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Living in Christ's Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God
Logos Bookstores' 2014 Best Book in Spirituality 2014 Readers' Choice Award Winner 2014 Leadership Journal Best Books for Church Leaders (The Leader's Inner Life) A Special Award of Merit, from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore In these pages Dallas Willard explores what it means to live well now in light of God's kingdom. He reflects on the power of the Trinity in our lives, the meaning of knowledge, the importance of spiritual disciplines and much more. Dallas Willard offers poignant thoughts about what it will be like to transition into the very presence of Christ in heaven. This book is adapted from the talks given at the February 2013 Dallas Willard Center "Knowing Christ Today" conference in Santa Barbara, California. Each chapter is followed with an illuminating dialogue between Dallas Willard and John Ortberg. The book closes with the theme of offering a blessing to one another. These reflections form an apt conclusion to Dallas Willard's public ministry. It is a gift of grace. A conversation guide written by Gary W. Moon is included. Also available is the companion Living in Christ's Presence DVD.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published September 24, 2013
222 people are currently reading
1069 people want to read
About the author
Dallas Willard
60 books1,127 followersDallas Willard was a widely respected American philosopher and Christian thinker, best known for his work on spiritual formation and his expertise in phenomenology, particularly the philosophy of Edmund Husserl. He taught philosophy at the University of Southern California from 1965 until his death in 2013, where he also served as department chair in the early 1980s. Willard held degrees in psychology, philosophy, and religion, earning his PhD in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a focus on the history of science. He was recognized as a leading translator and interpreter of Husserl's thought, making foundational texts available in English and contributing significantly to the fields of epistemology, philosophy of mind, and logic.
Though a serious academic, Willard became even more widely known for his books on Christian living, including The Divine Conspiracy and Renovation of the Heart, both of which earned major awards and helped shape the modern spiritual formation movement. He believed that discipleship to Jesus was an intentional process involving not only belief but transformation through spiritual disciplines like prayer, study, solitude, and service. For Willard, spiritual growth was not about earning God’s favor but about participating in the divine life through active cooperation with grace.
His teachings emphasized the concept of apprenticeship to Jesus—being with him, learning to be like him—and his influence extended to ministries such as Renovaré, the Apprentice Institute, and the Dallas Willard Center for Spiritual Formation. He served on the boards of organizations like the C.S. Lewis Foundation and Biola University, and his intellectual and spiritual legacy continues through Dallas Willard Ministries and academic institutions inspired by his work.
Willard was also a deeply personal writer who shared candidly about the challenges of balancing academic life with family. Despite his own admitted shortcomings, those closest to him regarded him as a man of deep love, humility, and grace. His enduring impact can be seen in the lives and works of many contemporary Christian thinkers and writers, including Richard J. Foster, James Bryan Smith, and John Mark Comer. As both philosopher and pastor to the mind, Dallas Willard remains a towering figure in the dialogue between rigorous thought and transformative Christian practice.
Though a serious academic, Willard became even more widely known for his books on Christian living, including The Divine Conspiracy and Renovation of the Heart, both of which earned major awards and helped shape the modern spiritual formation movement. He believed that discipleship to Jesus was an intentional process involving not only belief but transformation through spiritual disciplines like prayer, study, solitude, and service. For Willard, spiritual growth was not about earning God’s favor but about participating in the divine life through active cooperation with grace.
His teachings emphasized the concept of apprenticeship to Jesus—being with him, learning to be like him—and his influence extended to ministries such as Renovaré, the Apprentice Institute, and the Dallas Willard Center for Spiritual Formation. He served on the boards of organizations like the C.S. Lewis Foundation and Biola University, and his intellectual and spiritual legacy continues through Dallas Willard Ministries and academic institutions inspired by his work.
Willard was also a deeply personal writer who shared candidly about the challenges of balancing academic life with family. Despite his own admitted shortcomings, those closest to him regarded him as a man of deep love, humility, and grace. His enduring impact can be seen in the lives and works of many contemporary Christian thinkers and writers, including Richard J. Foster, James Bryan Smith, and John Mark Comer. As both philosopher and pastor to the mind, Dallas Willard remains a towering figure in the dialogue between rigorous thought and transformative Christian practice.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
July 17, 2014
I am a great admirer of Dallas Willard and his books. This book is the transcript of a final conference that Willard co-led with John Ortberg. I've heard Ortberg's book's referred to as 'Dallas for Dummies.' That may not sound charitable, but 'Dallas for Dummies' ain't bad. Often Willard's writing is too opaque and dense for the general reader. Ortberg is great at synthesizing Willard's insights and presenting them in a winsome and accessible way. In the context of this conference, Willard and Ortberg take turns presenting and then engage in a public conversation (Q & A) together. This allows Ortberg to comment on and help Willard clarify his meaning for listeners and Willard to expound his wisdom and insights on the spiritual life.
The book as a whole is a summary of Willard's theological project. He speaks about cultivating life with God, moving beyond the gospel of sin management, the power of spiritual disciplines to move us from informational faith to formational faith which comes through embodied knowing. Tons of good stuff here.
I elected to get this as an audio book rather than the print edition. Since the genesis of the book is a conference, this is what the audio book is. I listened to Ortberg and Willard's presentations and discussions. The added benefit of this format is that you have a sense of Willard's own emotional response to God and the sincere way he really lived this sort of faith. Great stuff and I will listen again soon!
The book as a whole is a summary of Willard's theological project. He speaks about cultivating life with God, moving beyond the gospel of sin management, the power of spiritual disciplines to move us from informational faith to formational faith which comes through embodied knowing. Tons of good stuff here.
I elected to get this as an audio book rather than the print edition. Since the genesis of the book is a conference, this is what the audio book is. I listened to Ortberg and Willard's presentations and discussions. The added benefit of this format is that you have a sense of Willard's own emotional response to God and the sincere way he really lived this sort of faith. Great stuff and I will listen again soon!
December 8, 2023
My minister suggested this book. He’s a great fan of Dallas Willard. I listened to the audio of this conference and I’m glad that I did.
It’s not due at the library yet so I’m listening all over again. This is one of those books that it would be good to listen to once a year.
I highly recommend.
Update: worth listening to once a year.
It’s not due at the library yet so I’m listening all over again. This is one of those books that it would be good to listen to once a year.
I highly recommend.
Update: worth listening to once a year.
June 21, 2014
I find it difficult to fully express my appreciation for this wonderful book. It's a summary of a series of talks that Willard gave in his final conference before his death in 2013 and features a number of conversations with John Ortberg who participated in that particular conference.
Willard (and Ortberg) always leave the reader with much to stew on. Ortberg describes Willard's way of communicating the Gospel so aptly when he writes: "... every word is used with a precision that most of us don't have."
The authors cover a number of different topics about how to live experiencing the Kingdom including: the power of the Trinity, the importance of knowledge and how spiritual disciplines equip us with power. I particularly enjoyed the discussion around spiritual disciplines. They outlined the difference between "training" and "trying" re: adopting spiritual disciplines in our lives. Many of us think we "try" to incorporate them when we should more think it's about "training" in running the race of life. We need to train so we gain the power to live well in the Kingdom.
This relatively small book left me wanting more of Willard's teaching. I doubt it will be long before I start another one of his much loved books.
Highly recommended.
Willard (and Ortberg) always leave the reader with much to stew on. Ortberg describes Willard's way of communicating the Gospel so aptly when he writes: "... every word is used with a precision that most of us don't have."
The authors cover a number of different topics about how to live experiencing the Kingdom including: the power of the Trinity, the importance of knowledge and how spiritual disciplines equip us with power. I particularly enjoyed the discussion around spiritual disciplines. They outlined the difference between "training" and "trying" re: adopting spiritual disciplines in our lives. Many of us think we "try" to incorporate them when we should more think it's about "training" in running the race of life. We need to train so we gain the power to live well in the Kingdom.
This relatively small book left me wanting more of Willard's teaching. I doubt it will be long before I start another one of his much loved books.
Highly recommended.
May 11, 2021
I have yet to read a book by Dallas Willard that hasn’t changed my relationship with God. I inhale his words and learn so much and find myself rereading over and over. His work stirs me and magnifies my view of God and does it so beautifully through his exposition of Scripture and his deep knowledge and experience of life in the Kingdom. It is God’s grac and perfect timing in my life, but I also highly recommend learning from Willard through any of his books.
July 9, 2020
When it is a matter of life and death, what is the essence lived Christianity?
A sense of urgency permeates this book as the conference talks it is based on were given when it was known that Dallas Willard had a terminal illness. In fact, he died shortly after the talks were given. “Final Words,” then, are appropriate in the subtitle. We have a feeling of getting to the core of Willard’s thought and life.
Then book is actually coauthored with John Ortberg, who provides half the chapters and who is Willard’s conversation partner as a coda to each chapter. Ortberg is particularly helpful in this regard in that Willard tends to work from his own specialized vocabulary which can be confusing since he often does not mean what others commonly mean with a given word.
Knowledge is one such word. In dialogue with Ortberg, for example, Willard begins to unpack that knowledge is not mere information. Doctrine, right doctrine, won’t get you to heaven. Knowledge has more to do with wisdom, right living, being Christ focused, and having understanding that affects our life rather than merely having correct views.
A book worth reading slowly, meditatively.
--
Disclosure: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
A sense of urgency permeates this book as the conference talks it is based on were given when it was known that Dallas Willard had a terminal illness. In fact, he died shortly after the talks were given. “Final Words,” then, are appropriate in the subtitle. We have a feeling of getting to the core of Willard’s thought and life.
Then book is actually coauthored with John Ortberg, who provides half the chapters and who is Willard’s conversation partner as a coda to each chapter. Ortberg is particularly helpful in this regard in that Willard tends to work from his own specialized vocabulary which can be confusing since he often does not mean what others commonly mean with a given word.
Knowledge is one such word. In dialogue with Ortberg, for example, Willard begins to unpack that knowledge is not mere information. Doctrine, right doctrine, won’t get you to heaven. Knowledge has more to do with wisdom, right living, being Christ focused, and having understanding that affects our life rather than merely having correct views.
A book worth reading slowly, meditatively.
--
Disclosure: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
March 4, 2025
Honestly blessed by this book. Such a good word. Will read again many times. Thanks Guerra fam for the borrow!
September 16, 2024
4-4.5 stars.
A very good listen. The audio book is Dallas and John’s live recordings from a conference. I enjoyed it a lot.
A very good listen. The audio book is Dallas and John’s live recordings from a conference. I enjoyed it a lot.
July 20, 2014
This book represents the "last words" of Dallas Willard, who died in 2013. In February of that year, he gave a conference at the Dallas Willard Center and was joined in presentations and dialogue by John Ortberg, pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. The book, more or less, is a transcript of their presentations and interactions. The format was that they alternated presentations, giving a total of seven with Dallas giving the first and last. After each presentation, there was a time of dialogue between the two of them (except for the second presentation where Ortberg is in discussion with an unnamed party).
The presentations explore what it means to enjoy Christ's presence in our present life. Dallas begins with talking about taking Jesus yoke of discipleship on himself. Then John talks about spiritual transformation and the kingdom of God. Dallas follows with what it means to seek the kingdom and obey the king's teaching. Then John explores not so much the doctrine of the Trinity as our experience of the Trinity in our own lives and in the church, as we are drawn into these eternally loving relationships. Dallas explores the inner life of persons and John follows with spiritual disciplines that train our persons for life. The book concludes with Dallas talking about the nature of blessing and leaving us with a blessing from God.
While I think it is important and valuable to read all of Dallas Willard's work, one does find something of the "essence" of Willard in this book. He talks about the spiritual disciplines as a way of opening ourselves to transformation that we cannot work directly into our lives. Through John Ortberg, we hear about the relentless elimination of hurry in our lives. We're challenged by Dallas at several points to support our fellow believers and leaders in other churches rather than treating them as rivals. We learn about a discipleship that is embodied in our physical life and actions and not "spiritualized".
There are statements throughout that are aphoristic in nature:
"There is nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure" (p. 16).
"You know something when you are able to deal with it as it is on an appropriate basis of thought and experience" (p.31).
"Well, what Jesus teaches us is that within his presence and with his work, we begin to live in heaven now, and that's why he says that those who keep his word will never experience death.... I think many people do not realize they've died until later" (pp. 83-84).
And one for us readers: "Aim at depth, not breadth. If you get depth, you will have breadth thrown in. If you aim at breadth, you will get neither depth nor breadth (p. 149).
As good as each presentation was, the interactions between Ortberg and Willard are priceless as we see two men who have walked with God, and helped others do so, reflect on this life and work with Christ. Often, the asides are sparkling gems of insight--several of the quotes above are from the dialogues. All of this not only gives us a taste of Dallas Willard, but whets our appetites for the kind of spiritual life about which he wrote and in which he mentored so many. And if it did so, he would rejoice, in the more immediate presence of the Lord he loved and followed in life.
The presentations explore what it means to enjoy Christ's presence in our present life. Dallas begins with talking about taking Jesus yoke of discipleship on himself. Then John talks about spiritual transformation and the kingdom of God. Dallas follows with what it means to seek the kingdom and obey the king's teaching. Then John explores not so much the doctrine of the Trinity as our experience of the Trinity in our own lives and in the church, as we are drawn into these eternally loving relationships. Dallas explores the inner life of persons and John follows with spiritual disciplines that train our persons for life. The book concludes with Dallas talking about the nature of blessing and leaving us with a blessing from God.
While I think it is important and valuable to read all of Dallas Willard's work, one does find something of the "essence" of Willard in this book. He talks about the spiritual disciplines as a way of opening ourselves to transformation that we cannot work directly into our lives. Through John Ortberg, we hear about the relentless elimination of hurry in our lives. We're challenged by Dallas at several points to support our fellow believers and leaders in other churches rather than treating them as rivals. We learn about a discipleship that is embodied in our physical life and actions and not "spiritualized".
There are statements throughout that are aphoristic in nature:
"There is nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure" (p. 16).
"You know something when you are able to deal with it as it is on an appropriate basis of thought and experience" (p.31).
"Well, what Jesus teaches us is that within his presence and with his work, we begin to live in heaven now, and that's why he says that those who keep his word will never experience death.... I think many people do not realize they've died until later" (pp. 83-84).
And one for us readers: "Aim at depth, not breadth. If you get depth, you will have breadth thrown in. If you aim at breadth, you will get neither depth nor breadth (p. 149).
As good as each presentation was, the interactions between Ortberg and Willard are priceless as we see two men who have walked with God, and helped others do so, reflect on this life and work with Christ. Often, the asides are sparkling gems of insight--several of the quotes above are from the dialogues. All of this not only gives us a taste of Dallas Willard, but whets our appetites for the kind of spiritual life about which he wrote and in which he mentored so many. And if it did so, he would rejoice, in the more immediate presence of the Lord he loved and followed in life.
May 23, 2025
It truly felt a privilege to read this. It's a transcript of a conference Dallas Willard spoke at less than three months before he died -- and it feels like he spoke on themes that mattered most to him.
John Ortberg shared the teaching at the conference, as the corresponding chapters in this book reflect, and because he'd been mentored for years by Willard, I found what Ortberg wrote (often quoting Willard) just as valuable as what Willard himself said in his own chapters.
This book kept stopping me in my tracks as both Willard and Ortberg unpacked valuable implications of living in Christ's kingdom right here and now, and of sharing genuine fellowship with a trinitarian God who loves being in community with his creation. It felt like a feast. And as a pastor, I felt challenged to earnestly rethink my spiritual practices (ie: disciplines) in light of my desire to share in that fellowship and live in that kingdom -- but also out of a desire to see those in the church I lead be able to do the same.
As with most of Willard's books, his heart's desire is for genuine life transformation, and for the transformation of the church, and this book provided some practical paths to get there. I also want to immediately read both of Willard's and Ortberg's books on spiritual disciplines!
John Ortberg shared the teaching at the conference, as the corresponding chapters in this book reflect, and because he'd been mentored for years by Willard, I found what Ortberg wrote (often quoting Willard) just as valuable as what Willard himself said in his own chapters.
This book kept stopping me in my tracks as both Willard and Ortberg unpacked valuable implications of living in Christ's kingdom right here and now, and of sharing genuine fellowship with a trinitarian God who loves being in community with his creation. It felt like a feast. And as a pastor, I felt challenged to earnestly rethink my spiritual practices (ie: disciplines) in light of my desire to share in that fellowship and live in that kingdom -- but also out of a desire to see those in the church I lead be able to do the same.
As with most of Willard's books, his heart's desire is for genuine life transformation, and for the transformation of the church, and this book provided some practical paths to get there. I also want to immediately read both of Willard's and Ortberg's books on spiritual disciplines!
April 15, 2019
Dallas Willard is now one of my favorite Christian scholars. I listened to this as an audio book and highly recommend doing so. Dallas Willard’s teachings are very deep and enlightening. Having Jon Ortberg with him on the audio to ask questions and explain some of the layered teachings made it easier to grasp and was very helpful. I will listen to this several times over!! It is not dry at all. It has lots of moments of great humor. Clearly Ortberg and Willard are close friends. I just ordered another Dallas Willard book (The Spirit of the Disciplines). Am thankful to have found him (thank you Pastor Casey).
May 29, 2021
Taken from a series of lectures covering many of Willards key topics. Hey has such wisdom, grace and kindness as he speaks. Very thought provoking and practical. I did not connect as much when Ortberg spoke. He mainly was giving his thoughts on Willards teaching.
April 24, 2022
Dallas Willard was mentioned at a recent teaching at my church on the Holy Spirit. I still haven’t returned this audiobook to the library because I’m relistening to parts of it. Will definitely read more by this author!
July 24, 2022
John Ortberg and Dallas Williard together...a great combination. This is a very good book!
February 9, 2025
Simply beautiful.
December 1, 2024
If you have a chance to listen to this in audiobook format please please make the time. Dallas is a gift to humanity and followers of Jesus. This has encouraged me beyond words. I bless you, Lord.
November 1, 2015
It reads like a series of reflections about Willard's lifelong ministry. Some high points:
Willard
*Evangelism isn’t manipulating people to “feel” a new experience. It primarily includes bringing them new information.
*Urges Evangelicals to read John Cassian and the Philokalia.
*Ask Jesus into your heart as your personal teacher.
The spiritual disciplines disrupt bad bodily habits. The single most unifying discipline is worship.
Restoring the soul includes seeing the “conflicted will” and bringing it to Christ.
The great commandment of Mk. 12 lists every dimension under the governance of Jesus’s kind of love. We bring all of the parts of the person under his governance. Redeeming mind, thoughts, emotions.
This plays a role in how we choose and feel and act about things. We have to go to the depths of the person before we can understand how the harmony of goodness and godliness can manifest. All of this happens in redemptive community.
Great section on dying: we suddenly find ourselves in Christ’s presence.
The Soul
Focusing on the soul. The disciplines don’t try to “find the soul.” Rather, they practice something that allows the soul to make itself known. Kind of like an inner river that pulls everything in our world together and makes everything one life. When the soul isn’t functional our experiences are shattered and set against one another.
We need people to speak to us with some degree of intelligence and experience.
When the soul is “lost” it means your life doesn’t have a center. God can restore the soul (Ps. 19). Often involves waiting for the Lord to make a context.
When you “confess” you give up splitting the self.
Ortberg:
*Expounds upon Willard’s idea of kingdom: range of my effective power.
Spiritual Disciplines
Celebration of Discipline:
I arrange my life around practices to gain power to do what I cannot do by willpower alone currently. A discipline is an activity I engage in to receive power. We tend to overappreciate what we can do through trying and underappreciate what we can do through training.
Significant transformation comes through training, not just trying. Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. Busy is not the same as hurry. Ortberg then hits the high points of the disciplines:
*Study: among other things it forces our minds to focus on the Good and when focusing on the Good, we can't fill our minds with vapidity like we find on TeeVee and the internet.
*Solitude: just practicing doing nothing. Removes the need to "hurry" and "rush."
Conclusion:
I listened to the audio tapes of this book. Willard gave it not long before he went to glory. He spoke with true unction and power.
Willard
*Evangelism isn’t manipulating people to “feel” a new experience. It primarily includes bringing them new information.
*Urges Evangelicals to read John Cassian and the Philokalia.
*Ask Jesus into your heart as your personal teacher.
The spiritual disciplines disrupt bad bodily habits. The single most unifying discipline is worship.
Restoring the soul includes seeing the “conflicted will” and bringing it to Christ.
The great commandment of Mk. 12 lists every dimension under the governance of Jesus’s kind of love. We bring all of the parts of the person under his governance. Redeeming mind, thoughts, emotions.
This plays a role in how we choose and feel and act about things. We have to go to the depths of the person before we can understand how the harmony of goodness and godliness can manifest. All of this happens in redemptive community.
Great section on dying: we suddenly find ourselves in Christ’s presence.
The Soul
Focusing on the soul. The disciplines don’t try to “find the soul.” Rather, they practice something that allows the soul to make itself known. Kind of like an inner river that pulls everything in our world together and makes everything one life. When the soul isn’t functional our experiences are shattered and set against one another.
We need people to speak to us with some degree of intelligence and experience.
When the soul is “lost” it means your life doesn’t have a center. God can restore the soul (Ps. 19). Often involves waiting for the Lord to make a context.
When you “confess” you give up splitting the self.
Ortberg:
*Expounds upon Willard’s idea of kingdom: range of my effective power.
Spiritual Disciplines
Celebration of Discipline:
I arrange my life around practices to gain power to do what I cannot do by willpower alone currently. A discipline is an activity I engage in to receive power. We tend to overappreciate what we can do through trying and underappreciate what we can do through training.
Significant transformation comes through training, not just trying. Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. Busy is not the same as hurry. Ortberg then hits the high points of the disciplines:
*Study: among other things it forces our minds to focus on the Good and when focusing on the Good, we can't fill our minds with vapidity like we find on TeeVee and the internet.
*Solitude: just practicing doing nothing. Removes the need to "hurry" and "rush."
Conclusion:
I listened to the audio tapes of this book. Willard gave it not long before he went to glory. He spoke with true unction and power.
January 22, 2019
Living in Christ’s presence begins with believing that Christ is present, that the spiritual is as real as the material, and that revelation or spiritual knowledge is true knowledge. It means that certain qualities of eternal life can be accessed in this life, that transformation of one’s character and healing of the soul are possible through spiritual renewal. This isn’t behavior modification. “It is about changing the sources of behavior, so the behavior will take care of itself. When the mind is right and the heart is right and the body and the soul and the relationships that we have in our social world are right, the whole person simply steps into the way of Christ and lives there with joy and strength. It is not a struggle.” (page 14)
Spiritual transformation is stepping into the kingdom of God. A kingdom represents the range of our effective will, and stepping into God’s kingdom means stepping into His will. We’re all building kingdoms, and these kingdoms compete with one another and with God’s, creating conflict and robbing us of joy and peace. Discipleship, or learning to live in the kingdom of God, means bringing our kingdoms under the reign or will of Christ, learning to obey everything he commanded (the Great Commission) as summarized in the commands to love God and love others (the Great Commandment). How?
It doesn’t happen by accident. It “is possible if we are willing to do one thing, and that is to arrange our life around the kind of practices and life Jesus led to constantly be receiving love and power from the Father.” Embedded in this statement is the importance of spiritual disciplines, obedience, and becoming a receptacle of the Father’s love and power through the Holy Spirit. For this to happen, Jesus must be not only our personal Savior, but our personal Teacher.
This begins to happen when we set out to deliberately seek the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). Without seeking, we can’t enter the kingdom. What are we seeking? A righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20), which means “abandoning righteousness in action and moving to righteousness of the heart and the mind and all the spiritual aspects that make up the person.” (Page 77-78) It’s a freedom of heart where we’re not governed by the demands of the law (guilt), the expectations of others (shame), or the uncertainties of life (fear). It’s a righteousness characterized by the gifts of peace and joy (Romans 14:16).
Where do we seek? In the places where we are and among the people with whom we live. “The kingdom of God is near.” We learn to follow Christ among others, invite them to also follow him, and gather with other Christ followers in the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
How do we seek? By looking for Christ in others, by studying Christ, by learning to fill our thoughts with Christ keeping him always before us, and thanking him for his Spirit and grace, which make all this possible. It’s in the process of seeking that God draws us out of our old life into the new. We are led into the kingdom of God as we seek by faith. We don’t seek alone, but with others in the fellowship of the Trinity. “Trinitarian fellowship and community run deeply in us, and that’s why there has never been anything like the church and why stewarding the church is so important.” (Page 95)
In Chapter 5 Willard addresses discipleship of the parts that make up a human person. Willard identifies these parts as the body, mind, heart and soul. The heart represents the will or the spirit. The mind includes thoughts and feelings. The body is strength. And the soul is the integration of them all. Specifically, we’re to love God and others with our mind, heart and body. To love God with our heart is to will what is good for God. To love him with our mind is devote our thoughts and feelings to what is good for God. And to love our neighbor means “to inject what is good for God into all our relationships.” (120)
The soul is the deepest part of a human and is what makes us whole. “The soul is experienced as a kind of inner force. I like to compare it to an inner river that pulls everything in our world together and makes our experiences one life. When the soul isn’t functional, our experiences are shattered, conflicting, set against one another. We don’t have integrity.” (131) The soul must be healed and transformed for a person to become whole. This happens when it is brought into harmony with God’s will. “As that happens, the whole person that has been divided by all the conflicts in his life and even in his own will is restored.” (122)
John Ortberg writes chapter 6 describing the role of spiritual disciplines in spiritual transformation. The purpose of spiritual disciplines is to train the mind, heart and body to live in Christ’s presence. To understand disciplines correctly, we must understand that they’re about training, not trying. “We tend to exaggerate what we can do through trying, and under-appreciate what we can do through training.” (140) Of course, simply practicing spiritual disciplines is not the measure of spiritual maturity. Rather, Ortberg suggests that the disciplined person is the one who is able to do “what needs to be done when it needs to be done.” (138)
Finally, living in Christ’s presence means that we become a blessing to those around us. “Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another. It isn’t just words. It’s the actual putting forth of your will for the good of another person. It is what we are to receive from God and then give to another.” (164) Willard uses the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:24-26 as a paradigm for blessing. It’s an authentic desire for God to bring good to someone’s life, for God’s protection – both physical and spiritual – over another, for a vision of God, and for God’s gracious activity to continually create good. A blessing is about the manifest presence of God, and not merely the theological reality of God’s presence. The church community should be a gathering where blessings are given and received.
“Living in Christ’s Presence” helps overcome misconceptions of what such a life looks like. It also reminds us that it requires effort and intentionality. I was waiting, however, for a discussion of how to face “the dark night of the soul” or the “cloud of unknowing” in light of living in Christ’s presence. Those who seek the kingdom of God will encounter such dark nights and impenetrable walls where Christ is anything but present. Or can we also find Christ in the silence of darkness?
Spiritual transformation is stepping into the kingdom of God. A kingdom represents the range of our effective will, and stepping into God’s kingdom means stepping into His will. We’re all building kingdoms, and these kingdoms compete with one another and with God’s, creating conflict and robbing us of joy and peace. Discipleship, or learning to live in the kingdom of God, means bringing our kingdoms under the reign or will of Christ, learning to obey everything he commanded (the Great Commission) as summarized in the commands to love God and love others (the Great Commandment). How?
It doesn’t happen by accident. It “is possible if we are willing to do one thing, and that is to arrange our life around the kind of practices and life Jesus led to constantly be receiving love and power from the Father.” Embedded in this statement is the importance of spiritual disciplines, obedience, and becoming a receptacle of the Father’s love and power through the Holy Spirit. For this to happen, Jesus must be not only our personal Savior, but our personal Teacher.
This begins to happen when we set out to deliberately seek the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). Without seeking, we can’t enter the kingdom. What are we seeking? A righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20), which means “abandoning righteousness in action and moving to righteousness of the heart and the mind and all the spiritual aspects that make up the person.” (Page 77-78) It’s a freedom of heart where we’re not governed by the demands of the law (guilt), the expectations of others (shame), or the uncertainties of life (fear). It’s a righteousness characterized by the gifts of peace and joy (Romans 14:16).
Where do we seek? In the places where we are and among the people with whom we live. “The kingdom of God is near.” We learn to follow Christ among others, invite them to also follow him, and gather with other Christ followers in the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
How do we seek? By looking for Christ in others, by studying Christ, by learning to fill our thoughts with Christ keeping him always before us, and thanking him for his Spirit and grace, which make all this possible. It’s in the process of seeking that God draws us out of our old life into the new. We are led into the kingdom of God as we seek by faith. We don’t seek alone, but with others in the fellowship of the Trinity. “Trinitarian fellowship and community run deeply in us, and that’s why there has never been anything like the church and why stewarding the church is so important.” (Page 95)
In Chapter 5 Willard addresses discipleship of the parts that make up a human person. Willard identifies these parts as the body, mind, heart and soul. The heart represents the will or the spirit. The mind includes thoughts and feelings. The body is strength. And the soul is the integration of them all. Specifically, we’re to love God and others with our mind, heart and body. To love God with our heart is to will what is good for God. To love him with our mind is devote our thoughts and feelings to what is good for God. And to love our neighbor means “to inject what is good for God into all our relationships.” (120)
The soul is the deepest part of a human and is what makes us whole. “The soul is experienced as a kind of inner force. I like to compare it to an inner river that pulls everything in our world together and makes our experiences one life. When the soul isn’t functional, our experiences are shattered, conflicting, set against one another. We don’t have integrity.” (131) The soul must be healed and transformed for a person to become whole. This happens when it is brought into harmony with God’s will. “As that happens, the whole person that has been divided by all the conflicts in his life and even in his own will is restored.” (122)
John Ortberg writes chapter 6 describing the role of spiritual disciplines in spiritual transformation. The purpose of spiritual disciplines is to train the mind, heart and body to live in Christ’s presence. To understand disciplines correctly, we must understand that they’re about training, not trying. “We tend to exaggerate what we can do through trying, and under-appreciate what we can do through training.” (140) Of course, simply practicing spiritual disciplines is not the measure of spiritual maturity. Rather, Ortberg suggests that the disciplined person is the one who is able to do “what needs to be done when it needs to be done.” (138)
Finally, living in Christ’s presence means that we become a blessing to those around us. “Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another. It isn’t just words. It’s the actual putting forth of your will for the good of another person. It is what we are to receive from God and then give to another.” (164) Willard uses the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:24-26 as a paradigm for blessing. It’s an authentic desire for God to bring good to someone’s life, for God’s protection – both physical and spiritual – over another, for a vision of God, and for God’s gracious activity to continually create good. A blessing is about the manifest presence of God, and not merely the theological reality of God’s presence. The church community should be a gathering where blessings are given and received.
“Living in Christ’s Presence” helps overcome misconceptions of what such a life looks like. It also reminds us that it requires effort and intentionality. I was waiting, however, for a discussion of how to face “the dark night of the soul” or the “cloud of unknowing” in light of living in Christ’s presence. Those who seek the kingdom of God will encounter such dark nights and impenetrable walls where Christ is anything but present. Or can we also find Christ in the silence of darkness?
April 7, 2020
Simply excellent! I listened to the conference audio(book).
There's nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure.
Jesus’ load was to bring the reign of God into ordinary life (Matt. 11:28-30)
What does the pastor or spokesperson for Christ do? They bring the life of the kingdom to other people. The bring that life in themselves. That’s what Jesus himself said and did. It was in Him that the Kingdom was at hand. The pastor exemplifies eternal living and brings it to bear on everything around them. Eternal living is life caughtt up in God, life we have now because our life is caught up in God. We part of what God’s doing and God is caught up in what we’re doing
.
What is the message? Listen to yourself when you’re speaking and ask, What is my message? Is my message one that pulls people into discipleship? Frankly, that isn’t what you hear mostly. They talk about an arrangement made by God through Christ’s death on the cross. Ask yourself, is that the Gospel? What is the gospel that you preach? Is it something in content and lived out that makes people say, I want that!
Jesus is about bringing the life of the kingdom of God into my life now, and making me a citizen of that kingdom. And we spend our lives seeking the kingdom of God. Do I do that?
You ask, Why do I not just say, It’s this way or that way. Why do I have the endless song and dance to turn a yes into a no, and no into a yes. Well it’s because of our will to manipulate people, that’s the evil it comes from. If we’re willing to just tell people how it is and isn’t, and let that be.
Am I seeking to learn how to do what Jesus said? Am I a disciple today? If I am, I am learning from Jesus.
Ortberg: We think about Jesus as Savior to get into heaven, but we never ask the question, Is Jesus my teacher? With the disciples, it began there. They began by accepting him as teacher, then Jesus as savior was a natural outflow of that. We all have to learn how to live. (Ortberg)
We all will live by default or design (Psalm 1), we live in a world where to drift is disaster.
What is the counsel of the ungodly? It’s the way most people talk. “Live as though it matters what people think of me.” “Live as though the outcomes of my life are on my shoulders.” “Live as if aging is something to worry about.” “Live as if satisfying my desires is central to my wellbeing.”
Leadership is so hard because it’s hard to lead people without violating their kingdom. (Ortberg) We do this in churches all the time. You can build a church that way, but it’s not going to last. God will not violate people’s will. The problem of the human condition is that our kingdoms have been junked up by sin. It’s in my body, will, mind, it’s much deeper than I’m aware of.
The will is transformed by experience, not education.
Pharisees tried to get people to do right things. Jesus’ aim was for people to become the sort of persons who would automatically do the right things. The goal is to transform the person inside.
“This will be a test of your joyful confidence in God.”
The way you live in the easy yoke is by following the great commission. Church works when you begin with discipleship and you bring disciples together in Trinitarian fellowship, and God does the work and you get to watch. When you have that foundation, it’s easy to lead people into obedience, but if you don��t have that foundation, it is simply impossible. People will follow traditions of men, legalistic dictates, and goodbye to the easy yoke.
There isn’t a single thing that Jesus said that we cannot do. There isn’t a single thing that he said that we can do on our own, but we are not on our own.
To love God with all our heart is to have your will set on what is best for God above everything else. Love is the disposition to bring good into the object that is loved.
In a fallen world, human relationships are dominated by attack and withdraw.
What do we take a mark for success for our ministry and our lives? It always involves the transformation of character. (People will say to Jesus, we did things in your name. Action! But his reply will be, I don’t know you) Jesus shifts from the level of action to the level of character. Who are you? That’s the deepest question and one we ought always to have before us as we attempt to minister in the Trinitarian fellowship. Church can be the doorway for radical transformation, and that’s what we should expect and hold ourselves to, by the grace of God, to see coming out of all our local assemblies/gatherings of disciples, and if we gather as disciples, that’s what we will see. It’s disciples who go through the process of transformation who come out of the process actually loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves. Easy routine obedience is what follows. That’s the good fruit that comes out of the tree.
It’s nearly inconceivable to me that you can have revival without confession. That’s the breaking of the hindrances.
How is my soul doing? What’s bothering you? How are you and God doing? (It’s not about a list of doing things)
Bonhoeffer: When I meet with someone else, I meet in the presence of Christ. What matters is not what I want or what they want, but what Christ is doing with us.
If you have trouble with the shining face (Numbers 6:24-26) find a grandparent somewhere and watch their face shine on their grandchild. That will give you a little idea. Your face is meant to shine. Glory is something that’s meant to be shared from God to human beings, and glory always shines.
God’s blessing is giving yourself and what is good to another person under the invocation of God.
There's nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure.
Jesus’ load was to bring the reign of God into ordinary life (Matt. 11:28-30)
What does the pastor or spokesperson for Christ do? They bring the life of the kingdom to other people. The bring that life in themselves. That’s what Jesus himself said and did. It was in Him that the Kingdom was at hand. The pastor exemplifies eternal living and brings it to bear on everything around them. Eternal living is life caughtt up in God, life we have now because our life is caught up in God. We part of what God’s doing and God is caught up in what we’re doing
.
What is the message? Listen to yourself when you’re speaking and ask, What is my message? Is my message one that pulls people into discipleship? Frankly, that isn’t what you hear mostly. They talk about an arrangement made by God through Christ’s death on the cross. Ask yourself, is that the Gospel? What is the gospel that you preach? Is it something in content and lived out that makes people say, I want that!
Jesus is about bringing the life of the kingdom of God into my life now, and making me a citizen of that kingdom. And we spend our lives seeking the kingdom of God. Do I do that?
You ask, Why do I not just say, It’s this way or that way. Why do I have the endless song and dance to turn a yes into a no, and no into a yes. Well it’s because of our will to manipulate people, that’s the evil it comes from. If we’re willing to just tell people how it is and isn’t, and let that be.
Am I seeking to learn how to do what Jesus said? Am I a disciple today? If I am, I am learning from Jesus.
Ortberg: We think about Jesus as Savior to get into heaven, but we never ask the question, Is Jesus my teacher? With the disciples, it began there. They began by accepting him as teacher, then Jesus as savior was a natural outflow of that. We all have to learn how to live. (Ortberg)
We all will live by default or design (Psalm 1), we live in a world where to drift is disaster.
What is the counsel of the ungodly? It’s the way most people talk. “Live as though it matters what people think of me.” “Live as though the outcomes of my life are on my shoulders.” “Live as if aging is something to worry about.” “Live as if satisfying my desires is central to my wellbeing.”
Leadership is so hard because it’s hard to lead people without violating their kingdom. (Ortberg) We do this in churches all the time. You can build a church that way, but it’s not going to last. God will not violate people’s will. The problem of the human condition is that our kingdoms have been junked up by sin. It’s in my body, will, mind, it’s much deeper than I’m aware of.
The will is transformed by experience, not education.
Pharisees tried to get people to do right things. Jesus’ aim was for people to become the sort of persons who would automatically do the right things. The goal is to transform the person inside.
“This will be a test of your joyful confidence in God.”
The way you live in the easy yoke is by following the great commission. Church works when you begin with discipleship and you bring disciples together in Trinitarian fellowship, and God does the work and you get to watch. When you have that foundation, it’s easy to lead people into obedience, but if you don��t have that foundation, it is simply impossible. People will follow traditions of men, legalistic dictates, and goodbye to the easy yoke.
There isn’t a single thing that Jesus said that we cannot do. There isn’t a single thing that he said that we can do on our own, but we are not on our own.
To love God with all our heart is to have your will set on what is best for God above everything else. Love is the disposition to bring good into the object that is loved.
In a fallen world, human relationships are dominated by attack and withdraw.
What do we take a mark for success for our ministry and our lives? It always involves the transformation of character. (People will say to Jesus, we did things in your name. Action! But his reply will be, I don’t know you) Jesus shifts from the level of action to the level of character. Who are you? That’s the deepest question and one we ought always to have before us as we attempt to minister in the Trinitarian fellowship. Church can be the doorway for radical transformation, and that’s what we should expect and hold ourselves to, by the grace of God, to see coming out of all our local assemblies/gatherings of disciples, and if we gather as disciples, that’s what we will see. It’s disciples who go through the process of transformation who come out of the process actually loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves. Easy routine obedience is what follows. That’s the good fruit that comes out of the tree.
It’s nearly inconceivable to me that you can have revival without confession. That’s the breaking of the hindrances.
How is my soul doing? What’s bothering you? How are you and God doing? (It’s not about a list of doing things)
Bonhoeffer: When I meet with someone else, I meet in the presence of Christ. What matters is not what I want or what they want, but what Christ is doing with us.
If you have trouble with the shining face (Numbers 6:24-26) find a grandparent somewhere and watch their face shine on their grandchild. That will give you a little idea. Your face is meant to shine. Glory is something that’s meant to be shared from God to human beings, and glory always shines.
God’s blessing is giving yourself and what is good to another person under the invocation of God.
October 2, 2014
I was told to buy the DVD and not the book, and I agree. Buy this and WEEP. What a Christlike sage. So powerful and profound.
May 14, 2020
Absolutely excellent.
I especially enjoyed the original audio from the conference. It's really helpful to hear Dallas Willard's teaching with his own gentle and loving tone.
Quotes:
...many churches and Christians who are in leadership positions will be able to say it's all about discipleship and transformation into Christ-likeness. Now if you read the New Testament or even the Old Testament, you might have come to that conclusion already.
We have been through a period when the dominant theology simply had nothing to do with discipleship. It had to do with proper belief, with God seeing to it that individuals didn't go to the bad place, but the good place.
[The Great Commission] is about a world revolution promised through Abraham, come to life in Jesus and living on in his people up to today. That is what our hearts hunger for, even when we don't know how to approach it or how to go about it.
I thought that the way to move people was to make them feel, not to provide them with knowledge... The famous passage in Hosea 4:6 doesn't say, "My people perish for lack of faith." It says "My people perish for lack of knowledge."... while they are both vital, they are different.
[John Ortberg and Dallas Willard discuss true knowledge contrasted with mere information].
[Spiritual formation] is the process of transforming the person into Christ-likeness through transforming the essential parts of the person.
One of the lies about the spiritual life is that it is hard... It is the easy way. What's hard is the other way, and that is what you see when you look at the world.
The person who has the easiest, the happiest, the strongest life is the person who walks in the yoke with Christ. Only as we do that do we begin to draw the strength and direction that straightens out everything that is wrong in the human existence.
[Religion] wears you out. If there is anything that we need to do it is to learn to lay down the burdens of religion in a loving, intelligent way... Take the yoke of official religion off your neck. Then you can go back and redeem that, but first you have to learn from him how to live in the yoke of the kingdom of God.
There is nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure.
What comes at the end [of spiritual formation] is the joy of living in the easy yoke, for you find that to do what Jesus said is the easy and strong way to live forever and in time.
Until we go through discipleship we cannot bring people together in trinitarian fellowship, because a commitment to God, to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit is not adequate to allow people to come together in the intimate form of relationship that is life transforming.
[Legalism] has repeatedly defeated the best intentions of Christ's followers through the ages, because it simply does not deal with the life of the individual; it deals with the behavior.
A disciple is someone who is learning by going through the process of change... Pornography, divorce, and drugs are things that can be dealt with effectively only by by bringing change into the mind and the spirit, into the will, into the body, and into the fellowship of the person.
Eternal life is the life we have now, because our life is caught up in God's life.
[Jesus's] gospel was the availability of life in the kingdom of the heavens, or the kingdom of God, now.
Discipleship is not for the church... the church is for discipleship.
Jesus is the most presumptuous person that ever lived... he spoke with authority.... Apart from Jesus, the next most presumptuous person in the world is a little child.
We pick up beliefs like a coat picks up lint.
Follow Jesus, and if you can find a better way than him, he would be the first to tell you to take it.
The tongue follows correctness but the heart follows truth.
This not-knowing is a game of irresponsibility. It is a way of saying I'm not responsible. I'm an agnostic. Now, you know we never say that when something really matters. I never say that if I am an airport and someone says what gate am I leaving from. I never say, "Well, I'm an agnostic." that is true with everything that matters because knowledge is so important. When you know something you are able to deal with it as it is, and you are able to communicate with others about it.
Humanity and rebellion to God rejects knowledge of God.
We want to be humble, learning. We want to ask questions and not just make assertions. As we do that, we help ourselves and other people.
One of the things that made people maddest about Jesus was his talk about how easy it was to forgive sins... to forgive sins is a load off god's mind. He is happy to do it.
The miracle is not that God loves me; it would be a miracle if he didn't love me, because he is love. That is God's basic nature - a will to good.
[Discipleship] is a process of learning and letting your yes be a yes and your no be a no... "Why do I not just say it's this way or it's that way?... it's because of our will to manipulate people... If we are willing to just let peoplebe, to tell them how it is and how it isn't, and let that be, then we can just say, "Yes, it is this way," or "No, that's not the way it is."
This is a life in which God is bringing us to the fullness of the likeness of his Son, and in order to do that, he gives us a life... He cares about who we become.
I believe that the only people who will not be in heaven are the people who don't want to be there. When you think about it, if you don't really like God, you don't want to be in heaven.
The easy yoke is to lay aside your projects and mine and to take up God's projects.
When you start trusting your best you think the solution is the work harder, and that is never the solution. Release the burden of the outcome.
"I'm practicing the discipline of not having the last word."
A kingdom is the range of your effective will; that is , your kingdom is the little sphere in which things happen just because you want them to happen.
[Our question to God is often] ...why don't you just run over them with the truth? That's what we are inclined to do as human beings, but it doesn't work and it isn't in God's plan.
...God's kingdom is God in action. It's God reigning... It's what God is doing where we are.
...Christians never meet one-on-one; they always meet under the presence of Christ. That's the way we escape the dreadful habit that human beings have of sizing one another up... I am given, under God, the ability to love and bring blessing to that person, no matter who it may be.
We do not change quickly.
Joy is a pervasive sense of well-being that springs up in the cheer... it is consistent with terrible circumstances.
Creation was an act of joy, of delight in the goodness of what was done. Very often the most joyous moment for human beings is a creative moment.
Your moment of passage from the earth will be one of great joy.
... what Jesus teaches us is that within his presence and with his word, we begin to live in heaven now, and that's why he says that those who keep his word will never experience death, as human beings understand it.
Our great need is to see our place in Christ's world, in his kingdom, and to know that everything is taken care of.
The solution is to acknowledge the presence of the kingdom in the most awful of events... God is over all. He will see to it that what is good and right is done, but you will always have to add the larger picture.
...all good is God in action.
Creation was play for God, and so when we play, we can experience it- we see God in what is good in play. This is not an easy thing in a fallen world.
Work creates value, and to be able to enter into that with God who is at work and to watch him to move is a great part of life in the kingdom of God... play is creation of values that are not necessary.
... it's really important in the spiritual life not to be too controlling. That's one of the things I'm afraid that teaching about spiritual formation often falls into. It's a little more controlling than is really healthy. That's where the element of play would come in.
Dignity is worth that has no substitute... Every person has dignity.
In the kingdom of God, we are set free to lay - abandonment to God.
[Madame Guyon, in prison] retained her dignity because she retained her connection to God.
What a relief it is to be able to meet people without evaluating them, without sizing them up in some way. you can do that in the kingdom of God.
A major part of repentance is looking at things and seeing them for what they are.
We start with why you do that. What is it that makes you want that? ... if we do that we begin to get an entree into the dynamics of the self, which unfortunately the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees does not deal with... it does take time and returning to the question over and over. This is the process of discipleship... finding out what is driving and possessing us.
We just need to pause and hear it. We do need to find a way to be a lot more open and honest, but religion tends to make you closed and dishonest... The person who is closed and dishonest is manipulating other people for his or her own benefit.
If you want to change something, you identify the disciplines that will help you do that.
Discipline is again an area of creativity. Disciplines are not law. They are a venture. They are venturing on the reality of the kingdom. And we learn ways from others, and they set us free.
Satan seizes every word and twists it. He does that to spiritual formation. He has done it to discipleship... Discipleship became bondage to legalism, and so particular things like quiet times became a bondage, and they were not fruitful.
God's aim in human history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God himself as its primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.
There's no subordination in the Trinity... because the members of the Trinity will not put up with it. They simply won't have it. So it's an eternal Alphonse and Gaston routine: you first.
People sometimes ask me what God was doing before he created- as if he somehow didn't have anything to do before he got us on his hands. I always say, 'Well they were enjoying themselves together.' Even in human life the deepest joy is when two people are able to be one.
Christ's body comes together not by administrative actions, but by the actions of individuals who begin to step across the line and invest in the unity of the body.
The deep, deep truth and realities of Jesus Christ are accessible to every person.
Jesus said that if we continue in his word- if we buy it, if we really live in it- we are his students indeed, and we will know the truth, and the truth will liberate us into the greatness and goodness of God.
Discipleship is the true ecumenicism. It's the way the people of Christ really come together...by the spontaneous behavior of Christians toward one another. And this issues in a kind of obedience that is easy and routine because of the understanding of the reality of what we are dealing with.
We have to talk ... about how change actually happens. There is one big thought that I want to make sure I get on your plate: if you are going to be transformed, you have to transform your parts. One of the things that defeats Christian growth is failure to attend to the parts of the person. [see Romans 12]
If you wish to not be conformed to the world, one of the main things you have to do is transform your mind. And your mind, if it is transformed will transform the rest of you.
Spiritual disciplines don't work the same way for everyone. Some people need more work on their body than they do on their mind, and others need more work on their mind than they do on their body. Some need deep soul work. Some are caught in a web of social relations that is simply destroying them.
Love is the disposition to bring good to the object that is loved, and God has so disposed himself toward creation- and human creation, in particular - that we are able to participate in his life by setting our will toward what is good for him.
To love God with all your heart is to have your will and your spirit entirely set on the accomplishment of what is good for God... What is good for God isn't all that hard to figure out because he made a point of telling us...
The mind includes both thoughts and feelings - the capacity to represent things. To love God with all your mind is to take your feelings and your thoughts and to devote them entirely to what is good for God.
One of the things that reveals character is what you have to think about... What you habitually feel is a major feature of your mind. It is tied to what you think about.
People are relational beings. That's why the truth of the Trinity is so important for us to understand.
In a fallen world, human relationships are generally dominated by attack and withdrawal... that makes it impossible to love our neighbors. It makes it impossible for us to come out to them in the presence of God and manifest God's love in our relationship to them.
We don't attack people in the love of God. We don't withdraw from them. We accept them. We love them.
To love our neighbors is not to help them do the bad things they want to do to us. It doesn't mean to help them get their way, because very often the worst thing for human beings is to get their way. So we need to know how to stand in the world under God with our neighbor in an attitude of love.
The body is a little power pack that God has give us to live with. It works mainly by habit and that's a good thing. Habit is a wonderful gift of God.
...Spiritual disciplines are designed to enable us to disrupt bad habits and replace them with good habits.
The soul is the deepest part of the self. it is the integrative part of the human being.
You have to go to the depths of the person before you can begin to understand how goodness and godliness can come into life. You can't do this except in redemptive community.... When we go into these redemptive communities, we move into an area of restoration of the soul, restoration of personal relationships, restoration of our will, of our mind and our feelings.
Sometimes the practice of things like solitude and silence, service, Scripture memorization and other disciplines can do wonders to show people the single most complete discipline, which is worship, adoration of God.
[Regarding success in ministry, Jesus] shifted the picture from the level of action to the level of character. (Matthew 7:21-23)
Church can be the doorway to radical transformation. That's what we should expect and hold ourselves to by the grace of God... Disciples who go through the process of transformation so they come out actually loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves... Easy routine obedience is what follows.
I especially enjoyed the original audio from the conference. It's really helpful to hear Dallas Willard's teaching with his own gentle and loving tone.
Quotes:
...many churches and Christians who are in leadership positions will be able to say it's all about discipleship and transformation into Christ-likeness. Now if you read the New Testament or even the Old Testament, you might have come to that conclusion already.
We have been through a period when the dominant theology simply had nothing to do with discipleship. It had to do with proper belief, with God seeing to it that individuals didn't go to the bad place, but the good place.
[The Great Commission] is about a world revolution promised through Abraham, come to life in Jesus and living on in his people up to today. That is what our hearts hunger for, even when we don't know how to approach it or how to go about it.
I thought that the way to move people was to make them feel, not to provide them with knowledge... The famous passage in Hosea 4:6 doesn't say, "My people perish for lack of faith." It says "My people perish for lack of knowledge."... while they are both vital, they are different.
[John Ortberg and Dallas Willard discuss true knowledge contrasted with mere information].
[Spiritual formation] is the process of transforming the person into Christ-likeness through transforming the essential parts of the person.
One of the lies about the spiritual life is that it is hard... It is the easy way. What's hard is the other way, and that is what you see when you look at the world.
The person who has the easiest, the happiest, the strongest life is the person who walks in the yoke with Christ. Only as we do that do we begin to draw the strength and direction that straightens out everything that is wrong in the human existence.
[Religion] wears you out. If there is anything that we need to do it is to learn to lay down the burdens of religion in a loving, intelligent way... Take the yoke of official religion off your neck. Then you can go back and redeem that, but first you have to learn from him how to live in the yoke of the kingdom of God.
There is nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure.
What comes at the end [of spiritual formation] is the joy of living in the easy yoke, for you find that to do what Jesus said is the easy and strong way to live forever and in time.
Until we go through discipleship we cannot bring people together in trinitarian fellowship, because a commitment to God, to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit is not adequate to allow people to come together in the intimate form of relationship that is life transforming.
[Legalism] has repeatedly defeated the best intentions of Christ's followers through the ages, because it simply does not deal with the life of the individual; it deals with the behavior.
A disciple is someone who is learning by going through the process of change... Pornography, divorce, and drugs are things that can be dealt with effectively only by by bringing change into the mind and the spirit, into the will, into the body, and into the fellowship of the person.
Eternal life is the life we have now, because our life is caught up in God's life.
[Jesus's] gospel was the availability of life in the kingdom of the heavens, or the kingdom of God, now.
Discipleship is not for the church... the church is for discipleship.
Jesus is the most presumptuous person that ever lived... he spoke with authority.... Apart from Jesus, the next most presumptuous person in the world is a little child.
We pick up beliefs like a coat picks up lint.
Follow Jesus, and if you can find a better way than him, he would be the first to tell you to take it.
The tongue follows correctness but the heart follows truth.
This not-knowing is a game of irresponsibility. It is a way of saying I'm not responsible. I'm an agnostic. Now, you know we never say that when something really matters. I never say that if I am an airport and someone says what gate am I leaving from. I never say, "Well, I'm an agnostic." that is true with everything that matters because knowledge is so important. When you know something you are able to deal with it as it is, and you are able to communicate with others about it.
Humanity and rebellion to God rejects knowledge of God.
We want to be humble, learning. We want to ask questions and not just make assertions. As we do that, we help ourselves and other people.
One of the things that made people maddest about Jesus was his talk about how easy it was to forgive sins... to forgive sins is a load off god's mind. He is happy to do it.
The miracle is not that God loves me; it would be a miracle if he didn't love me, because he is love. That is God's basic nature - a will to good.
[Discipleship] is a process of learning and letting your yes be a yes and your no be a no... "Why do I not just say it's this way or it's that way?... it's because of our will to manipulate people... If we are willing to just let peoplebe, to tell them how it is and how it isn't, and let that be, then we can just say, "Yes, it is this way," or "No, that's not the way it is."
This is a life in which God is bringing us to the fullness of the likeness of his Son, and in order to do that, he gives us a life... He cares about who we become.
I believe that the only people who will not be in heaven are the people who don't want to be there. When you think about it, if you don't really like God, you don't want to be in heaven.
The easy yoke is to lay aside your projects and mine and to take up God's projects.
When you start trusting your best you think the solution is the work harder, and that is never the solution. Release the burden of the outcome.
"I'm practicing the discipline of not having the last word."
A kingdom is the range of your effective will; that is , your kingdom is the little sphere in which things happen just because you want them to happen.
[Our question to God is often] ...why don't you just run over them with the truth? That's what we are inclined to do as human beings, but it doesn't work and it isn't in God's plan.
...God's kingdom is God in action. It's God reigning... It's what God is doing where we are.
...Christians never meet one-on-one; they always meet under the presence of Christ. That's the way we escape the dreadful habit that human beings have of sizing one another up... I am given, under God, the ability to love and bring blessing to that person, no matter who it may be.
We do not change quickly.
Joy is a pervasive sense of well-being that springs up in the cheer... it is consistent with terrible circumstances.
Creation was an act of joy, of delight in the goodness of what was done. Very often the most joyous moment for human beings is a creative moment.
Your moment of passage from the earth will be one of great joy.
... what Jesus teaches us is that within his presence and with his word, we begin to live in heaven now, and that's why he says that those who keep his word will never experience death, as human beings understand it.
Our great need is to see our place in Christ's world, in his kingdom, and to know that everything is taken care of.
The solution is to acknowledge the presence of the kingdom in the most awful of events... God is over all. He will see to it that what is good and right is done, but you will always have to add the larger picture.
...all good is God in action.
Creation was play for God, and so when we play, we can experience it- we see God in what is good in play. This is not an easy thing in a fallen world.
Work creates value, and to be able to enter into that with God who is at work and to watch him to move is a great part of life in the kingdom of God... play is creation of values that are not necessary.
... it's really important in the spiritual life not to be too controlling. That's one of the things I'm afraid that teaching about spiritual formation often falls into. It's a little more controlling than is really healthy. That's where the element of play would come in.
Dignity is worth that has no substitute... Every person has dignity.
In the kingdom of God, we are set free to lay - abandonment to God.
[Madame Guyon, in prison] retained her dignity because she retained her connection to God.
What a relief it is to be able to meet people without evaluating them, without sizing them up in some way. you can do that in the kingdom of God.
A major part of repentance is looking at things and seeing them for what they are.
We start with why you do that. What is it that makes you want that? ... if we do that we begin to get an entree into the dynamics of the self, which unfortunately the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees does not deal with... it does take time and returning to the question over and over. This is the process of discipleship... finding out what is driving and possessing us.
We just need to pause and hear it. We do need to find a way to be a lot more open and honest, but religion tends to make you closed and dishonest... The person who is closed and dishonest is manipulating other people for his or her own benefit.
If you want to change something, you identify the disciplines that will help you do that.
Discipline is again an area of creativity. Disciplines are not law. They are a venture. They are venturing on the reality of the kingdom. And we learn ways from others, and they set us free.
Satan seizes every word and twists it. He does that to spiritual formation. He has done it to discipleship... Discipleship became bondage to legalism, and so particular things like quiet times became a bondage, and they were not fruitful.
God's aim in human history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God himself as its primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.
There's no subordination in the Trinity... because the members of the Trinity will not put up with it. They simply won't have it. So it's an eternal Alphonse and Gaston routine: you first.
People sometimes ask me what God was doing before he created- as if he somehow didn't have anything to do before he got us on his hands. I always say, 'Well they were enjoying themselves together.' Even in human life the deepest joy is when two people are able to be one.
Christ's body comes together not by administrative actions, but by the actions of individuals who begin to step across the line and invest in the unity of the body.
The deep, deep truth and realities of Jesus Christ are accessible to every person.
Jesus said that if we continue in his word- if we buy it, if we really live in it- we are his students indeed, and we will know the truth, and the truth will liberate us into the greatness and goodness of God.
Discipleship is the true ecumenicism. It's the way the people of Christ really come together...by the spontaneous behavior of Christians toward one another. And this issues in a kind of obedience that is easy and routine because of the understanding of the reality of what we are dealing with.
We have to talk ... about how change actually happens. There is one big thought that I want to make sure I get on your plate: if you are going to be transformed, you have to transform your parts. One of the things that defeats Christian growth is failure to attend to the parts of the person. [see Romans 12]
If you wish to not be conformed to the world, one of the main things you have to do is transform your mind. And your mind, if it is transformed will transform the rest of you.
Spiritual disciplines don't work the same way for everyone. Some people need more work on their body than they do on their mind, and others need more work on their mind than they do on their body. Some need deep soul work. Some are caught in a web of social relations that is simply destroying them.
Love is the disposition to bring good to the object that is loved, and God has so disposed himself toward creation- and human creation, in particular - that we are able to participate in his life by setting our will toward what is good for him.
To love God with all your heart is to have your will and your spirit entirely set on the accomplishment of what is good for God... What is good for God isn't all that hard to figure out because he made a point of telling us...
The mind includes both thoughts and feelings - the capacity to represent things. To love God with all your mind is to take your feelings and your thoughts and to devote them entirely to what is good for God.
One of the things that reveals character is what you have to think about... What you habitually feel is a major feature of your mind. It is tied to what you think about.
People are relational beings. That's why the truth of the Trinity is so important for us to understand.
In a fallen world, human relationships are generally dominated by attack and withdrawal... that makes it impossible to love our neighbors. It makes it impossible for us to come out to them in the presence of God and manifest God's love in our relationship to them.
We don't attack people in the love of God. We don't withdraw from them. We accept them. We love them.
To love our neighbors is not to help them do the bad things they want to do to us. It doesn't mean to help them get their way, because very often the worst thing for human beings is to get their way. So we need to know how to stand in the world under God with our neighbor in an attitude of love.
The body is a little power pack that God has give us to live with. It works mainly by habit and that's a good thing. Habit is a wonderful gift of God.
...Spiritual disciplines are designed to enable us to disrupt bad habits and replace them with good habits.
The soul is the deepest part of the self. it is the integrative part of the human being.
You have to go to the depths of the person before you can begin to understand how goodness and godliness can come into life. You can't do this except in redemptive community.... When we go into these redemptive communities, we move into an area of restoration of the soul, restoration of personal relationships, restoration of our will, of our mind and our feelings.
Sometimes the practice of things like solitude and silence, service, Scripture memorization and other disciplines can do wonders to show people the single most complete discipline, which is worship, adoration of God.
[Regarding success in ministry, Jesus] shifted the picture from the level of action to the level of character. (Matthew 7:21-23)
Church can be the doorway to radical transformation. That's what we should expect and hold ourselves to by the grace of God... Disciples who go through the process of transformation so they come out actually loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves... Easy routine obedience is what follows.
October 22, 2021
Potent Quotables:
The person who has the easiest, the happiest, the strongest life is the person who walks in the yoke with Christ. Only as we do that do we begin to draw the strength and direction that straightens out everything that is wrong in human existence.
Put his words into practice and find them to be true.
Is it possible that somebody might know Christ but not realize that they know Christ? Oh, yes. Many people know things, but they don’t know that they know. That’s the nature of knowledge.
Our difficulties are a test of our joyful confidence in God.
All that is good is God in action.
Patrick Henry is said to have been a great orator, and he was described as someone who would throw himself in at the beginning of a sentence and trust in God Almighty to get him out at the end.
Dignity is worth that has no substitute. If a thing has dignity, there is nothing you can substitute for it.
We need to find a way to be a lot more open and honest, but religion tends to make you closed and dishonest. Stepping into the kingdom means that we begin to feel the redemptive power of the kingdom moving into all things and setting us free.
The Christian, the Christ follower, the leader, and the pastor, in particular, restfully and joyously serve in the midst of the Trinity in action as Christ builds his church.
The kingdom is available now; I just have to want it more than I want anything else. The Trinity is right here. I don’t have to wait. I don’t have to be preoccupied. I don’t have to have anything solved... I just have to say, “With God’s help in this moment, I will refuse to allow anything to sever [him] from me.”
You must arrange your life so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy and confidence in your everyday life with God.
* The main thing you bring the church is the person that you become, and that’s what everybody will see; that’s what will get reproduced; that’s what people will believe.
Significant transformation involves training to do something—not just trying. Spiritual disciplines are training exercises to give us power to live in the kingdom... To train means arranging our life around those practices that enable us to do what we cannot now do by direct effort. The point of training is to receive power, so we arrange our life around practices through which we get power.
* The disciplined person is not someone who does a lot of disciplines. The disciplined person, the disciple, is someone who is able to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. The whole purpose of disciplines is to enable you to do the right thing at the right time in the right spirit, so if something doesn’t help you to do that, then don’t do it.
A spiritual discipline is something you can do. It affects the mind and the body; it disrupts the normal patterns of thoughts and feelings that flow through you, which gives other thoughts and feelings a chance.
Feasts and celebrations are about training for joy. That’s why feasts took up a massive part of Israel’s calendar. Our world is radically unsuited to joy. So we must learn how to train for joy. (See Deuteronomy 14:24-26)
Aim at depth, not breadth. If you get depth, you will have breadth thrown in. If you aim at breadth, you will get neither depth nor breadth.
* “When left to itself, the mind turns to bad thoughts, trivial plans, sad memories and worries about the future. Disorder, confusion, and decay are the default option of consciousness.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Information alone does not transform. It’s indispensable, but it is not sufficient.
Where are the churches that are producing abnormally loving and joyful, patient, courageous people in inexplicably high percentages?
* When I meet with another person, we meet in the presence of Christ. What matters is not what I want or what they want, but what Christ is doing with us. We learn to look to that, and that sets us free to be naked.
* We all feel very inadequate, and if someone wants to bless us, we feel we owe them something. But we need to move beyond that. Blessing is an act of grace. It isn’t an act of indebtedness. We just receive it, but we have to have time to do that. We have to be able to be calm in our soul to receive the blessing.
March 22, 2024
In "Living in Christ's Presence," the renowned theologian Dallas Willard, in collaboration with John Ortberg, offers profound insights into the practical aspects of spiritual formation. Drawing from Willard's rich reservoir of wisdom and Ortberg's pastoral perspective, this book delves into the transformative power of living in communion with Christ. It encapsulates Willard's final teachings, illuminating the path toward experiencing the kingdom of God in our everyday lives.
The book's central point revolves around the idea that true discipleship entails more than mere belief; it necessitates an ongoing relationship with Christ that permeates every aspect of one's existence. Willard and Ortberg assert that by cultivating a deep awareness of Christ's presence, individuals can access the transformative power of the kingdom of God, thereby experiencing genuine spiritual growth and fulfillment.
Willard and Ortberg ground their teachings in sound biblical exegesis, drawing extensively from Scripture to clarify key concepts. They also incorporate insights from Christian mystics and spiritual giants throughout history, offering a comprehensive framework for understanding and implementing the principles of spiritual formation.
Structured as a series of reflections and meditations, "Living in Christ's Presence" guides readers through various aspects of discipleship, ranging from prayer and solitude to community and service. Each chapter explores a different facet of spiritual formation, providing practical guidance and encouragement for those seeking to deepen their walk with Christ. Willard and Ortberg emphasize the importance of spiritual disciplines as a means of grace, urging readers to cultivate habits that foster intimacy with God.
One of the book's strengths is its ability to blend theological depth with practical application. Willard's profound insights into the nature of discipleship are complemented by Ortberg's accessible writing style, making complex concepts easily understandable for readers of all backgrounds. However, some may find the book lacking specific prescriptive guidance, as it focuses more on principles than step-by-step instructions.
"Living in Christ's Presence" reminds us of the transformative power of communion with Christ. By blending theological depth with practical wisdom, Willard and Ortberg offer a roadmap for cultivating a vibrant spiritual life rooted in the reality of God's kingdom. This book is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to deepen their walk with Christ and experience the abundant life he promised.
"Living in Christ's Presence" is a must-read for those yearning to journey deeper into God's heart and live in the fullness of His kingdom.
The book's central point revolves around the idea that true discipleship entails more than mere belief; it necessitates an ongoing relationship with Christ that permeates every aspect of one's existence. Willard and Ortberg assert that by cultivating a deep awareness of Christ's presence, individuals can access the transformative power of the kingdom of God, thereby experiencing genuine spiritual growth and fulfillment.
Willard and Ortberg ground their teachings in sound biblical exegesis, drawing extensively from Scripture to clarify key concepts. They also incorporate insights from Christian mystics and spiritual giants throughout history, offering a comprehensive framework for understanding and implementing the principles of spiritual formation.
Structured as a series of reflections and meditations, "Living in Christ's Presence" guides readers through various aspects of discipleship, ranging from prayer and solitude to community and service. Each chapter explores a different facet of spiritual formation, providing practical guidance and encouragement for those seeking to deepen their walk with Christ. Willard and Ortberg emphasize the importance of spiritual disciplines as a means of grace, urging readers to cultivate habits that foster intimacy with God.
One of the book's strengths is its ability to blend theological depth with practical application. Willard's profound insights into the nature of discipleship are complemented by Ortberg's accessible writing style, making complex concepts easily understandable for readers of all backgrounds. However, some may find the book lacking specific prescriptive guidance, as it focuses more on principles than step-by-step instructions.
"Living in Christ's Presence" reminds us of the transformative power of communion with Christ. By blending theological depth with practical wisdom, Willard and Ortberg offer a roadmap for cultivating a vibrant spiritual life rooted in the reality of God's kingdom. This book is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to deepen their walk with Christ and experience the abundant life he promised.
"Living in Christ's Presence" is a must-read for those yearning to journey deeper into God's heart and live in the fullness of His kingdom.
July 27, 2023
I listened to this as a series of talks on Audible. They were recorded not long before Dallas Willard died. Confession: I fast-forwarded over John Ortberg's parts; I'm sure he's good but he's simply not at the same caliber as Dallas Willard and it was too jarring to try to listen to the divergent speaking styles. That said, I enjoyed it when Ortberg interviewed Willard. They seem to have had a special connection, even if Ortberg almost comes across as sycophantic at times.
Willard treats the spiritual disciplines with his signature gentleness throughout, making a reasonable appeal to listeners/readers: take on Jesus's easy yoke because it is the best way to live.
Also, we cannot force belief; that only comes as we take Jesus's words and practice them. Seek to come to your own authentic belief because then you will never leave it. For example, most of us believe that to speak we need to open our mouths; it's a belief that we don't spend much time doubting or having an existential crisis over. Willard argues that we can have this same confidence with beliefs about what Jesus taught. Jesus's teachings don't need to be defended by a religious system (something Willard decries more than once).
According to Willard, living in the presence of God starts now. For those who live in God's presence here, death will hardly be a blip on their radar. As Willard puts it, "They will hardly notice that they died." Also, the only people who will not be allowed into God's presence after their death are those who find God's presence to be unpleasant or undesirable here on earth - another classic Willardian idea, one which I suspect is true.
Willard treats the spiritual disciplines with his signature gentleness throughout, making a reasonable appeal to listeners/readers: take on Jesus's easy yoke because it is the best way to live.
Also, we cannot force belief; that only comes as we take Jesus's words and practice them. Seek to come to your own authentic belief because then you will never leave it. For example, most of us believe that to speak we need to open our mouths; it's a belief that we don't spend much time doubting or having an existential crisis over. Willard argues that we can have this same confidence with beliefs about what Jesus taught. Jesus's teachings don't need to be defended by a religious system (something Willard decries more than once).
According to Willard, living in the presence of God starts now. For those who live in God's presence here, death will hardly be a blip on their radar. As Willard puts it, "They will hardly notice that they died." Also, the only people who will not be allowed into God's presence after their death are those who find God's presence to be unpleasant or undesirable here on earth - another classic Willardian idea, one which I suspect is true.
April 7, 2025
Living in Christ’s Presence is one of those books that gently but deeply transforms the way you see the Christian life. Dallas Willard doesn’t just talk about “believing in Jesus”—he invites us into the experience of living daily in the reality of God’s kingdom. This isn’t a book of formulas or theology for the shelf. It’s spiritual wisdom for everyday life, especially for those of us longing for something deeper than performance-based faith.
The tone is personal, reflective, and warm. Knowing these were some of Willard’s final talks makes the message even more powerful—there’s a quiet urgency to his words, like he’s passing on something sacred. I especially appreciated his reframing of eternal life as something we enter into now, not just later. His thoughts on discipleship, fear, and spiritual formation are practical, hopeful, and grounded in love.
This book may not be for those looking for a traditional, step-by-step “Christian living” guide. It’s more like sitting down with a wise elder who reminds you what truly matters. I’ll be re-reading this slowly, probably many times.
Highly recommended for anyone seeking a more present, more honest, and more soul-nourishing faith.
The tone is personal, reflective, and warm. Knowing these were some of Willard’s final talks makes the message even more powerful—there’s a quiet urgency to his words, like he’s passing on something sacred. I especially appreciated his reframing of eternal life as something we enter into now, not just later. His thoughts on discipleship, fear, and spiritual formation are practical, hopeful, and grounded in love.
This book may not be for those looking for a traditional, step-by-step “Christian living” guide. It’s more like sitting down with a wise elder who reminds you what truly matters. I’ll be re-reading this slowly, probably many times.
Highly recommended for anyone seeking a more present, more honest, and more soul-nourishing faith.
November 6, 2022
In conclusion, “Living in Christ’s Presence” is an answer to a genuine problem amongst Christians, offered with much love from the late Dallas Willard and John Ortberg. I think the book is best read by taking the good and spitting out the bad but it can be difficult to discern which is which. There are less complicated books out there.
The ultimate goal of the book is that we should live in Christ’s Presence, that we can all agree. We disagree on the fundamental role of the cross of Christ, I say it’s foundational not transitional, but those are my words, not Willard’s. I doubt proponents of Willard’s teaching agree with my description and assessment. But I hope, whether or not I misunderstood Willard, we can all affirm that the cross of Christ is the ground on which we live out the Kingdom of God. That means we must continually come back to it, not move past it, if we are to live in Christ’s presence.
Full 3,563 word review: https://readingandreaders.com/podcast...
The ultimate goal of the book is that we should live in Christ’s Presence, that we can all agree. We disagree on the fundamental role of the cross of Christ, I say it’s foundational not transitional, but those are my words, not Willard’s. I doubt proponents of Willard’s teaching agree with my description and assessment. But I hope, whether or not I misunderstood Willard, we can all affirm that the cross of Christ is the ground on which we live out the Kingdom of God. That means we must continually come back to it, not move past it, if we are to live in Christ’s presence.
Full 3,563 word review: https://readingandreaders.com/podcast...
February 4, 2014
Whose voice can help us pay better attention to Jesus and the restoration that Jesus brings? I think Dallas Willard sits well on the list.
I've been an appreciative reader of Willard for a few years now and had the privilege to meet him at an event in Wichita, KS. There in passing, he held the door for me and in slight hallway conversation I saw a thin glimpse of this man being in his core what his writings try to bring about in others.
As others have said, there is something about Dallas Willard that is truly alive and there's something about his writing that connects the words of Jesus even more firmly to the disciple.
_Living In Christ's Presence_ is an overview book, a glimpse of Willard's best writing. I'd recommend it to anyone as a first to read from Willard and more than that, to anyone reading the words of Jesus and wondering why those words feel so new, so alive to them, as if such things had rarely been heard in their church community.
Yes, I remember reading the Gospel of John one summer and "coming-to" as they say. "Who IS this guy, this Jesus?!" I said, putting the Gospel down in my lap, "This guy, taken with his words just as they are, not dissected is talking about something that hasn't been a very strong part of my religious experience to date. ...the way he talks about obedience, faith, ... he's talking about something unfolding in the present, something that will extend into the future."
Willard (with co-author and conversation partner John Ortberg) helps us explore this Jesus, this raw from-the-Gospels Jesus. What we discover, as Willard points up and to the right, whispering, "Look there," is that the Gospel is a much thicker good news than many of us had heard. The Gospel is the "good news of the kingdom of God," (Mk. 1:15) which includes forgiveness of sin, redemption, and the renovation of all creation -- and it's all unfolding in the present-tense, not something we just long for, but something we work within even as we hope for it.
And as this great news unfolds, we're awakened to participate. Our work will echo Jesus' work, his ministry. "Jesus did three things in his own ministry: proclaim the availability of the kingdom of God to everyone, regardless of their standing in life; teach what it was like; and manifest its presence in events that could not be explained in a natural way" (p.70).
Here are a few more of my favorite quotes:
"...grace--God acting in your life" (p.9). [About defining "grace"]
"...it's [the Great Commission] about a world revolution" (p. 11).
"To be in the yoke with Christ is to pull his load with him. What is his load? It is to bring the reign of God into ordinary human life" (p. 15).
"There is nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure" (p.16).
"Making disciples is a matter of pulling people, of drawing them in through who we are and what we say" (p.17). [The Christian so grasped by Grace becomes "light in the world" as Jesus puts it, even as Jesus is light in and for the world.]
"A disciple is someone who is learning by going though the process of change" (p.19).
"What do the pastors and other spokespersons for Christ do? They bring the life of the kingdom to other people. They bring that life in themselves" (p.19).
"Pastors and spokespersons for Christ exemplify eternal living and bring it to bear on everything around them. Eternal life is the life we have now, because our life is caught up in God's live" (p.20).
"John 17:3 is one of the most important verses to understand: 'And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent' (NRSV). Now, this knowing is not doctrinal knowledge; it's a living interaction with God, with his Son and with his Spirit" (p.20).
"When we present the gospel through our life and our teaching of what Jesus preached, as life now available in the kingdom of God, we see people respond" (p.21).
"Put [Jesus'] words into practice and find them to be true" (p.31).
"Authentic transformation is possible if we are willing to do one thing and that is to arrange our lives around the kind of practices and life that Jesus led to be constantly receiving power and love from the Father" (p.42).
"If you had to summarize in a single phrase the gospel that Jesus preached, it would be 'the kingdom of God'...What was new with Jesus was that the kingdom of God had become available for human beings to enter and live in...the kingdom of God is now available" (p.52).
"Jesus came as the kingdom bringer. His gospel was the availability of the kingdom [of God]" (p.55).
"...study Christ and make him what fills our mind" (p.77).
'...the progression into the kingdom if coming to believe what [Jesus] believes, coming to trust it, to live on it, to act on it, to make it count. We do that by fixing our minds on him" (p.79).
"The main thing you bring to the church is the person that you become, and that's what everybody will see, that's what you'll get reproduced; that's what people will believe. Arrange your life so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God" (p.106).
"You don't save souls; you save people" (p.121).
"Discipleship is simply the reception of grace, and receiving grace is simply what discipleship consists of" (p.142, quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer's _The Cost of Discipleship_).
"Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another" (p.164).
I suggest you find a copy and read it for yourself. And even better, read Jesus direct. Get into the Gospels and just read. Read Willard after that, maybe during that, and come to see that "the righteous will live by faith" truly means something about the life God brings into the depths of our being, a life that's actually lived in our forgiven, beloved selves.
I've been an appreciative reader of Willard for a few years now and had the privilege to meet him at an event in Wichita, KS. There in passing, he held the door for me and in slight hallway conversation I saw a thin glimpse of this man being in his core what his writings try to bring about in others.
As others have said, there is something about Dallas Willard that is truly alive and there's something about his writing that connects the words of Jesus even more firmly to the disciple.
_Living In Christ's Presence_ is an overview book, a glimpse of Willard's best writing. I'd recommend it to anyone as a first to read from Willard and more than that, to anyone reading the words of Jesus and wondering why those words feel so new, so alive to them, as if such things had rarely been heard in their church community.
Yes, I remember reading the Gospel of John one summer and "coming-to" as they say. "Who IS this guy, this Jesus?!" I said, putting the Gospel down in my lap, "This guy, taken with his words just as they are, not dissected is talking about something that hasn't been a very strong part of my religious experience to date. ...the way he talks about obedience, faith, ... he's talking about something unfolding in the present, something that will extend into the future."
Willard (with co-author and conversation partner John Ortberg) helps us explore this Jesus, this raw from-the-Gospels Jesus. What we discover, as Willard points up and to the right, whispering, "Look there," is that the Gospel is a much thicker good news than many of us had heard. The Gospel is the "good news of the kingdom of God," (Mk. 1:15) which includes forgiveness of sin, redemption, and the renovation of all creation -- and it's all unfolding in the present-tense, not something we just long for, but something we work within even as we hope for it.
And as this great news unfolds, we're awakened to participate. Our work will echo Jesus' work, his ministry. "Jesus did three things in his own ministry: proclaim the availability of the kingdom of God to everyone, regardless of their standing in life; teach what it was like; and manifest its presence in events that could not be explained in a natural way" (p.70).
Here are a few more of my favorite quotes:
"...grace--God acting in your life" (p.9). [About defining "grace"]
"...it's [the Great Commission] about a world revolution" (p. 11).
"To be in the yoke with Christ is to pull his load with him. What is his load? It is to bring the reign of God into ordinary human life" (p. 15).
"There is nothing wrong with the church that discipleship will not cure" (p.16).
"Making disciples is a matter of pulling people, of drawing them in through who we are and what we say" (p.17). [The Christian so grasped by Grace becomes "light in the world" as Jesus puts it, even as Jesus is light in and for the world.]
"A disciple is someone who is learning by going though the process of change" (p.19).
"What do the pastors and other spokespersons for Christ do? They bring the life of the kingdom to other people. They bring that life in themselves" (p.19).
"Pastors and spokespersons for Christ exemplify eternal living and bring it to bear on everything around them. Eternal life is the life we have now, because our life is caught up in God's live" (p.20).
"John 17:3 is one of the most important verses to understand: 'And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent' (NRSV). Now, this knowing is not doctrinal knowledge; it's a living interaction with God, with his Son and with his Spirit" (p.20).
"When we present the gospel through our life and our teaching of what Jesus preached, as life now available in the kingdom of God, we see people respond" (p.21).
"Put [Jesus'] words into practice and find them to be true" (p.31).
"Authentic transformation is possible if we are willing to do one thing and that is to arrange our lives around the kind of practices and life that Jesus led to be constantly receiving power and love from the Father" (p.42).
"If you had to summarize in a single phrase the gospel that Jesus preached, it would be 'the kingdom of God'...What was new with Jesus was that the kingdom of God had become available for human beings to enter and live in...the kingdom of God is now available" (p.52).
"Jesus came as the kingdom bringer. His gospel was the availability of the kingdom [of God]" (p.55).
"...study Christ and make him what fills our mind" (p.77).
'...the progression into the kingdom if coming to believe what [Jesus] believes, coming to trust it, to live on it, to act on it, to make it count. We do that by fixing our minds on him" (p.79).
"The main thing you bring to the church is the person that you become, and that's what everybody will see, that's what you'll get reproduced; that's what people will believe. Arrange your life so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God" (p.106).
"You don't save souls; you save people" (p.121).
"Discipleship is simply the reception of grace, and receiving grace is simply what discipleship consists of" (p.142, quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer's _The Cost of Discipleship_).
"Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another" (p.164).
I suggest you find a copy and read it for yourself. And even better, read Jesus direct. Get into the Gospels and just read. Read Willard after that, maybe during that, and come to see that "the righteous will live by faith" truly means something about the life God brings into the depths of our being, a life that's actually lived in our forgiven, beloved selves.
November 1, 2017
'Living in Christ's Presence' by Dallas Willard and John Ortberg is the most succinct and accessible writing on spiritual formation I've encountered. Within the two covers of this slight book is a lifetime of Dallas's experience of shifting his face towards Christ.
This book captures and covers much of the same ground Eugene Peterson trailblazed in his Spiritual Theology series 'Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places', and also published by the same InterVarsity Press as part of their 'formatio' series.
The unique editing of this book, as it was consolidated from Dallas and John's writings and conference speaking makes it uniquely approachable and fresh. This book has my highest recommended for Christians on their spiritual journey and former Christians who have departed the faith because their communities lacked Dallas's healthy vision of the Kingdom of God.
This book captures and covers much of the same ground Eugene Peterson trailblazed in his Spiritual Theology series 'Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places', and also published by the same InterVarsity Press as part of their 'formatio' series.
The unique editing of this book, as it was consolidated from Dallas and John's writings and conference speaking makes it uniquely approachable and fresh. This book has my highest recommended for Christians on their spiritual journey and former Christians who have departed the faith because their communities lacked Dallas's healthy vision of the Kingdom of God.
September 2, 2021
Finally a Dallas book I can recommend to friends without fearing they’ll give up within a few pages. Thanks to his preciseness of language and philosophical thought process, many give up on him before they can uncover the magic.
“Living in Christ’s Presence” gets right to the main points at the heart of his teachings, thanks to John Ortberg’s unpackings as well as speeches (transcripts) naturally being more condensed than books.
Most ideas in this book won’t be new to Dallas fans, but this shorter, more easily digested form is enthusiastically appreciated by this fan.
If you desire a stronger grasp of what it means to live into the Kingdom, deeper transformation, and a part in correcting the Church’s course… well, here’s your manual.
I know without doubt that you rest in peace, Dallas.
“Living in Christ’s Presence” gets right to the main points at the heart of his teachings, thanks to John Ortberg’s unpackings as well as speeches (transcripts) naturally being more condensed than books.
Most ideas in this book won’t be new to Dallas fans, but this shorter, more easily digested form is enthusiastically appreciated by this fan.
If you desire a stronger grasp of what it means to live into the Kingdom, deeper transformation, and a part in correcting the Church’s course… well, here’s your manual.
I know without doubt that you rest in peace, Dallas.
September 15, 2021
It's clear that Dallas has such a depth to his understanding of humanity and the bible, but the fact that half this book is other people praising Dallas is unnecessary. The other pastors, when they aren't praising Dallas, provide advice for spiritual growth that I found to be one dimensional and lacking. With that, Willard's own teachings were enlightening and refreshing as he tackles difficult aspects of experience Christ's presence, in light of a country that has it's own thoughts and beliefs and a church culture that also has it's own thoughts and beliefs. I appreciate that Willard doesn't praise the one and damn the other, but realizes the flaws and strengths of our lives that can provide perspective to experiencing Christ more fully.
August 24, 2017
Such a wonderful book. One of the most accessible on Willard's ideas and teaching, especially since John Ortberg is in conversation with him every other chapter.
It was some of the deepest yet practical ideas and application I've read and processed on discipleship, God's kingdom, living deeply with Christ and personal transformation. What jumped out at me that you won't get in much other Christian teaching is the emphasis on unity in the church and among churches and leaders. You'll find a brief honest conversation about the Trinity that doesn't dumb it down yet keeps the mystery of it in view.
Glad to have read this!
It was some of the deepest yet practical ideas and application I've read and processed on discipleship, God's kingdom, living deeply with Christ and personal transformation. What jumped out at me that you won't get in much other Christian teaching is the emphasis on unity in the church and among churches and leaders. You'll find a brief honest conversation about the Trinity that doesn't dumb it down yet keeps the mystery of it in view.
Glad to have read this!
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