1. I haven't felt that God has been
with me for a while... How do I
know that He's still with me?
Matthew 4:4 - But he answered and
said, It is written, Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God.
If you don't have one already, I would
start a Bible reading and
prayer time in your day. What really brings
about the changes is
reading the Bible and praying, and living
out what you have been shown
through the Scriptures. Pray before that
the Holy Spirit will help you
discern what you read, and after about
anything else in the day or thank
Him for what He's given you in the Word
of God :).
If you feel that you need to recommit and
start fresh, just ask Him to
forgive You of your sins, that You want
to live a life for Him and
follow His Leading...
Something like: "Lord Jesus, forgive me
of my sins. I want to follow
You and be Your servant. Bless me today,
and let me start fresh with
You. Help me walk on the narrow but blessed
path that You desire for
me, in Jesus' Name, Amen."
Once you have your heart KNOWING that you
are His following your mind,
things get clearer and sharper in focus.
In no way will He cast you
off!
2. How is one sure of their salvation?
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and
he in us, because he hath
given us of his Spirit.
- 1 John 4:13
When you have accepted Jesus as Lord and
Savior of your life, the Holy
Spirit is IN you (often referred to as
the 'indwelling Spirit').
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering
(Patience), gentleness, goodness, faith
(Faithfulness), Meekness
(Humility), temperance (Self Control)
- Galatians 5:22-23a
As you FOLLOW the Lord and are obedient,
the Holy Spirit will work in
you these attributes. It's great if you
are struggling with an area, if
you pray that the Lord would develop that
in you. One thing,
though...if you are living totally away
from obedience to His
Commandments, the Holy Spirit will be
grieved and won't be allowed to
work these greatly in you. The Holy Spirit
is, in fact, a Gentleman of
sorts. He will work in you if you allow
Him to. That's what God wants
to do, too, is bring you closer to Him.
James 4:8a - Draw near to God and
He will draw near to you.
You will have EXTREME joy in following
Jesus, even just knowing that
you are being obedient to an Awesome God!
3. Do you have to be baptized to get
to Heaven? I have been once before
a LONG time ago - should I do this
again?
No. Baptism is DEFINITELY recommended,
but not necessary for
Salvation. Ephesians 2:8 and 9
state that we are Saved by Grace through
Faith (not of ourselves, but given to
us by God). We are not Saved by
works. If we could save ourselves by our
works, we would be a very
haughty group of Believers! He is the
one that Saves us.
It is by the Redemption through the Blood
of Christ that we are Saved
(see Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14,
Revelation 1:5). In 1 John 1:7, it
even says, 'the blood of Jesus Christ
His Son cleanseth us from all
sin.'
In the Old Testament, people sacrificed
animals for offerings to 'pay'
for their sin. Without the shedding of
blood, there would be no
remission of sin. Same is the case today,
BUT:
Hebrews 9:13-14:
For if the blood of bulls and of goats,
and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to
the purifying of the flesh: How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge
your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
So we don't have to sacrifice animals anymore.
We have the Perfect
Sacrifice through Jesus Christ. He lived
a perfect life, was sacrificed
for our sins. 2 Corinthians 5:21
puts it, He who knew no sin was made
sin for us, that we would be made the
Righteousness of God in Him!
Baptism is a work - something that you
do. It won't save you or even
wash away your sins. The Blood of Jesus
does that, and look at 1 John
1:9 when it says, 'If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.' Amen!
He will give you the Peace that passes
ALL understanding with it (see
Philippians 4:6-7)!
Baptism is for AFTER Salvation. It is an
outward symbol of the inward
cleansing that He has done, and is a public
showing of a commitment to
following Him. If you don't feel that
you have done that in your
previous baptism, then do it for real
:), but it is a one-time
commitment that is very beneficial to
follow through on!
4. How do you know that you're one of
God's Chosen?
Okay...ask yourself this question:
have I asked Jesus Christ to be my
Lord and Savior? If yes, why have doubts
about being God's chosen?
God has given every man the measure of
faith in which to Believe
(Romans 12:3), and He knows who
will choose to let Him lead their lives.
Predestination is a touchy topic for some,
but I find it pretty clear
in the Bible. We DO have free will. You
CHOSE to accept Jesus Christ,
and God knew that you would even before
He made this world (isn't that
WILD?!)!
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to
the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many
brethren. - Romans 8:29
If you look deeply at the New Testament,
you find that the choice is
yours to accept Jesus or not. In the Old
Testament, covenants
(agreements, generally in form of a contract)
were made, where IF you
chose to agree to do something, God would
do something Great!
If you choose to follow the Lord, He will
bless you mightily! If you
love Him, things will work out for good
(Rom. 8:29, Jeremiah 29:11-13).
If you confess your sins with a prayer
of Faith, He will forgive you
of all of them (1 John 1:9, James 1:6-8).
If you obey Him, you will store up riches
in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-21).
If you believe that Jesus is the Son of
God, that God raised Him from
the dead, and you ask Him to be yours,
He will Save you from the wrath
of God that you deserve and will take
You to Heaven with Him at the end
(Romans 10:9-10, 1 John 4:15, Job 33:26-27,
Joel 2:32 & Acts 2:21 &
Romans 10:13, John 1:12).
...and MUCH more!
As I John has written, Who is he that overcomes
the world? It is he
who believes that Jesus is the Son of
God (from 1 John 5:5). If the
Holy Spirit is in you, you are one of
His Chosen, and that's easy enough
to go by! :)
Just keep this thought: Pray for God's
Will to be done in your life,
and you will see awesome things. Here
are some verses I'll leave you
with:
14 And this is the confidence
that we have in him, that, if we ask
any thing according to his will, he heareth
us:
15 And if we know that he
hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that
we have the petitions that we desired
of him.
- 1 John 5:14-15
May the Lord richly bless
you! I hope and pray that you are
encouraged!