One Shepherd and One Flock

I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
John 10: 14-16

Does this one Flock and one Shepherd actually exist?

For all of my life I have wished that Christianity was not divided into thousands and thousands of different denominations.

Instead of getting my wish over the past 40 years, the number of denominations has increased during my entire lifetime and more a birthed every day. Is there any hope for the One Shepherd and the One flock in my lifetime? Will this unity only appear at His coming?

Only recently I have discovered that this incredible reality of ONE is happening every single day. What I was wanting is happening every day in spite of the growing number of denominations and the seeming confusion of modern Christianity.

According to these words of Jesus, the One Shepherd and One Flock is not about unity among visible organizations called denominations. It is about who is and who is not hearing His Voice at any given moment in time. Hearing the Voice of the Shepherd is the only thing that makes a flock One Flock. No matter what our denomination may be, when we stop hearing Him and we just left the meeting of the One flock.

I have no problem at all defending the principles of my Baptist ordination and I have no plans of changing my identity as a Baptist minister. Even so, that is not the important question about me as a follower of Jesus. The important question is “Am I hearing His Voice right now?” If I am, then I am at that moment in the One flock of the One Shepherd.

When Jesus looks across the world He tends to this One Flock, it is obvious to Him who is and is not listening. He sees this flock continually even though I cannot. He doesn’t see thousands of denominations that He must tend to individually. He sees those in these groups who hear Him and respond to him.

Those who listen He leads to Himself. As Thomas Kelly observed, “For His is a shepherd’s heart, and He is restless until He holds His sheep in His arms.”

So, here is my new plan. Instead of worrying about the increasing number of denominations, I will concentrate on the Voice of the Shepherd. When I wake up each day I intend to hear His Voice. As I do so I will rejoice because across this globe millions of others in the One Flock are doing the same. We are one with the Shepherd when we all hear him. When we do not hear Him it doesn’t really matter what denomination we represent.

“And they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd”. There really is what I dreamed there would be and it meets every moment of every day.

I should have been listening to Him all along.