“I Am the good Shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.”  (John 10:14 NKJV)

The battle always lies behind the debates in our minds on how the Lord leads us and how we can recognize His voice as the One leading us most especially when we find ourselves at a crossroad.

Living BY FAITH and not BY SIGHT is one of the most challenging verses in the Bible because it goes past way beyond the reasoning of our minds.  Logical thinking puts us in control of what we think is right but a renewed thinking is in stark contrast to it.  A renewed mind thinks that walking on water, parting the red sea, cursing a tree and in 24 hours dried up and died, bearing a child without having known a man, turning water into wine, opening blind eyes, making the lame walk, etc etc … all these things are possible WITH GOD!  It thinks that the culture of heaven has invaded the earth in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit residing in temples not made by human hands but fearfully and wonderfully made by the hands of our Creator.

A renewed mind submits to the final authority of God’s spoken words.  “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).  Since God and His Word are one, then when we submit to His word, we are submitting to God Himself.  When we are submitted to Him in all aspects of our being, the devil will surely flee for he no longer has any right to stay and be in authority.  Remember that all the enemy wants is to be lord over us and he does is so discreetly and deceivingly by us bowing into his doubtful schemes.  “Did God really say that?  Did you hear right from God? Does God really cares and loves you?  Be on a lookout for these words.  He was successful convincing Eve, but thank God that He always causes us to triumph in Christ.  He gave us the Holy Spirit to abide in us forever revealing to us  what He has freely given us.

“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now.  But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, He will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is.  He won’t draw attention to Himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; He will take from me and deliver it to you. Everything the Father has is also Mine. That is why I’ve said, ‘He takes from Me and delivers to you.’ (John 16:12-15 MSG) 

There are different levels of knowing God, but when we begin to understand what and how He shows us, we end up with our hearts fully opened, receiving more and more.  Faith always opens the doors to revelation.  He takes us to a journey of living life led by His Spirit living inside us and not by the dictates of what we see before our eyes.

I had a very vivid dream one night that my car was gone.  In that dream I found myself waking up to an empty garage.  One of my friends came that morning and he told me that upon his arrival in front of my house, he found people talking about my car.  Everyone thought that it was car-napped.  The only response I had was to be still for I had peace in my heart.

It may be bizarre to think that I wasn’t bothered by my missing car in my dream but my heart seemed to know what mind didn’t.  And so, I inquired of the Lord what my dream meant and I just had this strong prompting in my heart to have it checked.

A couple of days later, I intentionally had it checked.  Lo and behold, the mechanic found oil spilled over all the spark plugs.  A gasket needed to be immediately changed.  Oh wow … how I thanked the Lord for His great love and care.  Oh how He desires to “make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that He has done and said.”

He truly leads us in the way we should go, guiding and instructing us.  He may have a million and one ways to communicate with us to send messages to us, and in my case He used a dream to call my attention, but our part is to respond and not to ignore the promptings in our hearts.  He always speaks to us, but until we stop and give attention to His still small voice, we may miss His protection and provision for us.  Let this be then our norm that when we hear His voice, we harden not our hearts.

“If You wake me each morning with the sound of Your loving voice,
    I’ll go to sleep each night trusting in You.
Point out the road I must travel;
    I’m all ears, all eyes before You.”  (Psalm 143:8 MSG)

Jesus is our Good Shepherd Who personally calls us by name.  How full of confidence He is that He said, “My sheep hear My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27)  He is full of faith that He hears us.  He is full of hope that a confident expectation of good is pursuing us as we heed His voice.  He is fully persuaded that NO ONE IS ABLE TO SNATCH you and I out of the Father’s hand.  How about us?  If He said it, why sweat it?   Let His word be the final authority in our lives.  Let His word be the substance that we stand on.  Let His word be the assurance that we are on the right track.   His word never fails and He is watching, waking and anticipating His word, ever ready to perform and manifest it before our eyes.

 

Prayer:  Father, thank You for Your love that knows no bound.  Thank You for always on a lookout for Your children, always making sure that Your ways of safety and security are made known to us.  Thank You, Jesus, for being our good Shepherd Who never fails to lead us in the path of righteousness that we may know and do the right thing as we heed Your voice.  Thank Your, Holy Spirit, for revealing, disclosing, sending, declaring and transmitting to us what we need.  You, Oh Lord, know all things and You never withhold anything to Your children.  We give you all the glory, honor and praise for Who You are, Who love us without measure.  Amen!

 

Photo Credit:  Jap Abrenica; Mount Pulag, Philippines