I used to be a Christian. I was born into a Christian family. My earliest spiritual moment came in a kitchen. I was almost ten years old, making a sandwich one night, when an angel, a being of light appeared to me. The Angel said only, “Tell others about Jesus”. I thought maybe I’d be a preacher, but that was not the path I chose. But, even as a boy, I felt there was more to God than what I was being taught.
In my twenties I made a decision that shaped everything: if this life did somehow determine my eternity, then I wanted to live this life, for the next one. I immersed myself in Christianity for decades — Sunday school teacher, small-group leader, student, seeker. I loved God sincerely. Yet I always carried a quiet knowing that the story wasn’t finished yet.
In 1988 I began attending early-morning prayer, an hour a day, five days a week. I did that for years. That’s when my prayer life began to have some life in it. I learned how to pour out my heart, my pain, my life — my questions, my confusion, my hopes. I believed God was not mute, and I decided long ago that if I wasn’t hearing God, it wasn’t God’s fault.
So I kept listening. Praying. Studying. I was pro-active.
In 1995 I began attending Passion for Jesus conferences, hungry to learn. My desire was simple: I didn’t want to just know about God — I wanted to know God.
Then in March of 2003, God spoke to me and said, “Will you give me your mornings?” So I rearranged my mornings and began spending them daily at a downtown Tulsa church from about eight until noon. One morning I had a thought, picked up a pen, and wrote it on a yellow tablet. Then another thought came. Then another. The words began flowing, and have never stopped.
At the same time, I was pursuing a Doctorate in Leadership which I completed in 2005. So I was studying leadership while also being taught by God directly, experiencing two very different paradigms of education.
Today I live in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I’m 74. I was married for 33 years and have two grown children. I live stream my teachings on YouTube almost daily and have shared more than 2,000 teaching videos, along with thousands of written lessons on the school website.
With love,
Theodore Cottingham