To Shepherd according to God is to Minister the Processed God Constituted into us

To shepherd according to God (1 Pet. 5:2) requires that we become one with God, we are constituted with God, we live God, we represent God, and we minister God. We can shepherd according to God only by becoming the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and function. First, we need to be one with God; we need to enjoy God and eat God until we are constituted with God, and we will live God, express God, and represent God; the result is that our daily living will minister God to others in order to shepherd them according to God.

The goal and the peak of shepherding is not merely that we make them happy in the Lord but that we actually minister God to others. However, we cannot minister God to others if we ourselves are not one with God, constituted with God, and if we do not live God, express God, and represent God.

In 2 Cor. we see the new covenant ministry which is the ministry of the Spirit which gives life; the ministers are one with the ministry, and the ministers themselves are their ministry. The ministry – shepherding according to God – is not a job or an outward function we attend to at particular times but, as we are constituted with God and live God to express God and represent God, we spontaneously minister God to others.

The God whom we minister to others is not “a teaching concerning God” or a doctrine – we minister the building and the builded God to others. We need to have God builded into our being and we need to allow Him to build us into Himself, and this processed and consummated Triune God will be dispensed into others as we minister Christ to them.

To Shepherd according to God is to Minister the Processed God Constituted into us

Our work today should be not merely to preach the gospel or care for people but to minister the processed God to people (see Eph. 3:16-17; 2 Cor. 3:9; 4:1, 5; 13:14). What we minister to others should not be an objective God or an objective Savior, a doctrine concerning what God is or what God has done, but the processed and consummated God who today is the life-giving Spirit one with our spirit and flowing out of us. The Triune God is embodied in Christ and realized as the consummated Spirit; this God as the Spirit is working Himself into our being, and this is the God whom we worship, proclaim, and minister to others (Col. 2:9; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:1-4; 13:14).

We need to ask ourselves, How much of Christ as the Spirit has been wrought into those whom we have brought to God? How much of the processed and consummated Triune God has been wrought into us and into those that we take care of? If we are before the Lord concerning this we will realize that we have not minister that much of the Triune God into others, and therefore we need to give ourselves to be filled with God, constituted with God, live God, express God, and represent God, so that we may minister God into others.

In every aspect of our work for God – in preaching the gospel, feeding the believers, and perfecting the saints – we need to minister the builded and the building God into others. As those who minister the word of God to others, we should be those who supply the saints with God and reality, not with mere doctrines (2 Tim. 2:2, 15; 4:2-3, 5). However, we cannot give others what we do not have; we need to allow God to build Himself into us and flow through us and out of us into others so that others may receive God, enjoy God, and be constituted with God.

Today God is building Himself into His redeemed people in order to produce a house with Himself as the element and also with something from their redeemed and uplifted humanity; this house is the church as the Body of Christ. Amen! We need to realize that the measure to which we can minister God to others depends on the measure of being broken by God in the outer man so that the life within our spirit would be released and flow. Paul was constrained and even bore the putting to death of Jesus in his body so that others may receive life and enjoy the divine life; as his outer man was decaying, his inner man was being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:10-12, 16; Heb. 4:12).

When we are under the killing of the Lord’s death, His resurrection life is imparted through us into the other members of the Body of Christ. The impartation of life into others is always the issue of our suffering the killing of the cross. Life is ministered to others through our experience of the cross; the extent to which we experience the cross is the extent to which we can minister life to others. We do not need to pray for a deeper cross or more experiences of breaking but ask the Lord to increase the flow of life and have a way to release the divine life from within us to others for their shepherding according to God.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be filled with You and constituted with You so that we may live You, express You, represent You, and minister You to others. Lord, constitute us with Yourself as the processed and consummated Triune God; fill us with the life-giving Spirit and overflow through us to others for their shepherding according to God. Lord, increase the outflow of life even as we experience the death of Christ, the consuming pressures, and the experience of the cross.

Feeding the Saints with the Supply of Life by Ministering God to them for the Body

How can we minister God to one another? The flesh profits nothing – it is the Spirit who gives life, and the living words of the Lord that He speaks to us and through us are Spirit and are life (see John 6:63). We need to learn from the Apostle Paul to be filled with God, constituted with God, and saturated with God so that, when we meet and speak with others, we would impart to them not only the gospel but even more, our God-constituted soul (1 Thes. 1:8).

If we would minister God to one another, we need to speak words of grace, truth, spirit, and life, ministering the processed Triune God who has been wrought into our being (Eph. 3:16-17; 4:25, 29; John 6:63). We can minister God to one another by speaking Christ as the living word of God to others – this Christ is not merely objective but subjective, the Christ wrought into us. We need to feed the saints with God so that they may receive the supply of life with full enjoyment and satisfaction for the building up of the Body of Christ (Matt. 24:45-46; Heb. 5:12-14; Eph. 4:16).

At the same time, we should not have a narrow view of what it means to feed the saints; shepherding according to God is not only by ministering the word of God to them but also by showing them a pattern of one who lives Christ, expresses Christ, and represents Christ. Instead of giving others a lot of teachings, we should present them a pattern in life; 90% should be feeding and 10% should be teaching, and this feeding should include presenting patterns in the Bible or in church history.

In 1 Thes. Paul didn’t merely teach the saints but he presented himself as a pattern of one who imitates Christ, and he fed the believers with his own living of Christ; Paul’s experience and living of Christ is used by God even today to feed the believers. Nothing encourages us more, feeds us more, and nourishes us more than seeing a person living Christ – such a living means more than messages and teachings.

We need to learn from the Lord to contact God, enjoy Him, be filled with Him, be constituted with Him, live Him, express Him, and represent Him, and we will spontaneously minister the processed Triune God which has been constituted into us – to others. As shepherds – the duplication of Christ as the Good Shepherd – we are commissioned by God to feed God’s flock by giving them the supply of life with full enjoyment and satisfaction, take care of God’s people so that they may lied down and have rest, and open their understanding with the holy Word of God so that they may know and obey God.

As we see the vision of the high peak of the divine revelation, our reaction should be the same as David’s in 2 Sam. 7: we should come to the Lord in prayer and bring this to Him, asking Him to do in us what He has spoken. God’s economy is to make us the same as Him in life, nature, expression, and function, so that there would be a corporate model of a God-man living on earth and the recovery of mutual shepherding among the brothers and sisters in the Lord, for a new revival to be brought in and the age to be finished!

Lord, it is Your economy to make us the same as You are in life, nature, expression and function – do it in us as You desire and intend! Constitute us with God, saturate our inner being with Your element, live in us, be expressed through us, be represented in us, and be ministered through us as we live a God-man life under the vision of the age to shepherd others according to God! Lord, we want to live You! Grant us to have a God-man living that expresses You and represents You so that we may minister You to Your people!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother M.R’s sharing in the message for this week, and The Vital Groups, msgs. 7-8 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Need for a New Revival, week 6 / msg 6, Shepherding according to God (2) Becoming One with God, Being Constituted with God, Living God, Expressing God, Representing God, and Ministering God to Shepherd according to God.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Christ is the All in all to God and man- / With Him both we and God are satisfied; / Christ, the reality within the Church- / By Him are life and numbers multiplied. (Hymns #863)
  # By Your Spirit in our spirit— / Working, breaking through, / Free us from the self and back to You. / We redeem each precious moment, / Spending time with You, / To become the testimony of Christ. (Song on Christ Breaking through)
  # In the church life, in our daily living too, / In the meeting, and in everything we do, / Christ is speaking and the Spirit’s breaking through, / That is why there’s the supply to water you. (Song on Ministering Christ)