A THORN IN THE FLESH – PART TEN
Saturday – April 7, 2018
God is so good to give us His Word with which to build our faith. The Word of God is the most powerful thing that exists. When an Anointed man or woman of God speaks the Word of God in the name of Jesus the Power of God and all the resources of Heaven and earth, which are inexhaustible, move to bring the Word to pass for the glory of God. What a mighty God we serve with joy and of our own free will. Just think about who we are in Christ Jesus. O saints of God rejoice! For the last nine Saturdays we have been exploring the issues associated with Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”. The same things that led to Paul’s prayer failures are present in our prayer failures. Religion (traditions of men and the doctrines of demons) has perverted our text and called it the Truth. Suffering for the Kingdom of God has to do with putting up with stuff. Suffering for the Kingdom of God does not include poverty, sickness, or any other thing part of the curse. Once again let us read our primary text aloud letting every Word sink into our thinking and what we know about the Word of God. I have built an extensive foundation for clear understanding of this Scripture and many others.
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.
Last Saturday I left off talking about the Anointing and faith resulting in the forgiveness of sin and making the physical body whole. Our sins are forgiven when we have faith in the Word of God that we have heard. Healing occurs when we have faith in the Word of God that we have heard. Remember, the Power of God was present to heal them all. That Power was the Holy Spirit, the Anointing on Jesus, however only the man who came in through the roof had faith and was healed and set free of his sin. Faith comes by hearing and the ability to hear comes by the Word of God. Of course, all of us hear the physical sounds of the words but are we hearing with our spiritual ears and making those Words or own words? This is not an accidental process, it must be done on purpose with diligence. We must give attention like in school when we are expecting to be tested, the devil will test us for sure. Let’s move to a Bible text that is considered by many to be the premier teaching on faith by Jesus Himself.
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.
We are not to read this as a nice story about Jesus and what He could do but has little to no relevance to us. Jesus is teaching us something here! This is the same Jesus who told us to do everything He did and to do the greater things (John 14:12). As we look at the twenty-second verse we see the KJV translation as having faith in God. We know from Hebrews 11:6 that we cannot please God except by faith. Believing God, trusting God, thinking of our Blood Covenant as absolute unchanging Truth is essential to our relationship with God. Other translations say to have the faith of God.
Mark 11:22 (YLT)
22 And Jesus answering saith to them, `Have faith of God;
The Message translation puts it a little more as to how we might say it today.
Mark 11:22 (MSG)
22 Jesus was matter-of-fact: “Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it,
Let’s take a moment and think about the origin of faith. Faith is of God both spiritual and natural. Faith is a fruit of the spirit, our spirit. Where did our spirit come from? Originally from God, our spiritual DNA is His DNA. We share the divine nature of God.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Oh my, Peter must have gotten confused momentarily (sarcasm). One cannot partake of the divine nature without having a divine nature. Let’s let that sink in for a moment. I can see all the religious people with their hair on fire but the Word is the Word. The first faith we develop is for salvation however following that we are obligated to develop faith for all of the things of the Kingdom. Faith to receive of the benefits like healing and faith to discharge our responsibilities like decreeing a thing and seeing it performed before our eyes by the Holy Spirit. Do not misinterpret, this is not random decreeing according to our flesh but decreeing as led of the Spirit of God and according to our Covenant sealed with the precious Blood of Jesus. Since we have the spiritual DNA of God, our capacity for faith is the same as that of God. Embrace the Word of God and walk it out. I will leave this right here for this week and pickup here Lord willing next Saturday.
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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