Our dear Lord Jesus Christ, whom we love and to whom we open day by day, is the good Shepherd, the great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, and the Shepherd of our souls; we are His sheep, and we are under the tender care of our Shepherd day by day, both directly and indirectly, being under the shepherding of His deputy shepherds, the elders.
Amen, Lord, we love You as our Shepherd! We open to Your shepherding today. You know the real situation of our being. You know our real condition in our inner being. Thank You for being our good Shepherd who lays down His life for us to have the divine life! Thank You for taking care of the welfare of our soul! We love You and we open to You! Amen!
Don’t you love the Lord Jesus as our Shepherd? He is so wonderful. He is so dear. He is so tender in His all-inclusive care for us. On the one hand, we are His sheep, enjoying His all-inclusive, tender care in His shepherding.
On the other hand, He reproduces Himself in us as we are constituted with Christ so that we may shepherd others according to God. We are both sheep and shepherds; we are both enjoying the shepherding from the Lord and the members, and we are learning to shepherd others.
Actually, the more we enjoy the Lord, the more we are under the divine dispensing day by day, the more we have a feeling to care for others.
There’s a feeling in the divine life in us, a burden that rises up in us as we enjoy the Lord, that we would shepherd others.
Some may think that only those who are trained and qualified are those who shepherd the saints, but in reality, each one of us as the Lord’s sheep who enjoy His shepherding, love Him, and enjoy Him, are commissioned to shepherd the Lord’s sheep.
Even though we fail, even though we may even deny the Lord and backslide, the Lord prays for us, He shepherds us, He strengthens our faith, He meets us where we are, and He commissions us to shepherd His sheep.
The more we spend time with the Lord, the more we enjoy Him in His word and are constituted with Christ, the more we are burdened to care for His sheep.
The Christ we enjoy and are constituted with is the Head of the Body and the Shepherd; He infuses us with Himself as our burden to care for others.
May we keep coming to the Lord to enjoy Him and be constituted with Him so that we may be one with Him to shepherd His sheep!
Enjoy Christ as the Good Shepherd who came that we may have Life and have it Abundantly!
In John 10:10-11 the Lord Jesus told us that He is the good Shepherd; there were other shepherds before Him and many also after Him, but He is the good Shepherd.
As the good Shepherd, Christ lays down His life for the sheep. He came so that we may have life and may have it abundantly.
The life He wants us to have is not the human life, which we already have, but the divine life. Christ came as life (John 11:25; 14:6), and He came as the good Shepherd so that we may have life and may have it abundantly.
How can we have the divine life? First, the Lord Jesus came as life, and He as the good Shepherd, died for us. He laid down His human life and His soulish life so that we may receive His divine life.
Thank the Lord that He came to lay down His soul-life, His human life, to accomplish redemption for us, His sheep, so that we may have and share in His zoe life, his divine life (vv. 11, 15, 17).
He laid down His human life, His soul-life, to accomplish redemption for us on the cross.
He is the good Shepherd who cares for us, His sheep, to the extent that He died for us, laying down His life for us, so that we may have life and may be His sheep, part of the one flock.
How we love the Lord as the good Shepherd! How we appreciate His death for us on the cross!
Especially as we come to the Lord’s Table meeting, as we come to remember the Lord and all He has done for us, we should all have a feeling within us that the Lord died for us, for all our sins.
We don’t deserve to be here, partaking of His life and nature with all the riches of God, but based on the Lord’s redemption, we are here at the table, enjoying the Lord. We have a place here. For eternity, we will be grateful to remember the salvation we have received.
Christ as the good Shepherd, laid down His life for us. Today, He leads us, His sheep, into Himself as our pasture. He has called us by name, we came out of the fold to Himself, and He is our pasture, the feeding place (v. 9).
We are now feeding freely on the Lord as our rich pasture to be nourished by Him. He not only redeemed us but even more, He leads us into the enjoyment of Himself as our rich pasture.
Here in Him we all dwell securely, enjoy Him richly, and partake of what He is and what He is doing for us. He came to lay down His life to form the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers into one flock under the shepherding of Himself as the one Shepherd (10:14-16). Praise the Lord!
As the good Shepherd, the Lord formed the Jewish and Gentile believers into one flock, which is the church as the Body of Christ; now we are all under His shepherding as one flock (v. 16).
He flocks us together. This is the sign of a good Shepherd: He flocks His sheep together. We are being flocked together with the saints, the members of the Body of Christ, as our fellow sheep.
It is so wonderful to be flocked together and enjoy the Lord as our rich pasture. He flocks us together and He gives us to eat. He makes us His one church, the Body of Christ. We love our good Shepherd!
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming as the good Shepherd to lay down Your life for Your sheep. Thank You for coming to us so that we may have life and may have it abundantly! Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for coming and laying down Your soul-life, Your human life, to accomplish redemption for us. Thank You for dying for us. Thank You for Your wonderful redemption. We believe into You, we appreciate You, and we love You. We open to receive You as life, and we want to partake of You as life. Hallelujah, Christ is the good Shepherd, and He leads us as His sheep out of the fold into Himself as our pasture! Amen, Lord, we love being here, in the rich pasture, enjoying You and partaking of all Your riches! We open to Your wonderful shepherding today. We exercise our spirit to eat freely of You and be nourished by You. Thank You for forming us into one flock, both the Jewish and the Gentile believers, to be the church, the Body of Christ, under Your shepherding! We love You, Lord Jesus, our good Shepherd!
God Raised up from the Dead “Our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, in the Blood of an Eternal Covenant”
Hebrews 13:20 speaks of the Lord Jesus as the great Shepherd of the sheep. In this verse, we are told that God raised up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of an eternal covenant. The Lord Jesus died for us. He shed His blood for us.
And God the Father raised Him up from the dead to make Him the great Shepherd of the sheep in the blood of an eternal covenant.
What is this covenant? In the Old Testament in Ezekiel, we see that God made a covenant with His people that He will inscribe His laws into their hearts so that they would know Him inwardly.
He wants to write Himself into us so that we know Him inwardly, with no need for anyone to teach us. He wants to be our God and we His people. Also, in this covenant, He promises not to remember our sins anymore.
This covenant was promised in the Old Testament, but it was enacted in the New Testament by the blood of Jesus.
The blood of Christ enacted and established the covenant God made with His people, with the goal of God gaining a corporate people, His flock, the church, for Himself. Now as the resurrected Saviour, Christ is the great Shepherd of the sheep, and we are His many sheep.
We need to come to the Lord as the great Shepherd of the sheep, for it is through this One that God, based upon Christ’s redeeming blood of the eternal covenant, perfects us in every good work.
Through the blood of Christ, the blood of the eternal covenant, God perfects all the believers in Christ as the sheep of God.
He perfects both us as His sheep and the churches corporately in every good work for the doing of His will, doing in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight (Heb. 13:20-21). How wonderful!
As the great Shepherd of the sheep, Christ established the new covenant, and now He is working Himself into us and He is perfecting us to be His flock, His church, for the doing of His will.
We can now do many things which are pleasing to God because He is perfecting us. The eternal covenant is to consummate the New Jerusalem by shepherding. Wow!
This eternal covenant is the covenant of the new testament to gain a flock, which is the church issuing in the Body of Christ and consummating in the New Jerusalem.
Our resurrected Christ is the great Shepherd who carries out the covenant of God to make us His church, His Body, consummating in the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah!
May we open to Him as the great Shepherd of the sheep today and allow Him to perfect us in every good work for the doing of His will!
Lord Jesus, thank You for being the great Shepherd of the sheep. Thank You for shedding Your blood, the blood of an eternal covenant, for You to establish the new and eternal covenant! Hallelujah, God promises that He will write His laws on our hearts for us to know Him inwardly and for us to be His people and Him to be our God! Thank You, Lord, for this wonderful covenant You made with us. Praise the Lord, the eternal covenant is to consummate the New Jerusalem by shepherding! Amen, Lord, we open to You today. Perfect us as the sheep of God in every good work for the doing of God’s will! May You do in us that which is well pleasing in Your sight. Perfect us and work Yourself into us little by little, day by day, until we become the flock of God, the church issuing in the Body of Christ and consummating in the New Jerusalem!
As the Chief Shepherd, Christ Shepherds His Flock through the Elders of the Churches
In 1 Peter 5:4 we see the Lord Jesus as the Chief Shepherd. As the Chief Shepherd, the Lord shepherds His flock through the elders of the churches.
Christ is the Chief Shepherd, and the elders are the subordinate shepherds. The elders’ shepherding needs to be Christ shepherding through them; they should shepherd the sheep according to God, not according to what they think or have.
Without the elders’ shepherding, the church cannot be built up. This is how God arranged things in the church.
He did not give any “pastors” or “reverends” but He gave some who can oversee the saints in the church.
They are not above the saints; the Lord put the elders among the saints, in the flock of God, but they oversee the saints and shepherd them according to God.
We all need the shepherding of the elders so that we may go on with the Lord. It is under the shepherding of the elders, who are the representatives of the Chief Shepherd, that we as the church are built up.
We need to pray for the elders. We need to learn to open to the elders. We need to learn to fellowship about our situation and our problems with the elders.
We don’t put the elders somewhere up there on a pedestal, thinking they are something they are not. In our natural man it is easy to do what the Corinthians did, prefer one elder or apostle more than the other.
But as the Lord’s sheep, we are all learning to shepherd one another, and the elders shepherd the flock according to God.
Thank the Lord for the elders in the churches. Their main function is to shepherd the flock of God. Christ needs them to cooperate with Him.
They are not there to direct the saints or control them. They are in the churches to cooperate with the Chief Shepherd to carry out the shepherding in the local churches.
We may say that the elders are subordinate shepherds; Christ as the Head is the Chief Shepherd, and they are co-shepherding with Christ, under His leadership.
This means that all the elders have to learn to shepherd the churches not by themselves in the old creation but by Christ as the shepherding Chief in resurrection.
May we all open to the Chief Shepherd, and may we all open to the subordinate shepherds, the elders in the church life.
May we all go on with the Lord and in the Lord under the Lord’s shepherding as the Chief Shepherd and under the shepherding of the elders, the subordinate shepherds.
Lord Jesus, we love You as the Chief Shepherd! Thank You for shepherding the flock through the elders of the churches. Amen, Lord, we pray for the elders. May they shepherd the saints one with the Lord, even shepherd the church according to God. We pray that it would be Christ shepherding the saints through the elders, not the elders shepherding the saints in the old creation! May we all open to You as the Chief Shepherd and may we also open to the subordinate shepherds, the elders. Shepherd the elders, Lord, and be expressed through the elders to shepherd the saints. How much we need Your shepherding! May the church be built up under the shepherding of the Chief Shepherd in and through the elders. Amen, Lord, strengthen the elders into their inner man and make them one with You as they shepherd the flock of God according to God!
Christ as the Shepherd of our Souls Oversees our Inward Condition, Caring for the Situation of our Inner Being
In 1 Peter 2:25 we see the Lord Jesus Christ as the Shepherd of our souls. We all were like sheep, being led astray, but thank the Lord that we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
He is the Shepherd of our souls. He takes care not only of all our outward needs but even more, He takes care of our inward needs. He shepherds our soul.
Christ shepherds us by caring for the welfare of our soul and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our inner being.
We don’t know what is going on in us, we don’t realise how many problems we have, and we have no idea how to deal with all the issues in us.
But the Lord shepherds our soul. He cares for the welfare of our inner being. Our soul is so complicated, so we need Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit to shepherd us in our soul.
Our soul has many problems, needs, and wounds; we need Christ as the Spirit in our spirit to take care of our mind, emotion, and will with all their problems.
We may be ok at the moment, but when something happens, when someone says something, or when we miss the bus, we realise how many issues we have in us. Our soul has many problems.
Though we have returned to Christ, the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, we need to remain under His shepherding day by day. He comforts us inwardly.
He makes us happy in Him. And He goes even deeper in us to reach our soul and take care of our inward condition for the doing of the will of God in us.
Thank the Lord that we have a Shepherd who not only cares for our needs outwardly but even more, oversees the inward condition of our soul!
We need Him to perfect our mind, adjust our emotion, and correct our will. Christ is the Shepherd of our souls, and He has become the Spirit of reality as the second Comforter (John 14:16-17; 15:26).
He already came as the first Comforter, Christ in the flesh, and now He is the second Comforter, Christ as the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of reality.
As we open to Him day by day, Christ as the second Comforter, comforts us, cares for us, infuses us with Himself, and leads us into the enjoyment of all that God is and has in Christ.
He comforts us inwardly to constitute us into the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God with us, His regenerated and transformed elect (14:17-20).
He comes not only to be with us but also in us; Christ as the Spirit is joined to us as one spirit.
We believe into the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, and He is in us as the Spirit; He is in the Father, the Father is in Him, and we are in the Father and in the Son (v. 20).
Hallelujah, under the Lord’s shepherding we are being incorporated into the Triune God to be one with God as the Body of Christ!
On the one hand, Christ as the Shepherd of our souls oversees our inward condition and takes care of our soul.
On the other hand, He shepherds us to be one with God and with the saints for us to be the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God, to express Him! Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Shepherd of our souls. Hallelujah, the pneumatic Christ is our Shepherd, overseeing our inward condition and caring for the situation of our inner being! We open to You, dear Lord. We love You as the Shepherd of our souls. You know what’s going on with us not only outwardly but even more, inwardly. Thank You for shepherding us by caring for the welfare of our soul and by exercising Your oversight over the condition of our inner being. Lord, we open our inner being to You. You see how complicated our soul is. We need You as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit to shepherd us in our soul. We open our soul to You. We open to Your loving and tender care of our mind, emotion, and will. We let You in. Deal with all our problems, needs, and wounds. Oh Lord, shepherd our soul. Lead us to waters of rest. Comfort us. Constitute us to be the divine organism, the incorporation of the Triune God with man! Hallelujah, we are the Body of Christ, God in man and man in God! Praise the Lord!
Read this article in the Romanian language – citiți acest articol în limba română la următorul link, Îl savurăm pe Cristos ca Păstorul bun, marele Păstor, Păstorul de frunte și Păstorul sufletelor noastre.
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 brother James Lee on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (part 3 – 2025 Summer Training), week 34, Shepherding according to God – day 4.
- 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. / 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 stanzas 1-3)
– The King of love my Shepherd is, / Whose goodness faileth never; / I nothing lack if I am His, / And He is mine forever. / … And so through all the length of days / Thy goodness faileth never; / Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise / Within Thy house forever. (Hymns #528 stanzas 1 and 6)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 106-107
Dear brother, Christ is the good shepherd who came to lay down His life so that we may have life and may have it abundantly. He is the great Shepherd of the sheep, who shed His blood to enact the new covenant and gain a flock – the church!
Christ is the Chief Shepherd who shepherds His flock through the elders of the churches, His deputy-shepherds. He is also the Shepherd of our souls, overseeing our inward condition and caring for the situation of our inner being.
Amen, the Lord is the good Shepherd leading us under one flock that we may have life.
He leads us through the shepherding of the elders and through us as we shepherd unto others.
He is the great shepherd with the resining blood of the eternal covenant, reaching deep into us to oversee our inward situation. As the Spirit of reality he is with us and in us.
As the good Shepherd, Christ laid down His soul-life to redeem us, enabling us to share his divine life.
Then, He feeds and nourishes us with Himself as our pasture and flocks both Jews and Gentiles together as the Church under His shepherding.
As the great Shepherd God raised Him up from the dead in the blood of an eternal covenant – putting His laws into our hearts to do His will, with the goal of gaining the church for Himself, consummating in the New Jerusalem.
As the chief Shepherd, He set up elders, shepherding through them as overseers to shepherd His flock.
As the shepherd of our souls, He takes care of our inward condition, our inner being, our soul, and all our problems therein.
May we daily open to experience His shepherding in all these 4 aspects to shepherd others in turn! Lord, shepherd us to be so constituted with Your life and nature so we can also shepherd others accordingly.
Aaammeeen!
As sheep being led astray we need Christ as the shepherd and overseer of our souls to perfect our wandering minds, stabilise our unstable emotions and correct our stubborn will to be His one flock for the church life!
As the good Shepherd, the chief Shepherd and the great Shepherd, the pneumatic Christ takes care of us His sheep by caring for our inward condition.
He is the overseer of our souls, perfecting our minds, adjusting our emotions and correcting our will.
For this He also needs His deputy shepherds, the elders, to shepherd His sheep in flocking them together to be one flock, the Church as the Body of Christ for the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God’s eternal economy!
Hallelujah brother!
Our Christ is our good and chief Shepherd. He shepherds through us.
He brings us back when we wander astray, and He takes care of our inward condition by perfecting our mind, adjusting our emotion and correcting our will.
He comforts us inwardly and incorporates us with the Triune God to be one entity.
How blessed we are to have a good Shepherd who brings us abundant life. Amen.
There is no one like the Great Shepherd.
Footnotes from the Holy Bible, Recovery Version.
Listen to the audio version of this article here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7AD34fs2jOg5I5zJJlkxWV?si=a0975d03aa72493d
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https://rumble.com/v72vtwe-christ-is-the-good-shepherd-the-great-shepherd-the-chief-shepherd-and-the-s.html
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