Character and Expectations of Mentors.
- A mentor must be a person of great humility, whose motivations are genuinely pure.
- Mentors must seriously identify their objectives and take responsibility for them. If an objective is not discovered, abuse will be inevitable, because it is the objective that gives life meaning. Human development is the greatest investment and a serious matter.
- Mentors should not act as lords and saviors but rather as trainers.
Under no circumstances should a mentor think that other believers cannot have a strong and dynamic personal relationship with God without them, which is indeed an abuse of mentorship in simple terms. The role of mentors is to suggest and give wise advice, then the choice is left to the mentee. According to my spiritual father, Bishop Darlingston G. Johnson, he said that Jesus alone is our mediator and that God’s people do not need another “pope or Catholic priest.”
All those who want to engage in this task of mentorship assigned to them by God should not at all think they have the right to dominate God’s people. The authority of mentors that God has given us is to serve and uplift others, rather than to control and use them for our benefit. Nowadays, there is so much abuse in the Body of Christ from many lords rather than mentors. I want us to see the warning of the apostle Peter to leaders in the following Scripture:
“To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’” 1 Peter 5:1-5
- The cost, sacrifice, and price must be weighed and willingly paid (Luke 14:28, Luke 9:62).
- Develop a personal relationship, love, and interest in the lives of young leaders.
- Do not cast your net that has caught nothing (Luke 5), repair it, clean it, and wait for the One who fills the net to fill it. What I mean here is that mentors must be patient with the young in training, tolerate their faults, and not discard them, but continue to work on them and believe in God for a radical change.
- Mentors must have a lifestyle that is open and transparent, raising no questions, in front of their trainees, because what they see you do, they will reproduce in their own time. There are certain people who lead but lack integrity, moral values, and cannot be trusted.
- Develop a radical prayer life and relationship with the Holy Spirit by praying in tongues (Jude 20). Strengthen your inner man and build your faith to stay spiritually strong because you are a reservoir.
- Mentors must allow trainees to be transformed in the spiritual laboratory of fire to be refined and revived!
The treatment period is an incubation period before trainees hatch and are released into ministry, otherwise, we will have “half-baked” ministries, ministers, and workers in the Lord’s vineyard. The treatment period is the norm for ministry and it is God’s standard and a way of raising correct and disciplined disciples. A prepared man is better than a prepared message. Let us see this scripture to understand what treatment is:
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years. So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty. “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” Malachi 3:1-6
The Lord will sit as a refiner – V3 (linked). A refiner will sit and watch the silver go through the purification process until he sees his image on the object. God will sit on us until He sees His image in us. Similarly, a mentor must look after trainees until he sees his image, his character, the model of his ministry, his boldness, and his courage in the lives of the trainees.
In Mark 3:13-15, Jesus first called those He wanted to the mountain to be with Him. Climbing the mountain and staying there for days is not an easy job but the one who can endure the pains of climbing the mountain and staying with you is already treated!
“Be silent before me, you islands! Let the nations renew their strength! Let them come forward and speak; let us meet together at the place of judgment. Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his service? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow. He pursues them and moves on unscathed, by a path his feet have not traveled before.” Isaiah 41:1-3
There is a mystery of the feet that we need to understand. God cannot put anything in your hands if He has not put something in you! The ministry of the pulpit is an outward manifestation of what one has done in secret. The real ministry begins at the feet of Jesus. The trainee must learn and develop “a power to stay put.” He should not have a premature ministry.
In 2 Kings 2:1-12, we can see the process Elisha went through before he was released. Four stages that Elisha went through to be treated before receiving the impact (anointing):
- Gilgal: A place of breaking, repentance, and renunciation.
- Bethel: A place of revelation and dependence on God.
Like Jacob, trainees must learn to have a personal revelation with God by seeking Him for a personal encounter. They must experience the presence of God, pledge their total allegiance and commitment to God, and trust God for personal provision like Jacob.
- Jericho: It is a place of personal spiritual warfare and confrontation.
Trainees must be trained and equipped for spiritual warfare and they must be ready to face: Satan, opposition, and difficult times. Without a good spiritual fight, one cannot be well-nourished because it is your personal spiritual fight that will determine your well-being in life! Ephesians 6:13 says: “After you have done everything, to stand firm” (confrontation).
If you do not stand up against something, something will stand up against you. In Psalm 78:9, the children of Ephraim had bows, arrows, etc. But they fled on the day of battle because they were not trained or prepared for war. Ministry is a battle; therefore, we must train to fight because your fight precedes your flight. No wonder the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:12:
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.“
- Jordan: A place of power demonstration and impact (Read 1 Corinthians 2:4; 1 Corinthians 4:20).
The Jordan is a place of impact and this comes from what you can see. If they can see it, they will have it. They must have a personal revelation for their next level at the Jordan of their lives. Elisha saw it! The spiritual world governs the natural world. Do not be a container without contact or content. The treatment period is a waiting period and not a wasting one! If you cannot wait, you will never be wet!
- Read Hosea 2:14. Mentors must learn to draw people into the desert to learn to fly. No pilot has not taken flying lessons. Delegate tasks to trainees and let them have personal experiences because perfect practice makes perfect. The desert experience is an integral part of the preparation course for the next level. You prove your sonship in the desert.
Read Philippians 2:20-23; Luke 1:80; Luke 4:1 and 14. In the desert, you are elevated to a supernatural level where you can say “it is possible.”
- There must be proper release and transfer of authority through the laying on of hands and prophetic declarations (Deuteronomy 34:9-12).
This text is an excerpt from the book “ The Power of Spiritual Coverage ” written by Victor Charles OKAFOR.
We invite you to read the following article “The Power of the Father’s Blessing.“
Character. Character. Character. Character.
Character. Character. Character. Character
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