Friday, April 17th, 2009 9:30 AM
Please bear with me as I type this. I have just come out of my prayer and praise time this morning and had to share just a fraction of the Word that the Lord shared with me with you.
We as Christians and especially those of us that are World Changers (I am a member of World Changers Church – New York; my pastors Creflo and Taffi Dollar) have been taught to trust in the LORD and His promises… not to question it… just to trust in it. True we may take time out to study it out more to gain a stronger understanding. However… first and foremost we are told to trust and obey the Word of God. Though at times for some reason we find it hard because though His promises can and have been seen in our lives … example 1) we have the breath of life in us. Most times most of us just do not see or cannot recognize the fulfillment of those promises.
I was lead this morning …and I do mean I was completely led this morning by the Holy Spirit to read the following verses out of the King James and Amplified versions of the Bible.
The Holy Spirit actually told me “Read what your hand is lead to read…” Now I did not have this chapter bookmarked for “religious” style daily reading… and that is why I find it so powerful and I had to share it with you.
I was lead to read from the King James John 20:12 and from the Amplified same chapter John 20:18-31 (till closing thereof.)
In these verses Jesus has already gone to the cross, gone down Hell (took back the keys of salvation and righteousness) and has just came back to minister to his disciplines before ascending to be with the Father.
I found it interesting that I was lead to read only verse 12 and then jump straight to verse 18… In between those verses is something profound… that shows that ‘Mary believed first…’
Just walk this out with me…
Mary Magdalene… went to Jesus’ tomb and SAW two angels. She did not need to be told that they were two angels she knew. Nowhere in these verses/in the text do we see the two angels that sat at the foot and head of where Jesus body had been lain identify themselves to Mary that they were angels.
Mary just knew what they were. She actually entered into a dialogue with them when asked why she was sobbing when she saw that Jesus’ tomb was empty. She did start screaming at them and ask why they were there… she just had the confidence to know who they were.
She didn’t even accuse them of taking Jesus’ body… she said “they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him”.
Then when Jesus reappeared and spoke to her after she first mistakenly thought him to be just a gardener. She KNEW and BELIEVED instantly who he was because she had spent so much time at His feet…She knew him to be her “Rabboni… her Teacher her Master.” Once again Mary believed first…
I believe while she was sobbing earlier in the verses though it is not in the text she was also praying and supplicating. So going back a little in review we see Mary… she prayed… she believed…first in the presence of the angels and then in knowing who she was speaking to was her Lord.
Then… she obeyed Him when she was told to go back to bring the news to the other disciples that their Lord Jesus had come back from the dead and that she had seen him. Basically Mary HEARD the voice of the Lord and obeyed it.
Now here comes her results…she told the disciples right away that Jesus had come back and she saw him…that very evening Jesus revealed himself behind closed doors to his disciples! Well most of them at least… Thomas was the only one that was not there… he was the other part of lesson for he doubted the news of the Lord’s return. Even though Mary AND the rest of the disciples had seen and spoken to Jesus. He gave the fleshy answer that we all know… he had to basically not only SEE it to believe it… he had to TOUCH it. “It” for a lack of a better word, was that Jesus had returned.
What is so profound to me is that he is referred as “the Twin” in this chapter. Twins in nature come from the same genetic stuff… one egg and one sperm and then are split. Once split they become two different and distinct beings… for just this case in study… we have one twin that believed without seeing and another that had to not only see it but also touch it to believe it.
The Christian church right now acts a lot like spiritual twins, one half being emotionally led and the other being spirit led but that is a whole another article…
Getting back to the last part of the lesson I was taught this morning… Jesus gave Thomas a WHOLE week to get his mind lined up / rooted in the fact that he had actually risen and came back. Being always the patient teacher though he showed himself again and allowed Thomas to examine him… However in the end when Thomas finally believed that the Lord returned was rebuked and told basically you don’t have to see to believe my word… you just need to believe!
So my question in closing to you… is this, are you going to be like Mary or Thomas? I am personally going to be like Mary who BELIEVED first…
© 2009, Lela Jefferson Fagan. All rights reserved.
