The Seven Seals - Part 4

REVELATION 7 v 1-8

How assured are you of your salvation?

Just when all hope seemed lost and the world is about to be destroyed four angels hold back the winds of judgement so that an angel can go round and put a seal/mark on the heads of the believers (God's own). This mark is the total opposite of the mark of the beast (Rev. 13 v 6). We are either owned by God or by Satan.

• A document or scroll is sealed so the information is protected. God places a seal on us so we will be protected from the coming judgment; this reminds me of how valuable we are to God. Our physical bodies may be beaten and bruised but nothing can harm our souls once God has put His seal on us.
• Ephesians 1 v 13-14 - "¹³ And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory."
• This passage tells of the seal again but the seal of the Holy Spirit as he works through us. The Holy Spirit is deposited with in us as we allow Him to use for mighty works.
• God doesn't just put a seal on us so He can have a ton of property and possessions of people. But so He can have a bunch of people building His Kingdom and repping Him. I never feel like I am branding to work as a slave for God and it is my right to use my freedom for what I want. I see it as a great honour to be able to be used by the creator of the world for His good deeds.
• How do you wear the branding of God?
• I am assured of my salvation because of what Jesus did on the cross and because I can see the Holy Spirit working in and through me.
• Romans 10 v 9-10 - "⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved."
• This is the first part of what we do we recognise Jesus for who he truly is. Our faith becomes our reality. 
• To do profess Jesus with our mouths means others will hear it. We are proclaiming the power that God had over death and still has today.
• The second part is what Jesus calls us to do with our faith.
• Matthew 28 v 18-20 - "¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”"
• The Great Commission - Jesus giving the call to his disciples and us. To make disciples across the world and to be missionaries wherever God leads us.
• Acts 1 v 8 - " ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
• This is also part of part 2. We need to do the great commission with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can't do it alone.
• I am assured in my faith because I know God in my heart and declare him with my mouth, and I am spreading the good news and the Holy Spirit is working through me. This is why I am assured!