Spirit of Doubt
Doubting Thomas is a familiar moniker among Christians. Many of us have read about this disciple in the Gospel of John and his lack of faith after Jesus was resurrected from the grave. Despite the testimony of the two women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who went to His tomb and the disciples who had been present when Jesus came to them in Galilee and saw Him in the flesh, Thomas remarked, "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." (John 20:24-25) Thomas made a choice not to believe. Instead, he determined to have a conditional belief, based not just on seeing Jesus, but touching Him. Thomas doubted the reality of the risen Savior. The dictionary defines doubt as, "a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction."
However, it was not only Thomas among the disciples who doubted, Mark's account says, that none of the disciples prior to Jesus appearing to them believed the reports from the two women or from Peter and John who had seen Jesus alive (Mark 16:11-13). I think this is plausible considering the disciple's lack of understanding of Jesus' words prior to His death to prepare them for what was to come and not comprehending the full meaning of His death at that point. What I find to be more astonishing is the fact that even after the disciples witnessed Jesus very much alive with their own eyes, some of them still had doubt and disbelief about His resurrection from the dead. Matthew reports in 28:16-17: "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted." We know Thomas did not believe at first but that changed once he was able to physically touch Jesus' body but we are not told who or how many other disciples were in disbelief.
However, Luke records the account of two followers of Jesus, not of the eleven disciples, who also had unbelief even upon encountering their risen Lord. In Luke 24, two men were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus when Jesus came along and asked them what they were discussing. The one man, Cleopas is surprised to find out that this man he didn't seem to know, had not heard of the death of the prophet, Jesus. While they were explaining what had happened in Jerusalem and how He was condemned by the chief priests and put to death and crucified, Cleopas revealed that they had hoped, even trusted that this Jesus would redeem Israel. It was now the third day and it looked as if they had been let down. Two key points in this story are that one, they were spiritually blinded: Luke 24:16 says, "they were kept from recognizing him" (NIV) and another version says, "their eyes were restrained so they did not know Him" (NKJV). Why couldn't they see Jesus? Obviously, they could physically see with their eyes the man talking to them but could not see metaphorically speaking. The eyes of their spiritual understanding were kept/restrained from seeing or recognizing Jesus. Who kept their eyes from seeing? I'll get back to that.
The second point is that their hope in Jesus was misplaced. Like Judas Iscariot, it appears that these two men had looked to Jesus to be a political Messiah. Someone who would save them from the oppression of Roman occupation. The Romans were merciless, heavily taxing the people and taking from the Israelites anything they wished and cruelly punishing any insubordination to their rule. Crimes against Roman leadership could cause severe flogging and even crucifixion. These men were hoping that Jesus would redeem them of years of oppressive Roman rule not understanding God's will for Him was FAR greater than that! Jesus' death and resurrection would bring redemption to the entire world from sin that leads to death!
Jesus knew their hearts and their disappointment in their limited understanding so He walked on with them explaining the Scriptures concerning Himself beginning with Moses and all the prophets. They listened intently but still their eyes were not opened. As they approached their destination, Jesus appeared to be traveling further so they invited Him to stay the night. He agreed to stay and they had supper together. As He broke the bread, gave thanks for it and gave it to them, suddenly they recognized Jesus! "Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight" (Luke 24:31). Interesting. One minute these two disciples were walking and talking with Jesus and couldn't recognize Him and then later after He comes to their home, they have supper and viola, they see!
If you take scriptures and apply them to this scenario, it becomes clear. Numerous times throughout the Gospel, Jesus confronts people who have a lack of faith or certainty in Jesus' power and authority. In His own home town of Nazareth, He did not do many miracles there because they did not believe in Him. These two men on the way to Emmaus certainly doubted who Jesus was according to their own beliefs about Him and their misunderstanding of the Scripture. Something supernatural seemed to be restraining them from recognizing Jesus. It would not make sense for God to keep them from seeing Jesus. However, we do have an Adversary that wants to keep us from believing in Jesus, His authority and power in our lives. I believe a spirit of doubt came on them when they saw Jesus' crucified and buried and their hope of Israel's redemption died with Him. He was not who they thought He was and that left the door open for Satan to come in. Jesus was well aware of their doubt saying, "How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" (v 25) and therefore He enlightened them with the truth. It is revealed after Jesus left them, why they decided to invite Him to stay and have supper as they exclaimed, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (v 32) Yet Jesus didn't ask to stay with them, He waited to be invited. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me." (ESV)
Kingdom dynamics are opposite of the world. In the world, if you can see it, you can believe it. Faith is the opposite. It is believing in something you can't see. Hebrews 11:1 tells us, "faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (NIV) Satan loves to mess with our assurance in Christ. The spirit of doubt will come and take up residence if we don't resist by standing on God's Word in confidence. The enemy also uses situations in our lives to cause us to doubt God's love, His plan for us, even His sovereignty. We open the door for doubt when bad things happen that we don't understand. When a loved one dies. When a spouse is unfaithful. When we lose our job. When we become seriously ill. We start hearing that voice in our heads questioning why. What did I do wrong? Why would God allow this? The lies of the enemy get louder. I don't understand God. I'm no good. He doesn't hear my prayers. His promises aren't for me after all.... Do you see how your confidence in God, your faith in His Word is suddenly eroding by doubts? That is how it happens, friends. However, if we invite Jesus into our lives daily, to dine with us, have fellowship, our faith is built up. Remember, how those two disciples recognized Jesus AFTER He shared bread with them. Jesus said, "I AM that bread of life." (John 6:48) I especially love how the Amplified version gives greater meaning to Jesus' words: "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, he who believes [in Me as Savior—whoever adheres to, trusts in, relies on, and has faith in Me—already] has eternal life [that is, now possesses it]. I am the Bread of Life [the Living Bread which gives and sustains life]. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the Bread that comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the Living Bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread [believes in Me, accepts Me as Savior], he will live forever. And the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh (body).” (John 6:47-51)
Do you understand? You must have complete confidence in Jesus. He is the Word of God, who was in the beginning (John 1) and He is the Bread of Life. You must be in His Word daily and spending time with Him, knowing Him and building that relationship that will flush out the spirit of doubt when it tries to come at you. Unlike the disciples before Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we do have that Spirit of God residing in us and leading us into all truth. Enlightening us to God's Words and giving us wisdom and understanding when we ask for it in faith. We don't have to SEE Jesus with our eyes, we SEE and recognize Him with our spirit that is in daily communion with Him.
However, it was not only Thomas among the disciples who doubted, Mark's account says, that none of the disciples prior to Jesus appearing to them believed the reports from the two women or from Peter and John who had seen Jesus alive (Mark 16:11-13). I think this is plausible considering the disciple's lack of understanding of Jesus' words prior to His death to prepare them for what was to come and not comprehending the full meaning of His death at that point. What I find to be more astonishing is the fact that even after the disciples witnessed Jesus very much alive with their own eyes, some of them still had doubt and disbelief about His resurrection from the dead. Matthew reports in 28:16-17: "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted." We know Thomas did not believe at first but that changed once he was able to physically touch Jesus' body but we are not told who or how many other disciples were in disbelief.
However, Luke records the account of two followers of Jesus, not of the eleven disciples, who also had unbelief even upon encountering their risen Lord. In Luke 24, two men were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus when Jesus came along and asked them what they were discussing. The one man, Cleopas is surprised to find out that this man he didn't seem to know, had not heard of the death of the prophet, Jesus. While they were explaining what had happened in Jerusalem and how He was condemned by the chief priests and put to death and crucified, Cleopas revealed that they had hoped, even trusted that this Jesus would redeem Israel. It was now the third day and it looked as if they had been let down. Two key points in this story are that one, they were spiritually blinded: Luke 24:16 says, "they were kept from recognizing him" (NIV) and another version says, "their eyes were restrained so they did not know Him" (NKJV). Why couldn't they see Jesus? Obviously, they could physically see with their eyes the man talking to them but could not see metaphorically speaking. The eyes of their spiritual understanding were kept/restrained from seeing or recognizing Jesus. Who kept their eyes from seeing? I'll get back to that.The second point is that their hope in Jesus was misplaced. Like Judas Iscariot, it appears that these two men had looked to Jesus to be a political Messiah. Someone who would save them from the oppression of Roman occupation. The Romans were merciless, heavily taxing the people and taking from the Israelites anything they wished and cruelly punishing any insubordination to their rule. Crimes against Roman leadership could cause severe flogging and even crucifixion. These men were hoping that Jesus would redeem them of years of oppressive Roman rule not understanding God's will for Him was FAR greater than that! Jesus' death and resurrection would bring redemption to the entire world from sin that leads to death!
Jesus knew their hearts and their disappointment in their limited understanding so He walked on with them explaining the Scriptures concerning Himself beginning with Moses and all the prophets. They listened intently but still their eyes were not opened. As they approached their destination, Jesus appeared to be traveling further so they invited Him to stay the night. He agreed to stay and they had supper together. As He broke the bread, gave thanks for it and gave it to them, suddenly they recognized Jesus! "Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight" (Luke 24:31). Interesting. One minute these two disciples were walking and talking with Jesus and couldn't recognize Him and then later after He comes to their home, they have supper and viola, they see!
If you take scriptures and apply them to this scenario, it becomes clear. Numerous times throughout the Gospel, Jesus confronts people who have a lack of faith or certainty in Jesus' power and authority. In His own home town of Nazareth, He did not do many miracles there because they did not believe in Him. These two men on the way to Emmaus certainly doubted who Jesus was according to their own beliefs about Him and their misunderstanding of the Scripture. Something supernatural seemed to be restraining them from recognizing Jesus. It would not make sense for God to keep them from seeing Jesus. However, we do have an Adversary that wants to keep us from believing in Jesus, His authority and power in our lives. I believe a spirit of doubt came on them when they saw Jesus' crucified and buried and their hope of Israel's redemption died with Him. He was not who they thought He was and that left the door open for Satan to come in. Jesus was well aware of their doubt saying, "How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" (v 25) and therefore He enlightened them with the truth. It is revealed after Jesus left them, why they decided to invite Him to stay and have supper as they exclaimed, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (v 32) Yet Jesus didn't ask to stay with them, He waited to be invited. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me." (ESV)
Kingdom dynamics are opposite of the world. In the world, if you can see it, you can believe it. Faith is the opposite. It is believing in something you can't see. Hebrews 11:1 tells us, "faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (NIV) Satan loves to mess with our assurance in Christ. The spirit of doubt will come and take up residence if we don't resist by standing on God's Word in confidence. The enemy also uses situations in our lives to cause us to doubt God's love, His plan for us, even His sovereignty. We open the door for doubt when bad things happen that we don't understand. When a loved one dies. When a spouse is unfaithful. When we lose our job. When we become seriously ill. We start hearing that voice in our heads questioning why. What did I do wrong? Why would God allow this? The lies of the enemy get louder. I don't understand God. I'm no good. He doesn't hear my prayers. His promises aren't for me after all.... Do you see how your confidence in God, your faith in His Word is suddenly eroding by doubts? That is how it happens, friends. However, if we invite Jesus into our lives daily, to dine with us, have fellowship, our faith is built up. Remember, how those two disciples recognized Jesus AFTER He shared bread with them. Jesus said, "I AM that bread of life." (John 6:48) I especially love how the Amplified version gives greater meaning to Jesus' words: "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, he who believes [in Me as Savior—whoever adheres to, trusts in, relies on, and has faith in Me—already] has eternal life [that is, now possesses it]. I am the Bread of Life [the Living Bread which gives and sustains life]. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the Bread that comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the Living Bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread [believes in Me, accepts Me as Savior], he will live forever. And the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh (body).” (John 6:47-51)
Do you understand? You must have complete confidence in Jesus. He is the Word of God, who was in the beginning (John 1) and He is the Bread of Life. You must be in His Word daily and spending time with Him, knowing Him and building that relationship that will flush out the spirit of doubt when it tries to come at you. Unlike the disciples before Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we do have that Spirit of God residing in us and leading us into all truth. Enlightening us to God's Words and giving us wisdom and understanding when we ask for it in faith. We don't have to SEE Jesus with our eyes, we SEE and recognize Him with our spirit that is in daily communion with Him.
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