…And the sheep follow him [the shepherd]: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.(John 10:4-5)
I knew a preacher who had an outstanding healing testimony. In the early 1930s when tuberculosis was rampant, he was raised up from his deathbed.
He was a young married man. He and his wife had a little baby. And it was discovered that the man had tuberculosis. He requested prayer from every church where he’d ever held a revival. Every outstanding healing evangelist in the world laid hands on him.
But he grew worse instead of better. Finally, he just came to the point where he couldn’t go any longer; he became bedfast. He went to his in-laws’ home to stay. They were farmers in Corsicana, Texas.
One day as he was lying in bed, he looked out the window and saw a clump of bushes and trees about a quarter of a mile away from the house. He said to God, “If You’ll give me enough strength to get up and get to that clump of trees, I’ll pray until I get healed.”
He made an effort to get up, and he dragged himself to that clump of trees. Then he fell down, exhausted.
Lying there on his back, the devil said, “Now you’ve done it! Nobody knows where you are.
You’re going to die right here behind these bushes. The only way they’ll find you is when the buzzards lead them to you after you’re dead.” This was not the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd talking to this man. It was the voice of a stranger, the voice of the enemy, the devil. Thank God, this man finally recognized this voice as the voice of the devil.
Confession: I know the voice of my Good Shepherd, Jesus. And the voice of a stranger I do not follow. I do not listen to the voice of the devil. He is a liar and the father of lies.
(Taken by permission from RHEMA Bible Church , aka Kenneth Hagin Ministries , Tulsa, OK , USA. www.rhema.org )
