The more we believers in Christ are constituted with Christ, the more we will spontaneously live a shepherding life, having the burden to take care of others, and ministering the Christ constituted into us to them; may we learn to shepherd the flock of God according to the Father’s tender heart and the seeking and shepherding Spirit of our Saviour Christ.
Amen, Lord, may we be those who live a shepherding life day by day. Reproduce Your life and living in us. Live in us as the Shepherd. We give ourselves to You to be constituted with You so that we may be filled with You and spontaneously shepherd others. Amen, Lord, we love You and we want to shepherd those in Your flock whom You have given to us!
We are one with You in this, Lord! Our shepherding others is not just our caring for them; it is our ministering life to them as we cherish them and nourish them.
If we have life, if the divine life fills us and is overflowing in us, we have something to minister to others.
We shouldn’t give the ones under our care, however, the impression that we are smart or that we know everything.
Rather, our spirit in shepherding others should be one of loving the Lord and depending on Him, even trusting in Him concerning all things.
We even need to lead others to trust in the Lord, having a spirit of prayer as we do all things.
If we help others to come to the Lord in prayer, we do a great thing, for the Lord Himself can supply them.
In shepherding others we need to have continual contact with them; shepherding takes time, and without taking the time to shepherd, we cannot be faithful or successful in shepherding others.
On one hand, we come to the ones under our care and minister Christ to them, and they rely on us; on the other hand, we also need to rely on them. It is a mutual shepherding.
We need to learn to open to receive something of Christ from the ones we shepherd. When we rely on them and they rely on us, when we open to them and they open to us, there is much profit in this.
It is like the circulation of blood in the human body, which cleans up everything, adds the supply, and brings life to all the members.
As we shepherd others, we should build up this mutual confidence; however, we should never give them the impression that we are forcing them to do anything.
The Lord doesn’t force us; He shepherds us, and He leads us to where He wants us to be. In our natural concept, we want to convince others and make sure they do what we want them to do.
However, we should simply trust in the Lord as we are shepherding others, for He is the Shepherd in us, and He wants to dispense something into others.
The More we’re Constituted with Christ, the More we Spontaneously Live a Shepherding Life, having the Burden to Care for Others
The matter of shepherding springs from the Christ whom we enjoy and are constituted with, for He is the Shepherd.
The more we are constituted with Christ, the more we will not only shepherd others but spontaneously live a shepherding life and have the burden to take care of others (Col. 1:27; 3:10-11, 14).
If we believers in Christ are genuinely receiving the dispensing of Christ and we are constituted with Christ, there will be a definite and sure effect: we will spontaneously desire to shepherd others.
This is because the Christ we enjoy, the Christ constituted into our being, and the Christ we experience is a Shepherd. The life that constitutes us is a shepherding life.
Like the loving seeker in Song of Songs, as we pursue the Lord and enjoy Him as our Beloved in so many aspects, we are constituted with Him, and milk and honey are under our tongue.
We simply drip wth the riches of Christ stored in us, for we are constituted with Him and we live a shepherding life.
Then, we will desire to go with the Lord in the fields, among the churches, with the saints, to spontaneously live a shepherding life, caring for what the Lord cares.
In other words, if we say that we are enjoying the Lord and receive His dispensing, yet we have no concern for other sheep, then this enjoyment of Christ is questionable.
If we are genuinely receiving Christ and are constituted with Him, there’s a spontaneous issue – shepherding. The constitution of Christ in our spiritual life has a shepherding aspect (John 21:15-17).
We love the Lord, we are constituted with Him, and we shepherd others.
The more we love the Lord and the more we are constituted with Him, the more we are one with Him to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep.
It is a spontaneous issue, a spontaneous result of our loving the Lord and being constituted with Him.
Shepherding is not just a matter of responding to being encouraged by others to shepherd.
We definitely need to encourage one another to shepherd the saints, but genuine shepherding is not merely a matter of responding to being encouraged to do so.
We may have shepherding trainings in the church life, we may have classes in the training related to shepherding, and we may read a lot of ministry portions on this matter; shepherding is a spontaneous issue of our being constituted with Christ.
We are not here to merely have a schedule to shepherd five people every week, make a list, make notes of their response, etc.
Rather, because many times we are lazy and passive, we need help, and we need much encouragement to come to the Lord concerning shepherding.
But it is as we contact the Lord as the Shepherd that we can also shepherd others.
Shepherding others is an issue of being constituted with Christ (Col. 3:4, 10-11).
The more we enjoy Christ, the more we are filled with His riches, and the more we have the spontaneous desire to care for others, to impart these riches into them also.
We will not merely try to help others to be better or go to more meetings; rather, in all our contact with them, we will help them to enjoy Christ as life and be in the enjoyment of Christ in His word.
The part of our being that has been constituted with Christ is the part that shepherds others. This is why sometimes we do not shepherd others; it is because we are not constituted with Christ.
We cannot shepherd anyone; the Christ constituted into us is the Shepherd (John 10:11; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:2; Heb. 13:20).
We need to admit before the Lord that we are not the shepherd; we are not inclined to shepherd others. By our natural life and in our natural life we do not shepherd others.
We need another life. We need to be constituted with the One who is the Shepherd of the sheep, Jesus Christ. He is in us. He is our life. We want to be filled with Him.
We want to be constituted with His riches. Then, as we turn to Him and allow Him, we simply cooperate with Him and spontaneously live a shepherding life.
We may say that it is easy to try to shepherd someone here and there; living a shepherding life, however, requires that we are constituted with Christ.
May we turn to the Lord again and again to just enjoy Him and be constituted with Him. May we be before Him regarding the matter of shepherding so that He in us would shepherd others.
May we be constituted with the Christ who is the Shepherd so that, in oneness with Him, we may shepherd His sheep.
Lord Jesus, we come to You to enjoy You, be filled with You, and be constituted with You. Praise the Lord, the more we are constituted with Christ, the more we will spontaneously live a shepherding life! Amen, Lord, we come to You in Your word and we open to You throughout the day. Constitute us with Yourself. Work Yourself into us. May You in us give us a burden to take care of others. Amen, Lord, save us from any outward activity that we may call shepherding. Save us from merely doing things in an outward way to care for others. May we come to You in the word and allow You to constitute us with Yourself. May we see that the part of our being that has been constituted with Christ is the part that shepherds others. Oh Lord, constitute our mind, emotion, and will with Yourself! We admit that, in ourselves and by ourselves, we cannot shepherd anyone. But praise the Lord, we have a shepherding life in our spirit, for the Christ constituted into us is the Shepherd!
Shepherd the Flock of God according to the Loving and Tender Heart of our Father God and according to the Seeking and Shepherding Spirit of our Saviour Christ
As believers in Christ who love the Lord and are commissioned by Him to shepherd His sheep, we need to realise that our shepherding should be according to the Father’s heart and the Lord’s Spirit.
As seen in Luke chapter 15, verses 1-32, our Father God has a loving heart and our Saviour Christ has a seeking and shepherding Spirit to bring the lost and repentant ones to Himself.
The more we love the Lord and are constituted with Christ, the more we will live a shepherding life.
As we shepherd others, we need to shepherd them according to the loving and tender heart of our Father God and according to the seeking and shepherding Spirit of our Saviour Christ.
In the story of the prodigal son who went away with all the father’s possessions, squandering all the money, and ending up living with the pigs, he came to his senses and returned to the father’s house.
The father had been waiting for him to return, and when he saw his prodigal son, he ran to him. It was not the son who ran to the father but the father had a loving and tender heart, running to the son.
The father never rebuked the son, nor did he ask him what he did with all the money. He simply loved the son, prepared a feast for him, and welcomed him back with a tender and loving heart.
Our Father’s heart is loving and forgiving, full of tenderness. As we live a shepherding life, we need to love others and be tender toward them, being one with the Father God to do this.
We should care for each sheep, especially the ones that went astray. We need to shepherd one another in love (1 Cor. 13:1-13).
The love the Bible speaks of is not the same as the love we think of in our natural man. Our lack of shepherding indicates our lack of love.
Because we lack love and know so much from God’s word and from the ministry, we may have a sense of being higher than others, a spirit of superiority. Oh Lord!
As long as we have such a spirit, we will never be able to bear fruit.
What we need is love. Love is the inner substance of God; love is God Himself. In the matter of shepherding, we need to shepherd one another in love.
We need to spend time with the Lord, and especially take 1 Corinthians 13 and pray it before the Lord so that He may infuse us with Himself as love.
Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything (12:31).
Our God has given us a spirit of love (2 Tim. 1:7), and we today can exercise our spirit of love to shepherd others according to the loving and tender heart of our Father God.
Since God is love and since we have been regenerated by God to be His species, we should be love (1 John 4:8; John 3:6).
We should not only love others and be with love: we should be love, for God our Father is love, and He has given us His life and nature. The Body of Christ builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:16).
When we care for others, in our living a shepherding life and caring for them in the Lord, we should not be like a block of ice nor should we condemn them or criticise them.
Rather, we need to be one with the Lord to love them and care for them. We need to have the Lord’s shepherding and seeking spirit, caring for others, seeking them out fervently, and ministering something of Christ into them.
When others open to the Lord and return to Him, we should not condemn them or remind them of what happened and what they did; we should simply love them, tenderly care for them, and seek to minister Christ into them.
For us to shepherd people, we need love, which is God Himself in His tenderness, in HIs inner substance being expressed.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we open to You! Thank You, Father, for loving us and tenderly caring for us. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for seeking us out and bringing us back to the Father’s house to enjoy all of God’s riches with the saints. We open to You today. We want to learn to live a shepherding life today by shepherding others according to the Father’s tender and loving heart! Amen, Lord, may we love others with You as our love, for You have given us a spirit of love. May we care for others with a seeking and shepherding Spirit, one with the Lord Jesus as our Saviour God. Oh Lord Jesus, dispense Yourself into us. Make us one with You in caring for others. May we live a shepherding one with You to love others, tenderly care for them, seek them fervently, and shepherd them according to God. We can’t do this, Lord, but You can do it. Reproduce Yourself in us. You are the Shepherd, and You are in our spirit. Live in us a shepherding life today.
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, 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, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (part 3 – 2025 Summer Training), week 34, Shepherding according to God – day 3.
- Hymns on this topic:
– After breakfast on the seashore, / Jesus set about to restore / Peter’s love, that he would henceforth / Not trust himself, / He committed some big failures, / Three times denying the Savior, / Then leading others to waver, / Yet Jesus said… / Do you love me? Feed my lambs, / Do you love me? Shepherd my sheep, / Do you love me? / Then give My sheep something to eat. (Song on, Do You Love Me? – stanza 1)
– 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)
– Foll’wing Thee, Good Shepherd, I would feed, / Shepherd those allotted me, / E’er I’d touch Thy heart’s desire, / Live in Thine economy. / O my Lord, All thanks to Thee! / Goodness, mercy follow me; / I’d ever dwell within Thy house, / As Thy Body glorious! (Song on, Shepherding in Love, stanza 4)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1973–1974, vol. 2, “The Normal Way of Fruit-bearing and Shepherding for the Building Up of the Church,” pp. 615-616
Shepherding is a result of our being constituted with Christ. It is Christ in us who shepherds others.
May we be one with Him today to minister life to others, care for them, and patiently contact them and share with them from our enjoyment and experience of Christ.
Lord Jesus, constitute us today. Be expressed through us as the Shepherd. May we shepherd others according to the Father’s loving and tender heart and the Son’s shepherding and seeking spirit today. May we live a shepherding life one with You!
Shepherding is not only teaching and preaching, but sharing our life experience with others.
To do this, we need to cultivate and prepare them to eat the bread of life, Jesus the word much more in a daily base.
Amen. The church grows with shepherding and we must all pick up the burden to take care of others.
If we are to minister life to others, then we ourselves must have life, carrying with us a spirit & atmosphere of prayer to help others to come into a prayer life.
God gives both the angels and the humans freedom of choice.
We must stay away from forcing, coercing & convincing.
I like this. I try to think about it often. Cherishing and Nourishing.
Shepherding is not of the self but of life. It is the issue and result of being constituted with Christ and not just a matter of doing.
Shepherding according to God means according to God’s kind, His species! God is love (1 John 4:8) and has given us a spirit of love. So, we need to shepherd one another in love, in the way of love, but not under compulsion and lording it over others. (Acts 20:28).
Amen, shepherding is a matter of ministering life unto others and to do that we must have life first ourselves, which requires learning.
It is all our duty to shepherd, and the more we pick up the burden, the more we need to learn and be open to the Lord.
All the members must be open to one another to allow the circulation of the proper work.
Dear brother, for our shepherding to be according to God it must be with the tender and loving heart of our Father God and the seeking and shepherding Spirit of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Such a shepherding should be in mutuality, in which we create an atmosphere of prayer, looking to God, depending on Him, not with the view to convince or coerce but to be open to and rely on one another – having the same care for one other, rendering help from our personal experiences as a testimony.
Ameeen!!!
Indeed the Lord’s recovery today there is an urgent need of shepherding because it is the greatest lack among us.
In order to be the proper, normal members of the church in the Lord’s recovery, we need to build up a daily life of the gospel, and we need to go to the Lord for Him to show us who should be under the care of our shepherding. If these two matters are built up in the church, we will have a normal, proper church.