“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” John 10 v11-15 KJV
Jesus is The Lord God. He knows all about us, every intricate, waking (& sleeping) moment of our lives. Nothing is hid from Him. He is our good Shepherd and like a natural shepherd would go out & retrieve his sheep no matter where they are, what the weather conditions or who tried to harm or steal them, Jesus goes above even this for you & I. Whatever your burdens, worries or concerns are, take them to our Good Shepherd & I tell you that there is only one true Shepherd who delivers us from the snares & traps of this life. From the difficult situations we are facing, from the complex questions we need answering. From all of the burdens we are carrying. Jesus our Shepherd King, carries us on His shoulders when we can no longer carry ourselves but we have to come to Him. He never tires of listening & looking after us us. He is here even when we think we have been abandoned in a field of ‘nowhereness’. He surrounds us as His Word said & He is with us “always even until the end of this world” Matthew 28:20 KJV. Jesus calls us to Him & by “His rod & staff” Psalms 23:4 KJV ,His Holy Spirit protect us from danger. He comforts us when our spirit & souls are fearful & overwhelmed. Indeed King David who wrote Psalms 23 acknowledged it is God only who “restores our souls”.
Today, as The Good Shepherd calls us, respond only to His voice. Sheep know the particular sound their shepard makes in the natural and we must know the voice of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ. Reject the noises the hireling- the counterfeit shepherd makes. That is the enemy. He makes the sound of defeat, doubt, fear, lies, unforgiveness, hatred malice & all those negatives in our lives, even the decisions we ‘think’ we could get away with, even when deep down we know, it is wrong. The counterfeit shepherd leads us away from still waters to the cliff edge & some sheep go over to their demise. Ah, but The Good Shepherd makes only a beautiful sound. “He sings over us & speaks to us, both to encourage, uplift & to discipline. He does pull us back from the brink & He warns us to steer clear of danger. To be obedient is life & disobedience leads to disaster. Samuel the prophet told king Saul “to obey is better than sacrifice & to listen“ 1 Samuel 15:22 KJV is better than anything else. We must heed the voice of The Good Shepherd, it “is the still, soft voice of The Lord“and it is distinctive. Seek for it.
Jesus, The Good Shepherd, gives only good food to us, leading us to “green pastures” to graze, watered by His Holy Spirit & nurtured by The Word of God & the wise counsel placed around us. He protects & leads us beside the “still waters” & not only that, “He restores our souls”, working on us on the inside. He “sings over us” as the book of Zephaniah tells us because “we are the apple of His eye” He is passionate about you & I! He playfully, brushes out the woolly coats we wear from ticks, diseases, deep wounds, bites & injuries, afflictions, pain, the hurt, oppression, malice, pain & brokenness we experience & what we do to others. We must acknowledge our wrongs too because our wrongs, yes our sins, are always before Him, we can’t ‘pull the wool of His eyes’ (hmm?..) no matter how much we try but as The Good Shepherd, He forgives us when we acknowledge our faults & confess them to Him. He has the biggest, warmest & most tenaciously sensitivities divine touch & our “sins are thrown into the sea of forgetfulness”. He takes that burden away from us because He does not want us to live each day with that burden or guilt any longer.
Jesus sets a hedge around about us even when He allows us to go out on our own. He desires obedience from us knowing that His continued presence surrounds us. We have to know not to step out of the boundaries He has established around us, not to step out of His will for us because there are wolves in sheep’s clothing, many, who are the fallen angels of darkness working on behalf of the hireling, the counterfeit shepherd. The enemy shepherd cannot take your burdens away, he cannot give you peace, he cannot save you in times of despair & distress. His ‘solutions’ actually make the issue look solved but wind us up in further destruction- derailed & over the precipice. He cannot save our souls, neither is it his intention too. Why? Because the counterfeit shepherd “comes to kill, steal & destroy” us.
Come to The Good Shepherd today, He is honest, pure & true and He implores us to trust Him, indeed there is no failure in Him. He can prove all that has ever been written & testified of Him, there is “no corruption” in Him. Do you know He gave freely His life for us? He calls us sweetly come, He rallies us & reigns us lovingly, in. If we are in pain He fixes our woolly coats & puts the ointment in our eyes & heals us of our brokenness. His love for us is immensely immeasurable & He goes to the depths of the pit for us when we fall in & yes, there are times when we all do fall. Just as the sheep is willing to have their woolly coats removed, so did Jesus as He stood before His shearers, those who cruelly crucified Him and was humiliatingly derobed and flogged Him for our sins & He said not a word. Isaiah said “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.“ Isaiah 53:7 KJV He was pliable, He did this willingly for us. He was obedient & so ought we to be to Him, pliable, in His safe hands. And when we disobediently “go astray,” as sheep at times do, He goes to the edge of the highest, furthest precipice until He brings us safely home
Come, Gods grace is knocking at your door. “The Lord is Your Shepherd you shall not want”, our Father in Heaven has promised us this when He told us to “ask anything in my name believing & I will answer” & Gods Word is established forever. I am testimony that The Good Shepherd Jesus Christ, will deliver you. Only “good comes from above from The Father of Light” there is no darkness in Him, He “does not change; from everlasting to everlasting HE IS LORD.” Take His hand & give Him yours and all of those burdens submerging you today. Don’t carry them a moment longer because His arms and shoulders are strong enough to. You do know Jesus is The Warrior King right? Well, He is willing to carry our burdens & fight our battles. He invites you & I to freely come, no charges or appointment system, we don’t even need to go through a Priest, just open our heart to Him & He will “send us help from His Sanctuary”, that safe place in Him & He “strengthens us” to go on with life’s journey. What a Shepherd, supernatural & superior in all His ways! There are time when I too, carry things I have no business carrying, as I cannot change it but the Master-Changer, our Good Shepherd King, can change anything, He is the mountain mover, problem solver & “Jehovah Jirah, The Lord who provides”. I go running back to Him thinking, ‘I knew this is where I should have come first why did I make it hard for myself?’
Bring all that you have weighing you down, even the unconscious burdens & give it over, He will make you light. Trust Him alone. I want you to be blessed in your soul & spirit today in Jesus name & in the knowledge that you do not have to carry this anymore. You are not alone & Jesus loves us no matter what we do but we have to come to Him. He accepts whatever condition we turn to Him in. Keep your thoughts upwards & on Him & not the issue or problem. Please don’t leave with that bag of worries or that suitcase of troubles, hand them over because nothing we carry is too hard for God and nothing we have done will make Him reject us. Jesus has set us free & He wants us to remain free, we can not be, if we are shackled by burdens. In your brokenness, those burdens will be made light because His grace is calling you. We are precious to Him, we are His sheep Please share this message, someone is in need right now.
Samantha ? from Ellisse
Requested by many, this simple song has been reaching those in their hearts, where God wants to dwell. Those who grew up in the faith but wondered away as sheep, and as we all have done. Come home to the fold, Jesus waits for you amen??
