Feeding in Shepherding to Nourish us and Dispositional Sanctification to make us Holy

In the organic aspect of God’s complete salvation, feeding in shepherding (even mutual shepherding) is the nourishment of the divine life for us to grow unto maturity, and dispositional sanctification constitutes us with God’s divine nature for us to be sanctified in our nature to be as holy as God is holy. Hallelujah!

God’s complete salvation includes the judicial aspect (Christ’s judicial redemption) and the organic aspect (God’s organic salvation).

Christ has done everything necessary for the judicial side to be taken care of; He came and satisfied all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, and He obtained a wonderful redemption.

Now whoever believes into the Lord, that is, whoever repents and receives the Lord by believing into Him, is qualified by God, through faith in Christ, to partake of God’s wonderful organic salvation.

On the objective side, we are cleansed of our sins, we’re forgiven of our sins, we are reconciled to God, and we are justified before God, being brought into a position where we are fully acceptable to Him to be His holy people.

On the subjective side, we receive Christ as our life and we become children of God.

Our regeneration is the most amazing miracle in the universe; one moment we’re a sinner sentenced to death due to the sin that will cost us our eternity, and the next moment we are a son of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Through regeneration, we are born of the Spirit to be a child of God, a God-man.

Everything of our Christian life in its organic side begins with our regeneration.

When God’s life comes into us, we have a new beginning in the most positive way: we are born again, born of God, and we start a new life with the Lord.

We don’t just “turn over a new leaf” and “have a new lease on life”; much more than this, we are begotten of God.

And now we partake of and enjoy the process of God’s organic salvation, which has many steps and wonderful processes.

Many believers in Christ, however, think that regeneration, that is, being born again, is the point of our Christian life, and after being regenerated they just have to do good and wait for Jesus to return, and they have to glorify God by their talents or bring others to Jesus.

The Bible speaks much, much more concerning the organic salvation of God than this.

Just as a baby who is born and that’s the beginning of his human life, being very much fed, cared for, cherished, nourished, trained, perfected, raised up, etc so that he becomes a useful member in society, so we as believers in Christ need to grow in life and experience God’s organic salvation to be functioning members in the Body of Christ.

Feeding in Shepherding is the Nourishment of the Divine Life for us to Grow in Life unto Maturity

In His organic salvation, after He regenerates us with His life, God is feeding us in shepherding to nourish us with the divine life.

After we receive the life of God into our spirit, we’re like a little baby in the Lord, having many needs and especially needing the supply of life.

The whole process of God’s salvation is like the conception, birth, and raising of a baby, a child; it is very much an organic matter.

Even before a baby is born, while he is in his mother’s womb, he is fed with the supply of life at the level that he can partake of so that he can grow, develop, and be ready to be delivered.

The Lord is our Shepherd; He cares for us in a tender, loving way, especially after we are saved.

He tenderly cares for all His sheep, feeding in shepherding to nourish them with the rich supply of the divine life.

Just to have the life of God is wonderful but not enough; this life needs to be fed and grow.

Without the feeding, the divine life cannot be sustained or able to grow.

So the Lord is feeding us by way of shepherding us to nourish us.

The Lord is our Shepherd, and in Him we have no lack.

He brings us to the green pastures, by waters of rest, and cares for our soul to give us rest in our soul so that we can eat, drink, and rest (Psa. 23).

Feeding is the continuation of regeneration through Christ’s shepherding His flock by nourishing and cherishing so that His sheep may grow in the divine life unto maturity (Eph. 5:29; John 10:10-11, 14-16; 21:15-17; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4; 2:25).

He is our wonderful Shepherd, taking care of our soul according to God so that we may be cherished and nourished for us to grow in the divine life unto maturity.

If there is no feeding, there is no growth; after being regenerated, the Lord feeds us by nourishing us with Himself.

Feeding nourishes the newborn babes (the new believers) so that they may grow and be saved gradually through the supply of the milk in the word (1 Pet. 2:2).

As we come to the Lord’s word to enjoy Him, He supplies us with the guileless milk of the word and we grow.

We grow by reading and praying the word of God, for the nourishment is in God’s word.

Feeding results in the believers’ maturity in the divine life unto transformation and conformation to the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2; 8:29).

The more we eat the Lord, the more we grow in life unto maturity.

We can never graduate from eating the Lord.

We can never say that we are now mature enough, we are transformed enough, and we have arrived at a stage where we don’t need to eat the Lord in His word anymore.

Rather, we depend on the Lord as food in His word all the time.

Eating the Lord to partake of feeding in shepherding grants us the nourishment of the divine life for us to grow in life unto maturity.

May we never stop eating Jesus.

May we take time every morning to spend with the Lord in His word, coming to Him to pray, read His word, even chew on His word, to get some nourishment from His word.

Feeding is also by other believers, for we are mutually shepherding one another for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-16; John 21:15-17; 1 Pet. 5:2-3).

On one hand, we come to the Lord in His word and He is feeding in shepherding to nourish us with the fresh supply of the divine life.

On the other hand, we meet with the saints and we shepherd one another in love for the building up of the Body of Christ, and in this way, God accomplishes His eternal economy.

When we come together and hear one another’s testimony of enjoying the Lord, our experience of Christ, and our struggle with the Lord and His overcoming in us, we feed one another and the Lord has a way to grow in us.

We feed one another by sharing our testimony, prophesying the word of God, declaring the word of God, and speaking with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

In this way, we are nourished not only by Christ directly but also by the fellow members in the Body, and the Body builds itself up in love.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your feeding in shepherding with the nourishment of the divine life to cause us to grow in life. We open to You. We need You as our life and life supply. We come to You in your word so that we may be shepherded by You and richly supplied with Your life. Grow in us, Lord. Add more of Yourself to us. May we grow in the divine life unto maturity a little more today. We want to drink the guileless milk of the word so that we may grow in life. We open to You and we open to the saints You put us with so that we may be fed by others’ experience of Christ. Amen, Lord, may our feeding on the Lord result in the growth in life unto maturity so that we may be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. May there be much mutual shepherding among us so that we may feed one another with the riches of Christ for our mutual encouragement and growth in life unto the building up of the Body!

Dispositional Sanctification Constitutes us with God’s Divine Nature for us to be Holy as God is Holy

The third step of God’s organic salvation is dispositional sanctification.

We have already experienced positional sanctification as part of God’s judicial redemption, but throughout our daily life, we need dispositional sanctification.

We need to not only be set apart unto God for His purpose; our very nature needs to be sanctified.

On one hand, we belong to God and are part of God’s family; on the other hand, our disposition needs to be sanctified to be made holy.

In God’s organic salvation, there is a deeper sanctification, a more subjective sanctification which is called the dispositional sanctification.

This is the sanctifying work of God which goes on in us. Each one of us has our own disposition, what we are by nature, what we like and dislike by nature, etc.

Our disposition is related to our character and habits.

We may not be going the way of the world and doing sinful things as they do, for we are separated from our former manner of life; however, our old disposition still stays with us.

It is still easy for us to lose our temper, indulge or fall into the lusts of the flesh, have greed, be proud, and be ambitious.

All these are hidden in us and, given the right opportunity and environment, they will be manifested.

We may not be going to the casinos to do gambling nor may we be going to the bar with our mates, but dispositionally we need to be saved much, much more.

Who can save us and change us in our disposition? We need to be changed dispositionally, in our very constitution.

We need to let the Lord work in us to sanctify us inwardly, even intrinsically, to make us holy even as He is holy.

Dispositional sanctification is an inward sanctifying of the believers who are growing in the divine life by the working of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life, in their disposition (Rom. 15:16; 8:2).

On one hand we need feeding in shepherding to be nourished with the supply of God’s life; on the other hand, we need to be sanctified in our inward, fallen nature, organically by the Spirit through our spirit captivated by Christ.

As believers in Christ, we are sanctified with the divine, holy nature of God for us to be holy unto God and thus fulfil God’s purpose in choosing us (2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 1:4).

God chose us before the foundation of the world not that we would be good people or overcoming ones, but for us to be holy.

God chose us to be holy as He is holy, the same as Him in His divine nature.

For Him to say that He has chosen us to be holy means that He has chosen us to partake of His holy nature for us to become the same as God, for only God is holy.

Only God is holy; no matter how much we cleanse ourselves and what kind of behaviour we perfect in order to sanctify ourselves, we cannot be holy unless we have God as the element of our holiness.

As believers in Christ, we are partakers of the divine nature.

As we partake of God’s holy nature, we are sanctified in our nature.

Dispositional sanctification implies transformation (Rom. 6:19, 22).

A way to illustrate sanctification is making a cup of tea; you take the teabag and put it in hot water and, after a while, the whole water becomes tea, being “teafied” to be infused and saturated with the element of the tea.

God came into us as the “heavenly tea bag” and He is infusing us with Himself, saturating us with His holy nature, and working Himself into us until He deifies us to make us the same as He is in his holy nature.

As He is dispositionally sanctifying us, we are saturated with God’s element and are transformed into His image.

Sanctification will ultimately be manifested in the New Jerusalem as the holy city (Rev. 21:2, 10; 22:19).

Little by little, day by day, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, and even millennia after millennia, God is working tirelessly to obtain what He is after: a holy corporate entity that matches Him in every possible way.

As we daily remain in the process of dispositional sanctification, we are constituted with the divine nature so that we may become as holy as our heavenly Father is holy (Matt. 5:48).

As we do this and that, even as you hear this word or read this portion, you and I are under the Lord’s sanctifying work. He is imparting His element.

On one hand, He is feeding in shepherding to nourish us with His life; on the other hand, He is sanctifying us dispositionally to make us the same as He is in His nature.

And the consummation of this is that He will gain the New Jerusalem, the holy city, fully saturated with God’s holy nature.

Lord Jesus, we open to Your inward sanctification work. Sanctify us in our very disposition today. Work Yourself into us a little more today. We want to enjoy You as our life and partake of Your holy nature so that we may become as holy as our heavenly Father, who is holy. Amen, Lord, sanctify us with the divine, holy nature of God for us to be holy unto God and thus fulfill God’s purpose in choosing us! Hallelujah, we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world so that we may be holy and without blemish! Amen, Lord, have Your way in us. We just open our being. We just open to Your sanctifying work going on in our inner being. Sanctify us more today. Saturate us with Your holy nature. We want to be not only separated unto God but also saturated with God’s holy nature until we become holy as God is holy!

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 James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation—‘the Spirit Himself with Our Spirit,’” ch. 3, 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 7, entitled, The Two Aspects of God’s Complete Salvation — Judicial Redemption Plus Organic Salvation.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Lord is my Shepherd forever, / He maketh me down to lie, / He leads me beside the still waters / O how He does satisfy! / Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me / All the days, all the days of my life; / Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me / All the days, all the days of my life. / And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, / And I shall feast at the table spread for me; / Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me / All the days, all the days of my life. (Hymns #1170 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Oh, sanctify us, Lord; now add Thyself to us, / In our experience, Thy Person spread in us, / That in reality the church be glorious, / O Lord, do add Thyself, we pray. / Oh, sanctify us, Lord, today; / Lord Jesus, You’re the only way. / We take Your Person, Lord; / Oh, spread Yourself abroad. / Oh, sanctify us, Lord, today. (Hymns #1135 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – By the power of His Spirit / In His pattern He transforms; / From His glory to His glory / To His image He conforms. / He transforms, all sanctifying, / Till like Him we are matured; / He transforms, our soul possessing, / Till His stature is secured. (Hymns #750 stanzas 4-5)