In John 20:24-29, Thomas, Jesus’ disciple was having a meltdown of his faith in the supernatural.   As one of the disciples, Thomas had seen thousands of miracles including the resurrection of the dead.  But when Jesus was resurrected, Thomas could not believe it.  Thomas was not having a left-brain moment.  Thomas was deeply disappointed that Jesus had died and too often disappointment changes our theology.  Disappointment hits us deep in our emotions and we change how we pray and view God.

Three years ago, when we started the church, we prayed for healing.  We believed that God was going to heal people and He has healed many.  We also prayed against cancer and people did not get healed.   Some people died.  Each incident was either a moment for disappointment or a moment to learn.  I knew if we stayed in our disappointment it would give birth to doubt and change our theology about prayer.  If we created a theology that protected ourselves from being disappointed then we would never see anyone healed of cancer.   Disappointment creates a spirit of doubt.  When Jesus stood before Thomas, he cast out the spirit of doubt.  (John 20: 27)  The phrase “stop doubting” could be translated “cast doubt out of existence.”  If the spirit of doubt was allowed to remain in Thomas, it could have easily affected the rest of the disciples.

Through the grace of God, we have seen people healed of cancer.  A number of people who had been diagnosed with cancer are now cancer free and not as a result of medical treatment but as a result of God’s power.   One lady had been diagnosed with leukemia and a few weeks later, the doctor was amazed at the reversal of the blood count and all leukemia was gone.  He remarked that he has never seen or heard of this happening.

Recently, I attended an evening meeting with Heidi Baker who has seen thousands of people healed. She lives in Mozambique and many are being healed of blindness.  When she first started praying for the blind, nobody was healed.  She prayed for a year before the first person was healed.  I think many of us do not attempt to pray for healing of the blind because we do not want to be disappointed.  Even if we did pray for the blind, many of us would stop praying after seeing no success.  I believe that when we pray for year or a season of time without success, God is able to teach us His perseverance.  In perseverance, we learn to deal with our disappointments, doubts and unbelief.

Disappointment leads to doubt.  Doubt leads to changed theology.  Changed theology leads us to stop praying.  If you are having serious issues of doubt, I would suggest that you read the article from Paul Cox and pray the prayer at the end of the article.  (link below)  Paul Cox says, “The nature of the double-minded person is that he or she operates in doubt and not in faith.  In other words, there is a trust issue with God.  If one's understanding of God is simply an intellectual understanding and not based on a personal experiential relationship with the Lord, then the logical mind can easily waver based on circumstances.”  (click for full article and prayer to break the spirit of double mindedness.)