Hindrances to Your Faith

Lesson 3


Paul's Thorn in the flesh.

 


One of the biggest hindrances I have ever seen is the interpretation of Paul’s thorn in the flesh. It has been a stumbling block to so many people for so many years and has caused a lot of harm and anguish in the body of Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:1-10
NIV
12 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh? Some say a sickness, others a disease in his eyes. All speculation, and no scripture to back it. Let’s go through verse 7 and look at the meanings of the words in it.
Thorn - pointed piece of wood, a stake, splinter.

Flesh - carnal, carnally minded, fleshly, The flesh denotes mere human nature, the earthy nature of man apart from divine influence and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God. Most reference to the word Flesh in the Bible are referring to the sinful nature of men ( yes flesh can also mean your physical body)

Buffet - To stick with a stick, the fist, to maltreat, treat with violence

Messenger - angel, messenger, envoy, who is sent.
Satan - adversary who opposes another in purpose or act, circumvents men by his wiles.

If you look at these definitions, you see nothing about sickness in them. It was all an outward action. Coming against him physically and mentally. If you turn to Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians you will see how Paul was buffeted. Verses 23-30 He was beaten, stoned, shipwreck, perils of water, perils of robbers, perils in the city and so on. Not once does he mention some awful disease. In verse 30 he says. If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. (And since sickness was not one of them, he wasn’t talking about physical sickness.)

Numbers 33:55 New Living Translation
But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live.

Ex. 23:33; Num. 33:55; Deut. 7:16; Judges. 2:3 but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.

These scriptures talk about the people of the land becoming pricks in your eyes and thorns in your side. People aren’t sickness!

Of course Satan sent a messenger to buffet him. He was a powerful man of God. He wrote most of the New Testament. He had received revelations from God on a high level and was going to write it down for others to see. If you were his adversary, wouldn’t you try to stop him? He wanted to kill him, but it wasn’t God that sent him. So then people say, but he asked God to remove it and God said NO! Did He???
No He said my Grace is sufficient for you. Not to bear it, but overcome it. How do I know that?

He said so himself in Romans 8:37 "We are MORE than Conquerors!"

If you read in the rest of the chapter he is talking about if anything can separate us from the love of Christ.... Can tribulation, distress, persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril, or sword???...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved. He took God’s grace and put it to use.

Grace means more than just God’s unmerited favour. It means His willingness to become involved on our behalf! "For by Grace are you saved, through Faith." God was not only in favour of us getting saved, He sent His son, to make it possible.

Grace - of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues

So when Paul said he gloried in his infirmities, he meant that he knew that the grace of God was going to help his weaknesses and then he would be strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9 "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the POWER of Christ may rest upon me.....for when I am weak, then I am strong!"

Verse 7 clearly states that it was "the messenger of SATAN, sent to buffet him." Not God!

Years later Paul said this
2 Corinthians 4:17
New International Version
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

When we see Paul's life and what he went through...it amazes me to see that he considered them "momentary troubles".

I believe that he was able to come through all that the devil brought against him because he used the Word of God to get through...because the Power of Christ rested on him.

Even Jesus didn’t get rid of the devil. When he was tempted in the wilderness, it says he (satan) left him for a season. If the son of God had to fight the devil everyday, so do we. Demons followed Him all through His earthly ministry. When He died, they thought they had finally won, but He triumphed over them in it. So can we. When the devil comes against you, don’t lay down and die! Triumph over him in it! Show him the word like Jesus did and he will run like a scared rabbit!

Colossians 2
13When you were dead in your sins and in the un-circumcision of your flesh, God made you. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Jesus was tempted in every way we are. Satan probably tried to make him sick. But he took no sickness because he knew what Deuteronomy 28 said. "If you hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, none of these diseases will come upon you."

If they try to, we don’t have to receive them. Why would God want you sick anyway? Can you effectively do His work if you are sick? He is our loving Heavenly father and wants only the best for us.

In Galations 4:13-14 we see some verses that people try to use to show that Paul was sick.

"You know that through an infirmity of the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you at the first and my TEMPTATION, which was in my flesh, you despised not. nor rejected, by received me as an angel of God."
I believe he was talking about his sinful nature.
Romans 7:15-20

John 3:6
New International Version
6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

If you know anything about the Galatians you will know that they were idol worshippers. In Galatians 3 Paul got carried away speaking to them and called them "Foolish Galatians" And wondered if they had an evil spell cast on them. He learned some wisdom along the way and was apologizing for his exuberance and forcefulness at the first. But thanked them for accepting him anyway. He wasn’t talking about being sick and that they had accepted him anyway. He was now operating in the Spirit by the Holy Spirit instead of reacting with his sinful nature

I believe that Paul was a very aggressive outspoken Man. By his writings we see he didn't pull any punches. I think he mellowed over the years in his delivery of the Word because he had grown in the spirit, by the Holy Spirit.

The idea that God allows you to be sick, or poor, or feeble minded or anything contrary to the Word, is a lie from the devil. He wants to keep you from receiving God’s best. He will do it any way that he can. If he can keep you under, you will not do your best for God.

God wants you well! Why do Christians suffer, get sick and die? Lack of knowledge or unwillingness to accept the truth of the word, rather than man’s "Experience". I know good Christians that have died hanging onto a lie, that God was trying to teach them something. Well they never learned I guess, because they are gone.

God is a good God and only blesses us with good things...not evil.
James 1:16-17 Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Sickness is not a good and perfect gift. Neither is poverty, insanity or any other things that Satan would try to bring against us.

General rule of thumb - If it is Good it is God. If it is Bad it is the Devil!!!

We can't get under condemnation if we are fighting a disease or illness, or don’t have a job. We need to take the truth you have read and heard and apply it to our lives. Build your faith and let God do the rest. Seek His face, study everything you can get your hands on about healing or prosperity or whatever you need. Remember He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him...Hebrews 11:6

Go into the enemy’s camp and take back what he stole from you.

Joel 2:25 God says He will restore back to you all that the years of the locusts, caterpillar, cankerworm and palmerworm have eaten.

If satan has stolen your health, take it back! He’s the biggest worm I know!

Don’t let the traditions of men, make the word of God of no effect!
Matthew 15:7-9
You have nullified the word of God on account of your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, 8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, 9 and they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men

Mark 7:5-13
New International Version
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” 6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

Jesus rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees for holding to traditions, while people were dying and in need. They were worried about Him healing on the Sabbath...and people not washing their hands...

The Word of God is full of teaching that God's will is healing and wholeness...Both Old and New Testament. So why would he put any sickness on any of His children...He wouldn't! If we are being attacked by any kind of sickness...It is Not God. It is the devil. God doesn't have any sickness so he can't put on anyone.

I don’t want any tradition getting in the way of my healing or anything else God has for me. So forget what man has said. Read what God says. Don’t let other peoples "Experiences" keep you from what God has for you.

Many wonderful Christians die everyday from sickness and disease. Does if make them any less of a Christian? No! Does it mean they didn’t go to heaven? No! But it does mean that they had a lack of knowledge, and that they probably went before their time.

Why do Christians suffer? Not God’s plan and not God’s fault. You have a part to play! God cannot do what you don't believe Him for. He has given you a free will! He will not impose on that will, even if it means you stay sick or poor or mentally tormented. He has done all He is going to do. The sacrifice is complete! We have a choice...Choose wisely!

Old Testament Isaiah 53:5
New International Version
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

New Testament 1 Peter 2:24
New International Version
24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

2 Corinthians 13:1b
“Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”

If it says it in His Word it is so!

By Judy Warren

Lesson 4

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