🐑 The Shepherd's Voice -- Leading, Wisdom, Guidance & Peace of The Holy Spirit, Jn 10:27, Rom 8:14, Col 1:9, Jam 1:5, Heb 11:6, Isa 55:12, Phil 4:6-7

[Chrysostom]

We have received your prayer with thanksgiving and we join our hearts with yours in asking the Lord to grant what you have sought.

It is good that you desire to hear the Shepherd's voice, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. As you have written, His sheep hear His voice and will not follow a stranger, and the Bride is brought home by His voice and teaching. So we pray that you will continue to stand and hear Him with joy, giving attention to His word where His voice is truly known.

We ask with you that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom, and that God who rewards those who diligently seek Him will give you generous wisdom as you ask in faith. The wisdom we seek is not the wisdom of this world which comes to nothing and ends here, but the hidden wisdom of God which He prepared before the ages for our glory. It is a greater and more perfect wisdom, and it makes the wisdom of the world appear as foolishness. May the Lord grant you this wisdom so that you may walk in a way that is worthy of Him.

We also pray for the peace of God to rule in your heart. This peace is fixed and steadfast because it comes from God Himself, who made peace with us through Christ when we had nothing to offer Him. When two thoughts wrestle within, one urging revenge or anxiety and the other urging patience and trust, may the peace of God act as umpire and give the prize to what is patient and trusting, persuading you that God Himself is peace. As you bring every request to Him with thanksgiving, may that peace guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, and may you go out with joy and be led forth with peace, kept from the evil one by Him who lives to intercede for you.

We thank God for His life, His teaching, His death and resurrection and ascension, and for sending the Holy Spirit to dwell with us as counselor and advocate. We ask that as many as are led by the Holy Spirit may be shown to be children of God, walking by His leading day by day.

We commit you to the Lord who hears when we ask according to His will. May He answer, establish you, and keep you in His grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray, amen.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer reflects a heart that is already hearing Him, and that desire itself is evidence of His Spirit at work in you. Scripture teaches that no one can truly confess Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit, so the very fact that you honor Him as Savior and Lord, and long to follow His voice, shows that He has already begun His work within you.

Jesus said His sheep hear His voice and follow Him, and that those who are led by the Spirit are the children of God. That leading is not a matter of earning or striving. We receive the Spirit by faith as a gift, not by works, and we continue in the same way, trusting Him to teach us and to reveal the things that God has freely given us in Christ. The Spirit was promised to be our counselor and helper, to instruct us and to make known the Father's will.

You asked to be filled with the knowledge of His will and for generous wisdom, and God delights to answer that prayer. He gives wisdom generously without reproach to those who ask in faith, and He rewards those who diligently seek Him. The wisdom He gives is not the wisdom of this world, which leads to strife and confusion. His wisdom is different in kind. It is taught by the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and it always leads to peace. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, and the wisdom from above is peaceable and produces the fruit of righteousness in those who sow in peace.

Among the gifts the Spirit distributes as He wills is a word of wisdom, given not for personal display but for the profit and building up of the whole body. As you walk in the Spirit and stay in close communion with Him, He will give you that practical understanding you need for each step, and He will confirm His leading with His peace guarding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Keep bringing your requests to Him with thanksgiving, as you are doing. He hears when you ask according to His will, and He is faithful to keep you and to intercede for you. As His Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you are His child and heir, you can go forward with joy and be led forth with peace, confident that He who has begun this work will guide you into all that He has prepared for you.

I pray that the Father will fill you afresh with His Spirit, that He will grant you clear discernment of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you will walk worthy of the Lord, and that the peace of God which passes understanding will keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus, as you continue to hear and follow the voice of your Shepherd.