Shepherd the Flock of God According to God by Becoming God in Shepherding Others

In order for us to shepherd according to God, we must become God in life, nature, expression, and function, that is, we must be filled with God’s life, express God’s attributes, be the reproduction of Christ, and express God and not the self with its disposition and peculiarities.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we love the church. We give ourselves to You to enjoy Your shepherding and to deal with any problems in our being. Amen, Lord, have a way to flow in us, flow within us, and flow out of us into many others for their shepherding. We open to You; deal with our disposition so that we may also help others to deal with their disposition. Make us the same as You are, Lord, so that we may not only know You and Your word but have You wrought into us to dispense You into others also. Lord Jesus, may we shepherd the flock of God according to God! Amen!

The Lord is our Shepherd; He shepherds us throughout our life. Even though we may think we are left alone and no one cares for us, even though we may feel as if we’re not cared for, when we really touch the Lord, we realise that He is shepherding us.

Through tough situations, in our mistakes and failures, in our sufferings and trials, and through all kinds of circumstances, Christ shepherds us.

He not only takes us through; He cherishes us in His humanity and nourishes us in His divinity to work Himself into us and make us the same as He is. The goal of His shepherding is not merely that we would be happy with the Lord and feel pleasant in the church life.

His goal is to make us the same as He is in the matter of shepherding. He is in our spirit, shepherding our soul with all its problems, needs, desires, wants and complications.

If we only open to Him, He has a way to flow from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will. He arranges all kinds of situations, people, matters, and things around us and in us so that He may break our outer man for the release of our spirit.

He wants to flow out from our spirit to many others, but our outer man is so strong. He wants to shepherd others, but we are still living in the self. So He has to break through.

We shouldn’t ask for more suffering or breaking; we should simply turn to the Lord and enjoy His shepherding, and He will have a way in our being.

He will flow from our spirit through our transformed soul to those around us as shepherding, for them to be cared for and brought back to the Lord to enjoy Him.

Shepherd the Flock of God According to God by being One with God, that is, by Becoming God in our Shepherding of Others

In 1 Peter 5:2 the apostle charges the elders to shepherd the flock of God according to God. Wow, what a charge!

The apostle Peter had reached maturity; he was no longer natural, impetuous, or eager to gain something; he was now mature, and he charges the elders to shepherd the flock of God according to God.

What does it mean to shepherd according to God? On the one hand, Christ is the Shepherd and Overseer of our soul, our inner being and real person (2:25).

On the other hand, we are charged to shepherd the flock of God according to God. To shepherd according to God means that we must live God.

We must have God on hand, we must have God lived out of us, and God must be expressed through us. We can live God and express God when we have a personal relationship with God and live in the organic union with Him.

Too many times, however, we may have God in our understanding, in our theology, and in our teaching, but we may not live God when we are shepherding people.

But when we’re one with God, we become God! Wow, we have God and we are God in shepherding others. This is what God wants.

God doesn’t want us to try our best to care for His sheep, striving to please God by giving all we have for others to be happy and go on with Jesus.

God wants us to become the same as He is in our shepherding of others. We can ask the Lord to make us one with Him as we care for others. We are human beings, we have honest human feelings about this or that matter.

We may have some feelings or dislikes regarding some people or a class of people, so we need to come to the Lord.

We need to allow His cross to be applied to us. To shepherd according to God is to shepherd according to God’s nature, desire, way, and glory; it is not to shepherd according to our preference, interest, purpose, or disposition.

We may start by preferring a particular kind of person or even people of a particular race, a particular kind; but as we come to the Lord, His cross will be applied to our being, and we will learn to drop our preferences, likes and dislikes, and simply do things according to God.

May we be wide open for shepherding others according to God so that we may shepherd others according to God.

We need to ask the Lord to train us to shepherd according to God’s nature and desire. We may have our own desires and preferences, but God has His desires and preferences.

We need to shepherd others not according to our preference but according to His. To shepherd according to God is to shepherd according to what God is in His attributes.

His attributes need to be wrought into us to become our virtues and be expressed through us.

When God’s attributes are expressed through us, we will shepherd not just the good ones in the church but also all the young ones, the weak ones, and the backsliding ones, and God will be in our shepherding others.

May we open to the Lord to shepherd the flock of God according to God. To shepherd others is to enjoy life and minister life to them. In order for us to shepherd according to God, we need to become God in life, nature, expression, and function.

There is no other way; also, we don’t do this in and by ourselves, but by living in our spirit, in the organic union with the Lord. To become God in life, nature, expression, and function, we need to be filled to the brim with the divine life!

We need to come to the Lord again and again and enjoy Him as life, enjoying the Triune God as the fountain, the spring, and the river until we become the totality of the divine life, even we become the divine life itself (John 4:13-14; Col. 3:4).

We need to come to the Lord to enjoy Him as life, and we need to remain in His presence until we’re filled with His life.

As we come together, we need to be filled with the Lord as life, and He will flow through us. We truly need to become God in His attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness.

May we open to the Lord regarding this matter so that He may break through in us. He wants to gain many who shepherd the flock of God according to God.

We are not talking about a position or an office; we are speaking of the function of the saints, even the function of all the saints.

We all need to be perfected to shepherd the flock of God according to God.

May the Lord have a way in us and through us, and may He have a way to gain those who correspond to Him, are one with Him, even become Him in life, nature, expression, and function, so that they may shepherd the flock of God according to God.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn to shepherd the flock of God according to God. Amen, Lord, we want to be one with You today, living in our mingled spirit to touch You and express You. May we become the same as You are so that we may shepherd others according to God. Amen, Lord, train us to shepherd others according to God’s nature, desire, way and glory! We do not want to shepherd others according to our preference, interest, purpose, and disposition! May we be those who shepherd according to God by shepherding people according to what God is in His attributes! Oh Lord Jesus, make us the same as You are in life, nature, expression, and function so that we may shepherd the flock of God according to God! Fill us to the brim with Your divine life! We want to enjoy the Triune God as the fountain, the spring, and the river until we’re filled to the brim and we become a totality of the divine life! Amen, Lord, make us the same as You so that Your divine attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness may be expressed through us as we shepherd others according to God! Amen!

Deal with our Disposition and Become the Reproduction of Christ to Express God in our Shepherding

The Lord has ordained elders in the church, and their function is to oversee the church; to oversee is not to observe who is wrong and who is right, but to oversee the need.

The overseers in the church are not here to observe who is wrong and who is right, who is doing well and who is doing poorly, and who is not behaving and who is behaving properly.

Rather, the oversight of a shepherd is related to protecting the flock, leading the flock, and feeding the flock. The elders are to oversee willingly, according to God (1 Pet. 5:2).

This means that they need to oversee according to God’s nature, desire, way, and glory, and not according to their own interest, preference, and purpose.

The elders need to be one with the Lord to oversee not according to their own opinions, concepts, or likes or dislikes.

Rather, they should oversee according to God’s choice, desire, intention, and preference. For us to shepherd the saints, we need to learn to deal with our being.

Just as parents need to give up many things such as habits, food they eat and drink, and places they go to and people they spend time with, so that they care for their own children, and they do it willingly, so we today need to shepherd the flock of God according to God.

We shepherd not according to our disposition, likes or dislikes, or feelings; we shepherd according to God.

We should not shepherd so that we may gain something; rather, as parents do, we are eagerly exercising care over the saints. Only the Lord Jesus can do this.

We need to become the reproduction of Christ, the expression of God, so that in our shepherding we express God and not the self with its disposition and peculiarities.

We need to be before the Lord concerning our disposition, even deal with our disposition so that we may become the reproduction of Christ and express God in our shepherding.

If we do not deal with our disposition in shepherding others, what will come out is not Christ but our disposition.

God created us with a certain disposition, and the more we grow in the human life, the more our disposition also grows and is being expressed. The more we grow humanly, the more our disposition is manifested and peculiarities are being displayed.

What we pass on to others is not Christ but what we are by disposition; this is not shepherding according to God. We need to become God in His function of shepherding the flock of God according to what He is and according to His goal in His economy.

This means that we need to deal with our disposition before the Lord; as we allow the Lord to deal with our disposition and expose our peculiarities, we can also shepherd others to come to the Lord concerning their disposition and peculiarities.

As Paul said, we comfort others with the comfort with which God comforted us (2 Cor. 1:3-4). We can shepherd others into God to the extent that we are into God.

As we go on in the church life, may we allow the Lord to shine on our disposition and may we cooperate with Him regarding this. Whether we can help others depends on how much we allow the Lord to touch our disposition. One way the Lord exposes and deals with our disposition is in our fellowship with the saints and our coordination with them.

The Lord is faithful to expose our strong disposition, even our thinking that we know better than others, and He shines on our peculiarities.

He shows us that we don’t really want to follow others, for we think we know what’s best to do.

May we remain in the Body, in fellowship with the saints, and may we be willing to deal with our disposition so that we may shepherd the flock of God according to God. May we open to the Lord and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, have a way to deal with our disposition so that we may shepherd the flock of God according to God. Amen, Lord, we want to be one with You and express You. Make us the reproduction of Christ so that in our shepherding we may express God and not the self with its disposition and peculiarities! Oh Lord Jesus, we open to You concerning our disposition. We allow You to touch our peculiarities. We want to remain in fellowship wth You and in coordination with the saints so that You may expose our disposition and deal with our peculiarities. Have mercy on us, Lord, and grant us the grace for us to deal with our disposition today so that Christ may be expressed through us. Make us the same as You are. Save us from self-likeness and self-expression. May we become God in His function of shepherding the flock of God so that we may shepherd according to what God is and according to God’s goal in His economy! Amen, Lord Jesus, we do not trust ourselves; we open to You and to the fellowship in the Body so that You may save us from ourselves and make us the same as You are! 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, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” ch. 7, 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 4.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Here, Lord, we give ourselves to Thee; / Receive us into Thy wise hands; / Bend, break, and build together in Thee / To be the house to meet Thy demands. / Break all the natural life for us, / Deal Thou with each peculiar way, / That we no more independent be / But with all saints are one for aye. (Hymns #837 stanzas 6-7)
  – I long for fellowship in spirit, / That mingled with the saints I’ll be, / Long to be saved from independence / And to be built with saints in Thee. / I long for fellowship in spirit, / That opened shall my spirit be, / Long to be rescued from seclusion, / And with the saints to worship Thee. (Hymns #847 stanzas 1-2)
  – Build me, Lord, with other saints, / Independence ne’er allow, / But according to Thy plan / Fitly frame and join me now. / In experience not my boast, / Nor in gifts would be my pride; / For Thy building I give all, / That Thou may be glorified. (Hymns #839 stanza 5)