Friday, July 4, 2014

The Discerning Sheep


UV 1137/10,000 The Discerning Sheep

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

John 10 v 27


The sheep recognize the good Shepherd by His voice. The sheep are defined by their belief that what Jesus says is true. Faith comes by hearing and by hearing the Word of God. He taught us that we belong to God, the Father and desires to lead us back to Him. His voice reflects His great love for the sheep, His gentleness and humility. The goats will go after anyone who offers them something to eat. Jesus said that all those who came before Him were thieves and robbers as they stole the souls of the people who followed them. They were wolves in sheep skin. They stole the glory that was due to God. This uni-verse teaches us not to be naive and gullible like sheep that cannot discern the Master’s voice. We need to discern the voice of the Lord in our lives. We need to discern what He is speaking to us, what He wants us to do, where does He want us to go or follow. We are called to follow one Shepherd and to belong to one flock.

The good Shepherd calls His sheep by their individual names. He knows us personally, our desires, our thoughts, our hopes, our fears, our strengths and weaknesses, our successes and failures, our problems and challenges, our past, present, future and eternity. He leads us to green pastures of His Word and His promises that nourish our souls and spirits. He leads us to still waters of deep reflection, refreshing, renewal and deep understanding of the purpose of life and the power of God, of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. Whether we are on the mountain top of joy and happiness or in the deep valley of depression and sadness, the Lord upholds us, strengthens and comforts us. What more can we ask or expect? What more can we want? He makes us gentle and submissive as sheep but as strong as wolves.




Without His leadership and guidance, we will fall in the ditch of temptations. But as we follow Him, He will keep us out of the pitfalls of life. He will make a level path before us. He protects us from all forms of predators. We hear His voice and His word and chew on it as sheep chew grass. The growl of the wolf or the lion no longer scares us or threatens us for we know our leader is stronger and capable of defending us. He has taught us not the way of struggle but the way of quiet submission to the sweet and pleasing will of God. Once we were “fellows” for we fell where our whims and fancies took us but now we are followers of Christ, the perfect leader, the blemishless hero, the capable Saviour, the great Shepherd who leads us back home to our fold in Heaven. Sheep that were blemishless could only be offered in sacrifice in the temple. Hence, we must keep our lives blemishless and be ready to offer our lives as an offering and a sacrifice to the Lord.

Prateep V Philip

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