DEALING WITH DOUBT

Luke 7:19 And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, “Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?”

Greetings in the most precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ !

I thank God for this wonderful and unchanging word which was sown in my heart to write about ‘dealing with doubts’. I want to humble under his mighty hand and glean some truths from the word.

The meaning of the word ‘doubt’ is ‘ lack of certainty that often leads to irresolution or lack of trust’. Here, you must understand one thing that it was John, the Baptist who doubted and sent his disciples to ask Jesus “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”
John was so much mentally depressed in the prison that he started doubting the messiah.
But Jesus said about John in Mat 11:11, “Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.” What a great testimony about John ! He was greater than Abraham, Joseph, Isaac, Moses and all those great men of god but he doubted Christ. If this man who said “He must increase, but I must decrease” had a doubt, what will be our condition? If John the Baptist had a doubt, everyone will have a doubt, but how can we deal with doubts? But first, let us see who John the Baptist was.

Meaning of John “God is gracious” .

• A spirit filled man : He was filled with the Holy Ghost when he was in his mother’s womb,
• A Separated Life : His entire life was committed to serve and prepare the way for the lord. Most of his life was in the wilderness, which shows his separation from the cares of this world. He wore raiment of camel’s hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. His main aim of life was not food, clothing and shelter, but to prepare the way of the lord. This shows his dedication to the ministry of god.
• Man of Vision : He saw the Heavens open and a dove descending upon Jesus Christ. He heard the voice saying “ this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”
• He knew the truth: He recognized Messiah and he knew that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. He knew the purpose why Jesus was sent by God into the world.
• He preached the word: He was not a preacher who followed prosperity theology. He used it like a double edge sword, preaching about Repentance, Being Born Again, Salvation and about End times. He spoke boldly to great teachers and High priests of those times (Pharisee and Sadducees). He even did not hesitate to call them ‘Brood of Vipers.’ He rebuked even King Herod for all the evil which he had done.

• He was a witness: What is the meaning of ‘witness’ ? A witness “ is the one who have seen and who has the proof”. John had seen and heard the truth, not from any man. He had heeded the voice from the heaven. He was a man sent by god (John 1:6). He bore witness of that Light who was rejected by the people of that time. This man came to witness the Light, and he accomplished the work for which god had sent him. He bore witness and prepared the way for the Lord (Mark 1:14-15). John said “There comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose”.

• A Prophet: John 1:33, “ I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me “ Upon whom you see the spirit descending , and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit”. It was revealed to John that Christ Jesus will fill his people with his Spirit.

• A Voice: He was the voice in the wilderness. The earth was like wilderness and the spiritual condition of the men was barren and deserted, dry and worthless. But God prepared a voice before sending his only begotten son, who spread the good news about the eternal life. Before sending his son to the Earth, God needed a Voice to prepare a way, which He manifested through a human being like us…For that reason he chose John to be his voice from the mother’s womb.

There are many more things to learn about John. Indeed he was greater than any born of women, but after all this, he doubted Christ. This shows that if you are a human being, you will doubt . The word of God is more powerful than anything to remove that doubt- The word of God will deal with your doubts; you need not deal with it.

Possibly there were two reasons as to why he doubted Jesus.
First, He had only heard about the miracles done by Jesus. He did not see them. So, the doubt arose in his heart (Mathew 11:2-3)
Second, He was in prison for several months and there was no way to escape. So he lost trust in Christ Jesus there.

You may be telling that you have been serving God since many years, but still nothing is happening. You may be hearing his voice but still, you might not be trusting that he will save you. One sister told me that she gave up praying for her husband, because she prayed and fasted for him for many years, and there was no change in him till now…

Let us see how Jesus deals with the doubt of John, the Baptist.

Jesus was not at all surprised by John’s reaction. He asked the disciples to tell John about what they saw. He did not reply with soft convincing words. He just asked them to tell John about the things which they heard and saw. Mat 11:5, ‘the blind see and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.’ What does this declare ? Jesus wanted to tell John that God was accomplishing all that John had witnessed while preparing the way for Jesus.

If you notice the reply of Jesus, it was a Prophetic word of Isaiah about Jesus which given many years back. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert” (Is. 35:5-6).
In other words, Jesus was reminding John about the word of God. So how can you deal with doubts? The answer is ‘get back to the word.’ The reason why Jesus didn’t try to make John feel better with a few kind words and an emotional touch, was not because He didn’t care. He cared for John so much that He gave John His best — the written Word of God. That’s how Jesus himself dealt with, when tempted (Matt. 4), and that was and still is the God’s best way for us to deal with doubts.
There is no other remedy to overcome doubt, than getting back to the word of god.
Doubt means ‘losing of faith on God’. So, to overcome this, you need to walk according to the word of God because bible says “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God”

Second personality is Thomas the Twin.
We all know him as a ‘Man of doubt’ but there is a different face of this Thomas whom most of us have not noticed. If you read John 11:7-16, Lazarus was dead and it had been 4 days since. On the fourth day, Jesus called his disciples to go towards Judea but his disciples restrained him, because the Jews over there sought to stone Jesus. Even though his disciples restrained Jesus to go to Judea, Thomas was not afraid to die. He said (John Ch 11:16) ‘Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” He did not even fear to die for Jesus. This shows his deep and perfect love towards the master because bible says in
1 John 1:18 ‘there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.’ I have no doubt in believing the fact that Thomas not only just loved Jesus, but he was perfect in love. This man who was ready to die for Jesus, was perfect in love towards his master. In John ch 20:25, this same Thomas said “….except I shall see in his hands the print of nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe”.
How did Thomas overcome his doubts about the resurrection of Jesus?

We don’t know the exact reason as to why Thomas was not present when Jesus visited the first time after resurrection. But if you study the whole text, you will know that he
refrained himself because of doubt. When he heard his fellow disciples saying about seeing the Lord, he came to the place to see what he had heard. If you read you will understand that Jesus showed his hands and side to other disciples. But for Thomas, Jesus asked him to reach out his fingers towards the nailed hands and side, not by unbelief, but by believing. Jesus had mentioned about his death and about his resurrection beforehand to his disciples, but still Thomas doubted and lost his trust on Jesus. So Jesus approached Thomas and asked him ‘to believe’ – ‘to believe in the word about my death and resurrection which I had spoken to you.’ We don’t know whether Thomas touched Jesus or not. Anyhow, when Jesus spoke the things of his heart, his eyes were opened. He overcame doubt by believing the word of god and by proclaiming what he had seen. Many of us see our future with spiritual eyes but we don’t just proclaim it with their mouth, which leads us to doubt. Martha believed that her brother would rise in the day of resurrection but she failed to believe that Jesus could raise her brother even after 4 days stench. This was purely doubt. Jesus replied to her, “ believe to see the glory of god.” I have come across many folks who believe that Jesus is Faithful and that he is an awesome god . But when it comes to the point of troubles and hardships, they fail to proclaim their faith from their heart .They speak about faith outwardly but inwardly they are full of doubts.

There are only two times recorded in the Bible when Jesus ‘marveled ‘. Once He ‘marveled’ at the people’s great unbelief (Mark 6:6), and in Matthew 8:10 He ‘marveled’ at a Gentile soldier’s great faith. A faith that made Jesus marvel is worth examining. What was different about it? The number one difference was what the centurion said, “But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.” (Matt. 8:8-9)The centurion had a faith that was in God’s Word alone. He didn’t have to have Jesus come to his house and wave His hand over the sick servant. He believed that if Jesus would just give him a word, the servant would be healed.
Conclusion: Maybe there’s a reason that Lord hasn’t used an emotional touch to deliver you from unbelief. Maybe it’s because He loves you so much that He’s trying to help you operate in the highest form of faith — faith that takes Him at His Word. If the least of the saints today are greater than John the Baptist, (Matt. 11:11), surely the Lord wants us to operate at least at the same level in which He dealt with John’s unbelief.

May God bless you !!