Are You Hearing Voices?
/Differences in sheep and goat behaviour
Key behavioural differences centre around feeding behaviour, social behaviour and personality; these will be evaluated in the remainder of this article.
Feeding behaviours
Sheep are a grazing species, while goats are more of a browsing species (Gordon, 2003). These different foraging techniques have implications for husbandry and management. Understanding the differences in feeding ecology supports essential elements of daily care, such as pasture management for sheep and provision of browsing and grazing for goats.
Understanding the differences in feeding ecology supports essential elements of daily care, such as pasture management for sheep and provision of browsing and grazing for goats
As sheep graze, they prefer to consume short, tender grass of good nutritional quality. Sheep are also selective feeders, usually cropping grass short and close to the ground. Conversely, goats have a broader dietary preference because they have evolved to graze and browse across a wide range of plant species. Therefore, goats are termed “intermediate feeders” (capable of browsing and grazing), which means they show a wide dietary flexibility (Silanikove, 2000).
Goats are also able to forage on different spatial levels due to their adept climbing abilities and will readily consume both poor-quality and good-quality forage. Because goats possess a range of physiological adaptations to effectively process such forage (Silanikove, 1997), they will outcompete sheep in some areas, especially when only poorer-quality forage and grazing is available.
Socialisation
Sheep have a strong tendency to group or “flock” together. Within these flocks, sheep form stable subgroups and follow each other to maintain the flock structure – often copying the behaviour of those around them (Fisher and Matthews, 2001). This “collective intelligence” (Gómez-Nava et al., 2022) may have evolved as a flight mechanism to facilitate escape from danger. Therefore, an individual sheep is more likely to feel safe and secure when other sheep are around.
A key importance for husbandry is that a social group is essential for sheep to buffer against stress and improve their overall well-being
Goats, by contrast, are more independent and exhibit less of this collective flocking behaviour, preferring to move as smaller family units (Miranda-de la Lama and Mattiello, 2010). Goats are considered more curious, exploratory and agile than sheep (as demonstrated by their climbing skills), and although they like to be in groups, individuals will often wander further away from each other compared to foraging sheep.
A key importance for husbandry is that a social group is essential for sheep to buffer against stress and improve their overall well-being. In fact, companionship should be a constant consideration for sheep care. Goats also need companions, but because they are more independent, they require more space to promote exploration, climbing and wider interaction with different environmental features and structures (Figure 2).
John 10:1-15 1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Voice- phone’ a sound, a tone, of a language, tongue
1. a sound, a tone-of inanimate things, as musical instruments
Point- is that there is the ability to be able to distinguish sounds or voices
John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Hear- give audience, to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf to, attend to, consider what is or has been said
1 John 2:19-21 ESV Some left [NLT] what is it that draws people to churches today?
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
1 Samuel 3:1-4
1 And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision. 2 And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; 3 And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; 4 That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.
This was a very pivotal time for God. The people had demanded their own king at the end of the timeframe of the Judges, resulting in problems for the kingdom. God had to rise up a prophet that would hear His voice, in order for the right King to be anointed. The times that we are living in are very pivotal. If there was ever a time when it was important to be able to properly hear the frequency of God, now, is that time!
Are we on the same frequency of God? In other words, do we hear His tone? He speaks the frequency of His written word.
In variations, the warning phrase, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” occurs 15 times in the New Testament, and each time it is spoken by Jesus
Deception
Genesis 27:22
So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
Her voice was saying something different than what the voice of truth had said
Genesis 3:17
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
Hope for a deceived world
Genesis 22:18
and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Exodus 19:5-6
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
1 Peter 2:8-10
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
2 Timothy 4:1-5
1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
I charge you young pastor, you want to do these things because the Lord is coming back to judge those that are alive and dead and the things that you speak and the things that they hear will make a difference.
1. Reprove- to confute, admonish: — convict, convince, tell a fault, rebuke
confute- to prove a person or an assertion to be wrong
admonish- warn or reprimand someone firmly
2. Rebuke- to warn, reprimand or forbid
Censure- to express severe disapproval in a formal statement
3. Exhort- parakaleo— to call near. When we call people to come near to the truth, the work of the Holy Spirit will console, encourage and strengthen and comfort
Romans 1:18-21 plans of the enemy to distort the voice/ prevent the truth
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Jude 1:3-4. Delivered- to give into the hands of another— to take care of—Phoebe/Paul
3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Did God say?
Turn stones into bread
Matthew 4:2-4
2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Lyrics from “We Are the World”
There comes a time
When we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
Oh, and it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all
11x
We are the world
We are the children
11x
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
We're all a part of God's great big family
And the truth, you know, love is all we need
As God has shown us by turning stones to bread
And so we all must lend a helping hand