God Created Goats

I suspect my past posts about goats have made some to detest them even as others may have thought that I hate them. Others may equate them with evil.

Allow me to set the record straight.

Goats are wonderful animals, created by God for particular purposes.

Goat milk is said to be medicinal as is its meat.

That comes about due to its diet and the process of the digestion of the same.

Goats eat the strangest of fare, some of it bordering on poison, yet they thrive.

A goat’s behaviour is therefore dictated by the kind of food it eats. Its diet is what makes it able to maximise on whatever is available to access the nutrients it needs to live and thrive. Goats are the only domestic animals I know that thrive on deserts.

Goats are wonderful animals.

I started with them the way I believe many of you are thinking after reading my last posts on goats; ‘New, not Improved Creation’ and ‘The Joneses’.

But after I have herded them consistently, I have been able to ascertain that there is nothing wrong with them. They are not crooks but simple animals that must eat.

They are different from sheep because they were created differently.

The shepherd must therefore decide to treat them as goats to not only feed them well but also save on his energy and sanity.

Knowing this is important as we examine the pastoral responsibilities we have on God’s people.

You see, a sinner is not so because they are inherently evil. They are simply being themselves.

Yet they must come to the realisation that they are not what God created them to be and desire the same for any chance of their being transformed.

A goat needs to look at a sheep, examine the connection the sheep has with its shepherd and the resultant better health for it to reach out to the shepherd to transform it.

What am I saying?

We were born goats. We are naturally goats. And it happened when we allowed the evil one to con us out of Eden.

But God has opened a door for us to be changed into His sheep. And the only way for that to happen is to enter through that single door.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

That door is the key to the transformation since that is where the goat DNA is swapped with the sheep one.

But it is just the beginning, the beginning of the greatest adventure in all of life.

That single transaction opens one to the power of the Shepherd to transform them from glory to glory as they yield to His leading and revelation.

We must also acknowledge that the transformation that is occasioned by that decision to enter through that door does not happen suddenly.

The DNA change is therefore the first step of the transformational journey.

Though there are some things that transform immediately after the decision, it is the gradual and intentional infusion of that DNA that is able to completely transform just as it happens to a baby after being born.

The fact that for some the desire for drugs or other destructive habits dies immediately after the decision does not mean that the operation has been completed. It just means that God has demonstrated that He is able to handle everything you hand over to Him just like the fact that a child is born with complete limbs does not mean it can walk.

What conversion does is to infuse the convertee with the sheep nature DNA and not make them a functioning sheep.

It is the responsibility of the transformed goat to allow and facilitate for the growth of that new nature so that it eventually ‘replaces’ the goat nature in increasing ways.

How does it do so?

The new sheep must increase the time it spends with the Shepherd so that it can accurately be in a position to hear and understand His leading.

That is what will result in the calming we see in sheep as opposed to the restlessness we see in goats.

Incidentally, it is important to acknowledge that however far we may be in our journey of transformation, we have not completely eliminated the goat nature. It just means that the sheep nature has taken over more territory in our lives.

That is why we have a verse like this

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1Corinthians 10:12)

To imagine that the man after God’s heart could snatch a wife from a loyal soldier when all the damsels in his kingdom were at his disposal exemplifies what I am saying.

His past dealings with God, his diligence in ensuring that God’s will and revelation run his life was no insurance against the goatish desire for the forbidden as it required a single unguarded moment to explode.

What am I saying?

God wants to transform us into His sheep.

But it is as we allow Him more leverage into our lives that He is able to do so.

What is pastoral about this post then?

There are two important truths to learn as pastors.

The first is that we are sheep with a goat nature, however depressed it may be through our maturity and discipleship and ministry experience.

The second is that the people we pastor range from unconverted goats to sheep who have crucified the goat nature.

This calls for enough grace on our side as pastors.

Realising that we are intrinsically goats allows us to pursue our Shepherd with greater determination since we know that nothing in us qualifies us for the honour bestowed on us.

It also helps us pursue our calling and the responsibilities thereon with more commitment.

Of course, it allows us to have more grace on our persons when we fall off the mark since we will not have any problem admitting falling short of the Shepherd’s high calling.

On the shepherding front, it allows us to offer grace to those God has entrusted to us.

We are not threatened by those more mature or spiritually endowed than we are since we are connected to one Shepherd.

We also have enough grace to handle the frailties of the goats we are supposed to treat as sheep, especially those who have not seen the need to allow the sheep nature to increase in them.

We are also able to help the goats come to the realisation that they are not sheep just because they live amongst the sheep, even mumble everything sheep mumble.

But I think our greatest responsibility is to help converted goats to grow in sheep likeness; what we call discipleship.

Yet even the meaning of our calling is what defines our job which is feeding the sheep with the nurture we access from the Shepherd. In short, we are to feed them as the Shepherd feeds us.

That in simple terms means that we must be consistently feeding on the Shepherd to be of any use to the sheep He entrusts to our care. Otherwise, we could start thinking we are not also sheep in desperate need of a shepherd.

The fact that we have been entrusted with feeding other sheep in no way even remotely implies that we are other than sheep.

Yet many pastors behave as if they are not sheep. Some preach as if they are not sheep.

Probably they are not sheep. Or they stopped being sheep as they grew in their pastoring.

Meaning that they reverted to being goats.