The Mentored Becoming the Mentor
by Pastor Donny Granberry
It is quite an honor to be with you at the conference on "Spiritual Fathers," and to be partnering with my Dad makes this a remarkable treat.
It is a rare opportunity that your spiritual father and your natural father are one and the same.
I would like to take a moment and publicly thank my father for being an inspirationto me as well as a great role model.
I am very proud of him and what the Lord has accomplished through him, and he would be the first to tell you that all of the glory belongs to the Lord.
Not only has Dad been an inspiration and mentor to me, my mother has been an inspiration and mentor to my wife Marlys.
I firmly believe that a Pastors wife needs a mentor, just as the pastor needs one also.
I have a few thoughts that I feel the Lord has laid on my heart to share with you.
First, is the calling of Elisha, and it deals with Elijah being called by God to become a mentor?
We are called by God to be mentored and to become mentors.
1 Kings 19:16&19
16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nisei king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 19 Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.
You never read of Elisha becoming a part of the purpose of Elijah’s ministry until we read where God told Elijah to go and anoint him to take his place.
We must come to the conclusion here that becoming a spiritual father, mentoring, is a part of God’s divine purpose for each of us.
As a child, God revealed to my father that I would follow in his footsteps...
My Grandmother Granberry, we called her Meme, one day asked Marlys, at the time we were dating, did you know that Donny was going to be a preacher.
There were times when my dad would ask me, son, when are you going to get serious with God.
I remember the Tuesday night in our January Camp-meeting when Kenneth McGee preached and I finally started down the road to submitting to the calling of God on my life.
When I went to the altar, it was Father who slipped in beside me and prayed with me.
That was the night that Dad spiritually came for me, just as Elijah left at went for Elisha.
A. Dad let the cat out of the bag that I was going to preach and my phone began to ring.
B. It was that Sunday Evening on Mother’s Day of 1995 when Dad threw his cloak over me. He had me preach for the 1st time for him. I remember the message that I preached, “Why Serve God?” and at the end of the service, Dad and Mom laid hands on Me and Marlys and prayed over us commissioning us into the ministry.
C. Dad began to give me opportunities to preach and to begin ministries in the church. (Carte’ Blanch)
D. Dad poured into my life and spent 6 ½ years mentoring me.
One day my Dad told me, son, you may want to consider going and working with someone else to see other ways things are done.
He told me this several times.
I knew that he was to be my mentor.
If you want to have the ministry of an Elisha, you must learn to submit yourself to an Elijah.
Elijah told Elisha, stay here in Gilgal, I am going to Bethel,
As the Lord lives, and as you live, I will not leave you.
Stay in Bethel while I go to Jericho….
Stay in Jericho while I go to the Jordan.
You must stay with, and be faithful and loyal to your mentor.
You see, I wanted to be there when his mantle was passed on.
God called Elisha to become a prophet in 1 Kings 19, but his time had not come yet.
We must wait for God to promote us.
Wait on God, be faithful and serve your mentor.
You will never be fruitful unless you first learn to be faithful.
We all remember the passage in the bible where Saul is rejected by God to remain as King over Israel.
God tells the prophet Samuel, go to the house of Jesse, I have chosen one of his sons to be king over Israel.
There is one minor circumstance here though, David has been anointed by God to be king, and yet Saul is still king.
David and Goliath, Saul asks them to bring David to him.
1 Samuel 17:38-40
And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.
39 And David girded his sword upon his armor, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.40 And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
David did not wear Saul’s armor because it did not fit.
Had he worn Saul’s armor out on the battle field, the Philistines would have thought he was Saul.
David had his own armor, his own calling by God; this was the moment he began to be promoted.
Your ministry may begin very similar to your mentors, and you may have many of their characteristics, but their armor is not your armor.
God will fulfill his calling in your life. Promotion comes from the Lord.
God’s anointed to become King, David slept in the woods, in caves, even in a strange land, while Saul slept in the palace, but David remained faithful to God.
ILUSTRATION
God gave me a dream one night, I was on the platform preaching in a large church with a pie shaped auditorium, and there were people there I knew and people I didn’t know. The presence of the Lord had inhabited the place and the glory was falling. God told me, this was my pastorate.
Go forward, now some 8-9 years later. We were building our new 28,000 sq. ft. building, and as I walked across the platform and looked at the cement floor and the unfinished walls, God reminded me of the dream he had given me and told me “I am fulfilling my promise to you.
You see, God showed me a palace of a church that would be mine, but at the time I was in my fathers church.
I was repairing holes in the walls and painting, but I was on my way to a palace.
I was polishing brass, fixing toilets, and sinks, but I was on my way to a palace.
I was re-building tables, building bookcases, and replacing ceiling tiles, but I was on my way to a palace.
I was operating in the office of a maintenance man but I was on my way to a palace.
Let’s go back to Elisha.
Elisha picks up the mantle of Elijah, goes to the Jordan, and strikes the waters as he calls out, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah.”
The sons of the prophets see this and proclaim, the Spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha and they bow down to him.
They submitted to him as their new spiritual father and he begins leading them in the ways of the Lord just as Elijah led him.
I thought it unique that Elijah led Elisha to Bethel, then to Jericho, and then to the Jordan.
Elisha begins by leading the school of prophets from the Jordan, to Jericho, and then to Bethel.
He is walking in the steps, and anointing, of his father.
Church, it is time that we find our Elisha and throw the cloak over him.
Elisha’s, it is time that we follow our Elijah and serve him as unto the Lord, and become prepared for what God has for us.
