When the Lord felt compassion for the sheep without a shepherd, He became their Shepherd. When He felt compassion for those who lived in darkness, He became their Teacher. All true spiritual authority is founded upon love. We will know the place of our calling and destiny when we know God’s love has been shed abroad in our hearts.
Because God created us before the foundation of the world, He is the One who put within us the desires of our hearts. Jesus taught that living water comes from the “innermost being” or the heart. Therefore, our purpose—what we were created for—is connected to the deepest desires of our hearts. Getting in touch with those deepest desires is crucial for opening the well of living water that He has placed within us. When opened, this well begins a flow that never needs to stop.
On a regular basis, people ask me to mentor them. I appreciate this request and consider it a great honor to be asked. However, I never accept this role unless the Lord gives me a special love for that person. The living waters that I would have for them must come from the “innermost being,” otherwise I would not have any more to give them than principles. These can be helpful, but they are far below what is intended for the kind of discipleship mandated by The Great Commission.
Because we love our natural children so much, we are very happy for them to excel beyond what we have achieved. We pray earnestly for this. It should be the same or even more so for our spiritual children. If I mentor someone, I genuinely want them to go further and do better than I did. If I am mentoring because it is my job, then I am merely a hireling.
The same is true when we are called to disciple a nation. We will know the Lord is calling us to this when we have His love for that nation. However, we must understand how His love trumps human love. What is the difference, and how can we distinguish it? If we have to ask these questions, then it is likely that we have not yet felt His love coursing through us. His love is different from human sympathy, human attraction, or bonding. As much as I seek to be a good wordsmith, I do not know how to put it into words. You must experience it.
How do we experience this? We start by asking for it. In John 17, the Lord Jesus prayed that the love with which the Father loved Him would be in us. We can be sure that the Son of God will have His prayers answered. Therefore, we know there will be followers of Christ walking the earth who love Him with the same love of the Father. We should continually ask to be one of these.
Because love is the foundation of spiritual authority, love is connected to the anointing. One of my favorite stories that reveals this is about a friend of mine who was terrible at doing math. He hated it, until the seventh grade. Then he got a math teacher who was passionate about math. Because her love for math was contagious, all of the students caught it. My friend then climbed from being a “D” student to an “A” student in math. To this day, he loves doing difficult mathematical calculations for recreation. That was an anointed teacher! Anointed teachers do not merely convey information about their subjects. They impart love for their subjects, because they are serving living water from the heart.
