Discipling Willing Hearts - the High Road
- Jan 4
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 6
by: Mereseini Bower Vision Leader of Sovereign Oceans
A testimony of a call to the high road, obedience, the transforming power of Yeshua’s love and leading by the Spirit of Yahweh.
When Love Meets the Call
Ahava — the Hebrew word for love — greeted me as I walked through the doors of Kingdom International Discipleship School (KIDS) on my first day of teaching. It was not a coincidence. It was a God-ordained moment.
I had been invited to disciple on Love: Living a Life of Yeshua’s Love. And there, standing before me, was one of the twelve students whose name was Love. In that moment, the teacher of love was met by a student called love.
As I looked at the twelve who had committed to three months of discipleship, I reminded them of a foundational truth: Yeshua does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called. He calls us while we are still sinners, and through obedience and surrender, He transforms us to become like Him.
When Yeshua walked along the shores of Galilee and called His first disciples, the scene was striking in its simplicity. There were no crowds, no applause, no ritual commissioning — only a call: “Follow Me.” Scripture records their response plainly:
“At once they left their nets and followed Him” (Matthew 4:20).
There was no negotiation. No request for more time. No delay.
This is the heart of discipleship: a willing heart and immediate obedience.
It is a call to the High Road.
And discipleship, at its core, is Godly Leadership.
The Call to Follow: The Heart of a Disciple
Yeshua offered His disciples no detailed plan and no guarantees of comfort. He invited them into relationship — into being with Him before doing anything for Him.
Their response reveals three enduring truths:
They obeyed before fully understanding.
They surrendered the familiar — livelihoods, routines, and security.
They chose the cost of obedience over the comfort of delay.
Discipleship begins not with assignment, but with presence. Before Yeshua sent them, He drew them close.
This same pattern unfolded with the first cohort at Kingdom International Discipleship School. Twelve students left behind family, work, school, friendships, and daily routines to be present — fully present — for three months. They understood that discipleship begins with availability.
Every disciple is formed not by human qualification, but by proximity to Yeshua.
Willingness, responsiveness, obedience, and surrender remain the essential posture of anyone who chooses the High Road.
Called to Disciple: Leadership on the High Road
Every disciple is eventually called to become a discipler. Yeshua’s command to “go and make disciples” was not an abstract instruction — it was the extension of His own life through His people.
Discipling others is not the transfer of information. It is walking with people as their lives are shaped by Christ. It is spiritual parenting — prayerful, patient, courageous, and deeply relational.
My own call to discipleship leadership began in 2010 at Hillsong Colour Conference. Seven years later, I felt a clear conviction to leave everything and follow Yeshua fully. In 2018, I acted on that call. My husband and I began discipling believers through connect groups in Suva, Fiji, hosting weekly gatherings in our home for those hungry for a deeper walk with God.
In April 2023, while speaking on The Five Elements of Godly Leadership and Governance for the Future at the inaugural Legacy Leadership Symposium in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga, a quiet prayer that I would teach at the school, was being offered by Pastor Apenisa Ralulu — Senior Pastor and Vision Carrier of Kingdom International Discipleship School.
Weeks later, while based in New York, I felt that same conviction rise in my spirit. Obedience followed swiftly. I wrote to Pastor Ralulu, offering to teach and help develop the curriculum. His response was immediate and emotional — God had answered his prayer.
By July 2024, my husband and I had sown financially into the school. By September, Pastor Ralulu and I found ourselves on Fiji Airways’ maiden voyage to Israel. Our first in-person curriculum meeting took place in Jerusalem, over a Sukkot meal, as we committed the school and its students to prayer.
From that place of discernment, what emerged for me, were two core discipleship themes:
Love: Living a Life of Yeshua’s Love
Knowing and Being Led by the Spirit of Yahweh
In September 2025, Kingdom International Discipleship School opened its doors to its first cohort.
The five days I spent teaching these themes were among the most significant of my life.
Where Teaching Became Transformation
Love: The Mark of True Discipleship
Yeshua said, “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).
The students quickly discovered that love is not sentiment — it is a disciplined way of living. Love chooses forgiveness. Love practices patience. Love reflects God’s nature.
For some, this meant healing long-held wounds. For others, it meant learning to love beyond survival patterns. Relationships began to shift — with family, with one another, and with God.
Love became practice – a lifestyle choice, not theory.
Knowing and Being Led by the Spirit of Yahweh
We explored the Spirit as Teacher, Guide, and Helper. Students learned to listen, discern, and respond.
One had never heard of the Seven Spirits of Yahweh. Another felt truly seen by God for the first time.Others testified to the stretching obedience that followed divine prompting.
As love softened their hearts, the Spirit illuminated their path.
The lessons became encounters that changed them.
Transformation followed.
The Vessel That Poured
Among the twelve were young men carrying heavy stories — addiction, court cases, broken pasts. Yet each arrived seeking Yeshua.
At the end of the teaching week, they ministered back to me.
They washed my feet.
They prayed prophetically.
They spoke words of affirmation.
They presented me with a scroll titled “The Vessel That Poured.”
You didn’t come with noise — you came with weight.
You came carrying something holy, and you poured like oil on willing hearts.
Obedience leaves a mark eternity cannot erase.
This was not gratitude alone.
It was fruit.
The Ripple of Willing Hearts
Discipleship begins with a simple yes. It grows through daily surrender. And it multiplies when obedience becomes a way of life.
This journey reaffirmed three enduring truths:
Love is the heart of discipleship.
The Spirit is the guide.
Willing hearts create lasting transformation.
This is the High Road of leadership — the kind that forms character before competence, obedience before influence, and stewardship before power.
At Sovereign Oceans, our coaching on the Principles of Godly Leadership is shaped by this same conviction: that leadership formation must begin at the level of the heart. We walk with leaders who sense that technical skill alone is no longer enough — and who are ready to lead with integrity, discernment, humility, and courage.
So the question remains:
Where is Yeshua inviting you to follow?
Who is He calling you to disciple?
May we respond as the first disciples did — immediately.
May we choose obedience over comfort.
May we walk the High Road.
And may willing hearts create ripples far beyond what we can see.
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