I am re-reading some Dallas Willard books to refresh my spirit right now and one that is a compilation of interviews and shorter articles is my current project: Renewing the Christian Mind, edited by Gary Black, Jr.

There is an interview where Dallas is asked:

Your teaching on the kingdom highlights some of the differences between the charismatics and evangelicals. Charismatics emphasize manifestations; evangelicals, Bible teaching. Are you saying they are both wrong?

Dallas’s answer:

Exactly. If you ask, “How is it wrong?” I would say that neither manifestation or teaching transforms character. Charismatics flail at the dead horse of experience, evangelicals at teaching, but neither leads to transformation spiritually. The only thing that transforms us spiritually is the action of following Christ. You seek to follow, you fail, and you learn. But in order to engage in following, you have to have a clear understanding of life in the kingdom of God — that you are accepted by the grace of God in Jesus — and that lays the foundation for as much true doctrine as you can manage and as much manifestation of the Spirit as you can stand. (p. 233)

We can’t be perpetual students. We can’t be perpetual “revival seekers.” We have to follow Jesus. Our Gospel reading for the past several Sundays came from John 6, a transformative passage for me. It has led me into the sacramental life. But it has ALWAYS been a marker for me in discipleship. When our current mantra in evangelical Christianity is numbers… how many are there on Sunday?… Jesus spends this portion of his life thinning out the crowd.

He is driving them to understand they are not getting ordinary teaching. And when he is finished with his hard teaching, most of the crowd has gone! They were there for another meal and Jesus was wanting them to think. He has to turn to his core group and ask, “Are you going, too?”

And their answer is what Dallas is drawing our attention to: “Where else can we go? You alone have the words of life.”

We have to hang on. We’re not invited to a class session with Jesus. We’re invited to a journey. I don’t always know where this is leading me. I just have to hang on!

And when I do, I find truth. I find knowledge. I also find his powerful presence in ways that can’t be explained. But through my life this one thing has been constant: hang on and follow for dear life!