Expert: Dr Don Howe - 10/15/2009

Question
Hello. I confessed jesus and was baptized about nine months ago. I am reading the bible little by little. How does someone know they are saved? I don't want to fall from grace but try to follow what the bible says such as dressing modestly, not because i can save myself, but because i know that i should not just do what i want and expect to be okay. Can you help? Also, does God accept prayers that are not spoken out loud (such as praying in an emergency situation)?

Answer
Carly, thank you so much for your question. Do not fret Carly? It is okay. You are somewhat confused it appears. You stated “I confessed jesus and was baptized about nine months ago. I am reading the bible little by little. How does someone know they are saved?” This is a good question.
  How do we get saved? We do not get saved by one day saying “I think I will get saved. I think I will get baptized.” If one decides on his own to do this, then he is truly NOT SAVED. No one decides if they are saved or not. God Himself decides. God draws men unto Himself. Look what John 6:44 says "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” In the Greek draw is helkō to draw or drag with inward power. So God uses the Holy Spirit to draw with His inward power (helkō) people to Himself. God draws people and this not by a conscience choice on their part. They may answer the drawing that God is doing on their heart to bring them to Him, but He still is doing the work and not man. David Guzik makes some eye opening states about John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him: The Jews thought that they were all chosen by God by virtue of their old birth. Jesus makes it clear that God must draw them before they can come to God. Everyone who responds to the Father will respond to the Son. We like to feel as though we are in charge and that we give ourselves to God. In truth, He calls and we come. This understanding of God’s initiative in salvation should makes us more confident in evangelism, knowing that God is drawing people, and we can expect to see those whom the Father draws come to Him.”

  John Walvoord and Roy Zuck also comment on this drawing to God “No one can come to the Jesus or believe on Him without divine help. People are so ensnared in the quicksand of sin and unbelief that unless God draws them, they are hopeless. This drawing of God is not limited to a few. Jesus said “I. . .will draw all men to Myself (12:32).”
  So Carly you can see that no one is drawn to the Father except by the Holy Spirit when they accept His call on their heart. I hope you answered his call on your heart and that is why you became saved. If you became saved as a conscience choice because someone may have talked you into it or you felt pressured to respond to  an altar call, then I can understand your questioning your own salvation.

  There are many high powered evangelists who try to make people feel guilty and inadequate and they have to coerce people to the altar of grace. These guys are causing more harm then good. They are passively coercing people to respond to the gospel instead of relying on the Holy Spirit to draw people to Himself. So you end up with a false gospel, false believers, who have a false sense of security, and false hope. Their job is to preach the salvation message and God will do the rest.

  In John 12:32, Jesus said “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me.” When Jesus is resurrected that one day he will draw all   unto himself.

  You can also know that you are saved as God’s Holy Spirit bear witness to our spirit that we are saved.” Listen what Jesus said in John 14:16-17 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another COMFORTER, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” Jesus is saying God the Father will be sending the Holy Spirit (the Comforter) and the whole world will not receive the Holy Spirit. But only the saved believers in which the Holy Spirit will dwell in us and live in us. What a wonderful truth to know that God (the Comforter) lives in our heart. This is how we know we are  saved—He lives within our soul. WE SING SONGS ABOUT THIS TRUTH. In the Song IN THE GARDEN” the chorus says “He walks with me, He talks with me, And tells me I am his own.” This tells exactly what Jesus was saying in John 14:16-17. I hope you can see that.
  In the song “He Lives” it says “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me. He talks with me. Along life narrow way.” These lyrics tells it all about felling the drawing of the Holy Spirit into our spirit when we are saved.

  Another way we know that we are saved is the Holy Spirit speaks to us about God’s will. When we are saved there is a change that takes place in that there is a  conviction over the sins in our life and the fact that God wants us to live right according to His Word.
Carly, God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit came to live in your heart in the person of God the Holy Spirit the day you accepted Jesus as Savior. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit, just as you are a spirit. God lives in all of us that are truly saved. Again, this goes back to that “he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”  that Jesus mentioned in John 14:16-17. The world cannot receive this. Only God’s people can receive this. That is a God thing all by itself.

When we become saved there is a marriage and new birth taking place. Follow me now. When we become saved, God’s Spirit merged in holy matrimony with our spirit—a marriage. This is why the Church is referred to as the “Bride of Christ” in the Book of Revelation. Jesus is the Bridegroom of the Church. There is a spiritual union between God’s Spirit and the spirit of each and every one of His Children. If you do not have the Holy Spirit living within your soul—you are NOT God’s Child!!! Only a Child of God has the Holy Spirit living inside—It is His very presence that makes you God’s Child. All believers will partake of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Heaven after the Lord Jesus comes for His Church during the Rapture.
When we are saved we are born again and a new birth takes place.  This is called the “new birth” or being “born-again” ... “Ye must be BORN AGAIN” (John 3:7). It is the Holy Spirit’s uniting with our spirit that conceives the new birth within us. It is the Word of God which is the Seed that brings salvation.

When we are saved we want to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus that is so personal that we can tell Him everything we are feeling. He already knows it anyway, but he wants us to confess it. When we are saved, our faith will know him, grow in Him, and will show our love for Him. This is a wonderful study that takes place in 2 Peter 1-10. And when we experience these three things, 2 Peter 1:10 tells what we have “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” Peter is saying if we do these three things (know, grow, show), we are give diligence in making our calling and election sure, and when we do we shall never fall to the enemy (the Devil). People who say they are saved and really do not experience a lifesaving change in their life they will fall to sin again and again.

Let’s study the faith that a saved person has when he knows, grows, and shows. First, a faith that knows is shown in 2 Peter Chapter 1.

FAITH THAT KNOWS


Verse 1 states “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Carly, Simon Peter first address himself first as a servant and then as an Apostle of Jesus Christ. You and I have done the same thing if we are saved. We first come before the cross as a servant to sin, but we are washed by the blood of the Lamb and we become an apostle of grace of the Lord Jesus. What this does that we have the same faith that the Apostle Peter had because of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Awesome.
Verse 2 states “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.” This is where we first get mentioned of the faith that knows. The word knowledge is not an ordinary word for knowledge as you have the knowledge of the computer you are working on or the screen you are looking at. But this is a special word which in the Greek is epignōsis means a precise and through knowledge and very personal knowledge with the Lord Jesus. This type of knowledge we talking about earlier in which we know the Lord Jesus so personal that He walks with us, He talks with us long life’s narrow ways. The saved person has this personal faith that KNOWS.
  Carly, notice what Peter tells us that comes out of this epignosis. Grace and peace will be multiplied unto us through this knowledge.

  Verse 3 states “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that [pertain] unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” A saved person that has this epignosis has all he/she needs to live a Christian life. Because of this knowing faith, Jesus through his divine power has given all things pertaining to life and godliness.

  Verse 4 states “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” The saved person with this epignosis faith receives this divine nature when we are born again. And out of this we receive exceeding great and precious promises of God that helps us to escape from the corruption of the world which is driven by our own lust.
  The unsaved person does not have this divine nature and gives into to the lust of this world.

  So because of the is faith that knows we have increase in grace and peace that pertain to life and godliness (vs 3) and we receive precious promises, a divine nature, and helps us to escape the corruption that is in world driven by lust (vs 4).

SECOND PART—-- A FAITH THAT GROWS

  This is where most Christians fail. They fail to grow in their faith.

  Verse 5 is a very important and in your face verse “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.” God is saying we are give all diligence to add to your faith which means to grow in our faith. God is commanding us to add to our faith. We are not suppose to sit on our hindquarters each Sunday and the preacher preaches on some sermon subject and that is it. No, No, No. We are to study and we are to give all diligence to grow in our faith. God commands to grow in our faith. Most Christians fail here and just sit back as willy nilly Christians. And they miss the blessings that God has for them because the are not growing.
  A saving growing faith is like a plant or a tree that grows when it watered by studying the Word of God.

  Verse 5 continues that out of this faith we are to add to our faith virtue. Virtue here means a virtuous course of thought, feeling and action, or moral excellence. Carly, this may be where you felt like you should dress modestly because you are exhibiting virtue.

  We are to grow from virtue to knowledge. This word for knowledge is not epignosis but it is the ordinary word to increase in knowledge and study of Word of truth. This is how we “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” This is where daily bible reading comes into play as you will want to learn more and more about the Word of God. It will not become a chore or some burdensome task to be done. It will become something that you will want to do without being told or reminded. And when we learn how to rightly divide the Word of Truth, then we will know how to examine everything some ungodly preacher on TV says, or what your own preacher says, and you will be discern if they are telling the truth or not.

  Verse 6 states “And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness.” A saving growing faith grows from knowledge to temperance. Temperance here is a biggy. Which in the Greek is egkrateia which self-control (the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions). Our country has lost on this one. Our country is saturated with sex, sex, and more sex. The Christian has a faith that shows temperance and self control.

  A saving growing faith show patience. Now this does not mean endurance with trivial things that come into our life. But steadfastness, perseverance under persecution, or enduring. Bearing up under persecution. The Christendom is being persecuted everyday by this ungodly world we are living in. People living by political correctness. I want to be living by biblical correctness and not political correctness. What is political correctness? This is Dr Don’s definition of political correctness is when the Devil uses our words and his dictionary. The devil calls good evil and evil good. Listen to what Isaiah 5:20 hit right on the mark, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” “Woe unto them” means same as God puts a curse on them that call evil good and good evil. The Devil calls evil good and good evil, which same thing as using our words and his dictionary for evil.

  How do show this patience? The movie Facing the Giants  tells how. Carly, if you have not see this movie you need to. It will bless you. The hero of this movie is not Coach Grant Taylor, but it is the little preacher man that goes around and praying for each locker and each student everyday. And this little preacher man tells Coach Taylor about the latter rains in which no matter what happens, when good things happen in our life We Praise God. If bad things happened in our life, we praise God. Praising God in the good and bad times gives the patience to bear up under persecution, because we are keeping our eyes on the Savior and not our situation and this builds a wall of praise around us that the Devil can get through. Hallelujah. I bet that will preach.

  The next thing Verse 6 talks about is that a saving growing faith exhibits is godliness or reverence, respect to God, or piety towards God. Born again believers do not show the respect to God that He deserves. You have all these prosperity preachers who preach God will bless you all you have to do ask him. That is not what the Word of God teaches. They have lost respect and reverence for God and they make people believe God is a big ole eternal slot machine and all I have to do is give him my request and he is going to bless me. I don’t think so. Wrong answer. A saving faith is one that shows respect and reverence to God. Remember God does not need us, but we sure do need Him.

  Verse 7 states “And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” A saving growing faith will grow from respect to God to showing brotherly kindness. This is showing love for  fellow Christians. And from brotherly kindness to charity, which is all people. Some callous Christians sometimes say “they do not deserve my love” but they forget that they do not deserves God’s love but he first showed love to us by allowing Jesus to die on the cross of us filthy sinners.

THE GROWING SAVING FAITH IS ONE THAT SHOWS

  Remember, a saving faith is one that knows, that grows as commanded by God (you give all diligence ADD TO YOUR FAITH), and one that SHOWS.

  Verse 8 states “For if these things be in you (which is referring to the six qualities that make your faith to grow), and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
  The saving faith grows in the six qualities in which the Christian abounds in that faith, and they will not be barren in the exhibiting their faith and be unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
  Carly, there are so many lukewarm Christians who worship and praise God on Sunday, and then live like the Devil the next six days and they are barren of the blessing of God and their lives are unfruitful. And they wonder where God is in their lives. I hate to tell them God is still in the same place when His Son went to the Cross for them. These Christians faith does not SHOW ANYTHING AND IS BARREN AND UNFRUITFUL.

  Verse 9 states further “But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” A Christian who does not have a saving faith lacks all the 6 qualities mentioned above and God sees his faith as barren. His works are barren. He is not bringing new people to the saving faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are blind and can not see afar off the tragedy that comes in their life because of their sins, and they quickly forget that Jesus died and purged them from their sins.
  These people are not truly saved and born again. They like to play church but they are not the TRUE CHURCH OF THE LORD JESUS.
  Their faith does not show, does not grow, and they certainly do have the personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus in which  you know Jesus walks with you, he talks with along life’s narrow way.

  This is how you know you are truly saved. Only you can tell if you measure up or not.

  Carly the questions you are asking if you are truly saved is built upon busy work. You stated “I confessed jesus,” “was baptized,”  “reading the bible little by little,” and “dressing modestly.”  These things are just busy work and you may not feel you are a  saved, born again, kick the Devil in the butt Christian. Let me tell you right now, if you have asked Jesus to be your Savior, have a personal relationship with him (here is where that epignosis comes in), and serve in a local church, then you are kicking the Devil and you are making him mad.
  See we are not saved by works but we are saved by faith that does work. All the things I mentioned above and especially in 2 Peter comes out of our faith because we love the Lord, and not to justify our faith. We do not have to prove anything to God. He is already done it for us.
  And when you are saved, you want to serve the LORD because you love him, and you do not read your bible daily little by little because you have to, say daily prayers because you feel like you have to, but you do things because you WANT TO. This is what Peter was talking about. A saving faith is one that knows the Lord personally (epignosis), you want to grow in those 6 qualities he mentioned, and then you faith will show and you will not be barren, blind, or unfruitful.

  You asked “I don't want to fall from grace.”  If you are saved then you will not fall from grace. Grace is what saved you in the first place. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).

  You stated “but because i know that i should not just do what i want and expect to be okay.” This is a true statement and shows some spiritual maturity. We need to do what God wants and not what we want.

  You asked “does God accept prayers that are not spoken out loud (such as praying in an emergency situation)?” Answer is ABSOLUTELY. God listens to our prayers anytime. But I want you to grow in your faith and have that epignosis like faith in which you know the Lord Jesus intimately and you can  tell him anything, anytime, and any place. God is always on duty 24/7, all you have to is call him up by praying. It does not have to be a long prayer, or it can be a couple of words.

  When I visit people in the hospital as a chaplain, I always say “God Bless you” before I leave.  And what I am asking is that God Bless them today. It is only a three word prayer.

  I want you to discuss some of your concerns to your Pastor. You may want to rededicate you life and start anew if you think might help. You might want to get re-baptized. These are only suggestions if you need them.

  And if you still have some concerns, then there are issues that are more evident then the questions that you are asking in this format, and you may want to go get some counseling from a Christian counselor.

  Carly, you are truly saved;  there is no reason for you doubt your salvation, you do not have to do things like praying, reading you bible daily, or doing other things out of a sense of Christian duty or ritual, but you do them because you want to out of  your love for God and you want to be close to HIM.  

May God Bless You Today,

Dr Don Howe, RN, PhD, ThD