Alot of churches tell you to repeat a prayer and you will be saved. Is it possible that you are when you say the prayer, yes. Is it assured that you were born again, no. After you said the prayer did you notice a major difference in your life? In my personal experience I wasn't in a church when I was saved. Sure 10 years earlier I had said the prayer and been baptized, but it didn't change my relationship with sin for very long. In the bible it says the Holy Spirit will show you the truth. You will have a new heart that seeks to do good.
2 problems that I think I had were these
1. I didn't fully understand what it meant to repent. Yea I knew I had sinned and I was sorry about it. But I still loved it, I won't go into details on that. As I heard someone say it, "it's not that you have sinned it's that all you did was sin". I couldn't accept that I hated God. I wondered why while I was reading the Bible I had a hard time totally believing all the Healings and such that Jesus did, sure I wanted to believe because I wanted to go to Heaven but in my heart I had doubts. The Bible says that people don't believe because they love sin and hate God and what why they don't see the truth.
2. believe in your heart. I believe in my experience anyway and what I have read from the Bible that the Holy Spirit reveals the truth to you. It's more than a mere acknowledgement with your mind. Now when I believe that I was born again it was the second time in my life that I had felt the Holy Spirit. So maybe I was saved way back when. I'm not sure if the bible says whether you can feel His presence if your not saved. At that time I wasn't asking for truth just in a very low point in my life and praying for peace.
I didn't see the truth until much prayer and having the Word of God totally convict me of my sins to the point I realized I didn't deserve to go to Heaven and I couldn't live up to the life Jesus lead no matter how hard I tried. God was Justified in sending me to Hell because I had hated the pure Goodness that he was. There was absolutely nothing I could do. That's when God did it. I'm still amazed at how loving and forgiving he is to Save anyone because no one deserves it, espcially not me.
Anyway, I just thought that relaying my story might help some people who "accepted Jesus" in their life and never noticed a change, most notibably of the bat is a sensitivity to even the "little" sins around us.
I haven't found it anywhere in the Bible where it says if you ask Jesus in your heart he will definatly come in.
2 problems that I think I had were these
1. I didn't fully understand what it meant to repent. Yea I knew I had sinned and I was sorry about it. But I still loved it, I won't go into details on that. As I heard someone say it, "it's not that you have sinned it's that all you did was sin". I couldn't accept that I hated God. I wondered why while I was reading the Bible I had a hard time totally believing all the Healings and such that Jesus did, sure I wanted to believe because I wanted to go to Heaven but in my heart I had doubts. The Bible says that people don't believe because they love sin and hate God and what why they don't see the truth.
2. believe in your heart. I believe in my experience anyway and what I have read from the Bible that the Holy Spirit reveals the truth to you. It's more than a mere acknowledgement with your mind. Now when I believe that I was born again it was the second time in my life that I had felt the Holy Spirit. So maybe I was saved way back when. I'm not sure if the bible says whether you can feel His presence if your not saved. At that time I wasn't asking for truth just in a very low point in my life and praying for peace.
I didn't see the truth until much prayer and having the Word of God totally convict me of my sins to the point I realized I didn't deserve to go to Heaven and I couldn't live up to the life Jesus lead no matter how hard I tried. God was Justified in sending me to Hell because I had hated the pure Goodness that he was. There was absolutely nothing I could do. That's when God did it. I'm still amazed at how loving and forgiving he is to Save anyone because no one deserves it, espcially not me.
Anyway, I just thought that relaying my story might help some people who "accepted Jesus" in their life and never noticed a change, most notibably of the bat is a sensitivity to even the "little" sins around us.
I haven't found it anywhere in the Bible where it says if you ask Jesus in your heart he will definatly come in.