Walk Boldly With Jesus

My Sheep Hear My Voice and I Know Them!

Episode Summary

John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” Today's episode talks about how God knows us and wants to talk to us. It talks about how we can practice listening to God's voice. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode Notes

My Sheep Hear My Voice and I Know Them!

John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

The verse we got in class last night was John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.”  I was going to stop here and then the Holy Spirit prompted me to look at what came after that verse.  I could see by the semicolon at then end of the verse that there was more to this sentence.  I am glad that I did because the next three verse are pretty powerful as well.  Let me start at the beginning of the verse.  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  That right there is a lot more powerful than it might seem.  We are God’s sheep this verse says we hear His voice.  It doesn’t say a special chosen few hear my voice.  It doesn’t say holy people hear my voice.  It says My sheep hear my voice.  This means we are all able to hear God’s voice.  Do you hear God’s voice?  

If we are not hearing God’s voice right now, it is not because we can’t, it is not because he is hiding it from us, it is not because we aren’t good enough, or holy enough.  If we can’t hear God’s voice right now, it is because we are not taking the time to listen.  I assure you, God wants to talk to us.  He wants to talk to all of His children.  Another reason we might not be able to hear His voice right now is because we don’t believe God would talk to us.  Who are we?  We aren’t special, why would God want to talk to us?  Who are we? We are a children of God.  We are special because He made us in His likeness and image.  If we sit down and ask God to talk to us and then sit there in the silence and wait expectantly, God will talk with us.  Will we hear an audible voice, maybe, but probably not.  It is more likely we will have a sudden thought, or we hear our inner voice say something.  The voice of God is different for each one of us.  It is most often that inner voice, your voice that you hear.  God can also talk with us through other means of communication, such as visions and through scripture.  Although since this verse talks about hearing God’s voice I won’t go into detail on visions and scripture.  

The next part of the verse says, “I know them.”  God knows each one of us individually.  He cares about us and our individual circumstances.  I have a word of prophecy from my prayer group up on the wall in front of where I work and it begins by saying, “I have called you by name into life.  I have called you every day by your name because I know you, I love you, because you are my friend.”  I have this up as a reminder that God knows my name.  He is my friend.  God is your friend too!  He knows your name and he calls you by name every single day.  Are you answering that call?  Are you hearing that call?  God knows you, are you taking the time to get to know Him?

Next it says, “and they follow me.”  Are we following God’s voice?  Are we sticking close by Him so He can protect us from all the dangers out there?  Or, are we doing our own thing?  Are we following our own path because we think we know what is best for us?  If we are listening to God’s voice then we can follow Him and He will keep us safe.  He will lead us down the path that is the best for us.  That doesn’t mean we won’t ever encounter an hardships or troubles, but it does mean, when we do, we can lean on God because He will be right there with us.  Will you follow God today?

The next part of the verse is super encouraging.  It says, “and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.”  Wow, that is pretty amazing.  Not only do we get to hear God’s voice, not only does He know us by name, and not only do we get to follow Him, but he also gives us eternal life.  How great is that?  I don’t know about you but I don’t want to perish.  I am forever grateful that Jesus died so that we can have eternal life.  I also love that it says no one will snatch them out of my hand.  That means if we are listening to God’s voice and following Him, the enemy will not snatch us out of His hands.  Unfortunately this doesn’t mean the enemy won’t try.  This doesn’t mean we will have stress free lives.  However, it does mean, we belong to God, and He is there for us.  He will protect us and will not allow anyone to be taken out of his hands.  Our job is just to listen for His voice so we know where to go and when.  Our job is to follow Him, He will take care of the rest.

The last line in this verse says, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”  This is more reassurance that no one is able to snatch us out of the Father’s hand.  We are His and He knows us by name.  He knows us by name.  Can you believe how awesome that is?  There are 8 billion people in the world and God knows you, individually.  He knows your name, He knows your wants, your needs your desires.  He knows you!  That just blows my mind.  On our way home from class last night we were talking in the car about how incredible it is that God can talk to all of us at the same time.  

We did a lot of activations last night.  We were partnered up and we practiced listening to God’s voice.  It was a truly amazing experience.  I definitely would recommend it to each and every one of you.  What was especially remarkable, was how he was talking to each one of us specifically and how He was able to talk to all of us at the same exact time.  We did specific exercises led by one of our teachers.  However, anyone can practice hearing the Lord’s voice.  If you are not used to hearing God’s voice start by setting aside a few minutes a day.  It could be just five minutes and it doesn’t have to be sitting in a chair with your eyes closed.  It could be while you are driving to work, or driving to the store. It could be while you are in the shower or while you make your morning cup of coffee or tea.  Wherever you are and whatever your are doing, just ask the Lord to speak to you.  You can say something like, “Lord, what would you like to tell me right now?” You could also ask Him what He thinks of a certain decision you want to make.  You can have a back and forth conversation with God.  You talk, He listens, then He talks, and you listen.  I struggle to hear God if I am just sitting there listening.  For me, I hear Him best if I am writing down the thoughts that are coming into my head.  I do not question them, I just write them all down as I think of them.  After I write them all down I can go back and look at them and ask God to show we what is from Him and what is not.  

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”  This is so important.  The Lord is our Shepard and we are His sheep.  We must hear His voice and follow Him.  If we want eternal life, we must stay close to the Lord.  Will you take just 5 minutes today and spend that time listening for the Lord’s voice, for His direction?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we are so grateful you call us by name.  We are grateful you know us and that you protect us.  We are grateful that if we follow you we will not perish but will have eternal life.  Thank you for not letting anyone snatch us out of your hands.  Lord, help us to hear your voice.  Help us to listen with expectancy.  Help us to take time throughout the day to pause and listen to you.  Help us to learn to pause and ask you before any major decisions.  Help us to grow Lord.  Help us to know you like you know us.  We love you Lord, you are so amazing!  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to sharing another witness with you tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!