Shepherd the Believers for their Growth in Life unto the Building up of the Body

The Lord Jesus is our Good Shepherd, and He is the Chief Shepherd; He shepherded us when He was on earth, He is shepherding us in His heavenly ministry, and today we can cooperate with Him to shepherd the believers for them to grow in life unto maturity for the building up of the Body of Christ. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to another crucial matter, Shepherding According to God.

It sounds quite simple, to shepherd others according to God; we all, most of us, think we know what it means to shepherd others, for we have experienced the Lord’s shepherding and others’ shepherding.

But we need to open to the Lord in a fresh way, not hold on to old knowledge, and not allow anything that we have learned, known, and experienced in the past to hinder us from enjoying the Lord’s shepherding today, entering into His ministry of shepherding, and shepherding others according to God.

We need to be poor in spirit and have a learning attitude toward the Lord Himself so that He may unveil us to see how He shepherds us according to God, how Paul shepherded the saints according to God, and how He wants us to shepherd the believers according to God.

To shepherd is to render an all-inclusive, tender care to the sheep in the flock.

Shepherding is caring, tenderly caring for others, even having an all-inclusive care for the believers who are still new and growing in the Lord.

Actually, we all need shepherding. If we reflect on our experience without being too subjective, we can remember many brothers and sisters who tried to shepherd us, to care for us.

Some of these were quite tender and caring, while others may not have been so sweet and caring, but they tried their best.

We are not here to examine or criticize, nor do we desire to compare or point the finger; we want to learn from the Lord Jesus, our Good Shepherd who, through death and resurrection, became the Chief Shepherd, the Shepherd of our souls.

We all can testify that there have been moments in our Christian life when we really needed the Lord’s shepherding, and a simple conversation with a brother or sister before or after the meeting rendered us tender care, and we were refreshed and supplied.

It might have been that we were so down, disappointed, and puzzled related to many things, and, unaware of our situation, a saint spoke something to us in a simple way, and we were touched by the Lord’s shepherding in the Body.

May we learn to be such ones, those who are one with the Lord, caring for His heart, and loving His people even as He loves them so that we may shepherd the Lord’s sheep according to God.

The Lord Shepherded us in His earthly Ministry and He is Shepherding us in His Heavenly Ministry today

The Lord Jesus told us that He is the Good Shepherd; He came not to be a King for us outwardly but to be a shepherd, someone who takes all-inclusive tender care of us, His sheep (John 10:10, 11, 16).

He is the Good Shepherd who came so that we as His sheep may have life and may have it abundantly.

And He did not come only for the sheep in that fold where He was, the Jewish fold, but even for the sheep that are outside of that fold, so that He may bring us all into one flock under Him as the one Shepherd.

The Lord Jesus came in the Jewish land but He did not come merely for the Jews; He came to be our life abundantly and to shepherd us into the enjoyment of God, and He does this toward all who believe into Him!

First, the Lord’s shepherding was in His earthly ministry (Matt. 9:36).

He saw that the Israelites were like sheep being harassed by their leaders; their leaders were supposed to shepherd them, but they were cast away, not being shepherded by them.

So the Lord came as the Shepherd of God’s elect, and He also commissioned His twelve disciples to go and shepherd God’s people and take care of the sheep of God (John 10:1-6).

After His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus entered into His heavenly ministry; now in His heavenly ministry the Lord is still shepherding us (1 Pet. 5:4).

He takes care of the church of God, issuing in the Body of Christ, to be God’s expression on the earth.

The Lord did not stop shepherding us after His death; He is now living always before God in the heavens to shepherd us.

He takes all-inclusive tender care of us, His sheep.

Though we, the Gentile believers, are not part of the earthly people of God according to the Old Testament, we are part of the one flock under Christ as the Shepherd by receiving His life and becoming children of God in spirit.

The Lord’s shepherding us today is not only through His direct shepherding of us but also through His indirect shepherding, through the shepherds which He has set in His household, His flock.

In John 21:15-17 we see that the Lord Jesus came to His disciples and restored Peter, commissioning him to go and shepherd the Lord’s sheep and feed His lambs.

While He is in the heavens, He is one with His disciples, with each one of us, to shepherd His sheep.

He did not set some elders over the church to watch over the saints and correct them, rebuke them, and perfect them.

Rather, He set some overseers among the sheep of God to shepherd the church of God, which He has obtained through His blood (Acts 20:28).

The matter of shepherding the believers according to God has been lost throughout the ages, and the Lord is recovering it among us today.

Who today takes the lead in the church life not to do this or that, organize this or that, or give messages, but to shepherd the Lord’s believers?

The Lord Jesus in His resurrection incorporated the apostolic ministry with His heavenly ministry to take care of God’s flock, which is the church issuing in the Body of Christ.

He is interested in His sheep, He laid down for His sheep, and He wants all His sheep would have life and have it abundantly.

May we cooperate with the Lord in His heavenly ministry to shepherd the believers according to God so that we may be one with the Lord to render all-inclusive tender care to the Lord’s sheep for them to grow in life and be one flock under one Shepherd.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to us as the Good Shepherd to give us life abundantly! We open to Your shepherding. Thank You for coming to take all-inclusive tender care of us, Your sheep. Hallelujah, we have been regenerated by God to be part of the flock under Christ as the Shepherd, and now we enjoy Christ’s shepherding! Thank You, dear Lord, for still shepherding us in Your heavenly ministry. How wonderful it is to be under the Lord’s shepherding in the church life today. We love to open to You and enjoy Your care. You care for the welfare of our soul, for You know the condition of our inner being. Amen, Lord, we love You and we open to You. We want to be one with You in Your heavenly ministry to shepherd the believers according to God so that they may grow in life and be built up into the church as the Body of Christ.

Being One with Christ to Shepherd the Believers for their Growth in Life unto the Building up of the Body

To shepherd is to take all-inclusive tender care of the flock of God (John 21:15-17; Acts 20:28).

We all are sheep; no matter how advanced we are in the Lord, no matter how much experience of Christ we have, we are still sheep toward the Lord, and we still need His shepherding.

Actually, we are both sheep and shepherds, for we are learning from the Lord and from one another to shepherd the believers according to God for the building up of the church.

And in shepherding one thing we must learn is to be tender, to have a tender heart, so that we may take care of the sheep in a tender way.

There may be the need to deal with a particular situation and speak a particular word to someone, but our attitude, our tone, is very important.

Not only the sisters but also the brothers need to learn from the Lord to have a tender heart in caring for others.

Shepherding refers to caring for all the needs of the sheep. All the Lord’s sheep need to be well provided for and well-tended to.

In many ways, this is the essence of the church life: mutual shepherding.

We all can testify that in the church life we not only sing, pray, read, go to meetings, take care of practical matters, etc but even more, we shepherd one another.

We shepherd others and we receive others’ shepherding. In the Lord’s recovery today there’s an urgent need for shepherding (1 Pet. 5:2).

In His organic salvation, God the Father first regenerates us by God the Spirit and then shepherds us in God the Son as our Shepherd so that we may exist and grow in His life for eternity (John 3:6; 10:10, 14-16).

First, we are regenerated by God with His life through His Spirit; then, Christ is shepherding us little by little, day by day, so that we may grow in His life and be built up as the Body of Christ.

The Father wants all His children to grow in life unto maturity; shepherding is to help believers grow in life.

It is so sad to see some saints who have been believers for a long time but have not grown in life; they enjoy the Lord personally, but they do not seem to be open to being shepherded by others.

In order for us to shepherd others, we need to pass through the stage of experiencing the cross and apply the cross to the self and to our natural constitution.

We are not here to judge others, criticize them, or point out their faults; we are here to help one another to enjoy the Lord so that they may grow in life.

We are here to learn from the Lord to shepherd the believers for their growth in life unto the building up of the church.

To shepherd the believers is crucial for their growth in the divine life unto maturity for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12-16).

On one hand, we need to help others to grow in life by eating the Lord; on the other hand, shepherding includes perfecting and teaching to help them to function in the church life for the building up of the Body of Christ.

All the parents know that, on the one hand, they need to feed their children so that they may grow, and on the other hand, they need to perfect them and teach them so they function in a normal way in society.

We need to shepherd the believers according to God so that they may grow in life unto maturity for them to function in the church for the building up of the Body of Christ.

In Song of Songs 1:7, the seeker says, “Tell me, you whom my soul loves, Where do you pasture your flock? / Where do you make it lie down at noon?”

Then the Shepherd responds to His seeker in v. 8, “Go forth on the footsteps of the flock, / And pasture your young goats / By the shepherds’ tents.”

The Lord is the Chief Shepherd; under Him there are many shepherds who pasture their young by their tents, in the place where they live, in the church life.

We are learning to do this today.

We are learning to say like the loving seeker in Song of Song 2:16, “My beloved is mine, and I am his; / He pastures his flock among the lilies.”

He is pasturing His flock among the seekers of Christ who live a life of trusting in God with a single heart; He is feeding His seekers and taking care of them so that they may grow.

May we learn to be one with the Lord to shepherd the believers according to God for their growth in life unto the building up of the Body of Christ in the church life.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You to shepherd the believers according to God in the church life. We love You, Lord Jesus, and we give ourselves to You to receive Your shepherding and to shepherd others according to God! Thank You for regenerating us by Your Spirit and shepherding us in Christ so that we may exist and grow in Your life for the building up of the church. May we be those who shepherd the saints for their growth in life unto maturity for the building up of the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, may we realize the urgent need for shepherding in the church life today. May we open to Your shepherding and to the shepherding of those whom You send to shepherd us. May we learn to shepherd the believers in the church life for them to grow in life unto maturity so that they may be perfected and built up to function in the church for the building up of the Body of Christ!

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 Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” ch. 13, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 6, entitled, Shepherding according to God.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Feeding and shepherding the Lord’s sheep, a portion via, Messages in Preparation for the Spread of the Gospel, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
  – Restoring Fellowship in the Body of Christ, article via, Shepherding Words.
  – The Lord Jesus Is Our Shepherd, article via, Bibles for America blog.
  – NorCal Conference with Ron Kangas on Shepherding (December 2020), via, Living to Him.
  – Shepherding the Lord’s flock, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 62, by Witness Lee.
  – How Psalm 23 Reveals the Organic Shepherding of the Pneumatic Christ, article via, Holding to Truth in Love.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – My Shepherd Himself is my pasture, / My Shepherd, the waters of rest; / I eat of His riches in spirit, / I drink, and O how I am blest! / My Shepherd my soul is restoring, / My will, and emotion, and mind; / And though through the valley I’m walking, / O what a Companion I find! (Hymns #1170 stanzas 2-3)
  – Jesus, our wonderful Shepherd / Brought us right out of the fold / Into His pasture so plenteous, / Into His riches untold. / Glorious church life, / Feasting from such a rich store! / Here where we’re dwelling in oneness / God commands life evermore. (Hymns #1221 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Oh, my Beloved’s mine, and I am His; / I am a lily and my Shepherd He; / May daybreak come, the shadows flee away, / Him on the mountains as a hart I’d see. (Hymns #556 stanza 4)