I have heard many people, even good church-going folks, say they don’t know if they will go to heaven once their time on earth has come to an end. One man told me that people cannot know with any certainty that heaven is their final destination. Many of these same people are counting on their “religiousness” and religious acts to be the determining factor in where they end up.
Can a person know with one-hundred percent certainty that he/she is going to go to heaven? Ask Stephen, the first martyr. As he was dying he declared, “...I see the heavens opened, and [Jesus] standing on the right hand of God.... Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7;56,59). Speaking of his own approaching martyrdom, Paul wrote, “the time of my departure is at hand. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord...shall give me....(II Timothy 4:6,8). Those two men certainly had confidence in their eternity.
How can one know that he is right with God and thus ready at death to go to heaven? A man asked Paul/Silas, “what must I do to be saved?” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”, was their answer (Acts 16:30-31). Philip told a stranger, “If thou believest with all thine heart” [that Jesus Christ is the Son of God] that he would be saved.
But this believing is not simply believing a historical fact about Jesus. It is believing to the point of giving oneself to Jesus. It is repenting and turning from the old life of sin to live for Jesus.
Your path to knowing begins with a simple prayer to Jesus, confessing and repenting of your sins, and then inviting Him into your world to walk the rest of your life with Him. by Pastor Leroy Aufenkamp