Believing in Jesus Christ and trusting Him as Saviour and Lord is not fantasy, but fact.  However, when believers are under persecution, unwell, challenged by unbelievers or undermined by false teachers, how do they know that their faith is real and secure?  It is an important question to answer correctly, especially as our personal emotions will follow the good or bad times we experience.  That is why we cannot rely on the fickleness of our feelings: we must know and believe the truth that comes from God (John 8:32).

The founding apostles were all eyewitnesses of the resurrection; and they had all been taught directly by Jesus.  Their testimony is clear: Jesus is the Saviour of the world.  All of them suffered severe persecution and most lost their lives through the violence of unbelievers (John 15:18-21).  But they continued loving, trusting and proclaiming Christ because He was in them, and they were in Him.  Their knowledge of belonging to Him, from His teaching (John 10:2-4), was confirmed by the inner voice of the Holy Spirit.  They knew that they belonged to Jesus Christ and could not be separated from Father God (Romans 8:14-17).

They did not simply follow Jesus as a great example, but knew that Jesus was inside them (John 14:19-20).  God's Spirit was motivating and empowering them to love like Jesus did.  More than that, the Spirit assured them that God had come to live in them when they believed in Jesus as the Son of God. That matched what Jesus had said, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." (John 14:23).  So, in all their difficulties they relied on the love of the person who was not just with them but in them (John 14:16-20).

When our faith is challenged, our feelings may not be a good indicator of our relationship with God.  Firstly, we need the apostles' teaching in the Bible to assure us that the only way to fellowship with the Father is through Jesus Christ the Son (John 14:6).  When we believe in Him, God comes to live in us and the Holy Spirit confirms that what is written in the Bible is true.  He assures us that we are truly loved by God, and that God lives in us and we live in Him.  Therefore we can fully rely on His love which is unshakable, whatever the challenge to our faith, our wellbeing or even our life.