To enter into a new revival, we need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the apostle Paul, who shepherded the saints as a nursing mother and an exhorting father in order to take care of God’s flock; he admonished the saints, declared God’s counsel to them, had an intimate concern for the saints, spent what he had and was on the saints, walked by the Spirit, and took the way of love in everything.
Lord Jesus, we want to enter into a new revival today by learning to shepherd the flock of God according to God! Amen, Lord, we want to learn to shepherd people according to Paul’s pattern. Grant us Your heart of love and care for the saints so that we may enter into the shepherding according to God for there to be a new revival among us! Oh Lord Jesus, may there be a genuine revival among us as we receive the burden of shepherding. May we walk by the Spirit and minister the Spirit to others. May we be willing to spend what we have and are on the saints, caring for the flock of God! Amen!
This week we have been learning prayerfully how we can cooperate with the Lord to bring in a new revival that will end this age.
Among God’s elect throughout generations, there has always been an aspiration to be revived. How can we be revived? How can we enter into a new revival today, even the revival that will end this age?
First, we can enter into a new revival by arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation given to us by God.
We need to see the vision of God’s eternal economy according to which God became man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem.
Seeing a vision of God’s economy will result in practicing to live the life of a God-man, which is the second way for us to enter into a new revival.
God wants to raise up a corporate people through the high peak of the divine revelation to live according to this revelation.
We are learning to live as the Lord lived, taking Him as our model as we live in the mingled spirit and doing all things according to the Spirit.
The third way we can enter into a new revival today is shepherding according to God, that is, participating in Christ’s heavenly ministry to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep to take care of God’s flock.
We follow the Lord’s pattern in His ministry to shepherd people according to God for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy. Today we want to see how Paul was a pattern in shepherding the saints.
Paul Shepherded the Saints as a Nursing Mother and an Exhorting Father to Take Care of God’s Flock
One of the top sinners and persecutors of Christ, Paul, was met by the Lord Jesus and converted to Christ, and he was made by God a pattern to all the believers. We need to look at Paul’s pattern of shepherding the saints according to God.
What we see in his living and work is that Paul shepherded the saints as a nursing mother and an exhorting father in order to take care of God’s flock (1 Thes. 2:7-8, 11-12; 1 Tim. 1:16; Acts 20:28). We may consider Paul a great apostle, but he considered himself a nursing mother.
If we want to be an apostle, we first need to be a nursing mother and an exhorting father.
Paul shepherded the saints in Ephesus by teaching them “publicly and from house to house” (Acts 20:20) and also by admonishing each one of the saints with tears for three years (vv. 31, 19), declaring to them all the counsel of God (v. 27).
He cared for the saints not only publicly but in three stages: publicly, from house to house, and each one. In other words, he not only ministered to the church but also cared for the saints in their homes, and even more, he cared for each of them individually, even with tears.
He admonished the saints, cared for the saints, perfected the saints, and declared to them all the counsel of God.
This was an all-inclusive tender care – not just teaching but also admonishing, even admonishing them with tears, so that the saints would go on with the Lord.
This is the pattern of Paul as he shepherded the saints as a nursing mother and an exhorting father to take care of God’s flock.
He was willing to care for each one, for all the homes, and for the churches. He was willing to spend what he had and what he was for the sake of the saints (2 Cor. 12:15).
Regarding his possessions, he was willing to spend all that he had on the saints. Regarding to what he was, he was willing to spend what he was for the sake of the saints. Day and night, he spent what he was and what he had on the saints, seeking to shepherd the saints.
In 2 Corinthians 11:28-29, he said that there was a crowd of cares pressing upon him daily, the anxious concern for all the churches.
He cared for the churches, and the way he did it was by realising that, if someone is weak, he is weak also with them, and if someone is stumbled, he burns for that one.
He had an intimate concern and care for the churches and for all the saints. Paul became weak to those who are weak, so that he might gain the weak (v. 22).
And for those who were stumbled, Paul burned for them; he burned in sorrow and indignation over the cause of the stumbling of all the fallen ones.
This shows us how Paul was a good shepherd, taking care of God’s flock. Paul was a drink offering, one with Christ as the wine producer, sacrificing himself for others’ enjoyment of Christ (Phil. 2:17; Judg. 9:13; Eph. 3:2).
He enjoyed the Lord, he was in the word of God, but he also wanted the saints to enter into the enjoyment of Christ; for this, he laboured, he sacrificed himself, and he taught, perfected, and shepherded the saints.
Even more, he was one with Christ to pour himself out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of the saints’ faith.
In some cases, though the apostle Paul loved them so much and poured out everything he had and was on them, they did not love him back with the same kind of love.
Nonetheless, he wasted himself on the saints and poured out his God-constituted being upon them, so that they may advance with the Lord.
Paul walked by the Spirit to honour God so that he could minister the Spirit to honour man (2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 8; Gal. 5:16, 25; Judg. 9:9).
He had a lot of knowledge; he could expound the Scriptures, and he had much zeal for the Lord; however, he realised that he had the ministry of the Spirit, and he did all things in the Spirit and by the Spirit. In this way, he honoured God, and he ministered the Spirit to man to honour man.
Whenever we walk according to the Spirit, we honour God, and when we minister the Spirit to others, we honour man.
Paul indicated in his teaching that the church is a home to raise up people, a hospital to heal and recover them, and a school to teach and edify them (Eph. 2:19; 1 Thes. 5:14; 1 Cor. 14:31).
Also, Paul revealed that love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ (8:1; 12:31; 13:4-8a; Eph. 1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2; 6:24; Rev. 2:4-5; Col. 1:18b; 1 Thes. 1:3).
If we read the epistles of Paul, we see not only the highest teachings concerning Christ and the church, God’s economy, and the building up of the church, but even more, the pattern of Paul as one who shepherded the saints according to God.
May we learn from his pattern and allow the Lord to shepherd others according to God through us today.
Lord Jesus, we want to shepherd people according to the pattern of the apostle Paul, who shepherded the saints as a nursing mother and an exhorting father in order to take care of God’s flock. Amen, Lord, make us those who care for the saints in love both personally, one-on-one, and corporately in group meetings and church meetings. May we have an intimate concern for the saints. Grant us Your loving heart for each of the saints. Thank You, Lord, for being the One in us who can come down to the weak ones’ level so that You can gain them for Christ. Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You today to shepherd the saints according to God. May we be willing to spend what we have and even what we are, our very being, for the sake of the saints. Keep us coming to You in spirit so that we may enjoy You as the Spirit, thus honouring God. May we minister the Spirit to others to honour them and bring them on with You. Amen, Lord, we want to take the most excellent way, the way of love! May all our shepherding be in love for the building up of the church! Amen!
Follow Paul’s Pattern to Shepherd the Saints according to God & enter into a New Revival
We can enter into a new revival by receiving the burden of shepherding and learning to shepherd the saints according to God. May we follow Paul’s pattern to shepherd the saints according to God and therefore enter into a new revival.
If we all receive the burden of shepherding, if we all participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding in the Body, there will be a big revival among us.
How can we cooperate with the Lord to enter into the burden of shepherding?
First, we need to have the aspiration to be revived; we come to the Lord to revive us, and we pray to be revived. This means that we confess our sins, failures, and all our darkness. We do not want to walk in darkness, in the vanity of our mind.
We want to be revived, and we pray for both us and the saints around us to be revived. So we give ourselves to the Lord to see the vision of God’s eternal economy and allow this vision to govern our daily living.
We want to live the life of a God-man by arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation so that we may live Christ and express Him. As we live in this way, we are built with the saints into a corporate model of God-man living, and the Lord will bring in a new revival.
Spontaneously, we will shepherd the saints according to God. We take the Lord Jesus as our pattern, and we also take the apostle Paul as our pattern.
We want to shepherd the saints as the apostle Paul did, by being as a nursing mother caring for them in love, and by being an exhorting father to admonish them in the Lord (1 Thes. 2:7-8, 11-12).
We will care for the saints individually, having a genuine concern in love for them, even by admonishing them with tears.
On the one hand, we will declare to the saints all the counsel of God, for we want them to know and live in the eternal economy of God. On the other hand, we care for each one of them in love, and we admonish them, one with the Lord.
When some saints are weak, we do not neglect or ignore them; we pray for them, we consider them before the Lord, and we receive the grace from the Lord to come down to the weak one’s level so that we may gain them for the Lord.
We will love the saints as the Lord did, and we will be willing to waste ourselves on the saints, even to spend what we are what we have upon the saints.
We will consider the church as being the most precious thing to God and to us, so we will be willing to be one with Christ as the wine producer and sacrifice ourselves for others’ enjoyment of Christ. Above all, we will take the way of love.
The most excellent way for us be anything and do anything in the church life is love (2 Cor. 12:31).
We may have all the knowledge, we may have a lot of gifts, and we may have much zeal, but if we don’t have love, we cannot shepherd the saints according to God. The way to be an elder is love. The way to be a co-worker is love. The way to shepherd one another is love.
The church is not like a police station to detect sin in the saints and then arrest them, nor is it a law court to judge people according to a set of rules from the Bible.
Rather, the church is a home to raise up believers who are immature and who are growing in life unto maturity until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God (Eph. 4:13).
As parents know very well, the worse the children behave, the more they need to be raised up. The church is a loving home to raise up the children.
The church is also a hospital to heal and recover the sick ones; the Lord is the Physician and we cooperate with Him to minister Christ to one another for our healing and recovery.
The church is also a school to teach and edify the unlearned ones. We all need the healing, the teaching, and the caring in love. Our shepherding is in mutuality.
May we open to the Lord and be honest with Him,
Lord Jesus, we want to have a genuine revival among us by receiving the burden of shepherding. Amen, Lord, we want to be revived! We do not want to walk in darkness and do things in the vanity of the mind! Revive us. Revive the saints. Revive the church. May we all receive the grace to participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding so that there would be a big revival among us! Infuse us with Your genuine love and care for the saints. Duplicate Your heart of love in us so that we may love the saints, care for them in love, and be with them as a nursing mother and an exhorting father. Oh Lord, may we be those who shepherd the saints according to God by loving them, visiting them, and ministering Christ to them. Amen, Lord, may the church be a loving home to raise up the children of God. May the church be a hospital for the healing and recovery of the sick ones. May the church be a school to edify and teach the unlearned ones who don’t have much understanding. We love You, Lord, and we want to take the way of love as we are learning to shepherd the saints according to God so that we all may enter into a new revival, the ultimate revival to bring You back! Amen!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 126-127, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Great Need for a New Revival (2026 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 1, “Cooperating with the Lord to Bring In a New Revival That Will End This Age” – day 6.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Revive Thy work, O Lord! / And bless to all Thy Word! / And may its pure and sacred truth / In living faith be heard! / Revive Thy work, O Lord! / And make Thy servants bold;vConvict of sin and work once more / As in the days of old. / Revive Thy work, O Lord! / Give Pentecostal showers! / Be Thine the glory, Thine alone! / The blessing, Lord, be ours! (Hymns #797 stanzas 4-6)
– Oh, this perfect way of gladness, / Brotherly love! / No more fear, imparting sadness, / Brotherly love! / Now is our sure affirmation, / Life and Spirit our foundation, / Building up, the consummation— / Brotherly love. / Seed of life within us growing, / Brotherly love. / Philadelphia now is flowing, / Brotherly love. / To this love God has restored us; / Everything will fall before us; / Love is over all victorious, / Brotherly love! (Hymns #1277 stanzas 4-5)
– In the Body we’ll be fitly framed / As the many members Christ supply; / Working in the measure of each part, / All by growth in love the Body edify. / Now we’re one His purpose to fulfill, / As the one new man of His plan. / Unto Him be glory in the church, / And in Jesus Christ forevermore—Amen! (Hymns #1232 stanzas 5-6)
