Voices

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

My friend Dennis is pretty good about telling me to ignore those "voices" that are not from God.   Lately this has usually meant to ignore those fears I have on one of our hiking trails, but I'm guessing that these voices could be anything telling us that we're unworthy, feeble, weak or don't in some way measure up.  We can call them doubts, fears or apprehensions, and they almost always keep us from realizing who we really are.   We can be sure of one thing, which is that these voices are probably not from Christ.  If you have doubts about this, ask yourself when was the last time that Jesus put you down, that's just not in his nature.  I've mentioned the story that Dennis has related to me recently of a man being under a ruthless lord.  One day the evil tyrant is overthrown and a new king is installed, releasing the man from torment.  However, despite being overthrown and ejected from the castle, the former tyrants minions continue to show up at the wall of the castle and proclaim "We STILL own this castle, you're still ours!"  Can you see the parallels here?  We can  easily fill in the religious storyline.
On that day that Jesus gave his life for us on the cross, satan lost any and all rights he may have had to us.  That battle has been waged, and won, long ago.  In our hearts we know this to be true, and yet we till listen to those voices of the former tyrant.

"The definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviors and expecting a different outcome."
Albert Einstein

So, I guess it's safe to say that listening to those negative voices and still expecting things to improve is, well, insane!  I can't name one place in scripture where Jesus intentionally berated someone just to make them feel worthless.  Well, there were those tirades against the Jewish religious leaders of the day, but I'm guessing that was Christs' anger at their behavior.  It's a far cry from callling a misbehaving, self righteous group of people a "Brood of vipers" to telling someone that they are unworthy.  Jesus was pointing out the wrong behavior of the Jewish leaders, not putting them down.  In fact, the times when Jesus did come across someone who was in pain or hurting, his main focus was mercy and comfort.  So, if we can agree that the voice of Jesus, of the holy spirit, is one of mercy and kindness, then who do the voices of those pesky "minions" belong to?  Well, I think it's safe to say they don't belong to our savior.  
I know it sounds silly, but when Dennis told me this story, it took me awhile to catch on.  I know why he used that illustration, to make the point perfectly, which he did.  Dennis, this explainns the blank look on my face that Sunday morning as we talked.  It's  easy to see now, that satan was the tyranical former lord who kept us in submission for so long.  Despite being overthrown by the resurection of Jesus, he continues to tell us that he's still in charge.   To me, it's false advertising at it's best.

~Scott~