God Called Me by Name, and I Follow Him

God Called Me by Name, and I Follow Him

Reflections on hearing and heeding the voice of God, part three. Read part one here and part two here.

Commentary by Dave Liezen

In the second installment of these reflections, I quoted John 10:3-5, “ … the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out [of the fold]. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them …”

I am grateful the Lord God spoke to me when He did the first time. The impact of His questions led me to look for better choices than suicide. With so much to assess I hadn’t considered the source of those questions until years later.

I suppose one could say I was rather like Moses seeing a bush seemingly burning yet not consumed. He didn’t expect God to lure him closer.

I’ve seen Saint Elmo’s fire — at least that is the closest description of what I encountered  — an oblong of constant lightning about six feet by four feet wide, its “base” about four feet above the ground. I was on the lip of a mesa — locally known as Five Mile Prairie  — looking down toward home on a day in May or June. Thunderclouds were approaching. Time to go home, but gave that crazy static a wide berth! No voice in that case.

But Moses! “Remove your sandals, for you stand on holy ground.”

There are several things at work here that deserve notice.

The fold represents security, safety. Some lines later in this same section of John we find: “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28)

I used to think of this statement in terms of being safe in the palm of God’s hand, but the image is clearer in the sense He defends me against any who would steal, destroy or kill.

I am His, period. I need not fear teachings that seem out of sync with scripture or with what I have heard directly from Him, which is verified by peace and squaring with scripture.

I need not fear my own urges, for He has set me free from the tyranny of sin, death and the devil. The price the Lord God paid for my life is incalculable, and He will not lightly lose me. By the same token, I know how closely I was linked to death and value life.

He made a sacrifice for my sake I cannot fully comprehend. My best response is to yield myself totally into His most capable hands. Because I am His own, I am safe.

But there is more. He calls me by name and leads me to pasture. Three aspects of this come into play.

First, He knows me so well I stand out in His eyes like no other man in all the world and throughout time. Calling me by name, He knows me better than I know myself. He’s provided meaning, worth and purpose (what I begged for when yielding myself fully to Him and His care) as a husband, father, musician, arborist, writer —  the list goes on.

Nor is He done yet reshaping and equipping me. I am wanting as a friend and ask Him to round out my personality and habits to that end. His leading, His calling, differs from other voices hawking wares. Recognizing His voice has kept me out of numerous rabbit holes and snares set to entrap me.

Second, He leads me in the midst of the flock. As individual as my life in Him is, so equally I follow among the hosts of His redeemed.

He loves so many just as much. And as He has enabled and ennobled us to stand before Him, our response is to fall on our faces in worship before Him, blessing, praising and crying out in thanks together.

He is the Lord God, Author and Finisher of time, matter and space, Who alone is good, love and judge, Whose judgment is true for He has laid our sin on the only sinless man, His Only Begotten, by Whom our every breath depends.

And it’s good for us. Any man or woman who elicited such praise and honor would be swayed by it, if not motivated by vainglory to begin with. Praising God is the natural order, in which I merely state what is fundamentally true.

Third, He calls each of us to be fruitful in his name. This fruitfulness can take a number of forms, some shared among the host, such as the potential for godly marriage, parentage, grateful worship with others He calls, civil responsibility and the like. Fruitfulness also becomes individual, tailored to the gifts and healing He bestows.

In Jesus’ narrative, I believe “pasture” represents feeding and strength. A sheep serves to provide offspring, meat (shocking, I know), milk, wool, hide and horn. In my case God called me to marry, to cooperate in getting godly offspring (per Malachi 2:13-16), to sing His praises (per Psalm 104:33) and for creative endeavor in a number of ways.

I use my creativity to mill flour and bake bread, brew at home, graft fruit trees and learn how best to utilize the fruit. I sing in a classical chorus with orchestra and also in a small a cappella group, and I write short stories and short dramatic treatments of Bible narratives for worship services. I also want to learn calligraphy, French and chess.

I seek Him daily, immersed in His written Word, praying about most everything and thanking Him for His sovereign rule in all of my life, acknowledge Him in all my ways (per Proverbs 3:6 “… and he will make straight your paths … ”) and seek His direction for the future.

Perhaps hearing God call you by name seems merely a poetic devise. I admit to remembering Him address me by name once only, long after I began calling Him Father. He makes marvelous use of timing and sequence, and, in my case, waited to use my name after I had walked with Him nearly 30 years. It was a pivotal moment, one I long to have clarified in this life or when I meet Him face to face.