Enjoying Christ’s Wonderful Shepherding and being Mingled with God to Shepherd others also

As believers in Christ, we need to enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry by enjoying and ministering Christ to shepherd the church of God as a slave of God for the fulfilment of the dream of God, the purpose of God. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to a new topic in the series in the 2021 fall ITERO; the title is, Entering into Christ’s Wonderful Shepherding in His Heavenly Ministry to Shepherd the Church of God as a Slave of God for the Fulfillment of the Dream of God. Wow!

Christ came as a Shepherd – even as the Good Shepherd, to care for us, His sheep; He came and laid down His life for us to shepherd us and bring us back to God so that we may be one flock under Him as one Shepherd.

He shepherded us in the past, when He was incarnated, by His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.

All the processes He went through were a great shepherding to us, causing us to come to the Lord, be comfortable to open to Him and receive Him as our life.

Christ is also shepherding us today; He is not among us as One who wants to be served by us – He is among us as One who serves us.

He serves us by dispensing His divine life into us, by arranging all things around us, and by taking all-inclusive tender care of us, His flock.

He passed through death and resurrection and, as the life-giving Spirit, He is the indwelling Shepherd, the pneumatic Shepherd in our spirit; He oversees the condition of our inner being, and He shepherds us according to God.

He shepherds us both individually and corporately.

How we love Christ’s wonderful shepherding! In the next age and for eternity, He will still shepherd us, for He will wipe away every tear, lead us to waters of rest, and cause us to walk in His ways. Hallelujah!

Today the Lord is looking for many of His believers to enter into His wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry to shepherd the church of God as a slave of God, so that His dream may be fulfilled.

We need to see and enjoy His shepherding today, respond to His shepherding, and enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding to cooperate with Him by enjoying Him and ministering Him to the saints for the building up of the church so that the dream of God might be fulfilled. Amen!

He came as the good Shepherd, He shepherded us into Himself, and He is still shepherding us according to God; as such a One, He wants to reproduce Himself in our being so that we also may shepherd others according to God by joining Him in His wonderful shepherding.

Christ came as the Great Shepherd of the Sheep to Serve us for the Fulfillment of God’s Dream

God has a dream; this is the dream of His eternal purpose to gain the house of God, the church, the mutual dwelling place of God and man.

For us to understand what is God’s dream we need to read Gen. 28:11-12, 16-19, where we see the story of Jacob running from his brother and spending the night in a particular place and having a very particular dream.

Jacob’s dream is God’s dream; when Jacob woke up, he said that this is an awesome place, none other than Bethel, the house of God.

God wants to gain this: the house of God, Bethel, the mutual dwelling place of God and man. In this universe God is doing only one thing – He is building His eternal habitation for His eternal expression (Matt. 16:18; John 14:23; 15:5; Rev. 21:3, 22).

The one thing God is doing both in the Old and in the New Testament, even from eternity to eternity and through time, is to build up His dwelling place, the church as the Body of Christ.

When Jesus came, He said, I will build My church (Matt. 16:18); this is God’s dream, the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.

Christ as the Slave-Savior came not to be served but to serve; He came as the Great Shepherd of the sheep to serve us and cause us to be part of His dream.

As the Great Shepherd of the sheep, Christ served us in the past, He still serves us in the present, and He is going to serve us in the future (Mark 10:45; Luke 22:26-27; 12:37; Heb. 13:20; Rev. 7:17; Gen. 48:15).

Even in the future, He will still continue to shepherd us, His sheep, for we need continual shepherding. We were like sheep that went astray, but He sought us out, found us, put us on His shoulders, and brought us into the flock.

However, His shepherding doesn’t end here; in the flock and as the flock, the Lord shepherds us today both individually and corporately so that we may be built up to be the church, the house of God, the mutual dwelling place of God and man.

This is to fulfill God’s dream to have a dwelling place of God and man for His expression in this universe.

He is among us as the One who serves; He serves us and shepherds us without asking anything in return, and He is willing to lay down His life for us.

Whenever we have a need, we can come to the Lord and let Him serve us; whenever we need something and whatever we need, we can simply come to Him to enjoy Him.

As the life-giving Spirit, the Slave-Savior shepherds us and also shepherds others through us by dispensing Himself as life into us so that we can become a channel for Him to dispense Himself as life into others also (Matt. 26:13; John 13:12-17; 1 John 3:16; John 10:10; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6).

First, we enjoy His shepherding, and we open to Him to have Him fulfill and take care of all our needs; when our needs are met and we are under His shepherding, we can also shepherd others.

May we learn to come to the Lord again and again and let Him serve us; may we open to His shepherding day after day and even moment by moment so that we may also shepherd others by dispensing Him as life into them.

The Lord shepherds us by dispensing Himself into us as our life and life supply; we shepherd others by dispensing Him into others, so that they may receive Him as their life and life supply.

When we receive Christ’s wonderful shepherding and shepherd others according to God, we cooperate with Him for the fulfilment of God’s dream, the building up of the church as the Body of Christ to be God’s dwelling place on earth.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for coming to us as the Great Shepherd of the sheep to take care of our every need and bring us into God’s dream, the church as the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You for the fulfillment of God’s dream – the dwelling place of God and man for God’s expression. We come to You, dear Lord, and we bring all our needs before You so that You may meet our needs and satisfy us inwardly. Amen, Lord, we let You serve us with all that You are. We open to Your inward shepherding; dispense Yourself into us and constitute us with Your element. Shepherd us so that we may shepherd others by dispensing God into them for the building up of the church, God’s dream!

Being Mingled with God to be Useful to Him in Service in this age and for Eternity

We human beings exist in time, where God has put us; as believers in Christ, we have Christ as our life, and He came into us to train us and make us useful for eternity.

We could say that time is like a school, where God put us to receive spiritual training and education so that we may be useful to Him in service for eternity.

We need spiritual training and education now so that we may be prepared to serve Him in the next age and in eternity (Matt. 25:21; Rev. 22:3).

We want to hear Him, in that day, that He tells us, Well-done, good and faithful slave, you were faithful over a few things in this age, now I will set you over many things in the kingdom. Amen!

This is why we need to daily come to Him and let Him shepherd us and serve us so that we may shepherd others with the shepherding that we have received from Him.

God placed us among His children today so that we may serve together with all of them; our service to the Lord today in time is a preparation for our service to Him in the next age and in eternity.

Christ’s wonderful shepherding began from eternity past, when He chose us and predestinated us; then, in time He shepherded us through incarnation, death, and resurrection.

Today He is shepherding us by ministering to us the divine life and by caring for us in an all-inclusive and tender way.

For eternity, He will still shepherd us, and He will be our Shepherd for eternity.

In time, He regenerates us and then He is training us, by means of specific instances, so that we learn to cooperate with God and be mingled with Him.

The way He trains us is not outwardly but inwardly; it is by mingling Himself with us.

Our usefulness before God is the result of our being mingled with Him; the measure of God in us is the measure of our usefulness before Him (Col. 2:19; Heb. 13:20; Phil. 2:13; 3:8-9).

In other words, how useful we are to the Lord in service today depends on how much we have been mingled with God, on how much of God we have.

There is no shortcut and no quick way of doing this; we all need to spend time with the Lord in a personal and private way day by day to be mingled with Him more.

Our time with the Lord in the morning should not be rushed or in a hurry; we need to spend much time with Him to be infused with Him and have Him mingled with us.

The more time we spend with God, the more we are mingled with Him, and the more there will be the measure of God in us; this becomes our usefulness before the Lord.

God’s only goal in time is to dispense Himself into us day by day so that we may be fully mingled with Him; all our service is a matter of God coming into us and coming out of us – flowing in and flowing out (John 7:37-39; 2 Cor. 3:2-3, 6, 16-18).

His goal is to dispense Himself into us day by day for the fulfillment of God’s dream, the building up of the church as the house of God.

As we spend time with the Lord, setting time to be with Him and allowing Him to mingle Himself with us, opening to His dispensing and being more mingled with Him, we are prepared to serve Him, for He will have a way to flow out of us.

When we drink of Christ as the Spirit, the living water, something happens in us: we spontaneously flow out something of the living water.

He who drinks of Christ, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

This is how we participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry, by drinking of the Spirit and flowing out the Spirit.

Christ as the Steward in God’s house makes us the dispensing stewards of the mysteries of God and of the varied grace of God for the carrying out of His eternal economy, His household administration (1 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 3:2; 1 Pet. 4:10; Isa. 22:15-22).

Christ Himself is the Steward in God’s household, and He shepherds all those in His household by dispensing Himself into them.

As we receive His divine dispensing day by day, as we enjoy His dispensing and partake of His grace, we ourselves become dispensing stewards of God, for we minister Christ to others.

How much we need to receive and enjoy His wonderful shepherding, respond to it in love, and cooperate with Christ’s shepherding by dispensing Him into others for the fulfillment of God’s dream, the building up of God’s dwelling place on earth!

Lord Jesus, we come to You to enjoy You in Your word; mingle Yourself more with us today. Amen, Lord, we want to be useful to You in service, so please mingle us more with Yourself. We open our being to You today so that we may be fully mingled with You. Amen, Lord, more mingling today! More dispensing! May our service before You be an overflow of the mingling of God and man! Make us the dispensing stewards of the mysteries of God and of the varied grace of God for the carrying out of His eternal economy! Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying You, drinking You, and being filled with You so that there would be an outflow of life, a ministry of life, to cooperate with Your heavenly ministry for the fulfillment of God’s dream.

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 Watchman Nee, vol. 37, chs. 2, 29, 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:
  – Jesus, our wonderful Shepherd / Brought us right out of the fold / Into His pasture so plenteous, / Into His riches untold. / Glorious church life, / Feasting from such a rich store! / Here where we’re dwelling in oneness / God commands life evermore. (Hymns #1221)
  – God has a dream, this is what He’s wanting. / God has a dream, and we are part of it. / God has a dream…that we may be one with Him. / God has a dream…realized in you and me! / God, you and me…a dwelling place to be. / God in man, and man in God: one entity. / Now, it’s my dream…my vision and life to be! / God has a dream…realized in you and me! (Song on, God has a dream)
  – The Spirit of life is within us today, / Who’s likened to water our thirst to allay; / Of Him we may drink and be filled thus with Him, / Until as a river He flows from within. (Hymns #278)