Goad of God and Nails of Christ

UV 1039-10,000 The Goads of God and Nails of Christ
The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
Ecclesiastes 12 v 11

Scripture says that there is no one who is wise. Even the worldly wise Solomon erred in his ways. But those who study the Word of the only eternally wise one, Jehovah and the Word of His Son Jesus and apply it to their lives acquire the attribute of wisdom over time. The Word needs to remain in our minds and not seep through like water in a sieve. It needs to be fixed like the stirrups or goads on the riding boots of a rider of a horse so that it can be used from time to time to prick the horse’s side so that it goes faster or remains under control. The Spirit of God will use the words like goads to stir up our spirits. The horse we are riding is our own bodies and minds. Left to itself it will be like a wild horse but we need to goad it to move in the direction and the pace the Lord wants us to go. Our eyes will be focused on the good Shepherd Jesus and the prize of the crown of eternal life He is holding in His hands for those who finish the course and complete the race. Our passions will be tamed and yielded to Him. God uses different types of goads to tell us to go faster or slower. We should not gallop when we ought to canter, we should not trot when we ought to be galloping. When He places a barrier before us, He also gives us a kick in the side so that we take the leap of faith and jump over or if it is too big to sail over, He will tug the rein a little to the left or to the right so that we sidestep the barrier. Now neither goads nor nails are that pleasurable. Rather they are quite painful but the time will come when we will respond to just the reins of God like a well trained horse that knows the mind of the rider and goes exactly that way. It is only when we are completely rebellious that He puts a hook through our nose.

This uni-verse divides scripture into two parts: the goads or motivators, namely the promise verses and the assurance verses, the testimonies of saints and fathers in faith that encourage us and give us hope and strength and the nails or the fixer verses that fix or nail to death our lust, our pride,our deceitfulness, our stubbornness, our unteachability, our laziness, our negative attitudes and attributes. Once we are branded as His, God uses a variety of goads and nails to train and groom us. When we apply the Word in different areas of our lives, we are driving truths like nails into our spirits, minds and bodies. These nails are given by the Chief Shepherd and Master, Jesus. He Himself bore huge, cruel and painful physical nails but to His sheep He gives spiritual nails in the form of the Word so that we will be crucified with Him in spirit and mind though not in body. His truths remain transfixed in our lives and do not get drained off like water off a duck’s neck. Those truths driven deep into our souls will transform us from being the spiritual equivalent of infants into mature adults, from being sheep into shepherds, from being followers into disciple-makers, from being fish into fishers, from being victims into victors. The revelation and understanding of the deeper mystery of life turns a person into a master of life. We will realize that we can hit the nail on its head or have an accurate understanding of all the basic issues and truths of life.

Once I had a revelation that though my name was in the Book of Life, it was yet to be included in the book of the Shepherd. But once I started this uni-verse series of devotions, the Lord revealed that I was included among the shepherds. A shepherd is by definition one who feeds the sheep. The Chief Shepherd Jesus desires that people show their love for Him by feeding the faith of His flock of the faithful. This is the reason that the resurrected Jesus asked Peter thrice if the latter loved Him and each time exhorted him to feed the sheep.

Prateep V Philip