TAKING THE SHEPHERDING WAY
TO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND REVIVE THE CHURCH

SERIES FOUR
SHEPHERDING PEOPLE ACCORDING TO GOD
TO BRING IN A NEW REVIVAL

Message Six
Nourishing New Ones in their Homes Continually

Scripture Reading:

John 21:15     Then when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Feed My lambs.

1 Thes. 2:7     But we were gentle in your midst, as a nursing mother would cherish her own children.

GOING BACK TO THE NEW BELIEVERS AND FEEDING THEM

The way to organically build up the Body of Christ begins with visiting people where they are to get them saved through our preaching of the gospel. Then we need to go back to the new believers and feed them. To feed them, to nourish them, is to cause them to grow, and to cause them to grow is to build them up. After a newborn babe is delivered, the mother continually feeds him, and this feeding causes him to grow. His growth is his organic building up. If we visit the new ones, but do not minister Christ to them, this will cause them to starve, so there will be no growth, no building up. When we go back to visit the newly baptized ones, we need to feed them with the milk of the word. First Peter 2:2 says that the newborn babes should long for the milk of the word that they may grow. If we visit them regularly and feed them with the milk of the word, they will grow, and by their growth they will be built up and established in the Christian faith.

MEETING WITH THE NEW ONES IN THEIR HOMES REGULARLY

We have to meet with the new ones in their homes regularly until they become established in the faith (Acts 5:42). After six months of continual care, they may be settled in their faith. Until they are settled in their faith, we should not stop going to them. To feed them is to feed the Lord’s lambs (John 21:15). In John 21 the Lord Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him. When Peter said that he did, the Lord charged him to feed His lambs. To feed the lambs is to feed the infants, the little ones. Such a top apostle as Peter was charged by the Lord to be a nursing mother to feed the small lambs.

LEARNING TO NOURISH AS A MOTHER AND LEAD AS A FATHER

According to 1 Thessalonians 2:7, we need to nourish and cherish the new ones as nursing mothers. To cherish is to nurture with tender love and foster with tender care. To cherish a new one is to make him comfortable and happy. When a mother cherishes an infant by putting it into her bosom, she makes the infant happy and comfortable. In such a cherishing atmosphere, the little one can be nourished. We must learn how to cherish the new ones to make them happy and comfortable. (The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, ch. 8)

When we go to lead a home meeting, we are not just attending a meeting but are leading and taking care of the new ones. In other words, they are our children, so we must feed and nurse them as a mother and also teach and exhort them as a father. We must bear all their problems. Some might refuse to do this, saying, “I cannot bear the problems even in my own family, so how can I bear the problems of two other families?” I dare not speak about any other matter, but concerning this matter I have much experience. When I was young, the Lord uprooted me from the world and gave me a heavy burden every day. It has been fifty-four years now. We may think that we would be able to relax if we could lay our burden down, but we are wrong. If we reject the Lord’s burden, then Satan, the king of the world, will put his burden on us. If you ask me what you should do, my answer is this: The Lord is the way. You should go to Him to seek and rely on Him.…Furthermore, the more burdens we receive from the Lord, the more blessings we will have. When our burdens are gone, the Lord’s blessing will stop. When the Lord gives us a burden, He also gives us a blessing. The question is whether or not we are willing to receive the burden. (The Furtherance of the New Way for the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 6)

We also have to bring them up and lead them to present themselves to God as living sacrifices, according to the Apostle Paul’s charge in Romans 12:1. After a child is nourished for a period of time, he becomes a teenager. Once we have nourished and cherished the new ones for a period of time so that they can grow to become “teenagers,” we need to lead them to present themselves to God as living sacrifices. At the time of their conversion, we offered them to God as spiritual sacrifices. After feeding them for a period of time, we have to lead them, to beg them, and to help them offer themselves to God as living sacrifices. Paul’s speaking in the book of Romans is progressive according to the maturity of life. By the time he comes to chapter twelve, the believers who were babes have become teenagers. Therefore, in Romans 12 there is the Body life in which all the members function. Some prophesy and others teach (vv. 6-7). This Body life can be experienced in the home meetings with the new beginners. We need to bring the new ones into the experience of Romans 12:1. (The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, ch. 8)

WORKING THE TRUTH INTO PEOPLE

When we lead the home meetings, the hardest point, which is also the most important matter, is teaching the truth. If we do not teach the truth, the home meetings will not have a center or a foundation. All the points mentioned above are peripheral matters as a preparation. The central point is to work the truth into people. This is very important.

In the same principle, when we go to teach the truth, we should not consider ourselves teachers. We go to teach, but we are not teachers. The way we teach is to read things with them. We want to give them the impression that we are also students and that at most we are students just a grade or two ahead of them who are learning the truth together with them. Before the home meetings, however, we must first study the message thoroughly and understand its content. Then when we read it together with them, we should not be inflexible but rather use all kinds of ways to read it. First, we must point out the important items and not fear repetition. In this way, we will always give them a deep impression. At the same time, when we read a portion that is full of inspiration, we can also ask them to give testimonies at any time, or to express their feelings and share something of the light and revelation which they themselves have touched.

LEARNING TO BECOME THE RIGHT KIND OF PERSON

When we go to lead the home meetings, we ourselves first must be the kind of person that we want them to be. This means that if we lead the new ones to read the Bible and pray, yet we ourselves do not have the habit of reading the Bible and praying, then that is not acceptable. We cannot lead others to read the Bible and pray unless we ourselves do so. In the same way, how can we lead and exhort others to forsake the world if we ourselves love the world? If we tell new ones that the Lord today is the life-giving Spirit within them and that they should follow Him-the Spirit-in their spirit, then we ourselves must be such people-those who live in the spirit every day and walk according to the Spirit. This is not just a matter of practicing what we preach or of being a pattern; instead, it is that we ourselves are such people in our constitution. We love the Lord, fellowship with Him, long for His Word, enjoy praying, obey the Spirit, walk according to the Spirit, forsake the world as if it were dung, and live wholly for the Lord. If we are such people when we go to lead and care for a home meeting, then after a short while, we will produce a great effect on the new ones. (The Furtherance of the New Way for the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 6)

WHAT EVERY BROTHER AND SISTER CAN AND SHOULD DO

In order to nourish the new believers and lead them to grow in life that they may become remaining fruit, we need to go to their homes to meet with them by personally leading and nourishing them. Thus, over a period of time they will be perfected as we are. The condition of those whom we nourish and care for will be the same as our own condition. If we are those who love the Lord and have constant fellowship with Him so that we are very intimate with Him and are even joined with Him as one, then as we go, time after time, to nourish and take care of the new believers, eventually every one of them will become like us, not loving the world but only loving the Lord and always being filled with the Lord to such an extent that they present themselves to God as sacrifices. At the beginning, we help them to be saved through the gospel and offer them up to God as sacrifices. Then, having grown in life by being nourished and cared for, they also present themselves to God as living sacrifices. To nourish and take care of the new believers by meeting with them in their homes is the pattern revealed in the New Testament (Acts 5:42). This is also the second step needed for us to minister as the priests of the gospel of God. This is what every brother and sister can and should do. (The Ministry of the New Testament Priests of the Gospel, msg. 2)