Friday, June 12, 2009
Context 15:4-7
4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
I had an interesting revelation about the parable of the lost sheep this morning. This is one of the most famous parables in the bible yet God spoke powerfully to me regarding this verse which i have not known.
The parable of the lost sheep as most of us know speaks of the fact that God loves the sinners so much that He will go all out just to save one sinner. And heaven rejoices over the repentance of 1 lost sinner than many who do not repent.
In this parable - sinners are liken to the lost sheep Shepherd - liken to Jesus Christ/ the Church
Above are insight common to believers who knows about this parable.
But interestingly, God spoke to me quite a few steps with regards to this.
First when someone is lost, he/she is always away from the crowd. The sheep was lost because it was away from the 99.
Psalm 11:14 Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
Hence those that are backsliding are usually are those that start to break off from the crowd.
Secondly, God showed me how we can effectively reach out to such people.
1) Personal touch
The shepherd went out all the way to look for the sheep. This means stepping into people life, knowing what they are doing and appealing to their interest. Every single individual is important to God. So if we
understand that and always move through love, then we will be able to get them saved and back in church.
2) Integration
Interestingly many of the revelations that came to me recently are a result of thinking about the verses
over and over again. Many of us dont realise that the parable of the lost sheep does not end when the sheep is found by the shepherd. Besides the rejoicing, the next thing a shepherd would do is put it back into the crowd of sheep in which the sheep went astray. This speaks of us over the fact that when we successfully get a person back/ saved, we are to make effort to integrate them into the crowd of sheep.
3) Building their own altar before God
When Jesus use this parable, its interesting. Because for normal people like you and me we are unable
to tell 1 sheep from the other. Only the shepherd has that kind of knowledge which is able to differentiate one from another. Meaning the shepherd has personal knowledge about each and every sheep. And just as the shepherd has knowledge about its sheep, each and every single sheep also has a personal relationship with the shepherd.
John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
So the final step is for the" lost sheep" to learn to build their own altar before God. This is important for a believer to realize that as a mature believer, the believer must learn to have a personal walk with God. There are times when we feel that we are just "one of the many" in the crowd. We may even sometimes feel disconnected with the cell group we are in. But we need to realize that even though we maybe "one of the many" God has personal knowledge about every single one of us. So by always building our own altar before God, we can weather through the storms of life even sometimes we feel we are alone.
And another thing to realize is that although individual sheep are moving along the path with their own challenges and difficulties, but when each sheep look up and look forward, the sheep will realize that it is not alone, because the whole group of them are moving towards 1 general direction.
This really speaks about us over the fact that although individually we may have our own struggles, but when we look up and focus on God, we realize that we are not alone in this walk with God. There are many who are around you, who faces their own challenges and battles but yet each of us is persevering on to see the glory of God manifested.
