2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. John 10:2-4 (NLT)
Last night during Called2Be’s (church plant) meeting, we talked about recognizing God’s voice. Fabulous discussion. We spent a lot of time on today’s text. This morning, as I was revisiting this conversation, I realized I didn’t have a thought process for what it looks like for sheep to come to the shepherd.
I don’t have sheep. I don’t actually know anyone who has sheep. But, I’ve had dogs. Specifically, I am thinking of Angel (a Doberman). She had this uncanny way of knowing when Nick was almost home. If Nick was out, before he even turned into the neighborhood, she would hear his car. Her radar was always up. She was always listening for that sound and when she heard it, she’d go stand by the door.
My son’s dog, Doctor, does the same thing. With one difference. When he hears my son’s car, he goes and looks out the window and starts bounding around the house, whimpering excitedly while running back and forth.
This is what I think it looks like to listen for God’s voice. No matter what we are doing, our ears should be tuned toward Him. And when we hear something that even remotely sounds like His voice, we should check it out. We should move toward it so we can hear better and spend some time focusing on what we are being told.
God speaks to us where we are. He also has a bazillion ways to communicate with us. That’s why we have to be especially attentive. If we are looking for him to speak to us in only one way, we may miss it.
So maybe today, while we are doing whatever we do, we can wait expectantly, trusting that He is there and He is going to speak. And when we hear Him, we should jump up and down and get excited because the God of the Universe just reached down to be in relationship with us.