I met Deborah outside the courthouse. She believed she was going to heaven "because I have God in my life." That's wonderful, I said. "How did you get God in your life," I asked. She told me about her after-life experience following a car wreck. She saw herself lying there and felt like God told her it wasn't her time to go, because she needed to care for her family. Since that time, she "felt" like she had God in her life.
When a doctor asks how you feel, she doesn't stop there and conclude all must be well just because you say you "feel" well. A good doctor cares enough to actually check your pulse and other vital signs for important clues about your actual health. Otherwise, the doctor would be guilty of medical malpractice.
In the same way, as I have tried to follow Jesus in learning how to "fish for men," He has shown me that you cannot witness effectively by relying solely on whether a person "feels" they are going to heaven. With wise, gentle questions, you can probe for a person's real spiritual vital signs to see how they're really doing.
God doesn't just want people to falsely "feel" like all is well spiritually. God wants people to know the Truth about their spiritual condition. He wants them to know The Way to salvation and not make dangerous assumptions. In fact, He wants people to know the way so much He personally stepped down out of heaven, became a man--Jesus Christ--and went from town to town proclaiming the good news that it is possible to know The Way and The Truth about having The Life--an abundant eternal life with God (John 14:6). Jesus taught His followers to do the same--to learn how to tell others about The Way, The Truth, and The Life (Matt. 4:19; Luke 24:47).
Deborah was like the Woman at the Well (John 4), the Roman Centurion (Acts 10), and even the Apostle Paul (Acts 9). They all genuinely felt they had God in their life, but they all were clinging to false beliefs. They did not know The Truth about The Way to The Life until The Truth was revealed to them.
Until a person is born again (John 3:3) as a result of hearing and obeying The Truth of the Word of God (1 Pet. 1:23), they remain subject to the just wrath and condemnation of God for their countless sins (John 3:36). Until a person believes in Jesus and repents (Mk. 1:15), he remains "dead in transgressions and sins" as a result of "following the ways of the world" (Eph. 2:1-2). Once a person believes the gospel and obeys it by repenting and turning from going their own way to following Jesus (Luke 24:47; 2 Thes. 1:8; Matt. 7:13-23), they are born again spiritually, a new person in Christ (John 3:14-16).
I asked Deborah if she knew what Jesus said to do in order to know her destiny would in fact be heaven. She didn't. I asked if she wanted to know, and she said yes. I explained the full gospel. I asked if she believed in Jesus. She said yes. I asked if she had ever repented. She had asked for forgiveness. I asked if she had turned to follow Jesus with her life. She balked at that one.
I asked her if she knew what Jesus said to do in order to follow Him. She said no. I told that Jesus said in John 8:31-32 that his real followers are those that continue in his word and seek to obey what they read. That's how you really get God in your life--through His Word, because He is the Word (John 1). I asked her if she does that. She admitted she doesn't. I encouraged her to repent and turn to follow Jesus before it's too late.
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