A Spiritual Shepherd

“Then [in the final time] I will give you [spiritual] shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and [true] understanding.” – Jeremiah 3:15 (AMP)

Do you love Me?...Feed My sheep. - John 21:17

The Lord testified that David, at that time a shepherd, was “a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22). The Lord knew that despite all David’s imperfections, he was someone who would do all that God wanted him to do – David would carry out God’s will in its entirety. That was the type of person God Himself chose to lead His people then and that is the same type of person God desires to lead His people now.

God does not want us malnourished but well fed, and so He raises up spiritual leaders who will serve His purpose. And just as He did with Saul, God will remove any leader who has turned away from Him, intent on allowing their own ambitions, desires, and prideful self-exaltation to supersede His will, His purpose, and His instructions. Remember, sincere, humble, submissive obedience to God’s will, purpose, and instruction, is more pleasing to Him than sacrifice (see 1 Samuel 15:22). An authentic spiritual leader after God’s own heart, is one who makes his will subject to the will of God. He delights himself in the Lord, always seeking to decrease so that God may increase and show forth His glory.

God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7), He knows the deceitfulness of all our hearts, spiritual leaders included. When Jesus, in Matthew 13:24-30, related the parable about the wheat and the weeds He never said that spiritual leaders were excluded from the weeds category.

Do you have a spiritual shepherd – a spiritual leader who has God’s own heart? A spiritual leader who feeds you with knowledge and true understanding as mentioned in Jeremiah 3:15? If you do, then thank God for that person and pray that he or she would continue to be obedient to God’s leading. If you do not have such a leader, then ask God to give you one, Holy Ghost anointed, sustained and strengthened by God’s mighty hand (see Psalm 89:20-21).

Amen†

A Spiritual Shepherd    Shelley Johnson 11-Jul-2016