Follow and Go
6 min read
27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
John 10:27-30
What a great comfort it is to know that I am a sheep of the Good Shepherd. His promise is that no one can and no one will snatch me out of His hand. My salvation is assured because I am His sheep. And I know that I am His sheep—not because I am a perfect sheep or even a good sheep—but because I listen to His voice and follow Him.
Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh. The guiding principle of my life is to abide in the word of God—that is, to know and to obey God’s word in faith. Not that I do so perfectly or even well—but to abide in God’s word—conscientiously, willfully—is the guiding principle of my life. To abide in God’s word is what it means to listen to my Shepherd’s voice and follow Him.
Sometimes, I may find myself trying to interpret His voice according to my own thinking, my own likes and dislikes, my own ambitions and agenda. Because none of us really hear the voice of our Good Shepherd perfectly. But knowing our limitations, I ought to think with a posture of humility and speak with a posture of humility.
What does that look like? I think it begins with something Francis Chan once said. He said that if we are reading the Bible and we disagree with what it says, we’re the ones who are wrong. If I am reading the Bible and my flesh objects to what I am reading, my flesh is responding to my own voice, not my Shepherd’s voice.
When Jesus says, “follow Me,” He is inviting us to be His disciples. But discipleship is never simply Bible study, although being a disciple means to be a learner, literally. Being a disciple of Jesus means to learn from Him by going where He goes, doing what He does, and saying what He says. And in following Him, we find rest, and we find freedom (Matthew 11:28-30; 2 Corinthians 3:17).
When Jesus says, “go and make disciples of all nations,” our Good Shepherd is still saying “follow Me,” because His promise is that when we “go,” He will be with us. He will be in front of us leading the way.
And so it is the same when Jesus says to be His witnesses in our Jerusalem and our Judea and our Samaria and to everyone’s ends of the earth. Like the first disciples, we have a tendency of looking for Jesus where WE are at, but Jesus is always on the move. Every time the people of God start to stay put right where they are, God does something to get them moving too. That is why Jesus had to send an angel to bring them out of their reverie so that they would “go” and follow Him (Acts 1:8-11).
Father, My witness is that my Shepherd is alive and kicking in me. My witness is that my Shepherd is on the move before me as I follow Him. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear. Give us Your heart to “go” and follow our Shepherd. Give us Your heart to share the gospel, to share the love of Christ, to go where He goes, do what He does, and say what He says. And as we step forward abiding in Your word, show us Your glory. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
