*** God Knows...Thomas Doubts We shared a tremendous amount of truth in John 14:1-3. The next thing Jesus said to His disciples is verse 4, which says, "And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." Jesus knew people better than they knew themselves. The Bible says that the Lord knows what is in the heart of man (1 Sam. 16:7). Jesus proved on innumerable occasions that He saw right into a person's heart. Jesus knew His disciples. He knew that their thinking was still muddled. He knew they weren't acting correctly. When He said "And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know" (verse 4), that was a true statement, because they knew Him. Then Thomas said to Jesus, "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (verse 5). Then, verse 6 says that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, but He knew that they didn't understand this. I believe Jesus was talking about God, about faith, and about how a lot of people throw away their faith. Many people think they're operating in faith, when the truth is they aren't operating in faith at all. A lot of us are simply going through the motions. We're dead inside... ***

Date:   10/3/2014 6:49:57 PM ( 10 y ago)

Paul said, "Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ." (2 Cor. 2:14).
The Christian life is, or should be, a life of victory. It's not victory without effort, however.

In fact, once you become a Christian, there will be tremendous effort. The stronger you become in the Lord, the stronger the battle becomes. If you haven't realized that, I may be bursting your bubble, but it needs to be burst.

You must recognize that God didn't call us to avoid the devil. You should be seeking out the devil to destroy him and his works, not avoiding him. You should go on the attack.

If you are looking for a place where there is no opposition, you need to die and go to heaven. But here on earth crises will hit.

The first thing you do when a crisis hits is to not let your heart be troubled. You need to get a hold of yourself and recognize your power of choice.

The second thing is to put things into perspective.
That's what Jesus was doing when He talked about heaven. He was saying, "Look, guys, if you choose life, then build yourself up in faith. That should do it.

But even if it doesn't, even if you lose, you'll still win. One way or another, you're going to come through this thing victorious. All the problems you've had down here will be nothing compared to the glories God has waiting for you."

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Stop and think about this. In a church meeting, we all come, supposedly to believe the Lord.
We come to hear from God. We put our best spiritual foot forward when we're at church. We believe — or at least we pretend that we believe. But out in the world when the devil attacks us, we respond differently. If we're honest, we'll admit that we've done the same thing Thomas did many times.

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Thomas, in effect, was saying, "Lord, what you said isn't true. It's a lie. We do not know where you're going, so how can we know the way?" We think, "That's terrible. How dare Thomas contradict the Lord Jesus and say He was wrong!" But how many times have you said something like, "Well, I know God's Word says that by His stripes I am healed, but I'm still sick."
That's different, right?
Wrong!
The only difference is that you said it instead of Thomas, and we're more lenient on ourselves than others in circumstances like this.

It's the exact same thing Thomas did. The Lord has said certain things in His Word. For example, He said that Jesus became poor so that we through His poverty might be made rich (2 Cor. 8:9), that He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3), that nothing shall by any means harm us (Luke 10:19).
These things have already been done. They're in the Word.

God said it, but what do we say?
We say, "Lord, that's not right. Anybody can look at my bank account and tell I'm not rich. Anybody can see from these symptoms that I'm sick. Anybody can look at my circumstances and tell that I'm not blessed."
That's calling God a liar...nothing less.

Everything the Lord ever said is 100 percent true. But because Thomas couldn't perceive it in the physical realm, he rejected it and said, "Lord, what you're saying isn't true." We do the same thing.

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Fact vs. Truth

One thing we must recognize in a crisis situation is the difference between what is true and what is truth. Certain things are true from a physical perspective, but there is an overriding spiritual truth. This is what Jesus was ministering. People always go by what's happening in the physical realm. If all you do is acknowledge that, you'll never be able to operate in the truths of God's Word because they'll always cross each other. They'll be contrary to each other a lot of the time, usually most of the time.

The world of the flesh and the world of the spirit are enmity against each other (Gal. 5:17). They're at war.

We often make the mistake of exalting physical truth over spiritual truth. We hold what we can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel to be more real than what God's Word says. But one of the things you must do in a crisis is go back to God's Word, humble yourself, and say, "Father, forgive me for exalting natural "truth" over your truth. Whatever your Word says is true. If I don't understand it, please explain it to me."

But that's not what the disciples did. Thomas countered Jesus, saying, "Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?" Then Jesus turned to him and said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him" (verses 6-7).

Then Philip said, "Lord, shew us the Father, and it will suffice us" (verse 8). Philip did the same thing Thomas did. He said, "Lord, what you say is not true. We haven't seen the Father." Jesus just said that they had seen the Father, and this time Philip contradicted Him.

You must make sure you never question the integrity of God's Word, God's faithfulness to you, or the things God has spoken to you. God has said He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). So don't ask, "God, where are you?" That's unbelief. You aren't going to get a positive response from God out of that. You'll be rebuked. Similarly, the Bible says that only good and perfect gifts come from above (James 1:17) and that Satan is the one who brings problems (John 10:10).

So don't say, "God, why did you do this?" or you're headed for trouble. The Bible says Jesus became poor so we could become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).
So don't ask, "God, why am I poor?" That's doubt and unbelief.

However, if you question it by saying, "God, what is going on? I know you're faithful. I know your Word is truth. I know you'd never do anything wrong. Is there something I haven't learned?" If it's that kind of question, for information, that's positive. There is a godly type of questioning.

Faith is Substance

You believe. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," according to Hebrews 11:1.
It doesn't say faith is the evidence of things that don't exist! Faith is the evidence of things that do exist; they just exist in the unseen world. They are spiritual reality. Faith takes from the spiritual world and brings it into the physical world.

Jesus said in John 14:4, "Where I'm going you know and the way you know." But with their little minds, the disciples couldn't comprehend what He was saying. Since they didn't understand it, they said, "Jesus, you must be wrong." You need to recognize that God's Word is smarter than you'll ever hope to be. If you live to be 110, you'll never begin to approach the wisdom of God. You need to make a decision: "God, your Word is true."

When God says that you are healed by the stripes of Jesus, is that a true statement or not? Some of us say, "I know the Word says that, but my body says I'm not healed. Oh, I wish I could be healed." Are you saying that? Then you're calling God a liar. It's simple — it's is so simple you have to have someone help you misunderstand it!

We've come up with elaborate ways of rationalizing our failures so that it doesn't throw the blame on us. But when we make these statements of doubt, we're basically calling God a liar. We're doing the same thing Thomas did because we're exalting our own reasoning, our own feelings, our own senses, above what God's Word says. If you do that, you're never going to prosper or have your needs met or get healed or make it through a crisis, because Satan always will put emotions and events on you that make it look like God's Word isn't true.

You must get to the place where you exalt God's Word and believe it more than you believe the physical realm.






 

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