Hi Darren,
The way I see this is we can know if we are having our eyes opened to these truths and that Christ is working within us. If His spirit is indwelling we most certainly can have hope of being one of the chosen/Elect.
John 14:19 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
v. 20 At that day
you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me,
and I in you.
v. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."
But the thing is to be of the chosen/Elect you must remain faithful and endure to the end. As with the parable of the sower (Matt 13), look how many receive this truth only for one reason or another to fall away. Those that fall away were never destined to be one of the Elect, because Christ will not lose any that are His.
John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
v. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
Here are excerpts from the transcript 'CAN WE LOSE GOD’S SPIRIT AND EONIAN LIFE?'
This Bible study talks alot about having the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,7047.0.html -----
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
See you can not really differentiate between those two. Spirit is life, spirit doesn’t die. Flesh dies. If you have life in you, you have God’s Spirit. If you have God’s Spirit in you, you have life. It doesn’t mean that you’re not going to physically die, but at least while you’re living you have some other kind of life in you. If you don’t have that life in you, then you’re no different than an infidel that has no religion, no faith and maybe has not even any morality as to why he should live above any other citizens or criminals or whatever.
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If you just read all the words and be careful for those little words ‘if’ or ‘because’ and things like that. You’ll have all this and this and this and then Paul will say BECAUSE, you did this or you‘re doing that. You’ve got to read the words.
Col 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (KJV)
Col 1:21 And you, being once estranged and enemies in comprehension, by wicked acts, yet now He reconcilES [It’s a process] (Concordant)
Col 1:22 In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight:
So notice that verse ends with a colon, not a period. Here’s the answer to ALL of these verses, it’s found in the very next verse. The problem is the reader stops with verse 22. He quotes verse 21 and then verse 22 and then he says there it is, there is this truth. Now let’s read the next verse 23. Because you’ve been reconciled and you will be presented unblamable and all that and verse 23...
Col 1:23 IF you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Is that too hard to understand? Well lets ask ourselves the question, what do you suppose would happen if we don’t continue? Well this reader says it does not matter, we have it. IT MATTERS. “If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel…” See that’s how you have it, “IF you continue.” I like how Rotherham says it, I checked the Greek and it does kind of have that connotation, he says;
Col 1:23 If, at least, ye are abiding still in the faith…
“If, at least” you’ve got to be doing that, okay. Then you will have all of these things. Again the big ‘if.’
Heb 10:26 For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,
v. 27 But some fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation…
So you mean you can receive the truth and you can be locked into all these Scriptures, like this reader says, but then you can do something wrong? Yes, you can.
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Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life…
Now here is the point I want to make, spirit is life and life is spirit. Now back to verse 15.
Can we lose out… well we read the Scripture that if you sin willfully - willingly there is no more sacrifice for you. Now look at this verse, many people probably never really saw it before.
1 John 3:15 Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal (eonian or age lasting) life abiding (the Greek is “staying or “REMAINING”) in him.
So the Greek is staying or remaining. Now if you just read that without all the background that I’m giving you, then you get the feeling that, well he won't be given God’s abiding life. No, he already has it. The only way something cannot stay in you or not remain in you, is if it’s in you. Do you follow that? It’s in you.
He’s not talking to Barbarians here or infidels, he’s talking to the congregation who have the spirit of God. But he says if you hate your brother the spirit of God will no longer stay with you, it will no longer be in you. If the Spirit of God is not in you, you are no longer His. Then you are going to the judgment. That’s just how simple that is. All through these Scriptures if you read carefully, maybe it doesn’t have it just like this, but this is just a poor translation. But if you read Concordant and Rotherham and all, they will tell you to ‘stay’ - ‘remain.’ It means to remain, but it won’t remain. You see it’s there, but it’s coming out.
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I guess what it comes down to is we can be in the race and have hope of being of the Elect, but the only way we will know for sure is to be in the resurrection
mercy, peace and love
Kat