4 Days on the Mountain — E.A. Johnston

A Personal Journey Into Deeper Fellowship With God

I'm going to get real transparent with you today, friends, and open a chapter in my life to show how a man can get serious with God by going deeper with Him. Several years ago I was having my daily morning quiet time with God and prayer.

I had just experienced the tragedy of the sudden death of my wife, and I wanted to go deeper with God and a deeper knowledge and experience of Him. And as I was in my Bible, I was reading Colossians 1 .10, which states, 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 as I thought about those words, I hungered for a deeper reality of God. Have you ever been there, friend, so desperate that you longed for more of God? Well, this was the place of desperation where I was that morning.

God was my all in all, and I wanted more of His Son, Jesus. I believe that's why Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John to deeper places where the other disciples did not experience. These three were privileged to be on the mountain with Christ, to witness His glory of the transfiguration, and they were with Him at Gethsemane to witness His anguish and prayer in His agony.

Four Days of Prayerful Meditation on Colossians 1:10

Well, as I read that verse, I made a vow unto God that for the next four days I would rise early in the morning and give Him the first hour and a half of my day in prayer, as I meditated on this text from Colossians.

He allowed me to break the verse up into four separate parts, so I could chew on each part each of those four days as I sought God's mind and heart relating to His Word and my desire to make this verse a reality in my life from His perspective.

That's what I wanted. I knew what I thought about it, but I wanted to hear from Him, from His perspective, about His Word in Colossians 1 .10, what God intended those lines to mean to me personally. I believe God is a personal God, if I may so speak.

He is personally involved in our life and our spiritual development. As we walk with Him on our way to Heaven, I really believe that, don't you, friend? Well those next four days of my life would end up being both a sacrifice and a mountaintop experience as I received blessings from the God of my salvation.

Well as I took those four parts of that verse and broke them down, one by one, for each of those four days, I was able to fully concentrate on each section during my time with the Lord in prayer. Day one, I had the words, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord.

Day two, unto all pleasing. Day three, being fruitful in every good work. And day four, an increasing in the knowledge of God. There I had it, the text each day that I asked God to make a reality in my life and to reveal to me His deeper purpose for my life.

Do you think God will work with us like that, friends, if we really get serious with Him? Oh, I hope you do, friend. You can have as much of God as you want to, so long as you are willing to let Him have as much of you as He wants.

Day One: Walking Worthy Through Suffering

I believe I can back that principle up with my Bible. Well let's take a look at those four days on that mountain. Day one, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord. During that wrestling with God in prayer for that first hour and a half, as I sought Him and searched His holy word and grew quiet before His Spirit, I finally got a breakthrough and I heard from God.

Now don't you think I'm off my rocker, friend. I don't go around hearing voices through the day like some folks do. No, that morning, but I sure did hear from Him. I believe God can communicate with His child through His word and by His Spirit in much the same way as a parent can communicate with their child.

I believe that. I believe God has something to say to each of us personally if we would only take the time to be alone with Him long enough to get close enough to hear His voice. Day one, God spoke to me about what He desired for me through the following words regarding that ye might walk worthy of the Lord.

And He said, walk worthy in the fellowship of my sufferings. And He gave me Philippians 3 .10 to be a reality in my life, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death.

And I heard walk worthy in the fellowship of my sufferings. Little did I know at the time what deep waters I would have to pass through as I entered a period of my life which was my time of sufferings.

I believe we can experience more of God when we are entirely dependent upon Him. I believe our churches today could experience more of the reality of God if we got to that place of utter reliance upon Him rather than reliance upon self and other things.

You see, friends, when I made that vow unto God that I wanted to get serious with God, then He got real serious with me. I wanted to have these words of His to become a reality in my life from His perspective.

And He has been faithful to those four days on the mountain with Him, for He has made each of these four parts of that verse in Colossians 1 .10 a living reality in my life. I believe that was the key to John Song.

I believe John Song lived on his knees and lived in his Bible. And that's why Song shook China for God. I believe God can do that with a man. Do we believe that, too? I hope you do, friend. We have the same God of Whitefield and Moody.

Day Two: Pleasing God by Faith

God is still on the lookout for His Whitefield and Moody of our day. Are you on the lookout for Him? Are you on the out-and-out for Him? Day two, unto all pleasing. Those were the words I chewed on over and over again that hour and a half during the early morning of day two.

Finally, God gave me Hebrews 11 .6. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. I had been longing for God to make me a man of faith. I had been asking Him to make me a man of faith from His perspective.

And I heard Him say, Walk by faith, trusting Me with all things. Over the next four years, God led me through a valley of utter reliance upon Him in a life of faith. And that did not stop there, friends.

I have learned to live by faith every day as I count on Him. I never dreamed what a faith adventure God would allow me to participate in with Him. I wouldn't have missed it for all the world. Jesus spent His earthly ministry pouring His life into the lives of His disciples with the purpose of making them men of faith.

Do you believe that, friends? I hope you do. Often, Jesus expressed His trial of training His men by exclaiming, O ye of little faith, or where is your faith? I believe Jesus is asking each of us that piercing question as well.

Day Three: Fruitfulness Through the Holy Spirit

Oh, where is your faith? As He builds faith in us. Day three, being fruitful in every good work. As I labored over that section of God's Word on that third day of my deeper journey with Him, as I pondered those words over and over again during that hour and a half of prayer, I finally heard from Him as He gave me Zechariah 4, 6.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. You see, friends, up until that point in my life with God, I had done a lot of activity for Him in His name, but a lot of it was just fleshly religious activity.

I believe a church can fall into a rut of religious activity through denominational programs that keeps the church occupied and busy in the name of God, but oddly, at the same time, keeps the church from experiencing a deeper knowledge of God by His work in the life of the church, by His spirit.

We decided years ago we could get more done by money and manpower, but the church in former times operated by reliance upon prayer and His spirit. I think we're afraid of the Holy Spirit today. I fear some of us link the Holy Spirit to tongues and sensationalism, so we back away.

But I realized that day, that third day of my mountaintop experience with God, that His purpose for me was something different in my ministry other than me just doing a lot of activity for Him. Rather, He wanted to take complete control and actually move through me, to make me a clear and empty channel He could use, that His power could flow through as a means of blessings to others.

Dr. Stephen Olford had a mantle of authority when he preached because he ministered beneath the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Power attended his preaching in a remarkable way. I often witnessed it myself, and the effect it had in the lives of thousands of pastors who came from all over the world to his preaching institute in Memphis.

Stephen Olford kept a plaque by his desk. My eyes would often fall upon it. It was a quote framed by Robert Murray McChain, which read, Lord, make me as holy as a saved sinner can be. It was Stephen Olford who shared with me one day in his study the following words.

He said, God can only bless with the anointing of His spirit those who pursue a life of holiness. And this very purpose came through to me on day three of my mountaintop experience with God for when He gave me that verse from Zechariah 4, 6 of, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

I then heard from God of His desire for me to live a life of holiness unto Him. And as He spoke these words to me, my spirit must be in control at all times through your surrendered life, I have learned, friends, the difficult lesson of living under the discipline of the Holy Spirit.

And although I am a man with a corrupt nature and I've stepped in my mud puddles from time to time through sin, and although I've not always made perfect tracks, I follow a perfect Savior. I am bent on following Him in a pursuit of holiness.

Day Four: Increasing in the Knowledge of God

As a preacher of the cross, I know that's where the power lies. I believe that's why so many of our pulpits today lack power because they lack holiness. Day four, an increasing in the knowledge of God.

As I meditated and prayed over those words during the hour and a half of my last day, my day four, on my mountaintop experience, I was hungering deeply for a deeper experience of God in my life. I desperately thirsted.

I wanted more of a living reality of Christ in my life. And this is when God gave me Jeremiah 33, 3. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Here God threw down a lancet at my feet as He challenged me to go deeper with Him in a life of faith under the discipline of His Holy Spirit.

Then He walked me through His word in Genesis about the life of Noah and how Noah was a man who walked with God in a perverted society that hated God. That is, Noah walked with God. God spoke to Noah about great and mighty things.

Great and mighty speaks of two things. God revealed to Noah that God was to bring a flood of waters upon the earth and God had chosen Noah to build an ark of gopher wood. And then God told Noah the second thing of the great and mighty things and Noah's life.

Verse 18 of Genesis chapter 6 reveals what God says to Noah, but with thee will I establish my covenant. And what God was trying to get through my thick skull that morning of my fourth day with Him was He was going to answer my prayer of my desire to experience more of Him.

He said, as you call unto me, I will answer thee and you will experience more of me through the fulfilled promises I have revealed to thee. Well, I can't tell you friends what those secret things were as pertaining to my life that God gave me, but I can say this in all sincerity to you right now that He has been faithful to allowing me to experience more Him as I live unto Him on my way to heaven.

Faith That Risks Everything to Follow Jesus

I believe Jesus got a big kick out of Peter because Peter was willing to gamble his life away for Christ and the gospel. Jesus was out walking on the water and while the other disciples were crying in fear like little babies in the boat, Peter ventured out in a walk of faith out on the water with Him.

I bet when Peter said, Lord, if it's really you, then let me come down and join you on that walk on that water. And I bet Jesus smiled a big grin as Peter challenged him and I can almost hear Jesus call out to Peter to join him on the waves with the words, come on, come on.

And I believe friends that we can have as much of Jesus as we want so long as He can have as much of us as He wants. And I believe He's looking for faith from every follower of His with the same challenge by calling out to each of us who are daring enough to risk everything for Him.

He is hollering out from across the water for us to join Him in a life of faith as He is saying, come on, come on.