21. The Life We are Given in Christ (1993)

Welcome to the Dallas Willard Podcast, the source of remastered, original, long-form teaching from Dallas Willard himself. I'm Dallas's daughter and your host, Rebecca Willard Heatley. In today's episode, we're going back to 1993. That's the year my father published a thoroughly revised and enlarged edition of his 1984 book "In Search of Guidance," a book we now know as Hearing God. It's also the year he made his third visit to South Africa. While in South Africa, he spoke at a three-day conference hosted by African Enterprise with the theme "Hearing the Voice of God." One of Dallas's hopes for this conference was that it would enable everyone to see how they can recognize when God is speaking to them, when others are being spoken to by God, and especially when they're not being spoken to by God. He believed that we should all expect that God would communicate individually with us, and he wanted us to know that the voice we are listening for is that of a God who is loving and good and who is happy over us. This eight-part series will equip us with tools to hear God's voice and live more fully in his presence as we explore topics such as the gift of life in Christ, the reality of the kingdom of God, and the nature of God's personal communication. So let's get started now with session one, "The Life We Are Given in Christ." I want to just tell you very simply what I'm going to be talking about, the center message that I will have to you and something of the special parts of the topic that I'll be dealing with. You see the theme on your sheet. The theme of the conference is "Hearing the Voice of God," as Ivan has mentioned, "Hearing the Voice of God." And I just want to say that I believe that today and all of us, but today is where we live. Today, God intends to individually speak to every one of His people as He sees that they need to be spoken to. And by speaking, I mean a clear message that will come in the form of thoughts and words to the individual. I think that we have to understand that God is the kind of God who always has His eye on those who fear Him and those who love Him, and His ear, the Psalmist says, is always open to their cry. And I know that God has eyes and ears, and I know He also has a mouth, and that He uses that mouth in the personal exchange between the individual believer and God. I believe that that kind of conversation goes on for people who are devoted to living fully in His kingdom. I don't think it is designed to make us infallible or perfect, or to make sure that we will never make a mistake, because even though God does speak to people individually, they still make mistakes. And the point of God speaking to us is not to remove us from risk and danger. We will still be in risk, and we will still be in danger. The point is that in the midst of the risk and danger, we will know the voice of God to us personally, and we will live in fellowship with Him as we learn how to carry out our lives in a conversational relationship with God. I think every person is meant to be spoken to by God. In the framework of what He has already sat down in His Word, but going beyond that to deal with the particulars of their lives as He sees fit, and He is especially concerned with the ministry of the gospel and with the extension of the kingdom. And in those two matters especially, the ministry of the kingdom to the needs of human beings and the ministry of the gospel. In those two matters especially, we should all expect that God would communicate individually with us. Now what we have to deal with is how that happens and how it works, because while I believe that that is true and the clear intent of the Scripture, as well as the experience of the faithful, we have to admit that there is tremendous confusion about this matter. Tremendous confusion and many of us are ready to back away from it rapidly because of all the terrible things that are done by people who say God told them to do it. So we have worked to do in clearing up this matter, and one of the things that I would hope would come out of the conference is that you would be able to see very clearly how you can recognize when God is speaking to you and when others are being spoken to God and especially when they are not being spoken to by God. Just illustrate this. This happens over and over in the United States and around the world. The most recent case you probably saw on your television where you remember the David Korsh case and you probably saw the houses being burned down and all of that. And now that event was carried on by someone who had power over people because he was able to represent himself as someone to whom God spoke. And nearly all of the cults are centered around someone individual who claims to be uniquely spoken to by God. But if you will look in any of these cases and ask yourself simply, is this the kind of person to whom God speaks and directs, you will see clearly that they are not? Anyone who had simply looked at the Scripture and understood the simplest things about Jesus Christ and knew how the Word of God worked would be able to have seen that this David Korsh was not a spokesperson for God. And now we have that in less severe cases in even in many of our churches where people are misled by people who claim to be speaking for God but clearly are not living the life of God. And see what I want to say to you right beginning at the beginning is that God only speaks and guides people who are submitted in their lives to Him. Now He will speak to others on occasion if that suits His needs but to live in a conversational relationship with God where you can count on God speaking to you when there is something vital for you to know and He wants you to know it. To live in that kind of relationship you have to be living a certain kind of life. Now the theme of the first session tonight is the life we are given in Christ, the life we are given in Christ. There are all kinds of voices in the world, there are all kinds of voices that come to us but the voice of Christ, the voice of God, the Father of Jesus Christ only comes to people who are living a certain kind of life. And to have it reliably there where they can count on it, where they recognize it, where they can describe it to others, where they can talk with one another about what God said to them and the other person replies knowingly about how God speaks with us. That kind of life is a life that is very different from anything you see around you in the world. It is a life that belongs to the redeemed of the Lord. Listen to these words from Isaiah, the 30th chapter, the 19th verse and following, "O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your teacher, will no longer hide himself. But His, your eyes will behold your teacher and your ears will hear a word behind you. This is the way walk in it whenever you turn to the right or to the left." That's Isaiah 30/21. That's the kind of relationship that God intends to make available to all of us. He intends to make that available to all of us. And it's important that we have that, you see, because let me just point out that in terms of the voice of God to us individually, we can have direct, daily access for all of our involvement in God's work, direct, daily access for all of our involvement in God's work. It provides confidence and comfort and guidance to everything that we do to have the voice there when we need it. It provides protection from mad religionists and from legalism, because you know, many times you find religious folk bound up in a dead legalism, which is simply the rule of their group. And they're simply going through the rituals of that group. And many times they mean very well, but there is no way of escape from that because they have no meaningful direct personal contact with Christ. I need to inject here on that note and just say to you, when we talk about a personal relationship with God, we're talking about something more than a credit arrangement in heaven. The unstandard I mean. I mean, there is a credit arrangement in heaven. Through the person, the life, the death, the blood, the resurrection of Christ, my sins are remitted, and God does not hold them against me anymore. Do you know salvation is about more than just what happens when we die? I remember that as a young person, if you know Southern Baptist, you will know that I was trained and I love to do evangelism. And I still do. Sometimes I catch myself dreaming when I'm under the load of my other responsibilities about just going back out on the streets or in the jails, I mean, someone to play an accordion or something on the streets and sing a few songs and preach. There's such a freedom in that. There's such a wonderful joy in that. And you know you can count on it. There will always be those who will hear when you do that. And I love that work. And one of the things they taught us was to approach people by asking them wherever they would go if they died tonight. And that's an important question, isn't it? But as I went along, I began to see that there's a gospel for people who aren't going to die tonight. There's a gospel for people who are going to be alive tomorrow. And that gospel is not just one about what will happen when they die, but it's about one, it's one about what happens now as they live. Eternal life is a quality of life that comes to us in our personal relationship with God. And you remember that John 173 says this is eternal life, that they would know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you've sent. That's John 173. That's what eternal life is. And you know when the Bible talks about knowing, it's not the kind of knowing we write down for tests. I'm often kind of amused about this, and a little bit pain because I teach, and I pour out my knowledge if it passes for that to the classes. And then we have a test. And what is kind of troublesome to me is I know that many of the people write down what they think is supposed to count as the right answer, but it doesn't represent their knowledge. Except they know that it's supposed to be the right answer. You see, we have a definition of knowledge that doesn't have too much to do with reality. Now when the Bible talks about knowing, it has to do with reality. It has to do with real, personal contact with something. And so when we see that definition of eternal life, we want to understand that it represents a constant intercourse of persons with one another, you see. And that is what we're talking about. When we talk about living in a conversational relationship with God, where in fact, he speaks to us and we speak to him. See, prayer, for example, is not supposed to be just one way. Prayer is where we're talking with God about what we're doing together. That's what prayer. We're talking to God about what we are doing together. And we want to hear as well as speak. And sometimes he wants to know what we want as well as we want to know what he wants. And very often as far as guidance is concerned, we want to understand that when we come to God and say, "What do you want me to do?" His reply is, "What do you want to do?" What do you want to do? See, God knows, God knows that you cannot have the development of a person unless they are allowed to do sometimes what they want to do. And sometimes it is God's will for us that we do what we want to do because He wants to see what we want to do and how we'll do with that. See, if you stand over a child and just tell them what to do every time they move, you'll destroy them. God doesn't do that. So when we think in terms of the will of God living together with Him in eternal life, we want to remember that it isn't just a matter of Him telling us, "Do this, do that, do the other." I'm going to give you a passage in Luke 17 to go with that. Luke 17 is a teaching, looks like it's a teaching about forgiveness, and it is, but it very quickly moves into something else. Luke 17 1, Jesus says to His disciples, "It is inevitable that people should be offended, but woe to Him through whom they come." It is better for Him that a millstone were hung around His neck and He was drowned in the sea. And then you see what He's saying is, when among the fellowship of believers, there are going to be occasions. Let's just put it in simple language, where people get mad at one another. And they are offended about Christ because of what they see in others. And Jesus says, "That's not good to put it mildly." It would be better for Him if a millstone were hung around His neck and He were thrown in the sea. He's talking about what you often see around you, where people have done things that people others blame on Jesus and reject Jesus because of what they did. And then He says, "Be on your guard now, someone who offends against you, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgiving." And if He sends against you seven times in a day, and returns to you seven times saying, "I repent for giving." You see, this is a different kind of life we're living in. And the Apostle said to him, "Lord, increase our faith." "Increase our faith." Now then, Jesus says, trying to shift the picture around to the quality of life, of those who are looking to God for eternal life and living an eternal life. He says, "Which of you having a slave plowing or tending sheep will say to him when he has come in, come immediately and sit down and eat?" Now you're talking about a servant. And in those days, that would never have been done. The servant would come in from the field and rather you would say, "Prepare something for me to eat and then change your clothes and serve me and when I'm finished, you can eat and drink." Now, verse 9 in Luke 17, "I hope you will put down for some meditation, perhaps as you have a little time here at the retreat." He does not think the slave because he did the things that were commanded. He does not think the slave because he did the things that were commanded. You see, if we just think of conversing with God and leading our life, our eternal life with him in terms of him telling us what to do and us doing it, that's a very limited picture of our relationship. Very limited picture of our relationship. So you too, verse 10, when you do all of the things you are commanded, say, "We are unworthy servants, we have done only that which we ought to have done." Think about this now for a moment. What else could we have done than what we ought to have done? And I think I'm not going to answer that right off, but leave it for you to think about. And just go on to say, you see, the importance of the daily conversation, the interaction that goes on from day to day between God and His people is that it establishes a relationship that goes far beyond just doing what we're told. See, it establishes a relationship which is very much more like the realization of the heart of Christ in us. It isn't just what we do. When we're told, it's what we do when we're not told. You see, it's when we have initiative that we begin to become what Jesus called His friends. And you remember He said in John 16, I think it is, or 15, "You're not my servants any longer. You're my friends." You know, you're my friends. And He said, "A servant doesn't know what the master is doing, but you're my friends. You know what I'm doing." See, what He meant was that they had come to the place to where they didn't have to constantly be told what to do. They understood what He was doing and they were devoting their lives to it. And you see, that's beginning to give us a glimpse of what our lives can become the practical consequences of a personal relationship with God that involves our receiving His Word individually to us. I won't go into all of the things that could be mentioned here, but what a grace and what a comfort it is to live in the relationship to God through Christ, where in the times of great trouble, and even in the time when we come to approach death, we have the personal Word of God in our hearts and in our minds. Many times it coincides with the words of the Scripture. Many times when God speaks to us individually, it is with the words of the Scripture. And one of the things that is helpful to us is to store the words of the Scripture in us, because God will then use that to address us, and we will be helped in recognizing the voice of God, because He's using the Scripture to speak to us individually. And that's all from the case. And many times when people testify that God has spoken to them, it will be in the words of the Scripture. Have you ever noticed that? Now some people say, well, He must not have spoken to them individually, because they're using the words of the Scripture. No, because He's given us the word of the Scripture, and He individualizes it to us in particular, by speaking it to us. Now, I'm one of the sessions that we have. I'll have to devote the whole time to just talking about what that means, because one of the things I really want you to come out of the sessions with is a very clear impression of what it is to hear a word from God in your heart. And if we don't succeed with that, we haven't done our job, because that's really, I think, the deepest level of concern and confusion on this whole topic is not just whether I can tell if you have heard a word from God, but in my own heart can I come to the place where I recognize what comes to me as a word from God to me. So we're really going to be looking at the details on this now, and I do hope that if you have a Bible, you'll bring it because I will, or you can write down references and look them up later, but if you have a Bible, bring it because I will be doing a lot of work with the Bible. Well, just that initial word about the kind of life, and now let's look more deeply at the kind of life that we receive from Christ. We can some of what we've just said by saying we receive from Christ a life in the manifest presence of God, in the manifest presence of God. That's what he gives it to us. We know, of course, theologically God's presence all the time everywhere anyway, isn't he? So that's not something that we make happen as it were, but if God is going to be manifestly present in our lives, it will be because we have responded to him in a certain way. And so when we use the great benedictions, for example, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you. Be gracious unto you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. See, that's talking about the manifest presence of God. See, a shining face is what kind of what kind of face is a shining face? Is it a sad face? No, it's a happy face, right? So what does the benediction say? The Lord look at you with joy. Be gracious to you. That is, load you with his gifts of love and all the needs that you have in your life. The Lord pour out his grace on you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you. How would you put that in ordinary talk? And by the way, I don't want to preach a preach at you, please. If you have something to ask or if you can answer one of the questions, do feel free to do so. What does it mean? What, how would you think? That would mean he's looking right at you. He's paying attention to you, isn't he? He lifts up his countenance upon you. He's looking at you. So you can go right through that and rephrase that in language which will get this quality of life. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. The Lord be happy over you. You try that on? Doesn't that say a great deal when you think about that? You think the Lord is thankful for you? What do you think? Think the Lord is thankful for you? Well, work on it. Work on it. Try it on. There are a lot of things we need to just kind of, we hear them and we need to try them on. If he rejoices over you, wouldn't he be thankful for you? And he certainly does rejoice over you, doesn't it? So he's thankful for you. Isn't that nice to know? See, that's the kind of life that we want to look for. It's a life that has that quality chart. And now I want to go deeper into that by talking about the dimension of righteousness in the life of the believer. And see, this is a part of the quality of life that we have in a life where the voice of God is heard. Titus 211 and following is one of my favorite verses or passages in the whole Bible. And here's what it says, "The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, not in heaven when we die, but now." Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession zealous of good works. Didn't that have visioned? The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness, worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, godly in the present age. Look at Colossians 3 with me now. And Colossians 3 1 through 7 might be a good passage for you to meditate on, perhaps when you have a little time during the conference, because this is for me one of the most expressive passages of all as to the kind of life that we're given in Christ. And I want to keep this vision before us because the quality of life now that provides the context for the conversation between God and His people is one of great righteousness as well as joy. It isn't just that we're basking in the face of God, but because we're basking in the smiling, shining face of God, then our lives move into the realm of righteousness because our faith in Him provides a foundation for simply doing the things that everyone knows we ought to do anyway. Listen to these words now in Colossians 3 beginning with the first verse. And this first verse we're also going to have before us in the hour after dinner this evening. If then you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. Keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. Now let's pause a moment. What do you suppose the things above are? See the mythology of our age is that space is what's above us. And the moon is above us. The planets and stars and endless space. And this is one of the great contrasts between the Bible and the modern secular mind. The modern secular mind says that God is not here. The Bible says what is above is God. What is above? You remember Jacob's dream? Jacob was running from his brother because he'd done something wrong. And God gave him a dream. He was sleeping in a ditch in the not a good place to sleep probably. But he had a dream in that ditch and the dream was of a ladder going from earth to heaven. And heaven was not far away. Heaven was simply right here in space as we would see it. And the angels were ascending, coming down and going up. Angels were ascending and descending. Now let me tell you that what Jacob saw was what is really there. What Jacob saw is what is really there. So when you read this, you see Paul talks very naturally, doesn't he? Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on the earth. See, above is God's realm. What did Jesus say? Heaven is God's throne and the earth is His footstool. Do you remember that? That's the teaching of the scripture. The prophets say the same thing. Heaven is His throne and earth is His footstool. Do you remember in the 26th chapter of Matthew, Jesus is in the garden praying just before Judas comes to betraying? And when Judas comes to betray him, Peter takes out a sword and begins whacking around and cuts off somebody's ear and not a lot of damage. Jesus repaired it. And he said to him something very interesting. Don't you know that I could ask? And the Father would give me 12 legions of angels. 12 legions of angels. Does anyone know how many of that would be? 72,000 angels. Do you think that would have taken care of the emergency? The wood would. And do you suppose he would have had to rush those in from the moon? Thank you. Or Jupiter or someplace like that? You know where they were. They were right there, weren't they? They were right there. See, that's where we stand. We stand in God's world. Now, I'm going to have to talk a good deal about this world as spiritual because we live from a spiritual world. And that's not a way of saying it's not real. So, in a moment, I'm going to have to turn and talk about that in some detail. But let's just stress the element of above. And remember that above is right here, right here. That's what the Bible means when it talks of heaven. And the Bible speaks of heaven, it's referring to the direct and immediate availability of God to His people. So, when we pray our Father who art in heaven, we're really praying our Father always near us. That's what that means. Now, we've come to think about heaven in a different way. It's far away and may be much later. But we just have to get that out of our minds when we read these kinds of statements. See, Paul understood that all of space is filled with God. Do you know that there is no empty space? There is no empty space. It's all filled with God. Do you know that when Jesus was baptized in all of the Gospels, it says, the heavens opened. And have you thought about what that might mean in this context? See, what it means is that it was given to Jesus to see what is really here. What is really here? And it never says they closed for him. They stayed open. They all saw. And that's a very important lesson for us to learn. I don't have time this evening to go back through the Bible, but go back and look at the openings of the heavens. And how God appears, and understand, you see, that God is right here. So when we read the Word, we'll set your mind on things, not on the earth, but on things above. We're referring to setting our minds on Christ and on God and all of His kingdom. With all of the angels, which, by the way, there's more than you can count, more angels than you can count. And they are, they are, by the way, sent forth as ministers to those who would be heirs of salvation. Hebrews 114. Now we don't tell them what to do. God tells them what to do. But he tells them to take care of those who will be heirs of salvation, and that's you and me. And I'll guarantee you that there have been many kinds in your lives when the angels have ministered to you. Especially when you were small. In Matthew 1810, Jesus says, they're speaking of little children, their angels do always behold the face of my Father, which isn't him. Now we'll have time for discussion about these kinds of things. I hope as we go along and perhaps you want to talk about them some more around dinner or whatever we're doing. But it's important to have this in place now. And I do want to come back to the very idea of spiritual and what spirit is in a moment. Because you see, when you're talking to God or Christ, you are talking to a spiritual being. And when they speak to you, would you believe they too are speaking to a spiritual being? Because you are a spiritual being. But I'll come back to that in a moment. I just want to continue here in Colossians 3 to give the impression now of the quality of righteousness in the life of those who are living before God in the way that makes a communication with them a part of God's plan. Startling verse you've died in your life is hidden with Christ in God. And then as we go down the chapter, you'll see verse 5, since the members of your earthly body are dead in Christ, then you want to regard yourself as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, or covetousness which amounts to adultery. And in verse 8, put away anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. You see, the kind of heart that is caught up in those things is not the kind of heart that is prepared even to listen for God. Much less and much less to then do what he says, because what you're going to say about those things, he's certainly going to direct us away from them, isn't he? Now, some of these, the anger, I think according to the Bible, anger isn't a sin in itself, but the way it is done usually it is. You can be angry and not sin, that's what Paul says, but very few people do. And anger is a real trap, because in anger we usually lift ourselves up and are prepared to take punishment into our own hands and to not be kind and loving as God would have us to be. And so anger is a real danger, isn't it? In any case, who needs it? I mean, people often say to me, is anger sin? Well, no, anger is not sin, but headaches is not sin either, who needs the headache? Now, maybe that there are times when we should get angry, Jesus got angry sometimes, but also, they often say to me, well, Jesus took a whip and went in and beat up those people. You know, I'm just prepared for Jesus to do a lot of things that I wouldn't want to do myself. He can be trusted with that. I don't know that I could be trusted with that. And so that's something to remember now as you look at this list, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech. Well, that's the negative side. Now, look at verse 10, put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him. And this renewal breaks down all of the standard barriers between human beings that are used as a basis for mistreating people. Greek and Jew see they both felt superior to one another. They just disagreed about who was superior. The circumcised, the uncircumcised, the barbarian, the sithian, people often wonder why sithian is there. Sithian is like the barbarians, barbarians. I mean, these are really bad people. They're the ones when the barbarians saw them coming. They left. So let's get out of here. The barbarians are coming. And that's why they're on there if you want to look into that. Slave and free, but Christ is all and all. Look at this beautiful statement put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. See, all unforgiveness is lost. And it goes on to talk about how the body will dwell together. The people will come together in one body. The word of Christ, verse 16, will richly dwell in you, all wisdom, teaching and monitoring one another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs, and this crowning verse whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. In other words, everything you do, do it as if Jesus were doing it. Do it as if Jesus were doing it. That's where discipleship comes in. You see, when we come to the question of how we put off the old and put on the new, there has to be a definite answer in there. And it isn't just by saying now I'm putting off the old and now I'm putting on the new. We put off the old and we put on the new by becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. Or, apprentices, as Ivan pointed out, I like that word. I think it's a very good word. A apprentice means, if I'm an apprentice of someone, that means that I'm with them and I'm watching what they're doing. And I'm learning by watching. And I practice and they criticize constructively, no doubt. But Jesus, you know, often got kind of impatient with his people. And spoke to them very strongly sometimes because they weren't doing so well with the work that he was doing and they were trying to learn from him. But they learned, didn't they? And as time went along, they got better at it. Now, that's the essence of discipleship. The essence of discipleship is being with someone to learn to do what they do. So now when we look back up that list, how did Jesus deal with the good things that are listed here? A heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. See, we look at how he lived and how he manifested those traits. And we ask the question, what is it about him that enables him to do that? What was it about Jesus that enabled him to live in love and compassion and kindness? Well, it was above all his faith and vision of God. Jesus had great faith. And we spoke about the heavens being open and seeing the Father. You see, he saw the heavens and he lived in the light of that vision. And then as he acted, he put into his action the vision of God that he saw. And he saw that God was love, that God loved everyone. And so in the strength of that vision, he drew from God the power to love everyone as well. Now, we have a problem. We're not like Jesus in this regard. We've got an extra problem. And discipleship for us has an extra dimension. Because you see, we have learned how to do everything wrongly. And we have to unlearn it. Jesus never had to do that. He never had to do that because he always was one who lived in righteousness. That makes a very big difference. There was never a putting off of the old for him, like there is for us. We live in a tradition of fallen humanity. The first covenant of God with human beings is in the first chapter of Genesis. And when he created this, we can call this the creation covenant. If you look in Genesis 1, you see, the purpose for which God created human beings. He created them to have the minion for good over the earth. He created them to have the minion for good to create good on the earth. That's why we're here. And do you know that covenant has never been broken? By God, it's been broken by us. But God is still, and that's why, for example, every human being feels a responsibility for the earth. In some measure, and you know, you spend huge amounts of money taking care of the earth, don't you? And the earth rewards you by producing goods for you. Human beings have an interest, for example, in animals. Why do they want to preserve animals? It's because in them is the image of God that makes them responsible for the earth. They still feel responsible for the earth. Even though they abuse it, they still feel responsible for it. God has put that in them. And every person that I know of wants to do good. I've never met a person who didn't want to do good. Now, the problem is we all want to do good, but we're ready to do evil. And see, that's where the problem comes in. We've broken the covenant. We have the habits that lead to all of these things we have to put off anger and malice and slander. We have to change those, and in order to change them, we become disciples of Jesus Christ. I've given one description of the disciple, as someone who is with another to learn how to do what they do. I want to give you another description of the disciple because there's something very special that we mustn't miss here. Let me put it to you like this, a disciple of Jesus Christ. The disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is learning from Him. The disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is learning from Him how to lead their life as Jesus would lead their life. If He were they. You see the different emphasis there, it's on your life. And that's very important for us now. You see, one of the things that makes people say, "Oh God wouldn't talk to me," is because they don't understand the significance of their life. Jesus comes to me to teach me how to do what I do as He would do it if He were me. He comes to you to teach you how to do what you do as He would do it who you. That's what this discipleship to Christ is really about. It's about learning how to live our life. It isn't about some special religious things, though many of the things that we call religious now fall in the area of our life. Prayer, worship, evangelism, healing ministry, all of these which fall in religion are a part of our life. But they're just a part of our life because when we're not doing those things, we are still living before God. All that we do through the day is a part of a life which Christ comes to help us learn how to live. He comes to help us learn how to live it before an open heaven as He lent His mind. So there really is no part-time service, is there? There's no part-time service. There are special jobs that need to be done and we can call those full-time service if we want, but we don't really mean that. We really mean something else. We really mean something like, well, their employment is in that special job. But if your employment is not in some special job like that, you are still a full-time servant of God. You're in charge of your world. That's your kingdom. That's your kingdom. Your kingdom is where your will holds sway in that truth. That's your kingdom. You may think it's strange to call it your kingdom because we tend to think of kingdoms of these great big things or the armies and so on and you don't have an army. That's under your direction. You see, a kingdom for anyone is where their will holds sway. Now, think a moment about your life. You see, every human being has an area where their will holds sway. Isn't that true? That's your kingdom. That's your kingdom and Jesus has come to teach you how to reign and rule in that kingdom. It starts from your body and it goes out from there. We're going to say some more about this evening, but your body is the primary place where your kingdom exists. Your body. Now, if you look back at this list of things, you'll see that they all involve the body, even anger involves the body. They go deep into the body to the heart, the very center of your being, and your body extends out then to, let's say, your house, your money, your relationships to others, and that's your kingdom. Now, as your kingdom moves out, it comes in conflict with the kingdoms of others, doesn't it? For example, in your family, you have a bunch of little kingdoms. A bunch of little kingdoms, and they come in conflict with one another, and that is then where they have to be subordinate to a higher kingdom. If we insist on being the king in that area or the queen in that area, and insist on getting our way, that's where sin breaks out. That's what happened to the original creation covenant. It was broken because someone said, "Well, I think I will do it my way." I think I will do it my way, and sorry about God, but I don't know that I can trust Him, and so I will take things into my own hands. So when we look at the kind of life that is here, and we see the taking off and putting on, we have to remember that the way we do that is by being the disciples of Jesus Christ. By being the disciples of Jesus Christ. Now, we'll just say one further thing here before we include this hour. How are we disciples of Jesus Christ? Now, I've got to say something that I'm afraid going to worry us some. I've encoded the Great Commission. Go to all kinds of people, which is what it really says, all kinds of people, and make students or apprentices of them go to all kinds of people, make students of whom, students of Jesus, students of Jesus, surround them in the reality of the Trinity. Now, you say, no, it says baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but it wasn't talking about just getting people wet while you said those three names. You know, in the Bible, the name stands for the reality. So we make disciples, we surround them in the reality of the God who inhabits His people. Then we teach them to do everything that He commanded. We teach them to do everything that He command. One of the things I say in one of my books and I have said it in many, many contexts, and I'm always looking for someone who will say, no, no, that's wrong. I have to point out in there that I don't know of a single church or denomination that has a plan for teaching people to do everything Jesus command. And I'm hoping there's someone here who will say, I've got the case. See, that's a part of the commission, isn't it? See, what I've had to call that, the great omission from the great commission. And in fact, it doesn't even seem to be on the mental horizon. And we've had teaching which have even said things like, you can't do what Jesus did. Well, if you can't do what Jesus did and taught what He taught, if you can't do what He said, what are you going to do with a great commission? See, the missing link here is between what we've understood is faith and obedience and the missing link is discipleship. Discipleship. Now, this is the kind of thing where I hesitate to ask it because I don't want to make people feel uneasy, but do you think of yourself as a disciple of Jesus? Am I a disciple of Jesus? Am I His student? All of us have to answer that question. I have to answer that question. Am I a disciple of Jesus Christ? Am I learning from Him how to do what He said? For example, He said, bless those that curse you. That's just a little one we could start with. Now, am I learning how to do that? How do I do in situations where I am disliked people spith after they pronounce my name? How do I do that? See, I have people in various contexts that don't like me. Can I actually heartily bless them? How do you get to where you can bless people that hate you and wish you were dead? How do you do that? Is that possible? How many? You think it's possible? Okay. It's possible. But in order to do it, you'd have to have a different kind of insights, wouldn't you? See, we're not talking about bless your brother, sort of blessing. See, when we bless someone, we will good for them under the invocation of God. We will good for them under the invocation of God. That's why it is to bless someone. And you know, for example, I think probably many of you here have grandchildren and you know how your heart just naturally blesses them. In the true, you will good for them under the invocation of God. It just comes forth from you. What would it be something to be like that with reference to everyone? That's even those who hate you? Who curse you? Now you see, that's the kind of thing that we really are learning as disciples. Because until I've learned that, I can't lead my life like Jesus would lead my life. This can't do it. It's much more than that because, you know, it isn't just a matter of learning not to do things that he said we shouldn't do. It's a matter of returning to claim our whole life for him, to give up our whole life to what is good. That means in everything we do. And really, it isn't as if this were a burden because the real secret of discipleship is in learning that discipleship is the easy way to live. Not the hard way. It's the easy way. It's hard when you're making this shift. But have you ever, you know, when you say it's hard to love your enemies, have you ever considered the life of those who hate their enemies? Would you call it an easy lie? I wouldn't call it an easy lie. Now, if I'm filled with anger and wrath and I try to love my enemies, that's going to be hard. In fact, it's going to be impossible. It'll be impossible. So then, you see, what I have to learn to do is as a disciple, Jesus Christ, I have to find the path through which my heart is transformed. So that whenever I am cursed, there is in me what was in Jesus Christ. Now, you know, when Jesus hung on the cross, he prayed for those who were killing him. He prayed for them and he said, "Father, forgive them." That was a way of blessing them. He was willing, good for them forgiveness under the invocation of God, wasn't he? Do you think that was hard for Jesus to do? What do you think? What would have been hard for Jesus to do in that circumstance? It would have been hard for him to curse them, wouldn't it? In fact, I bet you can't even imagine him doing that because you have a sense of where his heart was. So our need is to be so inwardly transformed as his disciples that the kind of life that we see here in Colossians, and we see elsewhere in the Scripture, naturally flows from us, naturally flows from us. And, you know, real faith is to believe that that's possible because you can't do that in yourself. But real faith in Jesus Christ is to believe that if I trust him and not just something he did for me, though I'll trust that too, that if I trust him and begin to step into his teachings and learn how to follow him, I will be transformed. I will be transformed if I do that. That is real faith in Christ. That is a faith in Christ, which is not just for death, but for life. It is a faith in Christ, which is for life, and it automatically makes disciples, automatically makes disciples. A disciple is a student. When you see someone who knows how to do what you greatly admire, watch the natural response. I want to be your student. Now, if we understand this, then it moves us out from under the great burden of guilt because we're not doing the things Jesus said and did, because guilt isn't going to help us. It will not help us. Hope will help us. When we look at what Christ did and we look at what he taught, and we begin to have hope that that really could be us. The woman that they took in adultery and brought to Jesus and wanted him to—they were really trying to put him to the test because they knew that he was not going to say that they should kill that woman. They knew that. They just wanted to get it on the tape. They just wanted to get it on record. And Jesus and His wisdom knew how to handle that situation. But you remember what he said when he left? He said, "Go and sin no more." Now, you see, there are two ways of looking at that. One is to say, "Well, I don't think she can do that." And she could say, "Now I've got this extra job. I'm still alive, but I've got this extra job. Now I have to go and sin no more." See, that's one way of hearing it. I don't think that's the way she went away. I think she went away filled with hope that she actually could do it. You see, because she had been in the presence of Christ, and she had caught something different. And now, when we look at this rich, wonderful life of holiness and joy and the presence of God, the manifest presence of God throughout our life. When we look at that, you see, our attitude has to be, this is the good news. This is for us. We can walk free of unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us, not from all guilt, though it does that, but from all sin. Do you remember that word? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. And when we go through life with the feeling of that hot blood of love dripping from the cross on us, you see, that's the great emblem of hope. God is really like that. God is like that. And because God is like that, I can be holy, I can live right justly. I can know that I'm much better off and much stronger to live that way than to live anyway. You see, that's the vision of the kingdom of Jesus. And that's why he uses metaphors like you remember, he uses the figure of the man who found a treasure in a field. And maybe he found gold or oil or something in a field and he covered it up and ran, and got all his money together and sold everything he could sell and borrowed everything he could borrow, and he bought that field. Now, does that look to you like someone who's taking a beating? Does that look like to you like someone who's saying, "Oh, I've got to do this terrible, dreadful thing"? No, you see, that's someone who has found the best bargain they'll ever see. And that's what we find when we find Christ. That's what we find when we begin to walk into his kingdom and we begin to experience the greatness and the strength of it. And you see, we've got to have that in our minds when we talk about hearing the voice of God. Because if we don't, we're going to be talking, we're going to be thinking about hearing the voice of the heavenly ogre, or the terrible Father in heaven, who's going to ruin our lives by making us bless those who curse us. He's not going to ruin our lives. He's going to bring us in where we will not only be able to step free from unrighteousness, and in case you're worried, we don't need to get worried about perfection. We can just do a lot better than we do without getting there. There will probably always be room for improvement, at least I'm expecting that in my case. But you know what I'm talking about is doing a lot better. And we can do a lot better. We can come to the place to where we actually have hearts full of love and so on. So we see we can move into that and not just stepping out of unrighteousness and into righteousness, but also we can begin to take our life around us and begin to reign there with Christ Jesus. As I said, it's our kingdom. It's our kingdom. Now if we submit our kingdom to Christ's kingdom, then we begin to move back to the point to where the creation covenant becomes a reality in our lives and we are preparing ourselves to reign with Him forever and ever. Because you're never going to stop existing. You know that. You might as well start planning on what you're going to be doing 400 years who know. You're never going to stop existing. Did you know that? So you want to plan on your whole life and be looking at your whole life. I was thinking, you know, as I've grown older, time seems to go so much faster and I've often wondered about that. I wonder if it isn't that God has built that into us because we should be getting more and more anxious to step into the full whole world with Him. And perhaps He's just put that in us. So you know the Bible says the path of the just is like a dawning like that grows brighter and brighter until the full day. And we're hardly to date a clock by the time we get to be seven years old. We just not made a start. That's the kind of planning we want to be doing. That's kind of life we want to be anticipating. Is one in which we shall reign with Him forever and ever. Lord, we pray that You will give the lessons for our hearts that You want to be there. And lead us in our thinking, lead us in our thinking and in our feelings to a vision of a life where as the old Him says, He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we carry there none other has ever known. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Thanks for listening. You can learn more from Dallas about this topic and much more by visiting dwillard.org. You'll find a wide variety of resources and learning opportunities there, including personal growth resources, small group studies, online courses, retreats and conferences. We also have an 18-month discipleship community called the School of Kingdom Living that you might be interested in. New cohorts begin every October. Find us on your favorite social media channels for those thought-provoking quotes throughout the week and visit our Facebook group. Dallas Willard is my homeboy to discuss the things you're learning on your journey with Jesus. This podcast is brought to you by Dallas Willard Ministries and the family of Dallas Willard. Our producer is Tim Williams, music provided by Ben Howe. Until next time, remember, God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are. So wherever you are, be blessed. [Music]