Heaven is too huge to be crammed.. what about our hearts ?

Welcome back, we are doing a study of John 10 and this is the third post from the chapter. The verse for today is

"I have OTHER sheep that are not of this FOLD. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be ONE FLOCK and ONE SHEPHERD." John 10:16

Before I start, wanted to reiterate the purpose of these posts 🙂 I believe God gives us the keys, the tools and the weapons to fight the good fight each day. His word is our strong shield, so I pray that we continue to receive the bread for TODAY.. not yesterday's break .. not tomorrow's bread .. but for TODAY .. on that note let's begin.

While reading this verse I was a bit confused as to why Jesus used the word FOLD, when all this while he had been using the word FLOCK.

He said I have other sheep, who are not of this FOLD.. and I must bring them to have ONE FLOCK. According to Jesus .. there's some difference between FOLD and FLOCK.

Let's see what Cambridge dictionary has to say

FOLD- an enclosure or walls to keep the sheeps in one place

FLOCK- a large number of sheep, moving together

Now the law was given to the Jews. The revelation of having a true and living God came to the Jews first. But did you know ? There is a cost and a testing that comes with being the forerunner of the revelation from heaven?

What was meant to be a message for the FLOCK was turned into a message for the FOLD. Well let's see the Old Testament. Starting from Exodus 12, Jews were told to welcome sojourners and circumcise them if they follow their ways .. Isaiah 56 says include the foreigners if they follow the Passover and the ways of the lord... Genesis 22 says "in your seed nations shall be blessed"

Clearly God had an inclusive plan..

Jesus stands in the centre of Old and New covenant to say - FOLD must and will turn to a FLOCK..

Scripture makes it evident , blessings can turn into a FOLD MENTALITY..revelation can lead to FOLD MENTALITY.. what is this fold mentality ?

You see, fold mentality is comfortable working within the walls and fences. Fold mentality, resists and crucifies the force that breaks walls and fence, (as we saw what happened to Jesus ) l. It worries about space, food, attention, and time being shared by the OTHER SHEEP that Jesus spoke about. FOLD mentality has a diminishing effect .. that means it focusses on resources being split between the old and the new incoming sheep.

Now all of this won't make sense if I don't show this from scripture, in John 7:35 we see the Jews wondering if Jesus will go to the Greeks and teach them too 🤦‍♀️.. why were they so concerned if Jesus would take the gospel out of the FOLD? Clearly it had something to do with the FOLD MENTALITY

Romans 11 makes it clear that Jesus came to break the boundaries of the fold .. it says Jews were blinded only for a season.. so that gentiles can be grafted to the original plan. That's scary , FOLD MENTALITY lead to temporary blindness of the Jews 😶.. can this happen to us ? Yes it can

Jesus came like our knight in shining armour 🙂 or maybe a knight covered in humility, love and concern for mankind. He came to BREAK the boundaries of the fold .. to stretch the FENCES and allow the OTHER sheep to come in .... 🙂 isn't that amazing .. what a wonderful Jesus we have.

Coming back to us ..

My loving readers .. we are no different from the Jews .. even today we suffer from FOLD MENTALITY..we are scared .. we worry .. infact we do not give our best .. just because we worry too much about the fold boundaries being shaken .. how many times we get insecure when God wants to take us from being a FOLD to being a FLOCK.

The blessing of allowing or rather making a choice to stretch our exclusive boundaries .. is to fulfill the will of the father . It is fathers will that all might come inside the fold and become one flock with one shepherd.

Now tell me dear reader , how many of you are willing to break the FOLD of your heart ?? To allow the OTHER sheep in ? Let's have a FLOCK driven heart 🙂 the one who is willing to stretch to get more and more of sheeps 🙂 more and more of Gods plan and purpose ..

I remember an old song , "oh oh oh oh oh .. heaven is in my heart " ☺️ If heaven is in our heart .. then let's have FLOCKs in our hearts and Not FOLDS.

Stay blessed💕