How does one recognize the voice of the Shepherd, the LORD Jesus Christ?  Only by knowing “the Word of the LORD.”  The Word of the LORD is introduced to us all the way back in Genesis 1:3 when the Scripture says, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”  The rest of that first chapter of holy writ proclaims that God spoke time after time as he created the universe that we know.  Here we first meet the Word of God.  John further explains Him and the first chapter of Genesis in his mystical book:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness overcame it not. (John 1:1-5 KJ2000)

Do you believe this?  Do you believe that God created the earth, the plants, the animals, and mankind therein?  Do you believe that “all things” were made by Him?  Or, do you believe the heinous lies of men who tell you that man evolved from slime over time through the fish and the monkey?  What a joke!  Then explain the fluorescent fish in the blackness of the ocean depths, the butterfly, and the firefly!  Explain the defenseless duck.  Surely they evolved that way to give beauty to the darkness and food to the one that cannot see or fight so well!  The mantra of “survival of the fittest” rallies the evolutionists, but they are fools.  Yet, long ago Christians listened to their lies and began to lose their faith.  And they lost their ability to hear the things of the Spirit.

The voice of the Shepherd, the Word of the LORD.  Why is it so important to hear?  Who, really, is this voice?  What does this word convey?  John goes on,

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, that lights every man that comes into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name: Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, [both] grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. (John 1:6-18 KJ2000)

Jesus IS the WORD of GOD who became flesh.  He brought both grace and truth to mankind, not the truth only.  Moses brought the truth of God through the LAW, but Jesus taught the heart of the Law by showing us grace, the grace that would die for another man’s sins rather than kill the man because he sinned.  This is the WORD of God.  This is Jesus.  Do you know Him?  You say you are saved and that Jesus is your “personal Savior.”  How quaint!  How personal is He to you?  Can you hear His voice or do you rather hear the voice of the world telling you to do this and that thing of which you know God disapproves?

Make no mistake, to “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name: Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”  Have you received power to become a child of God?   If so, then you can hear His voice.  Now, do you obey and follow that voice?

Part 4