Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed. Blessed are they who did not see and believed.” John 20:29.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
When I raised Jesus from the dead, He did not just stop off and see the disciples for a brief visit, He walked among them over the course of forty days.
He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Acts 1:3.
He returned to Me ten days before pouring out the Spirit on the day Pentecost was fulfilled.
Why forty days and forty nights?
You may be remembering things about forty days, that was the period of the flood in the time of Noah, that was the number of days the spies were scouting the Promised Land and then brought back an evil report so that the unfaithful Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness, that was the number of days that Jesus spent with Me in the wilderness before entering His ministry, and that was the period that I instructed Moses on Mt. Sinai in all that pertained to the Law and the plan of the tabernacle, which is the plan of salvation. He was instructed in the Old Covenant. Forty days and forty nights was what it took for Moses to become a whole new man with a radiant face and an intense love for and faith in Me and My Word.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. Exodus 34:27-29.
It was the time of My teaching Moses personally. He learned My ways and was instructed in leading My people in My Word and ways. It was the period of learning the Covenant so he could teach it to the people I had redeemed from slavery by My outstretched arm.
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. John 1:17-18.
And that was what Jesus was doing for His followers over the course of the same period.
Just as I spent forty days and forty nights teaching Moses, the leader I had chosen, the Old Covenant that was between Me and the people, so Jesus spent forty days and forty nights teaching the leaders He had chosen, the New Covenant which is between Him and the people.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 1 Corinthians 15:3-7.
He had many to appear to over those forty days that He wanted to visit personally to strengthen them in their faith in His resurrection because there would be an all-out launch by Satan to contradict the truth of resurrection, basically to keep people in fear of death, but also to make them reckless about living, blinding their minds to the reward of eternal life, “eat, drink, be merry for tomorrow we die.”
But people that do not believe in Me and would say this life is the end, that you evolve, and you die like the grass of the field, are not happy, for I have put eternity in each person’s heart. Deep calls unto deep. Your spirit is starving and thirsting for Me, your living God, your source, your hope, your peace, and your rest.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:2.
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1.
My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:5-8.
If your hopes are limited to this life only you are the most pitiable of men. You will lose your focus on Jesus, on My Word, and most likely your eternal destiny. No belief in eternal life makes you a slave to your fleshly desires and lusts. And today that is all you see on the news media. Public officials have banned My Name from schools, Christmas decorations, and the like. I came to give you life, abundant, eternal life, but since Adam you are not willing to come to Me to embrace that life. Many would rather stay in the darkness than be drawn into My own marvelous light. My heart is wide open to you, won’t you open your heart to Me and let Me heal it with love unspeakable filled with glory?
If you step aside with Me and “come and see” where I AM your lives will become radiant as Moses did and as the first followers of Jesus did, and as they did so should you. For He is with you always to the end of the age, the Church age, and then you shall be caught up in clouds with Him to be with us forever. To shine in My Kingdom like bright luminaries. Heavenly bodies emit light.
The radiant face of Moses was a reflection of Me that shone upon him from hearing and writing My Word. I taught him to bless the Israelites by saying: “The LORD makes His Face shine upon you.” But when I raise you up on the Last Day and you are transformed, then your mortality is clothed with immortality and the light that you shine is from within. Like Jesus in the transfiguration. That is the way your born-again spirit looks in you even now—radiant in your inner man for you have been born again by My imperishable Word. And you can see it in the eyes of a Spirit-filled believer. Those who know how to spend time with Me in My Word as a continuous flow have radiant eyes and faces. Others have dead eyes and faces that gaze at you without truly seeing beyond this world, trapped in their own darkness and sin for their spirits are not born again but are dead to Me and alive to sin. Go out and tell the good news! Shine on the world like bright lights holding forth and holding fast to My Word of life.
As we continue on our Eucharistic journey we are walking in the light, for as you partake of the body and blood of Jesus, which was given for you, you are partaking of Him who is the Light of the world and no follower of His will ever walk in darkness but will have the light of life. And at this stage of our journey we are now walking in resurrection light.
We left off in the upper room with Jesus giving the Shalom blessing as He let His face shine on His disciples. And they believed for they had seen. And they were all born again and received the Holy Spirit, the inner witness that you are My children and that your sins and offenses I remember no more.
But Thomas, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples, who had experienced My Son’s risen presence with them, were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” John 20:25.
During My Son’s earthly ministry, Thomas had, just as the others had also, heard My Son telling of the sufferings, death, and resurrection He was about to undergo in Jerusalem. But Thomas would not believe unless He saw with his own eyes and felt with his own hands that Jesus was alive. And so are many this way today, even believers, for Thomas was a believer in My Son.
I have told you that I AM the LORD your healer, Exodus 15:26, that I heal all your diseases and pains, Psalm 103:1-5, that My Son bore them for you and by His stripes you are healed, Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24. And yet how many of you will not believe you are healed and take hold of it but rather say you will believe you are healed when you see it, but you won’t be thanking Me before it happens. If you really believed with the faith that moves mountains you would just know that if I said it you can have it that you can have it if you just stand your ground and not let go of your confession.
But, I am the God of all compassion and I had compassion for Thomas for I did not want that he had spent the three years with My Son in vain. And Jesus did that for the father of the boy having seizures, when his faith would not go far enough for the boy to be healed, Jesus stepped in and added His so the boy got healed. And that is what the gift of special faith, one of the nine grace endowments of the Holy Spirit is about. Sometimes your faith needs an extra boost from My Spirit to accomplish what needs to be done. Like parting the Red Sea.
After eight days His disciples were again inside, again the first day of the week, which is Sunday, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” When you are gathered in His Name, He always comes into your midst, not the outskirts, the midst. And the same is true of Me, we are One.
“The LORD your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with joyful singing and shouts of joy. Zephaniah 3:17.
I am not just there quiet. I am singing over you! I surround you with songs of deliverance.
And He brought forth His people with joy, His chosen ones with a joyful song and shout. Psalm 105:43.
You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. Psalm 32:7.
Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” What you whisper in closed rooms I hear as if shouted from the housetops. Even before a word is on your tongue, I know the whole of it. Always remember, I hear your thoughts and your words. Many forget that and think they are deceiving Me. Like Adam.
Jesus did not wait for Thomas to say anything. He addressed what Thomas had been thinking and saying to others when he thought Jesus was not present. That alone would have been enough to bring Thomas to repentance for his doubts and unbelief, but My Son wanted to give him full satisfaction so he could take comfort.
Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” But Jesus had a lesson for all, and for you, in His answer to Thomas, for Jesus knew that once He ascended back to Me, you would be operating in faith alone to believe, though I give many assurances, signs and wonders, but primarily the inner witness of My Spirit with your spirit. So Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed. Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
Blessed are you who believe in My Son though with your physical eyes you have not seen Him. You have seen Him with eyes of faith, the eyes of your heart, as you hear of Him and read about Him in the Bible, and suddenly your heart leaps up and you know He is the One who is true.
My servant Peter summed this up for you, so please read carefully this passage written through Peter by My Holy Spirit:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:3-9.
I love you. Blessed are those who have not seen but have believed. And that is faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN. Hebrews 11:1. And in this journey of remembrance you are walking in the evidence of things that have taken place for your benefit though you were not present at the events themselves. But as you partake of His body and blood, you are there in the Spirit for all time is the same to Me. I AM. And once you are born again, so are you. Forever with Me. I AM your reason to be and your eternity.
Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” John 11:40.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26.
What is your answer?