Eleven Tests in the Epistles of John

That Can Assure Us We are Saved

Part Three

 

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

This is the third and last part of a series on the epistles of John written by John the apostle. In this series we will cover the eleven assurances we have that establish our salvation as a Christian.

 

TEST 8 – WE EXPERIENCE ANSWERED PRAYER

 

1 John 3:21-22

“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”

 

1 John 5:14-15

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.”

 

These two verses in 1 John and many others in the Bible testify to the fact that as a child of God and a member of the royal priesthood we can expect to have our prayers answered. This does not mean we can ask for anything out of God’s will and expect to receive it. Nor does it mean we can ask selfishly for things just because we are Christians and believe we will obtain them.

 

John is saying in 1 John 3:21-22 that if our hearts do not condemn us because we are obeying the Lord’s commands and doing what pleases our Heavenly Father, we can expect that our wishes will coincide with the Lord’s wishes. If we are living in obedience to God’s Word in thought and deed God’s plans will be our desire in life. When we walk closely with the Lord we walk in step with His Spirit and we not only want God’s will to come to fruition, we participate in making it come about by the way we live and pray. God wants us active participants in reclaiming the world for Him, spreading the gospel, building His Kingdom, ministering to those in need, healing the sick through prayer and impacting our culture with godliness.

 

When we are walking in step with the commands of Jesus and keeping short accounts of any sins we may commit, we can come to the Lord in prayer and know for sure that He hears us. Because we are close to God in our relationship with Him we know we will ask for those things that promote His love and grace, encourage truth and honesty in the lives of people, stimulate ministry to people in need, hinder the forces of sin in the world and bind the power of Satan and his demons.

 

As we live appropriately our prayers will also be appropriate and we will see miracles take place and experience answered prayer over and over again. When we see our prayers answered repeatedly we will have an assurance that we are saved and are walking closely with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

Prayer is a gift of communication given to us so we can impact the world with the power of God and transform our own heart in the process. God restrains Himself many times from intervening in life as He waits for the praying saints to call upon Him. He wants us to see His glory and power manifested as we call upon Him to release His will upon the earth. He knows that as we bow on our knees in prayer we will demonstrate our humility and dependence upon Him and we will see His majesty and glory shown in answered prayers. These answered prayers will add to the foundation of our faith and our trust will grow by leaps and bounds. It is so true that answered prayer is the glue that cements the stones of our faith together and gives us assurance of the salvation we received from God’s Son Jesus Christ.

 

TEST 9 – WE EXPERIENCE THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

 

1 John 4:13

“We know that we live in Him and He in us, because he has given us of His Spirit.”

 

Another verification that we are saved is when we experience the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You might ask, “What is this ministry?” When we accept Christ as Savior we are given the Holy Spirit to live within us to minister to us. Several verses in scripture reveal what this ministry of the Holy Spirit is.

 

John 14:26 states, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” Here Jesus is telling us that God sent the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus to teach God’s Word and will to us and remind us of all that Jesus said, taught and did. Often in our Christian life we will sense an experience of God’s Spirit teaching us when God’s Word comes to our mind and convicts us of something we should not be doing or when the Spirit reminds us of what Jesus would do in our situation. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will speak to us in scripture verses and sometimes He will simply give us a conviction about what to do in a particular situation. It is true many times our own memory or conscience will convict us, but when the Holy Spirit speaks to us there is often an intense conviction that we need to listen and do what He is telling us to do.

 

Another similar verse is John 16:13-15. This says, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” This verse tells us that the Holy Spirit will guide us in the Truth of God. He will speak what He hears from our Heavenly Father and Jesus. The Holy Spirit takes the knowledge of the Lord and helps us take ownership of it in our own lives. As we grow in knowledge about God through the influence of the Holy Spirit we can know we are truly saved of our sins.

 

John 15:26 states that the Counselor, another name for the Holy Spirit, will testify to us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It says, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.” As we hear the truth about Jesus regularly impressed upon us by the Holy Spirit we can be assured we are saved.

 

Other verses talk about how we can receive power to live the Christian life (Romans 15:13) as well as experience a godly joy (1 Thessalonians 1:5-6). This power and joy given to us from the Holy Spirit is further evidence that God is working in our lives because we are His child and belong to Him. It verifies that we are saved.

 

Finally Romans 8:15-16 “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” We will sense in our spirit that we are secure in our faith and have been saved because the Holy Spirit will agree with our spirit that we belong to God. This assurance comes from knowing we are in a close relationship with God and obey the Word and the commands of Jesus.

 

TEST 10 – WE DISCERN BETWEEN SPIRITUAL TRUTH AND ERROR

 

1 John 4:1-3

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.”

 

Another verification that we are saved and in fellowship with God is when we discover that we can discern truth from error. A Christian knows that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for their sins on the cross upon which He was crucified. When we hear someone say that Christ’s death does not save us from sin we question this statement and say it is untrue. A Christian knows that Christ rose from the grave proving He had power over death. When someone denies Christ’s resurrection we have issue with this and defend our belief that it is true. When we hear someone say Jesus was just a human being and not God in the flesh we know that this person does not know Jesus because we know Him as our Savior and know that He was both man and God. These are only a few examples of the truth of God we know and can discern. Sometimes we know there is something wrong with a belief a person is promoting but not exactly why. Usually this is the Holy Spirit communicating to us that since we are saved and He lives in us that we can discern falsehood from truthful statements in spiritual matters. As we grow in the knowledge of God’s Word these discernment skills are improved and more accurate.

 

TEST 11 – WE ARE REJECTED BECAUSE OF OUR FAITH IN CHRIST

 

1 John 3:13

“Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.”

 

If we have a great relationship with our Heavenly Father, live according to the commands of Jesus and listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit a result will be that people will hate us at times. This is because we identify ourselves with Jesus. Often the people of the world do not like to hear about the salvation that Jesus offers. They want to live their lives the way they want and they don’t want to hear about the sins they commit. They don’t want to know about the judgment of God for such sins so they will dislike those who attempt to share with them how salvation from sins can be found in Jesus Christ. They will also resent the way Christians live in obedience to God for this witness of God living in us convicts them of their sin. Matthew 10:22, Luke 21:17 and John 15:18 also speak of this persecution that we experience as Christians. So we will be rejected and sometimes even hated because we are Christians and this is evidence that we are saved and living in the way that honors God and shows our love for His Son.

 

We can be assured of our salvation when we see our prayers answered and experience the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We also receive assurance when we find ourselves discerning true godly beliefs from ungodly false ones. And when we are rejected because we live as Jesus Christ did we know we are a child of God and are saved from our sins.

 

1 John 3:2

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”