Meaning
Christian Witness
Answers for Witness
Salvation
How Can You Know For Sure?
|
Questions and Answers: How you can know if you are saved and have received the Holy Spirit
How can we know anything about anythingTo try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible? NO! That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about. Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us? How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences? We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers. Why is that? How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read. Why is that? Same scientific facts. Different answers. Same Bible. Different answers. Why is that? The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible? How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible? How do we analyze what we have seen and read? How do we interpret what we have seen and read? We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly. An example might help. Question: Why do you believe in evolution? Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact. Question: Why do you believe your science teacher? Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read. Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice. If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts. When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from? There are three possibilities.
Question: Why do you believe in creation? Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him. See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved. In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same. Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us. The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan? The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know. Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me" The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem. Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened." Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God. How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32) "If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it" Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay. "[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31). "There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48) That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own. "When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19) Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true. In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations. They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, "I guess I'm making the whole thing up." It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him. This is one of the most common questions that we get at SeekFind.net. It seems that many people are unsure about their salvation.
Question:"I believe I have been saved. I was so worried about my death and what would happen if I died, and I knew I had no place in heaven. I found my wife's Bible and read for hours, and I broke down in my heart and I knew I had to change. I didn't outright ask Jesus into my heart, but I knew I needed Him in my heart right there. The next morning, I was so down about how my life was, my actions and perspective on life and realizing all my sins and how far I was from God. at the same time, I didn't want the same things, I only wanted to be right with God. After a few weeks of being down, I began talking with some other Christians and I felt the hope Christ had provided for me. Currently, I am dealing with a lot of doubts of my salvation and whether or not I have received the Holy Spirit. Others tell me, "Yes," because of the changes in my heart and awareness of sins. I get chills down my back and throughout my body when I pray sometimes and confess my sins, and when I speak of Christ to others. How do I know if I have received the Spirit? My pastor and many others have told me it is given when we are saved? I need to know. The doubt is growing and eating my heart."
Answer:No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 12:3 "Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." If you believe that Jesus is your savior from sin, death, and the power of the devil, you have the Holy Ghost. No one can want to serve Jesus without the Holy Ghost. If you say that Jesus is your Lord and you are His servant, His slave, then you are born again.Being born again is the first part of being saved. Saved is a more comprehensive word than "born again." This may be a new concept to many Christians, but study the phrase "born again" and the terms "saved" and "salvation" through the Bible and you will see the difference. (I put some links down below that might be helpful.) I believe that many Christians never have a true confidence that they have been born again because they have been taught a false idea that being born again is the whole story and the end of all the things that God is doing. They are taught a very extreme view of eternal security that leaves no understanding of what it is to grow to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4) or to come to manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8). Some theories, based on the Bible plus rationalism, make it difficult to know if you are born again. Some people think that the whole Gospel is about being born again, getting other people born again, and then going to heaven. In conflict with this viewpoint is the fact that most of the New Testament is written to people who have already been born again. And most of it does not talk about witnessing to the unsaved. It talks about growing up. When we are born again, we are babies who need to grow up. With some of these theories, much of the Bible is rationalized away. Every line of the Bible is real and applies today. When someone says that certain parts no longer apply, that becomes confusing because it is a lie. Yet, we humans like to explain away the parts that we don't particularly like, so you will have people explaining parts away. Some want to do sexual sin so they explain that away. Some want to be saved without Jesus, so they explain that part away. Some want to set up the Church the way they want the Church to be, so they explain those parts of the Scripture away. Some want to stick with doctrines that are not true, so they explain other parts of the Bible away. Typically, you will hear, "Oh, that was for the apostolic age." or "You can't take the Bible literally." or some such. Here are some pages you may want to study: http://seekfind.net/Questions_and_Answers__Am_I_Saved_.html http://seekfind.net/Meaning_of_Life.html http://seekfind.net/Your_Purpose_in_Life.html http://seekfind.net/HowCanIBeFreeOfSinAndWalkInHoliness.html Question:"Is being baptized like this necessary to enter Heaven? And I have been praying to be filled with the Holy spirit, but I have not had any spiritual miraculous gifts or tongues. I just want to find the true way of Jesus."Answer:In Scripture and in my experience, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is different from having the Holy Spirit move on you. It is like the difference between being sprinkled with water as opposed to the experience of diving into the deep water and going fully under the water. I believe that Jesus was speaking about the born again experience when He said that we must be born of water and of Spirit--Actually, the original just says "Water Spirit." It could have just as well been translated as the water of the Spirit since Water is a type of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus spoke of the fountain springing up in His followers, I believe that He was referring to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are incidents in the Book of Acts that point up this difference... especially when Paul asked about 12 believers whether or not they had been baptized in the Holy Spirit since they believed. They were born again but had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Paul laid hands on them, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke in tongues. This is a pattern that God gives us in Scripture.I can tell you this: when I got baptized in the Holy Ghost, God gave me a whole new level of dedication and also understanding. It has helped me to keep growing in Christ. Often, it is the only thing that has sustained me. I don't know how people cope without it. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not given because you are holy. It is given to make you holy. When you speak in tongues of angels, you are built up in your spirit, but your mind/soul is not built up. This type of tongues is for private use. Those who have the gift of tongues speak in the tongues of men that they have never learned and it is a miracle as a witness to the unbeliever. We need that gift more fully restored to the Church. The Scriptural pattern for receiving gifts of the Spirit is obvious. They are given by prophecy the laying on of hands of the presbytery (a gathering of elders). They are not discovered. They are given. God has directed us that no individual give personal prophecy over any other person. It is a group and, so far, God has instructed us that an apostle must be among the members of the presbytery. Also, this is only done at the direction of the Holy Spirit. So, there is a clear pattern in Scripture, but God has place some further restrictions on us, at least for the present, through His leading. To talk about the pattern for referring gifts, the pattern of apostles has to be mentioned. Without the apostles, this order would go wild with all sorts of fleshly manifestations. God had to restore the office of the apostle, or else none of this could have really taken place. That office was restored in the mid-twentieth century. Since that time, and especially in the last few years, there have been many "apostles" springing up all over the place. Whether they are truly sent from God, I don't know. I do know, by their works, that some of them are total frauds. There will always be counterfeits of everything that God does, but that doesn't make the real any less real. You can see in Scripture that the apostles established the doctrine in all the local churches. Apostles didn't pastor local Churches. They traveled. Apostles. No apostle had authority to teach his own doctrine. They taught the apostle's doctrine. They got together to get the mind of God when there was a controversy as there was in Acts 15. Question:"What about being baptized in the Spirit? Is that different? Is it necessary? Is it the only way to unveil the gifts God shall work through us?"Answer:Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is absolutely NOT necessary to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You are born into the Kingdom of Heaven by belief (faith) in Jesus. Actually, the faith is imparted to you by the Holy Ghost and this faith is what causes you to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.Whoever is born again will go to heaven and not go to hell. Satan tries to shake you by saying that maybe you haven't got enough faith or have the wrong kind of faith, but it takes very little faith to be born again. Think of it this way. When you are born, you are a baby. How much responsibility does a baby really have? When we are born again, we are saved from total slavery to Satan. We are saved to the condition that allows us to yield to the Holy Spirit and to allow God's Grace to do His works through us. Works are part of salvation. They are a free gift. Righteousness is a free gift that comes with salvation. You can see this if you prayerfully read through Romans. Speaking in the unknown tongue builds you up and gives you power to walk and to hold up under the attacks of Satan, but if you never received the gift of speaking in tongues, you would go right to heaven if you were to die. Of course, our lives are not just about making it to heaven should we die. The fact is that the Bible talks about growing to the fullness of Christ. That is the purpose of the Church. The Church is a very specific Body that is being formed and built according to the pattern of Scripture. It is being built by God, the master builder. We all walk toward that maturity, but if we die before the Church walks into this blessed state of maturity, then we go right to heaven. And even if a Christian is not faithful and walks in sin, that Christian will find that they are in heaven--although Jesus said that those who sin and encourage other Christians to sin will have the lowest place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Questions and AnswersDo Jews go to hell? (Go) Accusation: Circular Reasoning (Go) Questions and Answers: Why is it so hard for PhDs to believe? (Go) Answers For Evolutionists And Atheists (Go) Questions and Answers: Atheism's Problem With Logic--Why Atheists Can't Logically Hold Their Opinion (Go) Questions and Answers: Does The Bible Teach A Flat Earth? NO. (Go) Questions and Answers: Can I do anything and be saved? (Go) Questions and Answers: Feedback Questions Regarding Mutations (Go) Questions and Answers: Feedback Question About Supposed Contradictions in the Bible (Go) Questions and Answers: How Do You Debate a Team of Atheists Who Harass You at Work? (Go) Questions and Answers: What is meant by against such there is no law in Gal 5:23? (Go) Questions and Answers: How Can I Be Saved And Go To Heaven? (Go) Questions and Answers: How Old is the Earth? (Go) Questions and Answers: Is The Bible Literally True? (Go) Questions and Answers: Unanswered Evolution Questions (Go) Questions and Answers: Is There A Gallup Poll That Shows 35% Believe Darwinism? (Go) Questions and Answers: 24,000 original manuscripts and changes in some newer translations (Go) Questions and Answers: Am I Saved? (Go) Questions and Answers: Atheist Asserts that Revelation Is Unreliable (Go) Questions and Answers: Atheist Posits that Atheism Is the Default Opinion (Go) Questions and Answers: A Loaded Question Is Asked and Answered (Go) Questions and Answers: Can Our Prayers be Empowered by the Blood of Jesus (Go) Questions and Answers: Christian Reader Questions the Meaning of the Word, Cult (Go) Questions and Answers: God knew everything before he created the heavens and the earth, so why did God make people who he knew in advance would turn on him and go to hell? (Go) Questions and Answers: Clever use of language to cloak an evil intent (Go) Questions and Answers: In practical terms what does true repentance involve in daily life? (Go) Questions and Answers: Prerequisites for Repentance (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the basis for your statement that no new genetic information is produced or created? (Go) Questions and Answers: What Is The Difference Between Being In Love and Loving (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the difference between tongue and tongues? Are they the same or different? (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the role of the deacons in this situation? (Go) Questions and Answers: What makes you think that only your view of Jesus is accurate? (Go) Questions and Answers: What Will the Holy Spirit Do or Not Do? (Go) Questions and Answers: What would you say to someone who doesn't want to repent because he thinks life will become dull and boring? (Go) Questions and Answers: When you go God's way instead of your own, what will rule in your heart? (Go) Questions and Answers: Where did Noah live before the flood? (Go) Questions and Answers: How can we know which assumptions are valid? (Go) Questions and Answers: What About Socialism And Reckless Governmental Spending? (Go) Questions and Answers: What About The Bible--doesn't It Say The Earth Is About 6,000 Years Old? (Go) Questions and Answers: Are There Three Incompatible Principles In The Bible That Show Inconsistency? NO. (Go) Questions and Answers: What Is Wrong With Theistic Evolution? (Go) Questions and Answers: Evolutionists Can't Find Answers to these Questions. At Least None that Make Sense. (Go) Questions and Answers: Are Super-Germs an Example of Evolution in Action? (Go) Answers For Scoffers Who Claim That The Bible Can't Be Trusted. (Go) Questions and Answers: Why do some people deny that God exists? (Go) Questions and Answers: Does Evil Exist? (Go) Questions and Answers: Evolutionists Claim That Similar Features In Fossilized Skeletons Prove Evolution. Is There Any Truth To This Claim? (Go) Questions and Answers: What are some of the ways that evolutionists use words to confuse? (Go) Questions and Answers: What are false credentials and how do evolutionists use them? (Go) Questions and Answers: Why Is There All of this Religious Zeal for Selling Evolution? (Go) Questions and Answers: How have the schools teamed up with Hollywood to spread a myth about the Scopes Monkey Trial? (Go) Questions and Answers: How can you recognize junk science and speculation cloaked as science? (Go) Questions and Answers: Feedback Question: Is it too late for me? (Go) Questions and Answers: Feedback: Evolution has nothing to do with creation (Go) Questions and Answers: Feedback: We have staked the whole future (Go) Questions and Answers: Does geology really show convincing evidence for a world-wide flood? (Go) Questions and Answers: We are not saved by good works, but are we saved to good works and holiness? What does the Bible say? (Go) Questions and Answers: Can there be love without God? No. There can be no love without God. God is love. Every good and every complete gift comes from Him. (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the name of the way that God made to provide love, joy, peace, and freedom? (Go) Questions and Answers: Here Is A Quick Explanation Of Why Evolution Is Religious Dogma Of Many Cults And It Is Not Science (Go) Questions and Answers: What will set you free? (Go) Questions and Answers: Feedback Question: James 5:13 (Go) Questions and Answers: Doesn't the Bible say that some of those alive at Jesus' time would not see death until they saw His Kingdom and His coming in glory? (Go) Questions and Answers: How do I enter the Kingdom of God and leave the bondage of the enemy? (Go) Questions and Answers: Will I Miss Life and the Kingdom of God and Fulfillment Without Jesus? Yes. Without Jesus There is no Life. (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the foundation, the basis, of evolution? (Go) Questions and Answers: Why isn't Naturalism a valid assumption? (Go) Questions and Answers: Why aren't liberal thinkers open-minded? (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the 5-fold ministry and why is it important? (Go) Questions and Answers: What are the Scriptural Christianity Teachings? (Go) Questions and Answers: Why do so many people try to conform to such nonsense as evolution? They want to fit in, so they pretend. (Go) Questions and Answers: What does the Bible say about the government of the church? (Go) Questions and Answers: There Are Many Key Questions That Evolutionists Must Answer If It Is To Be Considered As A Hypothesis, Let Alone A Theory (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the work of the Holy Spirit? (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the manifestation of the sons of God? (Go) Questions and Answers: Does the government have a responsibility to protect the citizens? (Go) Questions and Answers: Time Management: Is There A Way That I Can Get Everything Done? (Go) Questions and Answers: Standing in Judgment: What About All the Things that Are Wrong with the Church? (Go) Questions and Answers: What Is The Basis Or Mechanism That Would Allow Evolutionism's Claims To Work? (Go) Questions and Answers: What do the Scriptures teach how God designed the Church? (Go) Questions and Answers: What did Satan mean when he said to Eve, you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil? What god's was Satan referring to? (Go) Questions and Answers: What Is Really Wrong With Our Public Schools And Why Have They Failed So Miserably? (Go) Questions and Answers: What Is the Difference Between Relativism And the Belief in Absolutes? (Go) Questions and Answers: What is true liberty all about? (Go) Questions and Answers: Why Can't God Accept Me Just As I Am, Sin And All? (Go) Questions and Answers: Has Anyone Ever Found A Real Error In The Bible? No. (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the Church; How should it be governed? (Go) Questions and Answers: I am an Atheist and have not history of violence. Have you ever even read your Bible and it's history of violence? (Go) Questions and Answers: Some skeptics claim that there are errors in the Bible. Is there any truth to this claim? (Go) Questions and Answers: Does The Bible Say That It Is The Infallible Word Of God? Yes. (Go) Questions and Answers: Are There Contradictions In The Bible? No! (Go) Questions and Answers: Should we have a passion and zeal to read the Bible today? Yes. (Go) Questions and Answers: Is Distant Starlight A Problem For Creationists Or Evolutionists? (Go) Questions and Answers: Does Real Science Support Evolution And An Old Earth? (Go) Questions and Answers: Does the Founder Principle Support Evolution? (Go) Questions and Answers: Can You Believe The Bible Literally? (Go) Isn't God's way like a smorgasbord where you can pick and choose what you want or don't want? No. (Go) Questions and Answers: What is the change in the fulfillment of the royal law under the New Covenant (Go) Anti-Bible Anti-God Comment Claims that God supported Bashing Babies Against Rocks (Go) Anti-Bible Anti-God Comment Claims that God supported child abuse in Judges 11:29-40 (Go) Anti-Bible Comment Claims that Exodus 21:1-11 says that the God of the Bible allows slavery, including selling your own daughter as a sex slave (Go) Anti-Bible Commenter Tries To Reverse the Burden of Proof (Go) Questions & Answers: Will God remember all your sins and remind you of them on the judgment day? (Go) Questions and Answers: Can a Christian Lose Salvation? (Go) If you do not believe in Jesus Christ and his teachings you can never be a Muslim (Go) Comment: You use your website (very carefully) to advocate religious propaganda. There is so much inaccurate information on there. (Go) Comment: Terrorists who commit suicide bombings and other atrocities are only Muslim by name (Go) Comment: Reader Claims There Is No Difference Between Islam and Christianity (Go) Comment: Sweeping Generalizations? (Go) Questions and Answers: Why is Islam a False Religion? (Go) Comment: Reader Claims that the Bible isn't the Exact Word of God but Claims that the Quran is. (Go) Questions and Answers: Please help me to connect the old testament ministers to the new testament fivefold offices clearly stating the similarities of these offices. (Go) Questions and Answers: What About the Kangaroo in Australia Only? Does That Prove Evolution? (Go) I Feel So Empty and Alone Inside (Go) Author/Compiler Last updated: Jan, 2012 |
Featured Articles:
The Real Purpose of the Church
The Real Purpose of Life
From Glory to Glory
REAL Faith--What it IS & IS NOT
REAL Love--What it IS & IS NOT
How to be Led by God
Wisdom: Righteousness & Reality
Holiness & Mind/Soul
Redemption: Free From Sin
Real Reality
We KNOW the Bible is Accurate: How?
Circular Reasoning-Who is Guilty?
How Can We Know Anything?
God's Word
God's Process
God's Pattern
Mind Designed to Relate to God
Answers for the Confused
Fossil Record Says: "Creation"
Avoid These Pitfalls
Public School's Religion
Twisting Science
Evolutionism
Public School Failures
Twisting History
There is so much more for you. This is what you have been missing. Don't let anyone deceptively keep you from fulfilling your destiny and God's purpose for your life. 
God has established the pattern of Scripture, for life and for the Church. You can feel free to use the Contact Form further down on this page to ask any question regarding this pattern of Scripture. The Church, the Body of Christ, and discernment of this Body, is the method that God is using to finish the work in His Body. The Body of Christ, God's Temple, is built up by that which every joint supplies, building each other up in love, and the Temple must be built according to the pattern of Scripture. 
We believe the Holy Scriptures teach:
|
|
|
End
Contact FormYou can feel free to use this Contact Form to ask any question regarding this pattern of Scripture. The Church, the Body of Christ, and discernment of this Body, is the method that God is using to finish the work in His Body. The Body of Christ, God's Temple, is built up by that which every joint supplies, building each other up in love, and the Temple must be built according to the pattern of Scripture. If you would like to ask any other question on any subject or submit a correction or suggestion you may use this form.Please remember to include your email address if you want an answer. John 10:35b the Scripture cannot be broken, Put a Link To This Page on Your Site. HTML Code: Links: SeekFind.net ~ Questions and Answers: How you can know if you are saved and have received the Holy Spirit Questions and Answers: How you can know if you are saved and have received the Holy Spirit Human theology and reasoning is not necessarily correct, but the Bible is without error. The Bible can only be understood by revelation, and revelation is given by the Spirit of God. God does reveal in His own way. But we only know in part. If we think we know any thing, we do not know it as we ought. We are instructed, by God, to keep seeking Him. The Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. The truth sets us free. Lies bind us. Whoever seeks Jesus does find Him. Jesus is the truth. 
THE CONCLUSION |
