Often people will ask, “How does someone know that they know the Lord?” You can tell if someone knows the Lord by their view of God.
For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You. Psalm 86:5
The Lord is good and He is ready to forgive and to show His great lovingkindness towards ALL who call upon Him. This is who the Lord is. If a person thinks that the Lord is anything other than this then that person does not know the Lord. It is crucial that we have the right view of God because if we do not then we will not want to come to Him and call upon Him. The enemy, the devil, tries to distort the correct view of who God is. He will put doubts and fears in your thinking or he will put a false assurance or no fear in your mind. The enemy will seek to swing the pendulum either way just as he did with Eve in the garden.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! Genesis 3:1-4
First he tried doubts, “Indeed has God said…” and then he tried false assurance, “You surely will not die!”. In all these generations since, the enemy has not changed his schemes because he knows they work. If he can get someone to respond to his doubtful ideas and lies then that person will sin.
so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. II Corinthians 2:11
The Lord is who He is regardless of what anyone thinks of Him. He is good and no evil dwells with Him. The meaning of evil is to cause grief. We bring grief on ourselves when we respond to the enemy. There is only one response to the doubts and lies of the evil one, who wants to continually cause us grief. We must know the truth. The truth is in Jesus Christ and in His Word. He is the truth and His Word is the truth.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6
Your word is truth. John 17:17b
If we know the Lord then we will want to come to Him. The word “good” means the highest form of love and that is the kind of love that the Lord has for you. The Lord loves you with a perfect love and a perfect love casts out all fear.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. I John 4:18
This is the kind of love that sent Jesus Christ to the cross. A love that we can not understand but a love that God offers to us if we will call upon Him. He is ready to forgive. He has proven His love by sending Jesus Christ to take the punishment for our sins. His love is perfect.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
God stretched out His arms on the cross for you and for me. He loves the world and whoever believes in Him shall not perish in hell forever, but will live forever in heaven. God’s love is that simple. An offer for love, life, peace, security and unfathomable riches in Christ.
this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, Ephesians 3:8b
We receive Jesus Christ by faith and He comes and lives within out hearts through His Holy Spirit.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
This is my prayer for whoever reads this post, that if they have never come to know the Lord in a personal way, that they will come into that relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and become a child of God.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. I John 3:1a
If you have never prayed to Jesus Christ then here is a simple prayer that can help you as you begin a journey of knowing the Lord and His great love for you.
Dear Lord Jesus, You said that whoever will call upon You to be their Lord and Savior then You will save them. I am tired of trying to run my own life. I have sinned against God and others. Please forgive me of all of my sins and come into my life and make me the person You designed my to be. I surrender my life to You and want to trust you completely. In Jesus name I pray, Amen
Instructions To A Young Life 