Praise the Lord for Psalm 23 with the proper interpretation and the high view of Christ in His ascension as the organic Shepherd! I really enjoyed in the recent Crystallization Study of the Psalms(1), in message 6 entitled, The Organic Shepherding of the Pneumatic Christ, the fact that the pneumatic Christ is the Shepherd, He is shepherding us, and He wants us to shepherd others also!
The Christ whom we love, enjoy, and worship is the Shepherd! We need to see this and cooperate with Him in this by shepherding people!
When the Lord came to Peter after His resurrection, He asked him, Do you love Me, Peter? The response was eventually, You know, Lord, that I love You…
The Christ whom Peter loved was the Shepherd, and His commission was that Peter would also shepherd the Lord’s sheep. In His heavenly ministry, after being crucified and resurrected, Christ is the Shepherd, even the great shepherd, the chief shepherd, taking care of all His believers in life!
He shepherds us inwardly to reconstitute us and make us His dwelling place for His kingdom, His satisfaction, and His good pleasure. We today want to be one with Him in His heavenly ministry and cooperate with the Lord in allowing Him to shepherd us and then we in turn shepherd others.
This is the salvation that we have received and we enjoy today – To Me, For You! In Eph. 3 Paul says that the stewardship was given to him for the saints! Also, we as believers who have been given to drink of the one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13) we need to flow out! Drink and Flow!
In John 7:37-38 we see that if we drink of the Spirit as the fountain of life, this life becomes in us many rivers flowing into eternal life: we drink and flow! We drink the Shepherd, and we become one with Him to dispense Him into the other saints and the other people!
The Lord is TO ME FOR YOU, and we drink of the Lord so that we may flow towards others. We love to drink of the Lord as the living water – but remember, flowing out is even more important than drinking! If there’s no flowing out, there is no possibility for something to flow in! Yes, we love the Lord and we dive into the Word, but if we don’t practice to care for others, even our hunger and our appetite for the Lord will diminish.
We need to drink the Lord and flow Him out to the others – join the Lord in His shepherding ministry! Christ builds up His Body by shepherding every member of His Body and by gaining us to shepherd others with the same shepherding He granted to us!
Another matter I was impressed with in this message is the fact that we can come under God’s system of government only by first being under God’s system of grace.
And this is seen in Psalm 23: we first are those shepherded by the Lord (v. 1), we lie down in green pastures, we are lead beside the waters of rest, we have our soul restored…
The Lord first shepherds us, cherishes and nourishes us, and restores our soul. Even though we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death – we fear no evil because the Lord is with us. He shepherds us in every way, taking care of all our needs… and in this way we are being brought on “the paths of righteousness” – under God’s system of government.
How does God bring man under His government? It is not by forcing or coercing man, but by shepherding man and taking care of the welfare of our being! He takes care of us from within our spirit, and He oversees our soul, spreading into every part of our mind, emotion, and will. He takes care of our problems, heals our wounds, restores our soul, and is full of compassion for us…
The result is that we are guided(a more specific leading, more than general leading) on the paths of righteousness! This is related to His government – as a result of us enjoying the Lord’s constant shepherding and taking care of us, we are being guided on the paths of righteousness, to be right with God and with man, be a proper Christian, and be brought under God’s government.
The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but enjoy the shepherding of Christ organically in our spirit (Rom. 6:6).
This is the way we become co-kings with Him, representing God on the earth – by kissing the Son, by allowing Christ to shepherd us and take care of us, and by having our soul restored! [sharing inspired from the brother’s sharing in message 6 in the recent summer training on the Crystallization-Study of the Psalms(1)]
Amen. "The Lord is TO ME FOR YOU, we drink of the Lord so that we may flow towards others."
Amazing is that real Shephered is in our spirit. So we do not have to try own ways of taking care of others but we need to just let HIM take care of others thriough us!
I am also touched God's way bringing man under His government. "It is not by forcing or coercing man, but by shepherding man and taking care of the welfare of our being…He takes care of our problems, heals our wounds, restores our soul, and is full of compassion."
Wow what a God we have!
Lord make us more and more one with You.