My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
John 10:27
I got this week’s word of the week yesterday in church after a powerful praise and worship session – and a conversation with a dear friend in the evening confirmed that this was my word of the week.
I remember always hearing people say “God spoke to, God told me, I heard God say….” and it never made sense to me! But the more I deepened my relationship with God I started knowing His voice better and appreciating that He speaks to people in different ways. Like yesterday, I felt it in my heart to share this verse as my word of the week – and through a conversation God confirmed this to me – He spoke to me!
God speaks the question is, are you listening? Think about a shepherd and how he has a special way of speaking to his sheep – other sheep that are not his, will not respond to his voice, but his sheep even in the midst of other sheep will respond to their shepherd’s voice!
God speaks in many many ways and He also speaks differently to His people, again I emphasize – the question is, are you listening? Do you respond to His voice? Or do you try and convince yourself that it is not His voice that you are hearing/that you heard?
When I was young there is a teacher who told us about how sheep follow their shepherd blindly – and so anytime I heard someone call another person “kondo (sheep in Kiswahili – tends to carry more weight when abusing someone) I knew that that was an insult. But when I studied this verse and as I keep growing my relationship with God, I am learning that there are times that God wants that from us – that He wants us to listen, and then follow what He said to us. Even if the people around us look at us like we are “insane” – do we trust Him to the extent that we would follow Him if the only assurance we had is that that was His voice?
Open your heart to listen to God’s voice this week and your entire life!
Dear God,
May you know to listen and hear out for your voice – may we not doubt it, but listen to it and follow it. Lord, I thank you that you still speak to your people! We want to hear from you O’God.
Amen.
