Revelations 7:17 "For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’” This episode reflects on Jesus as the Good Shepherd who lovingly leads, protects, and lays down His life for His sheep. While the world is full of loud and conflicting voices, we are reminded that, like sheep, we are called to recognize and follow the voice of our Shepherd. The episode encourages us to intentionally create quiet time with God—through listening and even writing—to better hear His voice and trust where He is leading us. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
He Is Series: Day #7 The Good Shepherd
Revelations 7:17 "For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
Today’s name for the Lord is The Good Shepherd. I thought this scripture verse was a good one for this, and there is another one I will mention too. What a beautiful image of God wiping away every tear from our eyes. I don’t know about you, but I am a crier. I tend to cry a lot. God will be busy if He wipes away every tear. In all seriousness, though, this is a beautiful scripture. It starts off by talking about the Lamb at the center of the throne, who will be their shepherd. That Lamb is Jesus. He is our good shepherd. It says in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” This is exactly what Jesus did for us: He laid down His life for us, his sheep. I heard a story from a friend about an incident that happened when she was walking in Walmart during the pandemic. She was walking through Walmart wearing a mask because there was still a mandate requiring masks to shop there. However, a man was walking towards her with two young girls. When he passed my friend, he made sheep sounds at her. He was implying that she was a sheep blindly following the others.
I have heard this analogy often, and despite the popular belief that sheep are stupid, they are actually incredibly intelligent. They have very impressive cognitive abilities, and, just like humans, they form deep, lasting bonds with one another, stick up for one another in fights, and grieve when they lose a friend. They experience the same emotions we do, including fear, joy, boredom, anger, and happiness, to name a few. We envision the sheep blindly following whoever and going wherever they are told. This is not the case. Sheep recognize their shepherd’s voice, and they will go wherever their shepherd tells them to go. They have complete trust in their shepherd. The shepherd, in return for this obedience, loves them and is willing to lay down his life for them. How beautiful is that?
I think this is one way that sheep have an advantage over us. They recognize their shepherd’s voice, and so they follow it. I think we have a hard time figuring out whose voice to listen to. The world is so busy and so noisy, and there are so many voices speaking into our lives. There are the voices of the loved ones around us. They are speaking to us and leading us in a direction they think we should go. Then there are our friends who may not share our beliefs, and they are leading us in the direction they think we should go. Then there are all the voices of those around the world who also usually have opinions on how we should and shouldn’t live. There are so many voices, and we get confused, and we don’t know which ones to listen to. Oftentimes, the voices and the noises of the world are so loud that we can’t hear the voice of our good shepherd. The voices of the world are not the ones we need to listen to, and yet they are so loud that we can’t hear any other voices.
The verse above says that the shepherd will lead us to springs of living waters. Don’t we want this? Don’t we want to follow the shepherd who will lead us to springs of living waters? So, how do we learn to hear the Lord’s voice more? How do we learn to tune out all the noise of the world so we can focus on the Lord’s voice? First, we can begin by spending time each day trying to hear the Lord’s voice. How much time do you spend each day asking the Lord for things in prayer? How much time do you spend sitting quietly and asking the Lord what He wants to say to you? The Lord wants to talk to us, but we just don’t give Him the time to talk. This can be your first step. Just sit quietly, ask, and let the Lord know you are ready to listen. At our prayer group, we usually begin by saying, “Speak, Lord, your servants are listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10) You do not have to start off by sitting down and giving God 30 minutes of quiet time to speak to you. If you have never done this before, 30 minutes is a long time. Even if you have, it still may be a long time. Just start out with 5 minutes of quiet time and see what happens.
The next step that can help you start hearing the Lord’s word more is to write down whatever He tells you in those five minutes. I struggle to just sit there, think of nothing, and do nothing for 5 min. So, I do an exercise I learned from Fern Gorin at the Life Purpose Institute. I ask the Lord to speak to me through my pen, and then I write down whatever comes to mind for the next 5 minutes, or however long I am sitting there. This is especially helpful because then you can go back and read over it. Now, is every single thing that comes to mind in those 5 minutes from the Lord, probably not, but it is a start. I think the more times you do this, the more and more of what you write will be from the Lord. Also, you are asking the Lord to show up, and when we ask, He answers. So, why wouldn’t he show up and talk to you through your pen? The key to this exercise is not to question everything that comes into your mind. Just write it all down, then read it over later and reflect on what you think the Lord was telling you. While you are writing, don’t second-guess yourself, don’t let the enemy’s voice come in and get you to question why the Lord would talk to you, block out all the doubt, and just trust that you asked the Lord to show up, and so He will.
If we want the shepherd to lead us to springs of living water and the Lord to wipe away every tear, then we need to learn to listen to the shepherd’s voice and follow Him wherever He leads us. The way I suggested above is just one way to begin to hear the Lord’s voice. If it doesn’t resonate with you, no worries, do something different. We are all different people, and we all do things differently. The important part of this message is not that you listen to the Lord’s voice the same way I do. The important thing is that we all find a way to block out the world's noise and start hearing the voice of our good shepherd.
Dear Good Shepherd, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask you to help us hear your voice. We want you to lead us to the living waters and to wipe away all our tears. Help us to hear your voice above all others. Help us to block out the noise of the world and concentrate on your voice. Lord, we are so grateful for all you do for us. We are so grateful to be counted as one of your sheep. You are an awesome shepherd, and we love you. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in September 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Sometimes I catch you running in a different direction, but I stop you because I know the right way for you to go. So listen to the voice that whispers because that is me.”