Pay the Price to gain more of the Spirit and Minister Christ to Shepherd the Flock of God

For us to shepherd the flock of God is to watch over the souls of the saints, being one with the Lord as the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls to care for them; for this, we need to enjoy and dispense grace, pay the price to gain more Christ and minister Him, and be faithful and prudent to give others food.

Christ in His heavenly ministry is the Chief Shepherd, the Great Shepherd of the sheep; He came in His incarnation to shepherd us, and because we heard His voice, we followed Him into the flock.

Throughout the ages the Lord as the Good Shepherd is calling His sheep, leading them out of any fold and bringing them into Himself as the pasture.

As His sheep, we enjoy His all-inclusive, tender care; He is a Good Shepherd, being willing to even lay down His life for His sheep.

Because He laid down His soul-life and even His physical life for us, we can enjoy Him and partake of His riches.

As we enjoy Him, are being shepherded by Him, and are gathered in the flock to be corporately shepherded by Him, we also can cooperate with Him to shepherd others.

The Lord does a wonderful work of shepherding us both personally and corporately; now we can and should cooperate with Him to shepherd others also.

This means that we can shepherd others with the same shepherding that the Lord rendered to us.

We can enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding by first enjoying Christ and then ministering Him to shepherd the church of God; this is so that God’s dream would be fulfilled.

God has a dream, and throughout the Bible, we see how He works both outwardly and within man to arrange all things, prepare all things, and work all things to obtain His dream.

His dream is a dwelling place, the mutual dwelling place of God and man.

Rev. 21-22 shows us that the Lord will obtain the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. until that time, however, we need a lot of shepherding, and we need to cooperate with the Lord to shepherd others according to God.

Our need and God’s need is fulfilled by the shepherding; we need to enjoy the Lord’s shepherding, and we need to enter into His wonderful shepherding by enjoying and ministering Christ.

On His side, Christ came in the past to shepherd us, He is shepherding us today, and even in the kingdom age and in the New Jerusalem, He is still shepherding us.

On our side, however, we need to allow Him to shepherd us and cooperate with His shepherding by learning to shepherd the flock of God.

Today we want to see some practical principles on how we should serve God and the saints, how can we practically enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry.

We Shepherd the Flock of God by Watching over the Souls of the Saints and Caring for the Welfare of their Inner Being

What does it mean to shepherd the flock of God? Most of our problems are in our soul; our spirit is life, full of Christ, but our soul has many problems.

To shepherd the flock of God is to watch over the souls of the saints; in this, we need to be one with the Lord.

The Lord Himself is the Shepherd of our soul, and He oversees the souls of the saints, caring for the welfare of our inner being and exercising His insight over the condition of our real person.

In John 21:15-17, after Peter took the lead to take the brothers fishing, the Lord came and restored his love for Him; He recovered Peter in his love for the Lord, and He also commissioned him to shepherd His sheep and feed His lambs.

Peter was so impressed with this that, in his epistle, he wrote that the elders should shepherd the flock of God, among whom God has placed them as overseers (see 1 Pet. 2:25; 6:1-6).

We need the Lord’s shepherding first, and we need to experience His care for the welfare of our inner being and our real person.

Then, we can cooperate with Him to shepherd the flock of God by watching over the souls of the saints and caring for the welfare of their inner being.

We were like sheep being led astray, but we have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls; we are enjoying Christ’s shepherding of His flock, for He cares not only for the outward things related to us but also our inner being, our soul.

He indwells us to be our life and everything, and He is also overseeing, observing, the condition and situation of our inner being.

How we enjoy His shepherding, His care for the welfare of our inner being!

As we enjoy His shepherding, we are restored in our love for the Lord, and we cooperate with Him to shepherd the flock of God by watching over the souls of the saints and caring for the welfare of their inner being.

It is not only the elder’s duty to do this, but we all can enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding to shepherd the saints according to God.

If we cooperate with the Lord to shepherd the flock of God, among whom He has placed us, we will receive the unfading crown of glory from Christ, the Chief Shepherd, at His manifestation.

May we enjoy His shepherding, be open to His care, and allow Him to shepherd us, and may we cooperate with His shepherding to also care for others according to God.

When we experience His shepherding, we are commissioned to also shepherd others; when we are first shepherded by God, we can also shepherd others.

Lord Jesus, keep us open to Your shepherding. Thank You for overseeing the condition of our real pears and caring for the welfare of our inner being. We open to Your shepherding today. Restore our love for You and strengthen us to cooperate with You in Your wonderful shepherding. Dear Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to shepherd the flock of God by watching over the souls of the saints and being one with You in Your shepherding. Amen, Lord, shepherd us so that we may also shepherd others!

We need to pay the Price to Gain more of the Spirit and be Dispensers of Grace and Truth

In order for us to cooperate with Christ’s wonderful shepherding, we need to pay the price; we need to pay the price of denying the self to be filled with the Spirit so that we may dispense the Spirit to others also.

The Lord Jesus paid the price day by day when He was on earth; He denied Himself, took up His cross, and obeyed the Father, so He had something of God to minister to others.

We also need to pay the price to deny our self in every aspect of our living, for how much we deny the self determines how much room we give Christ and how much oil we buy.

In our daily life, in all things – both small and great – we need to pay the price by denying the self to gain more of the Spirit as the oil.

If we allow the cross to operate and put the self to death, Christ will make His home in our heart; He will spread Himself into all the parts of our inner being.

Day by day we need to have Christ spread in us, be enlarged in us until our whole vessel will be filled with the Spirit.

However, our vessel is filled with so many useless things; the price we need to pay is allowing the Lord to shine and remove all these things so that our vessel may be filled with the Spirit.

The more we empty our vessel, the more we can be filled with the Lord.

The more we unload our vessel, the more room we will afford for the divine oil to fill us.

For the sake of the flock, we need to buy the oil every day (Matt. 25:3-4, 9); we need to pay the price to gain more of the Spirit by buying the truth of God’s economy (Prov. 23:23), buying gold refined by fire, buying white garments, and buying eyesalve (Rev. 3:18).

We need to pay the price to be in the truth and gain the truth of God’s economy.

We need to pay the price to buy gold refined by fire, obtaining more of the divine nature of God in us so that we may be rich toward God.

We need to pay the price to buy white garments so that we may be clothed with Christ by living out Christ; Christ needs to be our lived-out righteousness.

We need to pay the price to buy eyesalve as the anointing Spirit to heal our blindness; the Spirit can cause us to see our real situation, God’s economy, and the way to fulfill God’s purpose.

Amen, in order for us to shepherd the flock of God, we must enjoy the Lord every day as grace and truth so that we may be filled with Him and be dispensers of grace and truth (Eph. 3:2; 4:29; 1 Tim. 3:2b; 5:17; 2 Tim. 2:24-26; Titus 1:9).

First, we need to be those who pay the price to enjoy the Lord as grace and truth by spending time with Him in His word and by being in the meetings of the church.

Then, we will have a deposit of grace and truth, a certain constitution, that will cause us to become dispensers of grace and truth.

May we in this age of grace, the age of buying, pay the price to gain more of the Spirit by spending time with God and by denying the self, so that we may be able to shepherd the flock of God by ministering Christ as grace and truth to them.

May we pay the price to gain more of the Spirit, more of the truth, more of grace, and more of the riches of Christ so that we may be good dispensers of the riches of Christ into the saints, the household of God!

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to enjoy the Lord every day as grace and truth so that we may be dispensers of grace and truth. We come to You, dear Lord, in our personal time with You, to be filled with You as grace and truth. Make us those who shepherd the flock of God by dispensing grace and truth into them. Amen, Lord, we want to pay the price to gain more of the Spirit in our vessel day by day. May we pay the price to buy gold refined by fire so that we may be rich toward God. May we be those who pay the price to buy white garments so that we may be clothed with Christ by living out Christ. Amen, Lord, we want to pay the price to buy eyesalve as the anointing Spirit to heal our blindness. Fill us with the Spirit, Lord, in every part of our being, so that we may shepherd the flock of God by ministering the Spirit into them!

Being Faithful and Prudent Slaves Caring for the Saints and Giving them Spiritual Food

In Matt. 24:45 we are told of the way to serve others, “give them food at the proper time”; for the sake of the flock, we need to be faithful and prudent slaves caring for the saints and giving them spiritual food at the proper time.

The Lord has commissioned us to shepherd the flock of God; we do this by giving them food, that is, by ministering the word of God and Christ as the life supply to the believers in the church.

We shouldn’t think that we are too young or that we don’t know what to tell others in order to feed them; we simply need to enjoy the Lord personally and be in the meetings of the church, and a deposit of the life supply will be constituted into us.

On one hand, we need to pay the price to deny ourselves and be willing to lose our face; on the other hand, we need to learn to minister the word of God to others.

May the Lord make us the faithful and prudent slaves who care for the saints according to God and give them spiritual food.

May we be those who take care of the Lord’s possessions and invest our spiritual gift by giving the food of the word of God, the full gospel of God’s economy, to the sinners, the believers, and the churches (Rom. 1:1; Matt. 24:45-47; 25:22-23).

For us to do this, we need to spend time in the word of God to enjoy the Lord, be infused with Him, and be constituted with His word; then, we need to invest our spiritual gift to give others spiritual food.

We need to labor in the word of God to gain spiritual food – not just for our own nourishment but also to gain a surplus to supply the saints, the sinners, the believers, and the churches.

Even the teenage saints, the younger ones, can minister something of Christ to others; they can spend some time in the word of God daily and be in the meetings of the church, and when they meet others, they have a deposit of rich supply to share with them.

They may be at home, and their father may be in need of spiritual food; simply by opening their mouth and sharing something of the nourishment of Christ that they have received, they will give them food.

May we be the faithful and prudent slaves caring for the saints to shepherd the flock of God by giving them spiritual food!

Our shepherding is not merely outwardly in things related to the physical realm; it has to be in spirit, with the element of Christ.

May we take care of the Lord’s possession – the saints, and invest our spiritual gift with the deposit that we paid the price to gain, so that we may feed the Lord’s people.

Lord Jesus, we want to be the faithful and prudent slaves who take care of the Lord’s possessions by giving them food at the proper time. Amen, Lord, we want to invest our spiritual gift and learn to give spiritual food to the saints, the sinners, and the churches. Keep us in Your word, enjoying You and being constituted with the truth. May the word of God constitute us and may the full gospel of God’s economy become part of our being. Keep us coming to You personally and keep us in the meetings of the church so that we may have a rich deposit of nourishment to dispense to others. Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You to shepherd the flock of God, one with You in Your heavenly ministry!

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. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” ch. 13, 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:
  – Shepherd the flock with tender, loving care. / Shepherd by life and one another bear. / Like Christ, who sought us, brought us to His keep, / Cherish the flock He loves and feed His sheep! / Tend to His sheep and care for all their needs! / Bring God’s supply, which out of love proceeds! / Reach those whose burdens seem too much to bear! / Nurture their heart and soul through loving care! (Song on, Shepherd the Flock)
  – Virgins Christ comes quickly for, / Those with oil an extra store, / Not the fools who oil ignore— / Buy in time! / For the oil a price we pay, / Deal with self without delay,vFill your vessels every day— / Buy in time! (Hymns #1304)
  – To the lost world minister Christ, / Who is your life and your all, / Imparting Christ to all you meet, / All fallen ones, great or small. / To the lost world minister Christ, / By daily walk making Him known; / Imparting Christ by whom you live, / Share with all men what you own. (Hymns #922)