Don is a staff teacher at the Christian Teaching and Worship Center. The tape this teaching is based on is available in its entirety from:
P.O. Box 391
Winchester, MA 01890
A vision given to Don Cobble at the Christian Teaching and Worship Center, January 6, 1997.
In my heart's mind I saw a picture of an old familiar farmhouse in the southern United States. Next to the farmhouse was a small field where a young man was hoeing in the hot sun. He was working the same small garden his father had worked before him. With sweat pouring down him, from time to time he would stop work, lean on his hoe and look across the road to a much greater field where there was a large tractor plowing in a swirl of dust. As the young man continued to observe the huge field and tractor, this thought came to mind, "Why do I have this little field and they have that big field?" But he said nothing; he just continued working.
As he continued to work his small field, I saw the young man become older, and a young boy ran out to him. It was his son. Aware that his father was looking at the large field and tractor the son said, "Daddy, how come they have that big field and tractor and we have a little field that we work by hand?" The father did not answer his son right away, but this Scripture came to mind, "People who compare themselves among themselves are fools" (2 Cor 10:12).
Then the father responded, "Son, that's not for us to know."
So the man continued to plow the field with his hoe growing older and older until finally he fell down and died right in the middle of his field. Upon his death, the field began to grow thick with trees, so much so that the limbs extended beyond the edge of the field. The trees began to drop seeds of fruit and the growth was so abundant that it became greater than the man's little field. This brought three things to mind. (1) 1Cor 3:6-8, (2) when we appear before God (for judgment in heaven) our fields on earth continue to bear fruit, (3) it is God who gives the increase, because the man's field flourished most after he was gone.
The next thing I saw in the vision was the farmer standing in line in heaven, waiting to appear before the Lord. As it came closer to his turn, he could see that people were presenting their gifts to the Lord. Standing in his overalls, the man began to get nervous as he watched angels take the people's gifts in what looked like a treasure chest and lay them before the Lord. The man began to realize how much the Lord had done for him. Nervous, scared, and brokenhearted, feeling like a failure, he wanted desperately to get out of the line, as people laid their treasures of gold, silver, and precious stones before Him, and then go their way. "What a waste! What a waste!" he said of his little field in comparison to what the Lord had done for him.
Finally the farmer's turn came. He looked but the Lord did not say a word. The man spoke up and said, "Lord I am so disappointed that I do not have anything to give you."
The Lord continued to say nothing to him but spoke to His angels and said, "What does he have to give me?"
The angels came over with a chest. They opened the chest and smoke came out of it. Lying in the middle was a large, red ruby. As they picked up the ruby the man began to say, "Lord, that's not mine."
Then Jesus showed the man his little field and said, "This is your living stone and this is your field. This stone is your field."
Then Jesus began to rejoice and laugh and jump as He clicked His heels together and pointed to the stone.
The Lord lifted the stone from the chest and it began to float through the air to a specific spot that had been made for it on a pillar. The man fell down and began to worship Jesus. He had no idea that he little field he had been working on all his life was building a great stone that would be set in the Kingdom of God forever. With a full and happy heart the man left that place and went out.
In the vision, I continued to see people presenting their gifts to the Lord. From time to time, the Lord would look up and point to the great stone and speak about it. As He did, this came to my mind, "Good thoughts that God has about you everyday are more numerous than the sands of the sea" (Ps. 139:17). Again the Lord would look at the stone and begin to rejoice. As He did, the man would fall down and worship Him wherever he was, for the man knew that the Lord was talking about his stone again.
As I watched the joy of the Lord over this man's small field - his life's work - and all it became in Kingdom terms, I began to weep as I have never wept before. I saw how foolish we are to compare ourselves with each other, and how foolish we are to measure spiritual works by numbers or size or seeming influence. The message was clear: Faithfulness to our own field is how God measures greatness. We are not to worry about whose field is larger or better. When the Lord rewarded the man with the little field, he never compared him to the man who had the huge field. Another's work was never part of the equation. Whatever the Lord has asked us to do, whether we think it is big or small, that deserves faithful, joyful diligence. In the eyes of God there is no big or small work - only that which He has asked us to do. God has placed a field in front of each one of us. If we keep focused on our calling, one day we will see our life's work set in place in God's Kingdom and Jesus will rejoice and click His heels over what He was able to accomplish through us.