I was spending some much needed alone time with the Lord tonight. The topic of the evening was worship. I’ve had a tug on my heart to do another karaoke like many of you remember me doing last year. This one will be good but I’ll save it for another post. One day I will be the evangelist version of weird Al 😂 The night took an interesting turn. I’ve been listening to music, writing out lyrics and dancing in the kitchen. It’s been way too long since I’ve done videos for you guys. As I paused to let my dog Max outside, I started singing random lyrics that began as a simple cry to my Father, but turned into a vision and a message.
🎶🎵🎼🎶🎵🎼🎶
Restore my voice Lord
Restore my Heart
Restore my Peace, Set me apart
Restore my Joy Lord, My strength in you
Restore my Spirit, Keep me in truth
For there is one Lord, Jesus Christ
And there was one price paid, His life
For there was one death on the cross
One Resurrection for the Lost
Run to Jesus, He’s coming
Run up the hill with open arms
Run to Jesus, He’s safety
Meteor showers can’t stop His love
Now, right about the run to Jesus part I was hit with a vision of a hill. It was really vast landscape, like when you zoom out over a grassy area. The sky was odd to me. To my left the sky darkened but to the right you could see a glimmer from the sun. The haze reminded me of the way the air looks and feels when you’re at the beach and a thunderstorm is rolling in. The perfect temperature and the smell of the rain coming that way. I saw people all over the valley. Some in groups, some alone, some toward the top of the hill and some toward the bottom. All going about their daily lives like nothing else mattered. I heard in the distance a voice calling out. Calling out a simple word “come”. It was quiet but was getting louder, like the sound was actively coming closer. When He called out, some people would turn their heads, they could hear the call. Others went about their day, dismissing it. Thinking they couldn’t be hearing anything. Thinking that if they did hear something that it wouldn’t be meant for them. That call was a call for others, so they kept to themselves. Many flat out dismissed the fact that every one of us can hear His voice if we listen for it. As time went on, the voice became louder, grew closer, and more and more people would turn their heads hearing the call and follow Him.
Suddenly the ground trembled, it reminded me me of when a plane is about to land. Not as intense as an earthquake but enough to catch everyone’s attention. Within that moment the sky darkened and balls of fire began to rain down like falling meteors. People began to scatter in every direction, not knowing which way to go. Panic was rampant. As this chaos ensued, my eyes were pulled to the top of the hill. Jesus stood at the crest of the hill looking down at everyone with His arms wide open, I could hear His Heart in His voice crying out to all “come, come”. I could feel the emotion and panic He felt for those who couldn’t make it to Him in time. He began to run down the hill but was closely met with the folks that had made the effort to climb when they heard His soft cry; before the urgency was needed. He lovingly wrapped His arms around them but was stopped there. He couldn’t move forward down the hill. He was met by the multitude coming to Him.
The way He wrapped His arms around everyone covered them in this omniscient, bright white, pure, presence. It didn’t matter how much destruction they faced, nothing could harm them, they were covered by the presence of Christ.
My eyes were drawn to the devastation. People crying out, running in fear, confused to see someone they never believed in. I could see the pain and hopelessness in their eyes as they came to realize that it was too late.
Feeling both this sorrow, pain, sadness, total devastation, for the lost; along with the joy, peace, love, comfort, acceptance, and protection for those who came to Him, practically tore my heart in half.
There was this righteous holy anger, and a jealousy toward the ones that were lost. They didn’t know Him. He wanted them to. He cried out to them, over and over. As the years passed, the sensitivity to His voice in their life’s decreased until it was nonexistent all together. It’s like forever loving someone who will never feel the same way. He loves you, He calls out to you. How do you respond?
The ones that were climbing the hill. The ones that were putting in the effort when no effort was required of them, they were the ones closer to Christ. They were the ones who were able to make it into His arms. They were the ones who recognized the soft cry of His voice before it became a Loud, urgent, boom and was too late.
He calls us all, it’s up to us to put in the EFFORT to climb as we are called. To put in effort when we hear His voice, to be brought closer to Him with every step of our journey.
We cannot know the hour, but we can come to Him to know His voice!!
John 10:27-30
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me,is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
Psalm 100:3
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Isaiah 53:6 - All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Matthew 10:16 - Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
John 10
The Good Shepherd and His Sheep
10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father —and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
19 The Jews who heard these words were again divided. 20 Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”
21 But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Ezekiel 34
34 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.
7 “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.
The Lord God Will Seek Them Out
11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
17 “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? 19 And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
20 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, 22 I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.
The Lord's Covenant of Peace
25 “I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 26 And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. 27 And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 28 They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. 29 And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. 30 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord God. 31 And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.”
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