Recently, I was preparing for a meeting I knew was going to be rather difficult. I was at the nursing home with my oldest son, Jeremiah, and was going to drop him off and head to the meeting. He looked at me and said, “John 10:2!” I immediately said, “ok!” Knowing that he was simply a messenger as he has been many times to me.
Last year, I went to the river like I often do to just re-align and hear God’s voice. I was so exhausted mentally that all I could really do was just keep listening to worship music, my John audio Bible, and cry. I heard John 10 and thought to myself, Wow this applicable to us right now! I pulled out my Bible and just started staring at the passage.
It is the parable of the sheep and the shepherd. I was struck by the fact that a true sheep will be aware of a true shepherd. If the shepherd is not true then the sheep will not listen to their voice. This gave me a lot of peace and confidence that in the course of years things that are fuzzy now will eventually become clear. The Holy Spirit inside of me is perfectly capable of “leading me in to all truth”.
Second, the phrase from John 10:12 convicted me immediately, “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.“ I just heard the Holy Spirt say so clearly, “Be a shepherd, stay.”
That morning as my son’s prophetic word was realigning me with these things God had already spoken, I took a look at John 10:2 and realized afresh the need to be aligned with my shepherd and to go through the door—Jesus. The only way we will ever be useful to anyone is if we start by entering in through Christ Himself.
Pray for us as we continue to shepherd those that God has given us to fight for. It is really difficult days but also glorious days. I am confident that the best is yet to come.
