A Special Blessing

John 20 : 27 – 29, Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." –NKJV
Can you imagine what it must have been like for the disciples to see and know Jesus, personally? These men were with Jesus constantly and witness first-hand all of the marvelous miracles that He did for the people.
They had the privilege to be with Jesus as He preached the Sermon on the Mount. They watched as Jesus raised Lazarus’ from the dead. They all knew that Jesus had power over death, but nothing could prepare them for the day that He was nailed to a Roman cross.
These same men walked and talked with the Lord for three and a half years, but there came a day when He would be taken up from their presence. From that day on, everything in their lives would be different. Instead of being with Jesus in the natural, the disciples had to learn how to relate to Him by faith. This stretched their faith and we see this in John 20 where they are hiding for fear of the Jews. They remained there for more than a week even though Jesus appeared to them twice after His resurrection.
Paul teaches us a principle concerning what I’ve shared and it’s found in 2 Corinthians 5 : 16, Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. –NKJV
Imagine relating to Jesus in the natural all that time and then suddenly, you must learn how to relate to and trust Him by the Spirit. This gives us a glimpse into the struggle that Thomas had to believe the report from the other disciples that Jesus was alive. He said that he would have to see Jesus in the natural before he believed them.
However, Jesus told Thomas that a person who believes in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection without seeing Him was blessed. In fact, there is a stronger bond in the relationship with the person who comes to faith in Christ without ever seeing Him in the natural realm. Reason being, Jesus and the Father are Spirit and we must worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.
After Jesus restored the disciples’ faith in Him after His resurrection and they learned how to relate to the Lord by faith, almost all of them willingly gave their lives as martyrs because of their assurance by the Spirit. We can see between Jesus’ resurrection and the death of the disciples, these men were fully persuaded that Jesus was the Son of God. Their faith was much stronger knowing Jesus by faith rather than walking with Him in the physical.
If you are born again, you are a new creation in Christ. No longer do we know Jesus according to His fleshly identity, nor does He relate to us as God’s children according to our old identity. Many Christians struggle with their past even after they become born again, but when we know that the Lord no longer sees us in that light, it will help us to move on in freedom. You are free in Christ.
Pastor Asa Dockery

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