A THORN IN THE FLESH – PART ELEVEN
Saturday – April 14, 2018
Greetings and welcome back to our study of Paul’s thorn in the flesh and the issue with removing that thorn. Initially, the Apostle Paul experienced a prayer failure but the Lord in His mercy showed, perhaps reminded, the flaw in his approach and the solution. If you are new to this study I very strongly urge you to go back to part one and study forward. I don’t know who would suggest it rational to start any topic or book toward the end or conclusion without knowing the foundation built to that point. At this point, I am talking about the intercept of faith with our authority and the Anointing. First, let’s read aloud our primary Bible text from the Book of Second Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 12:6-10 (KJV)
6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
As we come into the passage we just read we learn of a man who was taken to Heaven and witnessed extraordinary things there. He realized that he had been given astonishing revelation of God. As we read through the text we see that the Apostle Paul attributes this “thorn in the flesh” to be a result of his revelation and to keep him from bragging, boasting, or being exalted above measure. That brings us to his plea for the Lord on three occasions to remove this thorn, which Paul identified as a messenger of Satan. The Lord’s answer was that His Grace (Holy Spirit) was sufficient to the occasion. Consider the (A) portion of the following verse for this situation.
Romans 4:16 (KJV)
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
Grace, the Power of God, does not flow in the absence of faith. For things to happen in the earth the Lord has given me the example of a sandwich. Think of all that God has done before our salvation as the bottom slice of bread, the foundation upon which the contents of the sandwich will sit. When I say all that God has done I am talking about the creation, the mandates, the giving of dominion, the giving of the Blessing to backup the dominion (authority) and the getting it all back (and more) at the Cross after man sinned. We are the contents of the sandwich, sitting upon the one slice of bread but the sandwich is not complete. The adding of the second slice of bread completes the sandwich and does what the contents could never do, that is be a slice of bread. In every situation there is our part which we do standing on the firm foundation of Christ Jesus, and when we have done what we can do in the natural the Holy Spirit completes the job doing what we could not do. Now, back to our secondary Scriptural text which we started yesterday, read aloud.
Mark 11:22-25 (KJV)
22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
I discussed yesterday how it is vital that we have faith in God for two huge reasons. One is that we cannot please Him without faith, and two we cannot have any supernatural accomplishments for the Kingdom without faith. The other Truth that is bedrock to our thinking is to know without wavering that our faith is the same faith that God possesses. Of course, our faith is feeble at best at salvation but very sufficient for salvation. It is our responsibility to diligently increase our faith from that day to likely forever. We are to have faith now on a par with Jesus in His earthly ministry, and faith now that is sufficient to accomplish the greater things Jesus commanded us to accomplish. We have got to get that old religious perverted mindset out of our consciousness that we are not worthy and can never come to that level.
2 Thessalonians 1:11 (KJV)
11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
Jesus made us worthy at Calvary, let us quit despising His sacrifice. To not come to that level is abject failure to do the commands of our Lord. As we bring our focus back to Mark 11:23 let me ask you, who is excluded with the term “whosoever”? No one is excluded! Faith is the vital ingredient. The mountain Jesus is talking about is anything in our life that is impeding our service in the Kingdom of God. Do you think that Paul’s thorn in the flesh could fall into that category? Does Jesus tell us to have a silent prayer? No, no, and no, we must speak directly to the mountain! Remember He spoke to the storm, to Peter’s mother-in-law’s fever, and to Lazarus in the grave. Go into the gospels and look for even one occasion where Jesus asked the Father to heal anyone, raise anyone from the dead, or to calm any storm. Yes, the Father did the work but only after Jesus of Nazareth (as a man) exercised authority in the earth. The slices of bread are indispensable to the sandwich and without them the sandwich does not exist however the filling is equally essential. However, the filling must give thanks to the slices for without them he cannot exist.
As we move on with our text in the twenty-third verse we find that we have to tell the mountain (problem/impediment) what to do. In this case the mountain is to go into the sea, out of the way, and out of sight. This is done in the authority of a king. A king generally does not get into the details of how a project will be accomplished and neither should we. The details are up to the Holy Spirit. We have a saying that the devil is in the details, well God is in the details as well. It is enough for us to command the disease, the mountain, God will take care of the details. When we give the command, we must not doubt. When a king gives an order, he does not wonder if his men will do it, he knows it will be done, the timing is the only thing he may not know. If we are thinking as we give the command; “I sure hope this works”, forget it, it is not coming to pass. We must have an unwavering faith, belief, confidence in our Blood Covenant. Notice the phrase “but shall believe that those things which he saith”. As I have taught many times before the word “thing or things” can commonly be translated as “word or words”. We have to believe that the words we are saying will manifest, there is no other option. Under these conditions, the mountain moves into the sea, Paul’s thorn, your thorns and mine will depart. I will pickup here next Saturday the Lord willing.
Until our next publication, I speak blessing into your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
Numbers 6:24-26 (KJV)
24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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