Assurance is very difficult to obtain . . . and maintain, if we are not fully engaged with our Lord. Let's take a look at BSOCS (Bee Socks) and run through it backwards. It stands for Believe, Submit, Obey, Confidence, Share.
How can we Share the Gospel of Jesus Christ if we are not Confident? And how can we be Confident if we do not Obey? And how can we Obey if we have not Truly Submitted our ENTIRE lives to Christ? And how can we Submit if our Belief system is out of kilter?
From the above, we may conclude that if our Belief system is not right, we won't share the Gospel. And who do you know that actually shares the Gospel with others? Have you ever simply asked one of your church friends to tell you the full Gospel? Has any of your "pastors" ever told you, straight out, what the Gospel is? And more . . . if someone came to you and said, "I have all the time in the world . . . I want you to tell me the Full Gospel of Jesus Christ. Are you able to do it?
And here within is the source of insecurity and unhealthy fear, at least speaking for myself . . . I never understood the Gospel and more, I never told a soul the actual Gospel of Christ. And more . . . no one has ever told me of that Gospel, either. I've never heard it . . . not . . . once. And since this is my unfortunate report of being a part of the "church" my entire life of 54 years, it is no wonder that the vast majority of us feel timid regarding the assurance of our Holy Salvation.
I am incredibly lucky; here's what I mean. Years ago, I was Graced by God and allowed to feel His Holy Presence. Preceding this Power of Peace and Love, God allowed me to taste His Holy Terror . . . oh man. I have felt fear in this world, having been molested by my boy scout master in the middle of a winter, whiteout, blizzard. I thought that I was to be raped, murdered, buried in the snow, and found in the Spring when the snow had melted. I was 12 years old. I also fled to the police station so as to prevent my father from murdering my stepmother. He had consumed an entire bottle of Jim Beam, whisky, drinking it as if water (literally gulping it). Absolutely insane and out of his mind, I ducked, dodged, and weaved to avoid the bullets that I was sure were to be tracking me down . . . dead. I was twenty. - I know what worldly fear is, and this is my point. The Holy Terror of the Lord makes those two moments of my life feel like a vacation to Maui. This Holy Terror has nothing to do with this physical world, for it is all Spiritual . . . it is utterly mind-boggling, for I was certain that my fear was so extensive, that I'd figured I was to explode somewhere within my body, crash my car (as I was driving down the freeway) and die.
In the midst of this Holy Terror, and after having made my way to a full stop and parked. I finally had the presence of mind to begin calling out to God . . . "Help me . . . God! Save me . . . God!" I had one foot in Hell and it is simply unimaginable . . . at least that's the way it felt. There is nothing that could take place on this earth that is more frightening than the Holy Terror of the Lord. Nothing. So in the midst of this Terror, I knew that death was upon me and could take me at any second. I had no choice, and I knew that there was nothing in the entire Universe that could save me . . . other than God. In my horrible understanding of the Bible, I did my best to call out to the One, True God. Slowly the Terror began to fade and was being overcome by the Holy Peace and Love of God. Within just a span of 15 to 20 seconds, I had experienced God's Holy Terror, and that it was cut out and removed from my life forever. The Peace and Love continued to rise and increase . . . and this Peace and Love is also Spiritual. And this means that this Holy Brand of Peace and Love is far more unimaginable than anything that you have ever experienced here on earth. Nothing . . . it could be the most shocking sex than you've ever had with your spouse . . . but this Holy Peace and Love do not compare . . . at . . . all. God's Peace and Love are so utterly Powerful, that if I had felt more of Him, my physical body would not have held up. Can you imagine that? Imagine feeling so much Peace and Love, that it could actually reach a point of altering your physical body.
From that Holy Day and onward, I have no choice but to feel Assurance. I cannot escape it! Since that day, my life has become more and more difficult. I have been forced to change because of the depth of the issues that I have been forced to endure. And what I have been enduring is far greater than anything you could imagine . . . only a Holy God could orchestrate such wild and insane travesty! There was a time, not too long ago, that I was still weeping each and every day, begging that my troubles would cease! I cried multiple times per day (and am a grown man). But in all of this, to the extent of no longer wishing to be alive . . . I have always had full Assurance of who my God is, and where I will be going after I die.
Assurance! To feel the Lord's Power and Presence within yourself (not that I am a god of any kind . . . on the contrary) in such a remarkable way, we can now understand more fully what Moses was saying regarding the Indwelling Holy Spirit. Check this out . . .
Numbers 11:25-29 NET - "And the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to them, and he took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but did not do so again. 26 But two men remained in the camp; one's name was Eldad, and the other's name was Medad. And the spirit rested on them. (Now they were among those in the registration, but had not gone to the tabernacle.) So they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!" 28 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his choice young men, said, "My lord Moses, stop them!" 29 Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for me? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!"
I recommend that you get to know the whole story, as this is the tail-end portion of Moses being so frustrated, that He begged the Lord for help, for Aaron was no longer much of a co-leader and Moses was seemingly on his own. Moses knew what it felt like to be Indwelt by the Power of God, to know and feel that the Lord was working through him. Moses was not God, but God Himself said that Pharaoh and even Aaron would view him as God. It's an amazing concept to ponder, that is, Moses being equated with God by God Himself. But Moses knew of this Power and what it feels like . . . and so He was no doubt relieved to know that he had seventy helpers who had been empowered by Christ. In essence, Christ Circumcised these men's hearts (to lift the Adamic Curse) so that they could partake of the Powerful, Almighty, Spirit. We cannot believe or even comprehend things properly until this Adamic Curse is lifted, cut out, and removed from our Hearts. We cannot have Faith, nor hold Confidence . . . and definitely not Holy Assurance.
I realize that you have not had the kind of Spiritual Experience that I have had, but if you can somehow come to believe that what I have written is True, then you can take belief in these words and know that God Truly exists, that He is All-Powerful, and that we had better stop messing around. If you can somehow believe what I have written, and if you have not Truly done so in your Heart as of yet, it is imperative that you ask Jesus to perform His Holy Operation of Faith upon your Heart. Ask Jesus to cut out, take away, and forever destroy the Sinful Nature, the Sinful Impact of Satan upon your mind and life, and remove it wholly. When that Sinful Nature has been cut out, and maybe it already has been for you, you will become freed of worry, self-doubt. Those lines of thinking are from the Devil . . . they cannot be of God. Adam and Eve suffered from Fear, Shame, and Guilt, and when Satan can employ any of those three tools upon a person's soul . . . that person becomes the Devil's unholy puppet. But when Jesus removes this Evil State and Condition of a person's Heart, they have been spared of a life of Fear, Shame, and Guilt . . . these unhealthy emotions begin to fade and disappear. It may take years, especially if the Lord tests you along the way as He has incredibly tested me.
But again, seek the Circumcision of Christ!
Colossians 2:9-15 NLT - "For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 When you came to Christ, you were "circumcised," but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision--the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross."