I read this story recently with fresh eyes and God taught me two valuable lessons. I encourage you to go read the story here before continuing. What God showed me wasn’t exactly related to the miracle itself, but the journey to get to the miracle. You see, God wants to include us all in powerful and amazing miracles. One problem for many of us, as it was for the disciples, is fear. It is encouraging to know that they felt it too. We are not alone in our struggle. Even those who walked with Jesus while He was on this earth battled with fear and doubt. In fact, they would not have been able to do any of the things they did after Jesus left if it were not for the gift of our amazing helper and friend, the Holy Spirit. The same is true for me, and the same is true for you.

Lesson 1: If God tells you to do something, you can trust Him to deliver. Jesus had full confidence in what He heard from the Father. God instructed Him, and He went with the power of The Holy Spirit of God and accomplished whatever it was God had for Him to do. The SAME is true for us. Many witnessed the miraculous and overwhelming miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead! Did you know that many saw this miracle and got angry? They saw Jesus raise a man from the dead, and rather than rejoice and repent, turning to the Lord, they got angry and started plotting to both cover up this miracle and to kill Jesus. These were also “religious people”. How can this be possible? The answer is simple. Hardened and deceived hearts. Maybe you are wondering why it’s hard to believe God will do what He says He will do. Could it be that what He says He will do through you can only be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit working through you and you are quenching the Spirit? It is nearly impossible to have faith for the miraculous while quenching the Spirit. When I think of the most miraculous sessions I’ve had with clients, it was ALWAYS the Spirit moving in power that accomplished the miracle. So what was required of me then if it was the Spirit? Belief and obedience. If I didn’t believe in the power of God I would not be asking Him for guidance, and I definitely wouldn’t be obeying what He tells me to do. He has asked me to do things in my sessions that make no sense in the natural, and truly require nothing on my part aside from trusting He will do what He says He will do. Has this ever brought on fear? Absolutely! In fact, when I truly started allowing the Holy spirit to lead me in my sessions and decided to obey no matter what, I was very afraid. But I did it anyway, in spite of my fear and doubt. What I’ve seen is that once I obey and the Spirit starts working all of the fear and doubt dissipate and are replaced with faith. I’m so sad to admit that there have been many times when fear held me back from obeying and being involved in God’s amazing miracles. It took a lot of prayer and surrender, asking God to change my heart, my beliefs, and to help me obey through the fear. This isn’t even something I could do without His help. My encouragement to you, do what God is asking in spite of your fear and doubt. Pray and ask Him for the courage to obey and the faith to believe. He will replace your fear with faith and will move in power. Let’s be encouraged by what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:3-5, “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” God is asking us to obey in spite of our fear and weakness, allowing His power to move.

Lesson 2: Miraculous things often happen in scary circumstances. If you aren’t willing to be afraid you probably won’t experience miracles. In this story Thomas thought they were headed to their death! This is how scary what they were about to do truly was. Do we realize this? This wasn’t some casual stroll to Lazarus’ tomb. They were headed into a very tumultuous place. The last time they were there the crowds wanted to murder Jesus. Would you go back to place where the people wanted to murder you? Would I? The only way anybody would, or should for that matter, be willing to do that is if God told them to and they were going in the power of the Holy Spirit. A lot of people go into scary situations that God never told them to go into. Not a good idea. Jesus went with a bold and confident spirit into the scariest of situations because he KNEW with no doubt God was going to do what God said He would do. Of course this is a very extreme example, and many of us will never face a situation to this level. But if we want to be used, and we have surrendered to God and have asked Him to use us as His vessels, we can expect to be asked to go into some unnerving circumstances. We will ONLY feel confident doing this with clear instructions from God (which requires seeking Him regularly and allowing Him to change our hearts), belief He will do what He said, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is how Jesus walked. This is how miracles come to be.