Does Your Heart Crave Mentoring?

Beloved, does your heart crave mentoring? Do you just long for somebody–anybody who is further along in the Lord than yourself–to take you under their wing and teach you? Do you yearn for somebody to view you as special, and to pour into your life?

If so, you are not alone. So many people feel that way. Personally, I used to feel that way for many years. I think it’s a natural desire that comes from our inner awareness that we were created to live in community with one another, and that we are all sons and daughters who yearn to be taught and raised up.

However, the problem is that very few people live in environments or spiritual communities (even churches) where mentoring is easily and readily available.

At least in Western church culture, we have lost our understanding that we are each called to be spiritual mothers and fathers who raise up spiritual sons and daughters …

… who themselves then become spiritual mothers and fathers to others, raising up spiritual sons and daughters …

… and the cycle repeats itself so that more disciples are made for Jesus.

Let’s be honest: in most places, we’ve lost that revelation. We’ve definitely lost that in practice. And people are hurting because of it.

However, there is a solution that is available to you right now!

That solution is found in 1 John 2:27, which says this:

“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him” (1 John 2:27 NKJV).

In this verse, we read that “the anointing” teaches you. The apostle John actually wrote, as Holy Spirit breathed out the words through him, that we don’t even need anyone to teach us because of the anointing. Wow!

What is “the anointing?”

“The anointing” is God the Holy Spirit applying Himself to your situation, working through you and in you to accomplish a thing.

The same way that the literal meaning of “Christ” is “Anointed One,” meaning that the anointing of God’s Holy Spirit rested on Him, so also that same anointing rests on you. If you have given Jesus Christ total control of your life, making Him your Lord, Boss, and Master, then Holy Spirit Himself dwells within you … and He has anointed you.

This means He is ready, willing, able, and available to teach you Himself, right now.

Friend, Holy Spirit is the Mentor we all crave, even if you also crave a human mentor. As for me, I used to yearn for anybody that I respected to take me under their wing–to see something special in me, to decide to pull it out of me, to help me, and to pour into me and teach me.

But, you know what? No one ever did. The only mentoring I got was when I decided, purposely, to show up to places I could learn:

• A Sunday School class (every single week for years, until churches around here stopped having Sunday School);
• Hearing the Word taught by powerful preachers of the Gospel, every time the church doors were open;
• Seminars and workshops (a whole lot of them);
• Conferences (lots of them);
• Listening to countless audio and video teaching sets from people who had been places in the Lord that I wanted to go, and whose teaching/ministries I respect; and
• Attending seminary.

During those years, I felt sad that no one was mentoring me purposefully. I felt sad that no one seemed to care about me all that much personally, and no one seemed to consider me to be anything special. (Don’t we all want someone to think we’re special and important?)

I don’t think anyone ever had any feelings of malevolence toward me in those years; it wasn’t like anybody disliked me. No one “had it out” for me or excluded me.

But, the culture I was in just wasn’t one of personal connection. You showed up at group events if you wanted to learn, and that was that. Therefore, I was just one in a crowd; just another face in the masses that attended all these events and environments of learning.

Nevertheless, you know what? Looking back, I see what THE LORD was doing.

Should people have mentored me? Yes, that would have been the way of the Kingdom. But, since I wasn’t in an environment where that was popular, something even better happened:

The Lord Himself took me under His wing and mentored me.

I didn’t have a human mentor, even though I had lots of people I looked up to and admired. But since I didn’t ever have a mentor who discipled me, even back when I got saved I clung to this verse:

“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him” (1 John 2:27 NKJV).

And so, going all the way back to when I gave my life to Jesus at age 21, I clung to this verse and asked Holy Spirit to mentor me.

So, He did. 🙂

Looking back, I can see that Holy Spirit is the very best mentor.

He uses a wide range of mentoring techniques, such as:

• Teaching you from the Scriptures;
• Encountering you and ministering to you as you pray;
• His still, small voice;
• His conviction in your conscience;
• Reward for obedience, and for seeking Jesus;
• Discipline and correction, when needed;
• Leading you to read certain books;
• Leading you to attend certain classes, workshops, seminars, conferences, and so on;
• Causing random videos to pop up on YouTube that you needed at that very moment;
• Bringing you into contact with websites, audio recordings, and other written or recorded teachings about the very topics you needed;
• Causing the message you heard at church today to be exactly what you needed;
• Helpful and encouraging conversations with friends; and so much more!

Holy Spirit really is the very best Mentor. Jesus is the best Shepherd. And the Lord Himself, Who dwells within you, will lead you and guide you if you will let Him–transforming you continually from glory to glory, faith to faith, and strength to strength.

And when He teaches you, He gets all the credit for what He has done to raise you up.

When I think of these things, I am always reminded of what Abraham said to the king of Sodom in Genesis 14. In this passage, Abraham and his servants had just rescued Lot and his family, as well as all the goods and provisions of Sodom, from invading kings. The king of Sodom was understandably grateful, and he tried to get Abraham to take some of the spoils of war for himself.

It happened like this, after Abraham defeated the invading kings:

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said:

“Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all.

Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’—except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion”” (Genesis 14:18-24 NKJV).

That passage is poignant to me because I see the same thing in myself, about mentoring.

Abraham would not take the spoils of war for himself because then the pagan king might have said, “I have made Abram rich.” And Abraham had sworn to God that he would not accept those spoils, so that only God could get the glory.

Well, even though I wanted a personal mentor all those years, the Lord didn’t see fit to provide me with that. And looking back, not only can I see that Holy Spirit did a better job at mentoring me than humans would have done, but also I can see that God alone gets all the glory for His Own work.

What do I mean by that? Simply that the Lord prevented anyone from personally taking me under their wing, to pull me aside and encourage me and pour into me on an ongoing basis, so that He gets the credit for what He did. He alone raised me up.

And although I am grateful to the people who taught the classes and preached the sermons that the Lord used, God alone still did the mentoring of me personally. To the humans around me, I was a face in the crowd. If I was there, I was there. If I was not, then I was not, and oh well. No one chased me down or tried to challenge me to grow, or help me grow.

Those people’s efforts to serve the masses were vitally important. I am grateful to them for their efforts to the people of God in general. But, on an individual basis, GOD alone was mentoring me step by step–and He gets all the glory for it.

If Holy Spirit is the only One mentoring you, then He’s going to get the glory for it also.

I know it can be difficult when you just yearn to have someone pull you aside, see you as special (and you are), and pour into you on a dedicated, ongoing basis. However, beloved, if that hasn’t happened for you yet, you can still grow fast and strong and deep by heeding the mentoring of Holy Spirit Himself. He is the best Mentor of all.

So how do you follow Holy Spirit’s mentoring?

You have to chase Him. You have to pursue learning about Jesus by learning His Word, aggressively spending time with Him in worship, Bible study, prayer, fasting, and studying the resources He leads you to. You have to show Kingdom aggression in seeking Him, as we read in Matthew 11:12:

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12 NKJV).

But if you will do that, He will lead you. You will need to be purposeful about seeking Him, and about rounding out and filling in gaps in your knowledge base. For example:

• If you don’t understand the spiritual disciplines, you need to study them and practice them.
• If you aren’t seasoned at prophesying accurately and with love, you need to study the prophetic ministry until you get good at it.
• If you don’t know how to pray with power and get answers every time, go to a good, solid prayer meeting every week where they do pray like that–and learn how to pray. Or, read prayer books and online teachings (such as we have on this website) that teach you how to pray the Word!
• If you don’t understand systematic theology, you need to get a good, solid theology textbook and study it. (I recommend Foundations of the Christian Faith by James Montgomery Boice.)
• If you don’t have a solid background in church history, get a book and study the history of the church, and the history of revivals.
• If you haven’t read the entire Bible all the way through a lot of times, you should be reading at least 4 chapters a day in a systematic way, checking off each book of the Bible as you finish it.
• You should be reading the Word in the morning, first thing, and at night, before you go to bed.
• You need to be showing up at a good, Spirit-filled, Bible-believing church every single Sunday to worship in community with other believers, and to be fed and taught the Word of God.
• Find the conferences, retreats, seminars, and workshops you need; take time off work; spend the money to go; and get everything you can out of them.

This list could go on and on. Basically, you have to take the initiative to seek out the learning that you need. This isn’t the same as seeking out a person to mentor you, but it is (if anything) more effective. This is how Holy Spirit mentors you.

And yes, it’s going to cost you.

It’s going to cost you time, money, time away from work, sacrificing to get up early and spend time with the Lord, and a whole lot more. Seeking God with all your heart will cost you everything … but you will also get everything in return.

To sum up, I want you to know this:

If your heart yearns to be mentored, and God hasn’t provided you with a personal mentor who chose on their own to pull you out of a crowd, you can’t wait any longer. You have to seek out the mentoring from Holy Spirit Himself by seeking out learning, and by getting the Christian teaching that you need on your own, and giving your all to pursue Jesus on your own, even without a cheerleader or someone who is pouring into you.

I feel that this is going to be more important than ever in these upcoming times and seasons. I hate that everybody doesn’t have a mentor. But, church culture has failed in so many respects at discipleship. Nevertheless, you must still be discipled. And it’s time for you to take the initiative into your own hands to get the discipleship you need, if you haven’t already done so.

What is Holy Spirit speaking to you about this? Please leave your thoughts below in the comments!