In order to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, we need to participate in Christ’s heavenly ministry to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep in order to take care of God’s flock, the church as the Body of Christ; we need to shepherd people according to the Lord’s pattern.
May we be those who prepare ourselves for the Lord’s coming by maintaining our victory, and may we participate in and be one with Christ in His heavenly ministry to shepherd people according to the pattern shown by the Lord Jesus.
On one hand, we ourselves need to enjoy the Lord and go through the process of God’s organic salvation to be regenerated, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified.
On the other hand, we need to learn from the Lord Jesus to shepherd others according to God. In the Bible, our God Jehovah is introduced as the Shepherd; He likes to shepherd us, His sheep.
The Lord is our shepherd, and we shall not want; He leads us to waters of rest and restores our soul. He gives us peace.
He wants to not only supply us but even more, to shepherd us, taking an all-inclusive tender care of all the sheep in His flock.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus came as the embodiment of the Triune God, and He said that He is the Good Shepherd of the sheep.
He shepherded those around Him while He was with them on earth, and even after His death and resurrection, He continues to shepherd His sheep.
Actually, as the Lord is in His heavenly ministry today, He is more busy than ever, for He shepherds the millions of His sheep – the believers in Christ – day by day, even moment by moment.
He knows the inner situation of our being, He understands us thoroughly, and He cares for us according to God.
The goal of His shepherding is that we would build up the church as the Body of Christ for His corporate expression on the earth.
And the Lord wants to gain many of us, the believers in Christ, to be His co-shepherds, those who cooperate with Him and shepherd others one with Him in His heavenly ministry.
First, He had a group of apostles who cooperated with His shepherding so that they would shepherd the believers according to God.
Preaching the gospel is shepherding, caring for others is shepherding, and ministering food to them at the proper time is shepherding.
The Lord in His heavenly ministry feeds us by giving us the daily life supply we need for our Christian life, and He is shepherding us by taking all-inclusive tender care of the situation of our soul.
He is flocking us together so that we may not be scattered about but that we would be grouped together, flocked together, to be one flock under one shepherd.
May we be those who enjoy the Lord’s wonderful shepherding today so that we may cooperate with Him to shepherd others according to God.
He shepherds us both personally and corporately as the church, and we can cooperate with His shepherding to shepherd people according to God.
Shepherd People according to the Pattern of the Lord Jesus to Carry out God’s Economy
After the Lord was resurrected, He appeared to Mary at the tomb, and then He appeared to the disciples on the seashore.
Peter took the lead to say that he was going fishing, and some of the disciples went with him.
Unfortunately, they didn’t catch any fish, and the Lord from the shore asked them to put the net on the other side of the boat, and they caught a lot of fish.
Once on the shore, the Lord was waiting for them with food, and while they were having breakfast, three times He asked Peter if he loved Him.
Then, after each response from Peter, the Lord commissioned him to shepherd His sheep, feed His lambs, and feed His sheep.
![And He had to pass through Samaria...There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give Me [something] to drink...Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. John 4:4, 7, 13-14](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/And-He-had-to-pass-through-Samaria-jpg.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "And He had to pass through Samaria...There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give Me [something] to drink...Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. John 4:4, 7, 13-14")
Shepherding is not a service that we sign up for; shepherding is something that we do because we love the Lord and He in us desires to shepherd others.
We need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the Lord Jesus in His ministry for carrying God’s eternal economy (Matt. 9:36; John 10:11; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4).
Yes, the Lord Jesus came to teach people and to unveil us concerning the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but even more, He came as the Good Shepherd, and He came to shepherd us and lay His life down for us.
There are many instances where the Lord went out of His way and lowered Himself, even limiting Himself, so that He would shepherd His sheep.
For example, in John 4:3-14 the Lord had to pass through Samaria, purposely detouring to Sychar to gain one immoral woman.
He cherished her by asking her to give Him something to drink in order to nourish her with the flowing Triune God as the river of water of life.
He didn’t condemn her; rather, He shone a light on her situation, turned her from religion to drinking the living water, and He even confessed her sins for her.
Then, He gave her to drink living water, which He Himself is; the result is that she left her waterpot by the well and went to tell everyone to come to Him and drink.
We need to learn to shepherd people according to the pattern of the Lord Jesus to carry out God’s economy.
As the One without sin, Christ did not condemn the adulterous woman but cherished her for the forgiveness of her sins judicially and for the setting free from her sins organically (John 8:1-11, 32, 36).
The Jews brought to Him a woman caught in the act of adultery, but the Lord did not condemn her; rather, He cherished her for the forgiveness of her sins, and He told her to go and sin no more.
What a pattern the Lord was in shepherding people according to God!
It is significant also to notice that the first person saved by Christ through His crucifixion was a robber sentenced to death (Luke 23:42-43).
While He was on the cross, dying, the two men being crucified with Him had an argument about the Lord, and one of them defended the Lord and asked Him to remember him when He comes in His kingdom.
This one was the first one saved by the Lord in His crucifixion. Wow!
In Luke 19 we see the story of Zaccheus, a chief tax collector; the Lord went to Jericho just to visit and gain one person, and His preaching was a shepherding (Luke 19:1-10).
It doesn’t say anywhere that the Lord told him to repent, but simply His being at Zaccheus’ table exposed him and he repented and had a great turn with a good testimony.
May we learn from the Lord Jesus to shepherd people for the carrying out of God’s economy.
![And as He came to the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay in your house. And he hurried and came down, and received Him, rejoicing. And when they saw [it,] they all murmured, saying, He has gone in to lodge with a sinful man. And Zaccheus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, the half of my possessions, Lord, I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore four times as much. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. Luke 19:5-9](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/And-as-He-came-to-the-place-Jesus-looked-up-and-said-to-him-Zaccheus-hurry-and-come-down-for-today-I-must-stay-in-your-house-jpg.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "And as He came to the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay in your house. And he hurried and came down, and received Him, rejoicing. And when they saw [it,] they all murmured, saying, He has gone in to lodge with a sinful man. And Zaccheus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, the half of my possessions, Lord, I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore four times as much. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. Luke 19:5-9")
In Matt. 19:13-15 the Lord Jesus cherished the parents by laying His hands on their children.
He was not too busy for the children but rather said, Allow the little children to come to Me, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens.
What a shepherding this was to the parents!
We need to learn from the Lord’s pattern to shepherd people according to God for the carrying out of God’s economy.
Today, as the Lord is carrying out His heavenly ministry, He cares for the churches as the golden lampstands as the ascended Lord.
He is walking among the churches and speaks to them as the Spirit, getting to know the condition of each church, and then He speaks to us so that all the saints in the churches might be metabolically and organically transformed with the aim of making them His overcomers (Rev. 1:12-13; 2:1, 7).
He is the High Priest walking among the lampstands, the local churches, getting to know their condition, trimming the wicks in His humanity to cherish them and adding the oil in His divinity to nourish them.
Christ does not condemn us but rather, He cherishes us and nourishes us, and He exposes the situation and adds the supply for us to carry out God’s economy.
May we be those who cooperate with the Lord and follow His pattern to shepherd people for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy.
Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You to shepherd people according to God for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy. We want to shepherd others according to the Lord’s pattern in His ministry for carrying out God’s eternal economy. Thank You, dear Lord, for coming as the Good Shepherd to take all-inclusive, tender care of us in our situation. Thank You for detouring to come to where we are not to condemn us but to give us to drink the living water. Thank You for cherishing us for the forgiveness of our sins and nourishing us with Yourself for the setting free of sin. Thank You, dear Lord, for being a pattern of One who shepherds people for the fulfilment of God’s economy. You came to us, right where we are, to be with You, and You simply ministered the gospel to us. Thank You, dear Lord. We want to learn from You to shepherd people for the carrying out of God’s economy. Amen, Lord, may we make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming by participating in Christ’s heavenly ministry to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep in order to take care of God’s flock!
Having the Father’s Loving and Forgiving Heart and the Savior’s Shepherding and Seeking Spirit to Cherish People in the Humanity of Jesus and Nourish People in the Divinity of Christ
May the Lord have mercy on us that we would not condemn others, judge them, criticize them, or think higher of ourselves than we ought to think, simply because we know so much of the word of God and the high peak of the divine revelation.
It is easy for us to think we know so much, but to be barren, for we do not have a heart for people. Oh Lord Jesus!
The reason for our barrenness is that we don’t have the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and the Savior’s shepherding and seeking spirit.
We may work hard, but there may be no fruit, because we may know so much but may have no heart for those around us rather, we categorize them, we look down on them, and we don’t have the Lod’s loving heart.
May the Lord save us from having such an attitude. May we come to the Lord and allow Him to infuse us with His loving and forgiving heart so that we may love the people we speak to and be ready to forgive them.
May we humble ourselves before the Lord and not be puffed up by the high knowledge concerning God and His economy; may we allow the Lord to infuse us with His shepherding and seeking spirit so that we may seek others in love and shepherd people according to God.
Instead of condemning or regulating others, we should rather shepherd them and love them, seek them, and care for them in love.
May we really reconsider our ways (Hag. 1:5) and come back to the Lord to have His heart and spirit infused in us and expressed through us.
He came to us in love, and though He was God Himself, He humbled Himself to come to our level to minister to us.
The way He cares for us is not by setting up a seminary or holding large conferences or gatherings; it is by coming to us personally to care for us one by one.
Luke 15:1-24 shows how the Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – works together to seek us out, find us, care for us, shepherd us, and bring us back to the enjoyment in the Father’s house.
The Father is eagerly expecting our return with love, the Son seeks us until He finds us as a lost sheep, and the Spirit lights up the word of God to sweep our inner being until He finds us and brings us back to the Father to enjoy the riches in the Father’s house.
In this chapter, we see the loving and forgiving heart of our Father God, the shepherding and seeking spirit of our Savior Christ, and the enlightening and sweeping of the Spirit in our heart by means of God’s word.
The Father is waiting for us to come back, with no condemnation or criticism.
The Son seeks us out until He finds us, and He brings us back home.
The Spirit searches, enlightens, sweeps, and lights the lamp to find us and bring us back to our home with our Father.
For us to shepherd people for the carrying out of God’s economy, we need to have the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and the Son’s shepherding and seeking Spirit.
When we have such a heart and spirit, we will cherish people in the humanity of Jesus and nourish them in the divinity of Christ.
We need to cherish people, that is, to make them happy and to make them feel pleasant and comfortable, in the humanity of Jesus (Matt. 9:10; Luke 7:34).
Also, we need to cherish people, that is, to feed them with the all-inclusive Christ in His ministry of three stages, in the divinity of Christ (Matt. 24:45-47).
We shepherd people for carrying out God’s economy by cherishing them in the Lord’s humanity and nourishing them in the Lord’s divinity.
May we be such ones today, one with the Lord in His heavenly ministry of shepherding His flock.
Lord, infuse us with the Father’s loving and forgiving heart; make our heart a duplication of Your heart. Infuse the Saviour’s shepherding and seeking spirit into us; cause our spirit to be full of shepherding and seeking toward others. Save us, Lord, from criticizing, condemning, or regulating others. Grant us Your heart for man and make our spirit so full of shepherding and seeking in love. Save us from our barrenness. May we be one with You in Your heavenly ministry today to shepherd people for the carrying out of God’s economy. We want to cherish people in the humanity of Jesus and nourish them in the divinity of Christ. Amen, Lord, shepherd us so that we may shepherd others also. We want to learn from You to make others happy, pleasant, and comfortable in the humanity of Jesus. We want to learn from you to feed others with the all-inclusive Christ in His ministry of three stages so that they would grow in life for the building up of the church as 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 the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 113-114, 156-158, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 ICSC), week 5, entitled, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by Having a Revived Living and a Labor of Shepherding.
- Similar reading on this topic:
– The Lord Jesus Is Our Shepherd, via, Bibles for America blog.
– The Lord’s Shepherding to New Jerusalem, article via, New Jerusalem blog.
– NorCal Conference with Ron Kangas on Shepherding (December 2020), via, Living to Him.
– Shepherding and ministering life, a portion via, All Ages for the Lord’s Testimony, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
– How Psalm 23 Reveals the Organic Shepherding of the Pneumatic Christ, via, Holding to Truth.
– Leadership in the Lord’s Recovery, Part 3: Applying the Biblical Pattern of Leadership, via, Shepherding words. - Hymns on this topic:
– Jesus, our wonderful Shepherd / Brought us right out of the fold / Into His pasture so plenteous, / Into His riches untold. / In the divisions He sought us, / Weary and famished for food; / Into the good land He brought us, / Oh, to our spirit how good! (Hymns #1221 stanzas 1-2)
– To the lost world minister Christ, / The very Christ you enjoy, / Imparting Christ to all your friends / As all their boast and their joy. / To the lost world minister Christ, / Who is your life and your all, / Imparting Christ to all you meet, / All fallen ones, great or small. (Hymns #922 stanzas 3-4)
– There were ninety and nine that safely lay / In the shelter of the flock, / But one was out on the hills away, / Far off in the cold and dark; / Away on the mountains wild and bare, / Away from the tender Shepherd’s care. / “Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine; / Are they not enough for Thee?” / But the Shepherd made answer: “This of Mine / Has wandered away from Me; / And although the road be rough and steep, / I go to the desert to find My sheep.” (Hymns #1077 stanzas 1-2)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 113-114
What a pattern the Lord Jesus is to us in the matter of shepherding!
To prepare ourselves for the Lord’s coming, we need to love Him and shepherd His sheep, having the loving and forgiving heart of our Father God and the seeking and shepherding spirit of our Savior Christ.
We need to spend time shepherding others to cherish them in the Lord’s humanity and nourish them in the Lord’s divinity so that they may go on with the Lord and be built up as the church, the Body of Christ.
Amen! Lord reproduce Yourself in us as the Shepherd!
Amen, brother, As those who love the Lord, we keep His commandment to shepherd His sheep’s by cherishing and nourishing them to go on with the Lord, and be built up as the church the body of Christ.
Ammeeenn!!!
Hallelujah for shepherding according to God to build up the Body of Christ as part of our preparation for His coming.
We so much need the Father’s loving & forgiving heart, and Jesus’ shepherding & seeking spirit.
To spend 3 years to gain one person is very worthwhile.
Our Christ is easily touched with the feeling of our weaknesses.
He cherishes us in His humanity and He nourishes us in His divinity with all the positive aspects of His person.
We also should cherish others so that they may be happy, pleasant & comfortable, and we should nourish them so that they may grow & mature in the divine life and accomplish God’s divine economy.
O Lord we love you and love your shepherding us. May we feed and shepherd others from your riches!
Hallelujah!😃
Praise to the Lord for Shepherding us all the time.
May God help us to know who we are in His house and do what we are supposed to do. Amen.
There is a connection between our shepherding of others and the Lord’s coming.
The Lord in His coming wants to find us giving food at the proper time, feeding the lambs and shepherding the sheep as He charged Peter.
We need to realise that despite our work there is almost no fruit because we lack the forgiving heart of our Father and the shepherding and seeking spirit of Christ.
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