My Sheep Hear My Voice

John 10:27

Have you ever been caught up in the whirlwind of a new romance?

You know what I mean…

Where you can’t wait to spend time getting to know that new special someone who has come into your life?  You have a buzz of anticipation swirling around inside thinking about the two of you connecting on a deeper level…sharing stories…discussing important personal issues, wanting to know their reaction.

Relationship is all about relating…connecting!

We don’t become best friends with someone without investing a lot of our time and continued time afterwards to maintain the closeness…this is such basic common sense, yet due to our own selfishness we often forget to apply this to all of our relationships once the initial romance fades, like our marriage or relationship with Jesus.

Have you ever seen a miserable married couple? Stay with me on this for a minute, I have a point…

Day in, day out they co-exist side by side, living under the same roof, miserable with no real communication or love…no real connecting or meaningful relating…

I think this can be the same as when someone who once was in love with God can go from relationship to religion.

Two people who once looked into one another’s eyes with compassion and asked the other, ‘How was your day?  Tell me all about it…’

I heard a wonderfully challenging statement from a Christian woman via You Tube yesterday.  She said, “ Jesus said, ‘my sheep hear my voice…’ NOT ‘my sheep will know my scripture…”

Now her point was NOT that Christians don’t need to know scripture! Rather that people can know scripture and yet not be connected to Jesus and hear Him speaking in their lives because they don’t spend enough time communicating with Him.

Like the miserable married couple, if questioned I’m sure they could smile and give all the right answers to appear solid in their marriage to an outsider…yet it would all be meaningless words.

Even the devil knows scripture…remember how he tempted Jesus? We are so blessed to have scripture readily available today; yet if we're really honest with ourselves, we'd acknowledge sometimes God can speak to us and we can run it by scripture in our own mind, looking for an excuse because we don't really want to obey Him...and I personally believe disobedience leads to His voice becoming harder to hear because we're no longer as close to Him.

Like the miserable married couple...we may live with Him but we're not best friends.  Yet unlike the miserable married couple, Jesus is the perfect partner and is always wanting to communicate and be close with us!

Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear my voice…’

One cannot hear someone’s voice if they don’t spend time listening and communicating with them.

I know there have been times I have felt confused about something in my life…Yet our God is not a god of confusion; rather goodness, purity, order and relationship...He is always willing to speak to us...our confusion is not from Him.

For those of you who are familiar with this blog you probably know by now, how much I LOVE scripture; for it was how God reached me for my re-birth! Yet for me to be truly submitted to Jesus, obeying Him in my life and for clarity, scripture is not enough…it is firstly by prayer, communicating with Jesus…sharing my problems with Him and listening for His response.  But this communication must be ongoing for it is the basis of my relationship with Jesus…it is the very core of my faith!  The early Christians didn’t have the whole cannon we do today…but they met together for teaching and PRAYED!

When I hear His voice, having been patient for His reply, He will confirm what He has said to me by scripture, godly counsel from trusted Christians and sermons.

Jesus said, ‘my sheep hear my voice…’

The Lord wants our whole HEART…He wants ALL of us…He became a human being so that we could be restored to RELATIONSHIP with Him, like Adam and Eve were BEFORE the fall…The Jewish people had religion, but God wanted to give them and ALL people NEW hearts and minds that were personally relating with Him…He wanted to SAVE them from their sin which separated them from Him and give them a NEW BEGINNING!

There is only one way to be a child of God and that is by being best friends with Jesus.

How much time do we spend in prayer and worship, connecting with Jesus to maintain our best relationship?

Jesus said, ‘my sheep hear my voice…’

He will guide and protect us as His own but we must spend intentional time with Him to hear His voice…have you moved from relationship to religion or is religion all you know?  Well there is no need to despair, for Jesus truly is the PERFECT friend...so set some time aside and connect TODAY, then every day and see just how much more joy enters your soul, irrespective of your circumstances!

In His peace and Name, Melanie.

Let me leave you with a song which speaks of our passionate relationship with Jesus we are so amazingly blessed to freely receive: