LIBERTY UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR EMER TOWN'S INTRODUCTION TO THE DEEPER LIFE
Since my conversion experience on July 25, 1950, I have never once doubted my salvation. I have had a presence of Christ in my life that I can only explain by the phrase ". . . Christ lives
in me . . ." (Galatians 2:20 NKJV).
However, Easter Sunday following my conversion, I experienced a special communion
with God that I had not previously felt. At the time I was discouraged, even though I knew I was saved and I knew Christ lived within me. At about 9:00 A.M. I was waiting for my ride to Sunday school. At the time I taught in a small Presbyterian mission called Capital View Community Chapel, outside Columbia, South Carolina. My ride was approximately thirty minutes late that morning. During that time I meditated on the meaning of Galatians 2:20, especially the phrase ". . . Christ lives in me. . . ."
Another phrase in that verse, " . . . I live by the faith of the Son of God. . ." challenged me. For the first time I realized that Christ rose on the first Easter of history, but that morning He lived in my heart. I experienced His fullness, and for the first time I experienced His faith working within me. As I stood in the warm sun, waiting for my ride, I volitionally yielded anew to God. I asked Jesus Christ to give me victory by living His faith through me. Jesus Christ had never gotten discouraged, and I wanted to live above discouragement. I wanted not only faith that could trust God for money, but also faith that would not worry about anything. I wanted to trust completely in Him. What I experienced was inward reality. I did not kneel in prayer, nor did I close my eyes. I simply talked to Jesus and yielded everything to Him. I asked Jesus Christ to live His life through me. That morning, for the first time in my Christian life, I fully experienced the meaning of the resurrection life. The previous year, when I was still unsaved, Easter had simply been a historical fact. Now I had come to know personally the One who was raised from the dead; and He was not only at the right hand of God in heaven. Christ was alive in my heart. Little did I know that the inner presence of Jesus Christ in me would be tested. But that morning I did not have a care in the world, because I had the faith of Christ.
Later, Dr. R. C. McQuilkin, president of Columbia Bible College, explained in a class that he too had sought victory that comes by Jesus Christ. He explained that each year he went to a youth conference and got his spiritual bucket filled, but during the ensuing months the bucket went dry. Then one year he completely surrendered to Jesus Christ and accepted the Word of God by faith and "sank a well of his own." That Easter Sunday morning I experienced what Dr. McQuilkin and thousands of others experienced. Jesus promised, "But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14 NKJV).
Since my conversion experience on July 25, 1950, I have never once doubted my salvation. I have had a presence of Christ in my life that I can only explain by the phrase ". . . Christ lives
in me . . ." (Galatians 2:20 NKJV).
However, Easter Sunday following my conversion, I experienced a special communion
with God that I had not previously felt. At the time I was discouraged, even though I knew I was saved and I knew Christ lived within me. At about 9:00 A.M. I was waiting for my ride to Sunday school. At the time I taught in a small Presbyterian mission called Capital View Community Chapel, outside Columbia, South Carolina. My ride was approximately thirty minutes late that morning. During that time I meditated on the meaning of Galatians 2:20, especially the phrase ". . . Christ lives in me. . . ."
Another phrase in that verse, " . . . I live by the faith of the Son of God. . ." challenged me. For the first time I realized that Christ rose on the first Easter of history, but that morning He lived in my heart. I experienced His fullness, and for the first time I experienced His faith working within me. As I stood in the warm sun, waiting for my ride, I volitionally yielded anew to God. I asked Jesus Christ to give me victory by living His faith through me. Jesus Christ had never gotten discouraged, and I wanted to live above discouragement. I wanted not only faith that could trust God for money, but also faith that would not worry about anything. I wanted to trust completely in Him. What I experienced was inward reality. I did not kneel in prayer, nor did I close my eyes. I simply talked to Jesus and yielded everything to Him. I asked Jesus Christ to live His life through me. That morning, for the first time in my Christian life, I fully experienced the meaning of the resurrection life. The previous year, when I was still unsaved, Easter had simply been a historical fact. Now I had come to know personally the One who was raised from the dead; and He was not only at the right hand of God in heaven. Christ was alive in my heart. Little did I know that the inner presence of Jesus Christ in me would be tested. But that morning I did not have a care in the world, because I had the faith of Christ.
Later, Dr. R. C. McQuilkin, president of Columbia Bible College, explained in a class that he too had sought victory that comes by Jesus Christ. He explained that each year he went to a youth conference and got his spiritual bucket filled, but during the ensuing months the bucket went dry. Then one year he completely surrendered to Jesus Christ and accepted the Word of God by faith and "sank a well of his own." That Easter Sunday morning I experienced what Dr. McQuilkin and thousands of others experienced. Jesus promised, "But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14 NKJV).
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