Thomas refused to believe what He couldn’t see or feel. Our five senses were given to us by God and are necessary to help us function in this life. But if we do not renew our minds to acknowledge the limits of our five senses, they will keep us from believing. Faith can perceive things that the senses cannot (Heb. 11:1).

There is a human faith and a supernatural, God-kind of faith. Human faith is based on physical things that we can see, taste, hear, smell, or feel. God’s kind of faith believes independently of physical circumstances. To receive God’s gift of salvation, we have to use the supernatural, God-kind of faith which isn’t limited by our five senses. This is because, to be saved, we must believe for things that we can’t see or feel. We haven’t seen God or the devil. We haven’t seen Heaven or Hell. Yet we have to believe that these things exist. Human faith can’t believe what it can’t see.

Man is so destitute that he can’t even believe the gospel on his own. To receive God’s gift of salvation, we have to receive the supernatural, God-kind of faith first. Where does this faith come from? How do we get it?

Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” God’s Word contains His faith. As we hear the Word of God about salvation, We receive God’s faith so that we can believe the good news of our salvation. We actually use God’s faith to get saved.

This God-kind of faith doesn’t leave us after our born-again experience.

God’s faith becomes a fruit of the Spirit which is in our hearts. We never lose this supernatural faith. We just have to renew our minds to God’s faith which is in us, and then learn how to use it.

The meaning of this verse has been hotly debated for centuries. One thing is certain, it does not mean we have the power to justify a person from his sins so he can be born again; only God can do that.

Many people have taught that Jesus is saying, that if we fail to witness to others, we are retaining their sins unto them, and if we do share His love with others, then we are remitting their sins. Although there is truth in this statement, it is not what this verse is teaching. Rather, this verse deals with the temporal effects that sin has on a person’s life. Not only is there a future death penalty for sin, but sin destroys us emotionally and physically in this life too. It is this present destruction that sin brings into a person’s life that Jesus gave us the power to remit.

Through intercession we can remit a person’s sins, so even though he has sown to the flesh and deserves to reap corruption (Gal. 6:8), he will not reap what he has sown. This is done for the purpose of loosing a person from the bondage that Satan desires to hold him in, until he sees the light and repents. This is only a temporary situation and must be continually repeated if the person we are praying for continues to live in sin.

On the other hand, there are times when it is not in the best interest of the individual to remit his sins. There are times when he needs to be made painfully aware of the consequences of his sins. In these cases, we have power to retain his sins; that is, we withdraw our intercession and he reaps what he sows in hope that this will cause him to turn back to God.

The dictionary states that to reconcile means to re-establish friendship between; to settle or resolve, as a dispute. The key to reconciliation is to effectively deal with the enmity, ill will, hatred, or hostility that caused the dispute, etc.

The enmity between man and God was sin. God took the initiative to remove this barrier through the means and agency of Jesus Christ, thus leaving man and God as friends once again.

We have received the ministry of reconciliation. That means we are in the ministry of reconciling people to God. Much of what people call the gospel today is actually alienating man from God. True, we need to show people their need for God to get them to receive His forgiveness and reconciliation, but the angry and bitter attitude some people have when confronting the sinner, is not correct.

Imputing people’s sins unto them was not the way God used Jesus to reconcile the world unto Himself. We should not focus on the problem of sin, but on the answer of God’s grace (Rom. 5:20).

When you read a newspaper, you read about things that have already happened. They are not reporting prophecy. They are reporting the news. So our real job as ministers of reconciliation is to announce the good NEWS, which is an accomplished fact – that sin has already been dealt with through the person of Christ. We should say, “Now we beseech you, be ye reconciled to God. Change your mind and believe the gospel so that you may partake of what has already been done on your behalf.”

This filling of the Holy Ghost is subsequent to the born-again experience.

Paul reveals in Rom. 10:9, that a person has to confess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in his heart that Jesus was raised from the dead, before he can be saved.

It is possible to be saved, yet not have what Jesus said was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit is now given freely and we don’t have to tarry for His coming, we can receive salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the same time. However, it is not automatic. We must ask and believe for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, just as we believed for salvation.

Speaking in tongues is unique to the Church Age. This is because when a person speaks in tongues, his new born-again spirit is speaking (1 Cor. 14:14), not his mind. Before salvation, our spirit was the part of us that was, “dead in trespasses and sins.” Until we received a new spirit (2 Cor. 5:17), the Holy Ghost could not give us this supernatural communication with the Father.

There are two kinds of speaking in tongues which are clearly spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13:1. They are called “the tongues of men and of angels.” The tongues of men are the known languages in which the disciples spoke. The tongues of angels, or heavenly languages, are the tongues that all Spirit-filled believers can speak, and are what Paul spoke about in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth and teach us all things. Receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost is the single most important key to receiving revelation knowledge from God.

One of the great mistakes of the modern church is to think that evangelism is something done within the four walls of the church building. Acts 8:1-4 makes it apparent that evangelism was not done by the pastor or clergy but by believers that went everywhere preaching the Word (Acts 8:4).

Some methods of evangelism mentioned in scripture are: (1) House to house evangelism – “…and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ” (Acts 5:42). (2) Personal one-on-one evangelism – Philip ministered to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-38), Paul to Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:7), Jesus to Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the thief on the cross, and others. There are around 35 such instances recorded in the Gospels alone. (3) Evangelism to large crowds – Peter ministered to the crowds in Jerusalem at Pentecost (Acts 2) and Paul at Lystra (Acts 14:8-18). (4) Evangelism to entire cities – “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them” (Acts 8:5). (5) Public debate and preaching – Paul disputed in synagogues and market places (Acts 16:17), Peter and John preached in the temple (Acts 3:11-26), Paul declared, “And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you PUBLICKLY and from HOUSE TO HOUSE, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:20-21). (6) Tract evangelism – The first tract evangelism with ink and pen are the Gospels. John in his gospel stated, “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His Name” (Jn. 20:31).

Christians are to be wise in the way they act and speak to unbelievers. We are to make the most of every opportunity. The Christian’s speech should be gracious with answers that meet the needs of each person they encounter.

Just as every sport has disputes that must be settled by the officials, the peace of God is the umpire that settles all disputes as to what the will of God is for our lives. We must learn to listen to and heed the peace of God in our hearts.

God’s peace is something that every born-again believer has. It’s a fruit of the Spirit. That peace is always umpiring; we just don’t always pay attention. How many times have you acted contrary to the peace in your heart and afterwards, you experience disaster? You say, “I never did feel good about that.” That was the peace of God umpiring, but we chose to play by our own rules.

There are some things we can do to facilitate the peace of God umpiring in our hearts. First, consider ALL the options. Many wrong decisions have been made because not all the options were considered. Don’t let fear rule out God’s possibilities. Next, use your imagination to explore what will happen with each choice. You should be able to discern a greater peace as you consider the option the Lord would have you take. That is not to say that there will be total peace with any of the choices. In your spirit there will be total peace over the right choice, but we aren’t always totally in the Spirit and it is not unusual for some turmoil to exist. Just as an umpire has to make a call, be bold enough to follow the direction that gives you the most peace.

The rudder on a ship can’t go any direction until the ship is moving. The ship doesn’t have to be going full steam ahead for the rudder to work, but it does have to be moving. Likewise, we have to act before the peace of God will give us perfect direction. Even if you make a mistake, you will have made it in faith, trying to follow the peace of God in your heart. The Lord can bless a wrong decision made in faith from a pure heart, more than He can bless indecision (Rom. 14:23).

When the right time came, God sent forth His Son from Heaven in His pre-existent state, into the world. He was born of a woman (virgin birth) and was made subject to the requirements of the law. Jesus was sent at a specific time. The entrance of Jesus into the physical realm was not a random thing occurring at a haphazard time. There were developments that had to take place before Christ could come to earth and redeem man. The Father sent His Son to the earth at the earliest possible time. Anytime prior to the time Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, would have been premature.

His purpose for coming into the world was twofold. First, He came to “redeem them that were under the law.” He did this by perfectly keeping the law, fulfilling it, and paying its curse (Mt. 5:17; Gal. 3:13). Thus, Christ delivered us from the entire system of the law. The Greek word for redeem means “to buy OUT OF the slave market.”

Secondly, Christ gave us the status of sonship with all its privileges. Not only were we redeemed from the bondage of the law, but we were redeemed unto sonship. Many people stop short, only realizing what they were delivered from, not what they inherit. Sure, we need to rejoice that we are redeemed, but we also need to move on, and realize the full benefits of our inheritance.

God created us for Himself but we sold ourselves into slavery to the devil. God bought us back through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. No amount of effort, human works, or man’s own righteousness could bring the divine favor that we needed. It was the actual life of God (Lev. 17:11) that purchased our redemption.

In the Jews’ efforts to prevent anything from happening that would cause people to believe that Jesus was resurrected, they gave one of the most sure proofs of His resurrection. They sealed the tomb so it would be obvious if it had been opened and they obtained a guard of soldiers to protect it.

This removes all doubt that the followers of Jesus could have stolen His body. Therefore, the enemies of Jesus became a historical witness that Jesus literally rose from the dead.

The guards told the chief priests everything that happened at the tomb. This means that they had a complete account of the earthquake, the angels rolling away the stone, and the angels giving the message to the women that Jesus was alive from the dead. They may have even seen Jesus walk out of the tomb.

The very ones that the Jews had secured to guarantee there would be no rumors of Jesus being raised from the dead, became the first witnesses and heralds of the resurrection. Yet, with the testimony of impartial, non-religious eyewitnesses, they chose not to believe (Lk. 16:31).

Self-denial is embraced by much of Christianity today. Historically, self-denial has always been a big part of false religion. Most religions of the world teach an abasement of self, but they do it as penitence in order to obtain salvation. This is not the denying of self that the Bible advocates.

True self-denial as the scriptures promote is not self hatred or masochism, but rather an enthroning of Christ above self. We have a new identity in Christ that replaces the old self. We don’t deny self in order to obtain salvation, but it is a love response to what Christ has already done for us. He gave His all for us and we willingly give our all back to Him.

Denying self in an attempt to earn salvation is most always motivated by guilt and characterized by rigid rules. True Christianity, on the other hand, is not the observance of rituals, but a relationship that produces holiness as a fruit and not the root of salvation.

Holiness doesn’t come from the outside and work its way inside. When we are born again we become righteous, and we work that holiness out into our physical lives.

Trying to destroy the power of self through harsh laws actually arouses and strengthens sin. Christians must not let life become a set of rules, but rather a response to a loving relationship with Jesus Christ.