Dallas Willard Quotes

All Church power arises from the indwelling of the Spirit; therefore those in whom the Spirit dwells are the seat of Church power. But the Spirit dwells in the whole Church, and therefore the whole Church is the seat of Church power.

Under the control of the Church are two swords … the spiritual is wielded … by the hand of the clergy. The secular is to be employed for the Church by the hand of the civil authority, but under the direction of the spiritual power.

Preaching the Word is the primary task of the Church, the primary task of the leaders of the Church, the people who are set in this position of authority; and we must not allow anything to deflect us from this, however good the cause, however great the need.

It is clear that God is saying, 'I gave man dominion over the earth, but he lost it. Now I desire mature sons and daughters who will in My name exercise dominion over the earth and subdue Satan, the unruly, the rebellious. Take back My world from those who would loot it and abuse it. Rule as I would rule.'

The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it.

The moment the church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her.

The triune God exercises total government over all things, and He requires us as His image-bearers to exercise government in Christ in our own spheres in terms of His law.

What we get, we members of the Church, compared with the total mass that is distributed, is almost microscopic, but the spirit in which we might take it, the spirit in which we might spend it, is the leaven that might leaven the whole lump. Let us be patriotic; let us love the government under which we live.

If we belong to Christ, Satan has no right to exercise authority over us, but he hopes we're too ignorant regarding Scripture to know it.

It is manifest therefore that they who have sovereign power, are immediate rulers of the church under Christ, and all others but subordinate to them. If that were not, but kings should command one thing upon pain of death, and priests another upon pain of damnation, it would be impossible that peace and religion should stand together.

We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.

The Church tries to fit Christ into it, not the Church into Christ.

It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.

The Great Commission is still the mission statement of the Church.

God is only the president of the day, and Webster is his orator.

Nowhere nor in anything, except in the assertion of the Church, can we find that God or Christ founded anything like what churchmen understand by the Church.

We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were mysterious power going with it - the Holy Ghost changing the will of man. O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul.

It's not the job of government to help the poor. The church is the mechanism that God put on earth to help the poor.

If the church would only be the church- if Christians would only be Christians- nothing could halt our onward march.

The Holy Ghost carries on the whole Christian system in this earth. Not a Baptism, not a Marriage, not a Sacrament can be administered but by the Holy Ghost... There is no Authority civil or religious: there can be no legitimate Government but what is administered by this Holy Ghost. There can be no salvation without it. All, without it is Rebellion and Perdition, or in more orthodox words Damnation.

In order to the existence of such a ministry in the Church, there is requisite an authority received from God, and consequently power and knowledge imparted from God for the exercise of such ministry; and where a man possesses these, although the bis.

The call of God does what the call of man cannot. It raises the dead.

God enabled me to speak with the demonstration of the Spirit, and with power.

No man can teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ under the inspiration of the living God and with power from on high unless he is living it.

The priesthood of God has become the eminent power for good in the world. We are no longer a handful of people on the fringes of society. This great power for good has been entrusted to us, and we must not weaken it by failing in our responsibilities.