If you are "born again", and you would like to know for certain that you are born again, there are several things that have taken place in your life that will prove it. One is, constant attacks by Satan. If your life is a little rougher, but not that rough that you can’t handle it, then you are doing OK. Why is this? Because Satan always attacks those he loses to Jesus, and tries to get them back into his domain. You once belonged to Satan, but now you don’t. He will try to win you back to him by giving you various family, financial, marriage, sickness, and even car problems, to get you discouraged and say, "This God stuff is all a farce, I’m going back to my old way of life."
But don’t give up, as a born again person you have somebody on your side that will pull you through every situation he throws at you. Every body who turns their life over to Christ will be attacked. Even Christ Himself went through this. When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, the first thing that happened to Him was to be attacked three times by Satan in the desert, after 40 days of fasting (Matthew 3:13-17 and 4:1-11).
You do not have to fear Satan because you have the Holy Spirit to fight him off. The person who is not born again does not have the Holy Spirit with whose power he can attack the strong holds of the devil. Because he is still conquered. Satan need not bother with him!
But as a true child of God you will always be on the offense against Satan. Read Ephesians 6:10-17). Satan knows the true Christian is left on this earth by God to win over souls, and take them out of his kingdom. He sees his kingdom diminish with every person that turns to Christ. Therefore he attacks true Christians constantly, to save his kingdom. So let him attack you, this is a good sign, remember what Jesus said "In this world ye have great tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
In Wim Malgo's booklet, "Seven Signs of a Born Again Person," he tells of the people Satan uses to resist you:
" What kind of people are these? The religious ones! The greatest enemies of Jesus Christ, when He was here on earth, were not always obvious sinners. On the contrary, He was always surrounded by them. His bitterest enemies were the religious ones! They finally nailed Him to the cross! It is just the same today. You will be most despised by Christians without Christ. To these I would like to say, "Dear friend, are you aware of where you are going? The devil is pleased with your armchair Christianity. If you do not come to be born again, to a real renewal of heart, you will one day belong to Satan, to the enemy of your soul forever!"
Perhaps you still don’t understand it completely. Then maybe the following story will help you. Evangelist, D. L. Moody tells about a black Christian who was a slave. One day he was accompanying his master on a duck hunt. The master was not a Christian, and the quiet, pious slave irritated him.
On the way, he made fun of him and said, "Once when you were telling me about your Jesus, you also said that you were terribly tempted by Satan. This I don’t understand. I'm supposed to be an unbeliever; in other words, I belong to the devil, but he doesn't bother me that way."
Our brother cried to the Lord in his heart for wisdom to answer correctly. But before he was able to say anything, a flock of ducks fluttered overhead. The master fired and several birds were hit and plunged to the ground. "Hurry," called the master, "run and get the ducks that are still alive before they get away; leave the dead ones, those are already mine." The slave carried out the orders and returned with several struggling ducks which had been hit. Then he said to his master, "Master, you asked me a while ago why the devil is tempting me and not you. I think you just ordered me to do what the devil tells his helpers, "Hurry up, get the ones that are still alive; the dead ones are mine already!" Jesus loves you. Be saved before it is eternally too late! "
If you are one of the live ducks in this story, you are doing OK. Just keep fighting Satan and you will win. If you are one of the dead ones, then become alive; turn your life over to Christ! You need help in doing this? Then read our comment on 4/18/04 "Abandonment of Your Will to God" and follow the instructions.
By George Konig
5/13/2007
www.georgekonig.org
See a list of all of our commentaries