John 20:25-
“The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’"
Here is a brief glimpse into the disciple’s world after Jesus resurrected. Thomas had not been with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared to them, so they were telling Thomas about their recent experience with the resurrected Lord. There are two points that matriculate from this passage. The first is that it was an act of Thomas’ will whether he would believe that Jesus had actually resurrected and that the disciples had seen Him. The second is that Thomas dictated the terms for which he would offer His belief in the risen Lord. Just following this doubtful statement by Thomas, Jesus came into the room. He allowed Thomas to handle his regenerated body as Thomas had indicated as his criteria. Then Jesus corrected Thomas by telling him that he believed because he saw, but that those who believe having never seen are the blessed.
These two points should have profound impact on the life of every believer if not every human. For in these two points we learn that it is usually an act of our own will that nullifies our seeing God. If we are willing, even in the slightest to welcome God’s manifestations into our lives, we generally speak our criteria prior to those manifestations. In essence, we tell the Lord what He must do to gain our belief. What is absolutely appalling is that the Creator of all actually loves us enough to yield to our will in this way. James 3:17 states that “wisdom that is from above is…willing to yield…”. In the gathering of disciples that day, we see this truth in real life. Interestingly, Jesus stated that it was those who had not seen and yet believed that are the blessed. Our minds tend to reason opposite of this. They tell us that it is more blessed to see Jesus in the flesh than to believe in Him having never seen Him. Why would Jesus aver this point? Simply put, it is impossible to please God without faith {Hebrews 11:6} and thus believing without seeing is an act of faith that pleases God. When God is pleased with our actions, he makes our enemies to be at peace with us {Proverbs 16:7}. Our enemies are powers, principalities, rulers of darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places. If these supernatural beings are at peace with us it means that they are not wreaking havoc in our lives. To discuss why faith is more valuable to God and to us than works of the law would take a lengthy dissertation that will not be covered here. Suffice it to say, faith is the way to command our wills to submit to the words and promises of God in order to receive the manifestation of those promises.
In short, your will chooses whether or not you believe God; and your will sets parameters upon that belief that will hinder you from receiving God’s best in your life.
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