A Deeper Walk with Him — E.A. Johnston

Following Christ Beyond Blessing

There are many Christians who follow Jesus into Canaan, enjoying the fruits and benefits of being a Christian. Some even are willing to go as far with him to the Sea of Galilee and encounter some storms for him.

Gethsemane, Calvary, and the Crucified Life

Few are those who are willing to go into Gethsemane with him and experience agony of soul and desperate prayer. Few are still are willing to walk the road to Calvary and live a crucified life as they follow a crucified Savior.

The Deeper Life and Fuller Usefulness

The deeper life is to experience more of God, but we have to be willing to experience change for him. I like what J. Siddall Baxter wrote, Dr. Baxter said, What I give to him, he takes. What he takes, he cleanses.

What he cleanses, he fills. And what he fills, he uses. I believe, friends, that fuller usefulness to God emerges from a deeper walk with him. It all begins in the daily quiet time, where we find a quiet place to read God's word and pray to God to make his word a reality in our life.

Daily Communion With God's Word

It was Stephen Alford who said, We cannot master the word of God until the word of God masters us. And it's true, friends. My text this evening is found in Paul's letter to the Philippians. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

Knowing Christ Through Resurrection and Suffering

We will be in chapter 3 and verse 10. The title of my message this evening is A Deeper Walk With Him. Enoch and God were out walking one day, and God was enjoying Enoch's company so much, it was as if he said to him, Come along, Enoch, and he was translated to heaven.

Our daily quiet time with God should translate us to another realm altogether, where we get a taste of the heavenly atmosphere and desire more of that higher altitude. I believe, friends, we can have as much of the Holy Spirit we want, so long as he can have much of us.

I believe we can see the deeper degrees of the Christian life in Philippians 3 .10, which reads, That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.

Knowing him is enjoying him in Canaan. The power of his resurrection is seeing him deliver us from a storm. The fellowship of his sufferings is entering into Gethsemane and agonizing prayer and being made conformable to him.

The Cross and Fellowship With Christ's Sufferings

His walk in the Calvary Road, which symbolizes the cross in the life of a believer. How many messages will you hear this week, friend, on the cross in the life of a believer? It's a message not preached much anymore.

Few want to preach on the crucified life, because few want to live it. I'll never forget the story about Graham Scroggie and Helen Roseveare, the missionary to Africa. At one time, Helen Roseveare was a member of Scroggie's church, and she came forward in a call to missions.

Scroggie took her Bible and wrote in the flyleaf, Philippians 3 .10. He handed her Bible back to her, and he looked her in the eye, and he said, You know him. Perhaps someday you will know the privilege of the fellowship of his sufferings.

Years later, in the Congo Uprising of the 1960s, Helen Roseveare was a missionary in Africa. She was captured, cruelly beaten, and raped. What got her through that ordeal was the memory of Scroggie's words, Perhaps someday you will know the privilege of the fellowship of his sufferings.

Counting the Cost of Following Christ

We must ask ourselves, friends, this burning question. Are we more into self-preservation, or are we willing to go all out for Christ Enter into our own Gethsemane, and then try the dusty road to Calvary In a life lived on the full stretch for Him?

What cost counts, and what counts costs? It is my prayer that God will give us enough grace to go all out for Him No matter the price, and no matter the cost Only one life, which will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.

Let us pray.