Shepherding According to God: being Constituted with God, Live God & Minister God

For us to shepherd according to God, we need to be constituted with God, live God, represent and function as the acting God, and minister God to others; we need to be one with the Lord in His heavenly ministry of shepherding the flock of God according to God in our measure by mutual shepherding and teaching.

Amen, Lord, rise up in all the saints in the matter of shepherding! May we not only enjoy Your wonderful shepherding but even more, cooperate with You to shepherd one another! Amen, Lord, we are one with You today. We enjoy You. You are the Shepherd in our spirit. May we be one with You to care for the sheep, feed the sheep, and shepherd the sheep according to God! May all the saints enter into this wonderful organic function in the church life today! Amen!

This week we have been enjoying the wonderful phrase written by Peter in his epistle, Shepherd the flock of God…according to God. Wow.

What is shepherding? A shepherd takes all-inclusive tender care of the flock, taking care of all the needs of the sheep.

In spiritual shepherding, there are two elements: cherishing to make people happy in the Lord according to the humanity of Jesus, and nourishing to feed people with the Lord as life in the divinity of Christ.

In the church life today there’s an urgent need of shepherding; this is truly the greatest lack among us today.

The Triune God is shepherding us, His sheep, first by the Father regenerating us, then the Spirit imparts God’s life into us, and the Son as the Shepherd cares for us so that we may exist and grow in His life for eternity.

As we open to the Lord for His shepherding and are open to the saints for the shepherding in the Body, we can grow in life unto maturity for the building up of the Body of Christ. Amen!

As we enjoy the Lord and are constituted with Him, we also become one with Him to shepherd others.

The constitution of Christ in us has a shepherding aspect. In ourselves, we shepherd only ourselves and those whom we love; but when we enjoy Christ and are constituted with Him, we have a heart for the Lord’s sheep.

Thank the Lord that Christ is the Shepherd – He’s the good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, the great Shepherd, and the Shepherd of our souls.

As we open to His wonderful shepherding, we are commissioned by Him and enabled by His life to shepherd the flock of God according to God.

It is not only the elders who should shepherd the flock of God; we all are in the flock, and we all are both sheep and shepherd.

Shepherding according to God requires that we are constituted with God and we live God

For us to shepherd others according to God, we need to know who God is, enjoy God, be filled with God, and be constituted with God.

We need to pray for the Father to strengthen us into our inner man through His Spirit so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith (Eph. 3:17).

We need to know Christ subjectively and be filled with Him, even be constituted with Christ to the extent that Christ becomes all in all in the new man (Col. 3:10-11).

When Christ constitutes us and becomes our all, we become those shepherding according to God, for we are constituted with God and we shepherd others according to what constitutes us. Oh, Christ must become our all!

He must become our all in all. Our being needs to be constituted with Christ as our everything. He is our patience, He is our compassion, and He is our mercy.

He is the One who motivates us to care for others, and He is our way to care for others. All that Christ is needs to be constituted into our being as we open to Him again and again, allowing Him to make His home deep down in our heart.

As the Divine Being, God infuses us with His element, causing us to be the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead (2 Cor. 13:14).

He constitutes us with Himself. He works Himself into us. His attributes are becoming our virtues.

2 Peter 1:4 tells us that we are partakers of the divine nature through the precious and exceedingly great promises granted to us by God.

As we partake of the promises of God in His word, we are not only encouraged and enlightened, but we are becoming partakers of the divine nature, and we are constituted with God to be those shepherding according to God. Amen!

Furthermore, we need to not only be constituted with God but also live God. Only those who live God can shepherd according to God (Phil. 1:21).

The apostle Paul was a top example in this respect. He was in prison, with no release date in sight, and many even preached a different gospel to try to get the believers away from Paul’s ministry. There were attacks within and without, yet Paul enjoyed God, was constituted with God, and lived God.

The issue of such a constitution and living was that he spontaneously shepherded the saints according to God. He did not rebuke or tell others off, nor did he have any bitterness or desire to revenge. He simply lived God and ministered Christ to others.

We may have God in our understanding, and we may have a theology concerning God, but do we live God? We may have God in our mind, thinking about God, and we may read the Bible, but do we have God on hand? Oh Lord!

In order to be those shepherding according to God, we need to be constituted with God and to live God. We need to be one with God and live God in our shepherding others.

God’s economy is to work Himself into us so that we may receive Him as our life and life supply in order to live Him (John 11:25; 6:48, 57).

He is working Himself into us. As we open to Him, as we come to His word and pray over His word, the Lord is dispensing what He is into our being to constitute us so that we may live God and shepherd according to God.

Day by day we need to exercise to live God; we live God by eating Him so that we may live because of Him.

As we live God, we express God, and we can shepherd others according to God. When we contact people and visit them in their homes, we live God, and this living will shepherd them.

Our shepherding will not be according to our natural concept or desire but according to God’s attributes.

We will express God in His life, nature, expression, and function. We are now participating in the divine life and the divine nature so that we can live God in our humanity (Gal. 2:20).

Such a living is a shepherding to others, and this is shepherding according to God.

Lord Jesus, we come to You as the Shepherd and Overseer of our soul. Thank You for shepherding us by caring for our soul, our inner being and our real person. We open to Your shepherding. Father, strengthen us into the inner man according to the Spirit so that Christ may make His home in our heart. Amen, Lord, we want to be constituted with You today. Constitute us with God. We simply open to You: dispense Yourself into our being so that our being may be constituted with Your being! May our being and Your being be fully one, even one constitution! Amen, may Christ be our all in all! Infuse us, Lord, with Your element, to cause us to be the same as You are in life and nature but not in the Godhead! May we be those constituted with God who live God so that we may shepherd according to God. Work Yourself into us, dear Lord, and supply us daily in order for us to live Christ! May our living be Christ living in us. May our shepherding be Christ shepherding through us!

To Shepherd According to God, we need to Represent God and Function as the Acting God, and we Minister God to others

To be those shepherding according to God, we need to represent God; to do anything according to God is to represent God, even to become like God in doing something.

As those who would shepherd according to God, we need to represent God and function as the acting God.

We see this in the story of Moses and Pharaoh in Exodus; Jehovah made Moses “God to Pharaoh”. In Moses, God had a person who would represent Him to execute His will (Exo. 7:1; 3:16-18; 5:1).

It is impossible for us to try to shepherd others according to God in ourselves; no matter how hard we try, at best we can shepherd others according to ourselves.

We need to be constituted with God and live God, and we need to represent God and function as the acting God in our shepherding.

If we look at the pattern of the Lord Jesus, His shepherd was not always according to what we think is nice. He was not “nice” to everyone; rather, He was frank, He was genuine, and He did all things according to God.

Sometimes He rebuked certain people and even certain cities, and at other times He welcomed and received even the lowest of the sinners.

As we are one with God to live God in our shepherding according to God, we may not be that nice or kind or sweet but we may be frank, speaking a particular word to a wayward person.

It may be somewhat of a strong word, but it will be a word with love to guide him back. We are there functioning as the acting God.

Maybe that person may not find it easy to take that word, but afterwards, he will realise that God was shepherding him, and he will turn from his erroneous path back to God. Oh Lord!

This should by no means excuse our being rough or mean to others; rather, this means that we need to be constituted with God, live God, and shepherd according to God by being the acting God, one with God in our spirit.

As the representative of God, Samuel was the acting God (1 Sam. 1:11; 2:35; 7:3; 8:22). He could be the acting God because his being and God’s heart were one (2:35).

Samuel did all things according to what was in God’s heart and mind. His living and working were for carrying out whatever was in God’s heart.

Similarly, Elisha the prophet, as the man of God, behaved himself as God’s representative, as the acting God (2 Kings 4:9).

Today we as believers in Christ can be the same (1 Tim. 6:11). We must be men of God. We must be one with God.

This doesn’t mean that we exalt ourselves or think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Rather, we are one with the Lord, and we are constituted with God to be the acting God. We convey God’s thoughts and desires to others.

In our shepherding according to God, we need to minister God to others (2 Cor. 13:14).

The content of our shepherding should be God Himself. What we impart to others should be God, even the God we enjoy, are constituted with, and experience.

The Triune God is embodied in Christ and realised as the consummated Spirit (Col. 2:9; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 1:3-4, 12, 15-16; 2:10; 13:14). The God whom we worship, proclaim, and minister to others is the processed and consummated Triune God.

We need to be those who shepherd according to God by ministering Christ to others.

What does it mean to minister Christ to others? We minister God to one another by speaking words of grace, truth, spirit, and life, ministering the processed God who has been wrought into our being (Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:25, 29; John 6:63).

As we daily enjoy the Lord and experience Him, we are constituted with God and we live God. Then, we are one with God to be the acting God, and when we meet others, we minister Christ to them; this is shepherding according to God.

We don’t need to try to remember what we enjoyed of Christ or what did we read in the Bible so that we speak to others; we simply flow out the Christ we enjoy and experience.

As we live the Christian life and the church life, we are concerned for the weaker ones, for the backsliding ones, and for the ones who are younger in the Lord.

We simply pray for them, we consider them, and we want to minister something of Christ to them.

This is what we need today: the mutual shepherding according to God in the church life, for the building up of the church. It is not only the elders in the church who should shepherd according to God; we all need to learn to do this.

Just as the mothers care for their children and teach them at home, imparting their knowledge to them and feeding with them with the best food in love, so we need to care for the new ones, the weaker ones, and the backsliding ones according to God in the church life.

There needs to be much shepherding and teaching in the home church life, the family church life. May we all learn to practice this.

May all the members of the Body be brought into their function in the Body to be those shepherding according to God. May the Lord recover this matter among us today.

Lord Jesus, we want to be constituted with God and live God so that we may shepherd according to God. Amen, Lord, live in us today. Be expressed through us. Make us Your representatives on the earth today, those through whom You can be expressed and represented. May Your heart become our heart and Your mind become our mind so that we may do all things according to Your being and heart. May our living and working be for the carrying out of whatever is in Your heart. Oh Lord, recover the matter of shepherding according to God among us in the church life today! May we learn to shepherd according to God by ministering God to others! Hallelujah, the God whom we worship, proclaim, and minister to others is the Triune God embodied in Christ and realised as the consummated Spirit! Amen, Lord, may we minister God to others by speaking words of grace, truth, spirit, and love! May we be those who minister the processed Triune God who has been wrought into our being!

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, 1977, vol. 2, “All Ages for the Lord’s Testimony,” ch. 4, 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 6.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Christ is our rest and enjoyment, / Here we have nothing to fear; / Here all the sheep dwell securely, / Kept by His presence so dear. / Glorious church life, / Feasting from such a rich store! / Here where we’re dwelling in oneness / God commands life evermore. (Hymns #1221 stanza 5 and chorus)
  – 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)
  – Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying, / Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; / Weep o’er the erring one, / Lift up the fallen, / Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. / Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying; / Jesus is merciful, / Jesus will save. (Hymns #921 stanza 1 and chorus)