Most Christians feel frustrated because they don’t grow spiritually. We equip Christians to understand the Word of God and cultivate a passionate love for Jesus that turns the world upside down.
Have you ever said any of the following?
- There must be more to Christianity than what I am experiencing.
- I want to grow in my faith and deepen my intimacy with Jesus Christ.
- I want to love and understand the Bible more.
- How does the Christian life actually and practically work?
- What is God’s ultimate purpose and plan for my life?
- I want to know how to pray, study the Bible, share the Gospel, live in holiness, overcome sin, walk in truth, live dependent on Jesus, be fearless and immovable in Christ, and have a vibrant spiritual life.
If so, you’re in the right place.
deeperChristian is a place for intentional Christians who want to discover and experience a passionate love for God and His Word so they can grow in their faith, live victorious lives, share the Gospel boldly, deepen their intimacy with Jesus, and transform the world through the indwelling life of Christ.
Modern Christianity
Looking at the “Christian” church of today, I am deeply saddened by its current state of affairs: the lack of victory within believers’ lives, the diminishment of the authority and truth of God’s Word, the plague of worldliness in the church (and believers’ lives), Biblical illiteracy, the lack of evangelism, a spiritual stupor, a fear of man, and an acceptance of sin.
We have become much like the group Paul warned Timothy about in 2 Timothy 3:
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
2 Timothy 3:1-5
Our Great Need Today
The great need of the Church today is to return to our “first love,” Jesus Christ (see Revelation 2:4)—a return not in words alone but in heart, mind, soul, and strength. A return to historic Christianity—a Christianity that actually works. A return to a life focused and dependent upon Jesus Christ, filled with His Spirit and enabled to live victorious and godly lives. A return of total surrender and givenness to the will of God, desiring to be spilled and spent for His renown and glory. We must decrease and get out of the way so that He can increase and be seen.
Simply put, our great need is to build our lives around Jesus Christ. He is the foundation (the Cornerstone—Ephesians 2:20) upon which our lives are built. He is the “North Star” we fix our compass to. He is to be the centrality of our lives, the One around Whom everything else is placed.
For Jesus “is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18). For as Paul later said in Colossians 3:4, Jesus is our life. He isn’t just to be a part of our lives; He is to be central, preeminent, in first place, the essence of the entirety of life itself. For He Himself is life (John 14:6).
Thus, the purpose of deeperChristian is to edify, equip, and encourage you to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16) as you pursue Jesus Christ and the fullness of the Christian life. Through resources, tools, and studies, I want to help you study God’s Word, know Jesus intimately, and discover how you can build your life around Jesus Christ.
Who Am I? » Your Travel Guide Into the Endless Depths of Jesus Christ
My name is Nathan Johnson (NRJohnson), and I have an overwhelming passion for Jesus. I am a writer, teacher, and communicator who helps Christians discover and experience a passionate love for God and His Word so they can grow in their faith, live victorious lives, share the Gospel boldly, deepen their intimacy with Jesus, and transform the world through the indwelling life of Christ.
Though I grew up in a loving, Christian home, it wasn’t until I spent a summer traveling with an evangelist as an intern that God turned my world upside down. Scripture opened up to me unlike ever before, a deep hunger and passion for Jesus and the Word grew in my life, and I found victory and a foundation in Truth. My life hasn’t been the same since.
And now, for more than a decade, I have taught thousands of Christians to study God’s Word, grow in intimacy with Jesus, and build their lives around Him. And I’d love to help you do that too.
I want you to be more in love with Jesus than ever before; to be filled with and sourced by His Spirit; and to know, obey, and be transformed by His Word in increasing measure. Or as I like to say:
Know the Word • Grow in Intimacy • Walk in Victory
Are You Ready to Dive In?
I typically post several times a week, which includes:
- Articles to equip you and deepen your spiritual life
- Audio Podcasts to help you study God’s Word and know Jesus intimately
- Bible Studies in Ephesians – to discover God’s eternal purpose and what it means to live IN Christ
- Classic Christian Quotes to stir your heart and spur you on
I also send a weekly wrap-up email that contains all the above-mentioned content in one convenient email. Interested in not missing anything?
Not Sure Where To Start?
I’ve created a “quick start guide” to deeperChristian and all the available resources.
What is the Deeper Christian Life?
Throughout Christian history, the Deeper Christian Life has been called by other names, such as the Exchanged Life, the Victorious Christian Life, the Spirit-Filled (or Spirit-Led) Life, the Indwelling Life of Christ, the Fellowship of the Burning Heart, or the Narrow Way of the Cross.
Simply put, the Deeper Christian Life is a life focused on, filled with, and dependent upon Jesus Christ. It is a purposeful progression to ever-increasing intimacy and oneness of relationship with the God of the universe. It is being filled with and sourced by the Spirit of God. It is plunging headlong into the endless depths of Jesus, desiring more and more of Him—with the prayer of a kid in a swimming pool full of chocolate: “Oh Lord, increase my capacity!”
Through intimacy with Jesus and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Jesus produces and becomes my victory and triumph for everyday living—He is all that I need for life and godliness (see 2 Peter 1:3).
Handley Moule once said, “[The Christian life is] to be like [Christ]. To displace self from the inner throne and to enthrone Him; to make not the slightest compromise with the smallest sin. We aim at nothing less than to walk with God all day long, to abide every hour in Christ, and He and His words in us, to love God with all the heart, and our neighbor as ourselves.”
Or as AW Tozer wrote, “Deity indwelling men! That is Christianity in its fullest effectuation, and even those greater glories of the world to come will be in essence but a greater and more perfect experience of the soul’s union with God. Deity indwelling men! That, I say, is Christianity, and no man has experienced rightly the power of Christian belief until he has known this for himself as a living reality. Everything else is preliminary to this. Incarnation, atonement, justification, regeneration; what are these but acts of God preparatory to the work of invading and the act of indwelling the redeemed human soul?”
The Christian life is all about Jesus.
It is not focused upon my effort, ability, or duty. It is a singular focus upon the Person of Jesus as the substance and source of my life.
Major Ian Thomas captured it well when he once wrote, “The Christian life can be explained only in terms of Jesus, and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of you—your personality, your willpower, your gift, your talent, your money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication, your sacrifice, or your anything—then although you may have the Christian life, you are not yet living it! … True Godliness leaves the world convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only explanation for you, is Jesus.”
We are not promoting laziness, apathy, or “sit on a couch until Jesus forces me to do something”; rather, it is my life interacting with His through my surrender, dependency, response, and obedience. I become the vessel through which He flows His life, love, gospel, truth, and triumph. I become the stage upon which He acts and demonstrates Himself to this lost and dying world. I become His hands and feet to the needy, broken, and lost.
As Christians, we ought to desire greater growth and depth. It is, as my friend Eric Ludy states, “an endless frontier” to press forward into and experience. As we live in the richness of intimacy with Jesus in this moment, we realize that this is but a taste (or as Paul would say, “a downpayment”—Ephesians 1:14, 18), and we must therefore continue onward and upward in our pursuit, praise, honor, and love of Jesus.
Andrew Murray clearly expressed this when he stated, “You will ask me, ‘Are you satisfied? Have you got all you want?’ God forbid. With the deepest feeling of my soul I can say that I am satisfied with Jesus now, but there is also the consciousness of how much fuller the revelation can be of the exceeding abundance of His grace. Let us never hesitate to say, This is only the beginning.”
This indeed is only the beginning—there is so much more depth to the Christian life that we have yet to experience. May we run down this endless frontier of experiencing the fullness of the Christian life, centered on and built upon Jesus Christ.
If you want a picture of what such a life looks like, open any biography of the heroic Christians of old, and you will discover a hint of what is possible when we embark down the Narrow Way of the Cross, also called the Deeper Christian Life—or simply “Christianity.”
Some people who lived the Deeper Christian Life throughout the last few centuries …
C.T. Studd, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, George Müller, Rees Howells, Andrew Murray, A.W. Tozer, William and Catherine Booth, Samuel Brengle, Richard Wurmbrand, Major Ian Thomas, Leonard Ravenhill, Corrie ten Boom, Samuel Morris, George Whitefield, John Wesley, David Brainerd, Paris Reidhead, Charles Spurgeon, Francois Fenelon, Watchman Nee, E.M. Bounds, John Hyde, Handley Moule, Jonathan Edwards, Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, Madame Guyon, Keith Green, Jackie Pullinger, D.L. Moody, Charles Trumbull, Gladys Aylward, David Wilkerson, Samuel Chadwick, T. Austin-Sparks, Duncan Campbell, Stephen Manley, Jonathan Goforth, and Oswald Chambers.
Are there more? Of course. Many more.
Most who have lived the Deeper Christian Life were not famous, never wrote a book, or had one written about them. They were bathed in humility—often unseen and unnoticed by the world around them—but whose lives were marked by a voracious pursuit of and love for Jesus. As William Tyndall once said, “There is no work better than another to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a cobbler, or an apostle, all is one; to wash dishes and to preach is all one to please God.”
In a Nutshell …
Simply put, the Deeper Christian Life is one of absolute surrender to, complete dependency upon, and faithful abiding in Jesus. It is a life that is obsessed with, focused upon, and sourced by Jesus Himself as we live in continual response to Him. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
It is a life completely built around and upon Jesus Christ.
And may God make you and me pictures for this next generation of true Christianity—examples of what loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength looks like; examples of what God can do with men and women fully surrendered and given over to Him.
Still Want to Know More?
Find out more what deeperChristian is all about by checking out the following resources:
- About NRJohnson
- NRJohnson Speaking Information
- NRJohnson Reading Shelf
- Israel Study Tours
- Statement of Faith + Core Values
- Free Resources
- Contact me
- Donate
A Word About Affiliates
Some of my articles and posts contain affiliate links to books, products, apps, and services. If you click those links and purchase an item, deeperChristian will receive a small commission on the sale (at no additional cost to you). This is a great way you can support the work and ministry of deeperChristian. But don’t worry, I only recommend products or services that I personally use or believe will be helpful to my readers.
Join Me
Every resource on this site was created with you in mind. Every article, podcast episode, and resource was handcrafted to edify, encourage, and equip you to build your life around Jesus Christ.
To ensure you don’t miss a thing, why not subscribe? It’s fast and easy, and you can unsubscribe at any time. And I hate spam just like you, so I promise to keep your email safe.
You really can know God’s Word, grow in intimacy with Jesus, and walk in victory. But you must build your life around Jesus Christ. And I’m here to help. Let’s dive in.