Christian Living

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Hear, Listen and Obey

Jesus said ‘My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me’ John 10:27 New King James. To hear is very important but to listen and take heed goes much deeper. The fact that Jesus said My sheep hear My voice meant, when He speak every sheep understands and listens. The sheep gets accustomed to His voice, knows and recognises His voice because of its distinctive sound.

In John 10 Jesus use the personal pronouns of My, Me and I to declare His owenership and authority over His sheep. In fact, in this chapter Jesus is specific on various aspects, of His Father and His relationship with the sheep – they hear, they know and they follow. He also defined three characters which His audience had to take note of:
a) Jesus said I Am the good shepherd [who loves, cares and speaks to His sheep], so there were bad shepherds about; and Jesus made a distinction between Himself and them;
b) My sheep hear, [know and listen], His sheep respond to Him;
c) the hirling who is not a shepherd, does not own the sheep, and the [sheep soon recognise that the hirling was an imposter].
Let’s get this, Jesus had relationship with His sheep, they obeyed knew His voice and listened to Him. So the topic which is being explored is about Jesus relationship with His sheep and their response to His voice. Take note, John 10: 27-28 will be repeated throughout this writing.

Our relationship with God developed as our listening and hearing skills increase during our daily devotion and seeking Him in every aspect of our lives. The truth is we should always be in a listing and waiting mode, and being still in His presence (leaving our agenda, for whom, or for what prayer needs, intercession or not), our response should be ‘Lord, You speak and I listen’ and prayfully wait to hear from Him. God will speak because He wants to direct us how to pray and intercede according to His will. The above paragraph - ‘speak Lord and I listen’ came about during writing this topic today. Although I am writing on listening, I must say, God is still working on me - I have a long way to go (I haven’t arrived I’m still learning). It is only by the grace, mercy and power of God we are able to have a grasp of understanding how to hear from God, and get direction for our assignement. Many times we have made wrong turns in our lives and failed to receive our instruction or direction from Him; and for years have wondered in the wilderness, but I do believe God’s plan will be perfected in us this year, what He has allowed in our lives He will bring it to completion.

In every situation, no matter how painful they are, the experiences are being filter through by God (He uses everything for our good). Every dark periods, every wilderness and valley experiences to prune and stretch us, in order to bring us to maturity - which are character building. Have not fear, God is on our side! So let us stop, take note and abandon ourselves to Him. Listen! Behind every pain, every stretch there are messages to us, because we are known personally to Him; He sees where we are lacking and wants to bring us to where we ought to be. God is not punishing us, we are favoured by Him. He loves us too much to allow us to live unfulfilled lives hence our pruning; His plans for us will materialise in time but our ears must be in the place ‘of hearing.’

I am certain that the voice of God is actively speaking to us in various ways and in any situation because He wants us to avoid making wrong decisions, minor or major. As minor as, staying at home instead of going out, or driving or walking on a particular street; or as major as, choosing our life’s partner, buying a house or making spiritual decisions, if we listen we are being instructed by God to make right choices. Even though we sometimes ignore His prompting, by believing that it is either our mind or the enemy’s voice, or we make choices that fit our agenda.

By ignoring the prompting of the Spirit, it is but for the mercy of God we have not been totally knocked down or taken out (because the Lord’s plan for our lives must be fulfilled). Recently I had ignored the still voice of God, I was about to do a good deed but I had an inclination that I should have stayed at home that day and continue my writing on the computer, but I disobeyed, I made a wrong choice to my own peril. After reviewing the outcome of that choice I realised that I must listen to the prompting of the Spirit, even the faintest whisper. If we refuse instuction how is God going to redirect us when we are making wrong turns? Jesus speaks to us His sheep because He is devoted to our welfare. To be informed by Jesus and move in step with Him as He leads, our Christian walk becomes easier, what is arduous to us is trouble-free to Him, it is for our benefit and not God’s that we seek His direction and follow it, listen to Jesus is not optional but essential. Be aware! Stop! And check which voice we are responding to.

But how can we differentiate between, self, God’s voice and the devil’s? Yes, it is a fact that we sometime miss Jesus’ voice because of barrages of voices coming to us in every direction, and at times we are confused. Nevertheless, a few factors need considering; I believe the closer we get to Him: our desire for prayer and reading His word increases; our spiritual ear becomes sensitised; we yield to Holy Spirit, who is our primary teacher, and we let Him guide us. Even though we may make mistakes we will hear in our ears this is the way walk in it. We were born to communicate and have relationship with the Godhead, however, when our fellowship is broken with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit we are not functional, our character tells a different story although we are going through the motion.

God is faithful even when we are unfaithful or miss our direction. But we should never get discourage; our heavenly Father will be there to pick us up and pour in oil and wine, as long as our desires are to please Him in everything we do. God’s thought of peace is always towards us Jeremiah 29:11 God do wants to perfect His peace in us this is why He takes the time to speak to us individually. Jesus said, I know My sheep, isn’t this brilliant! Nobody else knows us like Jesus, He knew us before we were formed in our mother’s womb.

Throughout the Bible, it demonstrates close relationship between God and His people and how the Father longs to have fellowship with us. Both in the Old and New Testaments God had revealed to prophets, apostles and ordinary men and ‘women’ how special they were to Him. He assigned angels to them directly in times of need, and also to facilitate these men and women in order to walk in fellowship and obedience with Him; according to God’s direction and His particular assignments for His people. God said to Jeremiah – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations”Jeremiah 1:5.
Jeremiah was choosen, hand picked to serve and so are we, and also we need our own revelation, so we seek God when no one else is looking and hear Him for ourselves. Jeremiah was called to be a priest to the nations, we too are called to be priest and king (Revelation 1:6), we can only minister to the world and fulfil our destiny if we are familiar with His voice. Jeremiah’s assignment was specific: (1) to root out; (2) to pull down; (3) to destroy; (4) to build; (5) and to plant, Jeremiah 1:10. Jeremiah prostested, I am a child, inexperience, I cannot speak I feel inadequate’ how many of us do feel inadequate? But God said to Jeremiah and to us, do not be afraid of faces, because as He was with Jeremiah He is with us Jeremiah 1:6-8. God had specific assignments for us too before we were born which He had planned and He implanted these assignments appropriate to our calling, gifts and abilities within us.
The Shepherd and His sheep
We can take comfort in knowing that God compares Himself as a shepherd; Jesus indeed is the good sheperd, we will look again at the characteristics of a shepherd and the relationship between the sheep and the shepherd. Isaiah 40:11 shows that the shepherd is one who (a) feeds his sheep; (provider) (b) He gather his lambs in His arm; (compassionate and caring) (c) He carries them in His bosom; (security) (d) and gently leads the pregnant ones; (protective) this is to the physically and spiritually pregnant,God is gentle leading us. The 23rd Psalm embodied in the above verse. We might be bashed here and there, but one thing is for certain we are in the loving arms of our Saviour. “The Lord is good to all and He is a stronghold in the day of trouble and He knows those who trust in Him” Nahum 1:7.
Jesus said --- I am known by My own --- John 10:14 and Paul in 2 Timothy 1:12c declares I know in whom I have believed and He had the confidence to say I know God is able to keep what I have committed to Him. Our confidence in God depends on our relationship with Him. The prophets and apostles had the certainty that God was able, why? Because of their personal relationship with God; we know the voice of Jesus because we are at the place of listening, and as we listen we are directed, and to be directed we are walking towards our purpose and fulfilment. While meditating on the text in John 10, this dated chorus popped in my head, the quotation may not be accurate but it goes something like this:
Listen, listen, listen to the whisper of Jesus,
Surely you will hear it and it will make you glad,
Listen to the whisper of Jesus.

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