Are you going to heaven?
Is it possible to know if you are destined for heaven while you are still alive? Does it really make any difference in today’s world whether or not we know if we are going to heaven? Why is it important to know?
Many years ago when I first started on my quest to find the truth I reasoned to myself If there is a God then surely God would have to have His word of truth on the earth or else God would not be able to hold any of us accountable for our actions. I looked into many religions and many faiths from around the world and the only religions that used the oldest book available and discussed the origins of the earth was Judaism and Christianity.
Of these two religions both answered my questions as to why everything on this planet was always going wrong. The Bible says that this planet in it’s current condition is cursed. Without going into much detail it doesn’t take an Albert Einstein to see the truth behind those words. After years of putting the words of the Bible to the test I discovered that the Bible really is God’s word to man and can be relied upon 100% of the time.
The fact that the Bible really is God’s word I can now take God’s words and live my life by them. Once you investigate for yourself these truths you will then be able to move forward with a direct purpose for your life.
Our inheritance is eternal life. Jesus purchased us with His Life. When He returns He will then redeem us and bring us to Himself. We are the “purchased possession” the above verse is referring to.
I believe the biggest hinderance today in coming to God for salvation is the mis-communication and false information about Christianity. It’s very important that you read the Bible yourself and come to your own conclusions. I would recommend that If you are new to the Bible an easy read is the NLT (New Living Translation) and start by reading the gospel of John.
Many of today’s Christian churches are mixing salvation and works together which only leads to frustration and confusion. Remember God desires a loving relationship with you and not a legal relationship. You cannot work your way into heaven.
There are two verses in the Bible that have made an impact on me the first verse is found in 2 Timothy 2:20-21, But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
We read in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” By this verse we can clearly see that God is not going to loose any of His people.
and in Colossians 3:12-13, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” and also in Timothy 6:11,”But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.”
How important is it to know if you are going to heaven? There are many religions today that say you won’t know if you are destined for heaven until you die. these are religions that say you have to work your way to heaven. This is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that once you believe at that time you will be sealed. Your seal is your ticket to heaven. No waiting required!
If anyone says he’s a man of God and yet says he has to wait until he is dead before he will know the outcome of all his hard work I would say to this man “you are on the wrong path!” Stop and turn around before it’s too late. Read your Bible by yourself and don’t let anybody tell you what the Bible means. The Holy Spirit’s job is show you the meaning of the text. Not man.
It is the Holy Spirit that will communicate to your spirit that you are a child of God. We can clearly see this in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” I have had the Holy Spirit communicate this to me on several different occasions. It’s very hard for me to describe this event to you. All I can say is there is nothing on this planet I can compare this to. Try to imagine the extreme joy and happiness you would feel if God Himself told you that you are His child and you are going to heaven. Everybody’s searching for happiness today, look no further, this is where happiness is found.
The Bible says that once you hear God’s good news (the gospels) and you believe it to be God’s truth at that time God will seal you with His Holy Spirit and remove the veil from your eyes to enable you to start to comprehend the things of God and His kingdom. After you read the gospels and believe at that moment you will be sealed by God. At the time God seals you you then belong to Him and your citizenship in heaven is guaranteed. The Bible says this in Ephesians 1,13-14, In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
I believe that most people today if they knew the simplicity of God’s salvation for mankind would gladly accept God’s offer. God say’s that if you will believe His word (the Bible) He will forgive all your sins past, present and future and give you eternal life. In John 6:28-29, Jesus was asked “what shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus replied “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Also in John 6:40,And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
I can remember my Dad asking me and my brothers what we believed. If we had to open a book to tell him what we believed he would then tell us “I don’t care what the book believes! What do you believe! I believe the best way to find out about God is to first pray to God that He will open your spiritual eyes before you read the Bible.
While Jesus was on earth spreading the good news of His kingdom He faced an army of religious leaders who through the hundreds of years of adding more than six hundred religious laws to what God had passed down through Moses made God’s simple ten commandments complicated and very difficult to keep. It was these added man made laws on keeping the sabbath that the religious leaders decided to have Jesus crucified.
I bring this up because I believe there is a lot of man made confusion in the simplicity of salvation in the Bible. I believe one of the biggest barriers to salvation is the way we are brought up by our families and society. We are accustomed to rewards every time we do something good and likewise when we do something bad we look over our shoulder waiting for the punishment to arrive.
Because of this upbringing we find it almost impossible for our minds to grasp the concept of grace. Grace is receiving God’s salvation free of charge. If you try to work for your salvation You are in essence telling God that Christ’s payment on the cross for our sins was not enough. I found in my life that once I finally figured out that my salvation from God was given to me by God’s grace and that there wasn’t anything I could do to earn my salvation. It was at that time grace and works finally made sense to me.
Salvation is very simple, read the gospels of the Bible which consists of the books of “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.” If you believe what’s written in these pages and you ask Jesus to come into your life at that instant you will be sealed with God’s seal. In the Bible God has sealed thousands of His people and not once has He ever remove any of His seals from anybody for bad behavior. Here’s a verse that shows us God sealing people. Revelation 7:4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:
It’s important for you to know that once you are sealed you belong to God. Once this happens you can now put the salvation question behind you. God says that once you are His He will never leave you nor forsake you. God also says that all who call upon His name will be saved.
There is a simple test you can take that will let you know where you stand in the kingdom of heaven. This test is so simple it consists of one question. You will need to be completely honest with yourself and there is only one correct answer. This is the question; If you died right now and God came to you and asked “Why should I let you into my kingdom? What would you tell God? Before reading on you need to answer this question.
If your reply is I won’t know until after I am dead or I have tried to be a good person. I think all the good I’ve done out weights the bad or I went to church all my life. I always gave at least 10% of my earning to the church. I have lead many people to Christ. I always knocked on at least twenty doors a week. These kinds of answers will get you thrown out of the kingdom. The only answer acceptable to God is “I have accepted Jesus as my personal savior. Jesus died in my place for my sins.” Your ticket to heaven has already been paid for by Jesus. There is nothing else that needs to be done concerning your salvation. All that is needed is for you to accept God’s free gift.
If that is the case why don’t we just accept Jesus as our savior and go on with our life as though nothing happened? Several reasons the first reason is because once you are saved and sealed your perspective will be changed. God will start to reveal whats really going on in the world. What was once important to you now is not so important anymore. You see the world in a different light. The Bible says that at that time the veil will be removed from your (spiritual) eyes. We can read this in 2 Corinthians 3:15-16, “But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” We also read this in 2 Corinthians 4:3 “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,”
This verse is telling me that our good works will establish our rank in heaven. We can also see this in Daniel 12:3, ‘Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever.’
Is it important to know if you are going to heaven when you die? Not only is it important to know this now it is also necessary if you want to live a life filled with joy and peace. There is nothing greater on earth presently than when God’s spirit engulfs you and lets you know that you are destined for heaven and all that God has is yours. We see this in Romans 8:16-17, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
There are a few subtle ways of finding out whether or not you are destined for heaven. first let’s look at Matthew 7:13-14,“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” How can you tell if you are one of the few people who find it?
The answer to this question is contained in this next verse which is found in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” If you are reading this article and nobody is forcing you to read it then this fact alone shows that most likely you are a child of God. A person destined for hell would have stopped reading this article after the first paragraph.
The Bible teaches that all of God’s children are filled with the Holy Spirit and it is the same Holy Spirit that guarantees our place in heaven and also in God’s timing empowers us to leave this earth and be with God. We can see this in Romans 8:11, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
This next Bible verse is what many believe (me included) will be the next prophecy to be fulfilled by Jesus Christ we find this prophecy in 1 Thessalonians 4:17,”Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
So how can you be sure that the Holy Spirit lives in you. Once you believe that Jesus is who He claims to be your life will be changed not by your power but by God’s power. We can see this in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” What exactly does this mean? How will you be changed?
The Bible teaches us that we are to become like minded as Jesus Christ. We can see this in Romans 15:5, “Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,” The Bible calls these new traits that you will eventually acquire “The fruit of the Spirit” We can find these traits in Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,”
Another subject worth mentioning is God say’s in the Bible that if we pray accordingly to God’s will He hears our prayers. God’s will for us is to become like minded as Christ. That is why it is so important for us to read the Bible to find out what God’s will is for us. Knowing this we can now start praying that God would show us how to love people as He loves people, how to increase my faith, how to have more patience with people, how to become like Christ. All the traits of the fruit of the spirit we can now pray to God daily so that we may become more like Jesus who was the only perfect man.
If you are like me you are probably saying “no way could I ever be that good” and you would be right. Nobody can live up to these standards. Keep in mind that these are lessons of a lifetime. The only way to achieve these personality traits is through prayer and the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Also keep in mind that your salvation is secure nothing you do can ever take that away from you. When you believed you were sealed.
These lifetime lessons are there to prepare us for the next major event in the history of mankind which is the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches us that Jesus will come and restore the earth to its former glory. The people during the one thousand year reign of Christ will live the full one thousand years repopulating the earth. It will be the saints privilege to help mankind and to carry out God’s will.
Christ and all His saints will rule this earth so it is essential that the saints be like minded as Christ. We can read this in Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” and also in Philippians 2:2, “fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”
We can verify this truth by the following verses. the first verse is found in 2 Corinthians 1:22, “who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” and in 2 Corinthians 1:22, “who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
When you read the Bible and discover it’s truth this will develop your faith. When your faith is established this will develop your confidence. Your confidence will establish and ground you in the faith. we can see this in the following verses Hebrews 10:35, “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.” Ephesians 3:12, “in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.”and also in 1 John 2:28,“And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”
To get to heaven you will have to have the Holy Spirit living in you. Without the Holy Spirit living in you you won’t make it to heaven. How do you receive the Holy Spirit? Once you believe that Jesus is who He claims to be and His words are true, at that time you will be sealed and your spiritual eyes will be opened. Jesus says to receive the Holy Spirit all one has to do is ask. We see this in Luke 11:10-15,”For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”