Shepherding

Later we began to discover that for a church, a team, or a pastor, the most important task is to identify the bondages of those you shepherd, serve, or lead in your team, no matter what. How do you find these bondages? By observing their reactions in life, their physical condition, their experiences, their temperament, including their hygiene, their profession, the people they associate with, how they spend money, how they profit, the kinds of vows they like to make, the oaths they swear, the words they speak at work, their complaints, the kind of people they like, and the people they dislike. I tell you, through these things, you can see the kind of bondage they are in. Then, by resolving their bondage, you complete the work of shepherding.

In essence, what is the work of shepherding? It is understanding through a series of observations. This is why the church needs ministries, because through ministries, you can understand. You can understand through their actions. This is why it is necessary to understand their conditions because by understanding these conditions, you know their bondages. Then, you use our spiritual weapons to resolve their bondages. This is what we call shepherding.

The Key to Growth Lies in Resolving Spiritual Bondages

If you resolve someone's spiritual bondages, that person will definitely grow! They will absolutely grow. The key to growth lies in resolving a person's spiritual bondages. The extent to which you resolve a person's spiritual bondages, or the number of times you break their spiritual bondages, determines their growth. The key to everything lies in resolving their spiritual problems. So, what is all the other work doing? All the other work either manifests, through their past actions, what their bondages are, or creates environments that allow their bondages to be expressed. For example, if you slap someone and they slap you back, they have a bondage. If you slap them and they don't slap back, it doesn't matter, you continue to test their level. If they don't react no matter how many times you hit them, then you switch to another method. They don't have this bondage, but they will have other bondages. This is the work of a pastor.

Pastors must, by all means, dig out the spiritual bondages of those under them, and then it will be easier to resolve their problems. The entire Book of Deuteronomy uses the laws promulgated by God, and the actions of those whom God delights in, dislikes, and abhors, to reflect the bondages of these people. Otherwise, we wouldn't know! If you don't read the Bible, if you don't read Deuteronomy, you wouldn't know! You wouldn't know what God rejects and what He doesn't want. You wouldn't know how you need to deal with these bondages!

So, if you ask me what Moses was writing in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, I tell you these are Moses's shepherding notes. Don't think these clauses and laws are useless; they are useful! These are called shepherding notes. How should shepherding notes be recorded? Shepherding notes should be recorded like Moses did. Someone did something that displeased God, or something else happened. If you do this, God will do this to you. If you don't do that, it will be very good. This is called shepherding notes. How do you record shepherding notes? This person you are shepherding, they did this thing and they have this problem, which needs to be broken. This is shepherding notes!

So, does the Bible teach shepherding? Actually, it does. The Pentateuch teaches it. The Pentateuch is the shepherding Pentateuch, teaching people about shepherding.

People Abhorrent to God

For this chapter, I give it a theme called People Abhorrent to God. If we know the people abhorrent to God, we know that if we encounter these kinds of people, we need to resolve their spiritual problems. We turn them from being abhorrent to God into being cherished by God! From being hated by God to being loved by God. This is successful shepherding.

How do you measure whether your shepherding is successful or a failure? It is like this! Turning the carnal people that the Bible reveals as displeasing to God into spiritual people pleasing to God is the success of your shepherding. Otherwise, how do you prove it? Our shepherding is not like a company, where we can compete on performance! It's not that shepherding more people means you are successful. That's nonsense! Shepherding many people does not mean you are successful. Many large churches have tens of thousands of people! Does that mean they are successful in shepherding? That does not mean they are successful in shepherding.

The number of people cannot prove whether shepherding is successful or not. You say, what should we do then? You say they are very generous in giving, can that prove my shepherding is successful? That also cannot prove your shepherding is successful. Or, it can only prove from a certain level that it seems not bad! Hmm, not bad! It's just that these things cannot prove it. So, how do you prove that you are a successful shepherding case? It is that you turn these people abhorrent to God into people pleasing to God. This is your successful shepherding case. This proves your shepherding is successful! We don't have performance metrics. The only thing we have is whether this person is pleasing to God. If this person is pleasing to God, it is clearly visible. This is the work of us pastors.

The Cursed

Let us examine the first category. The first type of people whom God detests are the cursed. And what kind of curse is this, in particular?

“No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord. No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.” (Deuteronomy 23:1-2)

No one born of a forbidden marriage may enter. I tell you, what is this all about? It's all about procreation. Those with injured testicles, those who are castrated, including those born of a forbidden marriage, are all related to procreation. Which means God is very concerned about one thing: life. God values ​​life very much. In fact, the things we usually experience are all spiritual. Do not think that those who are hit by cars on the road are pitiful. If you are pastoring in a church, do not pity those who come with malignant diseases. Instead, release them, transform them from the cursed into the blessed.

You don't need to have a heart of pity. Some people you treat with compassion, but don't pity them. What is a heart of compassion? A heart of compassion is that God died for sinners! That is a compassionate heart, but do not have a pathetic heart, as if when someone is sick, you can't wait to hug and kiss them twice. This is a deadly attitude! There must be something hateful about pitiful people. If you read the Bible carefully, you will find very certainly that the accidents these people experience are not accidental.

Why does God detest such people? Those with injured testicles, those who are castrated, those born of a forbidden marriage. Why are they like this? I tell you, these people are always cursed. Then you say, what did these people do? That is hard to say, all kinds of situations! But these people, this kind of situation, that cannot procreate life, that cuts off life, these are great curses!

Why do I say this? Because I am surprised to find that, regardless of whether these people are good or bad, there are also those who cannot conceive, those who want a second child but cannot conceive, and then they come among us and conceive. Although I do not recommend anyone desperately having children, I am not very interested in this matter, but I have found that once a person is blessed, their fertility problems are quickly resolved. Those of us who are pastors know this. I can name several at random, but I won't name them here. Although many people leave after giving birth! Later, I also understood, why do those who desperately want children come among us and then receive children, but then leave, eventually evolving into a cycle? That is, you serve them, but it is a bit difficult for you to let them serve others.

Whether One Can Procreate Stems from Whether One is Bound

So you will find that our church is very unique. Many brothers and sisters say that the pastors in your church are a bit single-minded. What's the matter? Many of your pastors are brothers. Why are they so concerned about the menstrual problems of the sisters? Is it a bit strange? I tell you, brothers and sisters, you do not understand the spiritual things! I am also very concerned about the menstrual problems of the sisters I pastor. You say why? You will know when you read this!

This is related to reproduction, including those born of a forbidden marriage, having children, these matters of fertility, or not being able to have children, such people cannot enter the assembly of God. Why? Because reproduction is a very, very wonderful creation of God. In short, it is very important in the eyes of God, and God cares very much. You say, if I do not marry, am I cursed in this life? No! That is not the case. It is that God cares very much about the matter of procreation. It is even better if you have spiritual children. But we also care about the relationship of physical reproduction. Of course, the spiritual is higher than the physical. I believe that if you can be fruitful and multiply in the spiritual realm, your reproduction will definitely be no problem, definitely no problem.

Although you do not marry. But God values ​​procreation very, very much. That is why our church has this characteristic, that is, we are very concerned about the problem of menstrual pain of the sisters, we are very concerned about the gynecological problems of the sisters. Why? That is a very, very spiritual area. The problems at this level have a deep impact on people, to what extent? To the extent that whether or not one can enter the assembly of the Lord, whether or not one can enter the presence of God, I have not studied it thoroughly, but from the inspiration of the Spirit of God, from the words of the Bible, we feel that it is so.

That is why we care about this matter. Later, we were surprised to find that, as I said, those who wanted a second child but could not conceive, came among us and conceived one after another, and then left after giving birth, just like worshiping Guanyin. Until now, I have not seen anyone who wants to have children and cannot have them when they come to us. Do you not think this is very spiritual? I think this is very spiritual. Where does it come from? It comes from this place. So behind those with injured testicles, those who are castrated, those born of a forbidden marriage, there is a strong operation of the powers of darkness. That is, people with these kinds of problems are cursed.