i am concluding this series of posts referencing dallas willard’s work with excerpts that speak to the human spirit. it is lengthy and highly informative.

“i am a spiritual being who currently has a physical body. i occupy my body and its environs by my consciousness of it and by my capacity to will and to act with and through it. i occupy my body and its proximate space, but i am not localizable in it or around it. you cannot find me or any of my thoughts, feelings, or character traits in any part of my body. even i cannot. if you wish to find me, the last thing you should do is open my body to take a look. . . . the very unity of experiences that constitutes a human self cannot be located at any point in or around this body through which we live, not even in the brain. yet i am present as agent or cAUSAL INFLUENCE WITH AND ABOUT MY BODY AND ITS FEATURES AND MOVEMENTS. IN TURN, WHAT MY BODY UNDERGOES AND PROVIDES INFLUENCES MY LIFE AS A PERSONAL BEING [THESE DESCRIPTIONS ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF DUALIST INTERACTIONISM BETWEEN THE IMMATERIAL COMPONENTS OF THE SPIRIT AND SOUL OF HUMANS, AND OF GOD, AND THE MATERIAL COMPONENTS OF THE NEURAL SYNAPTIC NETWORKS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN AND BODY WITH COMMENTS ON THE CAUSAL EFFECTS OF THE IMMATERIAL ON THE MATERIAL]. . . . ‘SPIRITUAL’ IS NOT JUST SOMETHING WE OUGHT TO BE. IT IS SOMETHING WE ARE AND CANNOT ESCAPE, REGARDLESS OF HOW WE MAY THINK OR FEEL ABOUT IT. IT IS OUR NATURE AND OUR DESTINY. . . . IN FINDING THE SPIRITUAL NOT TO BE PHYSICAL WE DO NOT MEAN TO DENY THAT IT HAS POWER OR ENERGY. IT MOST CERTAINLY DOES. AND THIS IS A MAJOR POINT FOR THE POSITIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SPIRITUAL. SPIRIT IS A FORM OF ENERGY, FOR IT DOES WORK, AND WHATEVER DOES WORK HAS POWER. IN THE BIBLICAL VIEW IT IS, OF COURSE, THE ULTIMATE FORM OF POWER ON WHICH ALL OTHER FORMS REST. . . . BECAUSE WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS, AS JUST EXPLAINED, IT IS FOR OUR GOOD, INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, TO LIVE OUR LIVES IN INTERACTIVE [ITALICS ADDED] DEPENDENCE UPON GOD AND UNDER HIS KINGDOM RULE. . . . THUS PAUL, FROM HIS PROFOUND GRASP OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, COUNSELS US, ‘TO FILL YOUR MIND WITH THE VISIBLE, THE ‘FLESH,’ IS DEATH, BUT TO FILL YOUR MIND WITH THE SPIRIT [GUIDED BY THE INDWELLING SPIRIT OF JESUS] IS LIFE AND PEACE’ (ROM. 8:6).” WE ARE WITHIN THE KINGDOM OF GOD, BOTH NOW IN THE PRESENT AND IN THE AGE TO COME. “JESUS SAID, ‘GOD IS NOT THE GOD OF THE DEAD BUT OF THE LIVING’ (LUKE 20:38). HIS MEANING WAS THAT THOSE WHO LOVE AND ARE LOVED BY GOD ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CEASE TO EXIST, BECAUSE THEY ARE GOD’S TREASURES. HE DELIGHTS IN THEM AND INTENDS TO HOLD ONTO THEM. HE HAS EVEN PREPARED FOR THEM AN INDIVIDUALIZED ETERNAL WORK IN [HIS NEW CREATION].”

i am posting an excerpt from Willard’s book that contrasts the life of death versus the living kingdom of god to which we are called:

“. . . the souls of human beings are left to shrivel and die on the plains of life because they are not introduced into the environment for which they were made, the living kingdom of eternal life. to counteract this we must develop a straightforward presentation, in word and life, of the reality of life now under god’s rule, through reliance upon the word and person of jesus. in this way we can naturally become his students or apprentices. we can learn from him how to live our lives as he would live them if he were we. we can enter his eternal kind of life now [Italics added]. . . . it is universally agreed by new testament scholars that the central theme of the teaching of jesus was the kingdom of god. . . . to be born ‘from above,’ in new testament language, means to be interactively [italics added] joined with a dynamic, unseen system of divine reality in the midst of which all of humanity moves about . . . that, of course, is ‘the kingdom among us..”

in my books and blog posts i have presented compelling evidence for dualist, bidirectional interaction between the immaterial mind of man and of god and the material components of the neural synaptic networks, making possible the personal communion between ourselves and god. dallas willard speaks to this relationship:

“the issue, so far as the gospel . . . is concerned, is whether we are alive to god or dead to him. do we walk in an interactive relationship [Italics added] with him that constitutes a new kind of life, life ‘from above’? as the apostle john says in his first letter, ‘god has given undying life to us, and that life is in his son. those who have the son have life’ (1 john 5:11-12). . . . accordingly, the only description of eternal life found in the words we have from jesus is ‘this is eternal life, that they [his disciples] may know you, the only real god, and jesus the anointed, whom you have sent’ (john 17:3). this may sound to us like ‘mere head knowledge.’ but the biblical ‘know’ always refers to an intimate, personal, interactive relationship. . . . the eternal life of which jesus speaks is not knowledge about god but an intimately interactive relationship with him.”

Willard continues, “the apostle paul on one occasion describes it simply as ‘righteousness and peace and joy’ of a type that only occurs ‘through the energizing of the holy spirit’ (rom. 14:17).” . . . it is, as jesus said, constantly in the midst of human life (luke 17:21; cf. Deut. 7:21). indeed, it means that it is more real and more present than any human arrangement could ever possibly be.”

willard points out that “god did not start to bring his kingdom, the ‘kingdom of the heavens’ as jesus often called it, into existence through jesus’ presence on earth. all too frequently it is suggested that he did. but jesus’ own gospel of the kingdom was not that the kingdom was about to come, or had recently come, into existence. if we attend to what he actually said, it becomes clear that his gospel concerned only the new accessibility of the kingdom to humanity through himself.” this refers to the sending of the holy spirit by god the father and the resurrected jesus christ to indwell those who are repentant so that communion between mankind and god through his holy spirit is restored. this is an interaction that defines the “kingdom of the heavens” now accessible to the saints in christ by his sin sacrifice on the cross. . . . “so when jesus directs us to pray, ‘thy kingdom come,’ he does not mean we should pray for it to come into existence. rather, we pray for it to take over at all points in the personal, social, and political order where it is now excluded: ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’ with this prayer we are invoking it, as in faith we are acting it, into the real world of our daily existence.”

willard points out in genesis 1:28-30 that “we are responsible before god for life on the earth. however unlikely it may seem from our current viewpoint, god equipped us for this task by framing our nature to function in a conscious, personal relationship of interactive [Italics added] responsibililty with him. we are meant to exercise our ‘rule’ only in union with god, as he acts with us. he intended to be our constant companion or coworker in the creative enterprise of life on earth. that is what his love for us means in practical terms. . . . lamentably, we fell away from our intended divine context [the spiritual death at the fall] and from the task for which we are by nature fitted. we mistrusted and distanced ourselves from god and then, very naturally, from one another. in our arrogance and fear we flounder through our existence on our own.”

dallas willard cites c. s. lewis in the first chapter:

“so, c. s. lewis writes, our faith is not a matter of our hearing what christ said long ago and ‘trying to carry it out.’ rather, ‘the real son of god is at your side. he is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as himself. he is beginning, so to speak, to ‘inject’ his kind of life and thought, his zoe [life], into you; beginning to turn the tin soldier into a live man. the part of you that does not like it is the part that is still tin.’”

willard continues:

“. . . the rule of god is now accessible to everyone. . . . in matthew’s account of jesus’ deeds and words, the formulation repeatedly used is the well-known ‘repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand’ (3:2; 4:17; 10:7). this is a call for us to reconsider how we have been approaching our life, in light of the fact that we now, in the presence of jesus, have the option of living within the surrounding movements of god’s eternal purposes, of taking our life into his life.” (and taking his life, the holy spirit, into our life as an indwelling presence and guide with whom we are in personal interaction in our time)

willard continues, “Jesus offers himself as god’s doorway into the life that is truly life.”

dallas willard stated in chapter 1, “entering the eternal kind of life now,” the following:

“god’s desire for us is that we should live in him. he sends among us the way to himself. that shows what, in his heart of hearts, god is really like - indeed, what reality is really like. in its deepest nature and meaning our universe is a COMMUNITY OF BOUNDLESS AND TOTALLY COMPETENT LOVE.”