To him the gatekeeper opens.
The sheep hear his voice,
and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
In Biblical language gatekeepers are appointed by community elders to guard the gates accessing a town or city.
One of the primary requisites of a gatekeeper was their trustworthiness.
Their reliability, credibility, their integrity had to be beyond reproach to serve the security of the people they were entrusted to protect.
Through the fear of the LORD evil is avoided ~ Proverbs 16:6
Fear is predictably understood to be respect, or trust in Our Father's counselling in all matters doing all that is asked of us when The Father intervenes in our thoughts. This experience is common to every human person, without exception.
Our conscience, our intuition if you prefer restrains our easy willingness to go, where danger lurks.
It takes time, and growing experience over many years to begin trusting that innermost inspiration, inviting us to do all that we are called to do.
With developing trust we begin to understand that our innermost counselling is also protecting us from all that could harm us.
“I could not say I believe. I know!
I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself, something that people call God.”― Carl Jung
Our Father will invite us into His friendship, calling us by our name that we may understand that He knows who we are, and that His call to become His friend is founded upon His uncompromising love for us.
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. ...~ Isaiah 43:1-28
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