Jesus sums up a way of looking at His arrival into this world, and, actually, at the world itself in the opening verses of John 10:

Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold but climbs up some other way, that one is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters through the door is the Shepherd of the sheep.

To Him the Doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear His voice and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has put them all out, He goes before them and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice. And they will never follow a stranger but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.

John 10:1-5.

The Scripture does not make it clear how Satan got into the garden of Eden. For sure though, he didn’t enter through the door but went around some other way. Everyone who subtly insinuates their way into an oversight / shepherding role among Jesus’ sheep without express permission from the Doorkeeper, without going through the Door (who is Jesus v.9) is of that same nature.

But Jesus is the Good Shepherd. When He was coming into the world to redeem it by laying down His life, he came legitimately. The Doorkeeper – the Holy Spirit – was happy to open up the sheepfold to Him. The Doorkeeper only ever wants those filled with the Spirit of Jesus to minister to God’s flock, those who have express permission to enter the Sheepfold which is where the Church, His Bride is growing and abiding.

In the Sheepfold every sheep hears Jesus’ voice. Not everyone understands all they hear. However, they all know the sound of His voice, the tones He uses, the Spirit that inhabits those words He uses.

He also calls His own by name – He knows your name! This is not necessarily just that He knows you as Mary or John or Conor but that He knows what He has called you. You can spend a lifetime learning what God means when He calls your name. It’s your eternal name that has two clear components: the name that everyone else sees (Rev. 3:12) and the name only He sees (Rev. 2:17).

If you are His sheep, called by His name, you can guarantee that He will lead you out along with every other sheep into the battlefield, out of the safe confines of the sheepfold, that we may together be part of His plan and work with Him (Eph. 2:10) to see the world saved.

If you are His sheep you know His voice. You will never follow a strange voice but will flee from it. Really, you will know.