Four Days on the Mountain — E.A. Johnston

Seeking a Deeper Reality of God

In the summer of 2013, in the month of August, I began a quest for a deeper experience of God. I had just emerged from a year of grieving the sudden death of my wife, and I was hungering after more of a reality of God in my life.

I had recalled reading about an incident in the life of F .B. Meyer, where he was sharing a room with a young C .T. Studd. Meyer asked the young man why he stared endlessly over his Bible, peering at the same verse of scripture over and over again.

Was he trying to memorize it? More than that, answered C .T. Studd, I'm asking God to make this verse a reality in my life. Well, that story always stuck with me, and one day I determined to do that very thing.

I chose Colossians 1 .10 for my text, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. And then I wrote in the margin of my Bible what I thought that verse meant to me.

I did the typical preacher outline. I wrote that all pleasing, men obeying God, and that being fruitful, men abiding in Jesus, and increasing in the knowledge of Him, and a closer walk with Him. And as I sat at my desk in my study and stared at that verse from Colossians 1 .10, I realized nothing was happening.

Oh, I could memorize it all right if I spent the time to do so, but nothing spiritual was taking place. I decided I needed more than a superficial knowledge of this verse. I wanted to have this verse go right through me and become a vivid reality in my life.

I knew that anything worthwhile comes with a price, and what counts costs, and what costs counts. So I determined for the next four days I would seek the face of God regarding His word from Colossians 1 .10 as it pertained to me from His perspective.

Four Spiritual Truths in Colossians 1:10

I broke the verse down into four parts and labeled them for each day. The first part was, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord. The second part was, unto all pleasing. The third part was, being fruitful in every good work.

And the fourth part was, an increasing in the knowledge of God. Then I made a commitment to God and a vow with God that I would do what was necessary on my part to make this verse a reality in my life, if He would do His part by an act of involvement of His Spirit in my life to effect the necessary change in me for this verse to become real to me in my daily living.

I set aside four days to tackle this goal. Little did I know at the time what I was getting into. For when we get serious with God, He gets serious with us. But first, we must prove to Him that our seriousness is real and not just some superficial desire.

For the next four days, I rose early at 4 .30 a .m. to spend two hours with God in prayer each day over the four segments of Colossians 1 .10. I was seeking God earnestly to make this verse a reality in my life, just as C .T. Studd had done.

Even though I was willing to set aside four days in earnest seeking of God, what I didn't know was that it would take God eight years to make this verse a reality in my life. There would be many mountaintops and valleys ahead of me as God dealt with me by His Word and by His Spirit.

I learned there were four spiritual truths in Colossians 1 .10 that God wanted to teach me, and these truths had to be revealed to me one by one over the course of those four days of prayer. He wanted me to understand what this verse meant from His perspective in regard to my life and what was needed in my life, what was lacking in my life, and what eventually would become reality in my life.

And with each part of that verse revealed to me, God would give me His companion verse for me. Well, I'm going from my handwritten notes and my old Bible friends as I recorded it back then. On August 15, 2018, the groundwork was laid.

There were four truths God wanted me to know when they had to transpire in my life for them to become a reality in my life. The first truth was found in His words, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord.

With these words stuck out in my Bible in a brilliant hue, God was in a pact with me to increase my spiritual development and bring me more to spiritual maturity for His purpose and for His glory. That first morning, as I labored in prayer in a seeking of the Lord, as I pondered those words, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord, God spoke to my heart and said that verse meant from God's perspective, walk worthy in the fellowship of my sufferings.

And God immediately gave me His companion verse for me from Philippians 3 .10, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death.

This spoke of the cross in the life of a believer. I had much to learn yet on the crucified life in Christ. There was a depth there I had never before explored yet fathomed. To know the fellowship of His sufferings would mean for me to become deeply familiar with the pain and shame of Calvary.

Rome wasn't built in a day and it would take time to make this part of the verse a reality in my life. It took years of pruning and purging and stripping back self to lay exposed sin that hid in the shadows.

Self-examination is a painful process on its own, but when it is accompanied by the glaring searching spotlight of the Holy Spirit, it is crushing. I remember Alan Redpath once said, before God can use a man, He must first smash him.

Well, I was going to be smashed to pieces. The second day of August 16th, as I rose at 4 .30am to begin my seeking of God, the second part of the verse was, unto all pleasing. God said what that meant from His perspective for me was, without faith it is impossible to please Him.

Pleasing God Through a Life of Faith

And He immediately gave me His companion verse of Hebrews 11 .6 and God revealed to me that He would be building in me a life of faith that was deep and real, that through trial and testing I would learn to lean more upon Him, to rest more on His promises and to stand more firmly on His written word.

Of course, this would take years to transpire. As God built faith in me, I had to agree with each of these things and sign it in my own blood, so to speak, before we could continue to go on to the next level of spiritual truth as a reality in my life.

Fruitful Service Through the Work of the Spirit

On day three, August 17th, as I sat at my Bible at 4 .30am, with expectancy in my heart, the third part of the verse was, being fruitful in every good work. This was to be a day of searching and scrutiny by the Lord, the Lord of my life, for He showed me that in the past I had served Him for selfish motives and self-recognition, and this had to go the way of the cross.

God showed me the only lasting works for eternity were not what I produced in the flesh for Him, in my service to Him, but all that lasted for eternity was what God did through me. It was His work in me, not my efforts for Him.

Here is where my religious building came crashing down, for I'd spent years being active and busy serving the Lord, but He was saying much of what I had produced by my own labor was merely wood, hay, and stubble that would one day be burned up at the behemoth seat of Christ Jesus, what only would remain as gold, silver, and precious stones was what God had done through me.

My responsibility was to be an empty and clean channel that He could move through as a means of blessings to others. The emptying of a man is a hard thing to accomplish because that man has to go to the cross.

J. Siddle Baxter used to say, How can a man, full of himself, preach a Christ who emptied himself? Well, I would find out. As God revealed these truths to me, He immediately gave me His companion verse for me from Zechariah 4 .6.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. I was to learn what it meant to have the life of God in me as a power source for service. God said, My spirit must be in control at all times through your surrendered life.

Then Christ's words from John 15 pierced me like a sword. For without me ye can do nothing, meaning nothing lasting or impacting for eternity. I knew there were truths here, not only for me, but for the modern church that had gotten away from God by self-reliance on money and manpower, rather than by prayer and Holy Ghost power.

Growing in the Knowledge of God Through Prayer

Well, I pressed on. On day four, August 18, the fourth part of my verse awaited me as I sat at my Bible at 4 .30 a .m. and pondered the last part of Colossians 1 .10. And increasing in the knowledge of God, God was taking me deeper in a walk with Him.

Each leg of this journey came with corresponding obedience and submission to His will. Now came the final part. This time God gave me His companion verse before the accompanying truth that attended it.

The companion verse was Jeremiah 33 .3. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. God was saying to me that there were certain vital truths God wanted to teach me.

They were things I knew not, but would be revealed to me over time as I walked with God in an intimate walk with Him. And as I did, my knowledge of Him would increase as I experienced more of Him through His fulfilled promises to me.

Persevering in Faith Through Adversity

Well, over the next eight years, God gave me very certain promises that pertained to me out of His word. And Isaiah, they were like pearls strung on a golden chain, each link supporting the corresponding promise.

I'll say this, friends, and I'll say this now. I'm no super saint, for I know I am a sinner saved by His grace, but I do know this one thing for sure. God gets serious with those who get serious with Him.

My life has been full of adversity and trial, personal suffering and want, but through it all, I have come to know my God, and He is wonderful. The Christian life can be the most exciting adventure in the world if you give it all to Him.

After all, Jesus gave His all for me on Calvary. How can I hold anything back from Him?