The Lord Jesus as the Good Shepherd is today being reproduced and multiplied in us all as His sheep, His believers, by our cooperation with Him through the exercise of our spirit to be one with the Lord as the inward organic shepherd. Once it was only ONE Good Shepherd, but this One has become the life-giving Spirit to come and comfort us and shepherd us within by being one with our spirit!
We need to read the Gospels and see how the Lord shepherded people, and we need to be one with Him to shepherd others back to God to be enjoying all His riches as members of His household. The Apostle Paul was a pattern on how to be a good shepherd – he cooperated with the Lord as the indwelling Good Shepherd to the uttermost, and he did not merely preach the gospel, establish churches, and write epistles to the churches, but he also shepherded the sinners and the saints back to the enjoyment of God.
Yesterday we saw how Paul was like a nursing mother and an exhorting father, and he taught the saints both publicly and from house to house by admonishing each one of them with tears, declaring to them all the counsel of God. He wrote Christ into the believers, and the believers were also written in his heart; thus, the believers were a living letter of Christ, and Paul had the believers written on his heart.
In all he did and wherever he went, Paul had an intimate concern for the believers, and he even came down to the weak ones’ level so that he could gain them; he didn’t despise or put aside those who were weak or who stumbled, but he burned for them and did his best to cooperate with the indwelling Good Shepherd to gain them back for Christ. What a pattern we have in Paul!
Today we want to see even more ways in which Paul was one with Christ to shepherd the saints, and we want to be those who follow his pattern inwardly by praying that the Lord would make us such ones.
Being Willing to Spend, be Utterly Spent, and be Poured out as a Drink Offering
The apostle Paul was willing to spend what he had (that is, his possessions) and to spend what he was (that is, spend his being) for the sake of the saints (2 Cor. 12:15). He spent his possessions and even his own being on the saints because he loved the saints and wanted to cherish them in the humanity of Jesus and nourish them in the divinity of Christ so that they would grow in life, enjoy Christ, and be an acceptable offering to God.
Paul was like a drink offering being poured out upon the sacrifice and service of the saints’ faith (see Phil. 2:17; Judg. 9:13; Eph. 3:2). What he received from the Lord was for the saints (“to me for you”); he was one with Christ as the wine producer, sacrificing himself for others’ enjoyment of Christ. He enjoyed Christ to such an extent that he could be poured out as a sacrifice to God upon the believers’ faith through the shedding of his blood (see 2 Tim. 4;6; Phil. 2:17 and footnote 1 in Recovery Version Bible).
We need to enjoy the Lord to such an extent that we are one with Christ as the wine producer to become a drink offering being poured out upon the sacrifice and service of the saints we are shepherding, so that God would be satisfied. We need to love the Lord and enjoy Him to such an extent that we are one with Him to be willing to spend all that we have and all that we are for the sake of the saints, that is, so that the saints would grow in life unto maturity for the building up of the Body of Christ!
Paul was a minister of the Spirit (not of the letter) to honor God by being filled with the Spirit to walk by the Spirit for God’s glory and to honor man by ministering the Spirit to them for their supply (see 2 Cor. 3:6, 8; Gal. 5:16, 25; Judg. 9:9). We need to be filled with the Spirit as the cheering wine so that we may walk by the Spirit for God’s glory to honor God and to minister the Spirit to others to honor man.
We honor God by being filled with the Spirit, and we honor man by ministering the Spirit to man; when we are filled with the Spirit and we flow the Spirit out to man, God is satisfied, man is shepherded, and the church is built up to be the testimony of Jesus on earth.
Lord Jesus, we love You. Make our heart a duplication of Your heart. We want to enjoy You and love You to the point that we are willing to spend all that we have and even all that we are for the sake of the saints. Lord, keep us enjoying You until we are one with You to be poured out as a drink offering for others’ enjoyment of Christ and for Your satisfaction! Lord, may our life and work be a satisfaction to You and a cheering and encouraging to others in the Lord!
Love is the Most Excellent Way to Be anything and Do anything for the Building up of the Body
In his writings Paul revealed what is the most excellent way for us to do anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ: LOVE (see 1 Cor. 8:1; 12:31; 13:4-8). Nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord (see Rev. 2:4 and footnote 1, Recovery Version), and nothing but love can motivate us and strengthen us to shepherd others according to God and care for them in a proper way.
Love is the most excellent for us to be a brother in the church life, a husband to our wife, a shepherd for the new ones, and a responsible one in the church. Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything. Love is the most excellent way to teach others, prophesy, sing, exhort others, and do anything in the church. Our zeal may wane, our willingness to shepherd others may decrease, but love will prevail.
When we are one with the Lord and are filled with Him as love, we will love everybody – even our enemies. When we enjoy the Lord to the point that we are filled with His love, we will love even the bad ones and the not-so-promising ones in the church – we will love the good and the evil without any discrimination, even as our heavenly Father does. The way we can and should shepherd others is in love.
The reason Paul took care of the saints, spent everything he had and was on them, and was even poured out as a drink offering over them was because he was one with the Lord to love the saints. In ourselves we have love ONLY for “me, myself, and I”; at most we love our family members, our relatives, and some of our friends. Our human love is limited and quite spoiled. But when we enjoy the Lord and are filled with Him as the real love, we will love everyone. When we all love one another as the Lord loved us, the church will no longer be a police station to arrest people but a hospital to lovingly care for people and heal them.
When we love others with Christ as love the church is not a law court to judge others but a home to raise up the believers in love. When we love others as the Lord loved us, the church will not be a law court, a prison, or a police station but a school where those who don’t have much understanding are taught in love. We need to be one with the Lord to raise up the saints in love, heal others in love, recover others in love, and teach others in love so that the church would be a home, a hospital, and a school, not a police station or a law court.
May the Lord save us from judging or criticizing others for their weaknesses; may we be those who cooperate with the Lord by enjoying Him and loving Him and allowing Him to fill us with His love until we no longer condemn others but become weak to those who are weak so that we may gain them for Christ. If we really love the Lord and are filled with Him as love we will not consider that others are weak and we are not but we will cover others, feel with them, care for them, cherish them, and nourish them for their growth in life for the building up of the Body of Christ.
When the Lord has a way to recover the mutual shepherding in love among all the saints in all the local churches, there will be a genuine revival among us as we all participate in the Lord’s wonderful shepherding. The Lord will bring in a new revival, a genuine revival that will end this age, as we receive the burden of shepherding and enter into the Lord’s ministry to shepherd others according to God.
Lord Jesus, we love You. Fill us with Yourself as love so that we may love others as You love them. Lord, may we realize that love is the most excellent way for us to do anything and be anything for the building up of the Body of Christ. Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for loving us and for shepherding us in love. Keep us enjoying You, loving You, and being filled with You as love so that we may love everyone and care for them in love. Lord, recover the mutual shepherding among all the saints in the local churches so that a new revival would be brought in!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and The Vital Groups, pp. 75-76 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Need for a New Revival, week 5 / msg 5, Shepherding according to God (1) Shepherding People by Cherishing and Nourishing Them according to the Pattern of the Lord Jesus and of the Apostle Paul.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Lord, I do love You, operate in me, / Be my salvation, save me constantly / To hold forth Your word, life to others afford; / Shining You, so radiantly, dear Lord. / Lord, I’m so saturated with Your joy / That I am drunken, You as wine enjoy; / I’d pour out my being, as a drink offering / Upon You, God satisfying. (Song on being a drink offering)
# O brother, won’t you gather in the local church? / A fountain here is flowing deep and wide. / The Shepherd now would bring you to the local church, / Where thirsty spirits can be satisfied. (Hymns #1234)
# I live, if you stand firm in the Lord. / You live, if I stand firm in the Lord. / My going on is for you, / Your going on is for me, / Not sep’rate entities, / I need you saints desp’rately! (Song on Shepherding the saints)
About aGodMan
