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Scripture Reading: John 3:6b; 1 Pet. 1:23; John 3:15, 36; Titus 3:5; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; 1 Pet. 2:2; John 21:15-17; Eph. 4:12; 1 Pet. 5:1, 4; John 14:6; 10:9-11, 14-16; 1 Pet. 2:25; Heb. 13:20; Rev. 7:16-17
I. In the propagation and nourishment of the divine life.
II. Regeneration:
А. Regeneration being the center of God’s entire salvation and the commencement of God’s salvation in its organic aspect:
1. It being to regenerate and re-create the believers in their spirit through the Spirit of God — John 3:6b.
2. Through God’s word of life — 1 Pet. 1:23.
3. For the believers to have the spiritual life of God in addition to their natural life — John 3:15.
4. The spiritual life of God being divine and eternal — v. 36.
5. This divine life being the basis and means of the believers’ spiritual life and living.
B. Such a regeneration being a washing in God’s salvation (Titus 3:5), and this washing being a great renewing of the believers by God’s salvation to enable them to get rid of all that is of their natural life and the old creation and become God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15).
III. Shepherding:
А. The second step of the Triune God’s organic salvation.
B. Shepherding including feeding — 1 Pet. 2:2; John 21:15-17; Eph. 4:11; 1 Pet. 5:1-4.
C. The Lord being the life and the good Shepherd — John 14:6; 10:9-11, 14-16.
D. The Lord being the Chief Shepherd and the great Shepherd — 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4; Heb. 13:20; Rev. 7:16-17.
Prayer: O Lord, we thank You from our depths that we have been freed from all personal affairs and have been gathered into Your name, sitting here before You and listening to Your speaking. Speak, O Lord, for we are listening. We really long for You from within, and we know that Your word is Your very Self, Your word is Your expression, and Your word is Your reaching us. We truly regard this. We pray that You would again give us utterance, fresh utterance, instant utterance, utterance that can meet Your need today. We pray that You would cause those of us who speak to be able to speak and those of us who listen to be able to listen. O Lord, may none of us consider ourself to have already known and understood. O Lord, cause us to know that we are all like children, for we still know so little of what we ought to know. O Lord, have mercy on us and visit us. May Your Spirit of grace anoint us today, anoint this meeting, anoint every attendant, and anoint every move and action. Furthermore, O Lord, we cannot forget Your enemy. Even though You tolerate him, we still say, Lord, You must restrict him, and You must bind him. Lord, draw the boundary around us by Your prevailing blood and do not allow Your enemy to cross over one step to distract or disturb us. Do preserve us in these two to three days. Moreover, rebuke him and command him to leave us. O Lord, we desire to be free before You to enjoy Your presence. Amen.
In the previous chapter we saw that God’s complete salvation is of two aspects: the judicial aspect and the organic aspect. This is definitely a great and important matter that may not be easily comprehended by our mind. In the beginning of this chapter I would like to give a further explanation concerning this matter based on some illustrations found in the Holy Scriptures.
Concerning the judicial aspect and the organic aspect of God’s salvation, there are some illustrations in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. In the Old Testament the most evident illustration is the keeping of the Feast of the Passover by the children of Israel. When they kept the passover, the situation was like this: First, they were enslaved in Egypt for over four hundred years and were unsuccessful in their struggling for freedom; second, like the Egyptians, they were sinful before God, they deserved to die, and they deserved God’s punishment. Now God sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt, but there were two problems with them that made it difficult for them to get out. First, like the Egyptians, they were under God’s condemnation and deserved the death penalty. Furthermore, Pharaoh and the Egyptian army would be difficult for them to overcome. Therefore, God gave them the passover to save them in these two aspects.
Exodus 12 shows us the way to keep the passover. On the fourteenth day of the first month every household of the children of Israel had to kill a lamb. Once the lamb was killed, it was divided into two parts, one part being the blood, and the other part, the flesh. God commanded the children of Israel to put the blood of the lamb on the two doorposts and on the lintel of their houses, for that night God would pass through the land of Egypt to strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, and when He saw the blood on the door of anyone’s house, He would pass over it. The children of Israel did according to God’s word, so when the destroyer came to their houses, he passed over them. The function of the blood of the lamb was to deliver them from God’s condemnation and penalty of death. This is the judicial aspect.
God charged the children of Israel not only to sprinkle the blood of the lamb but also to roast the flesh of the lamb and eat it inside the blood-sprinkled house. They had to eat it with their loins girded, their sandals on their feet, and their staff in their hand; they also had to eat it in haste. I believe that while they ate, they were standing, not sitting. This means that after the eating they had to flee from Egypt. Hence, after they sprinkled the blood of the lamb, the children of Israel also needed to eat the flesh of the lamb hastily. On the judicial side the blood was sprinkled on the door to meet God’s need; on the organic side the flesh was eaten and received into the children of Israel to meet their need for moving on. The way before them was quite long, at least a three days’ journey. Without eating the flesh of the lamb, they could not go even for three hours, needless to say three days. Without eating the flesh of the lamb, they would be overtaken by the Egyptians. Therefore, every household had to eat the flesh of the lamb until they were full so that they might be ready to take the journey ahead. This is the organic side.
Hence, the passover in the Old Testament shows us that God’s salvation has the redeeming aspect and the saving aspect. The redeeming aspect, signified by the blood of the lamb, is according to God’s judicial requirement; the saving aspect, signified by the flesh of the lamb, is according to God’s organic provision of life.
Next, let us look at an illustration in the New Testament. Luke 15 speaks about a son who left home to wander abroad and became a prodigal son. One day the prodigal son clothed in rags returned home. Although he was still his father’s son, he appeared outwardly as a prodigal son. When he was still a long way off, his father saw him and ran to embrace and kiss him. Afterward, his father immediately ordered the slaves, saying, “Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him” (v. 22). That robe was known to all the household because it had been prepared earlier by the father to be put on his son upon his return. The son had become the prodigal son, and even though he came back to the father’s house, he still had to put on that robe so that he might look like a son before his father. This is the aspect of redemption. The father had certain qualifications, and to be his son there were certain requirements. When the son left home to wander abroad, he lost his status as a son and became a prodigal son. When the father put that robe upon him, he immediately became a son again. This refers to the judicial aspect of God’s salvation.
However, it is not sufficient merely to be clothed with the robe and become a son. At that time, on the one hand, the son was happy, but on the other hand, he must have said in his heart, “Father, what I need now is not to be clothed with a robe outside. I am not fed inside. I was feeding on carob pods for several years. Today I come back with an empty stomach. Please hurry and give me some food.” Perhaps the son was ashamed to say it, but the father went on to say, “Bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry” (v. 23). At that time the son must have been dancing with joy. After eating the fattened calf, the son was satisfied and no longer hungry. Hence, the robe signifies the judicial aspect of God’s salvation, and the calf signifies the organic aspect of God’s salvation.
Once a week we come to the Lord’s table, and on the table the bread and the cup are displayed. The cup, signifying the blood that the Lord shed for our sins, is for meeting the need of redemption; hence, it is related to the judicial aspect of God’s salvation. The bread, signifying the Lord as the bread of life, is related to the organic aspect of God’s salvation. In John 6 the Lord said, “My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink” (v. 55). This word was spoken based on the type of the passover. In the type of the passover in the Old Testament, the children of Israel sprinkled the blood of the lamb and ate the flesh of the lamb. However, in the fulfillment of the passover in the New Testament, we drink the Lord’s blood and eat the Lord’s flesh. To drink the blood is judicial for redemption; to eat the flesh is organic for the move after receiving redemption. When the Lord established His table before His death, He used the bread and the cup as symbols (Matt. 26:26-28). When we eat the bread and drink the cup, this signifies that we eat the Lord’s flesh and drink the Lord’s blood. The total result of these two items is that we receive God as our eternal life, for the Lord said, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” (John 6:54). Therefore, we eat and drink the Lord in order that we may have Him as our eternal life. Only by the drinking of the blood, which is judicial, and by the eating of the flesh, which is organic, can the goal of God’s salvation be accomplished.
Receiving the eternal life is spoken of in four ways in the Gospel of John. First, John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him...would have eternal life.” Next, John 3:14-15 says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life.” Then John 6:54 says, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life.” Finally, in a simple way, John 3:36 says, “He who believes into the Son has eternal life.” These four portions show us that the purpose of God’s loving us is that we may have His eternal life; that the Lord was lifted up on the cross as the bronze serpent to deal with the old serpent, Satan, also for the purpose that we may have the eternal life of God; that we eat the Lord’s flesh and drink the Lord’s blood for us to be redeemed and to enjoy everything that the Lord Jesus has given to us in life — all this is for us to have the eternal life of God; and, finally, that we believe into the Lord in order that we may have the eternal life of God.
The eternal life spoken of in the Holy Scriptures is called by the general Christians the everlasting life. According to their understanding, to receive the everlasting life means that one day we will all go to heaven to enjoy blessings and happiness forever. When I heard this kind of speaking in my youth, I was not satisfied. Gradually, I began to know that the everlasting life is the eternal life, which is the very life of God. This life is the very God Himself. God loves us that we may receive Him as our eternal life. The Lord Jesus died for us on the cross as a serpent and dealt with Satan that we may receive God as our eternal life. He sacrificed His life and shed His blood that we may receive God as our eternal life. Simply speaking, we believe in the Lord that we may receive God as our eternal life.
God is the eternal life, and He desires to come into us to be our life. His coming into us is purposeful. After He comes into us, the first thing He does is to regenerate us. Do not think that God’s intention is merely to redeem you. Rather, God’s intention is to regenerate you. Suppose you are not a good person, and I want to change you so that you will be as good as I am. Regardless of how much I try to change you, you still cannot be like me. What is needed is for me to enter into your being and cause you to be born again with my genes. In this way you will have my life and nature and can really become like me. This is precisely the way that God comes into us to regenerate us with His life and nature so that we may have His life and nature. This is regeneration.
We all have believed in the Lord Jesus. We all have been saved and have had our sins both forgiven and washed away. Not only so, we have also been justified, reconciled to God, and separated, sanctified. Then, have we been regenerated? We have believed in the Lord, our sins have been forgiven, our sins have been washed away, we have been justified by God, we have been reconciled to God, and we have been separated, sanctified, unto God. All these items are sure. But do we know whether we have been regenerated? If we are sure concerning the aforementioned items, it is simply not possible to say that we have not been regenerated.
I believe we all know the five items of the judicial redemption of God’s salvation, which include forgiveness of sins, washing away of sins, justification by God, reconciliation to God, and positional sanctification. But some may not know what regeneration is, nor do they know whether they have received the eternal life. To be regenerated and thereby receive God as our eternal life is the first item of the organic salvation of God’s complete salvation. In the organic salvation the first thing is for us to be regenerated and receive God’s eternal life. Following this, we have shepherding, dispositional sanctification, renewing, transformation, building up, conformation, and glorification.
To us, these eight points, beginning with regeneration, passing through shepherding, dispositional sanctification, renewing, transformation, building up, and conformation, and reaching all the way to glorification, are not easy to understand. We are very knowledgeable concerning all the five items on the judicial side. We know that we are sinful and that when we repent, confess our sins before God, and believe in the Lord, we receive forgiveness of sins and our sins are washed away, we are justified by God that we may be reconciled to Him, and we are sanctified positionally. We know all these things. Hence, some people may say, “These five things are sufficient for us to go to heaven. God will never condemn us again. He has forgiven us forever, so we can live in peace.” Therefore, they preach the gospel to others, saying, “Just be at peace and rejoice by trusting in Jesus. Try to be a good person and try to help others; then one day you will go to heaven.” They feel that this is good enough and that there is no need to talk about other things. This is the general condition of Christianity today. But the Bible says that this is not sufficient. In addition to the five items, the Bible covers another eight items: regeneration, shepherding, dispositional sanctification, renewing, transformation, building up, conformation, and glorification.
We should not despise the five items on the judicial side, and even more we should not despise the eight items on the organic side. The former group of five items is the base, like the foundation of a house. We need to build the latter group of eight items on the foundation of the former group of five items. I know that we brothers and sisters in the Lord’s recovery are very clear concerning the first five items. This shows that we have had adequately clear fellowship concerning the five items as the foundation. Therefore, our burden today is to fellowship concerning the latter eight items so that we may have a more thorough knowledge concerning the eight organic items.
In this chapter we want to see the matters of regeneration and shepherding in the organic aspect of God’s salvation. God’s organic salvation begins with regeneration and continues with shepherding. Regeneration is the propagation of God’s life by the imparting of God’s life into the believers in order that they may be regenerated and partake of God’s life. Shepherding is the nourishment of God’s life in order that the regenerated believers may grow and have their existence in the divine life, thus manifesting the function of the divine life in them.
It is neither easy to speak nor easy to understand the truth concerning regeneration as an organic matter. When I first believed in the Lord, I, too, did not know what regeneration was. When I went to ask the Chinese pastors, most of them would say that regeneration means that all the things in the past died like yesterday and all the things henceforth are born like today. One day while I was attending a meeting of a Brethren assembly, I noticed that they had a book entitled A True Explanation of Regeneration. When I saw it, I was very happy. I obtained the book and finished reading it quickly. Eventually, I found out that the book did not give a clear explanation of regeneration. Later, I read a book by Brother T. Austin-Sparks, in which he said that regeneration is to have the life of God in addition to our natural life. When I read it, I was greatly enlightened within. From that time on, I have become more and more enlightened. From my depths I thoroughly realize that God has His heart’s desire, His good pleasure, that is, to obtain a group of people and to make them the same as He, with His image without and His life and nature within.
How does God achieve this? It is through His Spirit. After we repented and believed in the Lord, our sins were forgiven and we were reconciled to God. Then this God who loves us and who is the life-giving Spirit comes into us to regenerate our spirit. John 3 refers to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He respectfully addressed the Lord Jesus as One who had come from God as a teacher to Israel, and he therefore came to get some advice from Him. However, the Lord Jesus said to him, “Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3). Nicodemus did not understand the meaning of regeneration. He thought that regeneration was for a man to enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born. So he said to the Lord Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” (v. 4). However, the regeneration that the Lord Jesus referred to was for one to be born of water (that is, death) and the Spirit (that is, life) (v. 5). Then the Lord went on to say, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (v. 6). The first Spirit is the divine Spirit, referring to God. God is Spirit. When we are born of Him, we are born of the Spirit, and eventually, we are spirit, the second spirit referred to in John 3:6. This is to be regenerated.
First Peter 1:23 says, “Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.” This shows us that regeneration is through God’s word of life. A great majority of the regenerated ones were regenerated through the word of God. The word of God as a “gene” entered into us and operated in us. In this way we were regenerated.
John 1:12-13 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” This portion tells us that the way to be regenerated is to receive the Lord Jesus by believing into Him. He is the Word from God (v. 1), and He is also the light from God (v. 9). When we receive Him, we have the authority to become children of God. This authority is nothing other than the life of God. God gives us His life as our authority that we may become children of God. Hence, we are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This is regeneration, which is a great matter.
Therefore, we may say that regeneration is the center of God’s complete salvation and the commencement of God’s salvation in its organic aspect. It is God Himself as the Spirit coming into our spirit to make us alive. In other words, we are regenerated, made alive, in our spirit by the Spirit of God. This is regeneration.
This indeed is our experience. Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were so confused about everything that we even did not know what being a man was all about. However, after we were saved, we became clear in our spirit. This is the Spirit of God coming into our spirit to enliven it and open our understanding so that we begin to know what God is all about, what the universe is all about, and what we ourselves are all about. Then we know that this God who regenerated us dwells in our spirit.
When I saw that I, one who had been regenerated of God, had God dwelling in me, I was so excited that I almost wanted to run to the street and shout, “Friends, don’t touch me. I can’t be touched. I have God in me.” Some may say, “Isn’t this person crazy?” Yes, we all should be crazy for having God in us. By seeing that we have God in us, we can give up what we loved and what we were not able to give up in the past. We have been made alive in our spirit by the Spirit of God; He has put His genes in us that we may have His life and nature.
Through regeneration the believers have the spiritual life of God in addition to their natural life (3:15). The spiritual life of God is divine and eternal (v. 36). Such a divine life is the basis and means of the believers’ spiritual life and living. Spiritually, all our living is based upon the divine life of God in us.
Titus 3:5 says, “Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” This verse refers to God’s salvation. God saves us according to His mercy through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is a great washing in us. Regeneration washes away not only our sins but also all our natural human elements until everything of our old man will be thoroughly purged away.
Among those who are present here, there are some Hakka people, and there are also some from Shantung. Whether a person is a Hakka from southern China or a native of Shantung from northern China, neither can be changed. However, God has chosen us and also regenerated us. Regeneration is God coming into us, and then He washes us layer after layer. When He comes into us, immediately He becomes our life. We all know that every kind of life has its taste. The cat life has its taste, the dog life has its taste, and so does the horse life, the cow life, the goat life, etc. The Hakkas have their taste, and the Shantung people also have their taste. All our taste comes from our five senses — the sense of sight, the sense of hearing, the sense of smell, the sense of taste, and the sense of touch. The Hakkas have the Hakka insight that comes from their sense of sight, and they have the Hakka way of speaking that comes from their sense of hearing. Furthermore, the Hakkas have the Hakka way of life. All the things that come in through the five senses constitute our taste. However, one day the Triune God came in to be our life. When we have Him as our life, our inner taste is changed. This is the organic work of God.
Let me speak a little about my experience. I was saved at the age of nineteen. Before that time I was a genuine Shantung native with my entire being filled with the Shantung flavor. My favorite pastimes were watching Beijing opera and playing soccer, with the latter as my greatest enjoyment. On Sundays a few of us would play soccer from seven or eight o’clock in the morning until six or seven o’clock in the evening. Not only so, if I did not watch the Beijing operas, I would feel very unsatisfied. My mother simply had no way to deal with me. From our youth she brought us to the Sunday Christian service, and she also promised that as long as we would go to the service, she would give us meat and other good food to eat. In spite of this, I still would not go. I just wanted to play soccer. As long as I could play soccer, I could forget about sleep and meals.
One day Miss Peace Wang came to my hometown to preach the gospel. When I heard the news, I went out of curiosity to listen to her preaching. That afternoon she preached a message concerning how Satan, like the Pharaoh of Egypt, detains people in his system. Her preaching was so full of power that when I heard the message, I was awakened suddenly and said to myself, “I don’t want to follow Satan; rather, I want God.” That afternoon after listening to the preaching of the gospel, I came out of the chapel, and on my way home, as I was standing on the street, I lifted up my head and spoke to heaven, saying, “O God, I don’t want this world anymore. From now on, even if You give me the whole world, I don’t want it. I just want You. From now on, I just want to bring the Bible with me to preach the gospel in the villages. Even if I have to drink the water from the mountains and eat the roots of the trees, I am willing.” I prayed such a prayer. From that time on, I was freed from the Beijing operas. But I still considered within myself that playing soccer was good for my health and was not harmful, so there was nothing wrong with it. Therefore, on Sundays, I would go to the church service in the morning, and then in the afternoon I would go to play soccer. One day I was again on the playground playing ball with others. At one point while I was standing there, the ball rolled toward me and stopped right in front of my feet. Everyone was watching to see how I would kick the ball, and I also displayed a certain posture for kicking. Eventually, when I was about to kick, my foot could not function, and I simply could not continue playing. I turned around and left the playground. My friends asked me, “What’s the matter with you?” I replied, “Nothing.” From that time on, I never played soccer again. This is my experience of the washing of regeneration, and it has been washing in me for seventy years. Up to this day I still sense that I have two or three layers of my old Shantung nature that remain to be washed away. The washing is still going on.
Let us give another illustration. Thirty years ago I was here in the United States releasing the word of God. At that time many hippies came to listen to my speaking. Some of them wore a headband, and some had long beards and dark countenances. Among them there was one who resembled John the Baptist. He used to go to the campuses shouting, “Repent!” He had a big beard and was very husky, so he looked quite intimidating. He also came to our meetings. He was barefoot, and he sat in front of me swinging his feet. Eventually, after a few days, his long beard was gone. After another few days, he came in a pair of sandals. However, his ten toes were still exposed. After a few more days, he put on a pair of shoes. When we look at him today standing here, we cannot imagine that he is an ex-hippie. I did not advise him to change himself. However, after he heard the word of God, the life-giving Spirit began to wash him from within. His insight changed, his sense of hearing changed, and his taste changed. This is the washing of regeneration.
Hence, regeneration is a washing in God’s salvation (Titus 3:5). Such a washing is a great renewing of the believers by God’s salvation to enable them to get rid of all that is of their natural life and the old creation and become God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). The washing of regeneration begins with our regeneration and continues with the renewing of the Spirit, both of which are on the aspect of the organic salvation and are matters of life. In the washing of regeneration there is the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Following the washing of regeneration, the Holy Spirit continues to work within us to re-create us so that we may become a new creation, thus making us renewed. Finally, this renewing enables us to get rid of all that is of our natural life and the old creation and become God’s new creation.
Now we will go on to see the shepherding in God’s organic salvation. After the believers are regenerated and receive God as their eternal life, they still need to receive the shepherding in God’s life. In His organic salvation God the Father of the Divine Trinity first regenerates us by God the Spirit and then shepherds us in God the Son as our Shepherd that we may grow and exist in His life for eternity. This is the second step in the organic salvation of the Triune God.
Shepherding includes feeding, as the nursing mother feeds the baby for the baby to grow, as mentioned in 1 Peter 2:2. In this way the Lord commissioned Peter to feed His lambs and shepherd His flock on His behalf (John 21:15-17). He also raised up those such as Peter to be His deputy shepherds to feed His lambs and shepherd His flock (Eph. 4:11; 1 Pet. 5:1-4).
First Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word.” I recall my experience, and it is exactly so. I loved to read books, and I did so with diligence. When I was saved, I began to love the Bible and enjoyed reading the Word of God. Whenever I read it, I was enlightened and sensed its incomparable sweetness. At that time I was not yet married. I loved the Bible to such an extent that every night after praying on my knees by my bed, I still would not put the Bible down. Rather, I would take the Bible with me to bed and place it by the pillow. After I read it again for a short while under the lamp, I felt so sweet. When I woke up in the morning, I would quickly reach for the Bible and read it. Of course, as I look back, I admit that that was a grace given to me by God. By loving the Bible and longing for the milk in the word, I received the Lord’s feeding and shepherding.
Furthermore, in Song of Songs the Lord instructs His lover to go forth on the footsteps of His flock and be at the place where He pastures His sheep (S. S. 1:7-8). Later, He also pastures His flock among the lilies, that is, among those who seek Him and who live a life of trusting in Him with a pure heart (2:16; 6:3).
The Gospel of John tells us not only that the Lord is the life (11:25; 14:6) but also that the Lord is the good Shepherd who came that we might have life and have it abundantly (10:10-11). He Himself is also our pasture for us to eat freely of Him and be nourished by Him (10:9).
Furthermore, the Gospel of John tells us that the Lord as the good Shepherd would lay down His life to form the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers into one flock under the shepherding of Himself as the one Shepherd (10:14-16).
The believers throughout the generations have been under the shepherding of the Lord as the good Shepherd (1 Pet. 2:25). As the Chief Shepherd (5:4) and the great Shepherd of God’s flock (Heb. 13:20), He will shepherd us for eternity as the Lamb of God and guide us to springs of waters of life for us to have eternal satisfaction, without thirst or hunger (Rev. 7:16-17). By this He accomplishes a great part of God’s organic salvation.
We all were regenerated and are under the shepherding of the Lord as the good Shepherd. Thus, we partake of God’s life and are nourished and grow unto maturity in it (Eph. 4:13b; Col. 1:28), manifesting the function of God’s life in us for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy and the achievement of God’s eternal purpose.
