Our Mentor

A mentor is someone who is divinely sent to help you fulfil your destiny in Christ because if you want to become God’s person, you have to follow His process.

A mentor is someone who is divinely sent to help you fulfil your destiny in Christ because if you want to become God’s person, you have to follow His process.

Our mentor, Prophet TB Joshua (12 June 1963 – 5 June 2021) taught us to love Jesus above all. A powerfully spiritual yet simple man, his deep love for humanity flowed from his deepest relationship with Jesus. A man who taught us that we find faith deep within our spirit, that it is in your heart you communicate with God and that whatever you have in this life without humility is nothing.

... a friend of Jesus.

During the years under his mentorship, we learned that if we are to know a successful life in Christ, we must learn to plant our strength, our love, our kindness, our faithfulness, our honesty and our patience, to see our trials as friends that create the beauty in our journey to eternity – a journey of righteousness. We saw daily that building righteousness is step by step, thought by thought, decision by decision. No shortcut, plans, methods or machinery but simply the Saviour becoming more and we becoming less – a change not in the substance but of the quality of the soul.

FIRST ENCOUNTER

From our first encounter with Prophet TB Joshua twenty years ago, we knew that he was truly beloved of God. A powerfully spiritual yet simple man, his deep love for humanity flowed from his deepest relationship with Jesus. Here was one of the “new men” as CS Lewis put it – “…who loved us more but needed us less”  (Mere Christianity*). A man who taught us that we find faith deep within our spirit, that it is in your heart you communicate with God and that whatever you have in this life without humility is nothing. *Lewis, C.S. (1952). Mere Christianity. Macmillan. p. 223

That is it – the secret – a free spirit. Only a free spirit attracts the attention of God. As simple as it may seem, it is a lifetime assignment. For it is only when today’s church realises that the spirit of man is the fountain of faith, that the Holy Spirit will be involved in our affairs.

From the first message he preached in 1989 when he started The SCOAN with eight members, “Jesus is coming soon; if you don’t repent, the coming of Jesus has no meaning in your life,” till his last words on 5 June 2021, “Watch and pray,” his words teach us to measure our lives in the light of eternity. He lived his life as if he needed God more than anyone. His concern was for us to make Heaven.

He taught us that if we are to know a successful life, we must learn to plant our strength, our love, our kindness, our faithfulness, our honesty and our patience, to see our trials as friends that create the beauty in our journey to eternity – a journey of righteousness. From him we saw daily that building righteousness is step by step, thought by thought, decision by decision. No shortcut, plans, methods or machinery but simply the Saviour becoming more and we becoming less – a change not in the substance but of the quality of the soul.

Such a life of prayer costs. We saw and witnessed the hours, days and years he spent in the presence of God, getting his heart in tune for prayer – prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit. As he told us himself in a disciple meeting on 7 July 2017, “You are not great in the sight of God because you live in the bush and eat locusts and honey; you are great in the eyes of God because you have no heart for offence.”

That is it – the secret – a free spirit. Only a free spirit attracts the attention of God. As simple as it may seem, it is a lifetime assignment. That is how he lived his life and that is how we must speak what is burning in our hearts – to share what we ourselves have received (Jeremiah 20:9). For it is only when today’s church realises that the spirit of man is the fountain of faith, that the Holy Spirit will be involved in our affairs.

As Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, we know and believe that unlikely as we are, in His mercy God chose us because the Gospel came to us not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.