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He Is Our Good Shepherd
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When you follow the Lord, He will get you to some good places. Our prosperity is inseparable
from His plan for our life. If you want the full will of God in prosperity, you have to find and do
the full will of God for your life. If you are partially obedient, then you’ll have a partially-
blessed pasture. You’re not going to enjoy all of His benefits running from Him. If the Shepherd
is trying to lead you to a good pasture, but you have another place picked out, and you’re not
going to follow Him, then you’re going to wind up in some rough places.
This is happening all over the world, and there are people getting mad at God. The Bible talks
about that in Proverbs, about a man who doesn’t listen, then he gets into trouble and his heart
frets against the Lord (Proverbs 19:3). “Lord, why did You let this happen to me? Lord, why did
You do this to me?” That is the wrong question. Why didn’t you follow your Shepherd? He
would have led you to a good pasture. He would have led you to a place where you are fruitful,
and where people will love you and hook up with you and help you.
If you’re driving somewhere and get off the road you’re supposed to be on and take a wrong
turn, you will go through places you weren’t supposed to go through. Let’s say you’re going to a
city, but you get off of the interstate, take a turn, take another turn, and then you don’t know
where you are. Then you’re trying to make up time, so you’re driving really fast, and it’s raining,
and you come over a rise and the road is washed out. You hit that, and your car flips upside
down. Well, you were never supposed to be on that road to find that hole and flip and wind up in
the ditch. If you would have stayed on the right road, you never would have wound up in a ditch.
Or maybe you took a wrong turn, and another wrong turn, and someone was trying to tell you,
but you argued, “No, no, I know where I’m going. Hush. I’ve done this trip 193 times. I know
what I’m doing.” So you turn wrong, and turn wrong, and turn wrong, and then you go through a
high-crime area, and you get mugged, car jacked, and thumped on your head, and your wallet is
taken away. So now you’ve got a big knot on your head, no money, and no car, and you say,
“God, why did You put me through this? I guess You’re teaching me something.” Millions of
Christians believe this. No! The reason you’re there is because you wouldn’t be teachable. He
was trying to teach you something, but no, you had to do it
your
way. “I don’t care what they
say. I’m my own man, and I’m going to do it my own way.” Yes, and you’re going to pay for it,
too.
The Lord said something to me that I wrote down, and it’s absolutely a truth—as is everything
He says. You see people all the time who are so adamant that nobody is going to tell them what
to do. Do you notice how often these people wind up in jail? They’re not going to listen to the
laws, and nobody can tell them what to do. The police can’t tell them what to do, and the laws of
the land can’t tell them what to do. The less they listen to other people, the less freedom they will
have, which is the very thing they want. But now they wind up in a cement cell. Why weren’t
they listening to anyone? Because they wanted to be free to do what they wanted to do. Now
they’re not free at all. If you won’t listen to anyone, you will lose all of your freedoms.
But the more you listen, and the more teachable you are, the more tests you will pass, and the
more trustworthy you become. The Lord and other people will turn things over to you and give
you more freedom and more liberty, and you will get freer and freer because you listened,