Chapter 9 Summary: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

A Curriculum for Christlikeness

In chapter 8 of The Divine Conspiracy Dallas Willard helps us come to grips with what discipleship is, isn’t, and how to become disciples of Jesus Christ. One thing we might have learned from reading the chapter is that the American church generally is not in the business of making disciples. Indeed he suggests that “nondiscipleship is the elephant in the church.” 

Actual discipleship, as we've seen, is “learning from Jesus how to live my life.” It is a growing and continual interaction with Jesus that leads to inward transformation of the self enabling one to become the kind of person who routinely and naturally does the things that Jesus teaches his students to do. 

Having wrestled with that chapter, and having formed a solid Vision and Intention (from the VIM formula), we are now ready to look at the means that are available to a person who has decided that life with Jesus is what they want more than anything else. Once the intention has been formed a disciple trainer would need to "begin to think about what, exactly, we would do to help people already committed to learning to do the things Jesus taught, so that they would actually come to do them routinely.” 

At this point it is important to remember that we are not merely passing along more information about Jesus. For a majority of those considering discipleship have the “correct” information. If given a test they could pass, maybe even with flying colors. So it is not more information that a potential apprentice needs; what he or she needs is help coming to believe what they already “know” or have heard.

To believe something is to act as if it is so.

When we act in accordance with our beliefs we are able to deal more successfully with reality. But many, possibly without even being aware of it, do not actually believe what they profess; you can tell by their actions.   

Willard helps us understand how belief "works" with an example of arithmetic. “To believe that two plus two equals four is to behave accordingly when trying to find out how many dollars or apples are in the house… Just try dealing with it as if two plus two equaled six.” So a disciple trainer, for example, would help a disciple in training come the point where they act in harmony with a belief in the Trinity. That is, a belief that the universe is controlled by a community of agape love that wills good for all of creation. A person who actually believes this, would be able to live fully into the kingdom and manage reality successfully. However, before forming a curriculum it is important to remember what our primary objectives are not.

In disciple training we do not aim at external conformity, getting people to profess correct doctrine, special experiences, or even faithfulness to the church. These are all important, but they are not primary. Anyone who thinks they should be needs only look at the current situation of the Western church. With these as the primary objectives we have ended up in the despondent situation in which we find ourselves. So we will unseat them from the seat of primacy. Instead of striving to get people to do the old primary objectives our new primary objective will be twofold: 

1) Enthralling the mind with God, and 2) Acquiring habits of goodness.

Enthralling the Mind with God 

We first help them see the goodness of God. An image of God as great and beautiful must be foundational because it is from God that we receive life, and it is his universe in which we live. One who sees God as mean, or ever angry, will never be able to progress in the kingdom life. For they will naturally want to keep distant from God. Conversely, one who delights in God will want to draw nearer to him; this is where transformation occurs.

Our desire in this part of the objective is to bring people to love God. And love, of any sort, cannot be without a vision of the beloved. A person who loves roses, for example, only comes to love them by beholding them over a period of time and seeing them as good. They get close to it, smell it, observe it, feel it, study it; all the while their love for it grows. Likewise, when a person comes to see the goodness of God in the Trinity, in his creation, in his son, in his public acts, and even in their own life, "a full heart of love will go out toward God, and joy and obedience will flood the life."

Again, without this proper view, and love, of God. A person may try to enter into kingdom life. But they will continually encounter their deeply held beliefs about God that have estranged them from him. So this is absolutely vital. 

Acquiring Habits of Goodness 

While teaching about the goodness of God we will need to help people acquire new habits that tend toward goodness. Note: this is not a secondary objective in that it should only happen after the first is complete; they should happen in concert with one another. 

Willard says, “our second primary objective of a curriculum for Christlikeness is to remove automatic responses against the kingdom of God, to free the apprentices of domination, of 'enslavement' (John 8:34; Rom. 6:6), to their old habitual patterns of thought, feeling, and action.” Habitual patterns, in and of themselves, are not bad. Indeed a majority of the things we do by habit serve us positively. Willard says:

The responses we make to our context without thinking are simply an expression of what our body “knows” to do. Of course, in most situations this is good. It is what our body is for. There is almost nothing we do as adult human beings that does not depend on our body’s ‘knowledge’ taking over. Speaking, kitchen work, and driving about in our community are things we have to think very little about as we do them. Unfortunately this remains true when what our body “knows to do” is wrong.

A potential disciple, then, must be helped to see how certain bodily habits lead towards things like anger, scorn, “the look,” and more. These are not things that our outside of our control, but we allow them into us by engaging in patterns that lead to them. In order to kill these habitual responses, a student of Jesus will have to first decide to, and then identify new practices that will replace the old ones. 

Doing this might seem like a tall order; in the same way as it does to those seemingly helpless to alcohol or other drugs. But it is possible to break habits, even mighty ones, as groups like AA have demonstrated. But it will not happen unless intention is involved. It also will not happen without the help of God. “He will not do it for us because he has a vital interest in who we become.” But he will certainly help us; indeed without his help spiritual transformation into Christlikeness would be impossible. Thus the apostle Paul exhorts the Philippian disciples to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12b-13). So we do what we are able to do, with the awareness that God is working mightily in us, too. 

Some of the tools we might use to help us root out old habits and establish new ones are spiritual disciplines. “A discipline is any activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.” The word discipline, for many, brings about negative thoughts; we ought not think of them that way. A helpful way for me is to think about an athlete, or anyone who is really skilled at what they do. If you look at the patterns of their life you will find their disciplines. And these disciplines free them to be excellent.

Spiritual disciplines are, in many ways, the same. It is not what we do in the heat of the moment, but what we do to prepare us to respond in the moment. So when we look at Jesus, what do we see him doing when the heat is off, if you will? Well he certainly prayed a lot. He sought solitude often. He was charitable regularly. He was a student of scripture. He lived sacrificially. These are just a few of the known habits of Jesus. If he did these things might we need to do them, too? I think so. 

Here is a list of disciplines Dallas provides.

The abstinence list includes disciplines that are meant to disrupt harmful habits and beliefs we have established and refocus our lives on God. The list of engagements is meant to firmly plant our lives on the reality of God and his kingdom.

All of these disciplines involve our bodies. Willard says that this makes sense because “the body is the first field of energy beyond our thoughts that we have direction over, and all we influence is due to our power over it. Moreover, it is the chief repository of the wrong habits that we must set aside, as well as the place where new habits are to be instituted.” 

We use disciplines wisely to open our lives to the reality of the kingdom, and disconnect us from the false realities that govern our bodies and minds. We have already discussed a need to receive praise from human beings in chapter 6. We combat this learned behavior by doing our good deeds in secret. This discipline of secrecy, therefore, is pivotal in teaching our bodies and minds that the only approval that is important is God’s. Likewise, the person who has learned to believe that they must always be around others and doing things will benefit largely from the discipline of solitude and silence. For in solitude and silence we discover that the world goes on without us just fine, and we learn that we are never truly alone. 

This is not an exhaustive list (for a better treatment of the disciplines read The Spirit of the Disciplines or Celebration of Discipline)*; there are several examples of disciplines that have helped “mortify the deeds of the flesh,” and open people up to the kingdom, that are not listed. My favorite is of St. Benedict who, when being tempting to look lasciviously at a woman, would throw himself naked into a briar patch to root out that habit. 

Upon hearing this some students of Willard would incredulously say, “You can’t be serious!” His response was, “How serious are you about entering the kingdom life?” 

So what discipline might you be willing to undertake to uproot the bad habits (indwelling sin) so that you can learn habits of righteousness?In another place Willard tells of a man who said, “I cannot help but scream in anger at my son when he screws up.” Willard suggested to this man of great wealth that he should give $10,000 to a charity of his wife’s choice whenever he exploded towards his son. The man agreed and soon discovered that he could, in fact, respond without anger. 

These spiritual disciplines, and any others we might employ, are not laws; they are wisdoms. We do not trust them to bring about transformation, we trust God. But we use the disciplines wisely, not abusively, because we understand that they help direct our being toward the kingdom and king. Enthralling the mind with God and acquiring habits of goodness do not make a complete curriculum, but they do lay a good foundation for us to begin a life as an apprentice of Jesus Christ.

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