Hey, this is Malachi.

We are going to  through kind of a mini-series here and it’s going to be ‘what is the point of the gospel,’ ‘how to know your salvation’ and ‘how to hear God’s voice clearly.’

In order to get through this, we are going to touch onthree very specific books. The book of first John, the book of second John and the book of third John.

it is going to be broken out into different stages. In this post, what we will going to go through will be the the book of first John chapter one.

Ww are going to touch base on how do we understand our salvation?

How do we know who we are in Christ?

how do we hear God’s voice?

It is really important you know.

Whenever you want to move into the ministry or you want to just serve God more or you want to be with the Lord as a foot soldier and preach the gospel or you want to see provision in your life or you want to have the blessings that God has for you.

Then, what you have to know is:

What is salvation?

How do I understand the salvation that I have?

And how do I move and live from that salvation?

Let’s say a prayer.

Father, i just thank you for your mercy and your your goodness.

I thank you for your wisdom that you provide each believer as they ask.

Lord I thank you, holy spirit that you lead and guide us. Teach us that you are the truth-giver.

We thank you Lord for the death on the cross and the resurrection from the grave, that we can be called children of God.

Father I ask that as we continue and do this training, the hearer would be graced and anointed to understand your word.

I thank you Lord for open ears and open hearts, that way we can give you glory and honor, in Jesus name. Amen.

Let’s get into it.

We’re going keep this simple, that way we don’t over complicate the situation.

1 John 1:1-4 ;

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

[2] (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it , and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

[3] That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

[4] And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

Essentially, this is life and testimony that John is writing. He was saying;

“hey, listen. I witnessed Jesus in the flesh, I witnessed God come in the flesh, his son Jesus Christ and i am going to write these things that your joy may be complete.”

This is very important because of that verse 4 that says “we’re writing this that your joy may be complete.”

If you don’t know what’s written, if you don’t understand what’s written, your joy is not going to be complete including what God has for you and pertaining toyour life.

Whether is your ministry, your marriage, your finances, your businesses, your call, your job or whatever it is.

If you don’t understand these words, if you don’t read the word, if you don’t know the word (hosea 4 vs 6, my people perish for lack of knowledge) then you’re going to fall into traps.

You’re going to be blind and confused.

The point of what we’re doing here is understanding what the word of God say as it pertains to the believer’s life.

1 John 1:5-7 KJV

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

[6] If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

[7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

I’ll kind of park there for just a minute.

If we walk in the light and see his light, we have fellowship with one another okay?

How do we how do we walk in the light?

How do we understand what the light is?

Here, specifically in this book, we’re going to go through that in a very deep way and you can write these things down. Because it’s very important, this is intended to be a study to get you farther along.

Everybody in the body of Christ, it is at adifferent spot.

Everybody should be reaching up down and we should be reaching left and right to help individuals and we should be doing that with humility, love and sincerity.

1 John 1:8-10 KJV

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[10] If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

So there’s a good opportunity here. If we say we have no sin, if we are deliberately walking in sin and wehaven’t repented of such, then it’s impossible for us for us to say; “hey, you know I don’t have any sin, i’m good and saved.

We have to repent of that sin. If we have one anything contrary — which is wrapped in the flesh of our bodies and and we’ve fallen or

we’ve done something that we shouldn’t have done. We looked at something that we shouldn’t have done, we are tarnished.

There is redemption in the blood of Jesus by faith.

If that is you, it’s easy to say:

Lord forgive me of my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness”

So now the word of God says in verse nine, if we confess it, he is faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us.

it is very important to understand that once you say those words; “Lord forgive me of my sins, cleanse me” we take the word of God at face value.

What does the word of God say?

“He is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”

If that was you and you said that, you are now cleansed from all unrighteousness because you received the Lord as your savior, you confess “Lord i’ve done this, I’ve done that, forgive me and cleanse me”

So now, you’re made right.

Let’s move on. Now, we can go into deeper things of the Lord because it’s by faith we’re saved and it is by grace through faith that we’re saved.

It is not necessarily that we did anything great or extraordinary. It is the father has called us by his spirit and Jesus’s life and sacrifice on the cross gives us that ability to come boldly before the throne.

When you do those things, that is how you clearly hear the Lord.

As you spend time with the word, as you witness for the Lord, as you plant and sow seeds based on what the word says to do, you will grow and you hear God’s voice more and more.

Let us go here,

1 John 2:1-6

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

[2] And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

[3] And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

[4] He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

[5] But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. [6] He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

The disciples asked Lord what is the commandments and Jesus plainly said “to believe in the one he has sent.”

We have to keep and understand what does God has have for us.

1 John 4:18-19

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

[19] We love him, because he first loved us.

If we say we are in God and we act like we serve God but yet we don’t understand an walk in the light (As he is in the light), we must examine ourselves, search our heart and if there is any wicked way in us, we will repent of such.

That is what we just did, we repented. We asked the Lord to forgive us. When we do those things, we are made right with him and can walk according to what he has for us.

Now we’re keeping the ultimate commandment which is to believe in jesus (The one he sent), the sacrifice of what he has done and that by faith, is what continues to propel us forward andwe don’t walk in darkness.

In God, there is no darknes. If we’re walking in darkness, we are not walking with God.

This why it is a very dangerous thing to have one foot in the world and one foot out of the world.

Now you are considered lukewarm and that is what Jesus said in the book of Revelation; “I wish you’d rather be hot or cold but because you’re lukewarm i will spit you out.”

You have to make a decision; “Lord, i want to hear your voice. God, i want to follow you and serve you. I want what you have for me and the promises that you have given me.

As you do this and live in the light, he will reveals himself to you because this is a relationship.

It is about seeking God. It is about talking with God and every believer’s life journey will be completely different with the father.

We are going to get into what you may be called to do, and how you can find out as we continue in this series.

1 John 2:9-11 KJV

He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. [10] He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. [11] But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

This is the litmus test for salvation because, honestly if you hate your brother, you are still in the darkness. If you’re in the darkness then you are not with God.

And if you’re not with God, how do you get to heaven?

You have to be with God, you have to receive what God has for you and allow his word to transform your mind.

We as believers can’t hate people. It doesn’t matter who it is.

It doesn’t matter if it’s your boss, the president, an elected official or somebody who has done something very wrong to you.

There is a varying degrees of grace that is given to each one of us to forgive.

We must forgive so that we can also be forgiven.

Matthew 6:14-15 ;

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

[15] But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

The litmus test is “Are you forgiving or do you do you hate anybody?”

If you do, you have to repent and what does that mean?

It just means “Lord forgive me for for thinking these things. Forgive me and help me to be merciful like you”

The Bible says that God is love and in order to walk in the light we can’t hate our brother or our sister.

Forgiveness allows you to have a clean heart and hear what God has to say.

God is going speak to an individual who has been continually washed and renewed.

We must continually be renewed and refreshed by the Holy Spirit.

We must have that relationship with God to walk in forgiveness.

That is how we start to understand and hear God has for us and how how we’re going to be able to move forward in life.

It all starts with receiving that grace and understanding of knowing.

“Yes father, i’m called by you, you’ve called me.”

Now we don’t walk in sin but we walk in the light. We understand that we are walking with God by the word.

So what is next?

We are going to go a little bit deeper into this in the next segment.

Bye for now.