In order for us to shepherd according to God, we need to live a shepherding life, being constituted with Christ so that our heart may be enlarged, we would live an all-fitting life, and we would cherish and nourish the flock of God with the Father’s love and the Son’s seeking spirit.
The Lord today is in ascension, on the throne, and in His heavenly ministry, He is not only interceding for us but also shepherding us.
He is the Chief Shepherd, the Shepherd of our soul, taking care of the condition of our soul and overseeing the welfare of our being.
And He wants to shepherd us so that we can also shepherd others.
He shepherds our soul, causing our soul to be happy in the Lord and to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, and He reproduces Himself into us so that we may also shepherd others according to God.
On one hand, the elders’ main function is to shepherd the flock of God among whom the Lord has placed them; they are placed not over the flock but among the flock, being the servants of the flock, to oversee their situation and help by shepherding them according to God.
On the other hand, not only the elders need to shepherd but we also, the many members of the Body of Christ, need to rise up and shepherd one another according to God.
Too many times, however, we shepherd others according to how we feel, when we feel like it, when we are happy in our soul, or we may shepherd the ones that we like.
We do not have an enlarged heart, nor do we express God in our shepherding others.
We need to shepherd one another according to God; this means that we need to be one with God, live God, express God, and minister God, even become the same as God in life, nature, expression, and function. Wow!
God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness; as we spend time with the Lord, we are becoming the same as He is – we become love, light, holiness, and righteousness.
And our shepherding of others is not something we do deliberately, at a certain time during the day, when we make an appointment with them.
Shepherding is a life, a living; it is the Christ in us being expressed through us as the Shepherd. Our living of Christ shepherds others.
When we enjoy the Lord and partake of His riches, when our soul is happy in the Lord under His organic shepherding, we spontaneously shepherd others according to God, for we are the expression of God.
May the Lord gain this among us; may He gain us all as being those who enjoy the Lord’s organic shepherding and cooperate with Him to shepherd others according to God.
Being Constituted with Christ to Spontaneously Live a Shepherding Life and have an Enlarged Heart
When we speak of shepherding others, many times this doesn’t come naturally; many times we need to set a time and a date, prepare our being, and do something in an outward way.
But shepherding according to God is not like this; shepherding according to God is living a shepherding life.
In order for us as believers in Christ to shepherd others according to God, we need to live a shepherding life (John 21:15-17; 2 Cor. 6:1-13; 7:2-3).
After the Lord was resurrected, He had many important and crucial matters He had to do and address, and one of these crucial matters was described in John 21, a chapter many call parenthetical, for it is right in between the Lord’s resurrection and His ascension.
The Lord took time to do what He does best: shepherd His disciples.
This One lives in us. In ourselves, in our natural man, we are inclined to take care of the ones we like, and this care is selfish, for we care for them because they like us.
But the Shepherd, Christ, who lives in us, He shepherds others according to God.
We need to enjoy Christ and be constituted with Christ, and we will spontaneously live a shepherding life.
We shouldn’t try to shepherd others nor should we merely outwardly tell others to shepherd the new ones.
Rather, we need to help one another and help ourselves to enjoy the Lord, spend time with Him, and allow Him as the Shepherd to be manifested through us.
The life of Christ in us is a shepherding life; we need to be constituted with Christ until we spontaneously live a shepherding life.
The more we are constituted with Christ, the more we will spontaneously live a shepherding life, because the constitution of Christ in our spiritual life has the aspect of shepherding.
It is a life, not a work; shepherding is a life, a spontaneous living of the Christ who is in us, not a deliberate work or performance.
May the Lord deliver us from any performance or striving to do a work for God or to care for others; may we be brought into the enjoyment and experience of Christ to such an extent that we spontaneously live a shepherding life.
The Lord Jesus spontaneously shepherded the ones around Him; He didn’t have “appointments” at certain times with particular people, for which He prepared and read the Bible and prayed, etc.
What He did was remain in fellowship with the Father, do the will of the Father, love the Father, take the Father as His source, and pray to the Father; the result was that He lived a shepherding life, shepherding those around Him according to God.
This One lives in us. When we’re filled with His life, we spontaneously live a shepherding life.
When we are constituted with Christ, He lives in us, and no matter what kind of disposition we have, we will effortlessly care for others according to God.
Because Christ lives in us, we all can live a shepherding life.
An aspect of having a shepherding life is that we have an enlarged heart, a heart to embrace all of God’s people (2 Cor. 6:11-13; 7:2-3; cf. 1 Kings 4:29).
Paul had an enlarged heart and an open mouth; he shepherded the Corinthian believers according to God, for his heart was enlarged to be able to care for them and embrace them.
In our natural man, our heart is very small; it includes mainly us and those whom we like or those who like us. Our heart needs to be enlarged (2 Cor. 6:11-13).
Our heart is very narrow. The Lord wants to produce in us an enlarged heart, a heart to embrace all of God’s people.
There’s nothing of the self here; there is only Christ living in us and us living a shepherding life.
The Lord is taking us through the process of enlarging our hearts so that our heart can contain, embrace, and love thousands of saints, not only those around us.
They are all in our heart, and there’s a loving concern for all of them.
When we hear of the saints’ situation with their family, their health, their house, or their job, this is not just information to us – we bring it to the Lord, we care, and we are before the Lord regarding our care for them.
May we allow the Lord to enlarge our heart.
May we have hundreds and thousands of conversations with Him again and again about the saints close to us and those whom we don’t like or prefer; may we let Him enlarge our heart so that we may be enlarged and live a shepherding life.
May there be a time when we all come to the Lord’s Table meeting and, as we partake of the elements on the table, we can testify that we love all the saints, we are at peace with every member in the Body, and we are enlarged in our heart to care for the saints according to God.
May the Lord take us on with Him in this matter until we have an enlarged heart as He does and we shepherd others according to God by living a shepherding life, not having preferences or doing things according to our disposition.
Lord Jesus, we want to be constituted with You so that we may live a shepherding life! Amen, Lord, keep us enjoying You today so that we may be constituted with You and spontaneously live a shepherding life. Hallelujah, the Christ who lives in us is the Shepherd of our souls, and we can be constituted with Him to live Him out and shepherd others. Constitute us with Yourself, dear Lord, and enlarge our heart so that we may love not only those who love us but all men. Work Yourself into us a little more today. Keep us opening to You concerning all situations, all things, and all persons. May we allow You to enlarge our heart so that it may embrace all the saints and so that we may live a shepherding life. Deal with our heart, dear Lord. Deal with any obstacle, any narrowness, and anything that hinders Your shepherding life being expressed through us.
A Shepherding Life Cherishes and Nourishes Others by an All-Fitting Life
The perfect example in the Old Testament of one who lived a shepherding life is Joseph.
He portrays the constituted aspect of a mature saint.
When Christ constitutes us and we live by this Christ in us, we live a shepherding life, no matter what happens to us.
Joseph was a shepherd (Gen. 37:2), and he was sent by his father Jacob not only to feed the flock but also to shepherd his brothers (ch. 37).
Though he was the second youngest brother, he was sent by his father to shepherd his brothers.
The Lord Jesus came as a shepherd (John 10:11) to shepherd us, His sheep; He constitutes Himself into us, and when we live one with Christ, we can live a shepherding life.
The Christ constituted into our being gives us the burden to care for others.
In ourselves, we may sometimes want to shepherd others but most times we don’t want to; however, the constitution of Christ in us causes us to live a shepherding life.
Shepherding others is not something we pick up or are encouraged to do by the brothers; it is an aspect of the constitution of Christ in our being.
The part of our being that has been constituted with Christ is the part that shepherds others.
We can’t shepherd anyone, but Christ constituted into us is the Shepherd.
A shepherding life is a life that warms up others by cherishing them in the humanity of Jesus to nourish them in the divinity of Christ with the riches of Christ (Eph. 5:29; Prov. 25:15).
As we fellowship with others or simply greet them, without us being aware of this, the Lord’s shepherding life is expressed through us.
Even a two-minute conversation with someone may cherish and nourish them, for we express Christ in His shepherding life; we ourselves are not aware of it, but the Lord lives in us.
A shepherding life is an all-fitting life, a life that is able to fit all situations, accept any kind of environment, and work under any condition (2 Cor. 6:1-13; 7:2-3).
We work together with God by a life that is all-fitting, a life that can meet any kind of situation, live in any kind of environment, and work under any kind of condition.
The apostles did this; they were persecuted, imprisoned, beaten, and mistreated by both the opposers and some of the ones in the church who reviled them.
However, in all these things they lived a shepherding life, expressing the divine life in their human life.
Joseph also did this; though he went to shepherd his brothers and had a pure heart, his brothers wanted to kill him.
The same with the Lord Jesus; He came as the Good Shepherd, but His own people killed Him, and He laid down His life for the sheep.
This is what happens to us when we want to shepherd others.
If we don’t love the Lord and are not paying the price to be constituted with Him, everything seems to be fine in the church life, and we attend the meetings of the church without much happening to us.
But once we start pursuing the Lord, contacting Him, and being constituted with Him, we have a desire and burden to shepherd others, and trouble comes in.
The very ones that we want to shepherd may speak things against us, they may want to “kill” us and mistreat us.
Yet in all these things we live by another life, an all-fitting life.
The Lord’s all-fitting life in us will simply cherish and nourish others through us, and no matter how we are treated, this life will accept any kind of environment.
If we feel mistreated, if we are offended, and if we feel that others think we’re a strange person by trying to shepherd them, we need to realize that we should live by the divine life, not our natural life.
Our natural, human life, is easily offended and upset when others mistreat us, and in ourselves, we quickly “drop the burden” of shepherding others once they reject us or say things that we don’t like.
But when we live by the divine life, when we live a shepherding life by being constituted with Christ, we will shepherd others according to the loving and tender heart of our Father God and according to the shepherding and seeking Spirit of our Savior Christ (Luke 15:1-32).
Such a shepherding life can be lived only by the Lord Jesus, the One who did not reject or hate Peter who betrayed Him but rather, shepherded him and restored his function of shepherding others until the end.
May we open to this living One in us and let Him live in us, and may we live and shepherd others by the all-fitting life within us.
Lord Jesus, we want to live by the divine life in all the aspects of our daily life so that we may express You and not ourselves. May we live a shepherding life, a life that warms up others and nourishes them. May we cherish others in the humanity of Jesus to nourish them in the divinity of Christ with the riches of Christ. Amen, Lord, live in us today. Be expressed through us as we are learning to shepherd others one with You. We want to live by the all-fitting life in our spirit, for only this life is able to fit all situations and accept any kind of treatment. We turn to You, Lord, and we allow You to work Yourself into us to constitute us with what You are. Oh Lord, You are the Shepherd in our spirit, and You can live a shepherding life in us! Make us one with You to shepherd the saints according to the loving and tender heart of our Father God! Amen, Lord, may we have the seeking and shepherding spirit of our Savior Christ.
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 Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msg. 110 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 6, entitled, Shepherding according to God.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– 15 Favorite Quotes from The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee, article via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– The model of Christ cherishing the churches and nourishing the churches in taking care of the churches, a portion from, The Vital Groups, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
– Selected Ministry on the Apostles’ Ongoing Role in Established Churches, article via, Shepherding Words.
– Shepherding as Seen in John 21, article via, Living to Him.
– Striving together when the saints with one soul in the faith of the gospel, a portion from, Instruction and Exhortation to the Trainees, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
– New Jerusalem, City of the Living God (2), article via, New Jerusalem blog.
– Shepherding and ministering life, a portion from, All Ages for the Lord’s Testimony, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
– Life’s Shepherding—the Need of Those outside Religion – a free booklet via LSM.
– Shepherding in Love, a new song via Hymnal.net - Hymns on this topic:
– Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer! / Sing, ye saints! His wonderful love proclaim! / Hail Him! hail Him! mightiest angels in glory; / Strength and honor give to His holy name! / Like a shepherd, Jesus will feed His people, / In His arms He carries them all day long; / O ye saints that live in the light of His presence, / Praise Him! praise Him! ever in joyful song! (Hymns #235 stanza 1)
– How sweet, how heav’nly is the sight, / When those who love the Lord / In one another’s peace delight, / And so fulfill His Word: / When each can feel his brother’s sigh, / And with him bear a part; / When sorrow flows from eye to eye, / And joy from heart to heart; / When, free from envy, scorn and pride, / Our wishes all above, / Each can his brother’s failings hide, / And show a brother’s love. (Hymns #857 stanzas 1-3)
– We work together with God by a life, / We work together with God by a life: / All-sufficient, / All-mature; / Able to fit / All situations, / Able to endure / Any kind of treatment, / To accept any kind of environment; / All-fitting life! / Able to work / In any condition, / To take any kind / Of opportunity / For the carrying out of our ministry; / All-fitting life! (New song on, All-fitting Life)
About aGodMan
2 Cor. 6:11, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible
Life-study of Genesis, pp. 1410-1411, by Witness Lee
wow, brother, the Christ who is constituted into our being can live a shepherding life, and this life is an all-fitting life, a life able to fit all situations and accept any kind of treatment! In ourselves we may want to shepherd only those whom we like and who like us back.
But when we’re constituted with Christ, our heart is enlarged and we shepherd others no matter how they treat us – we simply live Christ and minister Christ to them.
Only Christ is the true & proper Shepherd.
We so need Christ constituted into us as the Shepherd.
We cannot reign until we have learned to shepherd.
Both Joseph & Jesus were shepherds before they gained ruling authority.
We are not here to be kings who rule over others; we are called to be shepherds.
We are called to care for others and even be killed by them!
Only if we are faithful & caring shepherds will we inherit a crown of life…
Amen, I was touched with that as well as how he typified Jesus who came to shepherd his people and they killed him.
The saints testimony when they tried to care for the body/church, are being hated, persecuted or killed. What a reality of laying down our lives for a the Lord.
Amen
Lord Jesus live in us and shepherd us
Hallelujah! 😃🎶🙋🏽🙏Amen!
Brother, to shepherd according to God we must live a shepherding life.
Like the mature apostles, our heart needs to be enlarged to embrace all believers and our mouth must be open concerning their real situation.
For this we need the loving and forgiving heart of our Father God and the seeking and shepherding Spirit of our Saviour Christ.
Amen! Thank you Lord for this pattern of Joseph.
Cause us to shepherd according to You and not ourselves.
We want You to live the shepherding life in us today!
Wow, wonderful!
Lord its only Your life that has a shepherding aspect!
Constitute us more with Your shepherding life!
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
I am sensing experiences of pain and rejection when reading this piece and in many of the comments. Perhaps we need to pour some oil upon these wounds.
Yes, shepherding can be a dangerous activity. Remember David and the lion? But mostly it is as life: a going along, seeking clear passage, finding proper forage and safe rest. Just walking beside another for a bit can become a most effective shepherding. What I am saying is that the shepherding is almost undetectable, gracious and light to the touch. If your company is rejected, then leave. And pray. For them yes, and that the Lord will send along another who may have a better reception.
We must always remember, this is not about us, our flesh, our soulish selves. No. If it hurts, then we are not in the right condition, that of death, of the cross. Joseph is an example, but not of proper shepherding. Remember, he wore his “coat of many colors” thereby incensing his brothers. Our souls are our coats of many colors. We can not lead with our soulish need to shepherd. If you see a shepherding need, pray, and wait upon the Lord’s instruction. Pray He sends the right one at the right time. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s not.
There are some in the church life whom, I am loathe to admit, I have found tedious and annoying. And I am sure there are some who think the same of me. But these opinions and critiques are very unhealthy for us and the church and especially frowned upon by our Heavenly Father. I could not change my reaction however. Every time I even heard these ones pray or call a hymn or share, I would cringe. I could not explain it. So I went to the Lord. He said, ”Pray for them.”
I did. And the most amazing thing happened. Not only are these ones no longer annoying, THEY ARE MY FAVORITE SAINTS! You see, it was not they who needed changing, it was me. So let us pray that the Lord makes us all into who He needs us to be, individually and collectively, as the built up church.
Amen saints. Love you all.