The Shepard's Voice...

"When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." - John 10:4-5

After the Lord began to bring refresing, I read this Scripture, and I knew I had to repent. The Lord revealed to me how I had been deceived and followed a stranger's voice and not His. The voice that I had been obeying was one who would bring the commands of Jesus from Scripture to mind on a constant basis. And though they were normally sharp, jabbing, barked orders that weren't familiar to my child-like spirit, I assumed that this must be the Lord. Who else would tell me to go and obey God? Normally this voice would come when I was about to enjoy myself in God's will. Perhaps I was spending quality time loving my wife, and in the midst of our God-given affections, the voice would come and sharply command me to go witness at Wal-Mart at midnight...

Before I continue, let me qualify this; God can call you to do anything at anytime at any point of your life. Sometimes it will NOT be your heart's desire. Sometimes you will NOT have overflowing joy in obeying the Spirit of God as He leads you in the everlasting way. Did Jesus "desire" to go to the cross in the garden of Gethsemane? I don't think so, otherwise He wouldn't have asked the Father to let the cup pass from Him. Our flesh will always rebel against God's desires (Gal 5:17), so discerning God's voice is crucial in finding our way into God's convictions without stumbling into the devil's condemnation. OK, that being said...

Looking back, as I would obey these commands, God showed me my true motivations and how ungodly they were as well as the ungodly voice I was obeying. For anyone who has ever tried to follow Jesus and make the spreading of His gospel a part of their everyday life, they have undoubtedly, at some point, witnessed out of pure guilt. With a thought to this effect, "I don't want to feel guily when I get home, so i'd better do this for God." The Scriptures will pound in their mind and their obedience, though sometimes immediate, is not a prayer-filled care for the person though they may give intellectual ascent to "doing all things for God's glory." God can use this, and I am probably the last person to say that God is not a God of issuing guilt upon a conscience. Sometimes we need disciplining for our willful disobedience. BUT, if a prayer of relection upon your heart reveals purity in desiring to obey God, free from fear and full of love, yet the guilt remains, we know we have heard from and obeyed "the stranger" and not God. What the enemy has effectively lead us to do is to use this person as means of removing our own guilty conscience. In truth, we probably lack God's true compassion for the person because God wasn't the One whose voice we heard. These self-righteous motives are tough to pick up on and I encourage everyone to examine their hearts before God. More on this to come.

In John 10, Jesus uses a parable/metaphor of what it is to follow Him as He is a Shepard leading on His sheep. In this same parable's mindset, the voice of the enemy imitating God would be more like the sheep dog, snapping at the heels of the sheep. If we listen to this voice long enough, we end up running in front of the Shepard and try to drag Him along the way we think He is telling us to go. No...the Shepard leads His sheep and gently instructs and corrects. We needn't forget that Jesus will gladly leave the 99 to go find the 1 if we err. What a good and patient God. Sometimes the Shepard's voice may be stearn, but it is clear and still full of love and desire for our good.

Now, why would the devil want to imitate God? What is the point of telling us to go and witness to the lost world that he wants to destroy? 2 reasons. 1. Powerless preaching/prayer/fellowship/etc. - Whatever the guilt may lead us to, it will most likely not be accompanied by God's grace because we have not sought it. We are too concerned with the physical act of obedience to give much consideration to the reality of the spiritual battle at hand and to treasure the person as an eternal soul and human being as God does. When God brings the reveleation of these two realities, we will quickly understand our need for God's adequacy to do anything that will echo in eternity. 2. To burn you out - The same conscience that the enemy loves to sear and harden in the sinner in order to seal their fate of damnation is the same tender conscience that he will pick and pry at in the believer to get them to come to an incorrect understanding of the person of God. After hearing and obeying this voice for awhile, I began to see God has slave-driver and not a loving Father seeking loving obedience from His child. Why would I want to go tell someone about the God who just ripped me away from quality time with my wife (the woman I'm supposed to love as He loves His church!)? I dunno....that's a good question and one I asked myself on more than one occasion. In turn, the enemy begins to paint this false picture of God in our minds and hearts so that we will eventually turn away from God, or in the least, cease to obey His Word.

So, what does the true voice of the Shepard sound like? Firstly, we are always behind Him and He is always with us. It is not a matter of spending time with God in prayer, filling up our "Holy Spirit tank" for ministry, and then we go out and serve God. On the contrary. Our fellowship with God is the constant reality that transcends ALL our lives' activities, and in this intimate relationship, love is the product and obedience the product of that love. This is the heart behind John 14:21, "He who loves me will keep my commandments." Secondly, His voice of conviction is always accompanied with correction where needed. I always felt guilty for everything I wasn't doing. I would leave Wal-Mart at 3 in the morning and still feel bad for all the people I wasn't able to talk to rather than rejoicing in all the meaningful conversations I had had and praying for every seed planted. I contend that this is not the voice of God, but the same mocker who quoted the Scriptures to Him during His temptation in the desert. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.

Lastly, for those of you who have been born again reading this, remember when we first came to Jesus and the blessed feeling of repentance was so sweet? We knew this was God calling us home and our hearts burst with joy knowing that our sins were forgiven and a new life was about to begin. Why would God's voice ever change? We know in our minds that it doesn't, so I challenge everyone to prayerfully take this topic up with the Lord. Ask Him to reveal your true motivations for obedience. Ask Him to grant you true repentance where needed and let His sweet voice lead you to His feet again.

If you have yet to hear God's voice in your life or have yet to obey it with your whole heart, I plead with you PLEASE, call upon the name of Jesus and ask Him to speak to you. Fall at His feet with a sincere desire to turn from a self-centered life of sin to a Christ-centered life of freedom and obedience. Feel free to scroll down and check out my first post called "First things first..." with the gospel message that changed my life.

Come with much faith, come with your heart,
come with your sin, from which you will part,
If you draw near, He will speak clear,
Salvation His word, I pray you do hear.