Spiritual Formation with Dallas Willard
Dallas Willard is the author to whom I give credit for initiating my deeper spiritual growth over twenty-five years ago. His book The Spirit of the Disciplines showed me that I could engage with God in silence and solitude and that, as I was faithful in doing that, God would be faithful in growing the fruits of the Spirit in me. It’s a long, slow process, but more delightful than I ever imagined.
One of the questions Dallas Willard addresses is, if our goal in life is to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” as Paul commands in Romans 13:14, how do we do this? First, we trust Him to receive us as we are. We don’t need to do anything before we come to Him. We come to Him first and then He will guide us along the journey of growing in Him! Next, we trust that God does make Himself directly available to His children and that we are beginning to live in the Kingdom of Heaven as we follow Jesus’ way of life, full of faith and love, here on earth. Lastly, we pray and work on the following three areas, which Dallas Willard calls the “golden triangle”.
1. Faithful acceptance of everyday problems: We pray that God will enable us to endure trials with patience. We can begin to put James 1:2-3 into practice by giving thanks for daily annoyances and welcoming them as friends because God tells us that they will develop endurance in us.
2. Interaction with God’s Spirit in and Around Us: We pay attention to where we see God working in and around us and ask Jesus what He would do if He was in our situation.
3. Spiritual Disciplines: We engage in regular activities that are in our power (silence, solitude, prayer, Bible study, fasting, slowing down, meditating on Scripture, etc). Through these the Holy Spirit changes us in deeper ways than we could by direct effort.
It has helped me to have a simple plan that I can come back to again and again even as the ways I engage with God are many and varied. I hope this simple plan sets you on a path to follow Jesus all your life - and maybe introduces you to an amazing author as well!
Willard, Dallas. “The Golden Triangle of Spiritual Transformation: The Path of Radical Change”. https://renovare.org/articles/the-golden-triangle