May we Experience and Enjoy Christ as the Shepherd and Overseer of our Soul Today!

As the Lord Jesus shepherds our soul and restores our soul, we not only experience Christ but also enjoy Him, for we get a taste for enjoying the Lord in our soul and we enjoy what we eat – we eat Christ and we enjoy Him, the One who is the Shepherd and Overseer of our soul!

This week we have been enjoying the matter of becoming a reproduction of Christ and experiencing Christ as the Shepherd of our soul.

On the one hand, we need to take Christ as our model and follow in His steps NOT by imitating Him outwardly but by becoming His reproduction.

On the other hand, we need to experience Christ as the Shepherd of our souls.

When we read the Gospels we see the pattern of a wonderful God-man who lived a perfect life before God and man, and He expressed God in every possible way.

He laid out His life before us as a pattern, and He calls us to follow Him by living the same way that He lived.

Even as He was in this world, so we should be today. All genuine believers in Christ need to be a little Jesus living again in their own situation and environment.

When others see us, they should see Christ, for Christ should live in us and Christ should be expressed through us.

We need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

This means that we need to have Christ reproduced in us. He lives in us, He indwells us, and He is making His home in us and is being formed in us. Wow!

The way we live Christ is not by trying to imitate or copy Him but by enjoying Him, even by letting Him live in us, allowing Him to make His home in our hearts, and letting Him be formed in us.

When Christ is formed in us, when He is seen in us, others will see Him in us and be manifested in us.

On the negative side, we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer us who live; on the positive side, Christ lives in us, and the life we live in the flesh we live in the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us. Amen!

In 1 Pet. 2:25 we see that Christ is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls; through repentance and faith in Christ, we have returned to Him as such a wonderful One.

He knows our soul, He sees what we go through, and He shepherds us organically to take care of the welfare of our soul.

He exercises His oversight over the condition of our inner being, and He cares for us in love.

We have so many problems, so many wounds, and so many issues; the Lord, however, is welcoming us to come to Him with all our problems, toils, burdens, and wounds, and He will give us rest to our soul. How wonderful is His shepherding!

The Lord Shepherds and Restores our Soul until we Experience and Enjoy Christ

As the Lord Jesus shepherds our soul and restores our soul, we believers in Christ not only experience Christ in our spirit but also enjoy Him in our soul (Phil. 2:2; 3:1).

Our spirit is life; whenever we turn to our spirit, we are filled with life, and Christ has a way to spread from our spirit into our soul.

However, our soul has many problems, and because of the problems in the soul, we do not really turn to the Lord, we do not express Christ, and we don’t live for God’s economy.

For example, in Phil. 2:2 we see that the Philippians believers had some dissension because they were not being joined in soul and they were not thinking the one thing in their mind, which is the leading part of their soul.

Because they were not joined in soul, thinking the same thing, and having the same love, there was some dissension among them.

It may the same with us today.

We may not cause a major turmoil in the church life but, because we’re not joined in soul with the saints, we may not be one with them, and our enjoyment of Christ is non-present.

Christ came into our spirit through our regeneration, and now He needs to spread in our soul and transform our soul.

Only when Christ spreads, occupies, and saturates our entire soul can we be made one in soul.

We need the Lord’s shepherding; He shepherds our soul and restores our soul until we not only experience Christ but also enjoy Him.

It is one thing for us to experience Christ in our spirit and it is something else for us to enjoy Him in our soul.

The truth is that many times we experience something of Christ in our Christian life but we have very little joy, for our soul is not enjoying the Lord.

This is not normal; our experience of Christ should result in joy, in the enjoyment of Christ in our soul. We need to rejoice in the Lord.

But how can we rejoice in the Lord if our soul is not happy? Our spirit may exult in the Lord, but our soul may be weighing us down.

This is why we need the Lord to shepherd our soul. He shepherds us to waters of rest and He makes us happy in Him.

It is normal for a Christian to have joy.

It is normal for a Christian to rejoice in the Lord in spite of the sufferings and trials he goes through.

Yes, we do have deep and weighty experiences, and we may even experience God’s disciplinary judgment in our Christian life frequently; however, if we open to the Lord in all things and allow Him to shepherd our soul, we will experience and enjoy Christ.

It all depends on the taste that we have in our soul.

As we grow up in this world today and are being formed and prepared as human beings, we develop a certain taste, which many times is not to enjoy the Lord but to enjoy other things in this world besides the Lord.

So the Lord brings us back to the enjoyment of Himself in our soul. First, He feeds us and nourishes us, He is our rest, and he guides and leads us.

Then, He brings us into the enjoyment of Himself in our soul.

As the Lord shepherds our soul and restores our soul, we not only experience Christ but also enjoy Him.

Humanly speaking, we may eat a particular healthy meal but we may not enjoy it, for our taste is for something that is not so healthy yet very tasty.

So we need to train our being to eat healthy food and even enjoy eating healthy food so that we may choose to eat healthy and live in a healthy way.

Similarly, the Lord Jesus shepherds our soul and restores our soul so that we not only experience Christ in our spirit but even more, have a taste for the enjoyment of Christ in our soul.

The experience of Christ is primarily in our spirit but the enjoyment of Christ is in our soul (Phil. 1:27; 2:2).

If there’s a problem with our soul, we may have the experience of Christ without the enjoyment of Christ.

Regarding Christ, our taste is mainly with our soul; this is the reason that in order to have the enjoyment of Christ, we need the Lord to shepherd every part of our soul, especially our mind.

We need to open to the Lord day by day and even ask Him to come into our mind to shepherd our mind.

He knows our situation, He understands how we feel, and He sees how much we wander in our mind; we can open to Him and allow Him to shepherd our mind so that we may enjoy the Lord in our soul.

May we open to Him and enjoy Him as the Shepherd and Overseer of our soul today!

Lord Jesus, we open to Your shepherding in our soul. Restore our soul. We want to not only experience Christ but also enjoy Him. Amen, Lord, have a way to shepherd our mind. We turn our heart to You and we set our mind on our spirit. Oh Lord, spread from our spirit into every part of our soul. Spread in our mind, emotion, and will. Have a way to renew our mind. Spread in our emotion and saturate our emotions with Yourself. Amen, Lord, have a way in our will; spread in our will and subdue our will. We open to Your inner shepherding. Thank You for being our organic Shepherd in our spirit. May we not only experience You in our spirit but even more enjoy You in our soul! Oh Lord, may our soul have a taste for the enjoyment of Christ! Heal our soul from all the problems, wounds, and hurts, and bring our soul into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ! Amen, Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You today to just enjoy You!

Experience and Enjoy Christ as the Shepherd and Overseer of our Soul

What a privilege it is for us as believers in Christ to enjoy and experience Christ as the Shepherd and Overseer of our soul (1 Pet. 2:25)!

Through repentance and faith in Christ we have returned to Him, and daily we are learning to allow Him to shepherd us and oversee the situation of our soul.

Many times we are like the two disciples in Luke 24 who were sad and disappointed that the Lord had died, and they were going down to Emmaus.

The Lord came alongside them, walking with them, and He pretended not to know what was going on, in order for them to open up to Him.

Many times the Lord, who knows the real condition of our inner being, comes alongside us and walks with us, asking us to tell Him what’s really going on.

And we may be like these two disciples, telling the Lord off and asking Him how come He doesn’t know what’s going on. Oh, Lord!

The disciples told the Lord, Do You alone dwell as a stranger in Jerusalem and not know the things which have taken place in it these days? (v. 18).

Then the Lord asked them, “What things?” (v. 19).

So they told Him about the things that happened with the Lord, and the Lord took the opportunity to open up the Scriptures and also to open their understanding for them to see Christ, enjoy Christ, and experience Christ.

Then, as He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them in the house, “their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him” (vv. 30-31).

This is how the Lord shepherds us. Sometimes He shepherds us by coming alongside us, and we tell Him so many nonsensical things.

We may even rebuke the Lord or ask Him non-sensical questions.

Yet the Lord goes along with us, He walks with us, and He speaks to us.

And the result is that we are encouraged, strengthened, and nourished, and eventually, we realize that it was the Lord all along!

How we thank Him for shepherding us in our soul and for restoring our soul through His wonderful shepherding!

As the Shepherd of our souls, the Lord is also the Overseer of our souls.

The overseers in the church are the elders, who are not to rule over the saints but to oversee their situation (1 Pet. 5:1-3).

The way they should shepherd the flock of God is by overseeing them, caring for them, and praying for them so that they may shepherd them according to God.

The Greek word for overseer means one who oversees a particular condition or situation.

This is what the Lord does to us and in us. He is above us taking oversight concerning us, watching what we are doing, and then He shepherds us back to Himself.

Thank the Lord that He is the Overseer of our souls, caring for us according to God and shepherding us back to Himself.

For Him to oversee us means that He takes care of us.

A mother is an overseer; she does not rule over her children nor does she just correct and adjust them but even more, she oversees their condition and cares for them.

She just wants to take care of every need that she sees in her children so she oversees them.

The same is true with the Lord Jesus as our Overseer. He watches over us, He observes us, and He cares for us to meet our every need.

The result is that we love Him, we return to Him, we experience and enjoy Him, and we allow Him to take us to where He wants us to be.

Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for being the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Oh, how wonderful it is to be here, under Your care and oversight! We open to You, Lord, for we do not know what we need and where we are, but You know! We believe that You are shepherding us in Your loving care. Thank You for coming alongside us and walking with us wherever we go. Thank You for bearing with us, understanding us, and being willing to listen to all our problems, wounds, and situations. Oh Lord, thank You we can come to You as we are, with all our complaints, problems, and troubles. We just open to Your loving care in Your shepherding. May we learn to open to You again and again, as You walk alongside us, so that we may receive Your shepherding according to Your oversight. Amen, Lord Jesus, bring us on with You. Spread more in our being. Infuse us with all that You are. Our soul welcomes You: come in, fill us, saturate us, and occupy us fully!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ted Williamson in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Peter, msg. 21, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living a Christian Life and Church Life under the Government of God for the Economy of God (2024 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 4, Becoming a Reproduction of Christ and Experiencing Christ as the Shepherd of Our Souls.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Dwell we here on a high mountain, / Wet with the morning-fresh dew, / Slaking our thirst at the fountain, / Water so living and new. / Christ is our rest and enjoyment, / Here we have nothing to fear; / Here all the sheep dwell securely, / Kept by His presence so dear. (Hymns #1121 stanzas 4-5)
  – Lord, our human spirit now contains You. / Still Your purpose in us You would do; / If our wandering mind would leave old thoughts behind, / Then Your life and peace in it we’ll find. / Lord, we would our every thought be captured / By the rich enjoyment in Your Word. / In it we’re supplied, our mind there will abide, / Till our thoughts are wholly sanctified. (Hymns #1193 stanzas 5-6)
  – My Shepherd my soul is restoring, / My will, and emotion, and mind; / And though through the valley I’m walking, / O what a Companion I find! / A table prepared by my Shepherd / I feast on and Satan destroy; / My head is anointed with oil, / My cup runneth over with joy! (Hymns #1170 stanzas 3-4)