read the account of the centurion's faith, I am nearly physically arrested by the desire to follow Christ like that. I want his influence to affect the entirety of my life-my values, my relationships, my vocabulary, my finances, my agenda, my physical health, my decision making, my political ideology. I want Jesus' ways to permeate who I am across the board. More than any other desire of my heart, I want to be a just-say-the-word type of disciple, from this moment until my dying day.

THROUGHOUT THE COURSE OF MY LIFE, FROM TIME TO TIME I have felt the urge well up inside of me to exhibit that kind of total commitment. Perhaps you can relate. Maybe you've felt that kind of commitment athletically-I talked to a marathon runner recently who completed a marathon and afterward said, "I ran those 26.2 miles as fast as I could humanly run. I collapsed at the finish line, and for three or four days following that experience, I felt the exhilaration of having run the best race of my life."

Maybe you have felt that kind of commitment in an academic sense. You received an a.s.signment somewhere along the way and said, "I'm going to do the best job I can possibly do with this term paper." You researched until your brain turned to mush, and you typed your fingers to the bone, but upon submitting that a.s.signment to your professor, something warm swept through your spirit. You walked out of cla.s.s that day thinking, "I did the best job I could have done."

Sometimes it happens in the marketplace. You are handed a project at work and say, "This time, I'm gonna hit the ball right out of the park. When I finish this project, it will represent my absolute best efforts."

Have you had an experience like that? Have you known the unparalleled elation that comes from going full-out on a commitment you have made?

Over the past couple of decades, one my favorite hobbies has been sailboat racing, and I remember my first race like it was yesterday. The waves were high, the winds were treacherous and we sailed through these adverse conditions for two-and-a-half hours straight. When we finally crossed the finish line, my entire crew and I were completely spent. And yet we were equally exhilarated by having worked as hard as we possibly could work and staying the course with a diligence we didn't know we possessed. Before the race began, we had made a commitment to each other to finish strong-and we kept that commitment right through to the end.

My point is this: It's one thing to say to G.o.d, "I want to obey the input I hear from heaven. I want to follow your whispers every step of the way." But it's quite another thing to actually follow through. I speak from experience. Time and again, I have failed miserably in this regard. At various points along my life's journey, I have made bold declarations to G.o.d: "To the best of my ability and with regular help from the Holy Spirit, between now and the grave I want to be a 'just-say-the-word' follower of yours.

"You say it, and I'll do it.

"You say it, and I'll follow it.

"You say it, and I'll obey it.

"You say it, and I'll carry it out.

"Whatever it is you want done in order for your kingdom to advance, G.o.d, you whisper the word and consider it done."

Did I mean the words I was praying? Absolutely.

Did I always live up to the commitment I had made? Not so much.

But whenever I find myself having failed, I try to confess that failure and to acknowledge that I veered off-track. I try to get back up, allow Christ to dust me off, and then I underscore my commitment once again. I remember the faith of the centurion, and say, "Today, G.o.d, just say the word."

Fully devoted Christ-followers experience this desire rising within our souls to wholeheartedly follow our heavenly Father. We want to be flat-out committed to the One who has committed himself to us. We want to blow him away with our "centurion faith" and impress him with how meticulously we obey. We desire that. We really do, not because the emphasis is on our works, but because his great mercy, love, forgiveness and grace draw from the depth of our souls such a response. And part of the reason I have written this book is to encourage you that it's actually possible to follow through.

You can choose today to be a just-say-the-word kind of follower, someone who jumps at the chance to obey the divine whispers sent straight from heaven to your upturned ear. You can choose to live with an increased awareness of those whispers, an expanded heart to follow through and an enhanced eternity because of it. You can choose to take G.o.d at his word-that he has spiritual goodness and blessing in store for you, when you surrender to all of his ways.

If we were to boil down Christianity to its core, we'd be left with simply this: relationship with G.o.d. The living, loving G.o.d of the universe has spoken throughout history, and still speaks today-not just to pastors or priests, but to anyone who will listen. G.o.d will speak to you. No matter what spiritual condition you find yourself in, if you train your ear to be open to heaven, G.o.d will speak.

A grand adventure with your name on it is on his lips. Tune your ear toward heaven, and he will direct your steps, accompany your path and celebrate your faithfulness one day, in the "flourishing finish" the apostle Paul describes in Philippians 1:6. "There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind," that verse says, "that the G.o.d who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears" (MSG).

And whether we meet Jesus upon his return to earth someday-or we're transferred to heaven ahead of time-imagine standing before him, saying, "We had a ball doing your program, didn't we, G.o.d? Thanks for the awesome ride!"

In that moment, you will look back at every intersection in your life and see that it was worth saying yes to G.o.d's whispers. You'll remember those relational intersections when you heeded whispers for patience and grace. You'll remember those financial intersections and be glad you handled your money in a G.o.d-honoring way. You'll recount the vocational forks in the road when he said, "Trust me just one more time"-and you did. You'll remember the moral crossroads you faced, where he saved you from ditch after ditch. And you'll remember myriad spiritual turning points, where your loving Father provided his clear whispers of guidance.

And until that day comes, you can go to bed every night with one priceless thought in your mind: "Today, I furthered not my own kingdom, but G.o.d's." This is the power of the whisper-guided life, my friend-a life that culminates in the closing whisper, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." This is the life awaiting you and me, and it starts with having ears to hear G.o.d's voice. Listen up. Follow through. And then join your heavenly Father on a whisper-fueled adventure you'll never regret.

APPENDIX 1.

SCRIPTURES TO WRITE.

ON YOUR HEART.

SINCE MY YOUTH-CAMP DAYS AS A KID, I HAVE EXPERIENCED the great benefit of carrying G.o.d's Word around with me throughout my day-to-day life, by way of having committed many verses of Scripture to memory. The time I invested toward that end was well-spent, as those pa.s.sages of truth have steered me clear of many a ditch in life and have served as G.o.d's voice to me through countless challenging situations. I continue making these investments today. The verses take a little longer to stick than they did when I was a kid, but the benefits far outweigh the extra effort.

I invite you to commit as many of the following verses to memory as you can. You'll be amazed at how readily-and frequently-these words from G.o.d will come to mind, the next time you need fresh insight from heaven.

Salvation

t.i.tUS 3:5 (NKJV): Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

JOHN 1:12: Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of G.o.d.

ROMANS 10:13: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

a.s.surance

ROMANS 8:1: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

ISAIAH 1:18 (NIV): Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.

1 JOHN 5:12: Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of G.o.d does not have life.

ROMANS 5:1: Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with G.o.d through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fear

2 TIMOTHY 1:7: For the Spirit G.o.d gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and selfdiscipline.

ROMANS 8:31: If G.o.d is for us, who can be against us?

ISAIAH 41:10: So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your G.o.d. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Temptation

1 CORINTHIANS 10:13: No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And G.o.d is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

ROMANS 8:5: Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

JAMES 4:7: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Trials

ROMANS 8:28: In all things G.o.d works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Pride

JAMES 4:6: G.o.d opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.

JAMES 4:10: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.