All of us have at some point had a spiritual mentor. This person often helps us learn Hermeneutics, how to rightly divide scripture and interpret it, as well as seeking a deeper relationship with the LORD. The Bible is full of these sort of spiritual relationships, we have Elijah and Elias, Moses and Joshua, and Paul & Timothy. The Mentor and protégée relationship becomes a strong vergence in the Spirit, to help you grow as a Christian. That is until one of two outcomes takes places, you outgrow them, and thus develop your own strengths spiritually and independent of them, or they become your adversary. To address the former I will simply quote Master Yoda, “We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all Masters” (The Last Jedi). Yoda means that the protégée, the disciple whom Jesus urges us to make, will invariably grow beyond us and go and seek out their place in God’s Kingdom. This a natural and a healthy mentor will accept when their disciple spreads their wings and flies.
Then we come to the other response, the saboteur, the moment a mentor becomes a little satan or HaSatan (Adversary) where they turn on the disciple who is beginning to fly, and treat them as a threat. You see this in a more less tangled emotional way with pastors who become jealous of their protégée’s gifts, and use verbal abuse, and attempts to cut their wings. However, it becomes more toxic when the mentor is someone close to you, a parent or even a mate, and that is when you find yourself in a crisis of faith. The reason for the crisis, is that perhaps much of your formation in the faith was at their behest, and they even encouraged you to memorize Scripture, and prayed with you in the mornings. They for a time were nurturing you in The Way, until one day they due to demonic influence, dementia, or envy, decide to turn on you and cut you to pieces. What becomes difficult is that your ire that will rise in response gets tangled in memories of your Christian upbringing or formation, and it becomes imperative to compartmentalize, to separate your personal walk with Christ from the memories, and that is a very complicated process that can be painful. In worst case scenario, someone could lose their faith for a time, unable to separate the spiritual abuse from this mentor turned adversary from their relationship with Christ. A similar example is say cross or crucifix, that person was abused under, hey have a problem embracing the symbol because of how it was around the abuser and they even had it there as a prop; in a similar way, your own faith can feel like that because of the person who mentored you is now maiming you spiritually.
I want to say any mentor who turns into a adversary will face severe judgement from Christ. For they have become agents of Satan to tear at you and unravel all that was formed. As for how to survive this, it is crucial that you compartmentalize, that is you need to see Christ and your relationship with the Triune God as an entirely separate thing from the mentor now turned adversary. Yes, they taught you perhaps some good things, like how to study Scripture, and how to pray in the Spirit, and etc, but now that they are an adversary, do not throw “the baby out with the bathwater,” rather think of it like you were in college and took classes under them and learned, but now they are pompous and deranged professor you want nothing to do with. Take some time, to live a bare bones kind of faith in Jesus, something summarized in these lyrics, “At The End of myself, you say follow me, just follow me,” (Casting Crowns) and “I wanna go back to Jesus loves me the Bible says that, because the Bible tells me, because the Bible tells me so.” (David Dunn). As you transition from the influence of this close mentor to them being cruel adversary, you need to get down to the simple faith in Christ, “I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ,” (2 Corinthians 11:3). It is in this state of rawness, that you need to ask the Holy Spirit to wash over your wounds, and for Christ now to be your Adonai, your Master “But be not called ‘Rabbi,’ (teacher) for One is your Master, even Christ” (Matthew 23:8, KJ21) , and to know that Jesus actually prophecized this day will come, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household,” (Matthew 10:34-36) and “Many people were traveling with Jesus. He said to them, ‘If you come to me but will not leave your family, you cannot be my follower. You must love me more than your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters—even more than your own life! Whoever will not carry the cross that is given to them when they follow me cannot be my follower.” (Luke 14:25-27). It was as if Jesus was trying to signal to us that our greater adversaries will not be Satan’s legions with pentagrams, but those in our midst with crosses, and that we need to be ready to cut hem loose, and know Jesus did the same to his Mother and step brothers and sisters, “One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away by force. “He’s out of his mind,” they said. Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”” (Mark 3:21, 31-35). In that Jesus had to come against His Family because they sought to undermine His ministry.
I want to say I am personally experiencing this. A mentor in the faith, who I am very close to, who has known me a lifetime, has now become my adversary, even saying spiritually abusive things. The sting is real, and it is this experience that has urged me to encourage you, that when this happens, do not let Satan use it to destroy your faith, rather use it as launching pad for your Jet Fighter for Jesus to get airborne and away from the abuser! Do not let them rob you of the relationship with the Holy Trinity! The fact that they labored so hard to help you grow in faith and then would seek to tear it down makes them worse than Satan! Because Satan hates us for obvious reasons while they, the mentor, began loving us, and teaching us the faith; and so to me they are a traitor!; they tried to give you faith and depth of scriptural knowledge, and then seek to take it away with their emotional pull and cruel behavior. For that I say, woe unto them, for they either were not earnest in wanting you to be a disciple and grow, and were just control freaks, or there is a major door to Bezeelbub in them, and they have allowed him to join their selfish desires to make war on you and your faith.
I pray for all you go through this, no matter who close you were to the mentor, that you not have your faith mangled by this shift from dove to serpent of the person who was a Father or Mother to you in the Lord. What is key is keep your eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), and to not let the devil deprive you of being a direct disciple of Jesus who will never leave you or forsake you or abuse you. Amen.
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