SCRIPTURE READING
John 10:5 (NIV); But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because
they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.
What would it be like to be so in tune with the voice of Jesus that we would naturally flee from the
voice of the enemy?
In John 10, disciples of Christ are compared to sheep that willingly follow their Shepherd. The
Shepherd knows His sheep by name, He calls to them and leads them, and He is known by them.
Jesus knows your name, He calls to you, He leads you, and He desires that you would know Him.
The relationship can never get too close or too personal.
But what about the stranger, the enemy? For many of us, the enemy is no stranger. His voice is
loud and clear, his temptations sweet, and his lies cunning. We think that we can sneak over and
follow the enemy’s voice here and there and easily find our way back to the pack of sheep and the
Shepherd, but it’s not that simple. The Shepherd tells us to resist the enemy and to flee from him,
not to dabble in His activities.
As we devote ourselves to Bible reading and prayer, our ears will be opened to the true voice of the
enemy. What once sounded sweet and innocent will be revealed as toxic and destructive. The point
is not that we fail to recognize the enemy’s voice entirely, but that we are so in tune with the voice
of the Shepherd, and so enthralled with His personhood that the enemy becomes a stranger to us,
a voice that we never listen to, and eventually a voice that we do not even hear because we are so
focused on following our Shepherd.
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Whose voice do you seek more, the Lord’s or the enemy’s? Whose voice do you listen to more
in the course of your day? The Lord’s or the enemy’s? How do you know?
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you are dabbling in the enemy’s activities and assuming
that this is not affecting your relationship with the Shepherd. Ask Him to reveal how it actually
IS affecting your relationship with Jesus.
3. What is one temptation that Jesus wants you to resist today? Ask Him to give you a strategy to
do so, and ask the Spirit to empower you to resist the enemy.
