Each person needs to come to know God’s word and then look within themselves to see if they are following God.
It has to be an individual thing as each person will give an account for their life not the life of their parents or their spouse. This means an examination of one’s life must occur (2 Cor. 13:5). Some assume if their family is religious then they will automatically be saved because of the family.
One of the Old Testament writers helps in understanding that this is not true. Notice this passage. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him” (Ezekiel 18:20). Husbands have been heard to say, “My wife takes care of religion in our family”, but that is not possible. This idea may come from some men thinking religion is just for women, that men do not need God. They seem to think that all things religious are to feminine for a rugged man. They need to stop and think just how much of a rugged “man” Jesus was. He endured some of the most gruesome punishment ever invented by mankind. The exhaustion, the scourging, the crucifixion were certainly not things to be seen as easy. Even His ministry was not easy as He was ridiculed by many of His day. He walked or rode in a boat to most of His preaching opportunities. He was a rugged man, who was man enough to show love to all of mankind.
When one looks at the New Testament and reads of the life and death of Jesus, they can see that Jesus and His apostles had to be rugged. The Apostle Paul comes to mind when one thinks of someone who endured a lot to serve Jesus. He recorded a bit of his history in the letter to the Corinthian brethren. He was scourged five times, this is where a whip that had bits of bone or such like woven into the strands, was used to whip an individual. Historians say the individual would have their arms tied in such a way to make the back of the individual taunt, then the one doing the whipping would strike the person 39 times.
Paul said he was beaten with rods three times, stoned, in shipwreck three times, in dangerous circumstances many times and with all that he was concerned about the brethren (2 Cor. 11:24ff). Besides Paul history reports that all the apostles except John were killed. John himself was exiled to the isle of Patmos, a prison of sorts.
So, what steps must one take in order to gain victory? The first step is to be obedient to the gospel of Christ. That means one must study the word of God and see what God wants, not what men want. The book of Acts is the place one needs to go, for in it one sees the beginning of the Church (Acts 2). It will be seen that on the Day of Pentecost the Spirit that had been promised by Jesus to His apostles came upon them.
They began that day preaching about Jesus.
The people showed their faith in Jesus by calling out to the apostles “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” This was after they had heard that they had crucified the Son of God. Peter told them to, “repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins”. These people already had faith in Jesus that is why they stopped the sermon. They showed their willingness to confess Him by their actions, so baptism was what they needed just as all men need today.