Emma Miles writes:

Some people, through time and experience have learnt to hear the voice of their Good Shepherd. However, recognition of His voice was not instant.

Some people are still learning to recognise the voice of their Good Shepherd, still discerning it from the voices of fear, trauma and tangled thoughts. The learning itself is the following.

Some people have been told Jesus is the good shepherd but are yet to follow Him. The shepherd is in pursuit of them, they are fully known and fully loved, and the shepherd says they are ‘His’.

Twenty-four years ago, I said ‘yes’ to following a God other people told me was good, but I did not know how to follow. Eighteen months later, I was baptised in the Holy Spirit, I knew without a doubt that He was with me and He loved me, but I still did not know how to follow.

Thirteen years ago, through sheer desperation, I turned back to Jesus. He put me on His shoulders and He carried me home.

For the last 13 years I have been learning to discern His voice, falling, and choosing again. As one monk put it: “We fall and get up, fall and get up, fall and get up again.”

●       Jesus says “I AM the Good Shepherd,” deliberately contrasting Himself with the bad shepherds Ezekiel condemned centuries earlier.

●       He knows His sheep by name - before they recognise His voice. The intimacy is echoed in Psalm 139. We are known before conception and known in the womb.

●       Even “in the depths, your hand will guide me” (Psalm 139) and “no one can snatch you out of his hand” (John 10). This describes a God who both reaches us, and He keeps us.

●       He is not “a” gate but “the” gate. He is the way into a real family, and He is the doorway into life and new pasture.

●       Every counterfeit voice is auditioning to steal something and imitating the voice of our shepherd, whilst dressing up as something worth following.

●       Jesus lays His life down for the sheep. Obedience flows from His Father's love, and God’s good shepherding of our life will lead us to turning to follow His voice.          

●       Jesus has other sheep, not yet in this fold, whom He will keep calling; His posture toward the lost is compassion, not irritation.

 Two years ago, I felt seized to follow my good shepherd into a new pasture. In September I will commence ordination training and will be moving to Durham. The process has brought lots of fear at times, particularly in finding a new home. I kept sensing a word during this time ‘your home will come through word of mouth.’

After several trips I agreed to a house that looked right, but a thirty-minute drive from the college. I loved it, so I said yes. But all the way home I kept asking myself:

‘Is this really through word of mouth?’

The very next morning, a chaplain in Amsterdam, who heard I needed a property, emailed me offering me his 3-bed property. So, through word of mouth, I will be renting a property six minutes from college, at a significantly reduced rate and within my budget.

The good shepherd goes before me, and He calls me by name.

I shouldn't be surprised. After all, I am one of His sheep.

And so are you, whether in the fold or not. Jesus knows you and He calls you by name.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

Emma Miles Community Development Leader