Are You Sure That You Are Going to Heaven?

I had gone to church my whole life. As most know, my Dad was a Baptist pastor. I had been to more church services, Sunday School and Training Union classes, Bible Schools, funerals, weddings, prison services, and revivals than most people. I had heard enough salvation messages that you would think that I would be an expert on that subject, but I wasn’t. I sure knew about the consequences of not being born again. It meant an eternity in a horrible place called Hell. I knew that I didn’t want to go there, and I didn’t want anybody else to go.

I began experiencing the conviction of the Holy Spirit when I was eight years of age. I knew that I must give my heart to Jesus. I went to the altar when Daddy gave the invitation to the lost and to the “backslidden” (those that were away from the Lord; they were living in sin). The song “Just as I Am” was being played, and I walked to the front of the church. People knelt around me, and we all began to pray. No one showed me any Scripture. I really felt that I would hear God’s voice, or I would see Him. I thought that I would surely feel something wonderful. We all got up. They hugged me, but I didn’t feel any differently. Was I sure that I would now go to heaven? My answer was, “No.” …So, Sunday after Sunday, I would make my way back down to the altar, but it was always the same thing. I felt that I had not been born again. If I died, I wasn’t sure that I would go to heaven. I went to the altar so many times that I feared that I was embarrassing my family. I quit responding to the altar call. I said to God, “I want you to be my Lord. I want you to live in my heart. I accept that if I die, I will go to Heaven to be with you. Amen!” I asked Daddy to baptize me, and he did.

Through the years, satan would torment me that if I died, I would go to hell. He said that I didn’t see God the days that I went to the altar and I didn’t hear His voice. He even said to me that I didn’t even know a date that I was actually born again. All of this was true, but I would later learn that accepting Jesus is not an act of seeing or hearing God, or having a particular date; but it is by the act of faith; a faith in God that believes His Word and obeys it.

I was tired of the torment of the evil one, so I went to a man of God in my Baptist church and shared my story with him. I was married with two children at the time. Ralph Keith began to show me Scripture right out of Romans 10. He asked me if I believed that the Word of God applied to me. I was quick to respond that I knew it did. He read the passages from verses 9-13, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.”

I knew that I had obeyed these verses, even though, I didn’t know where these verses were located in the Bible. When I heard these passages read, a confidence came to my heart that I was truly born again. I declared to Ralph and my husband, Robert, that I knew that I knew I was a Christian because His Word told me that I was. I have never doubted my salvation again.

I wonder how many people struggle with their salvation because no one showed them the Word. I’m shocked at how many will pray a salvation prayer with people and say that they are saved after they repeat the prayer. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1:23, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” Now, I do believe that I was born again at the age of nine. I had heard the salvation message preached most of my life. I had struggled with fear and doubt that came from the wicked one, because I didn’t know the exact passages concerning the new birth (salvation) that would combat Satan’s lies. God’s Word is true. When we believe it and obey it, we will see the results of it in our lives. When satan came to tell me that I wasn’t a Christian, I would just read to him Romans 10:9-13. He ducked his tail and ran from me. He will do the same for you or that one you know that is doubting his/her salvation. Amen!!!