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sheep... I am the good shepherd; I know my<br />
sheep and my sheep know me... My sheep listen<br />
to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I<br />
give them eternal life” (John 10:11, 14, 27, 28). He<br />
wants to guide our life in the best way; He brings<br />
us to the Father and gives us heaven as a gift. So<br />
you should hand your entire life completely over<br />
to Him. Give Him more space than just a fiftyfifty<br />
share; all aspects of your life must belong to<br />
Him, and you will be richly blessed. This is the<br />
one and only way to become a child of God. One<br />
does not qualify through membership of a<br />
church in which one was born and raised, neither<br />
will any good deed, or being baptised as a baby,<br />
ensure that you become a child of God. The only<br />
way is by making a deliberate decision to come<br />
to Jesus, beginning with a prayer. This second<br />
prayer can be formulated along the following<br />
lines, modified according to your thoughts and<br />
preferences:<br />
“Now, dear Lord Jesus, I pray that You will<br />
enter my life. Lead me along the way which<br />
You will show me through my reading of the<br />
Bible and by means of your guidance in my<br />
life. I know that You are the Good Shepherd<br />
and that You always intend the best for me. I<br />
therefore entrust You with all areas of my life.<br />
I don’t want you to be a mere sailor on the<br />
ship of my life, I want you to be the Captain.<br />
You know all the rocks and currents which<br />
might wreck my life. Please steer my ship<br />
throughout my life. I entrust everything to<br />
you: My thoughts and acts, my career, my<br />
leisure time, my plans, my finances, my health,<br />
my illnesses, my joys, my worries ... Grant me<br />
the power to make a clean break with my previous<br />
sinful life. And if I stumble now and<br />
then, let me recognise these immediately as<br />
mishaps and confess them immediately to You.<br />
Please order my life and give me new habits<br />
involving You, under your blessing. Change my<br />
disposition towards You and the people I come<br />
across. Make my heart obedient to You and<br />
please open the Bible for me so that I may correctly<br />
understand your Word. I want to<br />
acknowledge You as Lord of my life and to follow<br />
You from now on. I wish to stay close to<br />
You. Amen.”<br />
What has now happened? If this prayer, or a<br />
similar one freely composed by you, has been<br />
sincere and really came out of your heart, then<br />
you have just become a child of God. This is<br />
not human wisdom, but God Himself confirms<br />
it: “to all who received him (Jesus), to those<br />
who believed in his name, he gave the right to<br />
become children of God” (John 1:12). Something<br />
great has now happened, and this is a<br />
very important day in your life, even if you<br />
perhaps cannot realise it at the moment. The<br />
step you took today, is compared in the Bible<br />
to being born (a rebirth, since you have already<br />
been born physically). This day of your decision<br />
has eternal significance. You have received the<br />
whole of heaven as a gift.<br />
Eternal life is now yours. Nobody can take away<br />
from you what Jesus earned for you and has just<br />
now given you as a gift. God is not your Judge<br />
anymore, but has become your Father, and He<br />
now sees you as being free from sin, as if you<br />
have never sinned in your life. The whole of heaven<br />
took part in this momentous event of your<br />
conversion. One person has left the ship of death<br />
and has boarded the lifeboat. Jesus says of this in<br />
Luke 15:10: “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the<br />
presence of the angels of God over one sinner<br />
who repents.” In heaven it is not important which<br />
team wins the world series, who steps onto the<br />
winner’s podium at the Olympic Games, or when<br />
the President of the USA holds a meeting with<br />
another world leader. But the fact that you have<br />
found the way to your eternal home resounds<br />
throughout heaven with great joy. Recently, when<br />
I asked somebody after his conversion what was<br />
happening in heaven right now, he replied spontaneously:<br />
Joy, a thousand times over!<br />
The Holy Spirit has now also entered into you. He<br />
plays an important role in your life. It is He Who<br />
testifies in your heart that you are a child of God<br />
(Rom 8:16). He assures you that God’s Word is<br />
true and He guides you deeper into Scripture.<br />
Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of truth”<br />
(John 14:17).<br />
Now you can be quite certain that you have been<br />
accepted by the living God as His child – you<br />
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