Sunday, May 3, 2026
Mrs Pastor Billey.
John 10
1 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out
4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
A sheep from birth, it grows up in an environment where it hears only the voice of the shepherd, and it follows the other sheep until it grows up.
At some point, the sheep itself comes to recognise the shepherd’s voice, and as soon as she hears it, she follows him.
In general, the shepherd has to take actions and steps to get the sheep to follow him.
From verses 1 to 5, the Lord Jesus gives the characteristics of a good shepherd.
A true shepherd needs to know his sheep’s strengths and weaknesses, so he can give them the help they need. He gives them names according to their characteristics.
He knows them all.
3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out
4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
This means that there are many sheep, and he calls them by name.
The true shepherd can distinguish his sheep. And the sheep know his voice. It’s also the sheep’s duty to get to know the shepherd’s voice.
And most of the time, this shepherd will focus on those who need the most help, on those who are lagging behind.
This means work for both the shepherd and the sheep.
For the ewe has a duty to listen, to obey the shepherd in order to remain under the shepherd’s protective blanket.
The sheep itself doesn’t know where the good pasture is, where the water is… It depends on the shepherd. It is the shepherd who is her strength, who provides for her needs, who protects her.
That’s why the Lord says we are His sheep and He is the good shepherd.
The Lord Jesus took this comparison so that those who listened to him would understand. But the Pharisees didn’t understand.
John 10
5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
A normal sheep will never join a stranger.
But the Pharisees didn’t understand what Jesus was telling them. At one point, some of them told him to speak plainly to them.
John 10
24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.
26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
And Jesus is not only the Shepherd but also the Door.
John 10
7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
This means that true sheep don’t run after prophecies. They look for substance in the Word of God, they look for solidity.
Running from prophet to prophet is called spiritual prostitution.
The Lord Jesus is the Door.
At home, in the car, everywhere we go there are doors. And for someone to enter my home, I have to open the door, which means I have to know the person.
But when I don’t know the person, I might just half-open and ask him what he wants.
So the door is a kind of barrier between us and strangers.
When we enter through Jesus the Gate, we are saved from darkness, death, oppression, thieves…
With a human shepherd, the sheep is safe and sound.
All the more reason for Jesus the Good Shepherd to guarantee our safety, to provide for our needs… And all this from the moment we give our lives to the Lord.
So as the Lord’s sheep, we must no longer listen to the thief’s voice.
For most Christians, they’ve come to Christ with so much insecurity in them that quite often it’s easy for the enemy to just say something and we fall away.
Why is this so?
The worry is that we haven’t let Christ’s environment train us to listen to His voice.
When we have given our lives to Jesus, to what voice are we drawn?
The voice of problems or the voice of Jesus?
Beloved, the Lord’s sheep lack nothing.
Shepherds on a human level don’t sleep soundly on duty. For they have to keep watch, making sure that everything goes well for their sheep.
How much more so, the great Shepherd Jesus.
John 10
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
What is it about life that is in Jesus?
Love, peace, prosperity, security, protection, eternal life…
Jesus gives life in abundance.
But he who listens to the voice of the serpent receives death and death in abundance.
And yet most of the time we choose death through the choices we make.
When the enemy says: you’re not going to make it, you’re not going to get married, you’re too old… we accept and weep. And we repeat, confess what he has told us.
By confessing what the serpent has said, we sign the contract that gives him access to our lives in this area.
So it’s death in abundance for us.
Beloved, if someone insults you, you have the choice of reacting, either by insulting them too, or by calming down.
But most of the time, what do we do?
We need to understand that the enemy puts so much pressure on us to do evil, to respond negatively.
Brothers and sisters, we belong to a Kingdom where everything we say and do must be weighed and measured.
Everything we say must be seasoned with salt before we answer.
Let’s not forget that anything we say that is favorable to the enemy gives him access to our lives.
Of course, we have a free choice when faced with situations, we always have the alternative, but as sheep, we must choose to follow the Lord’s instruction.
The enemy feeds on our insecurities.
A sheep never hesitates to respond when the shepherd calls.
Yet when the Lord Jesus gives us His Word, we hesitate. For example, when Jesus tells us we are blessed, we don’t believe. Because we only see things in material terms: we think of bills to pay, debts, expenses to make, children’s schooling.
Now, we need to know that the serpent has given us a contrary definition of the blessing God says. And every time, it’s from there that he attacks us. He tells us that we’re not blessed because we don’t have the latest car, because our house isn’t big, because our spouse doesn’t have a great job…
We must reject his lies.
Beloved, the Lord Jesus has assured us that His sheep will want for nothing, regardless of the condition of their car, the level of their bank account, their house…
We are in Christ and have eternal life.
What was hidden before has been revealed in our time, namely, Colossians 1.27… Christ in you, the hope of glory.
That’s the real blessing.
The environment we’d grown up in was filled with confusion and insecurity.
And the Lord Jesus must now help us to see and understand what He wants us to do.
There was a practice in a village in Nigeria, when a woman gave birth to twins, it was considered taboo or demonic. The twins were then thrown into the forest and left to die. And for years.
A visiting European missionary saw this and began to rescue these babies.
By explaining to them that what they were thinking was not the truth, but on the contrary it was a grace to have twins.
They had grown up with the old mentality. And so their mentality had to be changed, because someone came along and told them that twins are a double blessing and not a curse. They were thus saved from their ignorance.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to deliver us, to destroy the lies of the enemy. So we don’t have to go back to our old conceptions, thoughts, visions…
When we came to Jesus, we gave Him the right to destroy that.
So whatever is the enemy’s foundation in our lives, it’s up to us to decide to destroy that.
The Lord Jesus’ sheep hear His voice. Which means that anyone who doesn’t listen is a goat.
Why do we call them cabri?
Any representation of Satan is often an image of a goat with horns and goat hooves.
Beloved, we must refuse to be equated with the devil, refuse to be a goat.
David, when he was a shepherd, killed the bear, the lion that dared to approach the sheep he was guarding. A young boy between 15 and 17.
David didn’t look at the consequences, his life, everything he had to do to save the sheep, he did.
The Lord Jesus is with us, and He wants to erase everything the enemy had written in us, all the thoughts, the lies of the enemy
Who is the one who says and the thing happens when God Himself has not ordained?
Brother, sister: your peace, your joy, your elevation… depend on whom you listen to, whom you obey.
It is the Word of God that must fill our thoughts from now on.
The old system must be erased and replaced by the Lord’s new system.
For the serpent’s objective is death, the destruction of man.
Those who sell their souls to the devil are a tragedy, because love doesn’t exist in his kingdom. Forgiveness doesn’t exist there
We must resist the voice of the serpent.
He took away Adam’s glory, his covering, he silenced him, he destroyed him.
Jacob had a daughter, Dinah. She’s with other girls. They went to a town and the prince of the town liked Dina so much that he unfortunately raped her. Simeon and Levi took revenge by setting a trap for him with all the people of his country.
And it was from this story that Dina was silenced, nothing more was written about her.
The same thing happened to Cain, Lot…
All those who accept the voice of the serpent will always be silenced, however gradually. The serpent prevents us from entering the glory of God.
Beloved, we must therefore close certain doors, abandon our old mentality, our old perception, anything that prevents us from entering the glory of God.
Christ in us the hope of glory, so let us redeem time.
IN THE NAME OF JESUS, let us pray… →
Lord Jesus, forgive me every time I reject Your voice.
I abandon myself to You, my Shepherd.
From this day forward, I refuse the lies of the enemy.
I close the snake’s mouth in my life.
I silence the voice of the serpent
I refuse the manipulation of my thoughts, my emotions, my will.
I’m taking back everything you stole.
All areas of my life are restored in Jesus’ name
I declare that I have been born again,
I belong to Jesus.
My life, my destiny are aligned with God’s will in Jesus’ name.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.