Now Thomas called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 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 it, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe (John 20: 24 -25)
People call this disease "doubting". So we normally say the doubting Thomas. But this disease is not only for Thomas but for all of us, for the human race. It's a problem we all have to deal with. This disease classifies people into 1. the sceptics or doubters, 2. the atheists or unbelievers, 3. the believing unbelievers and 4. the believing believers. The most miserable and worse of all among these groups are the believing unbelievers, the Thomas kind people. They are believers, go to church, affiliate themselves with church denomination but believe nothing except what their senses tell them, especially when it has do with God and the unseen realms. Thomas was a believer, part of the "Disciple's denomination", and yet refused to believe the resurrection. He would only believe what his common sense tells him, and not the vivid testimony from the other disciples or the vivid word of God or the spiritual evidence from the Spirit of God.
Why do we have this problem? I want to help you see the root cause of this disease, and may be tomorrow, God willing, show you how to deal with it.
All human race carry this Thomas disease for we got it from our first Ancestor Eva. God gave His word to Adam. Eva was not there. Adam did his job well, he passed the word of God to her, Eva his wife.
Now Lucifer's motivation was and still is, to remove us from the foundation of life, which is the Word of God.
So she subtly questioned God's word given to them. And when Eve or Eva entertained the question, which was meant to throw her faith in God's word and goodness into doubt, the Devil followed it with a denial of God's word, by discrediting God to her. And what happened to Eva, she fell for it.
She first Doubted the Word of God, that she would not die. And she trusted her senses - her intelligence, her judgment, her common sense, that she can know good from evil without having depend on God. For the first time, she saw the fruits of that tree to be desirable! Wow. For the first time she saw the fruits to be good for food. Hmm. What Lab test did she do to know that. And for the first time she saw that she could become like God, knowing good from evil without having depend on God's Word or instructions. She now trusted Her own intelligence, her own common sense, her own judgment based on what her eyes tell her, her feelings tell her, what the empirical evidence say. And this is the lie of the serpent.
So Eva did not only doubted God's word, she disbelieved it and trusted in her own senses and that led to the third phase, she disobeyed it. And you, since that time that disease has passed on to her offspring, generation after generation.
Unfortunately, the Devil has used this tactic generation after generation. Do you know why? Because it works. It has brought him enormous success. He used it on Eva, on Jesus and on Thomas. The motto is, Seeing is believing! Sad. Because there are things we don't see but do exist, and are true, which affect our life on earth. No empirical evidence, but we can't escape their impacts and effects on our lives on earth. For example, we don't see radio waves, but are there, we don't see germs or virus, but are there, we don't see death but is there, we don't see Satan but he is there and we don't see angels, but are there. Jesus even confirmed there ghosts, but we don't see them.
My question to you is, Which of these groups do you belong or find yourself? Let me tell you, your common sense is not enough, your intelligence is not enough, your judgment is not enough. Don't elevate the intelligence and the senses of man above the voice of God. Jesus pronounced His blessing on those who refused to trust their senses or the empirical evidence before they believe the Gospel and His resurrection.
Remember, believing is a choice, and you choose to believe or doubt it.
May your doubts be turned into believe and may the Lord help you trust His voice than your senses. And may you be blessed for believing in Jesus name. Amen
Shalom, life and grace to you
Moving people onto God's purposes