2. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. (1 John 2:3 ESV)

3. 1.Internal test – we know that we know God. To avoid self-deception there are three external evaluations 2. External test 1 – 4-6 a behavioral test, if you really know God, your character will be changing. 3.Test 2 7-11 relational test – love, love for other Christians that is especially telling as a test. 4.Test 3 doctrinal test – do you really believe that salvation is through faith in Christ alone?

4. Practical considerations – if you are living disobediently, your assurance is hindered. If you are failing relationally, then do you really know and love God. Have settled the question of your salvation? – Do you know God? Are you experiencing the presence of God? – Are you growing in character and obedience? – Are you in great relationships with other believers, especially people who are different from you? – Do I thrill in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Your answer to these questions has everything to do with your assurance of the faith and the foundation for your growth.

5. Internal test – You know that you know Him. Genesis’ use of the word “know.” – Hebrew word for know is used to describe sex in a covenant marriage. To know in the sense of becoming one. Jesus says that there will be many to whom he says I never knew you. I never had a personal relationship with you. Our oneness with God has to go beyond the legal and the intellectual aspects of the advocate. There has to be more.

6. How do you experience that knowledge of God? There are many ways in which we receive this experience of knowing God. The great heroes of faith received an inward testimony of God’s approval: Hebrews 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise…

7. The essence of the experience of breaking through, your heart touching his heart, is what pleases God. He gives you a testimony. To walk in the light – your life will align with the gospel. All of your life draws a line from the Gospel to every situation that you face. In line with the Gospel, drawing a line out of the Gospel and what you believe about the gospel.

8. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Someone offends you. If you hate your brother, you are not in the light. You hate someone else because of what they did to you. You can keep a grudge without forgetting the gospel. At the moment you are hating someone. You forget the gospel.

9. You hate yourself because you failed. The real problem underneath is you have forgotten the gospel. I have made this mistake my basis of worthiness. A pseudo-salvation, a replacement for Jesus. As you align your life with the gospel of Jesus, there will come a testimony of his delight in you that you belong to Him.

10. William Guthrie There is a communication of the Spirit of God… witnessing of a sonship... It is a glorious divine manifestation of God unto the soul, shedding abroad God’s love in the heart; it is a thing better felt than spoken of: it is no audible voice, but it is a ray of glory filling the soul with God, as He is life, light, love, and liberty…

11. Christmas Evans “I was weary of a cold heart towards Christ, and his sacrifice, and the work of his Spirit—of a cold heart in the pulpit, in secret prayer, and in the study. For fifteen years previously, I had felt my heart burning within, as if going to Emmaus with Jesus. On a day ever to be remembered by me…I considered it to be incumbent upon me to pray, however hard I felt my heart, and however worldly the frame of my spirit was. Having begun in the name of Jesus, I soon felt as it were the fetters loosening, and the old hardness of heart softening, and, as I thought, mountains of frost and snow dissolving and melting within me. This engendered confidence in my soul in the promise of the Holy Ghost. I felt my whole mind relieved from some great bondage: tears flowed copiously, and I was constrained to cry out for the gracious visits of God, by restoring to my soul the joy of his salvation.”