KNOW THE VOICE OF YOUR SHEPHERD

[Luke 18:16]

The simple things in the Word are what Christians fail in and complex things are what they excel in. They know how to be eagles but do not know how to be humble. Many Christians excel in sonship, but they fail in correction, they know the revelation about being a son but fail in what makes them a son.

What brought them is what they wanted to be but what made them leave is the process of ‘being’. The process of ‘being’ challenged many and has made them fail. It’s not that the Kingdom of God is of children, you can be a child and not have the character of a child. When God said “such like these” He was speaking about the character not that we must go back and become children.

When we get born again and grow spiritually, we have a goal to be matured more than being in a relationship that is solid with Christ and because we want to be so matured, our maturity ends up becoming an obstacle from us having a relationship with God. There is a problem when you grow spiritually with the absence of the relationship itself. Why do we want to grow spiritually? It is so that in the relationship we may be able to hear God more, to be sensitive to Him. There is a difference between being sensitive spiritually and being spiritually sensitive to God. You are either responsive to God, or to the things of the spirit — there is a difference because it’s a matter of a relationship.

Jesus died so we can have a relationship with Him. We go and chase to grow and be masters of this other world and not have a relationship with a master of that world and not be intimate. We must grow and be sensitive not to any spirit but to the Holy Spirit. Some people are sensitive to any spirit, that is why they are spiritually matured but anger shows them flames, they are spiritually matured but sin reigns in the flesh.

The dust that the devil eats is not the physical dust we see in the month of August but it’s a spiritual thing. When God said dust, there will never be dust with the wind — it’s a spiritual thing, there must be a spirit that blows. We cannot talk about dust without the spirit that blows. People end up becoming spiritually sensitive to anything that happens in the spirit, how sensitive they are, they become quickly responsive to anything that happens that is spiritual.

We must grow in a relationship with Christ so that we can become one with Him. You only become one with Him when you grow, and you are responsive to Him. That is why when Jesus speaks in John 10, He doesn’t say, “My sheep knows Me by My Spirit but they know Me by My voice” meaning in the spiritual realm there won’t be one voice but there will be many voices but you have to know the voice of your Shepherd.

The bible says “The devil masquerades as an angel of light” meaning when people deliver people who are possessed they look for darkness but darkness is not there. Actually darkness is wrapped with light because he masquerades himself as light. So, do not be sensitive to the light, because he (devil) comes like the light. If you are sensitive to the light you will respond to the angel that masquerades like light, you will respond to the devil. You must know Him by His voice, meaning the devil can masquerade many things, but he can never masquerade the voice, he can imitate; he can even say what the voice is saying but the voice will never be the same. We must grow in this relationship of knowing the voice.

Most of you know your husbands and wives by looks, but when they speak to you, you cannot distinguish between their voices. You are unable to know whether this is her or what because you don’t know her that much. I don’t know if you have realised that, the nature of a baby is to connect with you not only with the umbilical cord but also with the voice, especially with the father not with the mother. They will know the voice of their father while they are in the womb of the mother, and when the father speaks the baby responds.

What is the first sense that is opened in a baby? Hearing, not taste, not a feeling because they are in water. If it was a sense of feeling they would feel cold in water. So, the first sense that is activated in a child is a sense of hearing. Now when the bible comes and says “who are like these” we need to go back and check the characteristics of a baby and know that is how we need to be.

Number 1: we need to be hearing, that is why in the book of James it says, “we must be quick to hear than to speak”. So, we must not learn to speak first before we can learn how to hear. The first thing you must learn is to hear and when you learn to hear you start to be able to distinguish between the voices, which voice is speaking, because God says, “My sheep know Me by My voice”. It is the voice that we need to know, meaning now the devil can even come with my face. Some of you were misled in dreams. You dreamt the man of God, you dreamt your father, he came but what you received was a wrong direction, wrong guidance; you know the face, but you don’t know the voice. Someone needs to know the voice not the face.

When a spirit comes in my image, what do we call that spirit? We call that a familiar spirit this spirit is not any other spirit, it’s a spirit ruling in the families that worship ancestors. This spirit is also found in church where one can dream without knowing the voice and they become misled.

The devil wants you to fall, he knows that you are a Christian, demon kicking, spirit filled, and you love God and the Word of God. So, he will not try to deceive you or to take you away with the things of the world first, he starts deceiving you with scriptures, he starts deceiving you with your own language not your voice, not his voice but with your own language. He will come with the language you know and give you that language only to deceive you, but he can never give you the voice. So, God wants us to know the voice. I am emphasising this because many do not know the voice, they know how he looks like, even John in the island of Patmos when he spoke, he emphasises on how He looks not His voice, few know His voice.

When you don’t know the voice of God, when He speaks there is no thunder, the thunder is not to everyone, but the thunder is to the one who knows the voice and the reason for that is when it thunders something shakes so, there are some people who still hear God, but nothing shakes. Everything remains the same, everything looks the same even themselves they can’t shake —there is no movement.

They can still stand still while God has spoken and said move, they don’t know the voice but they know the language, they know how He looks like, they are not sensitive to the voice; they are sensitive spiritually. A witchdoctor is also spiritual. We have a lot of people who are so spiritual. Meditation without knowing the voice is useless because you will meditate on the Word that is not spoken. Yesterday’s food is not today’s food so, what is God telling us? Meditating on yesterday’s message in the wrong time is not worth it. How God moves when He speaks, He wants you to respond same time and never store up.

When He gave the Israelites manna, He was teaching us something — that ‘you must respond to My Word when it is spoken’,  do not save it up and say someday. So, you can hear the right Word at the wrong time, you can give attention to the right Word at the wrong time. When God speaks to you and says “worship” and you postpone it, you have postponed a moment, you miss that moment. A moment with Christ can never be regained so, every moment is precious. The way we should be sensitive to the voice is that when God speaks now, we should respond now.

That is why there is a difference between lightning and thunder, one is late there other is a sound and there other is an element. We must not respond to the sound. When you hear thunder, it has hit long time ago but the sound comes late. Many of you, when God speaks you store up and you end up remaining with what? With just the effects of that lightning, it has hit long time ago but it’s no longer there. You can hear the sound, but it doesn’t shock you, the electricity must go in you. So, the sound is not the electricity. When it hits you, you definitely fall down. So, many run away, they hide because they heard the sound. The words are powerful, the language is so powerful but it is not effective as the voice.

The words and language don’t have the power to take you out. You can hear them and still remain, but it says “when My sheep hear Me by My voice they follow” not when they hear Me by My Word, but they hear the voice, and they follow. So, when God said ‘let there be’ in actual fact everything responded to the voice and not to what is said because even today people say “let there be light” but there is no light.

If they were responding to the Word it means every time we say “let there be light” there would be light so to show that we don’t have the same voice that is why even when we say it, we say the exact words but there is no response because the voice is not the one. Creation knows the voice of God. Money will not follow you as long as you don’t have the voice of God and if the voice of God is not speaking in your life, money will not follow you as well.

The bible says “seek the Kingdom of God and all things shall follow you” what are they following? They are following the voice. Because when it comes and says “seek the Kingdom, My sheep know Me by My voice, and they follow” so to seek means you are following the one who has spoken. If you are following the voice, it means you are seeking the Kingdom and because you are seeking the Kingdom there is something behind you that is following the same voice, it’s looking for the same voice but before it gets to the voice it has to get to you.

Many have prayed for money, cars and other things but nothing happened, why? It is the word that is spoken but there is no voice. These things only know the voice. The authority is in the voice, it is not in what you say. Can I teach you the right message today!

They say “speak life” but life without the voice is not life, the voice needs to be there. When He says “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given” the voice has been given and all these things have been given to the voice. Every time the voice comes out, they will respond. Now let me tell you something about healing that will profit you while you are still healthy now and will profit you in the future, you need to know the voice now so that your body can adapt to the voice. The thing why many of you, we pray for you, and you are still not healed it’s because your body doesn’t know the voice.

There is a difference when you heal a Christian and someone outside, someone outside when you go to them you go to their level. But when you heal a Christian, they come to where you are for them to receive what you have. When your body doesn’t know the voice, it will not respond to the voice. So, someone needs to respond to the voice, his body needs to start to know the voice of God other than the words. We know “by His stripes we are healed” but it seems like your kidney, heart, organs don’t know that because we have been speaking to them and they are not responding, they do not know the voice. The minute they know the voice when we say, “let there be life”, they will be alive.

[Genesis 3:9]

There is a problem with others, they are afraid of the voice. There way they are enemies with the voice, when the voice speaks, they do the opposite. The voice is meant to be followed; Even and Adam heard the voice but when they heard the voice what did they do? They start to hide themselves. The voice is able to save you in times of trouble. These were sinners who have lost glory, they said “we heard”. One thing that was nice is that they can still hear the voice but when they heard the voice, they couldn’t respond to it, but they start to hide themselves from the voice. These are symptoms of someone who lacks the glory, the bible says “anything that God does must bring glory” but it can never bring glory where there is no glory. Glory manifests from where there is glory. Because that is why we say “we are moving from glory to glory” you can’t move from nothing to glory. So, if you don’t have glory then don’t expect anything from the Lord.

When there is no glory, someone starts to hide from the voice, Adam said “we have heard the sound of your footsteps” why? Because a voice is meant to be followed. In another version it says, “we have heard your voice” but another one says, “the sound of your footsteps”. It means the voice of God is God walking. So, you cannot hear the voice of God and be stagnant, the voice of God makes you grow because it moves you somewhere. The more you know the voice and you start following it, it’s the more you go somewhere. Christians are stagnant because they are stuck with words without the voice, the voice is moving. One needs to know the voice because where there is the voice, there’s growth.

Knowledge doesn’t guarantee growth, but it can guarantee you that you are puffed up. You know what is being puffed up? You are empty but you are full, you are empty, but you are so big. Knowledge can tell you, but the voice gets you there. Because when the voice speaks, it speaks moving, that is why I am saying do not be late. That is why it says “today when you hear My voice, do not harden your hearts” do not postpone it, it doesn’t say tomorrow but it says today. It’s a matter of today or now that when you hear the voice do you respond because if you do not respond you will find that the voice is gone and no longer there.

Children of God! There is no time to take a break as a Christian, there is no time to say, “I am going to rest, now am not going to be obedient I will come back and be obedient”. There is no such time. Because when you have hardened your voice today, tomorrow the voice is speaking to someone. Do not find yourself in a situation where you were late. The voice has been speaking to Moses in the bush and when he saw the burning bush the bible says, “out of the burning bush there was a voice that came out and when the voice spoke it said, ‘take off your shoes because the place you are standing on is a holy ground’. It can never be a burning bush without the voice. We must know that the voice is very crucial.

Abraham took Isaac to offer him as a sacrifice and when he was about to sacrifice with him there was a voice. You can’t be provided without the voice – you will think that God has not provided because you don’t know the voice, Abraham had to know the voice. When the voice spoke to him, when he was about to slain Isaac then he had to stop because he was sensitive to the voice. Many of you are not sensitive to the voice, you continue searching while the voice is telling you “The door is open enter”. When you do not know the voice, you will be misled, you may know the words, you may know the methods, you may know the ways but without the voice there will be stagnancy in your life.

The bible says “no one can have faith except by hearing” so someone needs to hear. What do you need to hear? The bible says “faith comes by hearing the Word of God” but if there is no voice you will not hear the Word of God because the voice is the one that wraps the Word of God. If you don’t know the voice of God but you know the Word of God someone will come with the Word without the voice, and when you hear the Word but there is no voice, and you will think God is speaking but God is not speaking.

You think most of your desires were birthed by the Word of God but it’s not the Word of God it’s rotten manna. The voice is very important. When Adam and Eve fell, they didn’t have glory anymore, a voice still came to save them, but they start to hide themselves. Do not be amazed when they are gone but they can still speak what we are speaking, they have the words, they have the knowledge, but they don’t have the voice, the voice makes them to be apart from us. They separate themselves from us because they don’t carry the voice, but they still speak our language. They know our language very much, but they don’t carry the voice, they don’t know the voice.

You will see them quoting in and out, they even quote your father as if they know him. We don’t want people who study us we want people who receive us. People who study sometimes they think they are matured, they are qualified and when they leave, they leave puffed up. Application is very important after you have learnt, that is why Jesus says “learn what they say but don’t do what they do” meaning application is a difficult thing for them and application can only happen when there is a voice. You cannot go out of the sheepfold without the voice.

It says “anyone who enters not by the door but jumps in whether by the window or what, he is a thief” but it doesn’t tell you that the thief steals them meaning the character or symptoms of a thief is stagnancy, there is no movement, they don’t take you out of the sheepfold and a sheepfold is a place of safety for the sheep. So, you still feel saved as a Christian, you feel like you are still in the presence, but you are in a sheepfold and the Shepherd has left the sheepfold.

(Verse 9) They were in the garden, but the garden is the presence, the minute they lost the glory, God was not followed anymore. God kept on walking. God kept on moving forward. What happened in the garden? When God placed them there, He was not placing them and leaving them like that He was leading them in the garden, in everything that they were doing, but the woman met the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she remained there and God kept on moving.

God was not quite, He has been speaking throughout even while the serpent was speaking to the woman, He was busy speaking, the woman couldn’t hear and likewise, Adam couldn’t hear what God was saying because they were busy with the serpent. That’s what the world does to you, it will make you think that God is quiet. Even in temptation God speaks, in times of trouble God speaks but did you hear Him? No! you paid attention to another voice and not the voice of God. Voices will always speak but do you know the voice of the Shepherd only or you know all these voices. When you know all these voices you will miss the voice and God will walk and He will feel that someone is not here, someone is not following Him.

David says, “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me”. Goodness and mercy are not for God they are for you. When you pay attention to the world, to worries and other things, it means goodness and mercy doesn’t follow you. They are following the voice that you are following. Do not think that you got marriage, job, house, car etc because you are anointed because God has blessed you. He has blessed you because you are following not because He has given them to your hands. The location of blessings is “seek My Kingdom and all these things shall follow”. God made sure that you follow Him but you are followed but the minute He hears your things following Him, He knows you are not there.

“Adam where are you? Because am busy walking, the garden is following Me but you are not. The garden is not supposed to be following Me because I have given you the garden”. Adam said “I heard your voice in the garden” meaning the garden is no longer with him, the voice is spoken in the garden, but Adam is out of the garden. You have become an enemy of the voice. God says they don’t know the voice of a stranger because they are his enemy.

Don’t you know that the world is an enemy of God. You are busy being watchful of the devil. The devil is no longer at work, but the world is at work. What defeats, kills and draws people away is the world. The world that has been conquered not the devil, and you might find yourself you are out of the world, but you still have the character of the world in God. When we divorce the world, we don’t just divorce it, with its own things we divorce even the character of the world. God doesn’t need the world to worship Him.

Most of you, God is asking Himself “where are you? because I have your things with Me and you still think that you have them”. The devil masquerade as light, do you think it will be difficult for him to masquerade himself as your marriage. Some of you have lost what God gave you and you are left with what the devil is having. Be sensitive to the voice not to the spirit, even witchdoctor’s are sensitive to the spirit. Do not aim and want to be sensitive to the spirit but know the voice. It’s a matter of a relationship.

God says “anyone who is like these children the Kingdom is theirs”. The thing is that we don’t want to go step by step. A baby stays in a womb for 9 months without knowing how to speak, to taste, to see but yet they know how to hear, and they master that while they are in the womb. When they are born, they already know the voice of their parents, even when their eyes are opened they can’t see yet.

They don’t just say “because now am elevated am in this new world let me start seeing” they continue believing and trusting in their hearing.

The problem is that when you go out of the womb you think you can do it, you can see and you can speak. Every process is very important, you still need to listen. A relationship of communication will never be built if you have not learnt to listen. The first step of building up communication is listening.

Maturity has killed lots of Christians. You were a giver before thinking twice. Knowledge has killed you. You are puffed up now – you know too much in a way that you calculate things, you can think through. You can now communicate, ask and consult. Remain as a child and when you remain as a child you listen, you become sensitive to the voice. The Kingdom is for those who are sensitive to the voice not those who know about the kingdom.

[John 3:1-5]

The Kingdom has different types of people, those who are following it and those who are entering it. Those who see the Kingdom think they have entered it, that is why Nicodemus says to Jesus “we know because we can see” but they don’t know the voice, if Nicodemus knew the voice he would have been following  because he is in the Kingdom.  To show that he is not in the Kingdom, Jesus said to him “unless a man is born again cannot see the Kingdom”.

The first statement defines Nicodemus and the Pharisees, that you can see the Kingdom but  you have not entered. The presence doesn’t burn the serpent. The serpent knows how to sit in the presence. The serpent knows how to be in the garden of Eden and speak. You will ask yourself, if you don’t know the things of the spirit, “why is the father praying for him(serpent ) but he is not demon manifesting?”. This is a serpent he has passed the stage of being possessed by demons. When you have passed that stage of being demon possessed you don’t become delivered, you are like your father, the devil.

Do you realize that Jesus didn’t reach out to the Pharisees, he didn’t want to save them he said, “you are like your father from the beginning, the devil”.  The state you are in is a point of no return. Don’t find yourselves in that state where you are a serpent in church. Churches are full of serpents, even Judas is better because he had a chance of repentance. When he was eating in the table the bible says “Satan entered him” that’s when he became possessed, it means Satan took advantage of the love of money. Had he repented God was going to forgive him.

Make sure that you let go before you become one with your master because the minute you become one with your master, hades has been created for him. Hades have never been created for man but those who become like him. Serpents are very dangerous, they dance in the fire, they raise their hands and cry and say glory. When you say “in the name of Jesus come out” they say “I love you Jesus”. The serpent knows how to call the name of Jesus and it excel in saying “papa”. The garden, the presence, the anointing, doesn’t stop the serpent. They will dwell with you, walk with you, do everything with you as if they are building but every second that you are building, they are destroying. These are serpents – they are in no point of return.

There are some people in the house of God that are not there as sons, they are there to test us as fathers whether we are genuine or not. They will try to contaminate or discourage us. They are there for a purpose. That is why as a man of God you must laugh with them, but you know this is your serpent. Every man of God needs his serpent. Every Jesus needs his Judas. They must all have a time period of their ministry. Judas’ ministry had a time period and when the time had come Jesus said “go do what you came here to do” meaning his ministry was over but who remained? Jesus not Judas. Serpents do not remain forever.

How do you spot a serpent in the house of the father? Every time when they speak to you, you will hear this phrase “did God say?” they put the word that is spoken aside from them. And they say “did God say, did the father say? What did the father say?” these are the characteristics of a serpent. They put the Word aside and they come and listen as if we are one. They come with questions, they don’t put a statement – they come as if they are concerned. The serpent came as if he is concerned “did God really say?” When they listened to him, he found a weakness in God that “He knows that if you eat you will be like Him”. The serpent this as if God is in competition, as if God is intimidated. The devil masquerades and he has misled many because they have been expecting to see darkness to come and fight them.

Know how to identify the difference between knowledge and a voice. Know the voice, don’t have the knowledge of it. If they have not won you, they masquerade, they come concerned. Many people think that people who love them are the ones who are concerned. Do not allow an emotion to deceive you. Know the voice, move with the voice. The voice is speaking every day, every second. Those who lost the voice and had knowledge, where are they? You are not the first one to be deceived, it started with someone. There were some people who were deceived and even today they can’t make it, they can’t get up.

The devil uses the same pattern but Christians still fall for it. The devil will do anything to try to take you out of that salvation. Everything that comes for you has a motive, it is either to build you or to destroy you. Everything that comes your way is either brought by God or by the devil – nothing is neutral. Watch and pray.

The thing with us Christians is that everything is speaking around us. When we sing and say “away from the noise” it’s not you moving. God said “I am sending you out as sheep among wolves” don’t you know that wolves are busy throughout? They will always howl but know the voice of your Shepherd. He has sent you in the midst of animals that makes noise. How do you get away from the noise? By knowing the voice. Voices are always speaking so you can never run away from them. There will always be voices and there is also another voice that usually speaks in your mind – that’s the one that the book of Corinthians speaks about and says, “we bring down every thought that exalts itself higher than Christ”. There will always be voices but if you don’t know the voice you will bring down the voice of Christ.

You can’t listen to Christ and this other voice. We bring down every thought that exalts itself higher, why? Because that’s its nature, it wants to exalt itself. A voice doesn’t have to be majestic, it doesn’t have to be loud, there is that small voice that you need to hear. God was not in the earthquake, not in the fire but in a small voice, He started to speak. The devil will come with what we know. Can you hear God even when it’s a small voice? Can you hear Him when He doesn’t come the way you’ve known Him?

The bible says, “no one knows the father except the son, and no one knows the son except the father”. Most of you were brought by God here, do not be taken by your offence or your worries. As long as the voice that brought you doesn’t take you away, remain. You heard it and it was so clear, now it’s not clear because it’s full of emotions, you are hurt. You are offended. An offended person can never be correct.

To God be the glory!

Your father through the Gospel

Abraham Unknown

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YESHUA; A CITY ON A HILL, THE LIGHT THAT CANNOT BE HIDDEN!