Introduction

This business of establishing pastoral relationships, it is a truly wondrous thing. There must be relationships between people. If there are no relationships, then when trouble comes, it becomes a big issue. If people are connected, then problems are resolved. The word relationship is powerful. Do you follow me? If your Mandarin is not strong, it might sound confusing. This cannot be directly translated into English; if you do, no relationship becomes having a relationship, which completely confuses people.

We Chinese are very clear about relationships. Our understanding of relationships is second to none in the world. What do Chinese people talk about when they gather? They talk about their connections. You will notice Chinese conversations are like this: Ah, I know such and such a provincial governor; I know such and such a minister... Why? Because they are demonstrating their relationships, and these relationships determine their value.

Christian Faith: Building a Relationship with God

So, our Christian faith is a very interesting one. Why? Because we are establishing a relationship with God. Before He was crucified, our Lord Jesus told us: You must love one another! This love is a relationship. If you and I have a loving relationship, and you make a serious mistake, what happens? I will do everything I can to help you overcome the error, because there is a loving connection between us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, you must understand that Christian faith must have love. A faith without love is very strange. We know that the Lord Jesus loves us, but in other religions, if someone said, Lao Tzu loves me, or Confucius loves me, it would sound odd, wouldn't it? But in Christianity, when we talk about love, Jesus asked Peter, Do you love me? Peter said, I love you, Lord Jesus. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. That is, pastoring is about establishing a relationship.

So, I tell you, establishing pastoral relationships is a very important topic – speak according to the relationship. For example, in a company, I have superiors, people on my left, on my right, and subordinates. I cannot say to my superior, Go, get me a glass of water! I wouldn’t survive!

Nor can I ask my subordinate, Hey, would you like a glass of water? I cannot do that. That is, the relationship with those above is different from the relationship with those below. You need to have healthy relationships with your colleagues and people in other departments at the same level. As Christians, we must understand that our relationship is a cross – it is very interesting. Above, we establish a relationship with God; below, we establish a relationship with the sheep we pastor; to the left and right, we establish relationships with the brothers and sisters who serve together with us in Jesus Christ.

Pastoring: Establishing a Loving Relationship with the Sheep

So, when we talk about pastoral relationships, we are talking about establishing a relationship with the people we pastor. This is very important. If you are not genuine, I tell you, your service will be very hard. I have a good friend, also a pastor, who followed what I said to build his church, and within a year, the results were remarkable. Every few weeks, he and his colleagues would come to me to learn. And I enjoy sharing with them.

I told them, Pastoring must be genuine. His colleague asked, But being genuine is very tiring! When I heard this, I said, Aren’t you tired raising your children? Yes, you are. If you are tired raising your children, but not genuine in pastoring, then that is the problem. If you just go through the motions today and tomorrow, how will you account for it to Jesus? So, some people say their service is tiring and ask me if I am tired. How can I not be? Service really is hard work, but all the colleagues I have trained are serving wholeheartedly.

I can say frankly, our church must surpass the customer service of multinational corporations. Why? Because we are a heavenly enterprise, and our boss is the Lord Jesus. If you do not do as well as worldly companies, how will you account for it to the Lord Jesus? So, our church must surpass worldly enterprises. How can a heavenly enterprise not do better than earthly ones?

Here is a sad story. A sister, suffering from depression, opened the directory of Singaporean churches and called them one by one. Either the phone did not connect, or they gave nonsensical replies. They would say, Hello, ah, you have problems? Come to the service on Sunday. If you call a hospital, how would they respond? They would say, Come quickly, we have an emergency room.

So, we think that in this day and age, the church really needs transformation. How did the Apostle Paul establish churches? It was weeping with those who weep! Do you understand? That is, a loving relationship. If the other person feels pain, you also feel pain. You cannot say that if your finger is cut, your toe does not hurt, or if your toe is cut, your finger does not feel it. The whole body feels the pain!

So, we are a loving body; that is, in the process of serving, whether we can pass on God's love depends entirely on pastoral relationships. Some might say, How come I cannot find you? I will also be frank with you. How many people can I directly serve? How many people could Jesus directly serve? Jesus told his disciples, You will do the things I have done, and you will do even greater things. Why? Because Jesus trained twelve disciples, and those twelve would then train twelve, and so on. That would be incredible.

Pastoral Care Arises from Establishing Pastoral Relationships

Therefore, I have a fervent hope that those I train can serve according to my model of service or according to the biblical model, and that they can establish a loving relationship with those they pastor. However, there is also a challenge: we want to establish such loving relationships, but our warm faces often meet cold behinds. Today we meet a cold behind, tomorrow another. People say, Who asked you to pastor me? When did I ask you to pastor me? Then we don’t pastor.

So, our church has a characteristic: if you do not need me to pastor you, then I will not. Isn't that right? We establish pastoral relationships, and a relationship has two sides. If your side is a cold behind, then my warm face is wasted. If you want us to pastor you, we will pastor you well. But my hope is that those we train will all have the heart of a parent in pastoring God's flock.

In my opinion, I truly feel for my colleagues. Why? Because in the process of serving, they really use all their heart and soul. Do some slack off? Actually, being a pastor is a bit challenging. There are two jobs in the world where it is easy to be lazy: the first is a pastor, and the second is a teacher. They are all conscience jobs. You can work until you die and still be the same, or you can just go through the motions. That is why many churches are still doing quite well today. Is there any pastoring? No pastoring, but they are still doing fine.

But what does our church need? It needs people who love God, who are willing to offer themselves for God, and who are willing to pastor God's flock with the destiny God has given us. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength – this is my deepest hope. So, surpassing worldly customer service is not difficult. Our colleagues are really quite good; they are all putting their hearts into pastoral work.

Establishing pastoral relationships is crucial. If I do not have a pastoral relationship with you, I might say, Sister, hello; Sister, peace be with you! If you ask, Can you pray for me? I might say, Sure, I’ll pray for you later. But when later comes, what will I pray for? Never mind. That is because I do not have a pastoral relationship with you. But if you and I have a pastoral relationship, I would say, Pray what? Pray later what?! Come! Let’s pray together!

So, it is different. Some people do not understand, When I first came to church, you treated me one way; why do you treat me differently now? Why do you speak to me like that? The previous way was fake; now I am being genuine, is that not okay? If you have bad habits, they must be dealt with. Why doesn’t my father beat the neighbor’s child? The neighbor’s child not going to school has nothing to do with my father. But if I skip school and come home, my father would yell bang, bang, bang and spank me hard, making me scream. Is that the same? After being beaten, I knew I had to study hard. Who would beat someone else's child for no reason? Whatever, right?

So, brothers and sisters, begin to understand this: pastoral care arises from establishing pastoral relationships. I used to know some pastors who said, You're doing internet church is no good; there's no physical contact. I wanted to see what this physical contact was all about. He asked me to come and learn from them. To build a big church, I had to learn, so I went. That church had a thousand people, sometimes ten thousand.

The pastor said, Turn to the person next to you and say, ‘Jesus loves you, and I love you too.’ So, I turned and said, Jesus loves you, and I love you too! After saying it, I wondered, what is this for? I love him, but I do not even know who he is. After the service, everyone left, and the next time we meet, who will they be? Are they the son of the Zhang family, or the prince of the Li family? It is not clear.

Later, one day, when I was preaching in church, it was still a physical church. I said to the brothers and sisters, Turn to the person next to you and say, ‘Jesus loves you, and I love you too!’ In a small church of forty or fifty people, that is fine, everyone knows each other. But in a large church of four or five thousand people, who knows anyone? People think that if a thousand people sit in rows of chairs, they are loving each other, but they do not care about your problems, and you do not care about their problems. What kind of loving relationship is that?

Building a Pastoral Church of Mutual Love

Brothers and sisters must understand that building a church must be about building a church of mutual love: connecting in love above with our Lord Jesus or our pastors, connecting in love to the left and right with our colleagues, and connecting in love below with the sheep we pastor. With a loving connection, then the Lord Jesus will dwell among us. But if we are building a club, where I buy your insurance and you bring me some business deals, can the Lord Jesus be in our midst? No, He cannot.

Many churches today are gathering-type churches, but later I read the Bible and discovered that the Lord Jesus's intention was not to build a gathering church. Suddenly, fifty thousand people pour into a stadium, but what relationship do you have with the person next to you? One day I went to give out books, and when the gathering of fifty thousand people ended, the crowd surged out, with everyone’s faces completely numb. I stood there and shouted, Free books, free books... My warm face met so many cold behinds, because I had no relationship with them.

So, brothers and sisters, you must understand one thing: a physical church is not necessarily a real thing; it pursues the scene and atmosphere. But their atmosphere cannot compare with many concerts; those colored glow sticks are so beautiful! But is that what God wants? I do not think so. Actually, the earliest churches were house gatherings, with just a few people, a dozen, or twenty gathering in homes, without crosses or anything else. But there was one thing that cannot be compared with today: their church was called mutual love, and so the Lord Jesus was clearly among them.

We want to build a pastoral church, and the Lord Jesus will be clearly in our midst. So, brothers and sisters, readjust the concepts in our hearts. Do you have a correct view of the church? Some big cathedral, you do not know me, I do not know you – that is not very useful.

In our church, the pastors and their sheep have much to say to each other almost every week, or even every day. Some brothers and sisters have no real-life connection with us; they met us online, and then we began to pastor them. After pastoring them for a while, when they meet us, it is like meeting an old friend they have known for many years. Although they have never met before, they are very familiar, knowing what kind of person they are, their situation, their problems, and where they need to improve.

Whenever I speak or eat with those within my pastoral care, I always talk about where they need to change, where they need to grow, and where they need to break through. I have prepared these points in advance, and when we meet, we talk about these things. I do not want to gossip like some busybodies. What is a busybody? It is not just someone who has reached a certain age. Some people have not even reached that age, and they are already gossiping and blathering, saying things that do not edify anyone.

So, brothers and sisters, why do we call it pastoring? Because it edifies people. Let us do more things that edify people, and let us do more things that benefit people. So, brothers and sisters must understand that many people think that a place with a cross hanging on it, where people line up to sing hymns, is a church. But is that a church? Brothers and sisters must understand that the Lord Jesus does not dwell in our shouting or in our sermons. Where does the Lord Jesus dwell? He dwells in our mutual, loving, pastoral relationships.

I think what I am saying may be sharp, but if you ask me if the Bible says this, I can say with confidence that the Bible really does say this. If you do not believe it, go and read the Gospel of John carefully. God dwells in our mutual loving relationships. Understood? Not in superficial relationships.

Speaking of this, I have many stories. One day I went to discuss a robotics deal and met a friend I had known for over twenty years. After exchanging a few pleasantries, we started talking business. He asked me how things were, and I said, Very good. I am very happy. You would not understand; I am pastoring a church. Then I talked about pastoring, and he revealed a very surprised expression.

He shared that he has four children. I asked him how his children were, and he said, My eldest son has autism. He finished junior high school but did not pass the high school entrance exam. He went to a polytechnic, or a vocational school of some sort. After graduating, he could not work and developed autism. He has been a Christian for over thirty years, and was very zealous when he was young, but what happened after his child developed autism? No one cared about this issue. I said directly, This is a demon. Deliverance is effective.

We had a child’s mother in our church whose child was twenty years old, the type who thinks five plus four equals eight. The child muddled through elementary school and muddled through middle school. But what would happen in the future? That mother cried for a long time. But under our pastoral care, the child is now able to earn a living. Of course, there are many stories in between.

What kind of money did this child earn before? The child did not even know how to spend money. When paying for something, the child would take all the money out of their pocket and let the vendor take what they wanted. When buying a bottle of water, the child would not know how much the vendor took; they would just take whatever they wanted, and put the rest back in their pocket. The child could not count at all. That mother shed countless tears. Now that mother is so happy, and she is pastoring God’s flock with me. I think this is very exciting.

The sad thing is that the sheep are not being pastored, and the pastors do not care about their problems. They think this is normal, and these churches are normal. The pastors are so busy. The most surprising thing to me is that in this generation, they do not do what Jesus did, and they do a bunch of things that Jesus did not do. I am really surprised. Imagine how surprised God must be on His throne in heaven? Is this still a church?

God Dwells in Our Relationships of Mutual Love

A good friend of mine came to learn from me how to build a church. He told me about a couple, both long-time Christians, whose wife developed a serious and strange illness. She could not speak. Her husband went to that church, and the pastor told him to accept reality; this is what God arranged for your wife. God arranged this? I did not know that was in the Bible. If God said to that pastor, I will arrange something for you too, what would you think? Many pastors bring many curses upon themselves by speaking nonsense and talking irresponsibly, so do not speak nonsense.

Brothers and sisters listening to me, if you are a pastor, then I advise you today to read the Bible carefully. Say what the Bible says, and do not speak nonsense about what is not in the Bible. Reading the Bible requires diligence! The Bible says you must diligently observe His commands, not just casually observe them, right?

Brothers and sisters, we cannot be casual about believing in the Lord. There are also different levels of Christians. In this world, people are divided into three categories: the lowest are the Christians who do not diligently obey God’s word; in the middle are the worldly people; and at the top are the Christians who diligently obey God’s word. This is true. If you do not diligently obey as a Christian, then you are not even as good as worldly people. What should we diligently obey? Diligently obey God's words!

God tells us to love Him! Brothers and sisters must understand that what I say really comes from the Bible. If anyone does not love God, that person is accursed and condemned. This is serious! Do you really love God? If you do not love God, that person is accursed and condemned! You believe in Jesus, but you do not love Jesus. Where else would you be but at the bottom? Right? You will be trampled under the feet of the world, the feet of the devil, and the feet of everyone. How can you live like that?

If you want to be a Christian, take my advice and be a top-notch Christian! If you are an engineer, be a top-notch engineer; if you are a doctor, be a top-notch doctor; if you are a teacher, be a top-notch teacher. The teaching and pastoral professions require integrity, so many people do things haphazardly. It is not like doing IT, where if you write a software program that does not work, you will know immediately. But with pastoring, whether you pastor diligently, casually, or not at all, the difference may not be that great. As a result, many Christians just take it easy.

Brothers and sisters must understand that God dwells in our mutual loving relationships. You will find that your pastor cares about your problems more than you do. If you feel they do not care, perhaps they are testing you. Brothers and sisters, observe carefully. We know there are many churches, and many people like to hop around to different churches, and many people like to run to all kinds of special events. Why do people run to special events? What is the use of that? I find it strange.

There was a sister whose mother had cancer. I took her mother to pray, and because the church was small at that time, I served her well with all my heart and strength. She thought it was good for her mother to pray with me, so she came to me and asked if I could pray for her. I said no problem. I knew her pastor; her pastor was very familiar with me, and I had prayed for her pastor’s illness and healed him. This sister had been suffering from migraines since she was a teenager. It had been painful and unbearable for nearly forty years, but no one cared. I prayed for her, and she was healed in five minutes.

She said to me, Can I ask you a question? I said, Ask anything. She said, I have been to so many special events, and anointed pastors have prayed for me, but I was not healed. Why was I healed by you? This question is really a good question. I have a habit that if your problem comes to me, then I will take it seriously and I will not give up until it is resolved. Unless you do not let me manage it, then I have nothing to do with you, but if you come to me and I agree to help, then I will manage it to the end.

If you came to me and the problem is not yet resolved, then it is my responsibility. Why? Because this is called a mutual loving relationship. Because I pastor her mother, how can I not care about her mother's children? Right? I have to care. If you are not well, then I will continue to take you to pray. If you are still not well, then I will thoroughly deal with the bad habits on you, because you are suffering from curses, serious curses.

God is a God full of grace! I tell you, Christians who have been chronically ill for many years really need to be careful. Why? Because it is all a violation of God's words. Then we need to begin to understand one thing: what exactly is God’s will? God’s will is for us to pastor His flock. Occasionally, some sheep from other churches sneak in, and we give them plenty to eat, and then they do not leave.

Their pastors come to me and say, Why are you stealing my sheep? I say, No, your sheep came in to eat my grass. Then why did you keep them? I said, After they have fattened up, they cannot get out. Because we have a lot of spiritual food here! You cannot finish listening to all the recordings on our website in a year or two. Moreover, among us, if you really have problems, whether it is me or those I have trained, they will treat your problems as their own!

Shepherding God’s Flock with the Heart of a Father and Mother

A pastor who established his church ten years before me had his mother come to me. Why? Because his mother had been suffering from insomnia for twenty years, and it was not getting any better. His mother said to me: Oh, my son, it is better if he does not pray for me. When he prays for me, my medication dosage doubles, and it has already quadrupled. I said, Okay, since this matter has come into my hands, I will take it seriously and continue to help her until she is completely well. To this day, every now and then, I will ask her about her health. Some time ago, she said, Can I buy a book? I said, It's okay, I'll give it to you. So I gave her a copy of my book.

So, brothers and sisters, do you know what this is? This is the mentality of shepherding. You may feel tired in the process of shepherding, but in reality, everyone is tired. My mother raised five children. If you ask her if she was tired, she would say she was extremely tired, to the point of death. In those days, splitting firewood, burning coal, and cooking meals in the morning were all very hard. Whoever is tired knows it. Can shepherding not be tiring? The real question is: because the love of Jesus Christ motivates us, we strive to run the race, in order to please God. If we love playing computer games, I ask you, will you be tired playing computer games? You will not be tired. If we love playing mahjong, will we be tired? We will not be tired. If I love Jesus, can I be tired from shepherding? Then I will not be tired.

When the illness of the sheep God has entrusted to you is healed, your tears will flow down. Why? Because you have been hoping for their healing every day, hoping for them to come out of bondage. This joy, truly, there is nothing that can compare to it. If you ask me what satisfies me the most, it is seeing brothers and sisters being set free. When I see brothers and sisters able to overcome, when I see brothers and sisters able to be released from the oppression of the devil, and their problems are solved, my tears come out.

Why? Because I look forward to it every day. Although I don't say it, I continue to serve, watching them about to be healed, and I am very thankful to God in my heart. What in the world is better than shepherding God's flock? There is nothing! The rewards of shepherding God's sheep are extremely rich, so brothers and sisters must begin to rise up!

In this generation, when it comes to shepherding, there are many things that can be troubling. Once, I learned that a pastor's wife had cancer, and I very much wanted to help them, because I have a warm heart and have ministered to many people with cancer who have been healed. So I sent a message saying, This is my phone number. If you need prayer, I can pray with your loved one.

As a result, they gave me one word: Thanks. When I saw the word thanks, I saw the subtext. Not discerning good and evil, but I could hear what it meant. It meant: Forget it, get out of here. Because he didn't believe that there were pastors like me in this world. He believed that all shepherding was his kind of shepherding.

Many people ask me: Do everyone who comes to you get healed? When I hear this, it sounds like what the devil said in Genesis. Is it true that all the fruit of the trees can be eaten? It has about that flavor. I said, Yes, everyone gets healed. Why? Because if they are not healed when they come to me, then I will get serious about it and continue until they are healed.

When my mother had Alzheimer's disease two years ago, what was she like? But now, she can work with me. Although ghosts still come often, what does it matter if they come? When they come, I will drive them away. Recently, she made a lot of chive boxes, which is pretty impressive. She is eighty-six years old, but she is very nimble when she works, very good, walking strong. If it were not for our shepherding, could my mother have made it to today? She would not have made it!

Our shepherding is truly serious, so the devil cannot succeed. So, pastors among us, when you listen to me, you also begin to set your mind on it. In front of the sheep God has entrusted to you, you must rely on the Lord Jesus to overcome, and feed these sheep into healthy sheep. Those who are being shepherded among us must also desire to rise up. How we serve you today is how you will serve others in the future. God's blessings last for thousands of generations. We have a consistent tradition here, passed down from generation to generation.

I am very surprised by one thing. For example, when I see a message about someone being sick in a group, many people will type in the group: I will pray for you! Then the sick person says, Thank you! But did they really pray? I don't know. Did they not pray? I don't know either. Anyway, it's easy to type a word. They will pray for you during mealtime prayers, and as for whether you are healed or not, they don't really feel anything.

Brothers and sisters, we must begin to know that to serve God, we must be serious, and we must be serious. What does the Apostle Paul say in the Bible? He says that you may have ten thousand instructors, but not many fathers. Can we serve with the heart of a father and mother? Only with the heart of a father and mother can God dwell among us, because that is love. Parents are tired from raising children, but they are willing to be tired, aren't they? So Jesus said, The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

We must begin to understand one thing: not only is Jesus himself a good shepherd, but Jesus also wants us to be good shepherds before him. Why did Jesus ask Peter, Do you love me? Feed my sheep? Because God has a desire in us, which is that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. But where are those who lay down their lives for the sheep? I think God on his throne is also very surprised.

Many of us do not understand why God wants us to shepherd. Because this is called walking with God. There is nothing in this world better than walking with God. If we cannot walk with God, then what are we living for in this world? How will we give an account to God in the future?

Then, without us, will God not be able to shepherd? No, even without us, God will still shepherd, and God's plan will still be accomplished. But why does God let us shepherd? Because God wants us to receive rewards. Actually, God doesn't really need us. We were not there when God created the universe, but God is willing to let us walk with him and work with him.

If people are really willing to work with God, then God is also willing to work with them. Isn't this the most beautiful thing in the world? Working with God is what makes us grow. When people believe in the Lord, where do they believe to? You have to believe to grow up to maturity, full of the stature of Jesus Christ, don't you? Then how can you grow up to maturity? For example, if you say your child can run errands, then that means your child has grown up. Then, when they grow up a little more, they can do bigger jobs, right?

Then how can we grow to the full stature of Jesus? Isn't it growing in service? So, brothers and sisters, we must know that it is not because service needs you, but because you need service. Why? Because if you don't serve, you cannot grow. If you cannot grow, you cannot have joy, and then you will live in vain. If you don't want to live in vain, don't want to live blindly, don't want to live a wretched life, if you want to live out the glory of God, then there is only one way, the path of service.

Then what is service? It is shepherding. Then some people say, I am a free evangelist. What is a free evangelist? I don't quite understand. This free evangelist goes on stage to preach, and then goes home with his bag, with no responsibility for shepherding. In my mind, without shepherding, just preaching is just fooling around, isn't it? Isn't that being a rogue? Why? Because you have no shepherding, you don't need to take any responsibility.

You may have ten thousand instructors, but not many fathers. God wants us to love one another. God is not asking us to just preach to each other, is He? God wants us to love one another. How do we love each other? We love each other in shepherding. You have your shepherd, I have my shepherd, and then everyone is connected into one body in Jesus Christ. Then God dwells among us, and then we have this state of unity and victory in Jesus Christ, we can trample on the devil and the enemy, and then we see the glory of God, and God clearly dwells among us.

Many people choose to be pastors as a profession, which is a tragedy. It is not only a tragedy for the church of Jesus Christ, but also a tragedy for themselves. Why? They don't love God, but they still have to serve. Oh, what could be more tragic than this?

I once ministered to a senior pastor with hydrocephalus. Actually, I didn't want to minister to him, but his good friend insisted that I minister to him. When I asked him, I said, How did you get this disease? He said, You see, we pastors can only rest one day a week. Then how many days do you want to rest? I am very surprised. I have not rested a day since I was in my twenties. There is no time to rest. After shepherding, I am tired, so I do some decoration, do some carpentry. When I am tired from carpentry, I continue to shepherd.

So they ask me, How many hours do you sleep a day? I sleep any number of hours, three, four, five. Some people take sleeping very seriously. You see, I only slept three hours yesterday. I said, You slept three hours yesterday, that's much better than me. I only slept one hour. Oh, I can never compare to you. I said, Don't compare to me. Sleeping is not important. What's important is what we have accomplished. Brothers and sisters, begin to come out of this delusion.

As a result, that pastor said to me, You see how hard we work. We can only rest one day a week. You see, our church's cell group leaders have to be replaced every three years. Every time a cell group leader steps down, we have to fill in, which is very hard. I said, Why is this happening? He said, You see, that cell group leader comes to church on Sundays, has to go to training once a week, and has to lead the cell group once a week. Three times a week, can they rest for a year? They will definitely be burned out and exhausted.

But where in the Bible did I read about this? Paul served to that extent, but I didn’t see him get sick. Later, this pastor got hydrocephalus and asked me to minister to him. When he wanted to work, he would sleep. When he wanted to sleep, he couldn't fall asleep. This was painful. So, if a person does not love God and still has to support serving God, it is too hard. Can they not be tired?

You see I am being very real, right? Why can't so many people in this world understand God's will? Is it true? Okay! We don't serve God. If we don't serve God, what do we do? We live and then die, right? Isn't that also very hard? If you don't serve, yes, you save time, but what do you do when the disease comes? Not to mention anything else, just your family's elderly with Alzheimer's disease will consume all your energy, right? But our family's Alzheimer's disease is cured. So what should you do with your family's Alzheimer's disease? If God does not walk with you, how will you live this life? Is it true?

Seriously Shepherding God’s Flock

Therefore, brothers and sisters, you must know one thing in this world. We must walk in God's will. There is nothing in this world better than walking with God. Sometimes, we may be very surprised when we read the Old Testament. Three million Israelites, with their families, no cars, all their belongings on their shoulders, settled down and slept for one night, and then God said, Set off! Wow, then they had to pack up their tents, and then carry them on their backs. Some children also pooed and pee. Then they carried one in their arms and led one by the hand, walking in the wilderness. I tell you, if I lived in that era, I would be very painful, walking and walking without water to drink, and the children cried and made noise, very hard, right?

I don't understand, what's so good about walking? If I were among the Israelites, I would complain like the Israelites, walking reluctantly. But there is no choice. If you don't walk, you stay behind. People are walking. You can stay behind. Then three million people have left. If you stay behind alone, tigers, wolves, and snakes will come. You play by yourself! See where you can play. There is no way, you still have to walk. Walk! Oh, hard, very hard!

Later, I slowly understood a truth, what truth did I understand? In fact, this is military training! If you are well trained in the wilderness, you can enter the Promised Land and defeat the enemy! Is it true? If you are not trained, you will go in to die. You say you believe in God, then believing in God must be truly smart, to understand God's will, is it true?

If you read the Old Testament carefully, we have also said before, only those over 20 years old who can wield a knife to fight are counted, others are not counted. That is to say, you must be able to fight to enter the Promised Land! God fights for you to win, but you can't wear big shorts, put on a pair of slippers, take a big flower fan, and stroll in leisurely. You think you are playing?

So I tell you, Christians in this world who want to live in the will of Jesus Christ will indeed have some hardships. We serve and pay a high price. Sometimes we lack nothing, just sleep. We work very hard and really want to rest. It's not lying to say we are not tired, we are definitely tired. But if we don't train, don't fight, how can we gain the Promised Land? And how can we claim God's promises? Even if we don't do this, we live according to the way of the world, that is even harder!

Brothers and sisters, you must know that I am not stupid. I have seen clearly one thing. Anyway, people come into this world and are quite hard, but according to the hardship of the world, there is actually no glory to speak of. But in the Lord Jesus Christ, serving with all our heart and all our strength, shepherding with all our heart and all our strength, God will surely prepare a glorious crown for us in eternity.

In the future, when we come before the Lord Jesus, we can say with confidence: God, I have come. God says, Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master. Anyway, I have seen through it. You can't love the things of the world. If you love them, you have to pay the price. When you come out to play, you have to pay the price. There is a saying that when you come out to play, you have to pay it back. If you are also fooling around in Jesus Christ, then you have to pay it back, right? Is it true!

So we are seriously shepherding God's flock. Although it is very hard, it is very prosperous! God is with us! Although we often feel very hard in our hearts and shed tears, the satisfaction of seeing brothers and sisters being released cannot be replaced by anything. Anyway, there is no hope in this world. I have seen clearly one thing. People live in this world, but they just live and then die. Either they live and then die, or they live and then enter eternal life. Either way it is hard, so let's choose a better way to be hard!

So, brothers and sisters, we must begin to know that establishing a shepherding relationship is a hard thing. Establishing a shepherding relationship is to be serious. So whenever I see people in the pastor business, I say to be serious! Why? Because I have seen too many fakes, first send a message: I will pray for you, and then turn around and do whatever they want.

Another thing is that in the process of our shepherding, if we want to see a person grow, the most important thing is to deal with the bad habits on him. If you want to deal with the bad habits on him, this is a conflict. And you don't know what the result of this conflict will be. Maybe he will throw his hands and walk away, because he may not understand that you want to make him grow.

The problem with many people is themselves, but people don't know it. People think that their problems are all brought by others. So the most serious manifestation of discerning good and evil is to blame others. When there is no one to blame, they blame the moon. The moon is also very unlucky. So, brothers and sisters, we must know that all of people's problems are themselves. So dealing with the bad habits on them is really fatal. You don't want to deal with it, and I don't want to deal with it, but it's not okay not to deal with it! Is it true? For example, laziness, if you don't deal with the problem of laziness, what do you do?

One day I went on a long trip and went into someone's home and saw that an old man in the family was paralyzed. I am warmhearted, so I said, I pray that you can get up and walk, do you believe it? She said, I haven't heard of it. I said, Where is your pastor? She said, My pastor is very busy. Hey, she understands her pastor very well. I said, Even if you are busy, aren't you the only one who is paralyzed? Oh, you don't know, our pastor is very busy. Then, I ministered for half a day, tossing left and right, and said some harsh words, because although she has believed in the Lord for many years, she has many bad habits.

After tossing for a long time, she could stand up and walk, and she was healed. Oh, that old lady, I thought she would say a word of thanks, but she said something that almost made me gasp: Our pastor is not like you. Our pastor speaks very nicely. You speak so harshly. My goodness, can speaking nicely make you get up and walk? Then you go back and lie down! My goodness, my heart was half cold. I often encounter this kind of thing, and my heart is often pierced with holes.

Establishing a shepherding relationship is essential. This shepherding relationship is actually a relationship of loving each other, which is serious. Since it is serious, spiritual children are raised by themselves, and absolutely not outsourced to someone else. Today, outsourcing is very fashionable. Children are born and put into technical schools, and parents are busy making money. Actually, the education of children is the responsibility of parents. This is not just the responsibility of a physical parent, but spiritual parents also bear the responsibility of shepherding children. If we shepherd God's flock, we will be serious. In this case, I tell you, every sheep will be released, and every sheep will become strong.

Why do I share these things with you? Because there are many among us who have not been shepherded. We recently engaged in some activities, and after working for a long time, these are all sheep who have not been shepherded. Actually, when I see this situation, do I feel heartache? I feel heartache, very heartache. No one cares. Your problem is your problem. The pastor has a lot of problems. The pastor's problem may be more than yours. As a result, no one dares to lift this lid. If you lift this lid, a large group of wasps will rush out, which will sting people to death. So everyone covers up the problem, and on the surface, brothers are at peace, sisters are at peace. What peace? You are just playing fake.

Conclusion

Among us, those who have not been shepherded, I encourage you to think about it again. Think about what? Think about whether you are willing to establish a shepherding relationship with your shepherd. You may not trust him, but after a period of testing, you will one day know whether he is your shepherd. I have trained many people, and I hope they will share the responsibility of shepherding with me.

I think they have also trained a large number of people to help them share the responsibility of shepherding. This is a deep desire in me. I hope that all God's flock will have shepherds, unlike me in the past. For so many years, I have not had a shepherd, and I have grown up relying on foraging for snacks and wild food.

But thank God! Until today, God still graces me. Although it is very hard in that situation, it is very hard not to have anyone to care for me, really hard. When I encounter problems, I bear them myself. So for this reason, I also thank God for giving me this experience, allowing me to be determined to establish a shepherding church, so that all of God's flock can be fed in God's house, can be built up, and then grow up to adulthood, full of the stature of Jesus Christ, and become mighty warriors who conquer cities and seize land! No longer a state of sorrow, but a state of victory and prosperity, this is my deep hope.

If you are willing, start to try among us. I never morally kidnap anyone. If you are healed and released, and then you are willing to continue to live in your own way, that is very good. If there are people who are willing to take what I have taught, and build their own churches according to the Word of God that is also very good. I will do what I can, and I will give what I can. Even if there are a thousand or ten thousand shepherding churches in this world, they cannot shepherd all the sheep, can they? Is it true?

Some churches have a million believers, but no one is being shepherded. This is a tragedy. I believe that God has a desire, which is to raise up many, many good shepherds in this generation. I hope that your heart will also desire to be a good shepherd because of what I have shared! I love God, I want to shepherd God's flock, I want to be reshaped! God will surely be pleased with your decision.

May God bless everyone!