Jesus was very fond of speaking through parables and metaphors, which are reflected in many sections of the Bible. On one occasion He expressed “My sheep hear my voice“, perhaps many of us have heard this phrase in our Christian life, or from a Christian we know.
What was Christ meaning by making this comparison? What does that expression mean? Here we answer those questions, and we give you some tips that you can use to hear God’s voice whenever you want.
What does the expression “My sheep hear my voice and follow me” mean?
My sheep hear my voice and they follow me
The context is in John 10. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. ” They will hear my voice ” This is something very important to take into account in this verse. God is speaking of his chosen ones, the ones the Father has chosen. You do not believe because you are not among my sheep.
So believing is what proves that you are a sheep of the Lord, or what is the same “a son of God.”
” You do not believe because you are not my sheep .” In other words, my chosen ones, My sheep that the Father has chosen will hear my voice and they will follow me and that will show that they are chosen. With the expression “My sheep listen to my voice” Jesus was meaning that his chosen ones are enabled by God to hear the truth , the true shepherd when the gospel is preached.
The voice of Jesus is the Word of the gospel or the Word of God more generally in Scripture accompanied by the work of the Spirit of God that allows us to recognize in Scripture or in the gospel the call of Jesus in our lives. It is important that we listen carefully to what God has to say to us.
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God opens our spiritual ears
“The devil is in charge of blinding the minds of non-believers, and many times of those who believe in a wrong way, to prevent them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
So blindness prevents us from seeing the glory in the same way that deafness prevents us from hearing the glory or hearing the voice.
We are deaf and blind, so when the gospel is preached we do not see the glory of Christ and we do not hear the voice of the teacher. In this circumstance, for us the voice is a strange voice, it is a boring voice. We are not interested in the voice of God speaking through the gospel, and we cannot receive what God says in 2 Corinthians four: let the light shine out of the darkness.
God opens the eyes of the heart. He opens the ears of the heart so that the beautiful glory of Christ is seen and the beautiful voice of Jesus heard. And here is one more evidence that we are on the right track, in verse 16 of John 10 .
Why does Jesus associate believers with sheep?
Those of us who have given our lives to him are like sheep in his flock. The shepherd spends all his waking hours caring for and caring for the flock. There are no free nights and weekends to say. Due to the amount of time the shepherd spends with his flock, he is deeply connected to them and knows everything about them.
One of the strongest characteristics of sheep is that they have incredible hearing, which makes up for the fact that their eyesight is very poor and they can only see well in bright light. They must rely on the sound of the shepherds’ voice for directions most of the time.
This is important as one of the downsides of sheep is that they are easily distracted and due to poor eyesight they can wander away without realizing how far they have marveled from the flock. When the shepherd calls out to them, they hear and recognize his voice and come to him, but if they have strayed too far, even with excellent hearing, they can get lost and become easy prey for wolves or other animals.
The good news is that Jesus, the good shepherd , will leave the entire flock to go after a single missing sheep. What a beautiful picture of how much God loves us and is willing to seek us out when we get lost. We too can easily get lost, but when we hear his voice we obey and return to him.
How to listen to the voice of God?
It seems easy enough to say, but it is not easy to do it every day. However, it is not something that is so difficult if we have our hearts. Then we can take a few small steps to hear God’s voice. The main thing is prayer , praying is essential for a close relationship with our creator.
Another very important thing that we must do is read the Bible and meditate on the messages that we extract from it, in order to seek to apply them to our daily lives. We come to know God’s voice by spending time with God, in the same way that we instantly recognize the voice of our child, our parents, our teacher, and vice versa.
Jesus, in making a metaphor, was very careful about all the details. It was necessary that when giving a word, everything fit completely in the meaning that was going to be given. He expressed the following “my sheep hear my voice.” By analyzing the entire biblical context, and the characteristics of the sheep, we can understand why Christ made this comparison.
Conclusion:
Our Jesus is meaning that by believing in him our spiritual eyes and ears will be opened, and we will be able to hear his voice in a clear way. It also implies that we will be guided by his word, and that even if we get lost, he will always go looking for us to make us return to our true home.