You describe, in your book,
several ways in which God
communicates with us. Share
a few and briefly explain how,
in our busy lives, we might
miss them if we aren’t paying
attention.
Mark: God speaks through
seven languages. The first
language is Scripture, and it’s
in a category by itself. When
you open the Bible, God
opens His mouth. By definition,
a whisper is “speaking with
one’s breath rather than one’s
vocal chords.” Juxtapose
that with II Timothy 3:16: “All
Scripture is God-breathed.”
The Bible is God’s whisper! That
said, there are six secondary
languages that God uses in
Scripture—desires, dreams,
doors, people, promptings,
and pain. Like any language, it
takes time and effort to acquire
these languages. It also takes
relationship, and that’s what
God wants!
You make a comment: “Don’t
be surprised if God slows you
down or gets in the way.” Let’s
talk a moment about why God
might show up in our lives like
this.
Mark: God wants you to get
where God wants you to go
more than you want to get
14 Solutions
where God wants you to go,
and He’s awfully good at
getting us there! But in my
experience, He doesn’t just
show the way. Sometimes He
gets in the way, like he did with
Balaam’s donkey. God loves
you too much to let you walk
a path that is destructive. Let
me put this in the context. One
of my most prayed promises
is Revelation 3:7-8 which says,
“What He opens no one can
shut and what he shuts no one
can open. See I have placed
before you an open door.”
We love open doors! Closed
doors? Not so much! But this is a
package deal. And someday,
I think we’ll thank God for the
closed doors as much as the
open doors!
We all have dreams—things
we’d like to accomplish in our
lives. We know God sometimes
places these dreams within
us. You state that “who you
become in the process of
fulfilling your dream is the
primary goal”—not the actual
fulfilling of the dream itself. What
do you mean by this?
Mark: What we think of as the
process—pursuing a dream—is
really God’s goal. God is far
more concerned with who
you are than what you do! So
dreams are really a mechanism