Treading Carefully

Continued from yesterday...
At this point I needed wisdom, and lots of it. With this in mind I proceeded to run the question that I felt God was asking me, "Will you go to the Middle East if I call you?", by those close to me. The predominant feedback was, 'David, I think this could very well be God, but I'm not necessarily hearing "Yes, go for it.".' I have to be honest that hearing this from my family and friends surprised me. I was expecting at least a small amount of resistance, or extreme caution, but instead received major support.
After eliciting this feedback I still needed to hear concisely from God. After all, the costs of leaving my wife, seminary schooling, and employment behind for a little less than a year were simply too great to follow anything less than unwavering guidance from above. A question would simply not do; no, I needed either a yes, or no. So this was what I aimed to get.
The months that ensued gave me next to nothing, other than a strong level of peace in my spirit and countenance that whatever God called me to do, whether that be to stay or to go, that I would readily obey Him with everything that I had. I wanted to obey, nothing less, I simply wanted to stand up as Samuel did and to have the heart to say, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening."
One day, while I was having a personal devotion, the Lord spoke into my spirit. He told me, "Sacrifice Trisha (my wife)." That was it; that was all I heard. I said, "Lord, she's Yours." I wondered what context He was asking me to sacrifice her in; I wondered if it was in reference to the walk, or something else, or in general. Without knowing that He was referring to the walk, the last thing that I wanted to do was to claim that He was saying something that He wasn't. So I shelved the word in my heart and chose to continue to wait for clarification.
I hoped that He would expound sooner than later, but His ways aren't always ours. So apparently the name of the game was 'it's time to wait'.