Christ Shepherds us by Being our Life and by Living in us; He Guides us into His Flock

The Lord Jesus is the good Shepherd, and He shepherds us by feeding us with Himself and in Himself as the pasture (see John 10:9-10). There are other shepherds, that’s true, but the Lord is the good Shepherd. He takes an all-inclusive tender care of His believers as His sheep.

On the cross He tore down the middle wall of partition and made peace between the Jews and the Gentiles, and in Him we are both made one – the one new man. Christ laid down His human life so that we would receive His divine life and enjoy it to become “His sheep”, the one flock.

The Jewish believers were held in the fold of the law until Christ as the good Shepherd came to lead them out through Himself as the door and into Himself as the pasture. The Gentile believers were held under the elements and rudiments of the world (the moral laws and regulations in each nation) until Christ came to lead them into Himself as the pasture.

Christ as the life-giving Spirit is today our pasture, and as His sheep we need to feed on Him all day long. Just as the sheep graze and digest and eat all day long, from dawn to dusk, so we as the sheep in Christ’s flock need to graze on Christ, feed on Him, and take Him in every day, and there will be a metabolic inward process going on.

As we feed on the Lord through musing on His word and pray-reading, the solid food in God’s word will be deposited in one of our “many spiritual stomachs”, and then throughout the day this food will be regurgitated and digested, thus becoming our constant supply.

Through our eating the Lord and feeding on Him in such a way, we allow Him to live in us and be expressed through us, and He is inwardly guiding us and leading us. If we take care of our feeding on Christ there will be no need to outwardly seek the Lord’s leading; He as the good Shepherd will lead us, guide us, and direct us in the divine life (see John 10:14, 27-30). The way the Lord shepherds us is in life from within – He shepherds us by being our life and by living in us.

The Lord Shepherds us by Feeding us with Himself as our Pasture

How does the Lord Jesus as our good Shepherd take care of us? Primarily, the work of shepherding is the work of feeding.

When He was on the earth walking among the Israelites in His time, the Lord Jesus saw that so many of them are sick, dying, demon-possessed, and He realized that His sheep were harassed, distressed, famished, and mistreated by the bad shepherds (the rulers of the Jews; see Matt. 9:36; 14:14-21). He therefore took care of them by not only healing and restoring them but by feeding them.

Today we as the Lord’s sheep need His continual and constant feeding. If you look at the sheep in the physical realm, they are not that intelligent but they do one thing well: they eat! They can graze and eat from dawn to dusk; when their head is down, they eat, and when their head is up, they regurgitate the food and digest it in one of their many stomachs….

It is the same with us as believers. We may not be that intelligent, we may not have the best way to organize things in the church or our daily life, we may not have the best protection system in place, BUT we know one thing to do: we eat! We have a “big spiritual stomach to eat”, and the Lord is daily leading us into Himself as the pasture to eat.

photo credit: Pasture – Christ is our pasture

Christ is the good pasture with tender grass for our life supply, and we daily eat of Him. We need to refuse to live on second-hand food – we shouldn’t be parasites feeding on what others are feeding. Come to the Lord Himself daily in His word, and muse on His word in a prayerful way so that you may receive the solid food from the Lord.

Pray-reading is the best way to “chew the cud”, masticate God’s words, and feed on Christ. We don’t have only “morning revival” but also “lunch revival” and “evening revival” by turning to the Lord and eating Him in His word.

We need to have a recovery of pray-reading, where each one of us knows how to feed on the Lord Himself by prayerfully musing on His word, considering it deeply in the condition and atmosphere of prayer, and feed on Christ as the pasture.

The resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is our pasture today (John 11:25; 1 Cor. 15:45; John 10:9), and this supply is endless and inexhaustible. Stay in Christ as the pasture and feed on Him! He as the consummated Spirit is with our spirit – let’s find Him and feed on Him!

As we take Christ in through pray-reading the word of God, He as life-supply is dispensed into our being and as food He is deposited into our spiritual stomach. During the day we may not be in front of the Bible, but the word we enjoyed in the morning will regurgitate and feed us!

In our Christian life we should have the deep sense that we are in the pasture enjoying Christ as the rich supply of life. Our Christian life is a life of enjoying the rich supply of Christ all the day long!

By Living in Us and Being our Life, Christ is Shepherding us and Guiding us

Christ as the good Shepherd leads us, guides us, and directs us in the divine life (see John 10:14; 27-30). How does the Lord lead us and guide us? Sometimes He does this through the outward environment, through a speaking from some brothers and sisters, or by something in our family life or work life.

But most of the time the Lord leads us and guides us in the divine life inwardly. He shepherds us from within. The living Christ is in us, and His living in us is His shepherding. We simply need to let Christ live in us, and He will shepherd us in all things.

He shepherds us in the way of life by firstly being the life and life-supply and, secondly, by living in us. We would really like to have a roadmap or at least some clues in our map quest, but the way Christ is guiding us is by being our life and living in us.

We may want Christ to be “the co-pilot” or the “spiritual GPS” as we live our Christian life, but He wants to guide us by being Himself the driver of the car. We have wasted a lot of time asking the Lord for His guidance and leading outwardly when we could have enjoyed Him and let Him live in us and He would have guided us from within!

The Lord is in us as our Shepherd of life and in life, and as a living Person he has a lot of feelings, choices, preferences, and desires. We simply need to feed on Him as our life and let Him live in us.

Let Christ live in you, and let us live in Him, with Him, and by Him by feeding on Him so that we may live because of Him (John 6:57). Dying, He saved us; Living in us, He shepherds us!

Under Christ as the Shepherd We are “One Flock, One Shepherd”

Initially, we as the Gentiles were separated and away from the Jews, alienated from God, having nothing to do with God’s promises and His covenant. We were hopeless and without God in the world.

But on the cross the Lord Jesus did away with the middle wall of partition and created in Himself the new man, making peace between the Jews and the Gentiles and even making us one! Now both the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers are co-members in the Body of Christ, co-heirs of God, and co-partakers of the new covenant and of God’s blessings.

We are members of the Body of Christ, inheritors of all that God is and has accomplished, and we share in the same new covenant today! Now under the shepherding of Christ as the good Shepherd there is “one flock, one Shepherd” (John 10:16).

The Lord called His Jewish believers out of the fold of the law, which was temporary and transient, being a ward to keep them until Christ came. The Lord called His Gentile believers out of the elements of the world to be part of the one flock under one Shepherd.

Now both the Jewish and Gentile believers are part of the flock of Christ, the church, the Body of Christ, and the Lord Himself is our Shepherd (see John 10:16; Eph. 2:14-16; 3:6). Praise the Lord for the church as the flock of Christ where we all are one in Christ by feeding on Him and letting Him live in us!

Lord, we open to Your shepherding today. We come to Your word to muse on it prayerfully so that we may feed on You. Lord, save us from not feeding on You every day. As Your sheep we need You as our life and life-supply! Lord, lead us to Yourself as the pasture and keep us here, grazing on You, taking You in, digesting You, and assimilating You so that we may live because of You. Lord, live in us! Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through us! We just want to feed on You and let You live in us so that we may be guided and lead by You into the one flock under the one Shepherd, the church, Your Body!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John (pp. 255-258), as quoted in, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Mending Ministry of John, week 3 / msg 3, The Shepherding of Christ for the Church as the One Flock and the Father’s House.
• Further reading: recommending msg. 22 in the Life-study of John, and msg. 7 in, Crystallization-Study of the Gospel of John.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Jesus Himself is our pasture, / He is the food that we eat; / We as His sheep are fed richly / Each time, whenever we meet.
  # My Shepherd Himself is my pasture, / My Shepherd, the waters of rest; / I eat of His riches in spirit, / I drink, and O how I am blest!
  # Every verse reveals Yourself to me, / Every line conveys reality. / When I pray the words that You breathed out / You become so real to me. / As I read, I pray, as I pray, I read, / Mingling both as one spontaneously. / You respond within with words so sweet, / I repeat these words to Thee.
  # Now to enjoy Thee I come to Thy Word, / On Thee to feed till my hunger is o’er. / Now in my spirit I turn unto Thee, / Of Thee to drink till I’m thirsty no more. / Feeding and drinking, Lord Jesus, of Thee, / Feeding by reading, and drinking by prayer; / Reading and praying, I eat and I drink, / Praying and reading-Lord, Thou art my fare.