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

by John Mark Comer

“May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.” —first-century Jewish blessing

There simply is no better way, truth, or life to be found than that of Jesus.

My thesis is simple: Transformation is possible if we are willing to arrange our lives around the practices, rhythms, and truths that Jesus himself did, which will open our lives to God’s power to change. Said another way, we can be transformed if we are willing to apprentice ourselves to Jesus. Then—and only then—can we become the people we ache to be and live the lives we were destined for.

the meaning of discipleship is perfectly clear: To follow Jesus is to become his apprentice. It’s to organize your entire life around three driving goals: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.

The problem with the word disciple is that we don’t use it much outside church circles. The Hebrew word is talmid, and it simply means “a student of a teacher or philosopher”—not just a learner but a practitioner of an embodied way of life, one who is diligently working to be with and become like their master.[20]

Here’s why: If disciple is something that is done to you (a verb),[25] then that puts the onus of responsibility for your spiritual formation on someone else, like your pastor, church, or mentor. But if disciple is a noun—if it’s someone you are or are not—then no one can “disciple” you but Rabbi Jesus himself.

The word Christian literally means “little Christ” (or “mini Messiah”), which is beautiful.

For Jesus, salvation is less about getting you into heaven and more about getting heaven into you.

It’s about being a person who not only is loved by God but also is pervaded by the love of God.

Jesus was constantly offering this life to any who would follow him. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full,”[53] he said. So much life that our “cup overflows.”[54]

This is the first and most important goal of apprenticeship to Jesus: to be with him, to spend every waking moment aware of his presence and attentive to his voice. To cultivate a with-ness to Jesus as the baseline of your entire life.

Brother Lawrence made it his life’s ambition to experience God in the chaos of the kitchen, with all its noise, distraction, and busyness.

The Greek word for “contemplate” here is katoptrizō, and it means to “gaze or behold.” To “contemplate the Lord’s glory” is to direct the inner gaze of your heart at the Trinitarian community of love.

Just keep praying. Stay with it. The one non-negotiable rule of prayer is this: Keep showing up. Stay with the process until you experience what all the fuss is about. Don’t stop until you know by direct experience what I’m stumbling to name with words.

The phrase “solitary place” is one word in Greek: erēmos. It can be translated “deserted place,” “lonely place,” or “quiet place.”[58]

This is why information alone does not produce transformation. Because knowing something is not the same as doing something, which is still not the same as becoming the kind of person who does something naturally as a by-product of a transformed inner nature.

Greek word translated “saved” in the New Testament is sōzō—a word that is often translated “healed.”[41] So, in the Gospels, when you read that Jesus “saved” someone and then read that he “healed” someone, you’re often reading the exact same word. Jesus intentionally blurred the line between salvation and healing.

three elements of (1) radical self-awareness, honesty, and confession, (2) total surrender to God’s power, and (3) a loving, tight-knit community to both love you and hold you accountable to becoming your true self.

It is his power—his alone—that can change, heal, fix, and renew the most damaged corners of our souls.

Blinkist

Another version of spark notes

The most difficult moments in our lives—the ones we fear and avoid at all costs—are our crucibles. They have the most potential to forge our souls into the shape of Jesus.

These unhappy times of great emotional pain, in a beautifully redemptive turn, have the potential—if we open to God in them—to transform us into grounded, deeply joyful people. Suffering is sadness leaving the body.

If you are an apprentice of Jesus, your end goal is to grow and mature into the kind of person who can say and do all the things Jesus said and did.

all of the best conversations I’ve ever had with people far from God have been around my table. All of them.

Used as a verb, as in to witness or to bear witness, it just means to tell others what you saw or experienced. That’s it.

Our job is not to “close the deal” with the right technique, but simply to bear witness to our life with Jesus.

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. People have agency, free will; salvation is some kind of a mysterious mix of God’s initiative and human response.

James commands the church to “pray for each other so that you may be healed” because “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”[54]

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.

As you are going about your ordinary life, live with your eyes wide open to see what the Father is doing, all around you, and then to partner with him.

We will find our hearts drawn to particular justice issues, people groups, neighbor families, or lines of work. And it will feel like joy.

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.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so beautifully said, Whatever your life’s work is, do it well….If

In my experience, he will often gently set a small burden of love on your heart—an idea that comes to mind in prayer, an unexpected opportunity in the middle of your day—to participate in the outward flow of the Trinity’s love to all.

John Ortberg quote I keep coming back to is this: You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God.[2]

Jesus modeled a set of core practices that we will cover next: disciplines like Sabbath, Scripture, prayer, and fasting.

Anything can become a spiritual discipline if we offer it to God as a channel of grace.

Because chronically exhausted, sleep-deprived, overbusy people are not loving, peaceful, and full of joy.

Rest is essential to apprenticeship under Jesus.

You have to show up for prayer and you have to show up regularly.[43]

Jesus has never met anyone anywhere other than where they actually are.

“Let life be willed through you.”[26] Breathe. Open to God. Start with rest.

Matthew 5v16.