How Can You Be Sure You are Going to Heaven When You Die?

One of the spiritual reality checks the Lord used to wake me up to the fact that I was headed for hell was the death of my God-loving grandfather, Mr. Edward K. Chiuye. On the night that he died, he had been singing hymns from the Nkhoma Synod of the CCAP’s book late into the night. My grandmother went to tell him that it was really late  – he had suffered some kidney problems about a year before this but was back to his usual vibrancy – though he answered to say, “Where we are going, we will be singing like this.” When she realized later into the night that the singing had stopped and he wasn’t in bed, she went to check on him. She found his sprawled on the floor. They took him to the hospital only to learn that he had passed on. 

There was no doubt in my sin-darkened, iniquity-loving, and conflict-ridden heart that he had been referring to heaven and was now actually there. My big question when I heard this story was, “How did he know that he was going to heaven?” How could he be so sure? I knew he was a God-fearing man but is it possible to really know if you are going to heaven? The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” When a person has a faith relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit changes that person’s life to become one that seeks to do the will of God in keeping God’s commandments. A disclaimer is in order here: no one is saved by keeping God’s commandments; however, the Holy Spirit enables the believer in Christ, who has been saved by faith in the Christ who has kept all of God’s commandments, to live a life of growing obedience to God’s commandments. It is in keeping God’s commandments that this assurance of salvation grows and is matured in the believer. There begins to grow such a love for God in the believer that living outside of Christ’s commandments becomes unthinkable so that the true believer perseveres in obedient faith till the end (“But the one who endures to the end will be saved” – Matthew 24:13). This then is the source of a deep assurance of his/her salvation.

Apostle John helps us with a proper understanding of whence this assurance comes from:

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 1 John 2:3-6

May you cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work today by walking in obedience! May the assurance that you are a child of God grow as you obey today! May your assurance be founded on the solid foundation of God’s grace and your cooperation with the Holy Spirit as you obey His commandments! May you rest assured that you too are going to heaven, not because you have obeyed perfectly, but because you lean wholly on His grace that works marvelously in your life to bring you to obedience. Walk in confidence that you serve a God who will bring you into the destiny He has for you!