Your Great Question No. 1: “What must I do to become a child of God?”
Answer: Acts 16:29-32 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
There is only ONE door into the ark of salvation, belief [trust] in the life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and soon return to earth of Jesus Christ to rule.
Your Great Question No. 2: “How will I know that God has accepted me and I truly have become His child?”
Answer: The clearest example in which we find in the Bible that seems closest to this place where the Holy Spirit has chosen to reveal Jesus Christ to you is found in Acts 19.
Paul and Silas declared the love and sacrificial death of Jesus to the Ephesians. The Holy Spirit convicted and convinced these people that the information which they received from Paul and Silas was absolutely true and burst into light in their hearts. The information the Ephesians received about Jesus Christ brought sorrow and repentance into their hearts. Immediately they were given a new heart where they could now love the things Jesus loved and hate what Jesus hates.
This new heart produced their next actions: – Acts 19:17-20 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
The Ephesians, when given new hearts by the Holy Spirit, found that in their new heart that they had a yearning to begin to LOVE. This is the experience of every “new born one” who has been welcomed into the family of God. You will begin to love what Jesus loves and to hate what Jesus hates. You will find both sorrow and joy has come into your hearts. 1.) Sorrow that you previously hated God and committed acts of harm against your neighbors whom you were commanded to love. 2.) You will be filled with overwhelming joy with the forever settled truth and fact that God, who is perfectly Merciful and Loving, sent His only Son to pay the death penalty rightly due you for your sins.”Explanation / Commentary:
Paul and Silas came to the people of Ephesus. These people seem to be very much like you Bedey people, every one a dear eternal soul. The Ephesians were made, like all people including you, in the image of God but for many years had their hearts inclined to act as children of the devil exactly as did their natural father, the devil. The Ephesians, just like the Bedey people, had a natural father, the devil, but they needed a SUPERNATURAL FATHER who loved them perfectly and would perfectly declare and show them that He, unlike the devil, loved them perfectly.
The Holy Spirit of God went before Paul and Silas and prepared the hearts of the Ephesians to receive this great life-changing truth. In what way? – John 16:8-9 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me.
How did many of the Ephesians respond? – Ephesians 19:17-20 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
Summary: The devil, everyone’s natural father upon entry into the world is a hate-filled, terrible, destructive father who only wants to harm and destroy his own children.
The devil is exceedingly hard on his children and wants to harm them in this life in every way possible and kill them giving them over to eternal death.
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
But God, who wants to become a SUPERNATURAL FATHER to everyone who will simply TRUST in His love made evident by sending His own Son to die to pay our death penalty. As our Supernatural Father, God loves us, and here is what He promises:
Revelation 21:4 “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Luke 11:9-13 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you;seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Luke 12:6-8 “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God.”
Matthew 6:25-34 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles [children of the devil] seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
The only question which now remains” “Has the Holy Spirit convinced and convicted you that you have, up until this very moment, followed after the devil and have acted like him? Has the Holy Spirit convicted and convinced you that God so loved the world [including you Bedey People] that He sent His Son to die in your place so you can be changed and become a child of God and be your Supernatural Father?
If you find these truths are warming your own heart, you will not be able to help yourself! You will want to Tell Somebody what has happened to you, that you have are “born again” and have become a new person. If this has happened to you, we would be especially pleased if we would be among the first people you would TELL of the change which has occurred.
Remember you are NOT joining a religious system, or some church or that you are required to pay money or perform some type of religious activity.
When this change occurs within the heart, it is the confirmation by the Holy Spirit that God has sealed you into an eternal RELATIONSHIP with Him as your Supernatural Father and that He has brought you into His family.
