After three years something happened in my Christian experience. The flame of the love of God began to die down in my heart. I didn't know what to do. I knew that I was a Christian, but I no longer experienced the victory that I once knew. I didn't know how to recapture that flame that once burned deep within my soul.

One day, I met a man named Leo Humphrey. He was a red headed ball of fire. He witnessed to everyone that he met. When I saw the fire of God's love burning deep within him, I realized how defeated I really was in my Christian life. One night Leo and I were ministering together in a beach side community on the Gulf of Mexico. I confided in Leo, "I'm defeated. I don't know what to do. I struggle in my walk with God."

That night Leo and I prayed together. I thought it was for about a half an hour. However, I was surprised to see the sun rising the next morning. We had prayed through the night. That night was a turning point in my personal walk with God.

That night I took my wife and placed her in a casket. I took my furniture and placed it in a casket. I took my automobile, my clothes, and all of my material possessions and placed them in that casket. I took my ambition to be some well known preacher and placed it in that casket. I took my future dreams and aspirations and placed them in that casket. Then I crawled into the casket and I died.

By now, you may be wondering what in the world I'm talking about. No, I didn't physically do that. But I did spiritually. Sammy Tippit died. I died to the "self life" - to ego, pride, self sufficiency, and selfishness. The Apostle Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God" (Gal. 2:20). Paul had not been physically crucified with Christ, but he had died spiritually to the "self life." His life could only be described by "Christ who lived in him."

When I discovered this great truth, the fire of God's love began to burn deep within my soul once again. Actually, I had died to self when I became a Christian. The "old man" had died and I was raised to a new life in Christ. That's why I had experienced so much victory in the beginning of my Christian life. But somewhere along the way, I thought that I could live the Christian life. I tried, and I failed miserably.

The victorious Christian life is the crucified life. It's the life that has died to self and has been raised to victory by the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ. It's the life that truly understands, "no longer I, but Christ who lives in me." It's dead to self and alive in Christ.

I had to climb in a casket one evening. Only then, did I begin to experience the victorious Christian life. There's a casket waiting for each one of us. Life results from death. We'll never know the resurrected power of Christ until we've experienced the crucified life with Him.