I was preaching at a church that I have been to before, so they know me quite well and enjoy the message of the Lord I bring. The pastor trusts me so much that he invited me to speak while he was out of state. At the end of my message, I could sense that the sheep in this congregation were not hearing some of the things I was saying, even though they were directly out of the Scripture. The Lord spoke to me and said, “they know how to hear their pastor’s voice but they don’t know how to hear Mine, so they see you as a strange voice to them.”
As I have been thinking about this statement the Lord spoke to me, I have come to realize that men who are shepherds of congregations have taught their sheep (people) to hear their voice, but not the voice of the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls (1 Peter 2:24-25). John 10 says that “My sheep hear My voice … and a strangers voice they will not follow.” Unfortunately, what we have in the church today is people that have heard their pastor’s voice for so long that when the Lord wants to speak to His sheep, they cannot hear His voice, because they think it is a stranger’s voice, so they do not follow. As shepherds of God’s sheep, we are called to teach them how to hear, obey and follow God’s voice, not ours.
