Online discussions about spiritual matters often reveal that many christians, if not most of them, don’t even know what it means to be born again. One woman recently noted how kind she and her children are to strangers they meet as the evidence she is saved—as if unbelievers cannot be kind to others.
Many point to their changed lives as if changing one’s lifestyle choices is the evidence of salvation. If that were true, then most people at AA meetings, or those who are successful with anger management therapy, would be born again.
Most point to something they DID as their salvation event—whether it was praying a prayer, or making a decision, or going forward and “accepting Christ into their heart,” not realizing that there is no action of man that saves him. A person can pray the “sinner’s prayer” a hundred times a day for years—and not one of those prayers will mean that he has been justified before the Almighty.
Most have declared themselves to be saved, and then got dunked in water in front of some folks, not understanding that water baptism is a physical foreshadow of a future spiritual real substance—it can be an invitation to the Holy Spirit to come into someone, but it is not a declaration that He did.
Some really clever folks, like pastors or seasoned christians, will declare that the Holy Spirit has confirmed that they are saved, but, when asked how He did that, or what He told them, they can provide nothing more than their own feelings (their beliefs or their conscience) about what they have read in scripture. Nobody can read or “feel” himself into heaven, so, with those folks, their feelings are usually just the delusion of the enemy—who is perfectly happy with people thinking they are members of Yah’s household by their own decisions.
The element of salvation most who are lost in christianity don’t understand is that, one is only saved when the Holy Spirit confirms that He is in them. Humans don’t have the power or authority to place the Holy Spirit into themselves; the Father alone must do that. And, scripture is clear that it is the Holy Spirit who confirms to those who have believed that they have been adopted as Yah’s children, and He does that WHEN He indwells them, and scripture also tells us HOW He communicates directly with people to let them know that (Acts 2:17, Romans 8:16).
For more information: Is Salvation Hard to Receive?