The Shepherd Knows Our Voice

Religion

“But He who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:2-3)
When the Lord approaches us for fellowship or to specifically speak to our heart, we must be tuned to His voice and ready to respond to His invitation of fellowship. The above verse in John lists three key elements of how the Lord approaches His children.

He comes in through the door of our heart

He does not sneak in the window nor slide down the chimney like a thief, He comes through the door. The doorkeeper of our heart is the Holy Spirit. As we focus on knowing God and hearing His voice we can be sure that His call will be clear, concise and unmistakable. If we can’t be sure of the voice at the door, it probably isn’t Him calling. If you are fearful, then this probably isn’t God speaking. Our relationship with God is one of trust and willful obedience. The sheep willingly follow because they are dependent upon the Shepherd and they know His voice.

He comes to lead, not to demand

If you know much about leadership, you know that a good leader does not drive his workers to do their job through intimidation. A good leader leads by example, and has an interest in their personal development and success. Jesus knows all about us and takes a personal interest in each one of us. “He calls His sheep by name and leads them out”. He never leads by intimidation and fear, but gently goes before us and prepares our way. He wants us to be victorious.

His Leadership has a personal touch

Notice how intimately the Father knows the son, Jesus says, “I know My sheep, as the Father knows me. And My sheep know Me, as I know the Father.” That’s how intimately He knows you. Jesus’ approach to you is always personal, based on His unlimited knowledge about every aspect of your life. He knows your needs, your doubts, your fears, as well as your dreams and plans.

Bottom Line

Three lessons we can learn from this.

First, He intimately knows us, and even knows our deepest longings and desires. Bring those desires to Him and learn to wait until He speaks before making a decision. What we view as an uncomfortable situation, God may see as a test of our level of trust. Will we be like King Saul and take things into our own hands, or will be wait till we hear from Him?

Secondly, Jesus is personally involved in our life and He knows what is best. Like the Shepherd who watches over the sheep to protect them from predators, our Shepherd is watching over us. His reluctance to act in our time frame is His way of reminding us to trust Him with the timing. Since He knows our most intimate needs, we can trust Him with our life,

Thirdly, Jesus is at our hearts door waiting on us to open up and let Him fellowship with us. In other words, it’s our move to continually pursue His presence by keeping the door open.

You have probably seen the old painting of Jesus standing at a door and knocking. The door is symbolic of our hearts door. If you look closely at the painting you will notice that there isn’t a door knob on the outside of the door. The door can only be opened from the inside. This is because when Jesus is knocking, only we can open the door and invite Him in for fellowship.

Jesus is knocking at our hearts door. His invitation to us is to trust Him so much that we lay all of our dreams, plans and aspirations at His feet. He wants us to not only trust Him with our life, but to trust Him with all that we are and ever hope to be.

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