“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (John 10:16 ESV)
“The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27 AMP)
Last night I was praying for a church member, and, in the course of that prayer, I asked that the doctors would use the wisdom and knowledge God had blessed them with to make the right diagnosis and administer the correct treatment, but if they were distracted or following the wrong path, that the Holy Spirit would speak to them and steer them in the right direction.
As I said that, the words, “my sheep hear my voice and follow me” came into my mind, reminding me of all the times the Holy Spirit has spoken to me, and I immediately recognized it was His voice, not a random thought in my head or a clever idea generated by my own intelligence, but the third person of the Holy Trinity, living in me, leading me into truth, or directing me to good works that God has planned for me. I try my best to follow, but sometimes I hesitate, or refuse (I can call it failing to act, but it amounts to the same thing; it just makes it sound better than it really is).
I admit I am not always 100% sure if it is His voice or my own. However, if it is one of those times and what I hear is to be passed on to someone else for a purpose, I will always say that I believe it is from God, but I am not sure. When I am sure, I say that I am just the servant messenger for the Lord, because part of the purpose of using us to pass on encouragement, a warning, or any other message is for the recipient to know that God sees them, He hears them, He cares for them, and they are not alone.
You may never know what the outcome is, but every time I have stepped out in faith and delivered a message and had feedback, it is always acknowledged as “right on the nose.” There have been times when I have been prompted to pass on something very personal, things that made no sense to me, because I had no personal knowledge of the situation. However, I have never found the message to be a mystery to the person it was delivered to; on the contrary, most often it has been very emotional or comforting to them.
I believe God operates this way so it is clear that this is from God because they know I have no way of knowing what is going on in their personal life; sometimes no one knows, but God. He wants us to know He cares enough to send an earthly messenger, “someone with skin on them,” as an assistant pastor I know likes to say, because we all know that sometimes it’s hard hear what Someone that you can’t see is saying. That’s one reason that Jesus came in the flesh.
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.…the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:15-17, 26 NIV emphasis mine)
Jesus’ time on Earth was brief, but He promised to send the Holy Spirit in His place, and He said that this is why it was better that He return to Heaven. There He “lives to make intercession for us,” and the Holy Spirit is not bound by earthly restrictions, as Jesus was while He was here (fully man and fully God in the flesh) so He is able to be everywhere with everyone all of the time – the Holy Conduit between Heaven and Earth – to lead and guide us. The Bible asks who knows our minds but us, but God knows our spirits and we need the Holy Spirit so that our spirit can convene with His Spirit and we can recognize the Shepherd’s voice.
Sonya Richards
3/10/24
