Can a preacher direct non-believers to pray a prayer or follow his prayer of repentance and this lead to their salvation?
I have been having this battle with doubting my salvation for four years now. Most of the time when I talk to someone about it their first conclusion is that I am not really saved. So I find myself going through the sinners prayer over and over. I know I am a sinner and want to be saved more than anything in the world. I have repented of my sin and asked Jesus to be my savior. The thought that keeps making me doubt is how do I know if I really trusted Him? Did I really accept him and if I didn’t how can I ever? Every time I hear a preacher say do you know you are saved beyond a shadow of a doubt I feel somewhat angry because I fear I will never know. Some nights I can’t sleep because I fear those words “depart from me ye who work iniquity I never knew you”. I just keep thinking what if God says that to me because I really never accepted. It’s like I am afraid to believe I am saved because what if I really am not. Then I am afraid to believe I am not because I have done everything I can to be saved and fear if I am not I never will be. I know Jesus died for my sins and want him to be my Saviour. Just this past week I confessed to a preacher I have doubts sometimes and it’s like he attacked me. Made me feel like If I can’t believe I am saved, then I wasn’t.
For the first time recently I noticed in Revelation 22:1-2 that it says "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. IN THE MIDST of the street of it, AND ON EITHER SIDE of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
When Jesus is addressing the seven churches in Revelations, he repeats the statement, "to him that overcomes." In Revelation 3:21 Jesus even says, "... to him that overcomes, even as I also overcame..." My question is; If a person is saved by grace through faith, and the debt is paid in full by the blood of Christ, what is left to overcome? He is calling us to overcome in the same manner as he did, how is that?
Are the Old Testament Saints still in heaven? If God comes back for the second time for us, are we going to meet this people, or are they no more existing?
