For us to have a proper church life, we need to build up a daily life of the gospel and go to the Lord regarding shepherding others, realising that we can learn to shepherd the saints by listening to them, not being quick, and caring for them in the Lord and with the Lord, for He cares for the saints in us.
Lord Jesus, we come to You regarding our daily life. We want to live a daily life that is in the gospel and for the gospel. Amen, Lord, may everything we do be for You to flow out of us to those around us. Save us much more in Your life. We want to build up a daily life of the gospel. We come to You concerning the saints around us, especially those You put on our heart to care for them. Amen, Lord, we want to learn to shepherd the saints according to God so that they may go on with the Lord daily! Amen!
Thank the Lord that He is the Shepherd of our souls, and He is continually shepherding us. He cares for all our needs, and He is intimately concerned for what we are, what we feel, what we go through, and the situation of our inner being.
As He cares for us and shepherds us both directly and through the other members of the Body, the Lord is imparting Himself into us so that we may become His duplication, His reproduction, even His co-shepherds, those who learn to shepherd others according to God.
We may have a heart to care for others, but our natural heart and zeal is not enough. We need to be one with God, live God, and even become God in life and nature, expression and function, but not in the Godhead.
When we become the same as God, we spontaneously shepherd others, and our shepherding will be not according to ourselves but according to God.
The Lord is faithful to expose how much we live in the self, how much we express ourselves, and how much we live according to our disposition.
As He shines on us, we simply repent, we confess, and we agree with His light.
We become more and more aware of our disposition, and we don’t try to deal with it but rather, we run to the Lord in our spirit!
Especially as we fellowship and coordinate with the saints that the Lord put us with, we are exposed and realise that our disposition is not proper, so we allow the cross to operate in us.
We simply say Amen to the Lord’s dealing and His shining. He has a way to cross us out, and what comes out is not ourselves, our self-likeness, but Christ, the One who lives in us.
May we seek daily to be filled to the brim with the divine life, and may we say Amen to the Lord’s shining so that we may deal with our disposition under His light and be one with Christ, imparting not ourselves but Christ as life to those we shepherd.
Build a Life of the Gospel and Shepherding, and Learn to Shepherd the Saints before the Lord
When many saints hear that we need to shepherd others, they may think that they don’t have this gift; they may point to Ephesians 4:11 and say that only some people have the gift of shepherding and teaching, and they exclude themselves from this category.
But this is not what the Bible shows us. The Lord Jesus came to Peter after His resurrection, right when Peter was very low, even so low that he took the brothers with him to go fishing instead of waiting for the Lord’s promise in Jerusalem, and the Lord commissioned Peter to shepherd.
The Lord didn’t ask Peter if he felt ready to shepherd, if he has a burden to shepherd, or if he has a gift of shepherding; rather, the Lord asked Peter if he loved the Lord.
If we love the Lord, which we all do, we are qualified to shepherd. If we love the Lord Jesus, if we come to Him again and again and, under His shining, we repent of our sins and are rekindled in our love for Him, the Lord commissions us to shepherd His sheep and feed His lambs (John 21:15-17).
He is not looking for the super-spiritual disciples of Christ, those who are trained in a seminary to be pastors or leaders, or those who have a burden to shepherd others.
He only asks us if we love Him; if we do, we are commissioned to shepherd others. Shepherding others is similar to taking care of our children; we don’t go to a school or university to learn to care for our children; we simply learn by doing.
We may think we are not qualified or trained to care for our children, but when the children come, one by one, we learn to care for them.
When we love the Lord and learn to build up a daily life of the gospel and of shepherding, we will spontaneously shepherd the saints.
Human beings have a gift of caring for their children; this gift is by birth. Spiritually speaking, every believer in Christ has a gift to care for others, to shepherd them; the gift of shepherding others is ours by birth.
Whether we are young in the Lord or more advanced with more experience of Christ, we all can learn to shepherd others.
We shouldn’t think that only those who went to the training, those who are elders, or the serving saints are those qualified and ready to shepherd people.
May we all learn to build a daily life of the gospel and shepherding. May we learn to build up a daily life of the gospel, and may we come to the Lord for Him to show us who should be under our care for shepherding.
We may prefer to care for a particular kind of person, but the Lord wants us to shepherd someone else; may we come to the Lord regarding the matter of shepherding.
If we build up a daily life of the gospel and of shepherding others, if we learn to shepherd people according to God, we will have a normal and proper church life.
A normal church is not merely one in which the saints stand up to speak in the meetings or are eager to help with practical matters; the main service of the church is a daily gospel life and shepherding.
We may shepherd others when we remember, or we may have a burden to care for the new ones only when we see them in the meeting; this is not a daily life of gospel and shepherding. We need to love the Lord, be before Him, contact Him, and ask Him who to shepherd and how to shepherd.
All the saints need to be before the Lord regarding the matter of bearing fruit and living for the gospel. We are branches in the vine, and as we abide in the Lord, it is normal for us to bear fruit (John 15).
If we abide in the Lord and have Him abide in us, Christ in us will bear fruit, for the life of Christ in us wants to flow out for the increase of Christ.
It is a great lack and even a shame for us if we do not bear fruit every year and care for others in the way of shepherding.
We are all members of the Body of Christ, and we are related to the other members; we love one another, we care for one another, we depend on one another, and we consider one another before the Lord in the matter of shepherding.
We all need shepherding, and we all need to shepherd others. May we be before the Lord regarding having a daily life of the gospel and shepherding, learning to shepherd others one with the Lord.
The Lord’s way in the Body is not to use some spiritual giants or capable Christians who can care for many saints; His way is to recover the function of every member of the Body and to perfect all the members of the Body to shepherd.
We need to have a change in concept in this matter. We need to personally be desperate before the Lord regarding the gospel and shepherding, and we need to come together with our vital group regarding this so that the Lord may gain this among us.
Lord Jesus, save us from thinking that only certain gifted persons have the gift of shepherding. May we learn to shepherd others one with the Lord and in the Lord! Amen, Lord, thank You for putting in each one of us the desire to shepherd and the gift of shepherding. We open to You and to the members of the Body to be perfected and to learn to shepherd according to God! Amen, Lord Jesus, we love You! We are a failure, we fall all the time, but we love You. We come back to You. We repent and confess our failures. We want to live a daily life of the gospel and shepherding. We want to build a life of the gospel in our daily living and we want to learn to shepherd others according to God. Amen, Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You and we open to the fellow members of the Body! May we abide in You and allow You to abide in us so that we may bear fruit and our fruit would remain! Yes, Lord, we come to You regarding our daily living; may we have a daily life of the gospel and may we be before You concerning who to shepherd in the church life! Amen!
Shepherd the Saints by Listening to them and being Positive, open to the Lord for His Shepherding
In the matter of shepherding we need to be before the Lord, for we cannot be too quick about it. Just because we hear about the burden of shepherding doesn’t mean that we should simply go and shepherd others.
We need to fellowship with the Lord and be before Him concerning our daily living so that we may have a life of the gospel and shepherding.
One of the most important principles in shepherding is listening to the saints, listening to those we care for.
We may have a quick disposition or we may think what others are saying and what they are going through; however, we need to learn to let go of our quick disposition and listen to others.
As we listen to them, we need to be positive, not judging, not criticising, and not being quick to offer advice or intervene. Oh, Lord Jesus!
This doesn’t mean that we should be passive and just listen to others, then do nothing. We need to learn from what a mother does: she is not eager to tell her child what to do but rather, she listens to him, she wants to hear what is going on, and then she realises what he is going through and speaks something to him.
If mothers wait for too long and do not care for their child, the child will not survive; if the mother is too quick, she may not know what the child is really going through.
May we learn to listen to others to realise their true need and know their real situation.
The Lord is the best listener. He was in many situations where He simply had to listen to those around Him, especially those close to Him.
He was there with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, who loved Him and did many things to show their love for Him, and He listened to them (Luke 10:38-42).
He shepherded them according to their need, speaking a word to them to meet the need, cherishing them and nourishing them.
He didn’t speak the same word to every one of them, for He knew each one’s need and spoke accordingly.
We need to learn to listen to others; this requires that we should stop our own thoughts, concepts, feelings, and speaking.
As we listen to the saints, we inwardly pray that the Lord may speak to us concerning their real need.
We don’t need to react and say something quickly; we simply need to listen to them and inwardly listen to the Lord.
We shouldn’t say too much nor make a decision quickly; in all things, we need to put ourselves aside and be open.
As we listen to the saints, we need to put ourselves in their place and understand the situation in the same way that they do.
This doesn’t mean that we agree with them or encourage them to do what they want to do; it means that we are open vessels for the Lord to flow through us.
The Lord can flow through us as we shepherd others as we listen to them outwardly, being emptied within, and as we listen to the Lord inwardly to hear what He has to say.
We really need to learn from the Lord in this matter.
He is the best listener. He is the best speaker. He is the best dispenser. He is the best Shepherd.
And He lives in us; He and us are joined as one spirit. It is Christ in us who cares for the saints, and it is Christ in us who can shepherd the saints according to God.
We need to become the reproduction of Christ in caring for others. He lived a life of the gospel and shepherding, and we can live the same kind of life today.
He continually stopped His being and listened to the Father, then He spoke to others; we can do the same, for He lives in us.
Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You today. We take You as our pattern and we take You as our life. Amen, Lord, we stop our being today and we let You live in us. You are the Shepherd in our spirit. You are the One who can listen to others as they speak to us. Oh Lord, we do not know how to shepherd and we don’t even want to listen to others in our natural being, but we open to You! Save us from being too quick or too slow. May we be those who are eager to listen to the saints in a positive way, ready to speak one with You according to Your leading within us. Amen, Lord, grant us an ear to hear what You are speaking today. Grant us an ear to hear and listen to what the saints go through so that we may pray for them and minister to them according to the need! Amen, Lord, gain among us a life of the gospel and shepherding so that we may shepherd others according to God! May we be before the Lord daily concerning the saints on our heart so that we may realise their true need and be one with the Lord to minister Christ to them according to the need! 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 Ron Kangas on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1973-1974, vol. 2, “The Normal Way of Fruitbearing and Shepherding for the Building Up of the Church,” ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Great Need for a New Revival (2026 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 6, “Shepherding according to God” – day 5.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Ours is a fellowship in the gospel / Since we received the Lord; / We’re for the furtherance of the gospel, / Spreading to all His Word. / For its defense and strong confirmation / We all partake of grace— / He who began this work will perfect it / Till we shall see His face. (Hymns #1295 stanza 1)
– Outreach of the glorious gospel / Is the flow of life within; / It is by our testimony / That lost sinners we may win. / Grant us, Lord, the living outflow, / May Thy life through us be seen; / Through us as Thy living vessels / Quicken people from within. (Hymns #925 stanza 1 and chorus)
– The work must be the fruit of life, / Born thru the Spirit’s flowing; / As branches of the Lord, the vine, / Fruit bearing, life bestowing. / ’Tis Christ Himself thru us to work, / Himself as life expressing, / And all the riches of His life / To others manifesting. (Hymns #910 stanza 2)
