In Christ’s kingdom, there are two things we need to be sure of: our relationship with Him and our fellowship with Him. And God didn’t make either of these things a mystery.
Relationship
Jesus is the Son of God. If we have him as our savior, we become a child of God. Becoming a child of God is a simple as these three steps:
- Agree with God that you are a sinner condemned to Hell
- Realize Jesus is your only hope
- Ask Jesus to save you, fully trusting that He alone can do it
Fellowship
We can’t have fellowship until after we have a relationship.
To be in fellowship with God we must walk like He walks. It begins with baptism (Jesus walked a LONG way to show us this was the important first step).
Spend time with God. Read the Bible (to hear him speak) and pray (to share your heart with him).
When you realize you’re not doing what God wants, stop. Yes, it really is that easy. Stop doing that thing. Tell God you know it was wrong and ask him to forgive you (1 John 1:9). Now do the right thing.
Still, we often wonder, what is the right thing? Thank goodness for John. He wondered the same thing and when God gave him the answer, he wrote it down so we could find it.
The 12 Steps
In 1 John, the apostle wanted to assure the people he wrote to of their relationship and fellowship with God. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).
You are in fellowship with God if:
- You live like the rapture could happen any second (1 John 3:3)
- You avoid sin (1 John 3:6, 9)
- You love your spiritual brothers and sisters (1 John 4:20)
- You help your brethren (1 John 3:17)
- Your actions demonstrate love for your brethren (1 John 4:7, 21)
- Your actions demonstrate love for God (1 John 5:2)
- You enjoy spending time with other servants of God and feel kinship with them (1 John 4:6)
- Fear has no control of you (1 John 4:18)
- You can overcome temptations (1 John 5:4)
- You recognize false Biblical teachings (1 John 4:1-3)
- You believe Jesus Christ is God (1 John 4:15)
- You agree Jesus came to save and speaks only truth (1 John 5:20)
If you are uncertain about any of these twelve things, your fellowship and/or relationship is in question. Have you been saved by Jesus? If yes, you must confess your shortfalls and seek to follow him closely
**This post was previously published elsewhere on September 22, 2015
A Pew Perspective 