Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.

by John Mark Comer

Luke’s gospel is clearest on this note: “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,” where, on the Sabbath, he read from the scroll of Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.[11] Interpretation: Jesus did what he did by drawing on his connection to the capacities of God. My point is: Jesus did miracles not by flexing his God muscles like Thor but by living in reliance on the Spirit’s power.

In Jesus’ incarnation, we see what the real, true God is like. Not the God who is a figment of our imaginations or fears but the God who is reality. It’s not just that “Jesus is God” but more like “God is Jesus.” Or “God is Christlike and in him is no un-Christlikeness at all,” as the Anglican Archbishop Michael Ramsey once said.[12]

But listen carefully: In Jesus’ incarnation we also see what a real, true human being is like. We see what God had in mind from the beginning—what human beings have the potential to become if reunited with God. So, when you read the miracle stories, don’t just think, Oh, well, Jesus was God. Yes, he was. But also think, Wow, this is what a real, true human being, walking in the power of the Spirit, is capable of.

Now, I’m not saying you need to rush down to your local morgue and get your holy roller on. I’m just saying that the same power that was on Jesus, and then on Peter, Paul, and the earliest apostles, is now on you and me—or at least is available to you and me as we, like Jesus, surrender to the Father and open ourselves to the Spirit’s promptings.

He gave us his Spirit to empower us with his capacities. To do his work by his power, not our work by our own very limited resources.

Jesus is looking for disciples he can trust with his power.

There’s no official list of what Jesus did (just as there’s no official list of the practices), but I find it helpful to categorize Jesus’ ministry into three basic rhythms: Making space for the gospel Preaching the gospel Demonstrating the gospel

Yet “all the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’ ”[17] We find the story heartwarming, but they found it offensive. Why? Because meals are what the anthropologist Mary Douglas called “boundary markers.”[18] Meals bring people together, but they also keep people apart. Think of the pre–civil rights restaurants with signs on the door saying Whites Only, or, in the UK, No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. Even today, think of how restaurants are often stratified by class. Even in the no-brow places we tend to love,[19] most of us eat with friends or family, people who are like us.

You see, for Rabbi Jesus, meals were not a “boundary marker” but a sign of God’s great welcome into the kingdom; not a way to keep people out, but to invite people in.

First, Luke wrote, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”[24] That was what Jesus did—his mission. Then he wrote, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking.”[25] That was how Jesus did it—his method.[26]

Meaning: Hospitality is the opposite of xenophobia. It’s the love of the stranger, not the hate or fear of the “other.” It’s the act of welcoming the outsider in and, in doing so, turning guests into neighbors and neighbors into family in God.

But we can offer them a space where such a change can occur, even if slowly over time.

When we offer hospitality, we get to embody the heart posture of the Trinity’s inner life—welcome, invitation, warm affection, generosity, provision, safety, community, comfort, the meeting of needs, delight, and sheer joy. And “when we act like God, we get to feel like God,”[30] to share his joy.

The writer Rosaria Butterfield called this act “radically ordinary hospitality”: Radically ordinary hospitality—those who live it see strangers as neighbors and neighbors as family of God. They recoil at reducing a person to a category or a label. They see God’s image reflected in the eyes of every human being on earth….

But ironically, the anti-Christian-proselytizing shtick is based on self-defeating logic, because everyone is proselytizing.

All of these are “gospels”—they are messages about where our hopes lie, where human history is going, what the dangers are, where salvation is to be found, where we can find community, and how to live a good life and become a good person. Everyone is preaching a gospel. Apprentices of Jesus are those who preach his gospel. Now, when we say “preach the gospel,” all we mean is to tell people about Jesus: Announce the good news of Jesus and the availability of life with him in the kingdom of God.

As a reaction against an unsophisticated, manipulative, and at times mean-spirited kind of “preaching,” that often left people feeling degraded and demeaned, many of us have lost our sense of witness entirely. But it is core to our faith and essential to our discipleship that we reach out to others with this good news of Jesus.

We often start with the assumption that because someone isn’t a disciple of Jesus, God isn’t at work in their life. But what if we started with the opposite assumption? That God is all-present and full of love and drawn to sinners? That he is likely already at work in their life, gently inviting them in?

Some will be attracted to the gospel, others repulsed. That’s okay, we’re not responsible for outcomes any more than a witness is responsible for the ruling in a trial.

“When do we get to do the stuff?” he asked.[41] “Do the stuff” has since entered the charismatic lexicon as code for operating in the manifestations of the Spirit we read of in 1 Corinthians 12—prophecy, words of wisdom and knowledge, healings, miracles, and more.

Dr. Michael Green of Oxford, in his book Evangelism in the Early Church, argues that 80 percent or more of evangelism in the early church was done by ordinary Christians, not pastors or Christian celebrities, and it was mostly just by explaining their unusual way of life to their family and friends, by living in such a way that people were drawn to the beauty of their lives.

Do not underestimate the raw power of simply practicing the Way of Jesus in community.

You see, it’s easy for a lot of us (and I’m writing to myself here) to kind of fudge this part of our apprenticeship to Jesus. I’m down for formation, emotional health, contemplative prayer—sign me up. But preaching the gospel? I think I’ll just mow my neighbor’s lawn and hope they figure out Jesus rose from the dead. But if we curb this impulse of the Spirit deep within our spirits—to go, to preach the gospel, to testify—then we will “quench the Spirit”[47] in ways that will sabotage our formation and suppress our spiritual vitality.

The German theologian Jürgen Moltmann argued that miracles are not an intrusion into the “natural” order but the healing of it.

Jesus’ healings are not supernatural miracles in a natural world. They are the only truly “natural” thing in a world that is unnatural, demonized and wounded.[50] To follow Jesus isn’t just to watch him do things like heal the sick and deliver the oppressed; it’s to train under him to do those kinds of things too.

And while we may see more of this in the East, the Global South, and the developing world, it’s here in the “secular” West as well. In fact, with globalization, the West is becoming less and less secular. To speak of demons might still get you laughed at, but to talk about “dark spiritual energy” around a home or even a person is now considered somewhat legitimate. And this stuff is real, I’m telling you. Sure, some of it is make believe or worse, paranoia. But a lot of it is genuine. My own wife was dramatically delivered, under the care of an older, mature disciple of Jesus, from a four-generation-old demonic curse. It’s a long, incredible story straight out of the New Testament.[57] This experience opened our eyes to what’s been hiding in plain sight: All around us people are suffering under demonization—what if we could set them free?

The apostle Paul called this “prophecy,” and he seemed to assume (and I’m thinking of 1 Corinthians 12–14 here) that the same Spirit that was on Moses and Jesus and all the prophets is now on us, and that, in a similar, though less potent way, we can speak a word to others from God. This rarely means we hear an audible voice from the sky; normally it’s simply a feeling or a thought that comes to mind—a word, phrase, scripture, or picture…We then get to humbly offer that word or impression to others, in love.

Jesus stands in a long line of Hebrew prophets who stand for justice in the world. The most dramatic example is Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, which had become a breeding ground for corruption and complicity with the empire rather than a place of overlap between heaven and earth.

It means disadvantaging yourself for the advantage of the “other,” the one in need of care.

Jesus’ famous last words, “Go into all the world,”[63] are written in a unique verb tense; a more literal translation would be “As you are going into all the world…”

As Jesus said, “I only do what I see the Father doing.”[64] Jesus had this uncanny ability to see people—to see what God was doing in them, right then, right there—and to unleash God’s power and purposes for them in each moment.

I love this from Thomas Kelly: The Loving Presence does not burden us equally with all things, but considerately puts upon each of us just a few central tasks, as emphatic responsibilities. For each of us these special undertakings are our share in the joyous burdens of love. We cannot die on every cross, nor are we expected to.[67]

Kelly also said, “By inner persuasions He draws us to a few very definite tasks, our tasks, God’s burdened heart particularizing His burdens in us.”[68]

The way we turn our work from “marking time” into “ministry” isn’t by becoming a pastor or starting a nonprofit; it’s by doing whatever we do the way we imagine Jesus would do it if he were us—with skill, diligence, integrity, humility, the kingdom’s ethics, and so on. It’s also by doing our work very well.

Is there something—anything—that you feel the Spirit of God stirring in your heart? A desire to do good? Not a guilt trip or sense of religious obligation to be more involved in this or that project, but an inner prompting of the heart to some small act of kindness? It’s highly likely that’s your joyous burden of love. It’s easy and light. Do it, and you will discover true happiness.

No, by far the hardest option but the most life-giving path forward is a life of contemplative action or active contemplation. A life of both-and, where all we are is integrated into apprenticing Jesus, our center, our life.

But very few have a plan to be with Jesus and thoughtfully apprentice under him in such a way that over time they become the people who naturally do and say the kinds of things Jesus said and did.

“Nurturing a growing spirituality with depth in our present-day culture will require a thoughtful, conscious, intentional plan for our spiritual lives.”[1]

You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God.[2]

but also to rearrange our days—from the hurry, digital addiction, and chronic exhaustion that we’ve been conditioned to believe is normal when, in reality, it’s truly insane.

This is one way to think about discipleship in the modern era: as a disciplined effort to slow down and make space for God to transform you.

a Rule.

A Rule of Life is a schedule and set of practices and relational rhythms that create space for us to be with Jesus, become like him, and do as he did, as we live in alignment with our deepest desires. It’s a way of intentionally organizing our lives around what matters most: God.

Way of Life

Rule of Life

David Brooks once defined commitment as “falling in love with something [or someone] and then building a structure of behavior around it for those moments when love falters.”[6]

In both marriage and life with God, it’s the constraint of commitment that will create space for love to mature

Here’s the thing: You already have a Rule of Life.

The question isn’t, Do you have a Rule of Life? It’s, Do you know what your Rule of Life is? And is it giving you the life you want? Is it working for you or against you?

The problem is not that your Rule of Life isn’t working, but that it is.