Matthew 7:15 declares
Beware of the false prophets, false teachers, false pastors (Shepherds), fake acquaintances or even fake friends who come to you dressed as sheep appearing gentle and innocent, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
What does the above scripture mean?
It means that there will be people in this world or in your church that will refuse the life (holiness & attributes of God) of Jesus and reject the gospel of salvation (the gospel or message that brings repentance, inner change and peace with God) and will superficially hold on to the outside form of religion using deceitful words and actions to pretend to be the sheep or followers of God. But they are really wolves on the inside, holding on to their old nature, their selfishness, their evil, dishonorable desires, their pride and their rebellious nature towards God and his ways.
What is the nature of a wolf?
👉Wolves attack: It is their inborn or innate nature to attack. Spiritually this nature is symbolic of people who constantly fight, backbite and stir up trouble with each other using lies, manipulations and untrue senarios. They can’t or won’t live in peace;For it is their nature to always fight, stir up trouble with one another. It is their innate nature to attack, to find fault, to compete , to accuse, to instigate, to compare and to destroy the peace in others and in themselves. We must learn to stay away from such people who thrive in drama and love drama.
👉Wolves devour: It is their innate nature to devour flesh and blood in order to satisfy their cravings, appetites and hunger. Spiritually this nature is symbolic of people living in this world who have a need to devour only to satisfy their own evil and selfish desires. They live only to feed on their forbidden desires and flesh. They are not spiritual or moral in nature but carnal and sensual in every way. They don’t care about serving God nor do they care about others. They live only for themselves-serving their evil, selfish appetites and egos alone and surrounding themselves with family and friends who will feed and cater to their evil appetites and lifestyles.
Romans 8:8 declares
And those who live and operate in the flesh-living a life that caters to sinful appetites and impulses cannot please God.
👉Wolves are wild creatures (animals): Wolves cannot be tamed or taught to be gentle in nature. Spiritually this is symbolic of people who cannot be rehabilitated or taught reason. They reject correction and godly counsel and won’t find a reason to improve or better their lives. They refuse to change their uncultivated fallen state. They resist God in every way and won’t allow Him to transform or change them into his sheep;For the sheep of God diligently follow and hear the shepherds voice only. These people remain stubborn, rebellious and vicious in nature till the very end of their lives producing no fruit of righteousness or productivity at all.
Psalms 92:5-6 declares
How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep beyond man’s understanding. A senseless man in his crude and uncultivated state knows nothing, Nor does a self-righteous fool understand this.
👉Wolves bites are deadly: Wolves have a bite force of around 1200 PSI. They can bite through a moose femur in two or three bites (crushing bones in seconds). Spiritually this is symbolic of people who gossip and say mean words to attack, hurt and discriminate others in order to build their own personal egos and superiority. Their words aim at crushing ,breaking and hurting others bones rather than promoting healing to the bones. Bones over here are symbolic of one’s validity and strength.
Proverbs 16:24 declares
Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweet and delightful to the soul and healing to the body.
Proverbs 3:8 also declares
This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
👉Wolves hunt:This is symbolic of people who constantly roam and wander into people’s homes, churches and lives looking for opportunities to harm, to use, to confuse, to seduce, to control and to destroy. They seek only to satisfy their evil, lustful and wicked unnatural cravings. Rapists, molesters, stalkers, muderers are included or fall in this category.
2 Timothy 3:2-4,6-7 declares
For people will be lovers of self in the last days [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, and they will be unloving devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control intemperate, immoral, brutal, haters of good,traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of sensual pleasure rather than lovers of God, For among them are those who worm their way into homes and captivate morally weak and spiritually-dwarfed women weighed down by the burden of their sins, easily swayed by various impulses, always learning and listening to anybody who will teach them, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Allow the Holy Spirit God to change you today into the image and nature of Jesus Christ our Lord. Turn your eyes away from the riches and perishable things of this world and turn your eyes also away from your self-your selfishness, your dishonorable desires, your fleshy/unrealistic dreams and forbidden pleasures present in your body and shaped after the ways and passions of this world. Look up to Jesus-his kingdom and his way of life. Only then you will truly be able to see the sovereignty and presence of God in your lives.
Colossians 3:2 declares
Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above the heavenly things, not on things that are on the earth which have only temporal value.
Acts 7:55 declares
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Let’s now examine the nature of a sheep. The Bible repeatedly refers us or the church (body of believers) to sheep. There is a reason why God chose to compare us (believers or chosen) to sheep and not to any other animal in the Bible. The reason for this comparison is for us to grasp the innate nature of this animal and learn from its obedience and willingness to follow its shepherd (Jesus Christ) always. Let’s meditate on a few verses that shows us the nature of a sheep:
👉First sheep have the ability to hear, discern and know the voice of God (their true shepherd and creator) among the multitude of voices present in this world. Because of this attribute or nature, God speaks to us daily and calls us by name and leads us into pastures (Pastures symbolic of spiritual food that gives spiritual and eternal life)
John 10:3 declares
The doorkeeper opens [the gate] for this man, and the sheep hear his voice and pay attention to it. And knowing that they listen he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out to pasture.
👉Second sheep have the natural urge and instinct to be led by a shepherd and to follow a shepherd. God who is our shepherd leads us with a pillar of fire at night, a cloud of glory by day and with a rod of wrath/correction. He uses the rod of correction (Chastising) to correct our paths or gently tap/nudge us in the right direction. He also uses the rod of wrath as a weapon against wolves or Satan trying to snatch us away from him. Jesus Christ leads us away from darkness, the desires of our flesh, the deceit present in this world and from Satan’s hold into a kingdom of light and righteousness
John 10:4 declares
When he has brought all his own sheep outside, he walks on ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice and recognize his call.
👉Third when the sheep don’t follow the voice of the shepherd or strays away from his care and voice, they have a tendency to get lost easily (confused, bewildered, helpless and easily misled or deceived)
Psalms 119:176 declares
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.
When sheep get lost and break away from the flock and care (commandments) of God, wolves and demons move in for the kill.
Psalms 44:11 declares
You have made us like sheep to be eaten [as mutton]. And have scattered us in exile among the nations.
How do the sheep scatter ?
They scatter away from the good shepherd through their sins, the imaginations and assumptions of their own wicked heart, their disobedience to the shepherd and through false doctrines taught by false prophets or shepherds.
Jeremiah 23:1 declares
“Woe to the shepherds (civil leaders, rulers) who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” says the Lord.
John 10:12 also declares
But the hired man (pastor, prophet, teacher etc who merely serves for wages but does not have the heart of a shepherd or the call of God ], who is neither the shepherd nor the owner of the sheep, when he sees the wolf (demon/destruction/hard times/judgment) coming, deserts the flock and runs away; and the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.
This is why Jesus Christ declares in the gospel of John 10:11
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His own life for the sheep.
Jesus is the good shepherd and seeks after the lost sheep, bringing them back to his fold through the gospel of peace, repentance and true righteousness.
Ezekiel 34:12 declares
As a shepherd cares for his sheep on the day that he is among his scattered flock, so I will care for My sheep; and I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.
Jeremiah 3:15 also declares
Then in the final time I will give you spiritual shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and true understanding.
Dearly beloved, If you have not yet heard the call (voice) of God in your life, pray today, spend time at God’s feet and discern and search for his voice, so that you may return to God’s holiness, green pastors (true spiritual food) and eternal security.
John 10:26-29 AMP declares
But you do not believe Me [so you do not trust and follow Me] because you are not My sheep. The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever by any means perish; and no one will ever snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
-Evg.Samuel Meesala