The Deeper Life — E.A. Johnston

I was sitting in the study of my homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Offord, and we were discussing the topic of the deeper life. He related to me how he was preaching at a convention in Great Britain on the subject of the deeper life, and a young Billy Graham was in the audience.

Billy Graham approached Stephen Offord and asked him if he would teach him more about the fullness of the spirit. Dr. Offord told me that he and Billy Graham holed up in a hotel for an entire day as he shared with the young evangelist the message of the deeper life, and it transformed the ministry of Billy Graham.

The Holy Spirit’s Power for Effective Ministry

And I would like to share with you today, friends, what I have learned about the deeper life. Much of what I know on this subject I learned firsthand from Stephen Offord, as we often discuss this vital aspect of the Christian life.

I'm afraid that many men in ministry get by on education and personality, but there is a missing element to their ministry, and that missing element is power from on high. In Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, we read the words of Christ as he spoke to his disciples,.

But ye shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Now there are some who claim this power was only for the New Testament saints, but they are dead wrong, friends, dead wrong. Stephen Offord told me that no man has the right to stand on a street corner or to witness for Christ without this attending power of the Holy Spirit upon him.

Listen, friends, you cannot win someone to Christ with an argument. If you do, someone else more persuasive than you can come along and steal your convert. Only God can take away the heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh.

It is the Holy Spirit attending the word of God that brings conviction of sin. Perhaps there is someone within the sound of my voice who longs for the deeper life. Maybe you are a pastor or an evangelist and your ministry needs new life and power.

You are tired of getting by just on money and manpower, and you long for a touch of glory upon your preaching that will bring the dead to life. I hope the following message will benefit you, dear friends.

Seven Aspects of the Deeper Life

The title of my message today is The Deeper Life, and I will first list some vital aspects which I have learned through the years on this important aspect of the Christian life. Let me list them for you now, and as I do, I will elaborate on each head as we proceed.

The aspects of the deeper life contain the following. Number one, the utter surrender of the believer to the absolute lordship of Christ. Number two, the cost involved. Number three, the sacrifice made.

Number four, the benefits gained. Number five, the power received. Number six, the lives transformed. And number seven, the father glorified. Now friends, let's address these various aspects one by one.

Full Surrender to Christ’s Lordship

One cannot hope to have nor to even come close to attain the deeper life without a full and utter surrender to all the rights and claims Jesus has on a believer's life. There must be a crisis point of utter surrender of the believer to the absolute lordship of Christ in one's life.

If you're not willing to give it all to him, then you will not receive this blessing of the fullness of the spirit. I used to preach without this power, and there was no spiritual transformation in the hearts of my hearers.

I would preach at a church and rely on my personality, my humor, and my knowledge of the Bible and church history. And the typical comment I would hear from a deacon or a pastor was, well, Brother John Stinn, it seems the folks enjoyed your message.

Or someone would come up to me afterwards and say how much they enjoyed the message. But once I determined to seek God in a deeper way, things began to change in my preaching. The folks no longer enjoyed my message as a form of entertainment.

Rather, I would hear a pastor remark after I preached, Brother John Stinn, when I preach to my people, they leave the sanctuary laughing and talking to each other. But I noticed after you preached this evening, my people left the sanctuary in silence, and their eyes were red from crying.

There was a story about D .O. Moody, where he had just emerged from a crisis in his life. His church had burned to the ground in the Chicago fire, and he was earnestly seeking God for the deeper life.

Let me read you his words, friends. I was crying all the time that God would fill me with his spirit. Well, one day in the city of New York, oh, what a day, I cannot describe it. I seldom refer to it.

It's almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for 14 years. I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand.

I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different. I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience.

If you should give me all the world, it would be as the small dust of the balance. So D .O. Moody had this crisis of the deeper life, and his entire ministry was transformed from that point on. And I repeat, dear friends, you can forget about entering this experience with God if you're unwilling to surrender to the absolute lordship of Christ in your life.

Every lust you have must be nailed to the cross. Every sin habit done away with, every inch of you must be placed on that cross. Your body is no longer your own. Your money is no longer your own. Your time is no longer your own.

Christ must be a complete master. There must be a full surrender of all you are and all you have to Christ the lord. Christ Jesus will not accept partial obedience. Secondly, I want to address the cost involved.

The Cost of a Life of Prayer

Stephen Oldford used to tell me, oh, what cost counts and what counts cost. And it's true, friends. The cost is a desperate life of prayer. You must be willing to shut yourself up with God and a close walk with him.

And those Enochs will be translated to a deeper life with him. I can't say enough about the necessity of a daily regular quiet time with our lord. I'm not talking about just reading a few Bible verses and saying a few prayers.

I'm talking about a willingness to go deeper with God through a sacrificial life of prayer. There's a cost involved. I recall a story about David Wilkerson. Early in Wilkerson's ministry, he was a country pastor who spent the hours of midnight to 2 AM watching television to unwind and relax.

One evening, God challenged Wilkerson to give that time to him. Wilkerson sold his TV and never replaced it. From that point forward, he gave God midnight to 2 AM. And it was during this time that God called Wilkerson to New York City to minister among teen gang members, eventually starting Teen Challenge.

I realized that God did not reveal this wider ministry opportunity to Wilkerson until he chose to go deeper with God in a sacrificial daily quiet time. So we'll see from this, there is a cost involved to the deeper life and few are willing to pay it.

I can listen to a man preach and in five minutes tell you all about his prayer life with God. A preacher is only as tall in the pulpit as he is long on his knees in prayer. Thirdly, the sacrifice made, there is a sacrifice to the deeper life.

Sacrifice and Separation from Worldly Distractions

You cannot have one foot in the world and have one foot with God and expect to go deeper with him. Notice in our previous aspect of the deeper life, David Wilkerson gave up his TV. Several years ago, God challenged me to give up my TV.

I did, the time I used to spend sitting in front of my television, I now spend on my knees and in my Bible. I had to make a choice to stay entertained before my TV set, until my eyes grew the size of saucers and my brain the size of a pea.

Or get rid of that idol and time waster and give that time to God in prayer. There must be a sacrifice made in your life, friend, to go deeper with God. It may not be your TV set. It may be something else that steals your time and things of vanity and robs you of a closer walk with God.

Give that idol to God and see how blessed your walk with God will be as you become a closer friend of his, as you increase the time of fellowship with him. Fourthly, the benefits gained. Years ago, I made a vow to God that I wanted to draw closer to him and a closer walk with him.

The Benefits of Seeking God and Understanding the Gospel

At the time, I had a poor understanding of what the gospel was. The only gospel I was familiar with was the modern easy believe gospel of our day. I determined to draw close to God in a regular time of solitude with him.

This was in addition to my regular daily quiet time. I decided to take daily walks by a neighborhood pond and use that time to pray and seek God in a fresh way. No matter how bad the weather got, I still walked with my God.

If it rained, I walked beneath an umbrella. If it was bitter cold, I wore several layers of clothing and a hat and gloves. But my point is, I was determined to draw closer to God in these daily walks with him in prayer, and God honored my extra time with him in the following manner.

The benefits I gained during this prolonged seeking of God resulted in a deep understanding of what the true gospel was. I learned about the gospel of the Son of God from the Lord during these times of close fellowship with him.

I saw the shallowness of the modern gospel with its man-centered methodologies. And God revealed to me how to preach the gospel of his beloved son. I saw what's necessary to preach the law and shut sinners up to God in conviction of sin.

I saw what's mandatory to preach man's duty of repentance and man's utter necessity of regeneration. A true believer must be washed in the blood and born from above. The benefits gained from my prolonged season with the Lord were transforming to my preaching ministry.

Receiving Power Through the Holy Spirit

Now allow me to proceed to my fifth point, this vital aspect of the deeper life, which is the power received. I had learned that the passage from Zechariah chapter four and verse six applies to all gospel witnesses.

And there'd be no attendant power to my witness for the Lord unless I sought the anointing spoken of in this verse. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, this is the word of the Lord, unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

I had to admit that my ministry lacked power from on high, and I decided like Moody to seek this blessing of the deeper life. In fact, I had to have it. I was constantly saying, Lord, give me this blessing.

I want to be like Moody. I want to have that power. So I earnestly and desperately sought God for this anointing. I asked the Holy Spirit to shine his cleansing spotlight into my life to reveal areas of sin that needed to be done away with and crucified.

It was a painful and difficult process, especially in my case. But the benefits gained far outweighed the cost and sacrifice given for the power received. Only the Holy Spirit can bring conviction of sin and take away the heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh in conversion.

If we attempt to serve God in our own weak mortal flesh without this attendant power, we are bound to make false converts and do many harm rather than good. It's how I used to conduct my ministry. I did more people harm than good.

I've got my share of false converts through the years. And that's the main problem with our modern approach to evangelism today. We go out in the flesh and attempt to convince the lost to accept their Jesus.

But notice this, friends. Jesus declared that ye shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come upon you and you should be witnesses unto me. Notice the priority here. First, the Holy Ghost comes upon you, and then you should be witnesses unto me.

How can we expect to have a transforming ministry without this attending power? Obviously, we cannot. The sixth aspect of the deeper life is this, the lives transformed. And this, of course, is the follow-up of preaching with an anointing.

Transformed Lives Through Anointed Preaching

When I sat under Stephen Ofert's preaching, it amazed me how many individuals were convicted of sin under his preaching. God blessed the ministry of Dr. Ofert because he was a holy man of God who preached with a mantle of authority from on high, lives were transformed under his ministry, and lives were impacted for all eternity.

This is the most glorious aspect of the deeper life. Sinners are saved, and Christians are impacted to live lives of holiness unto the Lord. And lastly, my seventh point is this, the Father glorified.

Bearing Fruit That Glorifies the Father

God receives the glory from a holy man of God, preaching the unvarnished gospel of the Son of God, with the power of the Holy Spirit upon him, in a fruit-bearing ministry which glorifies the Father. Jesus declared in John 15, 8, herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples.

The deeper life is a fruit-producing life. It's life-impacting. Listen, friends, when we are clear channels of God's flowing power, then the rivers of life can flow without obstruction through us as a means of blessing to others.

I will always remember the two plaques in Dr. Oldford's study, which typified his anointed life. The first was a quote from Robert Murray McChain. It read, Lord, make me as holy as a saved sinner can be.

That was Dr. Oldford's life motto. Secondly, he had a little wooden plaque on his desk, which had one word carved into it. And that word also typified his powerful ministry. That word was simply others.

He lived so others could live. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And as I lay dying, how good it shall be. If the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee, let us pray.