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Our prayer is to be Christ’s Ambassadors who invite God’s touch in your soul.
Blessings,
Bill and Kristi Gaultiere
A Soul Shepherding Devotional
“Inviting God’s touch in your soul”
By Bill Gaultiere © 2013
A number of years ago at a pastors’ retreat I connected with a friend who was excited to tell me that he had just gotten his book published. I complemented him as I held his book in my hands and looked it over. But inside I was jealous.
I was in the midst of my extended Sabbatical from writing books. It ended up being fourteen years! Fourteen years of abstaining from my love of writing about Christ and the soul. Why? I was obeying the call of the Spirit to simplify my life and make more space for my family, including our young children. I was learning to find significance not in great achievements but in an ordinary life of loving God and my neighbor. But I hadn’t yet learned to fully relax and rejoice in this “easy yoke” of Jesus.
So as I held my friend’s book, instead of being happy for him and praying for the success of his book, I harbored envy. I wanted to write a book like that! I felt convicted about my envy, but I couldn’t break free of it.
How do you react when you see someone who is more successful than you? Has more money or education than you? Is prettier than you? Or has children who are better off than yours? Anyone may succumb to jealousy. We talk with pastors and pastors’ wives who struggle with feeling envious and competitive of other pastors who have a bigger church or larger ministry.
Could you and I ever get free of jealousy and envy?
Later that day at lunch I was talking to another friend at the retreat and I happened to notice that on his coffee mug was written out Philippians 2:3: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself.” That added to the guilt I was already feeling! Fortunately, instead of wallowing in self-condemnation I decided that God had reminded me of this Bible verse and was offering me a lifeline.
So as soon as I finished my lunch I went to my room and knelt down to pray in private. I confessed to God about my attitude of jealousy and feelings of sadness about not writing in that season of my life. I thanked him for the space of time and energy to be a more involved husband and father. Then I asked the Lord what he wanted to teach me from Philippians 2:3. I knew he didn’t want me to languish in guilt, nor pressure myself to be more generous-spirited toward my author-friend. What was God saying to me?
As I waited quietly on my knees, I sensed God inspire me to compose a Breath Prayer from the Bible verse that was on the coffee mug. As I meditated on Philippians 2:3 and experimented with some breathing patterns I found a life-giving rhythm that avoided the guilt and pressure of, “You should be more humble and generous!” Instead, God put me in the flow of his grace: appreciating Christ’s humility and sharing it with my friend.
As I breathed in slowly and deeply I whispered, “In Christ’s humility.” Physically I was expressing my prayer to receive the most wonderful gift of Christ coming in humility to love me. To further reinforce this rhythm, I raised my hands in praise to God and then as I breathed in the humility of Christ I pulled my hands to my chest to signify that I was receiving Christ’s love into my heart.
Then as I breathed out I whispered, “Consider ________ better than yourself.” I put the name of my friend in this prayer. As I did this I extended my hands outward in a giving motion, putting my body into expressing my desire not to be jealous but instead to share with my friend the humble, gracious love of Christ that was blessing me.
I repeated this meditative prayer with the breathing rhythm and hand motions over and over.
Why did I do all this breathing in and out and using of hand motions? Isn’t that rather child-like? Yes! I needed to be like an eager child before the Lord! Furthermore, by using my body in these tangible ways it helped me to engage my mind and heart in praying God’s word to me, receiving his humble love through Christ and then sharing it with my friend.
The next morning I awoke early and resumed praying in the same way, “In Christ’s humility… Consider others better than yourself.” Breathing in and out. Hands up, in and out.
My wife Kristi was surprised to wake up to the sounds of my deep breathing and the sight of me on my knees slowly moving my hands up, in, and out!
God used that little Philippians 2:3 Breath Prayer to help me get free of jealousy and selfish ambition, not only in this case, but as other temptations came along in the years to follow. By the grace of God I’ve been able to pray blessings on people rather than becoming competitive or envious. Blessing a “competitor” is similar to following Jesus’ teaching, “Bless those that curse you.”
It is possible to be Transformed by the Spirit of grace to become more like Jesus. The way to be free of jealousy and selfish ambition is not by mere willpower it’s to learn to stand in a different world, one in which you are completely loved. That world is called the Kingdom of God. It’s where the risen Christ stands right beside us all the time with his arms open wide.
“Soul Shepherding is for you and your ministry”
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Bill Gaultiere, PhD & Kristi Gaultiere, PsyD ~ Soul Shepherding ~ Irvine, CA
By Bill Gaultiere © 2013
The famous love chapter in the Bible is often misunderstood. It’s not about romance. It’s not even about human love. If we read about the love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13 and then try to be more loving we’re in trouble! That’s a lot of pressure, guilt, and failure! In 1 Corinthians 13 it is God’s love — perfect and unfailing Love — that is being described.
Love is not about me and what I can muster up in order to care for others. The source of love is the Trinity. Father, Son, and Spirit who love and honor one another above self with a steadfast love that is unceasing, having no beginning or end. Their divine deference to one another is beautiful! And it doesn’t stop there! Their love brings in angels, the saints in the heavens, and all those on earth who will receive God’s grace through Jesus Christ.
Listen to the Trinitarian conversation… The Father says, “This is my beloved Son — listen to him!” The Son says, “The Father is the greatest!” “Wait for the precious gift of the Holy Spirit that the Father will send.” The Spirit constantly prays, “Jesus is Lord! Abba Father!”
The only way for you to love like 1 Corinthians 13 describes is for Love to live inside you and overflow from you to others. As John says, “We love because God first loved us” (1 John 4:19). (See our Soul Shepherding Moment, “No Pressure. No Guilt. Just Love.”)
Read 1 Corinthians 13. Take it in slowly. Re-read it and pray the words from your heart.
What aspect of 1 Corinthians 13 love (e.g., verses 4-7) do you most need to experience and trust? Write down a word or short phrase to describe this attribute of love.
Using the word/phrase for love that God gave you complete these sentences, focusing especially on the one or two that seem most important for you:
“Soul Shepherding is for you and your ministry”
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Bill Gaultiere, PhD & Kristi Gaultiere, PsyD ~ Soul Shepherding ~ Irvine, CA
A Soul Shepherding Article/Class
By Bill Gaultiere © 2013
Jesus promised that those who follow him, “Will not see death.” They will not taste it. They won’t even experience it! (John 8:51-52)
Is Jesus crazy? Everybody knows that eventually people die. No. Dallas Willard (pictured on the left) explains that Jesus was standing in another world, the reality of the Kingdom of God. He literally meant that by putting our confidence in him we will not experience death!
This article explores Dallas’ explanations of Jesus’ promise for us who put our confidence in him, “You will not experience death.” What will it be like when we “die”? How does it affect our living today to put our trust in Jesus Christ as “the Resurrection and the Life”?
Jesus’ words, “You will not experience death,” are not about denying our emotions. (That is the opposite mistake of being controlled by our emotions.) But many Christ-followers go into denial about death, intellectualizing the issue without being honest about their emotions, struggles, or needs as it relates to their own death or that of a loved one.
Death is something we don’t like to think about in our culture. Most of us deny our fears about dying. But the ancient devotional masters, like the Psalmist, knew a better way (e.g, Psalm 16, 23, 49, 107:20, and 116). They talk about death. They face whatever fears or grief they may have and offer their emotions to God. They even imagine their death to help them die to self and live only for God’s glory today. They see death as the ultimate submission to God. “Father, into your hands I commit spirit,” Jesus prayed on the cross (Luke 23:46; Psalm 31:5).
To find life in Jesus’ words, “You will never experience death,” we need to be honest about how we feel about death. We need to find comfort and strength from the Lord, often through people we trust. We need to let go of living life as a self-help project or trying to get God to make our lives turn out the way we want and instead abandon all outcomes to God, submitting to his kingdom and his purposes, knowing that regardless of what happens to us physically the greater reality that we can experience now and forever is the spiritual reality of being part of God’s kingdom.
Dwight Moody’s TestimonyDwight Moody, the great American Evangelist of the 19th Century believed Jesus’ words, “You will never experience death.” He told people he’d never die and it could be the same for them. He took Jesus literally! God used his messages to convert many thousands of people. They confessed their sins at the cross of Christ, put their trust in the Lord, and came to experience “the life that is truly life,” the eternal and abundant living that Jesus offers us (1 Timothy 6:19, John 10:10).
Many a sermon and funeral has quoted Dwight Moody’s famous words testifying to the truth of Jesus’ words, “You will not experience death”:
Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal- a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.
I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die, that which is born of the Spirit will live forever.
(The Autobiography of Dwight L. Moody, introduction. In 1899 he went up in to higher glory with Jesus.)
Dallas Willard unpacks the teaching of Jesus Christ that his followers will not experience death (see Chapter 10 of Divine Conspiracy). So many people fear aging, death, or not making it into heaven. Those who have the hope of heaven often experience it as a distant hope that doesn’t have much to do with how they live today.
Dallas says, “To live strongly and creatively in the kingdom of the heavens, we need to have firmly fixed in our minds what our future is to be like” (p 376). With sure hope, he explains that the future for those who put their confidence in Jesus is to reign with Jesus “in the endlessly ongoing creative work of God” (p. 378). He says this is what means to “enter into the joy of our Lord” (Matt 25:21).
How do we know this is our future? Because the Bible says so. Yes, but God intends for us not only to have rational beliefs based on historical truth and perfect wisdom, but also personal experience.
Dallas teaches us to venture on God’s kingdom today. “Eternal living” begins today! We can know the reality of divine life and glory in increasing measure starting now. In The Divine Conspiracy Dallas explains Jesus’ teaching, “You will not experience death.”
For the godly, death is nothing. Have no fear of those who can only kill the body, Jesus says (Matt. 10:28). We will not even experience death (John 8:51-52) and will, in fact, not die (John 11:26)…
Such is the understanding of the New Testament as a whole. Those who live in reliance upon the word and person of Jesus, and know by experience the reality of his kingdom, are always better off ‘dead,’ from the personal view… We live in the knowledge that, as Paul elsewhere says, ‘Jesus the Anointed has abolished death and has, through the gospel, made life and immortality obvious (2 Tim 1:10). (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p 393-394.)
“You will not experience death.” Are these just nice words? Are they just “spiritual” truths that don’t have much impact on our physical being and life?
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ proves the truth of his words. But maybe we still separate them from our experience of day-to-life and especially suffering. Maybe we see Jesus being tortured on the cross and think it’s awful. Maybe we imagine ourself suffering in some way or dying and we’re afraid. Then we haven’t understood Jesus’ teaching on death or what it means to be alive in God’s kingdom.
Jesus was experiencing eternal life even as he was in such pain on the cross. Stephen experienced it while he was being stoned. Countless martyrs for Christ through the ages have shown us that this is possible to be very much alive and vibrant in God while suffering. We see this all around us today in less extreme cases in which people suffer painfully and yet at the same time they rejoice in the Lord who is caring for them.
This was true of the Thessalonians who were persecuted for Christ in the 1st Century. Paul affirmed them, “You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). In the midst of pain or when we we’re dying we can experience increasing measures of the love, joy, and peace of God if we’ve learned to place ourselves in the Kingdom of God, finding our identity and draw our life from being under God’s rule and embraced in his presence.
In his tribute to Dallas Willard John Ortberg wrote:
When Dallas Willard was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late summer of 2012, one of his reflections was: “I think that, when I die, it might be some time until I know it.” Dallas was always saying things that would never occur to anyone else. He said that a person is a series of conscious experiences, and that for the one who trusts and follows Jesus, death itself has no power to interrupt this life. Jesus himself said that the one who trusts in him will not taste death.
Indeed, Dallas Willard himself proved the truth of Jesus’ words, “You will not experience death.” He entered glory on May 8, 2013.
Furthermore, from his family and closest friends I have heard stories of how Dallas dealt with his cancer, surgeries, suffering, and dying. He practiced what he preached. He Abandoned Outcomes to God and drew sustenance from Jesus and his word, his gospel of the Kingdom of God. For specific examples of how Dallas himself dealt with his dying read my article, “Personal Reflections from Dallas Willard’s Funeral.”
“Kingdom Living: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God” By Dallas WillardDallas Willard gives the best and most helpful explanation I have found on Jesus’ teaching, “You will not experience death.” He does of this at the end of The Divine Conspiracy. Also I have appreciated the way he unpacked this message as part of his “Kingdom Living: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God” series at Church of the Open Door in Minnesota back in the year 2000. (Information on how to order these CD’s is at the bottom of this article.) I have listened to this series over a dozen times! Still more times I’ve gone back to a thirty minute section of the 5th CD. Finally I decided to transcribe that portion for my own meditation and to share it with you.
This reading will take some time, but it’s worth a slow read. It’s a feast for your soul today, in your preparations to face “death”, and as you imagine your life in eternity.
The remainder of this article is Dallas Willard’s words with only very minor edits from me, including adding section headings.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death. I want to talk about what Jesus had to say about this and in particular his teaching that those who accept his word will never see death, will never experience death.
This is a very big issue because a great deal of the fear that hovers over people’s lives is associated with death. Look at the futility of life, the idea, for example, that as you grow older you’re coming to the end of your life. Now if you believe Jesus you won’t believe that! You’ll have a different view of aging, of sickness, of the cessation of the body. You’ll understand all that differently and the fear will go out of it.
We live in a worldwide culture in which death is an awful thing. That’s the way it is experienced, the way it is looked it. You want to understand that if you enter into the eternal life of the kingdom of God you will never experience that awful thing which people are expecting to experience — you’ll never experience that.
You may have to revise your plans if you’ve been planning for something like that to happen to you. So let’s look at John chapter 8 and just get Jesus’ words before us. Jesus is speaking to us from the Kingdom of God. It’s such a different world that often we think, “Is this guy on track? Can he possibly mean what he is saying? ‘Don’t be anxious for anything… Don’t worry about the boat going down…’ All of that, is it real?”
Yes, it’s real! Now you have to remember that he is speaking from the eternal kingdom of God. And to use Paul’s language in 1 Timothy 6:16, “God, who only has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light,” God, “whom no man can see” with the physical senses. That’s God, that’s the world that Jesus is speaking from, that’s the reality, the spiritual being God and his world. “To him be honor and eternal dominion,” Paul says.
Jesus is speaking from that world. He’s in a battle here with with the people of his day. Jesus did not have an easy time with it. And the Jews, the leaders, are really giving it to him. Verse 48 of John 8, they’re calling him names. “The Jews answered him and said, ‘Did we not rightly say that you are a half-breed with the devil?” What they’re calling him here is a demon-possessed half-breed!
That’s not nice. That’s bad language. And Jesus said, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father. And you dishonor me. But I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Jesus is setting the example here [of not seeking his own glory]. He is leaving [his reputation] to God, he’s leaving it all to God.
Jesus says, “Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word.” Now, “keeps my word” means you have found the kingdom of God and you’re living in it. It doesn’t mean you’ve got it all, but it means that you’ve found it and you’re [learning what it’s like to be] living in it. “He shall never see death.” Then in the next verse the Jews feed Jesus’ words back to him, “If anyone keeps my word he shall never taste death,” he shall never experience death.
That goes along with other passages. For example 2 Timothy1:10. Speaking about what Jesus did, “Now Christ has been revealed,” or the purpose of God in Christ has been revealed, “by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” That’s how he abolished death.
Now when you abolish something where is it? It’s no longer there. Christ abolished death. Now what does that mean? That’s what we need to think about today.
Now God is one who preserves life in all things, as 1 Timothy 6:13 says. He has life in himself as, John 5:26 says. He has life in himself and gives life to everything else. So God is the foundation of life.
Life is the power of self-initiating, self-directing, self-sustaining energy. That’s what life is. Self-initiating, self-directing, self-sustaining energy. Life also has the power to utilize resources. So when your goldfish goes belly up in your tank what does that mean? It doesn’t have life anymore. It’s not initiating, sustaining, directing. It doesn’t nourish itself. It’s life is gone.
God is the ultimate source of life and he gives that to everything else that has life. Now the reason why you are not going to see death — why you are going to be maintained in life — is because God has invested in you, has a purpose for you, and he likes you. Those three things. God has invested in you, has a purpose for you, and he likes you. And he has the resources to keep you in existence and to cause you to thrive.
Now folks, you want to stop now, if you haven’t already, of thinking of your life as coming to an end. Put that out of your mind. And reinterpret what is going to happen at what we call physical death. Falling asleep is the way it’s put in the New Testament because from this side that’s what it looks like. You’re not going to be asleep. You’re not going to experience some terrible thing.
This is so important because if you believe in death it will be extremely difficult for you to live in the light. Because this death is the ultimate futility. Death [in our world] not only means that everything that is good that you have cherished will cease to exist, but that you will cease to exist and very soon there won’t even be a memory or anything that is left of you. That’s the ultimate futility.
If you have [that view of death] in your mind then aging is experienced as coming into that ultimate futility. And so in our culture aging is just thought to be a horrible thing. One of the beatitudes that you have to say is, “Blessed are the aged. Blessed are they in nursing homes. Blessed are they in comas.” That’s the stretching that you experience. “Blessed are you when your kidneys start to fail. Blessed are they with cancer.” See now if you can’t put the gospel in those terms then you haven’t got the vision of the kingdom.
Once we have [understood Jesus’ gospel of the availability of God’s kingdom through confidence in him] then we can understand why its truth to say, “Christians are the only people better off dead.” That’s what Paul said, wasn’t it?
Now we want to be sure that we’re not just whistling in the dark when we say that, we’re not trying to whoop up something. Christian teaching is not cheerleading. Human beings are given to cheerleading because we’re often in very desperate situations. Its so funny to watch cheerleaders in games that have been lost an hour ago saying still, “We’re going to win!” The score is 93 to 2 and there’s two minutes left and they’re out there pumping cheer. Give us a break! That’s not what Christians are into. So we don’t hype stuff. Just let it be. We don’t need to cheerlead.
So much of what people get into is a false consciousness. Now that’s not what we’re talking about here. And again this takes us back to [the idea that Jesus is the Smartest Person alive]. Jesus knows what he’s talking about. He’s not cheerleading. He’s just telling it like it is — it’s all in the light of God and of his kingdom.
If you really believe Jesus then the burden of death is simply going to be lifted. The word which we keep, which makes it so that we never experience death is, precisely, the word of his kingdom. And we step into that, we keep it, by learning to live it. And then the verses that we read in funerals, like John 11 and 14, take on a new meaning because they’re not just statements about what is going to happen at death, but about who we are now. It’s about who we are now.
So Jesus allows Lazarus to die so that he can teach about death. That’s not a bad metaphor, he’s going to allow us to die — in many ways, you understand — so that the life that is eternal can be manifested in our body.
Listen now to Romans 8. Paul is talking about, “If you are carnal you will die, but if you are spiritual you will live. The carnal mind is enmity against God, it can’t be subject to the law of God” and so forth. But now he says, “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your moral body.” So a new life begins to move in your mortal body and you begin to be identified with that. That is your life.
Paul continues, “So then brethren we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if you through Spirit you do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live.” And then he goes on, “As many as are led by the Spirit…” You see this life from God is moving in you. And now then you’re that kind of [eternal] being.
So Lazarus has physically died. And Jesus comes now to minister to them and, in a typically human way, Mary and Martha reproach him because he didn’t keep Lazarus from dying. But what Jesus is here to do is to show that there is much more to Lazarus than they had suspected. And the life that is in Jesus is one which makes Lazarus alive still. Then Jesus brings him back [to the world].
You know many people wonder why did Jesus weep? I’ve often thought that he wept because he didn’t want to have put Lazarus through this process again — he was a friend of Lazarus’. Or maybe he wept because he saw that such an incredible fuss was being made about death. In fact, they hired people to come and mourn and scream and carry on about death!
But Jesus says to Martha in John 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will shall never die. Do you believe this?” And Martha says, “Well, I believe you are the Christ.” And that’s important, but she hadn’t got the message. She believed he was the Christ but she didn’t understand what that meant. And so, as you know, he goes on to say, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
So that life which we receive from Christ is one that tells us who we are now.
Then in the larger context of John 14 Jesus says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God.” Now that’s crucial. Believe in God. God is precisely the one who alone as immortality in himself and gives it to others. “You believe in God, believe also in me.” Have that same confidence.
“In my father’s house are many dwelling places.” Now what’s he talking about? He said, “I am going away” and they don’t know what to do because they’re limited in their understanding to this side of death and Jesus is stretching them, saying, “No, you have to enlarge your understanding of this universe. That’s what “my Father’s house is” — it’s this universe. Now when you die you’re not going to leave this universe. The places that are prepared for you are in this universe. And when you read about all that is going on in the Cosmos (the “billions and billions and billions of planets”) that’s Jesus at work. That’s Jesus at work.
You’re not going to disappear in a fog bank. You’re going to see this universe for the first time as it really is — you’re going to see it to be full of God and you’re going to continue to live in that universe with God. That’s what it means to say, “You’ll never die.”
Now let’s try to be as specific as we can about that language, “You will never die.” It means that your life as you now experience it, you as a person, will continue right on through. It’s very likely that for awhile you will not even realize that you are dead unless you happen to see your body off somewhere. That’s why you will never experience death, you will never taste death. Your experience will continue. You will be in the presence of those whom God will send to receive you — he will send people to receive you — you will not be alone.
If you have been around dying people then you know that very often they start talking to people who have come to receive them before they leave you. Doctors used to have a name for it, before they had so much medication, they called it “the roving eye phenomenon.” And people who were conscious and dying in a normal state would see people, they would look at them and talk to them.
Now what I’m saying to you is real. The story about Lazarus and the rich man is not a parable, it’s a story of something that actually happened. What happened when Lazarus died? How did he go? Did he go alone? No. The angels came and took him into the embrace of Abraham. When you as a child of God die you will become angelic in form. Let’s relate that to Luke 20:36: “Neither can they die anymore because they are like angels.” Now, they are not angels, but they are like angels – “and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
So what you should expect is that at the moment that people are watching your body expire you will be in the company of those God has sent to receive you.
Now if you’re not on God’s side then the story runs a little bit differently. With reference to “Divies,” as we’ve endearingly come to refer to him, the rich man, it simply says, “He died and in hades he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham a far off.” That’s a different story. He experienced death, which in its deepest meaning is isolation from God.
It’s helpful to think about our life, as we move towards eternity, as being in three stages. The first stage is the time of growing steadily in kingdom substance, the time of growing steadily. This is preparing for our future existence. A good way to think about what we’re doing now is, “Training for reigning.” We’re training for reigning. We’re supposed to be learning that now. Remember Romans 5 talks about how sin had reigned and now we are reign through one, Christ Jesus. So everything you do, everything you have say over, that’s your opportunity to bring the kingdom of God into that, take your kingdom into God’s kingdom and make that as training for reigning.
[This is why prayer is important.] You might ask yourself why there would be an arrangement such as prayer. It’s actually kind of strange when you start thinking of it from the human point of view. Many people can’t sustain a prayer life because it doesn’t make sense to them. But fundamentally, the function of prayer is enable us to move into increasing power as we reign with Christ in our life now. We’re training for reigning.
So what is aging? Aging is a progressing movement away from the natural powers of the body, which if you’re getting a little older you know that you are moving away from those. Right? But that’s not a bad thing because simultaneously God’s intent is that you’d be increasing in your spiritual power. That’s why we age.
Again you could imagine that God could’ve arranged something else for us. James Thurber, the American humorist, had a book called, Is Sex Necessary? Well, if you’re looking at it from God’s point of view you could image that there could be another way to get people than that, but there are reasons why sex is important. It’s the same way with aging. Could people just be like some of our people who have books and programs to sell [and their picture is from when they were much younger], couldn’t they just stay the way they are until it comes time to die — or maybe just not die?
That’s a human dream from a human kingdom, don’t expect much from it. God’s plan is that aging is a progressive increase in spiritual substance. That’s what aging is. Aging is not a loss — it’s a gain. When we understand kingdom of God reality we have to re-think so many things. Like fasting is not doing without, it is appropriating something else. So fasting is feasting. Aging is not losing something, though something is lost, it is primarily gaining something.
Now if I had time I’d like to talk more about what aging means in the family and the community and how the person who is aging becomes, among other things, an opportunity for the blessing of those who care for them. See that’s really a revolutionary way of thinking about in our culture. There’s one reading that I use in Applied Ethics from a woman named Jane English and her thesis is that if you don’t particularly like your parents you don’t owe them anything because you didn’t ask them to have you. So if you don’t like them just wave them on.
It’s very interesting when I read that. You talk about cultural differences. The Hispanic kids will sit there and say, “Are you serious?” The Asian kids will be literally writhing in pain to discuss this. And the Anglo kids will be saying, “Hey, man, that’s a good idea! I hadn’t thought of that — it’s wonderful!” That’s where this individualism thing has gone.
This is so important, isn’t it? You know most human cultures have respected the elderly because they have treated them as having more wisdom. Now, of course, the elderly can’t program DVD video players — seven year old kids can do that. So whose smarter? Well, the answer is that the DVD player doesn’t have much to do with smart. We have a radical shift here with this idea of aging.
I quote some words in The Divine Conspiracy. George MacDonald has written these words:
Our old age is the scorching of the bush
By life’s indwelling, incorruptible blaze.
O life, burn at this feeble shell of me,
Till I the sore singed garment off shall push,
Flap out my Psyche wings, and to thee rush.
You know the poem, The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes? The nautilus that little shell that gets bigger and bigger after just starting out with a little tail.
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new mansion, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
So then there’s the time of training for reigning and aging, and all the things that go with it. Of course, this should be done in community and unfortunately it isn’t often.
Then there’s the time of passage. And that is what we call death, from the physical point of view. That is when we move out of connection with our body that keeps us enmeshed in this world. It’s a sad time. It means that, for example, my sister who died six or seven years ago, I just would love to be able to pick the telephone and talk to her and to hear her laugh again — she had a crazy laugh. I can’t do that now. That’s the sad part for those who are here because we can no longer contact them — their body does not function as the place where we can meet them.
So that’s sad [to lose a loved one], but it’s temporary. And for the person who goes on there is no sadness if they’re alive in Jesus.
[Those who are alive in Jesus in heaven] are with those that they know and those that they don’t know as well. They are entering the full world of God and we want to just remember that they are fully occupied with good things. Jesus is preparing a place for us. Perhaps it wasn’t an accident that he decided to be a carpenter here.
As Paul says, “Those who are absent from the body are to be present with the Lord.” So I imagine that those who have gone on with Jesus are not just watching, I am sure that they are engaged with him. And really that’s what our future is, it’s good work — it isn’t harp playing, though it might involve a little of that — it will be creating. The joy of our Lord is creating and we will enter into the joy of our Lord with him.
Don’t worry about the details of this, as if you’ve got to go hang in a warehouse somewhere until the judgment. That is not a picture of reality! That is not a picture that is New Testament. Jesus said to thief that was dying with him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” And Paradise is a wonderful, beautiful natural setting. People are so lacking in imagination. “There’s no hell,” they say. How about Jupiter and Saturn? Oh, they would do very nicely. You want sulfur? I’ll give you sulfur, clouds of it!
And heaven is the same way. Look around you. Look at this universe! Listen. Any God that can make this earth isn’t going to have any problem with heaven. Streets of gold? No problem. Just arrange a few molecules differently and you’ve got all the gold they wanted. So often people think they’re arguing logically when they’re simply suffering from a lack of imagination.
So we want to understand that there is the time of passage and we go through that and there’s the time of reigning with Christ.
If you’ll excuse me I’ll read a few lines out of The Divine Conspiracy. I find it hard to improve on them. I’m still working on them.
Thus, we should not think of ourselves as destined to be celestial bureaucats, involved eternally in celestial “administrivia.” That would only be slightly better than being caught in an everlasting church service. No, we should think of our destiny as being absorbed in a tremendously creative team effort, with unimaginably splendid leadership, on an inconceivably vast plane of activity, with ever more comprehensive cycles of productivity and enjoyment. This is the “eye hath not seen, neither ear heard” that lies before us in the prophetic vision (Isa 64:4).
That’s the time of reigning. You want to be looking forward to that. You want to understand that this is what Jesus is bringing to you when he brings to you the Kingdom of God.
Well, how am I going to quit? Maybe this summary.
You see, confidence in God is what we’re talking about. The reason why we have to talk about death is because we want to understand that he has conquered death, that he has abolished death, that this is not a problem or an issue. We want to understand that all that is good and right will be preserved, we will not lose anything that is good. Much that is evil, and in a sense all that is evil, will be redeemed so that every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2). In other words, Hitler, Nietsche, whoever it is, Giguis Kahn, everyone is going to say, “Jesus is Lord. Glory to God.”
Whatever their destiny is I don’t want to get into that. I myself believe that there are two destinies. I’m not particularly pleased with that, being a human being, but I am fairly sure that there are some beings who will recognize God for who he is and say, “I want nothing to do with him.”
Confidence in God is the foundation of deliverance from the normal human condition. And that confidence is faith. Confidence in God is based on perception or knowledge of how good he is in creation in redemption and in history. And it is to personally have the assurance that, “God has done well by me. Given everything that has happened in my life — the tragedies, the failures — still, this God is so good that I am sure that he has done well by me — by us — who I am, the events of my life, and the purposes he has for me, he has done well by me.
With this perception and confidence you will be naturally inclined to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. Love. Love is the natural expression of our understanding of the goodness of God. And this is the condition of life in which the human system is meant to function. If we’re not in that condition then we don’t function well and our emotions and our thoughts will eat us through our glands and make our lives miserable and perhaps kill us with sicknesses simply because we do not live in this condition for which we were made to flourish in. We were made to flourish in the Kingdom of God.
On the foundation of love of God and of neighbor you become a disciple of Jesus. You learn by practicing disciplines for life in the Spirit how to free ourselves from the sin that is in our members and in our world. And so we know sanctification — what used to be called “Victory!”, I don’t know if you talk about victory.
~
“Kingdom Living: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God” includes five sessions of Dallas Willard’s teaching that he gave at Church of the Open Door in Minnesota during the year 2000. You can order this set of CD’s from TheDoor.org’s “Resources” page. Also you can read the tenth chapter of The Divine Conspiracy, “The Restoration of All Things,” which generally covers some of the same material.
“Soul Shepherding is for you and your ministry”
You can sign up for our free Devotionals and Moments e-mails
Bill Gaultiere, PhD & Kristi Gaultiere, PsyD ~ Soul Shepherding ~ Irvine, CA
By Bill Gaultiere © 2013
Kristi and I just returned from Dallas Willard’s funeral which was on May 14, 2013. It was a small gathering for family and friends at his home church, Valley Vineyard in Reseda, CA. A large public Memorial Service for Dallas Willard will be held on May 25, 2013 at 10:30 am at Church on the Way in Van Nuys, CA
We made the two-hour drive to Dallas’ funeral with a van full of dear friends. We became a support group for one another, sharing sadness, grateful memories and lessons from Dallas, and wonderful bursts of laughter. We all felt so honored to have known Dallas and to be able to say goodbye in such a personal way.
Walking into the church I offered myself to God, asking him to use me to be a blessing to others and to speak to me what he wanted me to know. I believe this prayer was answered.
The reflections I share here make for a very long Soul Shepherding “Moment.” But, as with the tribute I wrote the day he died (“Dallas Willard is in Heaven“), it’s good for my soul to write these reflections from his funeral and perhaps it’ll be good for your soul to linger with me awhile so that together we might seek the comfort of Christ and encourage one another to carry on in following Jesus Christ with more earnestness because of the life of Dallas Willard.
We arrived early at Dallas Willard’s funeral which allowed plenty of time to offer hugs, blessings, and prayers. As we greeted the Willard family I was drawn to Larissa, Dallas’ teenage granddaughter. If you’ve listened to Dallas much you’ve heard him speak so fondly of her. It’s easy to see the radiance of Christ in her. She speaks with sincerity, tenderness, and deep wisdom that are beyond her years.
I remember losing my own grandfather, Charles Bradbury, who, like Dallas, was a great man of God that led tens of thousands of people to Jesus Christ. I also remember losing Ray Ortlund, Sr. in 2007, another extraordinary man of God who helped tens of thousands of people, especially pastors, to “Be all and only for Jesus.” He too was a wonderful spiritual father to me. Grief is like this. The sadness of losing a loved one triggers the sadness from previous losses. This presents a fresh opportunity to share the loss with God and those you love, to grieve, find comfort, and to remember and celebrate a life lived for Christ.
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). As Dallas explained, Jesus wasn’t saying it was a blessing to mourn, nor was he instructing us to mourn so that we could be comforted. He was saying, “Even if you’re grieving a loss the comfort of participating in God’s kingdom is available to you.” The great blessing of life is to be with Jesus in the Kingdom of God and to invite others to join us there.
Jim Wilder, a fellow Psychologist, sat next to me in the service. This was not a coincidence. It was a blessing for me to hear him share that in the 1970‘s Dallas said to him, “Psychology is the care of the soul. It’s long been in the providence of the Church but we’ve done such a bad job of it that in recent generations we’ve needed help from the outside.”
I talked with Dallas about Psychotherapy and he helped me see that it needed to be practiced as soul care, rooted in the reality of Christ in the therapy office and in daily life. He showed me that basis of good therapy is love, friendly love — this goes back way before Freud! It comes from the Trinity and it’s throughout the Bible and Church history.
It still amazes me that “An Author Mentor Became a Soul Friend to Me.” Great leaders and humble folk, brilliant minds and the child-like — call Dallas Willard their friend. Not “Dr. Willard.” He didn’t even want to be called, “Mentor.” He was a friend to all.
I sensed God reminding me, “That’s the way I’ve called you to use psychology — go beyond it to it’s foundations of divine soul care. I’ve called you my friend and that’s what you’re to do for others.” Indeed, Jesus said, “I’ve called you friends” (John 15:15).
What kind of a friend was Dallas? A story that Dallas’ pastor, Bill Dwyer shared, typified for me the Dallas I know and love.
At the end of a long day of teaching at Valley Vineyard and a woman used the Q & A time to start unloading on Dallas her emotional concerns. Bill said that as a speaker he’d been in this situation many times (as have I myself) and his way of dealing with it had been to stay standing and keep the conversation brief. So he wrapped up the meeting and dismissed everyone, hoping to “rescue” Dallas from this situation. But then Bill was shocked to see that Dallas offered for this woman to sit in a chair next to him and he listened to her for twenty minutes as she shared the things that were bothering her. He just listened to her and then he prayed for her.
Dallas listened to me in that same way, with the compassion of Christ. He has helped me to be a better listener for others.
Dallas’ last days were painful. But even as he laid on his bed suffering he held Jesus’ hand in the Kingdom of the Heavens. With characteristic gentleness and kindness he kept saying, “Thank you.” To doctors, nurses, visitors, and God. “Thank you… Thank you… Thank you… Thank you…”
The nurses were drawn to his positive attitude in suffering and how appreciative of them he was. They heard him and his visitors reciting Scriptures, singing hymns, talking about a God of love, and praying. The way that Dallas was dying drew the people around him to Jesus Christ and our God of love. This is the way of Jesus on the cross and it’s the way of his followers. How we respond to suffering is often our very best witness for Christ.
One of the nurses looked up Dallas Willard on the Internet and realized not only that he was famous but that there were some people who were saying mean things about him. She said, “I don’t get it. Why would religious people hate this good man who says that God loves everyone?”
God showed his love to Dallas in the hospital. For instance, Dallas’ had a remarkable experience of God. He said, “I taught on the Great Cloud of Witnesses and now I’m experiencing it. I am in heaven’s hallway and there is a large community coming for me. They are the most loving persons I’ve ever been around.”
Finally, at the very end, his last words were once again, “Thank you.” He didn’t even name anyone but I’m sure he was looking into the shining face of Jesus as he was walking all the way through the hallway into heaven.
At the graveside Bill Dwyer shared that he had a dream just before the funeral. An attorney was about to read “The Last Will and Testament of Dallas Willard.” Everyone was wondering, “What did Dallas leave me?”
Suddenly, a chair turned around and it was Dallas and he said, “Take whatever you want from my life.”
Bill asked us, “What inheritance would you like from Dallas?” Then he gave us time to pray quietly.
I wonder how you would answer that question? Some of my friends said their prayer was to:
I immediately knew the spiritual inheritance I hoped to receive from Christ through his servant Dallas. It’s something I’ve prayed many times in past years when meeting with Dallas or listening to him teach. It’s an audacious prayer. I’d probably be embarrassed to share it but one day I told Dallas about it and he was happy to affirm it. You can pray it too:
Oh, to think about the greatness of Christ and of God like Dallas Willard! Oh, to rely on the Holy Spirit like Dallas Willard did! I was praying about this and then Bill Dwyer concluded the graveside service. He really got my attention when he said that Dallas told him, “Tell Bill, John, Keith, and Gary that I’ll meet them in the hall.”
There were a few people with those names even in that small group of about 30 people — it was a happy thought to imagine myself in that group!
Dallas made me feel as if I actually belonged in a list of his closest family and friends. Hundreds of people say the same thing. Only the Spirit of Christ in him could accomplish that.
I know it’s true that when I die I’ll meet Dallas Willard in the hallway to heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ is. I hope you’ll be there too!
Jane Willard shared at the end of Dallas’ funeral service that every morning at breakfast she and Dallas offered a special prayer: ”Father, make us the kind of persons that would make other people glad that God made the world and he put us in it.” That little prayer could carry us a long ways!
Also the family passed out a bookmark with another one of Dallas’ prayers that he loved to offer to people. He prayed this one for me and a group of pastors at his Doctor of Ministry class on “Spirituality and Ministry.” This class meant so much to me and became the inspiration behind TLC, Soul Shepherding’s two-year program of retreats and training for pastors and leaders in “Spiritual Formation and Soul Care Ministry.” Dallas encouraged Kristi and I so much in our ministry to pastors!
“My prayer for you,” Dallas would say, “is that you would have a rich life of joy and power, abundant in supernatural results, with a constant, clear vision of never-ending life in God’s World before you, and of the everlasting significance of your work day by day. A radiant life and death.”
Dallas lived out this prayer in Jesus’ name. May God help us to do the same.
I think the way that Dallas would say “Goodbye” to us would be in his last words to his precious granddaughter Larissa, “Give ‘em heaven!”
“Soul Shepherding is for you and your ministry”
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Bill Gaultiere, PhD & Kristi Gaultiere, PsyD ~ Soul Shepherding ~ Irvine, CA
A Soul Shepherding Devotional
“Inviting God’s touch in your soul”
By Bill Gaultiere © 2013
Have you ever felt like prayer was unsatisfying? Do you relate to Peter and the disciples falling asleep when Jesus asked them to “Watch and pray” (Matthew 26:36-46). I think all of us, including pastors and other ministry leaders, have felt this. A pastor of a large church confessed that his own prayers had been listless and shared how Dallas Willard helped him to re-engage deeply with God.
On Mother’s Day Kristi and I joined her mother at her church, Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, CA. Mom’s pastor, Rich Kannwischer, told a story about an interaction he had with Dallas Willard that was a real blessing to us since we’ve been grieving Dallas’ death last week. (See my tribute, “Dallas Willard is in Heaven.”)
Rich said that years ago he took Dallas’ two-week Doctor of Ministry class in “Spiritual Formation and Ministry.” I know all about this class because I took it, but at a different time. This Fuller Theological seminary class was not an ordinary class. It was held at the Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, CA because it was designed to be somewhat of a monastic experience for pastors.
For two weeks we practiced a rule of life, together and apart. We gathered each day for six hours to study under Dallas Willard’s teaching, eat meals, and share and pray in spiritual community. In solitude and silence each day we read and memorized Scripture passages, sang Psalms, prayed, and journaled.
To make space for all this learning and experience we fasted from our work, normal responsibilities, Internet, and media. For two weeks we were completely unplugged! Also, at the mid point of the class/retreat we all kept silence for 24-hours, even during meal times. This was to be a time of prayer in which Dallas told us, “Do nothing. Don’t try to make anything happen… Do nothing. Don’t try to make anything happen.”
One of the most important disciplines Dallas assigned to us was to “ruthlessly eliminate hurry.” (This is one of Dallas’ many famous teachings. See “Ruthlessly Eliminate Hurry.”) To help us be unhurried he asked us to sleep for at least ten hours the first two nights and he encouraged us to take a nap each day! “Jesus took naps,” Dallas insisted, suspecting that many of the pastors in the room were workaholics (or ministryaholics).
(Dallas Willard’s class on “Spirituality and Ministry” is the inspiration behind Soul Shepherding’s retreat/class TLC for Pastors and Leaders/Caregivers. TLC is “To Love Christ” and features four retreats, each five days long, over a two year period.)
In June of 2002 when Rich took this class he was a young pastor in the New York City area and his community was reeling from 9-11. He was tired. In fact, just before he flew out to Southern California to take the class he conducted another funeral for a 9-11 victim whose remains had just been identified.
In Rich’s private spiritual direction session with Dallas he confessed to him that his prayer times felt “dull.”
Dallas replied, “Well, you must not be doing very much with God then.”
“What?” Rich objected. “I’m a pastor!”
“I know what you do,” Dallas offered gently. “But people who work together have a lot to talk about.”
Then Dallas paused. In my own spiritual direction conversations with Dallas over the years I’ve experienced many of these pregnant pauses. In the early years I’d interrupt the silence to say something. Then I learned to linger with Dallas in silent prayer.
Like many pastors, Rich had assumed that since he was a pastor doing God’s work that God would be automatically involved in the process. With Dallas’ wise spiritual direction he realized that it’s easy for pastors (or any Christ-follower) to put the work of ministry over personal Intimacy with Jesus and thus in their ministry to find themselves relying more on themselves than on the Spirit of Christ. Rich learned the importance of inviting God into whatever he was doing and following the Spirit’s lead.
Prayer, as Dallas Willard has defined it, is relating with God. Simply and profoundly put, Dallas teaches, “Prayer is talking with God about we’re doing together.” (This is what it looks like to, “Pray without ceasing” which Paul instructs us to do in 1 Thessalonians 5:18).
If we’re doing what we’re doing with God and for his glory and if we’re sharing in his concerns for the people around us then we won’t feel like our prayers are dull. Instead, prayer will be rich and stimulating, intimate and adventurous, and we’ll see the hand of God at work all around us and within us. And if our prayer life is lively like that then we’ll spend more than the seven to thirty minutes per day that the average pastor prays! (This is what national surveys have indicated.)
Dallas Willard connected Rich’s devotion to his vocation, his intimacy with Jesus to his ministry leadership. Rich said he learned that the real impact of his ministry and the true measure of his success were not not about his ministry techniques or skills, but the depth of his love for God.
(You can listen to Rich Kannwischer’s 5-12-2013 sermon, “Breakfast Club,” on the media page for Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church.)
“Soul Shepherding is for you and your ministry”
You can sign up for our free Devotionals and Moments e-mails
Bill Gaultiere, PhD & Kristi Gaultiere, PsyD ~ Soul Shepherding ~ Irvine, CA
A Soul Shepherding Moment
By Kristi Gaultiere (with Bill Gaultiere) © 2013
How do you care for your soul? Do you ever feel like a juice box that’s been sucked dry by people sticking a straw into you?! This was the question I asked a 100 ministry leaders/caregivers, mothers, and pastors’ wives at a church conference recently.
When I come home from a day of caring for pastors’ wives and ministry leaders in my therapy office what does soul care look like for me? I could go into the freezer and get out some chocolate Bon Bons and “veg” in front of the television! But would that rejuvenate me? Would it nourish my soul?
It’d be better for me to sit down to relax in a favorite chair, knowing that my cat Charlie will be sure to jump up in my lap for some cuddles! Or I could process my feelings about my day with my husband. Or I could go for a prayer walk with Jesus around the lake near our home to soak up some sunshine.
We’re wise to set aside sugary distractions and to delight in the Lover who restores our souls. If we’re not fully satisfied in our relationship with Jesus then we’ll burn out from serving God and caring for others. For our soul care and to Prevent Burnout we need to connect with God’s Grace, which is not just “unmerited favor” — it’s God acting in our lives with kindness and power. Practicing spiritual disciplines helps us to experience God’s gracious action in our lives.
But maybe this sounds like work to you? Maybe when you’re tired it’s not appealing to “do a discipline”? Maybe the Bon Bons and television sound better?!
I tell pastors’ wives and other ministry leaders/caregivers that if they’re too tired to initiate anything for their soul care then then they do need rest. When I feel tired I like to take a nap in the sun. Or on a cool evening I like to relax in a Jacuzzi. But here’s the key: what are you doing with your mind while you relax? Is your mind being renewed by God?
For instance, if you’ve already memorized Psalm 131 (training yourself in this discipline to help you grow in God’s grace) then when you find yourself exhausted it’s easy to care for your soul under God: you simply lie down and start meditating, “Yahweh, my heart has no lofty ambitions…” Then you can start casting off the lofty ambitions about what you think you should be doing and the guilt you’re feeling.
As you continue praying through this short Psalm you’ll come to, “It’s enough for me to keep my soul tranquil and quiet like a child in its mother’s arms.” My cat sleeping and purring is like that in my lap! We can be that way with Jesus! As we say in our Psalm 131 meditation, “Jesus is Enough for Me!” and he cares for our souls!
If you don’t believe that God truly cares for your soul like a mother nurturing her small child then you’re going to try to secure yourself. And that will create anxiety and leave you empty.
We need to have the vision that Jesus really does offer us living waters to satisfy our deepest thirst. We have to get to the point that we’re enthralled with Jesus and then discover that he alone is our true source of soul care.
“Soul Shepherding is for you and your ministry”
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Bill Gaultiere, PhD & Kristi Gaultiere, PsyD ~ Soul Shepherding ~ Irvine, CA
By Bill Gaultiere © 2013
Have you ever thought about how much of Jesus’ ministry consists of him caring for people who interrupted him? I wonder how you respond to interruptions?
You’re working on a project and someone diverts your attention. You’re having a conversation with one person and someone else needs something from you. You’re talking to someone and he or she interrupts you.
Yesterday I was praying about these things during the “Still Waters” day retreat that Kristi and I led for pastors and leaders/caregivers. It’s a joy for us to help people join us in following the Good Shepherd to his green pastures and still waters. For instance, one pastor who said he was “on the edge of burnout” was greatly refreshed by “doing nothing” except being with Jesus.
During my solitude and silence with Jesus I meditated on the story of the woman with the issue of blood interrupting Jesus as he’s responding to Jairus’ request to heal his daughter (Mark 5:21-43). Not only was Jesus patient with her interrupting him but he commended her urgent reach of faith.
I asked the Lord to help me to respond to people’s interruptions with his graciousness and I wrote in my journal my prayer and what I sensed him speak to my heart.
Jesus, I marvel at how responsive you are.
Time and again people interrupted you
Yet always you were considerate and kind.
This was a huge part of your ministry!
O Jesus, what is your secret?
How is it that you are so patient?
Lord, I’m sorry for when I get irritated
When people interrupt what I’m doing.
You’re the one who puts people in my path –
I’m sorry for when I don’t respond with love.
O Jesus, what is your secret?
How is it that you are so patient?
Bill, you think too much about what you’re doing
And not enough about what I’m doing.
You focus too much on your goal
And not enough on my presence with you.
O Bill, are you listening?
Are you ready to learn?
What you see as interruption
I see as an opportunity.
You see with your own eyes
But I see with the Father’s eyes.
O Bill, are you listening?
Are you ready to learn?
Is it an interruption to stop working
So you can rest and worship on the Sabbath?
Is it an interruption to respond to people,
To care for their needs and offer a blessing?
O Bill, are you listening?
Are you ready to learn?
Like the wind, my Spirit is blowing all around you,
Like a river, my life is flowing through you.
Put up your sail! Push out into the waters!
Participate in what I am doing all around you.
O Bill, are you listening?
Are you ready to learn?
“Love is patient” (1 Corinthians 14:4). That’s another way of saying that love is interruptible. We’ve all tried to be patient and unhurried but failed! You can’t change by trying — you have to take the indirect route. First you have to experience Sabbath rest. And the way into Sabbath rest is to learn how to be in Solitude and Silence with Jesus.
“Soul Shepherding is for you and your ministry”
You can sign up for our free Devotionals and Moments e-mails
Bill Gaultiere, PhD & Kristi Gaultiere, PsyD ~ Soul Shepherding ~ Irvine, CA
Remembering Dallas WillardKristi and I are sad to say goodbye to our precious friend and mentor, Dallas Willard who died on May 8, 2013. He greatly encouraged our mission to cultivate intimacy with Jesus for pastors and ministry leaders/caregivers.
It was a great honor for me (Bill) to speak alongside of Dallas to over 300 pastors at a Renovaré conference in 2011.
Following Jesus with you,
Bill & Kristi
Bill Gaultiere, Ph.D. & Kristi Gaultiere, Psy.D. Founders, Psychotherapists and Spiritual Directors/Mentors Soul Shepherding ~ Irvine, CA
A Soul Shepherding Moment
By Bill Gaultiere © 2013
My heart is heavy. I just got the news that Dallas Willard died today at 5:55 am. He had been battling pancreatic cancer for a number of months. He was 77 years old. He was born on September 4, 1935 and died on May 8, 2013.
Dallas’ passing was peaceful and gentle. He told his family that although he wanted to stay with them and finish his work he was also longing to be home with Jesus and that he was experiencing moments when the veil was parting and revealing the glorious reality of the great cloud of witnesses.
Ten months ago I spent twelve days with Dallas in a monastery taking a Doctor of Ministry class from him, “Spirituality and Ministry.” I was blessed not only to be his student, but to have a number of meals and conversations with him at that time.
Then two months ago at his “Knowing Christ Today” conference Dallas smiled at me, “It’s good to see you Bill.” It was then that I hugged him for the last time.
Dallas Willard’s LegacyDallas Willard was a philosophy professor at USC for most of his life. At the same time, he was a tireless minster of Jesus’ gospel that the Kingdom of God is now open to anyone who will put their trust in him. He had an extensive ministry of teaching, writing, and providing informal spiritual direction to pastors and leaders. Many consider him the father of the Evangelical Christian movement toward spiritual formation in Christ.
Dallas is perhaps best known for his book Divine Conspiracy, which was Christianity Today’s Book of the Year in 1999. Many great Christian thinkers and leaders have worn the cover off of that groundbreaking book. No doubt his greatest legacy though will be the countless pastors and leaders he personally mentored alongside of Jesus. (See Christianity Today’s tribute of Dallas Willard.)
Dallas and his wife Jane have been dear personal friends and mentors to Kristi and I. Their caring, wisdom, and prayers have done so much to bring us closer to Jesus Christ and to release and empower us for greater ministry to pastors, pastors wives, ministry leaders, and all kinds of people. They are a main inspiration behind Soul Shepherding’s ministry of cultivating intimacy with Jesus for pastors. (The Soul Shepherding tag on Dallas Willard has posts featuring life lessons from Dallas.)
Last summer Dallas told Kristi and I, along with about twenty other pastors, that he was passing the baton to us. We wanted him to keep running his race for Jesus here on earth, but now his race continues in heaven — and the baton is in our hands.
It means so much to me to know that Dallas is in my Great Cloud of Witnesses, that he passed the baton to me and is cheering me on (Hebrews 12:1). No one has done more to help me to follow Jesus Christ than Dallas Willard. I am “Jesus’ Apprentice” because of him. Right now I so wish I could talk to him again, to hold his hands and pray, to receive another word or affirmation of blessing from him, to thank him for all he’s meant to me.
I’ve spent many hours in personal conversation with Dallas. I can never forget his way of listening to me, asking me the key questions, encouraging me to do all that I do with and for Jesus Christ in God’s kingdom. I’ve spent thousands of hours listening to his teachings and reading his books, but what I’ll remember most is the hours that he listened to me with such grace. Each minute was and is precious.
Dallas lived and ministered from the Kingdom of the Heavens. Now he is all the way in! He’s probably just now figuring out that he “died!” His life was hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3) and that’s where his love, joy, peace, identity, meaning, and power came from. That life of his spirit and soul is continuing in far greater glory than ever before! “You will never taste death,” Jesus promised his followers (John 8:52).
Dallas helped me to venture my life, moment-by-moment, on the life of the Spirit of the risen Christ around me and within me. He helped me learn to live in the Kingdom of the Heavens now.
The Best is Yet to Come from Dallas WillardDallas died with two books unfinished. He’d been working on them for years, which was Dallas’ way. He was never in a hurry! It was out of his own unhurried life with Jesus that he taught us to “Ruthlessly Eliminate Hurry.” These will be his best books. God will see to it that they are finished.
It is fitting that the man who showed us how to “Abandon Outcomes” to God would do so even in his death.
How do I say goodbye to the best man I’ve known? How do I let go of the person who has been most like Jesus to me?
In my grief I find comfort from these words of Charles Spurgeon, preached in a sermon over one hundred years ago:
Often the death of man is a kind of new birth to him; when he himself is gone physically, he spiritually survives, and from his grave there shoots up a tree of life whose leaves heal nations. O worker for God, death cannot touch your sacred mission! Be content to die because death may be to you the enlargement of your influence…
We shall come to our true stature and beauty and put on our royal robes, our glorious Sabbath-dress. (Bright Days, Dark Nights with Charles Spurgeon, p. 209.)
Dallas Willard, a dear soul friend to me, has put on his glorious Sabbath-dress.
O Father God, we are so sad to lose Dallas Willard. May Jane and all of the Willard family, along with the countless friends and students of Dallas’, sense the reality that underneath us are your everlasting arms of comfort.
Thank you Lord that we haven’t lost Dallas in spirit, that he is more alive than ever, embraced in your Trinity of Love, worshipping and serving you with a multitude of angels and saints, and cheering the rest of us on from the Great Cloud of Witnesses. Yes, we take heart from Dallas as we run our life’s race of faith, fixing our eyes on Jesus and seeking to advance your Kingdom of the Heavens. May we all run better races because of Dallas Willard. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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Bill Gaultiere, PhD & Kristi Gaultiere, PsyD ~ Soul Shepherding ~ Irvine, CA
