Following a Wolf: How to Recognize a Good Shepherd, a Bad Shepherd, and a Wolf

The quality of your spiritual diet determines the quality of your growth, your deliverance, and your ability to recognize the voice of Jesus.

God's primary concern for His people has always been the feeding of the flock. A good shepherd does not simply perform — he feeds. And the diet he gives is not his own agenda, but what the Master has ordained for each sheep according to their calling, their condition, and their destiny. Whether you are following a good shepherd, a bad shepherd, or a wolf is not always obvious — but the signs are clear to those who know what to look for.

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Teaching Overview

1. A good shepherd feeds the sheep a diet customized to their calling — not what the shepherd prefers or what the congregation applauds.
2. Bad shepherds and wolves are distinguished by whether they invest in the flock's growth or exploit the flock for their own benefit.
3. True deliverance is not merely the casting out of demons — it is total liberation that produces wholeness spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and financially.
4. The reason many believers cannot recognize the voice of Jesus is that they have been fed the wrong spiritual diet.
5. Misplaced desire — hunger for power, gifts, and spiritual experiences above hunger for Jesus Himself — makes a believer vulnerable to corruption and deception.

Key Distinctions

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God Provides Grace for Every Season

• When God is building His people, He provides the grace specific to what He is doing in that moment — both individual grace and corporate grace.
• Whatever God is doing, He will enable His people to enter into it more easily because it is His will for that season.
• Understanding who you are following — shepherd, bad shepherd, or wolf — determines where you stand with God in your spiritual walk.

Jesus the Good Shepherd and the Categories of Shepherds

• Jesus declares Himself the Good Shepherd, distinguishing Himself from the hired hand — and from this declaration, all other shepherds are measured.
• Good shepherds after God's own heart do not point the flock to themselves — they are a portal to the Lord Jesus, drawing people toward Christ.
• The four categories are: the Lord Jesus Christ as the ultimate Good Shepherd, shepherds after His own heart, bad shepherds (hired hands), and wolves.

"When you follow the man or the woman you feel the pull to Christ and not to them."

Bad Shepherds vs. Wolves

• A bad shepherd is still a man of God — he is just on the wrong path; a wolf is not a shepherd at all, but a destroyer.
• A bad shepherd is self-serving — he will preserve himself when danger comes and will not protect scattered sheep; a wolf's sole purpose is to destroy.
• Bad shepherds are cousins to wolves — they share a disregard for the sheep's wellbeing, but their intent and their damage are not identical.

"A bad shepherd is still a man of God, he's just on the wrong path."

Judgment, Conviction, and the Role of the Holy Spirit

• The Bible asks, "Who are you to judge another man's servant?" — the duty of the believer is to teach truth that saves people, not to preach against individuals.
• Publicly calling out the sins of other ministers does not convict — it only produces shame, and believers are not called to make anyone ashamed.
• Conviction is exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit; no human voice, no matter how loud, can accomplish what only the Spirit can do.

"You will never do a better job than the Holy Spirit. The Bible says it is the Holy Spirit that convicts the hearts of men."

Shame vs. Conviction

• Shame is what a human voice can produce — it is external, produces performance, and carries condemnation.
• Conviction is what the Holy Spirit produces — it is internal, produces genuine transformation, and leads to repentance.
• There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ; a shepherd's role is to make people aware, never to make them ashamed.

Context vs. Misinterpretation of Scripture

• When Jesus said "call no man father," He was addressing the religious leaders sitting in the seat of Moses — not issuing a universal prohibition on spiritual fatherhood.
• God repeatedly identifies Himself as "the God of your fathers," and Paul calls Timothy "my son in the faith" — neither contradicts Jesus; both confirm that context determines meaning.
• Jesus gave teachers to the church after His ascension even after saying "call no man teacher" — proving that missing the context produces a misreading of what Jesus actually said.

"If you miss the context you misunderstand what Jesus said."

The First Sign of a False Shepherd: Failure to Feed the Sheep

• The first and clearest sign of a wolf or bad shepherd is that they do not feed the sheep — a good shepherd's primary investment is in the diet of the flock.
• Telling people to give to God is not in itself a sign of a wolf — giving to God is necessary and good; the issue is whether such instruction serves God's purpose or the shepherd's own interests.
• Many things people have been told about identifying false shepherds are not necessarily true, and many are outright lies — discernment must be built on a full understanding, not assumptions.

"The first sign that you're following the wrong person, a wolf or a bad shepherd, is they don't feed the sheep. A good shepherd is one that invests in the diet of the sheep."

The Sheep Have Different Callings — and Require Different Diets

• Not all sheep are the same — within God's flock are those the Bible describes as oxen, lions, eagles, swords, and axes, each with a different assignment requiring a different diet.
• A good shepherd feeds the flock what God wants them to eat, customized to who they are and what they are called to do — not what the shepherd personally prefers.
• An eagle will not eat grain; a bull will not eat meat — feeding the wrong diet to the wrong sheep stunts development and increases vulnerability to the enemy.

"The quality of your feeding of your sheep determines whether this is a wolf or a bad shepherd or a good shepherd."

Spiritual Shortcuts and the Danger of Rushing Growth

• A young prophet hungry for power nearly entered an occult environment simply because of his hunger — hunger without the right diet makes a believer easy to deceive.
• Becoming powerful in the Lord is a journey and a walk with Him to develop the virtues of the Holy Spirit — no one is seasoned by a single laying on of hands.
• God builds up and rewards according to diligence in working with Him — character, prayer life, family, and every dimension of life must be developed through relationship, not ceremony.

"Don't be so in a rush to be powerful and miss heaven. What is the point of having power but God has rejected you?"

The Eli and Samuel Principle

• Eli was rejected by God but still knew how to hear God — he could teach Samuel how to hear, yet God was no longer speaking to Eli himself.
• A shepherd can instruct you in spiritual things they themselves no longer walk in — which is why the shepherd's own walk with God matters, not only their knowledge.
• No one can give what they do not have; unless God Himself is the source of a declaration, the one making it must carry the grace for it to have weight.

"A man cannot give what they don't have."

True Deliverance: Wholeness, Not Just Freedom from Demons

• Deliverance is not the casting out of demons only — that is the beginning of deliverance, not its completion.
• True deliverance is liberation from every device of the enemy and the bringing of a person into wholeness — spiritual, mental, emotional, and financial — so they can fulfill their predestined, eternal destiny.
• The measure of genuine deliverance is total transformation: when someone who knew you yesterday cannot recognize you today.

"Deliverance is liberation from every device of the enemy and bringing you into wholeness so that you can fulfill your destined destiny."

Customized Spiritual Practice: Fasting, Prayer, and Assignment

• Spiritual disciplines such as fasting and prayer are not universally prescribed in the same measure — they are tailored to each believer's specific assignment and calling.
• God rebuked Israel for performing religious fasting while neglecting the fast He had ordained: feeding the fatherless, forgiving one another, and caring for the widow.
• Performing spiritual disciplines for human applause while neglecting what God actually ordained is a form of waste in prayer — it produces reputation, not results.

"Everything is customized to what your assignment is."

The Sheep Recognize the Voice of Their Feeder

• Animals are loyal to and trainable by who feeds them — this is the natural pattern that mirrors the spiritual reality of sheep recognizing their shepherd's voice.
• The reason many believers cannot recognize the voice of the Lord Jesus is a wrong spiritual diet — they are being fed the pastor's fears and personal doctrines, not what God intends.
• Jesus asked Peter three times to do one thing — feed His sheep — because feeding the flock is always the Lord's primary concern for those He calls to shepherd.

"The reason why the sheep cannot recognize the voice of the Lord Jesus — wrong diet. You're not hearing the voice because you're not being fed the right way."

Feeding the Flock What the Master Wants

• A faithful shepherd does not preach what he has only studied or what he personally wants to give — he feeds the flock only what the Master has moved him to feed them.
• The Lord Jesus taught some things openly to all, other things privately to His apostles, and still other things only to those personally with Him — the quality of the shepherd determines which level of feeding the sheep receive.
• If a teaching is released before the congregation is ready to receive it, it produces indigestion, not nourishment — a good shepherd is stewards of timing, not just content.

"I only feed the flock what the master wants them to eat, not what I want them to eat."

Misplaced Desires and the Danger of Hunger Without Direction

• Sheep who desire spiritual gifts, angelic encounters, and spiritual power more than they desire Jesus Himself are in a vulnerable position — that misplaced hunger is exactly what the enemy exploits.
• All authority and power comes from Jesus — the hunger for Him must be so consuming that gifts, prophecy, and even healing are secondary to knowing Him.
• The majority of believers who have ended up in destructive spiritual places were driven not by love for Jesus, but by desire for power.

"If you want those things more than you want Jesus, there's something wrong inside of you."

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Key Definitions

Good Shepherd — A shepherd after God's own heart who points the flock entirely to Jesus, invests in the right spiritual diet for each sheep, and stays to protect the flock under threat.

Bad Shepherd — Still a man of God but on the wrong path; a hired hand who is self-serving, saves himself when danger comes, and does not genuinely invest in the sheep's wellbeing — a cousin to wolves.

Wolf — Not a shepherd at all; one who has entered the sheep's pen under false pretenses whose sole purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy — the thief of John 10:10.

Deliverance — "Liberation from every device of the enemy and bringing you into wholeness so that you can fulfill your destined destiny." Not merely the casting out of demons, but total transformation: spiritual, mental, emotional, and financial.

Shame — An external response produced by human accusation or public exposure; it generates performance and pretense but does not produce genuine change — believers are not called to produce it in others.

Conviction — The internal work of the Holy Spirit alone on the heart of a person; what actually transforms and leads to repentance — no human voice can replicate or replace it.

Spiritual Diet — The specific, God-ordained nourishment a shepherd feeds the flock — customized to each believer's calling and assignment — whose quality determines spiritual growth, the ability to hear God's voice, and freedom from the enemy.

Key Takeaways

• A good shepherd's first duty is to feed the flock — not to perform, not to accumulate followers, but to invest in the specific spiritual diet each sheep needs to grow into their God-ordained destiny.
• Bad shepherds and wolves are not the same, but both damage the flock — knowing the difference prevents both false accusation of the imperfect and dangerous tolerance of the destructive.
• True deliverance produces total wholeness, not just freedom from evil spirits — if a believer is free from demons but still spiritually stunted, financially broken, and mentally bound, the work of deliverance is not complete.
• The inability to hear the voice of Jesus is a diet problem — when sheep are fed the pastor's fears and doctrines instead of God's intended nourishment, they lose the capacity to discern the Shepherd's voice.
• Hunger for power above hunger for Jesus is the primary doorway to spiritual destruction — the desire for gifts, encounters, and spiritual experiences must always be subordinate to the desire for Christ Himself.

Reflection Questions

1. When you sit under your current spiritual covering, do you feel the pull toward Jesus or toward the person teaching you — and what does your honest answer reveal?
2. Are you being fed a spiritual diet that is growing you, or have you been consuming the same level of nourishment for years without transformation? What would genuine spiritual growth look like in your life right now?
3. What are you most hungry for spiritually — the presence of Jesus, or the gifts, power, and experiences that come from Him? What does that hunger reveal about where your heart truly is?
4. In what areas of your life is deliverance still incomplete — where are you free from demonic oppression but still bound mentally, emotionally, financially, or relationally? What would wholeness look like?
5. Have you been quick to judge, call out, or speak against other ministers or believers — and have you confused producing shame in others with the Holy Spirit's work of conviction? What needs to change?

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Prayers and Declarations

No qualifying prayers or declarations were recorded in this sermon.

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Scripture References

• John 10:10 — "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (KJV)
• Psalm 23:1 — "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." (KJV)
• John 21:15 — "So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs." (KJV)
• John 21:16 — "He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep." (KJV)
• Isaiah 58
• Acts 3
• 3 John 1:2 — "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." (KJV)
• Ecclesiastes 12:11

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Golden Nuggets

"A good shepherd is one that invests in the diet of the sheep."

"You will never do a better job than the Holy Spirit. The Bible says it is the Holy Spirit that convicts the hearts of men."

"If you miss the context you misunderstand what Jesus said."

"Don't be so in a rush to be powerful and miss heaven. What is the point of having power but God has rejected you?"

"Deliverance is liberation from every device of the enemy and bringing you into wholeness so that you can fulfill your destined destiny."

"A man cannot give what they don't have."

"The reason why the sheep cannot recognize the voice of the Lord Jesus — wrong diet. You're not hearing the voice because you're not being fed the right way."

"If you want those things more than you want Jesus, there's something wrong inside of you."

"I only feed the flock what the master wants them to eat, not what I want them to eat."

"Becoming powerful in the Lord is a journey and a walk with the Lord Jesus to develop the virtues of the Holy Spirit."

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Resources and Further Reading

• Recommended Books →
• Study with a Recommended Bible →