The Lord Jesus is the good Shepherd who laid down His life for us so that we may receive His divine life and be one flock under Him as the one Shepherd; today we need to live by the divine life to be real and genuine sheep in His one flock, under Him as the one Shepherd, dwelling in the church life in oneness.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming and laying down Your soul-life so that we may receive Your divine life! Hallelujah, Christ came so that we may have life and may have it abundantly! Amen, Lord, thank You for being our Shepherd. We are Your sheep and You are our one Shepherd. We love You as the good Shepherd. Thank You for continually dispensing Your divine life into us to make us Your sheep under Your care. Amen, Lord, we choose to exercise our spirit and live by the divine life today so that we may be genuine sheep of Christ under Him as the one Shepherd! Amen!
This week we come to the last week on the topic of the great need for a new revival, and we want to dwell further on the matter of Shepherding According to God.
We need to shepherd others not according to ourselves, not according to what we think, and not according to our concepts or feelings; our shepherding must be according to God.
Actually, God Himself is the Shepherd; we are His sheep, and He wants to shepherd us, as long as we just open to Him.
In both the Old and the New Testament, God introduces Himself as our Shepherd.
In the New Testament in particular, the Lord Jesus came to the people of Israel and saw that they were like sheep having no shepherd; even worse, they were harassed by those who were to be the shepherds.
So the Lord came as the good Shepherd, and He shepherded those around Him, and in particular He shepherded twelve disciples; then, He entrusted the disciples with this ministry of shepherding.
In John 21 we see how the Lord came to Peter, who denied the Lord and failed miserably, yet repented and had a soft heart, and rekindled his love for the Lord, and then Christ commissioned him to shepherd His sheep and feed His lambs.
We all as believers in Christ are the Lord’s sheep, and at the same time, we are entrusted with the ministry of shepherding.
We are both sheep and shepherds, and we need to both receive the Lord’s shepherding in and through the Body, and also shepherd others one with the Lord, even shepherd according to God.
May we open to the Lord in this matter and allow Him to infuse us with what He is so that He may be expressed through us as the Shepherd today, even every day, for the sake of the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, the one flock under the one Shepherd! Amen!
Christ Laid Down His Life so that We may have His Divine Life and be One Flock under one Shepherd
As we prayerfully consider the matter of shepherding according to God, we need to see that Christ is the good Shepherd. He said so in John 10:11. Before this verse, however, He said that He has come that His sheep may have life, and may have it abundantly.
The Lord as the good Shepherd came and laid down His life for the sheep, and we as His sheep can have life and have it abundantly.
What kind of life does this refer to? What life did the Lord lay down for us, and what life do we receive and have abundantly?
In Greek in this verse there are two words used for life; the Lord laid down His life – psuche – for us so that we may have life abundantly – zoe. In the Bible, zoe refers to the divine life, that is, the life of God.
Christ came so that we may have life and have it abundantly; the life He wants us to have is not the human life, the bios life, or the psuche life, but the zoe life, the divine life.
So Christ laid down His psuche life, His soulish life, His soul-life, for us to have His divine life.
Christ laid down His soul, His human life, to accomplish redemption for His sheep (John 10:15, 17-18) so that they may share His zoe life, His divine life, the eternal life (v. 28). How wonderful!
He was willing to lay down His human life, His soul-life, so that we may become His sheep having His divine life.
Now whoever believes into the Lord Jesus receives His zoe life, His divine life, and they become the Lord’s sheep under Him as the Shepherd. All the Lord’s sheep have His divine life and are formed as the flock under Him as the one Shepherd.
Christ, as the good Shepherd, feeds His sheep with the divine life for them to be His flock under Him as the one Shepherd.
When Christ came to the earth through incarnation, He had both the divine life and the human life; He had the eternal life in His spirit, and He had the human life in His soul and in His flesh.
His divine life could never be slain or put to death, for death cannot hold or kill the divine life.
However, through crucifixion, Christ’s human life was slain and put to death. He became our Saviour by laying down His human life to accomplish redemption for us so that we may receive His zoe life.
This is what God intends from the very beginning: He wants to dispense Himself as life, the divine life, into us, so that we may partake of His life and be His corporate expression and representation on the earth.
He created man in His image for this, and He put man in front of the tree of life. Adam, the first man, was deceived by Satan and did not partake of the tree of life, so Christ came as the tree of life, and He laid down His human life so that we may have His divine life.
Christ laid down His human life so that we, after being redeemed, might receive His zoe life, His divine life. And this is all for the one flock; the Shepherd, the divine life, and the human life are all for the flock.
The Lord as the good Shepherd, wants to gain a flock, which Paul calls later the Body of Christ. He came to His sheep who were in a fold, the fold of Judaism, and He called them out to Him; He laid down His life for them to have life.
Then, in John 10:16, the Lord said that He has other sheep that are not of that fold, and He would call them also, and they would hear His voice and be gathered as one flock under one Shepherd.
The one flock signifies the Body of Christ (Eph. 2:14-16) brought forth by the Lord’s eternal life, which was imparted into all His members through His death (John 10:10-18).
The sheepfold where the Lord came in His incarnation was Judaism; the flock, however, is the church.
The Lord didn’t come to enlarge the sheepfold or bring more sheep into the sheepfold; He came to gain one flock under Him as one Shepherd, and He is calling both the sheep in the sheepfold and His other sheep (signifying the believers among the Gentiles) to be under Him as one Shepherd.
The church is the flock of Christ, and it includes two peoples – the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles. Now there is one flock under one Shepherd, that is, one Body under one Head.
Christ is the Head, and we are the Body; Christ is the one Shepherd, and we are the one flock. Thank the Lord that today we are the Body of Christ, the one flock of Christ, having His divine life to be His sheep under Him as our Shepherd!
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming so that we may have life and may have it abundantly! Amen, Lord, we open to You to receive and enjoy Your divine life! Hallelujah, Christ came through incarnation to be the good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for laying down Your human life for us so that we may receive the divine life. We believe into You. We hear Your voice and we follow You, for You are our Shepherd and we are Your sheep. Amen, Lord, we open to You to receive more of Your zoe life, more of Your divine life, so that we may be formed as the one flock under Christ as the one Shepherd! Praise the Lord, Christ was crucified for us on the cross to lay down His human life, His psuche life, for us to receive His divine life, His zoe life! Hallelujah, all those who believe into the Lord Jesus receive the divine life and are formed into the flock of Christ under Him as the one Shepherd! Amen, Lord, You are our Shepherd, and we are Your flock. You are the Head and we are Your Body! Praise the Lord! Amen!
Live by the Divine Life to be Genuine Sheep in the Flock of Christ under Him as our Shepherd
It is so wonderful to see that the Lord Jesus laid down His life for us to have the divine life and be formed into one flock under Him as the one Shepherd! Now all genuine believers in Christ who are regenerated with God’s life are the many sheep under Christ as the One Shepherd!
We were fallen persons in need for redemption, and as a Man, Christ had the human life and laid down His life for us. Christ sacrificed His human life to accomplish redemption for us, His flock.
He redeemed His flock; He died for us to be redeemed and have the divine life. Now everyone who sees the Lord’s redemption, repents, and believes in the Lord Jesus is part of the flock of Christ!
It is the divine life that we receive that makes us the flock of Christ, and we need to live by this divine life in order to be genuine sheep in the flock of Christ.
There are millions of Christians on the earth, and all of them are part of the one flock under Christ as the one Shepherd.
However, how many Christians today live by the divine life to be genuine sheep under Christ as the Shepherd? A sheep in the Lord’s flock is a regenerated person with the divine life, and a genuine sheep is a Christian who lives by the divine life.
If we don’t live by the divine life, we are not in reality the flock of Christ under Him as the one Shepherd. It is the divine life of Christ that produces, keeps, maintains, and forms the flock.
This is why, when you look at Christianity today, there are so many who call themselves Christians but, because they do not live by the divine life, they do not live as the Lord’s sheep under Him as the one Shepherd.
The flock of Christ is produced, kept, maintained, and formed by the divine life. We as the brothers and sisters need to dwell together in oneness, in unity (Psa. 133:1).
Dwelling in unity doesn’t mean that we need to somehow try to be one, for we are Christians and believe in the same Christ; dwelling in unity means that we dwell in the divine life and live by the divine life.
May we all realise that we have received the divine life through regeneration, and may we all open to the Lord to shepherd us so that we may live by the divine life. This is why we need shepherding in the church life today. In the Lord’s recovery, there is an urgent need for shepherding.
For us to go on with the Lord, for us to be in the meetings of the church in our spirit, and for us to live the Christian life, we need the Lord’s shepherding.
He shepherds us both directly and indirectly; that is, He shepherds us directly as we come to Him to fellowship with Him, and indirectly when we meet with the saints, for He shepherds us through the saints.
Christ is shepherding us day after day.
Every situation we have gone through, all the experiences we had, and everything that happened to us is under the Lord’s sovereign shepherding and care. He continually dispenses His divine life into us in all things, all situations, and all circumstances, and He takes an all-inclusive, tender care of His flock.
As we remain under His shepherding, as we realise that He’s the good Shepherd caring for us in love, we will reflect Him also, for we will shepherd others according to God.
May we come to our good Shepherd, Christ, and live by His divine life so that we may be genuine sheep in His flock.
May we learn to lay down our own soul-life, even as the Lord did, so that the saints we are with would receive the divine life.
May the Lord have a way to reproduce Himself as the good Shepherd in us so that His life may be lived out in us and may flow through us! Amen!
Lord Jesus, we love You! We love You as our good Shepherd. We come to You again and again to enjoy Your shepherding. Thank You for Your tender, loving, and all-inclusive care. How much we need Your shepherding! Oh Lord, shepherd us today as Your flock. Shepherd us to no longer live in ourselves but live one spirit with You. Save us from trying to please You or follow You in ourselves or by our natural strength. Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to be one spirit with You today. We exercise our spirit to receive, enjoy, and live by Your divine life! May we be genuine, pure, and real sheep in the flock of Christ by living by the divine life today. Amen, Lord, we want to dwell together in unity with the saints in the flock of God by dwelling in the divine life and living by the divine life! Shepherd us in this matter, dear Lord. We want to be one with You to also shepherd others to live by the divine life so that together we would be one flock under You as the one Shepherd! 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, Life-study of John, pp. 250-252, by Witness Lee, 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 1.
- Hymns on this topic:
– In the Church, what glory! Far horizons glow! / And His Name all radiant on each brow doth show. / Christ doth breathe upon her, He’s her living Rock, / Shepherd of His sheep all gathered in one flock. (Hymns #827 stanza 2)
– I love my Shepherd’s voice: / His watchful eye shall keep / My wand’ring soul among / The thousands of His sheep: / He feeds His flock, He calls their names, / His bosom bears the tender lambs. (Hymns #80 stanza 4)
– Thy saving arm a refuge is, / My Savior God, to me; / Thou as the Father keepeth them / Who put their trust in Thee. / The sheep and shepherd are of one, / The head and body same; / None e’er can pluck from out Thy hand / The child who trusts Thy Name. (Hymns #960 stanza 5)
