Mensa Otabil - Discerning the Shepherds Voice (11/03/2025)
Well, this week we’ve been talking about God as our Shepherd, the Lord as our Shepherd; we are His sheep and how we must trust Him, look up to Him, and how He takes good care of us. So we end by hearing the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself on this subject: John chapter 10, verse 27: «My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.»
Sheep are very simple creatures, and that’s why God uses them in this analogy. It tells us the simplicity of faith that we must have in the Lord Jesus Christ. But as simple as they are, their world is a very complicated one. In the days of Jesus, the world of the sheep was far more complicated than probably the world of sheep today. There were predators, lions, bears, foxes, and other people-theives who tried to steal sheep-and there were a lot of hazards. The water places were not all safe, so the shepherd was the lifeline for the sheep.
He says that My sheep hear My voice and then follow Me. In the days of Jesus Christ, there were thieves who stole sheep, and what the thieves would do is mimic the call of the shepherd. They would listen to the shepherd, listen to his voice and how he calls his sheep, and try to imitate it so that the sheep would leave the shepherd and follow them. That is the analogy that Jesus is using: sometimes people would mimic His voice and try to sound like Him, and if we’re not careful and we don’t discern His voice, then we will go and follow the wrong people.
So the sheep must know His voice, and for us to follow the voice of the Lord, we have to know His voice. The primary way to know the voice of God is to know the scriptures because the scripture is the voice of God. Therefore, every other voice outside of the scriptures that you hear must be in line with the scriptures. You have to look at the example of Jesus Christ so that every other lifestyle that is outside the life of Jesus can be assessed properly. You must know the voice of your Master, and if you’re a Christian, you must know the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ from the scriptures, from His life.
Don’t ever think that you can just make up your own mind about what the voice of God is. No, the voice of God is clear in the scriptures and in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s how we hear the voice of God and follow Him obediently. Sheep do not just know the voice of the Master and go their way. You know, there are people who know the word of God, but they do whatever they please. They can quote a thousand verses from the Bible; they can tell you what the Bible says, but we are facing reality, and then they would do something else.
If you think your reality is more important than the Bible or the word of God, then you are a sheep who knows the voice of the Master but chooses to disobey it. If you choose to disobey the voice of your Master, then you’re not going to receive the blessings that He promises you and the safety that He promises you. We have to trust in the Lord’s protection. It’s only when we obey Him, walk in His ways, and go where He wants us to go that we enjoy His safety and His protection.
Like the sheep in Jesus' day, our world is also full of all kinds of lions, bears, hyenas, and all kinds of predators. They come in the form of temptations on social media, people preaching, and all kinds of voices-books we read, and all these things are trying to get us to follow them. If we’re going to be protected from all these devices, then we must know the voice of the shepherd and know it so well that when we hear any other voice that is not the voice of the shepherd, we can tell, «This is not my Master’s voice.»
I pray the Lord will help each one of us to hear His voice and obey it. Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, teach me to know Your voice and follow Your direction for my life. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»