When I Teach -4/13/25
Over the years, life itself has been my greatest teacher. In the traditional model of schooling, where a teacher gives intellectual knowledge, for students to memorize and reproduce, never truly worked for me.
My constant struggles within that system led me to pursue a college degree in special education, driven by my desire to help others whom faced similar challenges. I loved special education because it offered a more adaptive and individualized approach to learning, which felt far more natural and intuitive to me.
As I stepped into teaching, I realized that some subjects remained difficult for me to convey. Over time, I’ve learned that when I don’t see real value in what’s being taught, when it lacks relevance in my own life, I struggle to engage with it, let alone inspire others. The subjects I found hardest to teach were the ones I personally didn’t value. More often than not, it was because I had never seen a meaningful application of that knowledge in my life, or worse, I had attempted to use it without ever understanding its true purpose.
One experience, in particular, brought about a dynamic change, in my understanding of what it means to be a teacher. One day, while at school, I was called to the home of a student whose mother had tragically taken her own life. This young boy, overwhelmed by grief, refused to leave his closet where he had hidden, and told the police he would only speak to me. When I arrived at his home, the police informed me that I was bound by law, not to share any of my own personal or spiritual beliefs. They made it clear that my job was to get him out of the closet, nothing more. But in that moment, sitting on the floor of the closet with this student who had just witnessed the passing of his mother, I realized that all the words of wisdom I could offer him, meant absolutely nothing. This boy didn’t need my solutions, or condolences. In fact, I knew that the ONLY hope I could give this student was through the love of God. He needed a living guide, a living presence, to help him navigate the road that lay ahead.
In fact, I realized with all of my students, that I couldn’t teach them in a way that could really help them in life, unless I was able to live life with them. Teaching them couldn’t just be giving them disconnected facts, or following a system.
From this point on, my mentality changed. I didn’t care if I were to be fired. I was governed by a higher law. I didn’t understand what that meant at the time, but I knew it to be true. I knew the only hope these children had was to come to know God. I will speak of this later, but I want to mention. At this point in my walk with the Lord, I still did things in a very self- initiated and religious way. The Lord saw my heart, even through the limitations of my own understanding, and began to teach me and train me.
I began to invite my students to my home, after school and on weekends. Out of 12 students, all but one of them came from pretty rough family and home lives. Most of my students would show up to school with no food and no money to buy food. They were provided one meal a day from the school and it was pretty nasty. Their parents didn’t show up to meetings I would try to schedule or engage in any way with their children at school. They didn’t care that I was breaking the rules having their children over, they didn’t care where I was taking them. I realized that these children were lacking the basic necessities of being cared for. So, I spent my entire salary that year pouring into those kids. I made dinners with them, took them for walks on the beach, played catch with my dogs, created art with them, I event took them to a water theme park.
Living life outside of the classroom with these students, awakened something in me. I began to question everything about the way I had been taught and what I thought teaching was. It was fascinating to get to know them, see what exited and motivated them. This helped me know how to uniquely reach each one. I could see them change before my eyes. Every day, they were improving and smiling. They even began to see academic improvements, in the classroom setting. Parents began to notice a change in behavior at home and became curious, asking me questions about how I get their child to “behave.”
We live in a world overflowing with knowledge. It’s everywhere. But without understanding and experience, this knowledge is void of life. It is like handing someone a seed with no soil. It may contain life, but it has no environment to grow or take root. Teaching is showing how to nurture the seed. Growth happens in the process of planting, watering, and tending to the soil.
Rather than simply giving solutions and answers, true teaching should encourage curiosity, helping others recognize the conditions needed for growth. Just as a gardener examines the soil, considers the seasons, and learns when to prune and water, a student must learn to ask the right questions, make connections, and discover how each piece fits into the larger picture.
A teacher who simply hands over a harvest may offer immediate sustenance and solve a singular problem, but leaves no understanding and skill for how to cultivate life on their own. I have learned that true empowerment doesn’t come from dispensing answers and directing decisions, but from igniting and internal curiosity to sort, question, and test wisdom. This helps develop a pattern and recognition muscle that allows them to approach any circumstance life presents, with confidence and insight, nurturing a hunger for deeper understanding.
The best teaching doesn’t happen in isolation, confined to a classroom or from memorized facts from a book. It really must go beyond an exchange of knowledge and unfold within shared life, where connection has the power to shape a person’s daily experiences and transform the way they think. Without that foundation, we will continue to experience frustration,struggling to bridge the gap between knowledge and its real life application.
Back the garden analogy, if a student is taught how to tend their own garden, how to recognize what nourishes, strengthens, and sustains growth, they gain wisdom that endures far beyond a single lesson. It is through shared experience and relational learning that knowledge takes root, not just in the mind, but in the way one lives.
There are two very different realms from which knowledge can be attained. One is drawn from the shifting sands of this world, distant from the living God, and one flowing straight from His own heart.
Religion allowed me to experience the vast difference between knowledge conveyed through just words and concepts, and the kind of knowing that is born through a life walked in communion with the living Spirit of God. I love my bother, Tim’s testimony where he confessed, “I knew a lot about God, but I didn’t know Him as a person.” This was also very true in my own life.
It has been a long, painful process for me to step out of an image of God, we had created ourselves. I’ve had to unlearn a lot. I had to shed very entangled religious baggage, letting go of assumptions about how the Lord works, thinks, feels. I’ve birthed many Ishmaels, believing I understood His purpose, only to realize I tried to fulfill it in my own way. I’ve had to release the desire to be seen as significant or needed. He’s shown me that this is pride, which doesn’t leave room for His Spirit to move freely. He will not fill a vessel that is full of itself.
But, as I continually empty myself, I’ve tasted of Eternal wisdom, born in divine communion with the Living God, and it has shaped me from within, and anchored me when all else has drifted away. I’m no longer satisfied with knowledge that has no meaning, or that is circumstantial, ebbing and flowing with the changing nature of this temporal world.
By the grace of God, I have no desire to teach of the Lord from any personal initiative.
Teaching is not a role I want to assume, without holy fear and trembling. I know nothing born of my own effort can truly reach or instruct the inner life of another and scripture makes it clear that those who teach are held to a higher standard. (James 3)
Paul says, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.” (2 Corinthians 2:14)
We are, before God, the aroma and fragrance of Christ, which cannot be manufactured. It is the result of a life that has been fully surrendered…broken, healed, and offered back in love.
If the Lord chooses to use me, I will not teach as one who has mastered anything, but as one continually being mastered by Love Himself, for God is Love. In His Kingdom, I am a servant by choice, devoted to my King. My service is not given out default nor obligation, but a joyful offering born of love; love for the One who has so graciously taught and transformed me.
May I always listen and tune to His frequency, which is the eternal and transformative power of His love, in all its facets, forms and realms. This transformative and relational Love must be the foundation of who I am, the source of all I do, and teach. Without it, all is in vain.
Wisdom has taught me of honor, of relying on the Spirit of truth, discernment and prophesy to know where the anointing will be received, and in what way I should prioritize my relationships. The Spirit is given as a guide to direct us to certain divine relationships. He uses us as channels for His anointing to open the pathway and capacity within a person. It is only by His will, and His initiative, that determines how He will bring Life and Light to all men.
The only One worthy to open the way of true life, is the Lord. He alone can break the seals and reveal what is hidden in the inner man. (Revelation 5:2–5).
He alone can say, “Let there be light,” and cause the light, of the knowledge of His glory, to shine in a heart (2 Corinthians 4:6).
No one but the Lord can transform a heart of stone into flesh (Ezekiel 36:26), renew the mind (Romans 12:2), and bring wholeness to body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
He is the only One who can impart true wisdom and understanding, transforming not just our thoughts but our lives. This way of life, walked in communion with the Father, is the only way to peace, real peace that surpasses understanding (Isaiah 26:3; Philippians 4:7).
“And who is equal to such a task?”
Truly, none of us, apart from Christ.
“I, Yahweh, have commissioned you in righteousness to succeed. I will take your hand in love and watch over you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a walking-light to the nations. Your mission is to open blind eyes, to set prisoners free from dark dwellings, and to open prison doors to those who are held by darkness.”
Isaiah 42:6-7 TPT
But when the Spirit of God ignites within a person, and turns the soil of a heart, when perception is changed by His presence, wisdom can take root, and begin to grow and multiply. Where He guides, I will gladly pour out all of myself, in honor of the One who has, and continues to give me everything. When I instruct, may it always be from the posture of a servant of the Lord most high, and always deflect any dependence on me, as only a vessel. May my reflection aways point to a living relationship with the Father. This is the highest honor I can have in the Kingdom of heaven.
I love how Paul shows that teaching isn’t just about imparting knowledge, but about living a life that is set apart.
“But you, Timothy, have closely followed my example and the truth that I’ve imparted to you. You have modeled your life after the love and endurance I’ve demonstrated in my ministry by not giving up. The faith I have, you now have. What I have hungered for in life has now become your longing as well. The patience I have with others, you now demonstrate.”
2 Timothy 3:10 TPT
The most powerful teaching will always be a life laid down in love, first unto the Lord, and then for one another. Paul is showing the work of a teacher is not just in words, but is in modeling and imparting the Way of life. And the work of the student is to emulate the example of the teacher. This is an ongoing transfer of a way.
This instructive way of life becomes a safe haven for others, to also multiply and flourish in the House of the Lord!