In order for us to shepherd according to God, we need to become the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead; today the Lord Jesus continues to shepherd His flock through those who cooperate with His heavenly ministry of shepherding the saints according to God.
Only Christ can shepherd others according to God; God promised that He will send Christ to shepherd God’s people, His flock, and only Christ is the One who knows the real need and condition of each of His sheep, and He shepherds them according to God.
When we come to the matter of shepherding, as seen in Jeremiah and also throughout the Bible, we need to have the point of view of God’s economy.
In His economy, God in Christ is dispensing Himself into us as our life and life supply and everything to make us the reproduction of Christ for the corporate expression of Christ, the Body of Christ, the one new man, and the bride of Christ.
In the matter of God desiring to have shepherds among His people, the principle of God’s economy applies also; what the Lord is and does as the Shepherd according to God, He is now actively reproducing in His believers.
For example, Saul of Tarsus was one chosen by God to shepherd His people, and so was Peter; the Lord Jesus reproduced Himself as the Shepherd in these two and, even though one started by persecuting the believers while the other denied the Lord with cursing, they became shepherds according to God.
It happened to Paul and it happened to Peter; it can and it will also happen to us, for God desires to have many shepherds in and among His people.
When mutual shepherding is a reality among us, the clergy-laity system will be totally annihilated; shepherding will not merely be a doctrine to us but rather, we will all cooperate with the Lord’s heavenly ministry to shepherd one another according to God.
All of us – and not just the apostles or the elders – need to come to the Lord Jesus, enjoy His shepherding, and allow Him to reproduce Himself in us so that we may shepherd others according to God.
Furthermore, we need to be perfected by the gifts given by the Lord in the Body to function in our measure and to shepherd according to God.
Having our Heart Enlarged to Cooperate with the Lord’s Heavenly Ministry and Shepherd According to God
In Heb. 13:20-21 we see that Christ is the great, Chief Shepherd of our souls, who now in His heavenly ministry continues the shepherding that He began in His earthly ministry.
After His resurrection, the Lord met Peter and some of the disciples on the seashore and, in John 21:15-17, He commissioned Peter to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep in His absence.
While the Lord is in heavens, no longer having a physical presence on earth, He is in His heavenly ministry and He incorporates the apostolic ministry with His ministry to shepherd God’s flock.
The Lord needs an increasing number of saints – not just leading brothers or elders but all the saints, both brothers and sisters – to be one with Him and correspond to Him to shepherd according to God in cooperation with His heavenly ministry.
Today the Lord is the Shepherd and He carries out His heavenly ministry by shepherding His sheep according to God; He does this through the many members of His Body.
What He was doing in the heavens, the apostles did on earth to carry out His heavenly ministry.
The apostolic ministry cooperates with Christ’s heavenly ministry to shepherd the saints according to God.
For example, the apostle Paul was a pattern of shepherding the saints in cooperation with Christ’s shepherding in His heavenly ministry (see Heb. 13:20-21; 7:25-26; 1 Tim. 1:16; 2 Cor. 1:3-4; Acts 20:20).
As he wrote to the saints in Thessalonica, he told them, You know what kind of men we were among you, what kind of entrance we had.
He was both an exhorting father and a nursing mother; beyond the gender in this sense, Paul functioned as a father to exhort his young children and as a mother to nurse them, feeding them with milk and later with the solid food, holding them in his bosom and nourishing them.
In 1 Thes. 2:7-8 and 11-12 we see how Paul shepherded the saints as a nursing mother and an exhorting father.
Then in Acts 20:20, we see how Paul shepherded the saints in Ephesus by teaching them publicly and from house to house, and by admonishing each one of the saints with tears even for as long as three years (vv. 19, 31), declaring to them all the counsel of God (v. 27).
He shepherded the saints not only publicly by teaching them but also intimately and one by one, from house to house, appealing to them seriously but with much feeling, not demanding or commanding.
We owe the saints under our care to speak the full truth to them; we need to learn the truth, be filled with the truth, and sense the capacity of the saints to receive the truth, and then hold nothing back but minister the word to them for their shepherding.
Paul had been enlarged in his heart to have the intimate concern of the ministering life (2 Cor. 7:2-3; 1 Thes. 2:8; Phil. 2:19-20).
What about our heart: has our heart been enlarged by the Lord so that we may have the intimate concern of the ministering life?
Paul started by breathing out murder for the church, with a narrow heart that was filled with destructive and negative feelings, but the Lord enlarged his heart.
In 2 Cor. 5:20-21 we see the reason Paul experienced his heart being enlarged; he enjoyed and was entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation.
This ministry is of two steps: first God in Christ reconciles the world to Himself, and second, He brings our entire being into the Holy of Holies through the veil to be fully reconciled to God, and He gives us the ministry of reconciliation.
First, we need to be reconciled to God from our sin and trespasses; for this, Christ died to bear our sins and take them away, and by believing into Him and confessing our sins, we are reconciled to God initially.
However, there is one more step of reconciliation, which corresponds to the second veil in the tabernacle; the first veil (the Lord’s death on the cross for our sins) enables us to come to Him and enjoy Him as our life supply, the light of life, and pray to fellowship with Him, but we need to be reconciled further.
The second step of reconciliation is to have the cross operate and work within us to break through our flesh, the self, and the natural being, so that we may be further reconciled to God.
Once we are being further reconciled to God in this way, we have our heart enlarged, we have an intimate concern for others, and we minister life to them as we cooperate with the Lord’s shepherding ministry.
Paul came down to the weak one’s level so that he could gain them (2 Cor. 11:28-29; 1 Cor. 9:22; cf. Matt. 12:20); in this way, he could shepherd according to God. If we are “strong saints” and we can’t bear the weak ones, desiring to have the church life with “navy-seals” type of saints, this is not the church!
The church includes all kinds of saints, and those who are strong should bear the weak, not be bothered by them or rebuke them, but come down to their level by cooperating with the Lord’s shepherding life within them.
May we be such ones, lovers of the church in oneness with the church-loving Christ, those who are willing to spend all we have and all we are for the sake of the saints to build up the church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 5:25; 2 Cor. 12:15; 11:28-29)!
Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with Your heavenly ministry of shepherding. We open to You, Lord, so that You may shepherd us and may shepherd others through us. Make us like a nursing mother and an exhorting father to shepherd the saints in the church life. May our heart be enlarged to have the intimate concern of the ministering life. Amen, Lord, reconcile us further to Yourself until we are in the Holy of Holies one with You, having an enlarged heart to receive the saints, love them, and care for them! Make us those who are willing to come down to the weak ones’ level and shepherd them according to God. We want to be one with the church-loving Christ, being willing to spend what we have and even what we are for the sake of the saints in order to build up the Body of Christ!
To Shepherd according to God we need to Become God in Life, Nature, and Function
Those who shepherd the flock of God should shepherd according to God (see 1 Pet. 5:2). How can we shepherd according to God?
We shepherd according to what we are, who we are, what we know, and what we think; for us to shepherd according to God means that we need to be constituted with God and even become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
It is good to have the heart to shepherd someone, but what do we shepherd them with? Do we shepherd others with our self, our disposition, our temperament, our opinions?
May the Lord save us from growing old and become opinionated; may we be saved in life and dealt with in our soul so that we may have an intrinsic change in our inner being to shepherd others according to God.
For us to shepherd others according to God means that we shepherd them according to what God is in His attributes (Rom. 9:15-16; 11:22, 33; Eph. 2:7; 1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 1:12).
Some of God’s attributes are lovingkindness, compassion, sincerity, honesty, truthfulness, and genuineness; shepherding according to God involves shepherding according to what God is.
To shepherd according to God means that we don’t seek our benefit, we don’t want appreciation from others, but we simply are one with God, even becoming the same as God, in our shepherding of others.
Those who shepherd according to God must have a deep breakthrough in their disposition, a thorough organic salvation in their disposition and temperament, so that they would minister God to others and not their own self, their opinions, or their feelings.
Many of us have suffered in society, in our family life, at work, and elsewhere; many of us were unjustly treated, and we can sense when someone has a preference as they come to shepherd us.
In shepherding according to God we need to have no preference, we need to relate to everyone the same, not considering others as being superior or inferior, and having no self-interest.
May the Lord grant us the grace for this breakthrough to take place early in our lifetime so that He may have us as His reproduction in the matter of shepherding.
In order to shepherd according to God, we need to become God in life, nature, expression, and function (John 1:12-13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4).
We need to be the reproduction of Christ, the expression of God, so that in our shepherding we don’t express ourselves but express God; when we become the same as Christ, we express not the self with its disposition and peculiarities but Christ Himself (John 1:18; Heb. 1:3; 2:10; Rom. 8:29; Gal. 4:19).
Amen, may we give ourselves to the Lord and accept His dealings daily so that He may make us the same as He is in His function of shepherding the flock of God according to what He is and according to His goal in His economy (Eph. 4:16; Rev. 21:2).
In shepherding others there shouldn’t be any self-interest; we want nothing for ourselves in the Lord’s recovery, and no co-worker or leading brother should desire to have his own territory for himself but realize we are here for God’s purpose, will, and glory.
And if a reward is forthcoming, that will be on that day; we should simply be able to say, God witnesses with my spirit, I want nothing for myself – I only want the saints to be shepherded according to God for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ! Amen!
When we are one with God, we become God in life and nature, and we are in practicality God in our shepherding of others; this is what the Lord desires to gain among us in the church life, those who are one with Him and who shepherd others according to God (see 1 John 5:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:4; 1 Pet. 5:2).
May we bring this to the Lord and tell Him in all honesty,
Lord Jesus, we desire to be those who shepherd the flock of God by shepherding according to God. Break through in us, Lord, and deal with our temper, our disposition, and our inner being; we do not want to impart our disposition and opinions to others – we just want to minister Christ! Lord, You must make us the same as You are so that we may shepherd others according to God. May our shepherding be according to God’s nature, desire, way, and glory, not according to our preference, interest, purpose, and disposition! Amen, Lord Jesus, we want nothing for ourselves; we just want to be one with You to the extent that we become You in life, nature, expression, and function, so that we may shepherd others according to God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” pp. 446-448, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 11, Shepherds according to God’s Heart.
- Hymns on this topic:
– In tenderness He sought me, / Weary and sick with sin, / And on His shoulders brought me / Into His flock again. / While angels in His presence sang / Until the courts of heaven rang. / Oh, the love that sought me! / Oh, the blood that bought me! / Oh, the grace that brought me to the flock, / Wondrous grace that brought me to the flock! (Hymns #1068)
– In these days the Lord is hindered / Because of a lack of shepherds / Who dispense the milk of the Word / To the lost sheep, / He needs man’s cooperation, / To let Him shepherd from within, / Will you be one who is open / And say to Him… / Lord, I love You! I’ll feed Your lambs, / Lord I love You! I’ll shepherd Your sheep, / Lord I love You! / I’ll give Your sheep something to eat. (Song on, Do You Love Me?)
– Shepherd the flock with tender, loving care. / Shepherd by life and one another bear. / Christ shepherds us by searching for His sheep / And brings us to Himself, our pasture sweet. (Song on, Shepherd the Flock)
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