Cooperate with Christ’s Shepherding to be Today’s Overcomers Consummating the New Jerusalem

In our care for the saints and fellowship with one another, we need to be restricted in our speaking, not speaking reviling words but rather, loving the saints and covering them, for we want to cooperate with Christ’s shepherding to consummate the New Jerusalem!

The Lord in His heavenly ministry is shepherding us by ministering life to us and caring for the welfare of our inner being.

We as believers in Christ need to see what the Lord is doing today and be one with Him in His wonderful shepherding; we need to cooperate with His shepherding to also shepherd others.

A particular aspect of shepherding relates to ministering life to others; the reason people get offended, sin, and do all kinds of negative things is because of the lack of life.

We all need more life, more of the divine life; therefore, we need to cooperate with the Lord to minister life to the saints.

It is not our duty or responsibility to expose others, condemn them, or criticize them; even when we see someone who lives in sin that doesn’t lead to death, we need to pray and ask, and we will give life to them.

We need to pray for one another, bring one another before the Chief Shepherd, and He will duplicate His shepherding heart into us for us to care for them according to God.

For others to be recovered and brought back to the enjoyment of Christ, what they need is not someone to show them their pitiful condition or their sin, but that someone would minister life to him.

Each time we meet the saints, we need to have a portion of life that we can minister to them through our speaking.

Judgement kills others and brings in offenses and division; life, however, brings in healing and development of life.

It is easy and even natural for us to see and point out others’ problems and sins, but it is something of the Lord that we pray for others and give them life by our words.

When we pray for the saints and minister life to them through our speaking, we bear away the iniquity and solve their problems; it is not because we are smarter or more mature that we can solve their problems, but it is because of the ministering of life.

Life can take care of our problems, and as long as life is ministered, the problems are solved, the issues are sorted out, and the sins are being exposed and dealt with.

Being Restricted in our Speaking to Cover others in Love and Not Revile but Give life to them

Our shepherding of others is mainly through our speaking; our actions also matter a lot, and our attitude is quite important, but we shepherd them through our speaking.

A very important principle in shepherding others and in fellowship with them is that we need to be restricted in our speaking (John 6:63; Acts 6:10).

Our attitude toward the saints should be of love, and this love is not our natural human love but God as love being lived out in us.

In our natural love, we may love a good person or one who matches our disposition, but when we love all saints with God as love, we will love even those who don’t seem so lovable.

Someone may join our meetings and be built up with us, and then suddenly leave and join another group or a denomination; this doesn’t mean that we should not love him anymore but rather, love them even more.

Love covers and endures, and love doesn’t require that one be loved back.

If someone meets in the church life and then falls back into the world, we should not have the attitude of not accepting him because he’s not qualified; this is not love but hate.

We should not hate others, for love covers all sins (Prov. 10:12).

May we be like the sons of Noah who cover others’ nakedness without even looking upon it, so that we may get the blessing and not the curse.

When we uncover others’ shortcomings or failures, we will suffer a curse, but if we cover others’ sins, defects, and shortcomings, we enjoy, gain, and receive blessings.

When we turn a sinner back from the error of his way, we will save one’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins (James 5:20).

God is love, and He has poured out His love into our hearts with the Holy Spirit; love is not jealous, is not provoked, and doesn’t take account of evil (1 Cor. 13:4-8).

Love covers all things, endures all things, and never falls away; love is the greatest (v. 13).

In ourselves, we are easily provoked; the reason we’re provoked is the cause of the shortage of love.

When we are filled with the divine love, we will not be provoked, no matter how much others rebuke us.

Love doesn’t take account of evil; in ourselves, we have a list in the back of our head of the things others did to us, but love doesn’t take account of evil.

May we realize that, in shepherding others according to God, we need to cover their sins, not taking account of their evils.

Also, love doesn’t revile; to revile is to rebuke or criticize harshly or abusively, to assail with abusive language.

May we not speak reviling words and also not take in reviling words (1 Cor. 6:10; cf. Num. 6:6; Lev. 5:3).

In order for the church to maintain the oneness, the brothers and the sisters may withstand reviling words, and they must not revile others.

How can we not revile others? Just as the consciousness of sin comes from knowing God, so the consciousness of reviling words comes from our knowing the Body.

When we know the Body of Christ, we realize that reviling words are opposed to the testimony of the Body.

All this has to do with our speaking; we need to be restricted in our speaking in shepherding others.

If we revile others, uncover their sins, or condemn them in our speaking, God will never entrust authority to us.

On one hand, we need to have a clear sight over the people with much discernment, but on the other hand, we should be blind spiritually, in the sense of not judging or condemning others (Eph. 4:29-32).

If we speak carelessly and express our opinions loosely, we cannot be used by God to care for others.

But if we judge ourselves and put ourselves under the cross, being restricted in our speaking, we realize that all saints are lovable in God’s eyes, and we will love them with God as our love.

Our speaking will be seasoned with salt, and we will speak words of grace, that which is good for building up (Col. 4:6), and we will not tear down.

May our speaking be dealt with by the cross so that we may be restricted in our speaking so that we may be effective in our shepherding.

Lord Jesus, thank You for loving us and accepting us; thank You for pouring out Your love into our heart through the Holy Spirit. We want to love others and care for them according to You and with the love which You are in us. Amen, Lord, may we not be loose in our speaking or revile with our tongue; may we be those who are restricted in their speaking in our fellowship with others. May we be filled with You as love and express You as love in caring for others so that we may cover their sins and not take account of their evils. Amen, Lord, save us from uncovering others defects, shortcomings, and sins. Grant us to have a proper knowledge of the Body so that we may have the consciousness of reviling words. Save us from criticizing others; may we cover them, love them, and minister life to them instead of reviling them. Amen, Lord, may our words be full of grace, seasoned with salt, good for the building up!

Cooperate with Christ’s Shepherding to be Today’s Overcomers Consummating the New Jerusalem

The first sign at the beginning of the first chapter of the book of Revelation is Christ as the Son of Man, the Shepherd-Priest, who walks among the seven golden lampstands, signifying the local churches (Rev. 1:13).

Christ in His heavenly ministry is carrying out His priesthood by shepherding the local churches, cherishing them with His uplifted, perfect humanity, and nourishing them with His divinity.

The organic maintenance of the golden lampstand is Christ’s heavenly ministry to cherish the churches in His humanity and nourish the churches in His divinity to produce the overcomers through His organic shepherding (Rev. 1:13; 2:7; John 10:11, 14; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4; Heb. 13:20). Wow, Hallelujah!

The last sign at the end of Revelation is the New Jerusalem, the universal golden lampstand.

Christ in His heavenly ministry is shepherding the saints to produce the overcomers and consummate the New Jerusalem.

When the churches in Asia forsook Paul’s ministry, degradation comes in; whenever we leave the ministry of the apostles, we are in degradation.

But praise the Lord, through the organic shepherding of Christ in His heavenly ministry, the overcomers are produced.

The overcomers are the ones who meet the Lord’s need and the present needs in His recovery at these end times.

The overcomers cooperate with the Lord to build up the Body of Christ in this age, thus affording Him a way to consummate the New Jerusalem initially, in the kingdom age.

The overcomers will rule and reign with the Lord in the kingdom age, in the heavenly part of the coming millennial kingdom.

Eventually, the overcomers will consummate the New Jerusalem for the full manifestation of God in eternity in the new heaven and new earth.

The New Jerusalem will be composed of all the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified believers, including the defeated believers who are by then perfected, after being disciplined dispensationally during the kingdom age of righteousness.

The New Jerusalem will be the fulfilment of God’s dream which became Jacob’s dream and our dream – the eternal Bethel, the eternal dwelling place of both God and man on earth.

The divine revelation is showing us that God’s eternal economy is consummated by shepherding; therefore, we all need to endeavour to enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding and be produced as overcomers who care not only for our needs but much more, care for God’s need and consummate God’s eternal purpose.

The goal of Christ’s wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry is to build up the New Jerusalem for the accomplishment of the eternal economy of God.

For eternity we will enjoy the Lamb – who is in the midst of the throne – shepherding us and continually guiding us to springs of waters of rest (see Rev. 7:13-17).

God’s unique and eternal goal in this universe is the New Jerusalem, and He cannot fulfil His eternal goal apart from shepherding.

It is through Christ’s wonderful shepherding that God will be able to reach His goal.

When He was on earth, Christ carried out His ministry mainly by shepherding all kinds of people, including the sick ones, the sinners, the demon-possessed, and the paralytics.

At the end of His earthly ministry, He died on the cross to accomplish the judicial redemption for all those of the mankind that would believe into Him; what a universal wonderful shepherding this death on the cross was for the entire fallen human race!

After His resurrection, Christ came back to shepherd His backslidden disciples, and after they were recovered, He charged them to shepherd His sheep, to shepherd His people, with the purpose that they also may shepherd others.

God’s shepherding us is so that we may shepherd others also; He loves us and cares for us so that we may love and care for others also.

After He ascended, in His heavenly ministry, Christ continues His wonderful shepherding, and here on earth, we need to cooperate with the apostolic ministry to enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding.

In the next age, in the millennial kingdom, Christ will be the real David (Rev. 2:27), a King-Shepherd; He will rule in His kingdom by the way of shepherding.

Ultimately, in His eternal kingdom, in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem, Christ – who is the Redeeming God, the Lamb on the throne – will eternally shepherd His people.

By His eternal shepherding from the throne, we will enjoy the river of water of life with the tree of life. by His divine flowing and dispensing, the New Jerusalem will be forever maintained and sustained by His rich, unlimited, unceasing, all-inclusive, bountiful, and eternal supply.

When we see the vision that shepherding will consummate God’s eternal economy and that this shepherding is something wonderful and eternal, we all will enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry so that God’s dream, His eternal purpose, may be fulfilled.

May we all pray that the Lord would give us at least one person, one sheep, that we may shepherd them; may we all enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding, realizing that we are saved to serve the Lord and to this, there’s no retirement or graduation.

May we all enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding and enjoy the eternal blessing by serving the Lord in this age, in the next age, and serve Him for eternity, so that God’s eternal dream may be fulfilled through us!

Lord Jesus, we open to Your wonderful shepherding today; we open to Your cherishing in Your humanity and Your nourishing in your divinity so that we may be produced as Your overcomers. Amen, Lord, keep us under Your organic shepherding until we are Your overcoming ones, those who shepherd others and who will rule with You in the next age. Give us at least one person that we can shepherd, dear Lord. Save us from merely waiting for others to shepherd us; we want to cooperate with Your wonderful shepherding today by feeding Your lambs and shepherding Your sheep. Grant us the grace to enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding so that God’s eternal dream may be fulfilled through us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message given by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 5, entitled, Our Need to Walk in Newness of Life, to Serve in Newness of Spirit, and to Be Renewed in Our Inner Man Day by Day.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Built up in love together, / Not one would criticize; / To perfect one another, / We all would exercise. / Each one from self delivered, / The natural life forsakes; / In grace each trained in spirit / The Body-life partakes. (Hymns #867)
  – Love covers all things and believes all things, / Love hopes in all things and endures all things. / Love never falls away and won’t be rendered useless. / But other things will pass away… / Love suffers long and love is kind, so kind, / Love does not brag, is not puffed up, / Love rejoices when God’s truth is manifest, / Love is the element of God. (Song on, Love covers all things and believes all things)
  – Finally, in Revelation, / Is the picture of Christ’s Bride— / Consummation of God’s purpose; / He is fully satisfied. / New Jerusalem, a city, / Is the Bridegroom’s counterpart— / So the church built up together / Forms the Bride for Christ’s own heart. / How can we, as those who truly / Long to see God reach His goal, / Be united and related? / By denial of our soul! / As we contact Christ in spirit, / Feed on Him as life to us, / Then His life will flow, transform us / To His Bride, all glorious! (Hymns #1324)