MY SHEEP KNOW MY VOICE AND WILL FOLLOW NO OTHER
THE VOICE OF CHRIST WITHIN YOUR RENEWED SPIRIT IS THE PERFECT ASSURANCE OF YOUR SALVATION. To say you are a Christian without the kind of personal relationship that this truth declares is to be deceived. His sheep know Him, love Him, hear His voice, and follow Him with absolute joy. Anything less is religion, not Christianity. Let’s listen again to His precise words for clarity: “But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers”. (John 10:2-5) This is Biblical salvation and discipleship at the highest level.
There are three great personalities in this wonderful text. The first is the “Shepherd.” I think of the song, “Tell Me the Story of Jesus,” when I think of the Shepherd: “Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever I have heard.” This Shepherd is the “Pearl of Great Price,” the matchless and eternal Son that came out of His eternal fellowship with His Father just to die that I might know Him.
The second personality is the “Porter” at the door of the sheepfold. The Porter is the Holy Ghost who opened the door for Him to come down and now opens the door for me to know Him. He cannot be revealed to me within my spirit and life without the Spirit opening my heart. Sin has blinded us, bound us, and wants to destroy us. The Holy Spirit comes like a flood and opens our eyes to know His new life if we are willing.
Now the sheep are the entire purpose of this revelation. There are several principles that determine our knowledge of His graces in our lives. First, His revelation to us is for our salvation and our walk in the light which He gives. You cannot hear His words for others until you hear His words for yourself. You must spend a great amount of time just learning and listening for yourself. His light comes to light your way along the Godly path. You cannot find it through your flesh or your own wisdom.
Secondly, His voice arrives out of His Holy Scriptures. If the Bible is rejected or ignored, nothing will be revealed. When you shut your Bible, you lock the mouth of His Holy Spirit in your life. Apostle Paul was quick to say, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”.(Ephesians 6:17) The Holy Ghost will make the truth of the Holy Book a fire in your life. Search it until His words and His voice blend together. Do not be satisfied just to study the Bible, but believe Him to give spiritual life to His revelation.
Please remember to try every voice of men and every voice of the spirit world as you follow Him. We are warned of many voices in our world, and you are responsible to try them for truth. The human imagination is a deep pit, and Satan’s spirit world will tantalize your flesh to deceive your mind. The Bible always gives plain truth and needs no interpretation. Watch anyone that tries to give you their own opinion of a given scripture. There is no such thing as a private interpretation. Every word of the Bible is plain truth when kept in context.
There are two sermons on the audio of this message, and the second part of the sermon is very important to this truth. You are a temple of Christ and for Christ. Your very flesh is where He desires to reveal Himself, but it must be a sanctified flesh, not a carnal mess.
You are His temple! That temple is a trinity created in the mysterious image of the Triune God. You are a fleshly body, but you are also a soul and a spirit. The world knows nothing but the flesh and is living only for the flesh. This is the very reason there is a downward descent into the quagmire of filth. The flesh that ignores the soul and spirit cannot do less than live the cheap life of selfishness. The flesh only relates to the world where it inhabits.
But the soul of man is the personality and when understood, can change the dark direction of the flesh. There are many good people that do not understand this from a Biblical perspective, yet are committed to a decent life. We call them “good moral people” and see them as respectful and as good neighbors. I remember as a boy listening with Dad and Mom to the Grand Ole Opera, and a song I often heard was “Where the Soul Never Dies.” When the soul is redeemed and sanctified, you will see a real saint of God.
The great highlight of our person is the spirit from the Creator. This is the gift of God that enables man to know and hear the voice of the Shepherd. The spirit is dead, pushed off in the recesses of the flesh in the unconverted person. The absolute necessity for every person is to be “Born Again” because that is when this spirit of man is renewed and resurrected in the flesh and soul. Until this happens, regardless of how religious you may be, you are lost and will be damned forever. Jesus said it, “Ye must be born again”. (John 3:7b)
This miracle of miracles is the only answer to this dead church world. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost”. (Titus 3:5) The Spirit of Life from God is the very reason you are breathing right now. The sorrow is that the world only wants life to breathe and to do their own thing. The inner man or the spirit of life is crying for relief. This is why man is incurably religious. The spirit is yearning for the Life of God, but it is only found in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”. (John 1:12)
Conclusion! If you do not know His voice, you are lost. He said it, “And the sheep follow him for they know his voice”. (John 10:4b) The spirit within you is a hollow voice until you allow Christ to come in and by His Spirit regenerate life. This is the “Born Again” experience. There is no question that this is available to one and all. God did not create you to be an atheist or a dead religionist. His life is powerful, life-changing, and joy-flooding. Not only today are you to have this life, but for eternity. “Where will you be a million years from now?”
Diana
Thanks for an excellent article. Much pivotal information to understand the Christian life. Two comments please. How do you clarify biblically how to test the spirits? And secondly, I appreciate all you said about the unregenerated spirit we have before salvation. But I would clarify and say our spirit was ‘dead to God’, but not intirely dead because it was our old-man spirit that was co-crucified with Christ in Romans 6. So it had to be alive in some form in order to die with Him.
Thanks and blessings,
Diana
Sheree D. Price
Oh Pastor Chambers, what a beautiful article. So simple and plain
that even a child could grasp the meaning of it all. I remember it so well,
the very day I was “Born Again”, just like Jesus said. He put in my heart a
hunger and thirst for His Word, His truth and I just believed it…I am so grateful
for that desire for Truth. And of course, when you want truth more than anything,
that’s exactly what He gives you. Then that wonderful “baptism of the Holy Ghost
with the evidence of speaking in tongues, when the Holy Ghost makes the presence
of Jesus so real and wonderful!!! So, again I thank you for this wonderful article.
What a blessing you are to the Body of Christ! To God be the glory Pastor Chambers!
In the wonderful, incomparable, magnificent, glorious, holy Name of our awesome
Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, your friend, Sheree Price
Ed Wood
Great article!
When one rejects the the Bible, he or she rejects its Author, plain and simple. All the answers to the imporant questions are there, even if we don’t understand them all. We will never have complete understanding on Earth, but even with our human limitations it is amazing what the Holy Spirit can show us in God’s Word if we read it with an open and willing mind.
Though we are saved when we accept Jesus and maintain that belief, without taking the time to get into the Bible, we remain spiritual infants and, let’s face it, are pretty useless in explaining our faith and the reason for it to others.
Nor will we have the vital information to help us “try (test) the spirits” to see if they really are from God.
(This may help you on one of your excellent questions above, Diana.)
This is why so much of the modern church today has fallen into apostasy because it never made its members Bible-literate. As such, they can’t recognize the lie because they just didn’t know the truth to begin with.
I also believe that in studying God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will give a person a level of discernment on a spiritual level as well. I suppose this goes right along with Jesus’ sheep recognizing his voice and rejecting others.
I don’t hold myself out to be a “model Christian” by any means, but I have, on innumerable occasions, encountered situations that just didn’t “feel right,” and which, in the course of time, proved to be not right at all. A lot of them were in dealing with the clergy of these times, interestingly enough!
In order to follow the Good Shepherd’s” voice, we first have to learn what it sounds like in the first place!
Ed G.
Sheree D., I was wondering if you could please explain (and I would love to hear what Ed Wood has to say about this as well) about what you are trying to communicate in your statement, “Then that wonderful ‘baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues’, when the Holy Ghost makes the presence of Jesus so real and wonderful.”
I was blessed to find this site and really love all of Pastor Chambers teachings on the end times and the Christ centered way of life, but am sore confused when it comes to the Paw Creek Ministries “Statement of Faith” which states in article #9, “We believe in speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance, and that it is the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”
I seems to me that it is saying, unless one receives the gft of tongues one cannot be born again, as it states that would be the “initial evidence” of receiving the Holy Spirit”.
I searched the entire Paw Creek Ministries website and could not find one other thing related to ‘speaking in tongues’ so I wrote to Paw Creek asking Pastor Chambers (or anyone) for their biblical exegesis concerning this matter but never received a response.
So if either of you could shed some light on this subject it would be greatly appreciated.
Ed G.
My dear Brother,
I do not recall receiving your iniquiry concerning the
Holy Ghost baptism. I will send you some information
on Monday (Lord Willing). The Baptism is very different
from the New Birth. Dr. Stephen Alford, a Baptist minister
says it like this, “When I was saved I had all of Him but
when I was filled He had all of me”. (More to come on Monday.)
Joseph Chambers
Sheree D. Price
Yes, Brother Ed G, I would love to explain.
I guess what I was trying to communicate in
my excitement and joy after reading Pastor Chambers
article was my experience. I loveThe Lord with all of
my heart, soul and mind…I seek daily to know Him
more and to please Him. I live my life for His glory
and for the souls of men. By that I mean I want
people to meet the “real” wonderful Jesus. I do not
believe that being “Born Again” has anything to do
with the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” with the evidence
of speaking in tongues. Two different things. Being
born again, getting saved is doing exactly what Jesus
said, “ye must be born again”…. But, in desiring to have
any and all that I can have to be an effective, powerful,
courageous, witness for our Lord…I must be equipped
to do just that. I found that I had an insatiable hunger
and thirst for God, to know Him, I could not get enough
of His Word, I actually would study and outline and just
devour the Word, and the Book of Acts was so powerful!
I realized Jesus is the same “yesterday, today and forever
and I wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit just as the
120 were on the Day of Pentecost in that Upper Room experience!
I came to realize that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was not just
for those present on the day of Pentecost, but for all who
would believe in Jesus Christ throughout this age: “unto
you” – Peter’s audience; “to your children” – the next generation;
“to all that are afar off” – the third and subsequent generations.
The baptism in the Spirit with its accompanying power was NOT a
once for all occurrence in the Church’s history. It did NOT
cease with Pentecost, nor with the close of the apostolic age. It
is the birthright of every Christian to seek, expect and experience
the same baptism in the Spirit that was promised and given to
the New Testament Christians. (See acts1:4,8; Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11
Luke 24:49). Portion taken from Donald C. Stamps, M.A.,M. Div.
Brother Ed G, with all due respect, I feel honestly in my heart, that
I have found so many who reject this for today, don’t know or won’t
know that the experience is true, that is until it happens
to you…I hope I explained what I meant and I don’t mean to dishonor
my Lord in any way, heaven forbid, but I just wanted to respond. God
bless you sir, please know, I believe if you are a born again, blood
washed believer in Jesus as the only Way to heaven, you are my
brother in Christ, and I love you and will see you in Glory, one day
soon and very soon!!!!! Sincerely, Sheree D. Price
Ed G.
Brother Ed,
I am firmly a Pentecostal that received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost when I was 17 years old. I wish Brother McGee was still alive and I would show him a host of Churches and people that experience Pentecost in the perfect order of Acts and I Corinthians. We are Classical Pentecostal that love the Holy Scripture. We never judge non-Pentecostal are suggest that they are unsaved. Everyone receives the Holy Spirit when they are Born Again. The Baptism is power for service, wisdom and anointing to minister. I have never heard that Pentecost was only for the Jews. Where is that in the Scripture?
I’m sending good articles on the Baptism after this explanation about our love of Truth.
Pastor Joseph Chambers
From Ed,
Thank-you Sheree for your reply and I look forward as well to the info Pastor Joseph said he would pass along.
If you read that Statement of Faith I quoted again, it clearly states that, “speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance, ‘IS’ the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost.” I imagine a different wording would be in order, if in fact that is not the intended meaning.
I would have to place myself in the camp that believes it ceased at the end of the apostolic age. J. Vernon Mcgee said it best; “Now as far as I know, there is not a group in existence today using tongues as God intended them to be used. If they are using them to speak to the nation Israel, I’ll buy it, as tongues were meant to be a sign to the nation Israel. That is the reason why thousands turned to Christ on the Day of Pentecost and during the days that followed. It was God sending out His last call to His people.
I believe this may be one of those issues we can agree to dissagree on. Like you Sheree, I love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength and desire to be a good Berean. I love the learning process and seek to rightly divide His word. It is why I am so blessed to have found this website as Pastor Joseph has some truly amazing insight concerning these days in which we are living.
Travis
Brother Ed,
I understand your confusion. It’s really simple if you think of it this way….turn to Romans 6. Paul talks about being baptized into Jesus Christ…baptized into his death….and living a new life in Christ, being now dead to sin, that is the born again experience.
Usually when someone refers to being baptized with the Holy Ghost, it’s talking about the power you receive after the born again experience, like Chambers said, it’s a whole different experience. It’s not incorrect wording on the “statement of faith”, its all about understanding the terminology and how it is used.
Speaking in other tongues is the evidence of the Holy Ghost baptism. Think of Johns preaching. He came with the baptism of repentance (becoming born again), Jesus came baptizing with the holy ghost and with fire (Pentecost, upper room, tongues).
Amen!!!