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The Father's Business Podcast
The Father's Business Podcast
He is-The Character of God: He is the Abundant Shepherd
Scarcity tells a loud story—work harder, hold tighter, go faster. We push, we pour out, and end up empty. But there’s a better story.
In this episode, we slow down and rediscover God as our Shepherd—the One who guides, provides, protects, and comforts. From Psalm 23 to John 10 and Revelation 7, we trace how true abundance flows not from striving, but from abiding.
Through a simple picture of an overflowing cup, we unpack the shift from self-reliance to surrender, from control to trust. You’ll hear how Jesus, the Good Shepherd, frees us from a scarcity mindset and leads us into rest—spirit, soul, and body.
If you’re ready to trade hurry for presence and hustle for overflow, this conversation will meet you with comfort, clarity, and courage.
🎧 Follow the show, share it with someone who needs rest today, and leave a review to help others find still waters and real abundance.
The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God. I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
SPEAKER_00:And I am Kimberly Roddy. Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us. Hi everyone. Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast. We are super excited that you are with us today. We are continuing in our conversation about who God is, the characteristics of God. And today we want to talk about how God is our shepherd. And with the idea of him being our shepherd, comes this idea that God is abundance. He is abundant. He overflows to us. So we're going to unpack those themes today, and we can't wait to have this conversation with you. So we want to kick off with this verse in Psalm 23, which is a familiar verse for many people. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. So in that verse, it starts off with David saying, The Lord is my shepherd. And David was a shepherd, so he knew what that meant. And then the next phrase, I shall not want, which in the NIV says I lack nothing. In the Amplified, it says, I shall not lack. We don't have the context necessarily in our, and most of us in our culture, we don't have the context of what a shepherd does. So we really have to look back historically and look to other cultures and say, okay, what does a shepherd do? Well, obviously, the first thing a shepherd does is he he feeds and tends and cares for the sheep. If you know anything about sheep, the one thing we know is that they are not very smart, right, Elizabeth?
SPEAKER_01:That is true. They are pretty dumb.
SPEAKER_00:So they need, desperately need someone to feed them and care for them and guide them. And so that is, I think that's the first thing that a shepherd does. And so David is recognizing right here from the beginning of Psalm 23 and throughout scripture, other people recognize it too. But David is saying right here, the Lord is my shepherd. He feeds me, he guides me, he cares for me. And I think just from the from the onset here, let's just acknowledge here's here's four things I think that a that a shepherd does. He guides us, he provides for us, he protects us, and he comforts us. I think those are four key things. And so as a sh as an animal, they need someone to guide them. They need someone to lead them because they aren't sure where to go. They kind of make dumb decisions like following other sheep off cliffs to their demise, right? Right. They also they also need someone to provide for them, to feed them. They can't, they can't do it on their own. They can't find the greener pastures on their own. They need someone to lead them there, to, to provide for them. And they also need someone to protect them because they will get insects in their in their wool that they can't always tend to themselves. Predators will come in from the side, from the back, and they're just looking down, eating the grass in front of them with like that tunnel small vision, and they don't even know that it's coming. So the shepherd's job is to protect them. And then the shepherd's job is to comfort them when they're hurt and injured, and they have broken legs and they have made dumb mistakes by following other sheep and just not paying attention to the bigger surroundings. The sheep, the shepherd will tend to them and care for them and bind up their wounds. And so David gets all of this and so much more, because I have a very limited understanding of what a shepherd does. But David understood his job as a shepherd. What he understood everything he did for these sheep. And he is basically saying, God is the great shepherd. He is the one who provides for me, protects me, guides me, he comforts me, he leads me. He is the great shepherd.
SPEAKER_01:Kimberly, everything you're describing is so beautifully written throughout scripture. I, as we were preparing for this episode, I realized just how many times not only other people describe God as shepherd, but God himself or and Jesus. You know, God the Father in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament say, I am the good shepherd. Like this is one of these key characteristics of who he is that shows up over and over in scripture. In Isaiah 40, 11, it describes God. It says, God tends his flocks like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young. And that's that tender, compassionate part of being a shepherd that you were just talking about. And then in Ezekiel 34, 11 and 12, it says, For this is what the sovereign Lord says, I myself will search for my sheep and look after them as a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them. So will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they are scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. Just a few verses later in that same chapter, he says, I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There will they lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in rich pastures on mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the sovereign Lord. And there was there's so much beautiful uh scriptures. I mean, I could just keep reading them and talking about you also said something about protecting the sheep, and in Psalms 34, 9 and 10, it says, Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. And it reminds me of times that David as a shepherd had to protect not only get provide for his sheep, but then protect against those types of predators that were also looking to graze because they were growing weak and hungry. And what's a delicious snack but a sheep? So there's so much rich imagery throughout the Old Testament. And then you get over in the New Testament, and Jesus himself says, I am the good shepherd. And there's several references to him being our shepherd in the New Testament. And so I think there's something very deep that God was trying to communicate to his people, partly about the comfort and the care being held up against the chest, but then also this idea of abundance. Like every one of these passages, there's something in it about I will take care of them and they'll they'll be good pastures and they will lie down in good grazing land. It's always about they will lack nothing because of who I am for them.
SPEAKER_00:The verse you were just referring to in John 10, verse 11, where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. He goes on to say, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And the Amplified says, the good shepherd risks and lays down his own life for the sheep. And that's it right there. Like it's not just, I'll protect you until this happens. It's no, I will lay down my life for you. Yeah. Um, and that's like you said, that's Jesus speaking there saying, He is that for us, and he has done that for us.
SPEAKER_01:It continues on into a revelation, or in Revelation 7, 17, it says, For the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from your eyes. So all the way even to the end of scripture, we're hearing this beautiful theme of he is our shepherd, and he's going to lead us to more. He's going to lead us to abundance, whether it's a green pasture or a or springs of living water, where he is, there's always more. There's always abundance.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Elizabeth, that that's true because, like we just said, it his as the good shepherd, he's the scripture sometimes calls him the chief shepherd, the supreme shepherd. He's the one with the ultimate care and authority. And so because he's the chief shepherd, the good shepherd, he isn't just protective, but he's sacrificial. And sacrificial is basically his sacrifice allows us to not live from a scarcity mindset, from a scarcity reality, because he is just abundant and is sacrificing. And so he's not this minimalist who's just going to give us here or there the basics that we need. He's going to give from abundance. And that's even what um back to Psalm 23, when David said, I will lack nothing, I shall not want. That means to lack nothing means I will not be without anything. There's nothing essential that is missing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then that that kind of gets, you know, some wrestling going on inside of me sometimes, Kimberly, because that some of us in different areas of our life, whether it's financial, emotional, relational, we've been through those seasons where it feels like we are lacking something. And there isn't enough. And there are people in real seasons of crisis right now, whether that be financial or otherwise, that are that don't know where it's going to come from and do feel like there's something missing. So how do we wrestle with this idea that the Lord is our shepherd? I lack nothing when it feels like there are things missing.
SPEAKER_00:Well, as hard as it is, I think what we have to remember is that abundance is not necessarily about possessions or things. Abundance really is a fruit of abiding in the shepherd. The fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those things come as we abide with the shepherd. And so I think that's the key. Yes, if we're honest, yes, I do lack. I do lack a lot in my daily existence, if I'm honest, you know, I feel like I do. Um, I take supplements because I'm lacking some type of mineral as a basic, you know, necessity. But what God is saying and what scripture is speaking to is so much bigger than that. Yes, he will provide for us materially. He does. And yet, what he's speaking to as far as far as abundance goes, is just so much more beyond material provision. It doesn't exclude it, but it's bigger than that. So we have to look deeper. So we were in Charlotte recently. Shout out to our Charlotte friends who came to see us. Really grateful for that opportunity. It was a wonderful time together. And one of the things that I shared with them was this visual illustration. And so, since we're only doing an audio podcast, I can't give you the visual. So I want you to kind of use your imaginations here and picture this. So Jesus says over and over again that he is the living water. He says over and over again that he is abundant. And so I often will take a picture of water as a representation of who God is. And I'll take a glass bowl and then I'll take a glass. And we are the glass. I'm the glass. And so I take the pitcher of water and I fill up my glass, and that's Jesus filling me up. I go and I spend time with him, I connect with him, I worship, I have great conversations with friends in the body, you know, all sorts of ways that we fill ourselves up uh spiritually. And so as he's pouring that water into me, then I then I go and I go, okay, I'm gonna go live in my world and pour out what Jesus has given me to my world. And so I go over to the bowl, which is the world, my bigger world, and I take my cup and I pour the water into the bowl. And I go, okay, I've poured it out. Now I got to come back and I need to fill back up with Jesus. And that's kind of the way we live sometimes. And what scripture says is that's not really how I want you to do it. There's a better, abundant, more fulfilling way to live. So you take the bowl and you set the cup inside the bowl. And then you take the pitcher, which is the water, which represents Jesus filling us up, and you pour it into the cup, and you just keep pouring it. And so you're filling up the cup and it's overflowing. It's overflowing into the bowl around you, and it's overflowing you as the cup. And that water represents Jesus. And so the idea there, we overflow from abundance by being in relationship with the great shepherd, by being in relationship with King Jesus, by being in relationship with the one who says, the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I have come to give you abundant life. And that's John 10, 10. And so that's the picture, I think, so often of what we're missing. I take myself and I go fill it up with Jesus, and then I go dump it to the world, and then I'm dry and I'm empty and I'm not overflowing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm lacking abundance. And so I have to, because I'm lacking, I have to go back and I have to run to Jesus. And if I don't run to Jesus, I run to other things, which I will do. But if I run back to Jesus, he'll pour himself into me, he'll fill me up spiritually, and then I run back and I pour myself to the world and I run back to him. And it's just this pattern of being filled up and then dry, being filled up and dry. And how many, how many seasons and months and days go in between that filling up and that dry spot, you know? But but the picture in scripture of abundance, which is so limited even in this illustration, is that he is continually filling me up and overflowing into the world around me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Kimberly, that that picture you're describing of you filling up and then running over and giving it away to people, then coming back to Jesus and filling it up, that sounds exhausting. Yeah. And it and it felt and it's a place of depletion. It's a place of scarcity where, okay, Jesus, we're it's what it kind of sounds like is all right, we're really good teammates. I come to you when I need to be filled, and then I got it. I'll go over here and you know take care of all these other things in my life. And when I get dry again, I'll come back and get more. And we all live that way at times in our lives. But it's just that self-reliant exhaustion versus Jesus saying, if you will just come and keep on coming to me, which we've talked about in John 15 before, that that idea of abiding in him, if you will just stay with me, allow me to continually be your shepherd, you're gonna overflow. And you're you're able to still meet the needs of the people around you because we all have responsibilities and and work and family, and some of us are even caring for parents. We all have heavy loads on us that we have to take care of, but we can either do it from a place of me trying to self-shepherd and be in control and find my own pastures and take care of myself, which I can't do because I'm just a dumb sheep that can't figure all that out, but I think I can. Or we can live from this uh place of abundance that you're talking about, where I so saturate myself with him and who he is flowing in me that the overflow of that gets to go to the people around me. And it it's it's a beautiful picture. I loved it when you shared it at Charlotte, but so much harder to live because there's so much distraction and so many competing voices that want to steal away this idea that in him I have everything that I need for any circumstance I might find myself in.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So, Elizabeth, what do you think it looks like if we if we go a little bit deeper? What's it look like to really rest in his sufficiency and his abundance as our shepherd rather than us continually striving? Like, how do we get in a pattern better of doing that? Even and even as I ask that question, I say, how do we get in a better pattern, which includes striving right there, right? Right. Yeah. What do we live that way? How do we, how do we, how do we, how do we we want that? How do we do that?
SPEAKER_01:Right. And it it's it's a word I don't I don't like. Yeah, I think the word is surrender. Um, and that may have to be a moment by moment, minute by minute thing that we have to continually choose to do. But going back to our our teaching on spirit, soul, and body, I think our spirit is is for most of us, because it is continually communing with God and God is speaking to our spirit, and our spirit is testifying that we are his children, that he's our Abba. I think there's this beautiful natural flow for most of us that's going on in our spirit that we may not even recognize because a lot of us are just now learning that we even are made spirit, soul, and body, and there's anything different on the inside of us. But the a lot of the striving comes from the soul level, where our minds, our emotions, our soul looks around and goes, There's scarcity, there's not enough for me. Um, people are going to let me down. I may lose my job, like all the weird, the worry, the fears, all the things that just battle against our mind. We talked about peace on our podcast episode. We were talking about the battle it is to stay with the mind of Christ and to let God's peace rule in our hearts. And so I think the first step towards understanding abundance is to surrender control. Like I just said, I so often try to be my own shepherd. I think that is why Jesus and the Father in the Old Testament and Jesus, the new testament, had to keep saying to us, I am the good shepherd. I am your shepherd. I am going to take care of this for you because we so quickly get into that soul stew of spinning and striving and trying to worrying about how is this gonna happen? How am I gonna make it happen? Instead of taking a step back and going, okay, my job as a sheep is just to follow his lead. If he says, go lie down in this pasture, that's where I'm gonna go lie down. If he says, okay, it's time to get up, we got to move on, we got to get you to some water. So our part is obedience. Our part is listening for the shepherd's voice. Jesus also said, the sheep know my voice. So another thing, Kimberly, you did a great job of talking about in Charlotte is how we've got to focus our hearts and our minds and our spirits to slow down and tune into that shepherd's voice and follow his lead and listen to him.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think the the reality is that most of us don't live from our spirit, right? And if you need to, you can go back through our podcast. We have several conversations on spirit, soul, and body and explaining that and asking questions about that. That's a big part of it is learning how to live from our spirit, connected to God's spirit, learning how to discern the spirit's voice when he speaks to us. Uh, because the truth is, you know, we we've talked about how God led the Israelites by day and by night through the wilderness. And that's all they had was right in front of them. And that's what we're talking about with sheep. They look right in front of them. And so where God provided for the Israelites was was right in front of them. But the lesson from that is that he does show up in the barren places. He does show up when we're walking through the wilderness. He does show up when the crowd is gathered and just a small boy has a fish and a loaf of bread. He he shows up and he provides. And that's what the shepherd does. He provides. We were talking about that earlier. And and as you were just saying, one of the things that he provides for us is by providing those green pastures for us, he's providing rest for us. And we don't really surrender until we rest. Right. And so our our spirit needs to understand who God is and who he is, who he genuinely is, not the lies that we believe we've been told about who he is that the enemy wants us to believe, but truly believing that if God is for me and if he is my shepherd, then I can rest. And as I rest, I am surrendering. And as we rest and surrender, then he's providing us with green pastures. He's leading us beside still waters. And in that still waters, he's giving us refreshment. He's giving us the manna from heaven, he's giving, he's multiplying the loaves and the fish in so many ways, right? Like he's refreshing us and feeding us and caring for us, he's nourishing us. And then Psalm 23 says he will lead us in the right path, he will give us direction. I mean, that's a practical outworking there. If you're wondering, we talked about this in Charlotte too, listening prayer. If you're wondering, God, what where are you leading me? What are you saying to me? Why am I in this place right now? What is going on around me? If you listen, it's if you if you truly want to listen to God's voice, you have to surrender all the stuff going on that you were just talking about, all the distractions. Like you said, you have to surrender that and rest and be refreshed with his nourishment, with his voice, with who he is, so that you can be led in the direction that he wants to guide you in. So that's where I see all of this beautifully connected, Elizabeth. This is the character of God woven from Genesis to Revelation, like you said. And he he will be faithful to who he is and to his namesake and to who he wants to be for us as his children from the beginning to the end.
SPEAKER_01:And I I was just really struck by that revelation verse that even then, because you think, okay, we're we're around the throne. Like we have arrived. Even then, he's still providing the living water. Like we're never going to be get to a place where we are self-sufficient. We're not designed to be that way. We're designed to lean into him and to be dependent on him. And we've got to choose. I think so many of us are that example you gave, Kimberly. So many of us are the cup that's going to the living waters, getting filled up. Okay, got it, thanks, and and then trying to live on our own. Maybe not even giving it away to anyone else. It's like a car that you put gas into. You know, I had to do that several times on driving to Charlotte and back, right? So you can't just fill your car up once and drive forever and never have to get refilled again. You have to go to another gas station and fill the tank back up, or you're gonna end up on this side of the highway. I think a lot of us want this relationship with God where, okay, I need you to meet my needs and fill me up. But then when I feel full, I'm good and I'm gonna go kind of do my own thing. And it's only when we are in that dry, depleted place that we go, okay, wait, maybe I need to come back to him again. And I'm I'm not trying to be, you know, condemning other people. I do this my own self. That that's this kind of weaving into this idea of broken cisterns, of where we turn away from living water because we want whatever it is we want. You know, you want sunglasses and I want donuts, whatever, whatever it is we run to to find some level of comfort instead of running to God in those moments. It's trying to get us away from this mindset of I am self-sufficient is one belief, or God is not going to be there for me. So I've got to make it on my own is another, and and find a way to lean more and more in to the abundance that's just waiting. When we surrender, when we stop striving, when we allow him to overflow our cup and fill us up, it's not like he's already got it ready. Like his abundance is waiting on me and you. His living water is always flowing. It's not like we have to, he's got to cook up another recipe and and and get more ready to go. It's always present. It's about us choosing to lean into it and be obedient to follow him to the places of provision and abundance and life and more that he already has prepared for us. And that really kind of hit me this week as I was, you know, thinking about this idea of the shepherd and his abundance is how many times as a stupid sheep did I run off on my own and say, This looks good over here, I think I'll go this way when the shepherd is on the other side of the field. What did I, what have how much abundance have I missed out on by trying to do it on my own, by trying to fill my cup up and then walking away and doing my own thing? And that just kind of it makes me sad, but also hopeful that as much as I change that behavior, as much as I choose to surrender and go, I'm gonna choose God's abundance rather than my self-striving and scarcity. I can have more of his rest, more of his trust, more of his love, more of his provision. There's always more. There's more than we can ask or imagine that he has waiting for us if we just keep coming to him. Let's just take a moment. We talked about your spirit being connected to God's spirit. And for some of you, that may be a new concept. For a lot of you, you're familiar with this as you've been listening to our podcast. Let me just take a minute to bless you to lean more into the abundance of what God has for you. So I bless you to know that God is your good shepherd and that he has green pastures and still waters. And I bless you to be at rest in his presence and to truly know deep down to the fullness of you who you are, that you lack nothing because he is your provision, he is your abundance, and he is more than enough. And I bless you to be able to bring your cup to him and to really be in his presence. I bless you with the ability to surrender to his abundance and not allow yourself to run off once your cup is full and try it on your own. Be blessed with God reliance over self-reliance. And I bless you to know that feeling of the good shepherd who picks up the lambs and carries them close to his chest. May you be overwhelmed with the love that the Father has for you, that the Good Shepherd has for you. He is a good shepherd who will provide for you, restore you, and he will always take you to places of abundance in him. So be blessed in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who long to shepherd you. I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast. This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you. To donate, go to www.thefathersbusiness.com. Be sure to follow us at the Father's Biz on Instagram and Facebook.
