Being One with Christ in His Heavenly Ministry to Shepherd God’s Flock, the Church

In the previous articles, we have seen what it means to shepherd according to God by taking a closer look at the pattern of the Lord Jesus and the pattern of the Apostle Paul. A pattern gives us a way practically how to do a certain thing, and the Lord Jesus lived out a God-man life and a life of shepherding, setting forth a pattern for us to follow.

The Lord today wants to bring in a new revival, the ultimate revival, which will close this age and bring the Lord back. This ultimate revival begins with seeing the highest vision of God’s eternal economy, which is that God became a man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. Based on seeing such a high vision, we will have a God-man living so that we may become in reality the same as God to express His divine attributes through our human virtues. Then, this God-man living has a function, which is to shepherd people according to God; this is to become God in function.

According to the high peak of the divine revelation, we are becoming God in life and nature (by regeneration), expression (by having a God-man living), and in function (by shepherding others according to God). We cannot shepherd others according to God unless we see a clear vision of God’s economy and we have a God-man living. To shepherd according to God requires that we become God, live God, and minister God.

The vision of God’s eternal economy is that, in His economy, God becomes one with man and man becomes one with God so that the expression of God, which He had in the individual God-man Jesus Christ, would be enlarged and expanded in His Body, the Body of Christ, which consummates in the New Jerusalem. Based on such a high vision we do well to pray,

Lord, do what You have spoken and what You intend to do in me! May this vision penetrate, govern, influence, and guide my daily living! May I have a God-man living that expresses You and is a shepherding to others for them to enjoy God, be filled with God, and be saturated with God for His corporate expression!

Being One with Christ in His Heavenly Ministry to Shepherd God’s Flock, the Church

When the Lord Jesus was on the earth He was the good Shepherd who came to His sheep so that they may have life and have it abundantly, and that He had other sheep (us, the Gentiles) which He must lead to join with them (the Jewish believers) to be one flock (the church) under one Shepherd (Christ).

In His earthly ministry the Lord shepherded those around Him; He saw that the Israelites were like sheep harassed by their leaders; they were cast away, like sheep not having a shepherd (Matt. 9:36).

In the Gospel of John we see specifically nine cases of shepherding: in ch. 3 the Lord shepherded Nicodemus, a moral and religious man; in ch. 4 a dying person and an immoral person, in ch. 5 an impotent man, in ch. 6 the hungry people, in ch. 7 the thirsty people, in ch. 8 a woman under bondage of sin, in chs. 9-10 a blind man in religion, in ch. 10 He refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd and in ch. 11 He shepherds a dead person, Lazarus.

In the gospel of John we see that the infinite eternal God as the Word became flesh (John 1:1, 14) so that man may become God in life and nature (John 14-17), and the Lord Jesus as the first God-man had a God-man living and He shepherded people. A great part of the Lord’s earthly ministry was His God-man living to shepherd people; this is what we as His reproduction and continuation should do – we should realize we are God-men, born of God with His divine life and nature to express God in our living and shepherd people according to God.

The gospel of John ends with the Lord being reproduced in many others by breathing Himself with His life into them so that they may also shepherd people according to God. The One Shepherd was reproduced in many shepherds in resurrection.

Today in His heavenly ministry the Lord Jesus is still shepherding us: He is the High Priest to intercede for us according to God, and He is ministering God into us – this is shepherding, to cherish by interceding and to nourish by ministering. In John 21 we see how the Lord incorporated the apostolic ministry on earth with His heavenly ministry in the heavens. The Lord recovered and restored Peter in his love for the Lord, and He commissioned him to shepherd His sheep by being one with Christ as the pneumatic Shepherd in the heavens and in Peter.

Though we can’t see it, Christ is the good Shepherd right now shepherding us by living in us; His indwelling is His shepherding of us; also, He is working in our environment to arrange all things, situations, and circumstances so that more of God would be added to our being.

Christ’s shepherding of His flock includes His caring for their outward things and also their inner being, their souls. He takes care of the things concerning their souls by overseeing their souls. Christ indwells us to be our life and everything, but He is also overseeing, observing, the condition and situation of our inner being. He shepherds us by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our soul, our real person. (Witness Lee, Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, pp. 131-132)

As the Head of the Body He has set some as “shepherds and teachers” (Eph. 4:16) to shepherd the saints and perfect them to be one with Christ in His heavenly ministry as the good Shepherd. The Lord’s need today is that every one of us would be perfected to shepherd others according to God by being one with Christ in His heavenly ministry.

To shepherd others includes cherishing them and nourishing them to take an all-inclusive tender care of God’s flock, which is the church as the Body of Christ. In His heavenly ministry the Lord Jesus continues the shepherding that He began in His earthly ministry (John 10:11, 14-16; Heb. 13:20-21), and we on earth need to be one with Him to receive His shepherding and shepherd others according to God.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being the High Priest to intercede for us and the Minister of the heavenly places to minister God into us so that we may be shepherded by You as the Good Shepherd in Your heavenly ministry. Lord, we want to be one with You in Your heavenly ministry today to shepherd others according to God. Lord, we love You, we enjoy and receive your inward and outward shepherding, and we want to cooperate with You to shepherd others according to God today in the church life for the building up of the Body!

To Shepherd According to God is to Shepherd According to God’s Nature, Desire, Way, and Glory

When the Lord Jesus was on earth expressing God and shepherding people, Peter was so impressed with this matter of shepherding that he himself charged the elders to shepherd the saints according to God (1 Pet. 5:2). He didn’t just say, Elders, shepherd the flock of God, but he said, Shepherd according to God the flock of God among whom God placed you. This means that it may be possible for us to shepherd others not according to God but according to our preference, our interest, our purpose, and our disposition.

To shepherd others according to God is to shepherd them according to God’s nature, His desire, His way, and His glory, and not according to our preference, interest, purpose, and disposition (2 Cor. 4:2, 5-6). We may be preferential when it comes to shepherding others: we may consider some to be “more promising” while others we don’t evaluate as high; if the Lord were to shepherd His sheep in that way, we all would not be here!

The Lord Jesus shepherded people entirely according to God – He didn’t exercise His preference or will in His shepherding. Before He chose the twelve apostles, He spent the whole night before God in prayer, and He chose them according to God; He knew that Judas will betray Him and He knew the disposition of His disciples, but He didn’t exercise His preference to “choose the good ones”.

Even His closest companions, Peter, James, and John, were not according to His natural preference; they were many times stumbling Him or even desiring to cast fire on earth to destroy the cities that didn’t receive them….but the Lord shepherded them nonetheless. In the same way the Apostle Paul, who was a Jew of the Jews, a Pharisee, a learned person in the law, and with a great burden for the Jews, did not exercise his preference to preach the gospel ONLY to the Jews but became the apostle to the Gentiles.

Paul shepherded people according to God by living Christ; he had a God-man living to magnify Christ, and his shepherding of people was not according to his personal burden by according to God. He even longed for the saints in Phillipi in the inward parts of Jesus Christ; his love, care, and yearning over the saints was not natural but an issue of his God-man living. Shepherding according to God means we do not “rule over the flock” but take an all-inclusive tender care of the saints in the church, which is the flock of God.

Shepherding according to God requires suffering for the Body of Christ, even as Christ suffered (Col. 1:24), and this kind of shepherding enables the elders to be rewarded by God with the unfading crown of glory (1 Pet. 5:4). To shepherd according to God means that we don’t exercise our preference, our interest, and our purpose, but we shepherd others according to God’s choice, desire, intention, and preference.

Lord Jesus, we want to be one with Christ to shepherd others according to God. Save us from shepherding others according to our preference, interest, purpose, and disposition. Lord, we want to shepherd others one with You according to Your nature, desire, way, and glory, so that the church may be built up to be the Body of Christ, Your corporate expression. Lord, may we experience the dispensing of the Divine Trinity so that we may shepherd others according to God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother M.R’s sharing in the message for this week, and Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, msg. 13 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Need for a New Revival, week 6 / msg 6, Shepherding according to God (2) Becoming One with God, Being Constituted with God, Living God, Expressing God, Representing God, and Ministering God to Shepherd according to God.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # My Shepherd’s face is how I live, / I love to look at Him. / Though He might lead through shearing trial, / But still I follow Him. / Just as the Father’s presence cheered / Him through each suffering day, / ’Tis once I saw His tender care / That here I want to stay. (Song on the Lord as the Shepherd)
  # When I’m with the saints, / Christ we pursue! / Seeking for You! / Here loving You! / When I’m with the saints, / Christ we do share! / And for each member care! / When I’m with the saints, / Christ we employ! / Without alloy! / Christ we enjoy! / When I’m with the saints, / Hopeful am I! / They are my life supply! (Song on Shepherding the Saints)