A biblical shepherd's dominion is voluntary. It's voluntary for the shepherd and for the sheep.

When God sticks you into a shepherd's role, you have a grant of dominion from Him. However, that dominion depends on Him working through human nature to make people act a little more like sheep. Your bottom line of authority is the power to exclude, not to include. You can remove your covering from someone, but unless you are dealing with your own children, you have virtually no power to extend your covering over the unwilling.

So if someone under your ostensible care decides to move outside your boundaries, they are outside your care. You exclude them and keep them from interfering in the care of those who stay inside the boundaries. What isn't readily apparent to human eyes is just how avidly people will flock to your shepherd's care. If you have exercised godly shepherding any length of time, you realize that people will come clinging to that divine Presence you manifest. It's just how people are. If you are confident in His power and calling, they come running. So it becomes important to learn how to exclude those who really shouldn't be there.

To me, it seems like the voluntary part is the after effect. By nature, folks are drawn to leader personalities, and folks are drawn to particular leaders because they are, roughly, "speaking" that sheep's language so much so that the sheep chooses that leader over other ones. But it doesn't feel like a selection. It just happens as a matter of psychological attraction.

We should be wary of leaders who seem to attract large followers nowadays, esepcially ones that sound like any type of spokesman you see in TV. They might be genuine, but more often than not they are appealing to a selfish part of humanity.

You've touched on something that worries me just a little, in the sense of telling me to be careful. In times past, in some types of audiences, I've seen my public speaking make a huge impact. At the time, I was still thinking that was how it was supposed to work. As I look back on it from this distance, it was not such a good thing. I didn't notice then, but they seized on the something I said in overly simplistic thinking. The whole thing dragged me off in the wrong direction with them and caused lots of trouble.

But I cannot avoid the utter necessity of teaching what I hear from God. When the time comes and I have to stand in front of them again, it won't be the same.

Was it really your fault, though, or was it in their interpretation or emphasis on one particular thing you said?

It was the context as a whole. I was playing by the mainstream preacher rules. They were playing by the mainstream audience rules. It now makes me feel dirty just to get involved. I don't think it's a question of fault, but I don't want any part of that.

Yeah, I can dig that but. I'm a professional misfit and weirdo not much of the formality of organized religion appeals to me. I never fit in. I don't want to and I don't hide it. Fortunately, I have some brothers and sister's that take me as I am and actually gain something from my oddballity.

You'll have a home somewhere, Iain. I'm glad part of it is with us.

(06-19-2018, 07:46 AM)jaybreak Wrote: You'll have a home somewhere, Iain. I'm glad part of it is with us.

Thanks bro, we are all under the covering of the Good Shepherd. I was called a Sigma recently which I'd never heard of. So I looked it up, my conclusion is twofold; some people have WAY too much time on their hands and will come up with anything in order to keep the research grants coming in. And, how could I forget, sell books to the insecure. I can almost hear Jesse Jackson bellow "I AM SOMEBODY!" during a monochrome coalition shakedown.

Being called a Sigma shows Vox Day's reach is long, indeed. What a sad waste of brilliance and influence. It reminds me once more to pray he finally sees the whole truth, though I've tried to tell him often enough.

(06-20-2018, 04:52 AM)Ed Hurst Wrote: Being called a Sigma shows Vox Day's reach is long, indeed. What a sad waste of brilliance and influence. It reminds me once more to pray he finally sees the whole truth, though I've tried to tell him often enough.

Who's/what's Vox Day?