My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27

Did you know that there is an ant, called the army ant, and it is blind? It is also nomadic, they do not nest the way that other ants do and have no permanent home. They are constantly on the move, marching along, looking for food. One ant will lead the rest. As he travels, he leaves behind a pheromone trail that the other ants can smell and they Follow the Leader.

This process typically works very well. The ants forage all the food they could possibly need. Unless the leader happens to circle around and cross his own pheromone trail. If that happens the whole colony ends up in an endless loop. They will march along until they literally follow the leader to exhaustion, starvation and ultimately to their death.

Sheep are pretty similar. Because they lack any real defense, God programmed sheep to stick together. If one sheep begins to stray, the remainder of the flock will, instinctually, follow the one who is straying. This may work if the leader is moving away from danger. But if he is moving toward danger, the flock will Follow the Leader to their death.

In fact, in Turkey, as shepherds watched helplessly, one of their sheep walked over to the edge of a cliff. He didn’t stop there and fell approximately 5 stories. Unable to get to the cliff in time, or to dissuade the sheep from continuing to follow the leader, 1,500 sheep fell over the cliff. The first 400 perished and the remaining 1,100 survived only due to the cushion that the first 400 created.

These shepherds seemed to have been quite a distance from their sheep and unfortunately the sheep did not follow their shepherd’s voice, but followed instead the leading sheep. And the result was catastrophic.

Isaiah 53:6 likens all of us to sheep. It says that “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray”. Boy does that describe me (and you I would assume, because God said “all”).

Jesus also warns us “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; Acts 20:29. “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.” John 10:12. The enemy and false teachers will divide and lead us to destruction, if we do not stay close to our shepherd.

In Luke 15 Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep in which He compares the rejoicing of a shepherd who finds a lost sheep to the rejoicing that will go on in Heaven over just one lost sinner who repents.

In John 10:11 Jesus tells us that “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

We have all, like lost sheep, gone astray. But, Jesus is the Good Shepherd and has laid down his life for us.

We follow a lot of people, ideas and social media trends, wouldn’t it be better to follow the Good Shepherd who laid down His life to rescue you?

The very first verse of Psalm 23 describes what life will be like if we follow Jesus – “The LORD is my shepherd; I have all that I need.

Why are we so tempted to follow after the things of this world, when the scriptures clearly tell us that we will have all that we need, if Jesus is our shepherd and the one whom we follow. If we are going to Follow the Leader, shouldn’t it be Him?

I pray that when we are tempted to follow anything, apart from Jesus and what the scriptures tell us, that we would hear the voice of our Good Shepherd and run to Him. There is safety in His arms.

If you do not know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and have been following after the things of this world, please stop following the leader. I pray that today you will go to our Life Preserver page and pray the prayer that is outlined there. Let Jesus be the Leader that you follow. I promise you that this is one decision you will never regret. Once you have prayed that prayer, please reach out to me at admin@Forgiven-N-Loved.com and let me know, so that I can pray for you and help you grow in Him.

Luv ya!