The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God

by Dallas Willard

we have more freedom with respect to what we will think of, where we will place our mind, than anything else.

And the freedom of thinking is a direct freedom wherever it is present. We need not do something else in order to exercise

The deepest revelation of our character is what we choose to dwell on in thought, what constantly occupies our mind—as well as what we can or cannot even think of.

I think, therefore I am.

But the mind is also at the root of our

indirect freedoms—of things we can do if we do...

Alcoholics An...

Steps 1 through 4 in the well-known Twelve Step program are exercises of the direct freedom of the individual, the freedom to place their minds where they need to: on themselves as they really are and on God, who can help them.5 But these first steps make it possible to do other things (the remaining eight steps) that they could not do if their minds were not directed as the first four steps require.

they want to be free of drink day by day. That is the goal. But this “freedom” will never be realized unless the individual involved takes constant care over the direct placement of his or her mind.

part of the call of God to us has always been to think. Indeed the call of Jesus to “repent” is nothing but a call to think about how we have been thinking.

the task of developing disciples into the fullness of Christ,

one main part, and by far the most fundamental, is to form the insights and habits of the student’s mind so th...

When this is adequately done, a full heart of love will go out toward God, and joy and obe...

(Ps. 16:5–11)

The distortion, or “wrungness,” of the will, on the other hand

“corruption”—is primarily a matter of our refusal to dwell in our minds on right things in the right way.6 We “refuse to retain God in ou...

if I do not want to keep a promise or contract, I will choose to dwell on how to avoid keeping it, not on how to keep it. This is an observable fact. And if I dwell on how to keep it, I pretty certainly w...

That is how human personality is organized, and how it is organized must always be kept in mind as we train disciples.

There are three main ways in which God comes before the mind, where we can lose ourselves in love of him.

These are, of course, also ways in which we may present God to others, as well as ways by which we individually may seek to fill our minds with him.

Through them, the lovely God wins the love o...

He comes to us (1) through his creation, (2) through his public acts on the scene of human history, and (3) through individual experienc...

“God the Father Almighty, Maker of Hea...

the first task is to present our Father, the one in the heavens, as maker and sustainer of everything

else, of “heaven and earth.”

“God most high” (E...

(Gen. 14:...

all of “natural” reality, including you and me,

owes its existence and therefore its astonishing order and magnificence

to

something other tha...

The famous Greek philosopher Epictetus, a contemporary to Peter and Paul, commented that “any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a providence to a modest and grateful mind.”

(Rom. 1:19–20).

Romans (10:18),

he comes close to identifying the very “word of Christ,” the gospel, with the word of God that goes out from nature to “the ends ...

God is more sensed through nature than inferred

training that brings apprentices of Jesus to live on that rock of “hearing and doing,” “God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth” must be made present to their minds in such a way that they can see his magnificent beauty and their love can be strongly and constantly drawn to

him.

This will make a huge and indispensable contribution to their ability to love him with all their hea...

We then listen prayerfully to those we teach. We encourage every question, and we make it clear that dealing honestly with the questions that come up is the only path to a robust and healthy faith.

Most but not all uncertainties in the minds of disciples—and this is only somewhat less so for people in general—are the result of unclarities and failures to understand. These shut down confidence and love, and we must never rest until they are cleanly dispersed from the mind.

we of course are not just counting on our own cleverness and ability but stand in expectation of help from the Spirit of truth who is constantly at work in the disciples of Jesus.

we do this kind of work hand in hand with the cultivation of the mind and spirit through art and imagination, poetry and song, praise, prayer, and worship. These all help our minds to lay hold of...

The acid test for any theology is this: Is the God presented one that can be loved, heart, soul, mind, and strength? If the thoughtful, honest answer is; “Not really,” then we need to look elsewhere or deeper.

It does not really matter how sophisticated intellectually or doctrinally our approach is. If it fails to set a lovable God—a radiant, happy, friendly, accessible, and totally competent being—before ordinary people, we have gone wrong.

The theologian who does not love God is in great danger, and in danger of doing great harm, for he or she needs to know him and believe with assurance concerning him.

More often than not, it is not evidence or proof they need. They need someone to make sense of God in relation to what they are sure, rightly or wrongly, they know about themselves and their world.

the battle to identify our universe as God’s and our existence as part of his creation simply has to go on. We cannot stand aside. And in training people to “hear and do,” we must take an open, loving, and intelligent stand on these fundamental matters.