99. GOOD NEWS – HOW YOUR LIFE CAN BE TRANSFORMED FOR EVER!

(The Abundant Life Series – Batch 1)

Human beings do not belong to themselves.

They had no say in being placed on this earth, when they would arrive here or how they would look. They also have no say on how long they will be allowed to stay here and how they will die. They came and met the earth already here, not the other way around.

It is clear therefore, that all of us are on a sort of licence to be here. We have been given permission to live here but only for a while. At some point, whether we want to or not, we have to leave and make room for others who are coming in.

What is clear about all this is that there is a Kingdom greater than mankind himself, which makes decisions for us at a higher level than that to which we have been exposed. This Kingdom is more powerful than man and does not account to man, nor can it be swayed or manipulated or bribed or intimidated by any human being.

This Kingdom sits superior to the earthly world that we have come to know. The fact that we cannot see it or have not been given the ability to see it, does not mean it is not there.

Imagine that a blind man enters a room and takes a seat on the first chair he finds. He sits there quietly for two hours until he hears a phone ring. He answers it and the person on the other end asks, “Is there anybody in the room there with you?” He quickly answers, “No.” He is not prepared for the next question: “How do you know that?” “Well,” he replies, “I’ve been sitting here for the space of two hours and there has not been a sound. I therefore assumed that no one was here with me.”

In fact, on the far right corner of that very room, sits another man. He was sitting there when the blind man entered but because the blind man could not see and he did not make a sound, the blind man assumed that he was alone.

Sadly, many people do the same thing. They assume that they are here alone and that this world and the human beings and animals in it are all that there is. But there is so much more.

What happened with the blind man can also happen to a man that has his sight but is placed in a dark room at night with no light or even a man that has his vision and enters a room which is flooded with light but alas, he has been blindfolded.

Think about it. In the first case, that man has natural sight but he has not been endowed with the ability to see certain things when in the dark. He was made to only see so much and where there is gross darkness, his eyes become useless. This is why John 11:10 states “But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”

Not so for some animals. They have been given an ability unknown to man, to see things clearly in the dark.

The Bible tells us that this world we live in is in gross darkness spiritually and is becoming even darker and darker every day, due to more and more sin. As with the natural, this affects the spiritual sight of human beings, as they think that this world is all that is but they cannot see beyond this because the darkness of this world blinds them. In fact, due to the sin of our ancestors which we inherited, we were also born in darkness spiritually, much like a person who has been born blind naturally.

A person born blind physically, has never had the experience of seeing and so, the darkness being all that he has ever known, he takes comfort in it and thinks this to be normal. Unless he was told otherwise, he would think that his reality was all there was to life but there is so much more.

Similarly, all human beings have been born blind spiritually and into a world that is dark spiritually.

Of this truth, the Prophet Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 60:2, “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people…”

Psalm 82:5 states “They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.”

When in a dark place, like this world has become spiritually because of sin or born blind spiritually as all human beings have been, it would be foolish of us to say that a spiritual realm and Kingdom does not exist, simply because we cannot see it.

THE SUPERIOR KINGDOM…

The Kingdom of which I speak is in heaven and belongs to the true and living God. He is the one that created us and the world and all that we are able to see with our limited vision. The Godhead comprises of three persons, namely: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. They are all equal and function as one.

God is a spirit and exists in the spiritual realm. His angels, the devil and demons also exist in the spiritual realm, whereas human beings and animals exist in the natural realm.

Believe it or not, although the natural realm feels like it is all that is, the spiritual realm is more real than the natural. For, the natural realm is temporary, whereas the spiritual realm is permanent. It will exist for all eternity.

This world which exists in the natural realm, will one day be destroyed with fervent heat. The Bible tells us that “…the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up…all these things shall be dissolved…”

When people die, they cease to operate in the natural realm. The body remains here until it rots/decays but the soul leaves and is ushered into the spiritual realm.

We cannot see the wind but we feel its effects. We cannot see the devil and his demons but we surely can see his disastrous effects on mankind and the world in general. We cannot see God but he has given us enough evidence of his existence in what we do see, like the awesomeness of nature which he created, to know that he exists.

Romans 1:19-20 states of human beings, although born spiritually blind:

“…that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

Psalm 19:1-6 also states of God and how nature which he created, speaks of his majestic existence:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”

God sends the rain and the sun faithfully, so that the plants would grow and the animals would thrive and we would be provided for. He has given us all sorts of plants with all sorts of vitamins and nutrients and medicinal properties which he knew before he created us, that our bodies would need. Even the sun gives us vitamin D, which our bodies need to be healthy!

Of a truth, nature has been equipped beautifully and works wonderfully, to provide us with what we need to continue existing here on earth. All we have to do is look at it, really look at it and see how everything has been perfectly orchestrated and planned, to know that the Kingdom of which I speak exists.

If that does not convince us, we can look within and see how perfectly organized our organs and blood vessels are and how our inner system has been perfectly designed. Mankind with all their intellect, learning and science, could not even begin to know how to improve upon it and indeed, would not know where to start.

We can look at the wonder of child birth, where a living, breathing, intelligent thinking human being emerges, when none of us could take the credit for it. All we know, we follow the rules of nature, we do what human beings have always done, a man and a woman come together (with parts that they were born with and did not give themselves, nor were these parts given to them by any human being but yet these parts fit perfectly together) and a child is born but we have absolutely nothing to do with the actual creation. God does his thing in the womb. He knows that child before he has developed sufficient mental faculties to even know himself and He (God) has set a period of up to nine months for completion. Nobody dares to tamper with this time period because it has been divinely set.

In Jeremiah 1:5, God told Jeremiah the Prophet, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…”

Without a doubt, we were created by a master mind, someone with superior knowledge to that of our limited intelligence and with a power that far surpasses even the combined efforts of mankind. That someone is God.

HOW WE BECAME ESTRANGED FROM GOD AND HIS KINGDOM…

Genesis 1 tells us that God created mankind and that all that he had made was good. However, Adam and Eve (the first and only two people God directly created and from whom we descended), disobeyed a clear command that God had given. As a result, sin, which is ugly, rebellious and destructive, entered the world and all of Adam and Eve’s descendants were born with sin in their DNA.

Sin being in our DNA from birth, nobody needs to teach us how to sin. It comes to us naturally. We are born rebellious against God and live a life of disobedience to his instructions. As a result of all this, although at one time, God looked at what he had created and saw that it was good, it is no longer this way because we are marred by that ugly sin virus, which is spiritual in nature. This spiritual virus of sin is far worse than any natural virus that man has ever come across in the history of mankind or will ever be confronted with.

While it cannot be seen with the naked eye, its effects are seen and felt all around us and within us. It is within us because we manifest the symptoms, such as hatred, envy, covetousness, adultery, fornication, rebellion and disrespect to God-ordained authority like the government, man’s headship in the home and in the Church, parents’ authority over children and managerial authority in the workplace, selfishness, self-centredness, pride, greed, competitiveness, lust, theft, lying, gossiping, violence with our hands and bodies like murdering, raping, physically abusing and violence with our lips like gossiping, badmouthing, slandering, defaming, attacking, complaining, idolizing, drunkenness and pretty much anything that displeases God. The sin in us is opposed to God and it is responsible for the pandemonium, sorrow and problems we face in the world globally.

Like natural viruses, it is not content to remain at the same level but is eager to grow and to contaminate more and more. Hence the reason why as time progresses, the world becomes more evil, wicked, greedy and selfish.

All of this started when Adam disobeyed God. All a virus needs to get its start is one human being and then from there, unless a cure or vaccine is found, it continues to spread and leave destruction in its wake.

Adam and Eve once enjoyed close fellowship with God and being in his presence. However, due to their disobedience and the fact that sin had entered, when they heard the voice of the Lord, they hid themselves from his presence.

Genesis 3:8 states: “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.”

This sin virus within us, messes with our heart and mind and causes us to have no desire to know the God that created us, wants the best for us and loves us. It makes us not want to serve him or love him but to elevate ourselves and idolize our selves and pursue after things that are worthless and not to our benefit.

As Ecclesiastes 7:29 states, “…God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.”

2 Timothy 3:2-7 also noted of how terrible would be man’s sin condition in the last days, stating:

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

God is holy and in him is no darkness or sin at all. Hence, due to our rebellion against his authority (which is sin) and us foolishly living life the way we want to live it without acknowledging his existence and that we are accountable to him, we have become estranged from him.

We have not been given eyes to see spirits and the devil exists spiritually but, given that he hates God, hates mankind and loves the destructiveness of sin, he exploits mankind’s sinful condition by tempting mankind to do the things that are not right and that will be detrimental to his every existence. Operating through sinful man, his activities and effects are seen and felt every day by all the wickedness, chaos and violence which exists.

The Bible clearly states that the devil is about three things: He wants to kill, steal and destroy and so he is busy wreaking havoc every day and every hour. He never stops because he knows that he has limited time and he uses human beings as his instruments to carry out his evil purposes. When people murder, rape, kill, steal, pursue money greedily and relentlessly or manifest any other behaviour that is not pleasing to God, they are not doing it of themselves. They are merely doing what the devil has deceived them into doing.

The Bible states that in the beginning of this world, soon after God created it, the devil deceived the human beings God had created and caused them to disobey God. As much as God loves us, he does not excuse disobedience which is a sin and so he placed a curse on those human beings and all their future children and generations, that we would not have immortal life and would surely die. Ever since then, human beings have continued to enter the world, live for a while and then die.

TWO DEATHS…

When God placed the curse of death on mankind, he was not just referring to physical death which we have witnessed happen to others. He was also referring to a much more serious death called the Second Death.

Physical Death, while it is something that nobody likes, is not the only death mentioned in the Bible. There is a more awful death called the Second Death, which God warns us to avoid. When a person dies, that is NOT the end. The one who created us, tells us that there is a date that God has appointed, in which Jesus, who is God the Son, will come and judge this world for its disobedience to God. When he comes, he is not only going to judge those who are living but he will also raise the dead back to life so that they too can be judged for their works, while they were alive.

Those that are found guilty by his righteous judgment, shall be cast into a lake of never ending fire, forever and ever, along with the devil who deceived the world. Those that are found not guilty, will escape this awful place and will live in heaven with the Lord forever.

In Revelations 20:10-15 it states:

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

I don’t know about you but when I heard about the judgment that is to come and the Second Death, I was terrified and wanted to know only one thing: How could I avoid it and make it to heaven? Could I buy my way there? Did I have to look a certain way? Would God respect the fact that I had a bulging bank account or that I came from an elite family? What about my celebrity status or the fact that I help the poor? Would that count for anything? Would that be enough to save me from the wrath of God to come?

Unfortunately, none of the things we place importance on in this world is valued by God. No one gets to escape the judgment to come, not the Prime Minister, not the President, not the Queen, not the filthy rich and not the dirt poor. Every model, hollywood celebrity, lawyer, doctor, teacher, garbage collector and road sweeper will be judged. The old will be judged and so will the young, the very good looking and the very not so good looking, the overweight and the health fitness guru.

There is absolutely nothing that we as human beings can give to God in exchange for our lives. We have absolutely nothing with which to bargain with him, not even our good works. The Bible states that God is so holy, that even our best works are as filthy rags in his sight. He has concluded that we are all guilty under sin and considers us all to be as an unclean thing (Isaiah 64:6; Galatians 3:22).

What this all means therefore is that we are all born guilty, have sinned and are destined for that white throne judgment and the Second Death. This is enough to make one depressed and feel hopeless…but thank God, there is a way of escape!

THE WAY OF ESCAPE…

This way of escape is not in anything that we could do for ourselves.The penalty for our sin and disobedience is both physical and spiritual death. It is established that we have absolutely nothing with which to bargain to God with. We have all messed up and all have fallen short of the glory of God.

However, while God did not reverse the curse of Physical Death, in his mercy and love to mankind, he devised a way to deliver them from the Second Death, which is worse than the first Physical Death because it has lasting consequences.

God the Father decided to send his Son the Lord Jesus Christ (who is a part of the Godhead) to earth to help us out of the mess that we were in, due to how much we had been deceived by the devil and had rebelled against God and his holy standards.

Jesus came in humility, made himself of no reputation (although he was part of the Godhead) and according to the divine plan, entered the world as a baby through a woman. He therefore took on human form, although he was God the Son.

God the Father prepared a body for him to operate in, so that he could pay the price by dying a sacrificial death on behalf of the whole sinful world, shed his perfect blood and in so doing, redeem mankind from the clutches of sin and satan.

In Hebrews 10:5-7 it reads:

“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”

While Jesus was here on earth, he taught people how to live in love and humility and he healed many who were sick physically, spiritually and emotionally. He had the authority to do this because after all, he was God and created us. He also allowed mankind to kill him although he was guilty of nothing, as this was the price that God the Father required for our sins to be taken away. For us to be forgiven of our horrible rebellion against the one who made us, he required that blood be shed from someone that was perfect and that had never sinned and only Jesus Christ qualified for this position. Although it was difficult, he humbled himself and went to the cross where he allowed himself to be captured and crucified by the very human beings he created.

What love!

It was either we all die both physically (in the First Death) and spiritually (in the Second Death) as we rightly deserved or someone who had committed no sin, take pity on us and die in our place physically, so that we could be saved from the Second Death. Sinless perfection was the only offering that God would accept though and no one on the face of the whole world was found worthy. For all had sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Yet because he so loved the world in a love that we may never ever fully fathom, God the Father sent his Son Jesus to earth to die for sinful men and women like you and me. He (Jesus) was perfect and had no sin within him.

John 3:13-17 tells us:

“And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

Jesus humbled himself and willingly allowed himself to be crucified, so that we could escape the awful Second Death to come. Had he not died for us, we would all be condemned to die the Second Death once we left this life because we were all guilty of having sinned in some way or other against God. We all committed sin soon after we were born into this world plus we had sin in our DNA because our ancestors Adam and Eve had sinned against God. Since their time, the curse of death passed upon all men, from them, to their children to our parents and to us.

Because Jesus was part of the Godhead, although he did die, he did not stay dead. Through resurrection power, after three days (and as he had stated would happen), he was raised up from the dead by God the Father. He appeared to some of those who had believed that he was indeed the Son of the true and living God before he had died, taught them some more, gave them and all those who would later believe, a commission, to go tell the whole world the good news that he had died for the sins of everyone and then he went back to heaven.

The good news is that although we have all been born in sin, shaped in iniquity and are destined to be cast into the lake of fire and everlasting torment, those that believe that Jesus Christ came, died, rose again is alive and humbly confess the truth with their mouth that he is Lord (meaning Lord over their lives and Lord over all) because they have surrendered their lives to Jesus in faith, they will be washed in the perfect blood of Jesus, cleansed from all their sin and made acceptable for heaven because of the righteous covering of Jesus Christ over them. In short, such persons will be saved from God’s wrath, get to escape the Second Death and obtain an eternal inheritance in heaven.

Whether a person truly believes this truth or not is demonstrated by whether he obeys God, in terms of how he has said we should live, in his book the Bible.

In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus made it clear:

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Obedience is therefore important to demonstrate that Jesus is truly Lord over your life. If you say he is Lord but yet you are still in control of your life and making your own decisions and living life how you want to live it, then this means that you do not truly believe that Jesus is alive from the dead, that he is Lord and/or you have rejected him ruling over you.

Jesus, which means Jehovah Saves, has promised that he is coming again to this world one day, at the time appointed but this time, he will not be coming to save the world from sin and destruction but to judge all of the world for its wickedness. What that means is that there is coming a day when Jesus will be coming to earth for the purpose of judging all who are living and have ever lived. When he came the first time in the form of a human being, he went as a submissive lamb to the cross because he did not come then to judge man of sin but to save them. He said for example, when he went to Zacchaeus’ home, a man who was known to be a renowned sinner and people could not understand why Jesus had chosen to do so “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10).

When Jesus returns the second time though he will not be coming to seek and to save that which was lost but he will come as a lion, to judge the lost of their sin. There is therefore a clock that God is operating by and only he knows the time that he has appointed. Until then, we continue under what is referred to as the ‘grace period’ of God. For, when Jesus returns, this will be up and it will be time for his wrath!

The need for you to be sure that you are under the righteous covering of Jesus is therefore urgent, as nobody knows when he will return and you don’t know when you will die.

The gift of Salvation (which means being saved from that awful Second Death) is not given to man automatically. For us to benefit from it and be saved from that awful judgment that is coming, we must first accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives by faith and ask him to be our Lord and Saviour.

The Bible says that to be saved from what is to come and to make it to heaven, we must stop rebelling against God and become one of his children. God created everyone but we are not all his children. If we allow the devil to continue deceiving us and live displeasing to God and for our own pleasure, then we are still the devil’s children.

The true Christian lives for God, admitting that his life does not belong to himself. The person who is not a Christian, lives for himself. He does whatever he wants, when he wants and he does not see the need to account to God for his actions. He rarely even thinks of him and does not consider how God feels about his actions. He sees his life as belonging to him and is of the view that he is free to do whatever he wants to do with it. This is because he does not believe that Jesus Christ is alive from the dead, real and is his Lord.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CHILD OF GOD/ CHRISTIAN…

Many people claim that they are Christians but many of them are not. They are not, simply because they have not obeyed God’s instructions for how to become a Christian and they continue living their lives as if they are in charge of it.

To be a Christian, you have to be prepared to die to self, to do no longer what you want but what God wants. It means that he takes charge of you and makes your decisions for you and you submit to it, whether you like it or not. This is what it means to surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ Jesus.

It is scary yes, to not be in control of your life or the job you are to take or the one you are to marry or where you are to live or any other decision pertaining to your life but it is comforting to know that God has your best interest at heart, is all wise and knows you better than you know yourself.

He requires us to do whatever he says, even if it is painful and we do not understand it. When we obey, he pours out unexpected blessings into the lives of his children. When his children disobey (as they sometimes do), he chastens them (sometimes severely) because he loves them, so that they will repent and ask for forgiveness and not do it again.

HOW TO BECOME A CHILD OF GOD (CHRISTIAN) AND THEREFORE ESCAPE THE SECOND DEATH…

The Bible is the most precious book ever written, as it is God’s words to mankind as to who he is, what he wants, what he loves, what he hates and how we can be saved from his wrath to come.

In this book of truth, it states that for a person to be saved from the Second Death, he has to first believe in his heart that Jesus, the Son of God the Father, rose up from the dead, then confess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord. (Romans 10:9-10)

The person must believe all of God’s Word. He must believe, for example, that Jesus came to earth to die for the sins of mankind, that, after he rose up from the dead, he appeared to many, went back to heaven but is coming again one day to judge this evil world of sin. He must believe that only those who have believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and confessed with their mouth that he is Lord, will be saved. He must recognize before he comes to Jesus, that he is a vile sinner in God’s sight and destined for the lake of everlasting fire and torment. He must also believe that the only way out is to accept Jesus into his heart as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, so that although he has fallen short as a sinful human, he can be clothed in the righteous covering of Jesus Christ. Thereafter, he must endeveaour to live a life of obedience to him, this becoming the very reason for which he lives.

IT IS NOT BY CHANCE YOU ARE READING THIS…

God cares about you and wants you to escape the awful effects of sin that are to come. He wants you to become his child and for you to start obeying him. He longs to bless you with the gift of salvation which he is freely offering through your acceptance of Jesus Christ his Son. He also desires to bless your life while you are here on earth and to guide your every step but he cannot do so if you continue to be lord over your own life and if you continue to choose to reject his Son, Jesus.

If you are reading this and want to escape the judgment of God which is coming and you realize that you are a sinner destined for hell and if you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of the true and living God, that he truly died for your sins and rose up from the dead as the Bible records and if you are convinced that Jesus is truly Lord and that only He can save you from that awful place called hell, then kneel down and pray sincerely to God the prayer you see below. It is not the prayer in itself that will save you. You will only be saved from the wrath of God to come if you truly mean in your heart, what you say when you pray to God.

God can tell the difference. He knows your heart and whether you truly believe on his Son, the Lord Jesus. He requires that if we want to come back to him, that we do so through Jesus, God the Son, who he has exalted far above all principality, power and dominion and who is the way, the truth and the life. (Philippians 2:9-11; Ephesians 1:20-23; John 14:6).

If you said a prayer in the past but you are still not sure if you really meant it and believed it back then, then here is your opportunity to really mean it and believe it this time. The Bible encourages you to make your calling and election sure and to examine yourself whether you are in the faith.

Surrendering your life to the Lordship of Jesus by faith is not something that you can do flippantly or jokingly. This is a serious matter, as where your soul will spend eternity after this life is done is at stake.

You are approaching the throne of the JESUS, the one who created you and whose breath you are being allowed to breath every day. Make sure you are sincere before you pray therefore and that you truly want to become God’s child and believe on his Son the Lord Jesus.

God wants you to come to Jesus in order for you to be reconciled to him. Jesus himself stated: “…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Your prayer for salvation should therefore be directed to Jesus, God the Son.

A PRAYER TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT WITH GOD/BECOME A CHILD OF GOD/CHRISTIAN

Lord Jesus,

I admit that I have sinned against you in this life and that I was born in sin. I recognize that if I were to die without you as Lord in my life, I would end up in hell. I am sorry for the sinful life that I have lived so far and I truly want to start obeying you and living for you and no longer the devil.

I truly BELIEVE that you Jesus are the Son of the true and living God and part of the Godhead. I believe that you came to earth years ago and died for my sins and the sins of the world, as a perfect, sinless sacrifice. I also believe that you did not stay dead but that through your resurrection power, God the Father, God the Spirit and you God the Son, raised you back up again. I believe that you are coming back to earth one day to bring judgment on this world and I want to escape hell fire. I want desperately to be saved from my sin condition and to be cleansed from all unrighteousness and I believe that only you can make this change in me.

I now CONFESS with my mouth that you Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Son are King of Kings and Lord of Lords and I pray that you Lord Jesus Christ, will now come into my heart and change me and save me from sin and deliver me from the power of darkness, the devil, my own sinful flesh and eternal damnation. Save me from the terrible wrath of God to come. Wash me thoroughly in your precious blood so that I will be clean and fill me with your Holy Spirit. I truly want you Lord Jesus to take complete control of my life and to live in my heart forever more, from this day forward. Please hear my prayer and grant me every petition.

Your Word says that whosoever comes to you you will not cast them away and so, from this moment, I acknowledge that my life is not my own but belongs to you Lord Jesus.

I thank you for saving me, Amen.

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DEAR FRIEND,

If you said that prayer and you truly meant it (God knows), then CONGRATULATIONS!

You are now a child of the true and living God because you have accepted his Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Saviour!

All of heaven is rejoicing over the decision you have made. The Bible states that the angels in heaven rejoice whenever a human being decides to become a child of God through Jesus Christ his Son. They are elated for you because you have escaped the Second Death and are now destined for heaven!

This is the best decision you would have ever made and will ever make in all your life and I can guarantee that you will NEVER regret it. (Go write the date you gave your heart to Jesus Christ down, for safe keeping. Later on in life you may want to share your testimony with others and you will want to remember the date).

To learn more about being a child of God (a Christian) and how you can please him (not the devil) for the rest of your life, you need to join a Bible-believing Church. This is one of the instructions God gave his children so you will need to obey. You also need to invest in a good Bible. I recommend the King James Version (KJV) for starters but there are some other versions as well like the New American Standard Version (NASB). I do not recommend you use the New International Version (NIV) and I think that you should in fact, prayerfully ask God which version is approved of him and which he wants you to read.

I can’t tell you which Church to attend but pray to God and ask him to direct you.

I can tell you though that he will not direct you to the Seventh-Day Adventists, Roman Catholic, Mormons, Jehovah Witness or Anglican congregations which call themselves a Church. There are others he will not direct you to but I will not mention them all here. Stay away from these denominations as they have deviated from God’s truth, not rightly interpreted his Word are teaching grave errors and are therefore not authentic, although they look like if they are serving the God of the scriptures.

Ask God to send you to a Church that loves his truth and he will direct you. Proverbs 3:5-7 encourages you to “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

When you get to the Church that God leads you to, speak to the Pastor/Elder/Deacon and let them know that you surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus Christ and are now his child. They will direct you further from there.

Now that you have been reconciled with God the Father through Jesus Christ his Son, you can now pray to God the Father but be sure to send your prayers through Jesus. You can start off your prayers therefore with: ‘Our Father who is in heaven’ and you can end with ‘In the name of Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.’

Be blessed my dear sister and welcome to the household of faith! It is an exciting life to be a Christian. It is not an easy journey but it is definitely worth it!

LOVE YOU MUCH AND GOD BLESS!

(Written on 15^th March, 2016, adjusted on 28th April, 2021)

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