We need to have the Intimate Concern of a Ministering Life in Shepherding the Saints

Shepherding is the bridge between Christ’s first coming and second coming, and we can participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding by having the intimate concern of a ministering life, the intimate concern for the saints to shepherd them in love. Amen!

May the Lord save us from discriminating among the saints, the new ones, or sinners; may we love all men even as the Lord loves them, and may we allow the Lord as love be expressed through us toward others.

How can we love others, and how can we love the Lord? True love, our love for the Lord and for others, comes out of the divine life, the growth of life in us.

We need to enjoy the Lord as life and be filled with His life so that we may live by the divine life and express the divine life as love.

We do not have to try harder to love God or strive to love the saints; rather, love needs to come out of us, flow out of us, toward others and toward God.

As we enjoy the Lord as life and live by this divine life, we will express Him as love toward others.

However, it may be that we may have a hidden kind of discrimination or prejudice or a hidden kind of partiality or preference for certain saints or against particular saints.

Our love may not be universal; our natural love is selective in nature.

If we express our own love, we will not consider that we are weak when we see that others are weak; rather, we may think we’re strong, so we may prefer to “take care” of the strong ones.

May the Lord have mercy on us and save us from ourselves, our own preferences, and our living in our own natural life, which is inadequate when it comes to living the Christian life.

May we live the church life as a life of brotherly love and may we support the weak, sustain the weak, and care for others in love one with the Lord.

It is not about how much we know and how much we can do for the Lord but it’s all about love: we need more love, more love toward the Lord and more expression of love toward others.

Our regenerated spirit is a spirit of love; when we exercise our spirit, we need to have a spirit of love, not merely of power or of sober-mindedness.

Love is in our spirit. Life is in our spirit.

When we truly exercise our spirit, we love the Lord and we love the saints.

When we exercise our spirit and touch the Lord, we will shepherd others according to God, and we will not discriminate among people.

Participating in Christ’s wonderful Shepherding to bring in a New Revival and Bring the Lord Back

When Christ was on the earth, He shepherded those around Him; He realized that the Jews were like sheep that were scattered and not taken care of, so He shepherded them.

He shepherded men to the uttermost, to the extent of laying down His life for them.

What a Shepherding that was! We all were touched by this One who, out of love for us, came and died for us to bring us back to God, reconcile us to God, and make us sons of God.

For eternity, He will also shepherd us; He will lead us to waters of rest, there will be no more sorrow or pain, and He will cherish us to make us happy and He will nourish us with Himself as the tree of life and the river of water of life to quench our thirst.

Psalms 22-24 are a group of psalms that reveal Christ from His crucifixion to His kingship in the coming age.

In Psa. 22 we see Christ’s death, His resurrection, and His many brothers produced in His resurrection to form His church.

In Psa. 23 we see Christ as the Shepherd in His resurrection. In Psa. 24 we see Christ as the coming King in His kingdom.

In the past, Christ died for us, resurrected, and produced us as His many brothers in His resurrection, thus forming the church.

In the future, He will be the coming King in His kingdom, and He will reign over the whole universe.

In between His first coming and His second coming there is the age of the church, when Christ does one main thing: He is shepherding us.

Between Christ’s death and resurrection in the past and Christ’s coming again as the King in His kingdom in the future, we have Christ as our Shepherd.

He is in ascension carrying out His heavenly ministry by shepherding us, His people.

What we have today is the enjoyment, experience, and expression of Christ as our pneumatic Shepherd in His heavenly ministry.

Even more, we can participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding today by caring for His people in love.

Shepherding is the bridge between Christ’s first coming and His second coming; we are now on this “bridge” between Christ’s two comings, the bridge of time, when Christ is shepherding us, His people, and we can cooperate with Him.

On one hand, we need to enjoy Christ’s wonderful shepherding and, on the other hand, we need to cooperate with His shepherding.

In His heavenly ministry, Christ is presently shepherding people, and if we participate in His wonderful shepherding, there will be a big revival.

The way for us to have a new revival, even the ultimate revival in the Lord’s recovery today, is by participating in Christ’s wonderful shepherding.

It is such a wonderful shepherding in cooperation with Christ’s shepherding that will end this age and bring the Lord back.

May the Lord recover this among us today and may we be those who cooperate with Christ’s wonderful shepherding today by having the intimate concern of the ministering life.

May we not only enjoy the Lord’s shepherding as the Head and through the fellow members of the Body but may we also cooperate with His wonderful shepherding by caring for the others in love.

May this shepherding prevail to the extent that a new revival will be brought in and the Lord will return!

Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for Your death and resurrection to regenerate us and make us part of the church, the Body of Christ. Thank You for being in ascension and shepherding us in Your heavenly ministry until You return as the King in Your kingdom! Hallelujah for Christ’s wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry! We open to Your shepherding, Lord, and we want to cooperate with Your wonderful shepherding today. We exercise our spirit to be one with You and shepherd others according to God. Amen, Lord, we want to participate in Your wonderful shepherding so that there may be a new revival in the Lord’s recovery to bring Christ back!

We need the Intimate Concern of a Ministering Life in Shepherding the Saints and Caring for the Churches

If we want to be those who participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry, we need to have the intimate concern of a ministering life in shepherding the saints and caring for the churches.

It is one thing to see the need to enter into the participation in Christ’s heavenly ministry of shepherding, and it is something else to realize our need to have the intimate concern of a ministering life (2 Cor. 7:2-7; 12:15; Philem. 7, 12).

If we love the Lord and want to be up to God’s standard, we need to be ministers of the new covenant.

We need to be those who supply Christ to others for the building up of the church.

The Lord today is recovering the ministering of Christ by all the believers so that the church may be built up.

This is what Paul spoke of in Eph. 4:15-16, and for this, the Lord gave some as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers.

These gifts are given by the Lord for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

We all need to be those who build up the church as the Body of Christ; for this, we need to have a ministering life, that is, a life of ministering Christ to others for the church.

Such ministering life, as seen in 2 Corinthians, is a fruitful life, a life that bears fruit by abiding in the Lord.

In the Gospel of John, the Lord doesn’t tell us that we should be nicer to others, more spiritual, more holy, or more victorious; He simply charges us to abide in Him and He in us, and we will bear fruit, even bear much fruit.

We need to abide in the Lord and allow Him to abide in us so that we may bear much fruit in this abiding, and that our fruit would remain.

As we learn to shepherd others, we need to realize that we need the intimate concern of a ministering life.

If we don’t have an intimate concern for the saints that we are shepherding, though we may try our best to care for them, we may actually offend them or “kill them”.

The milk of the word of God, the life supply of Christ, should be used to nourish the believers in Christ, not to “boil” them (1 Pet. 2:2; Exo. 23:19).

The lack of the intimate concern for others will lead to merely displaying our spirituality, our gift, or our knowledge or capability instead of caring for them according to God.

We may have the ability to carry on a work but we may lack an intimate concern; the result will be no fruit, for nothing remains when we do not have the intimate concern of a ministering life.

How much fruit we bear depends not on what we’re able to do but on whether or not we have an intimate concern for others.

If we have the ability to carry on a work BUT we lack an intimate concern, our work will be fruitless; our heart must be enlarged to embrace all believers regardless of their condition (1 Cor. 6:10-11).

Paul was a pattern in this matter; he was very human and emotional in caring for the saints because his concern was so deep and intimate.

Without such concern, without having the intimate concern of a ministering life, we may visit them but be as cold as a freezer, displaying our knowledge but having no concern for their situation and condition.

May we enjoy the Lord’s shepherding and allow Him to shepherd us, and may we ask Him to make our heart happy in Him so that, when we shepherd others, we may have an intimate concern.

We need the ministering life, and we need to first warm up others as we shepherd them with an intimate concern.

If we don’t have such concern for others, we will not be fruitful, and even the fruit that we think we have will not remain.

For us to cooperate with the Lord’s wonderful shepherding, we need to have the genuine concern of a ministering life in shepherding the saints and in caring for the churches.

Sometimes we may even appear to be foolish or beside ourselves as we care for them, for we have such an intimate concern.

Only such ministering life enables us to bear fruit, for fruit-bearing issues from this ministering life.

Paul exhorted the elders in Ephesus in Acts 20 reminding them of how he was with them for three years, day and night, serving the Lord and the saints with humility and tears in both public places and from house to house.

He didn’t take anything from them; rather, he gave and poured out everything for them.

We need to learn from him as he learned from the Lord to shepherd others according to God by having the intimate concern of a ministering life.

May we bring this matter to the Lord so that He may reproduce His heart of love and care in us in our shepherding of others until we shepherd the saints and care for the churches with the intimate concern of a ministering life.

Lord Jesus, we want to participate in Your wonderful shepherding in the church life today. Keep us abiding in You as the true vine so that we may bear fruit and our fruit would remain. Amen, Lord, grant us to have the intimate concern of a ministering life. We want to minister Christ to others in our shepherding and caring for them. Save us from lacking the intimate concern in our caring for others. May we learn to warm up others as we shepherd them. Save us from merely displaying our knowledge, spirituality, gift, or capability. Grant us to have an intimate concern for the saints, caring for them according to God and ministering Christ to them for the building up of the church.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msg. 44, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Loving the Lord and loving one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ (2022 fall ITERO), week 1, entitled, Loving the Lord and loving one another – the most excellent way for us to be anything and do anything for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Prayer for the saints to be shepherds according to God’s heart with the intimate concern of a ministering life (via beseeching).
  – Loving the Lord and Loving One Another—the Most Excellent Way for Us to Be Anything and Do Anything for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ (outline via, Puget Sound Blending).
  – Ambassadors of Christ with the Ministry of Reconciliation and Co-workers of God with an All-fitting Life (outline via, the church in Chicago).
  – Being a person in the intimate and thorough fellowship with the Lord (portion from, Vital Groups).
  – Shepherding and ministering life (portion from, All Ages for the Lord’s Testimony).
  – Shepherding and Bearing our own Children as Remaining Fruit Within the Groups (via, the church in Seattle).
• 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. / Glorious church life, / Feasting from such a rich store! / Here where we’re dwelling in oneness / God commands life evermore. (Hymns #1221 stanza 3 and chorus)
  – 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. (Hymns #1170 stanza 1)
  – Grant us a shepherd’s heart, like Yours, / With tenderest concern; / To feed Your sheep, to nurse Your lambs, / Of You we all will learn. / May we be carers of men’s souls, / With You, Chief Shepherd dear; / A crown of glory we’ll receive, / The hour when You appear. (Song on, The Shepherd of Our Souls, stanzas 6-7)