We all need to learn to take the shepherding way to preach the gospel and revive the church, being willing to be the slaves of the saints by being one with the Lord who is the Shepherd in our spirit. Our Lord Jesus is the great Shepherd.
He came as the good Shepherd to lay down His life for the sheep, for us, and He imparted His life into our being, giving us life and giving it to us abundantly.
Now as those who love the Lord and enjoy His life spreading and growing in our being, we need to cooperate with Him in His heavenly ministry to shepherd others according to God.
Shepherding should not be something we do, as if some of the Lord’s sheep were allotted to us so we now have to care for them and visit them. What we need to do is contact the Lord in a genuine way and open to Him, take Him as our person and life, and He in us will shepherd others.
Shepherding is a life, and shepherding is a person, so we need to contact this One and let Him live and shepherd others in us.
For us to shepherd others we need to live God, for only He is the Shepherd. He brought us out of the fold of Christianity and into the church life, where He Himself is our pasture, the food we eat, the water we drink, the spiritual air we breathe, and the One who takes care of all our needs.
As we enjoy Him and love Him, He commissions us to shepherd His sheep. As we take Christ as our life and person, we will take the shepherding way to care for His sheep.
Peter charges us to shepherd the flock of God according to God, which means to shepherd the saints by being one with God and by being in God.
We need to take the shepherding way and shepherd the saints according to God, being one with God, and shepherding according to what God is in His attributes – love, light, holiness, and righteousness.
We should shepherd others not according to man’s preference, interest, and purpose, but according to God’s nature, desire, way, and glory. This means that we need to deny our self and even our good intentions and solutions, and take Christ as our life and person, so that we may shepherd others according to God and not according to our way.
The Lord in His heavenly ministry is shepherding His flock, and we on earth need to cooperate with Him by living Christ and taking Him as our person, and by learning to shepherd others according to God.
Not Lording it over the Saints but taking the Shepherding Way in the Church life
Shepherding is the key to the entire gospel of John; without John 21 as an appendix, this gospel has no adequate and complete ending.
If we do not know what shepherding is, the entire Gospel of John will be in vain to us; it is only when we shepherd others that we can know John in an intrinsic way; shepherding is the key to the Gospel of John.
In the church life today we must take the shepherding way to preach the gospel and revive the church. How do we preach the gospel? Do we merely have gospel meetings with many people and a great speaker? We need to take the way of shepherding. How do we bring in a revival? By shepherding.
We need to take care of people by shepherding them according to God; this involves visiting them in their homes and not relying on big meetings in caring for them. Real gospel preaching is by way of shepherding through a lot of visitation.
If we see how important shepherding is, we will take the Lord as our person, and He in us will shepherd others. If we love the Lord, we will also love the people whom He has created, so we will visit them one by one. In this way many will get fully saved and the church can be revived.
We shouldn’t lord it over God’s allotments but become patterns of the flock (1 Pet. 5:3). Only Jesus Christ is Lord, and no one else among us is a lord or a teacher or a master; we need to take the shepherding way first and not lord it over God’s flock.
We may want to lead and guide the saints to not do this or do that, not wear this and not go to this place, but in doing so, we may control the saints.
When we see that the saints are not growing in life, when we see something inappropriate, and when we see some backsliding, we should first pray, contact the Lord, and if He gives us the leading, we should take the shepherding way not to rebuke or expose, but lovingly care for the saints, seek to understand what the situation is, and minister life supply to them.
Just as the Lord comes to us either directly or indirectly through members of His Body to shepherd us and restore our love for Him, so we need to take the shepherding way in caring for others.
The elders in the church can only take the leadership (not the lordship), which all believers should honor and follow (see 1 Thes. 5:12; 1 Tim. 5:17).
To lord it over others means to exercise lordship over those who are ruled; such things the nations do, but we should not practice this in the church life (Matt. 20:25). Rather, we should practice contacting the Lord, seeking Him concerning the saints, and being one spirit with Him to take the shepherding way in caring for His flock, so that we may minister life to the saints.
Lord Jesus, we want to take the shepherding way in preaching the gospel and in doing anything in the church life. Amen, Lord, thank You for Your shepherding and care, and thank You for restoring our love for You. Out of love for You, Lord, we want to learn to shepherd others according to God by visiting them and ministering life to them. Save us from lording it over the saints. Make us those who are patterns to the flock by taking the lead to contact the Lord, live Christ, and take the shepherding way in the church life!
Humbling Ourselves to Serve the Saints, Shepherd them, Love them, and Visit them
The elders in the church should not consider themselves as “CEOs” or “lords”; rather, they are the slaves of the saints, for the Lord – who owns the flock of God – entrusted them temporarily with some sheep in their care.
Those who want to become great must be slaves; the elders should regard themselves as slaves, and the brothers and sisters as their masters, so that they may minister life to them for their going on in the Lord and the building up of the church.
The Lord Jesus came not to be our Master or Lord but to serve us; He served us by giving up His own life so that we may live by receiving His life and living by it. Now the Lord put us in the church life, where we need to learn to care for one another by first humbling ourselves to serve one another with Christ.
The church is God’s possession – not the possession of the elders, and He has allotted it to the elders that they may care for it and shepherd it. We all must be willing to be slaves to the saints and we must humble ourselves under the saints.
We need to seek the saints out for fellowship, see what their situation is, and be one with the Lord to take the shepherding way and minister life to them.
The elders must love one another and shepherd one another, to be a model of the Body life. How can the Lord bless the church if the elders don’t love and care for one another?
Shepherding is not an activity we do but our very being, our living; we need to live a shepherding life, no matter where we are. We must take care of the saints in everything and in every way for the dispensing of Christ into them.
There may be some temporary needs, some outward needs, that the saints have, and we may be able to help with that; however, we need to take the shepherding way to minister Christ into them.
As we care for the saints by visiting them in their homes, we should take the opportunity to minister Christ into them. Shepherding is not merely to care for people’s needs, but to dispense the life supply into them by ministering and dispensing Christ into them.
We need to contact the Lord and be full of the heavenly supply, and when we contact the saints or invite them over to our home for meals, we need to listen to them and find out what is their condition, see where they are, and learn to minister Christ to them according to their need.
We shouldn’t wait for the Lord’s day to see the saints – we should be before the Lord and contact the saints every day, ministering life to them by a phone call, a text, or an email; even if we contact one person a day, this will encourage them very much.
We need to take the shepherding way and live a shepherding life by humbling ourselves to serve the saints, love them, visit them, and invite them over in our homes.
Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You to humble ourselves and serve the saints by loving them, visiting them, and shepherding them. Make us one with You, Lord, that we may live a shepherding life in the church life. May the saints be in our heart and in our home, and may we be in their heart and in their home. Grant us the wisdom and understanding to know where the saints are and cooperate with you to minister Christ as life supply into them. Oh Lord, may we take the shepherding way and live a shepherding life in the church life!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Vital Groups, ch. 6 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 6, The Apostolic Ministry in Cooperation with Christ’s Heavenly Ministry .
- Hymns on this topic:
# In the divisions He sought us, / Weary and famished for food; / Into the good land He brought us, / Oh, to our spirit how good! / Jesus Himself is our pasture, / He is the food that we eat; / We as His sheep are fed richly / Each time, whenever we meet. (Hymns #1221)
# 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, Shepherding the flock)
# Foll’wing Thee, Good Shepherd, I would feed, / Shepherd those allotted me, / E’er I’d touch Thy heart’s desire, / Live in Thine economy. (Song on, Shepherding in Love)
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