Chapter Thirteen - The Shepherd

I walked up to him and stopped a few feet away. He looked at me for a moment, took the staff

that was in his hand, and tapped the ground. “It’s here,” he said.

I looked down at the ground and could see a little trickle of water where he had struck it. I looked back at him, and he was smiling the most wonderful, friendly smile I think I’ve ever seen.

“I’ve come to show you this, and to give you this,” he said, handing me the staff.

I looked at the staff. There did not seem to be anything unique or remarkable about it. It was just a straight stick about as long as I was tall. It seemed to have been freshly cut, and still had bark on it, so that I knew it had not been used much, if at all.

“It has not been used much,” he began. “It was cut for you from the great tree. The cloak you wear for grace, but this you use for authority.” “I never thought I would have one of these,” I replied. “Can I ask you a few questions about it?” “Of course,” he said with a smile that was so compelling and truly joyful that I felt almost completely at ease. “You are very different from the way I thought you would be. I was not expecting you to bring me anything, but if I had, it would not have been this shepherd’s staff. If there is anything I feel I have been a terrible failure at, it is being a shepherd. The fact that you have brought me this must be a message. Can you explain it?” I asked.

“The Lord’s strength is made perfect in weakness. Your failures have prepared you for what you are now called to do. “I was the first to walk with God after Adam. The more I sought Him the more He became my joy. Then the time I spent with Him became more desirable than anything in this world. Just being with Him was on my mind night and day. He became my life. This, too, is your desire.

“It is the foundation of a shepherd’s life. You will only lead and care for His people well if you are walking with the Lord and getting ever closer Him. When you stop getting closer to Him you will begin to fail in your leadership of His people, because your purpose is to lead them to Him. He is their green pasture. He is their living water. He is their rest. He is their life,” Enoch explained.

I could not help but stare at Enoch. I have never seen anyone so deeply joyful or full of love. I have never seen a smile that made you feel so good, so accepted, and valued. I just did not expect Enoch to be anything like this—perhaps the happiest person who ever lived! I then looked closely at the staff he had given me. “I have been used to teach and prophesy, but I never thought I would ever be given this staff,” I continued. “I know I have been called to lead people in different ways, as I am now leading this group through this wilderness, but I never saw myself as a shepherd. I’m honored but concerned. I intimidate people rather than make them feel comfortable.

“I don’t want to be that way and don’t like it, but I am and don’t know how to change. Just being with you these few minutes, I would say that you are possibly the warmest person I’ve ever met. I am not making light of this. I consider that a great gift, one that is needed for this job and one that I do not have.”

“What I have is the joy of the Lord,” Enoch continued. “This is not a gift, but fruit. It is the fruit of walking with the One who is the greatest desire of every heart. The closer you walk with Him the more joy you will have. The joy that you have in Him then becomes a joy in His people, in His creation, and in everything He calls you to do.

“This is because you will be doing it with Him. Getting closer to Him will change you into who He made you to be. When you get closer to the consuming fire, then the warmth of His fire will be in you.”

“These few days with this group has uncapped something deep inside of me,” I replied. “Every day I care more for them. Something in me has changed so that I see them differently than I have seen a group of people before. Everyone is a priceless treasure. I just love being with them, and I’m more thankful for this job every day. I long for the mountain, but if the King was to keep me here leading groups through this part of the wilderness over and over, I would be happy,” I admitted. “If this is why I am being given this staff, I am very happy about it.”

“Every assignment given by the King is like that. It is while you are walking with Him and doing His work that the innermost springs of your heart are opened. Though you were called as one from the beginning, you did not come here as a shepherd, but you will leave here as one,” Enoch said, taking me by the shoulders and smiling even more broadly. “Now, you have more questions. Please ask them.”

“The water here is under our feet? Can I get it just as you did, by tapping the ground with this staff?” I inquired.

“Yes, you can. With this staff, you can tap the ground and waters will flow. You can even strike a rock, and waters will flow from it,” he answered.

“So I do not have to stay close to a flowing stream anymore?” I asked.

“You must always stay close to the living waters, and they are always flowing, but here they are not on the surface. As you go into higher places like this you will often have to dig for the living water. The higher you go the deeper you may have to dig for them, but they will be near you. They will always be close to the path you are to walk,” he added. “So, if I stay on the right path we should always find the waters nearby?”

“Yes. In fact, they will be right under your feet. If you cannot find them under your feet then you know you have strayed from your course.

“The higher you go, the slower you must go, because you will have to dig deeper for water. This is by design. This is a place of vision, and you must go slowly enough to see all that you are called to see.

“It is here in the high places that those who are with you must learn to see and to go deeper for the waters of life. If they cannot find the water, then you can help them with your staff, but do not help them too much. They are here to learn to go deep and to see.”

“Is Elijah still with us?” I asked

“We are always together.”

“Will they be able to see you and talk with you the way they have with Elijah?”

“They will. We will both be very close to you until you reach the mountain. We were the first, and the prototypes of the great messengers who are about to be released upon the earth. It is our honor to serve them and prepare them for the last battle.

“Then the whole earth will be restored to the paradise it was created to be, and all people here will know and serve the Lord. Then all mourning and pain will be over, and the joy of the Lord will be everyone’s portion.”

With that Enoch touched my head as if to bless me, nodded, and walked off. As I watched him go, I could not help but think he is the happiest man to have ever lived. I have met many joyful people, but none like him. He was the first to find the secret of true joy—walking with God. There are many who have had qualities I would like to have, but I have never wanted anything as badly as I did Enoch’s joy. I had never felt so drawn to anyone before, so close or so comfortable in their presence. Just a fraction of his joy would make every day wonderful and would help me to make other people’s days better.

Then I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“As he is, you can be also,” Elijah said.

“Were you here the whole time we were speaking?” I asked.

“I was watching. We work together, so we are always close.”

“I never thought of Enoch as a shepherd, or as one so full of joy. I am really looking forward to getting to know him better,” I said.

“You have much to learn yet from both of us, but the joy you see in Enoch will not come from seeing Enoch, but from the way Enoch got it—walking with the Lord the way he did.”

I wanted to ask Elijah another question, but was hesitating. He discerned this, and said, “Please ask what is on your heart.”

“You walked with God too, and you were trusted with some of the greatest power He ever revealed through a prophet. Why aren’t you as joyful as Enoch?” I inquired.

“I do not mind you asking, and this is important for you to understand. What you become in your life on earth will be who you are forever, without the carnality of course. If anyone on earth realized how much their life on earth impacted their eternity they would be in pursuit of the fruit of the Spirit more than any earthly treasure or accomplishment.

“The greatest treasure in all of creation is love. Love is the foundation of true joy and peace, and is the essence of what man was created to be. God is love, and if you walk with Him as you are called to, this will be your portion.

“I walked the earth during difficult and dark times. I walked with God and loved Him, but I let the evil of man overshadow the love I should have been growing in, for both God and people. I even delighted in calling fire down on people. It was necessary, but it was not necessary for me to enjoy it. I should have been weeping for them.

“Jonah had the greatest preaching gift until the Baptist. I was trusted with the greatest power since Moses. Neither Jonah nor I pursued love the way we should have, the way all should pursue it. If I had loved people more, even the ones I had to confront and bring judgment upon, many of them would not have perished, but would have been turned to the Lord instead.

“Without love, I became self-centered, and that is what cost me so that I was not able to finish my commission. Elisha had to finish what I had been called to do. One of the greatest mistakes a prophet can make is to not pursue loving God and loving others more than anything else.”

After a short pause, as if to be sure I was grasping the importance of what he was saying, Elijah continued, “Those who are known as the great ones on the earth are not always well-known in heaven. Those who are known as the great ones in heaven are those who love the most.

“The evil that Enoch saw in his times was as bad, and in some ways worse, than the evil in my times. He kept his focus on loving God and walking with Him. Because of this, to some of the most evil and perverted souls, he prophesied hope and vision. He prophesied the coming of the Day of the Lord, and the glorious new beginning for the whole earth. He was a man of joy and a man of hope.

“To be a prophet in these times you must do some of the things that I did. You must confront the wicked and bring judgment upon them. You must confront the false teachers and false prophets. You must confront the evil leaders and authorities.

“To do this as you are called to do it, you must become more like Enoch than me. The judgments of God are His discipline for those whom He loves, and even His judgments that require destruction are done in love, not in retaliation. He never rejoices in destruction, but it is required at times to preserve others.

“Both Enoch and I are models of the prophets that will come forth in these times, but we are that model together. If you grow in love the way Enoch did, by walking with God, you will manifest the joy and peace of the Lord that will turn many from their wickedness; there will not need to be as much destruction.”

“I do not mean to be disrespectful, but as I have read of your life many times, I have wondered if some of the things you did could have been done differently, and maybe the outcome would have been different,” I said.

“Seeing the truth is never disrespectful. The Bible is the account of God’s dealings with men, and men’s dealings with God and one another. No one has yet served God perfectly but One. When we obey God it is required that we obey Him in His Spirit. If you obey Him in a wrong spirit the fruit can be very different than what He intended. I did do some things well, but I did not do everything He gave me to do in the right spirit. If I had walked in more love for God and love for His people things would have been different for many.

“Enoch was shown the great messengers of power that will come in the last days. I wasn’t. He was given the honor of prophesying them because in character they will be more like him than me, but they will do all that I did and much more.”

With that, Elijah walked off in the same direction as Enoch. I had almost too much to process. As I looked at the staff, I felt a connection to Enoch. I wanted to love people and release them into the joy of the Lord that he had. I was also sobered by Elijah’s statement that we were now forming the character that we would have for eternity. This gave far more significance to every day. I did not ever want to miss another opportunity to grow in the fruit of the Spirit.

I thought about what James had written how we should ‘count it all joy when we encountered trials because the testing of our faith was more valuable than gold ’. “It is much more valuable,” I thought. “How could any earthly treasure or accomplishment compare to something that would last forever?”

As I walked back to the camp, I prayed and beseeched the Lord to help me remember how crucial this is and for the anointing to convey it to others. I desperately wanted them all to meet Enoch and experience what I had. As I got close enough to see the little group, I thought about how just a few minutes before I had been very close to despair. I was in despair because I considered myself a poor leader, thinking I had led those in my care away from the streams of living water. Now I felt that the whole wilderness journey was wonderful beyond description, and I really could be a shepherd to those I helped through it.

When I walked into the camp everyone was awake, alert, and they were all laughing.

“What is up?” I asked.

“The watchmen found water,” William replied. “It was right under our feet. This one, James, said he felt we were on the right path, so the water had to be near; and if it was not above ground, then it had to be just below us. He started to dig and did not have to dig deep at all before it bubbled up.”

“James, now that is the kind of discernment and wisdom we need in our watchman,” I said to him, while stooping down to drink from the little stream now flowing through the middle of the camp.

“Where were you?” Mary asked.

“I had a meeting,” I answered, noticing that Mark was looking at me intently.

“What are you thinking, Mark?” I inquired.

“I was told last night that you would have a message for us today that would guide us for the rest of our lives. I can also see that you have been given a shepherd’s staff. Can you tell us now what the message is?” Mark replied.

“I can. I do have something to tell you that can help guide you the rest of your life,” I began.