Removing Paul’s Thorn In The Flesh: Part 3

Sorry for delay in writing this installment, I have been without internet for about month. In this discussion I want to address the conversation between Paul and God where he asked God to remove the thorn and God said, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Since we know now that Paul’s thorn was not sickness but merely a bully-threat-tactic the devil used to try and stop him from spreading the gospel further, we also know that God was NOT saying, “Some sickness I will heal and some not.” God doesn’t pick and choose who gets healed. Jesus’ stripes bought healing for all mankind. Our faith as a positive response to what God has already done releases that healing into our bodies.

So what did God mean? I think God was revealing something to Paul that he didn’t yet understand. Paul was facing so much persecution and surely at times he was afraid for his life. I think the reason why he asked God to remove persecution was simply because it is much easier to spread the gospel without opposition and resistance. As long as persecution bothered Paul, there is the possibility that the devil could increase the opposition to the point that Paul would give up. Luckily Paul got what God was trying to say to him. I believe he wrote about it in Philippians.

Phil 1:19-21 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (NKJV)

Here Paul has come to the realization that his life is almost immaterial. Whether he lives or dies makes no difference to God’s ultimate plan and purpose. God’s plan would not fail if Paul were to die. God’s plan won’t fail if you die either. It is Christ who lives in him and through him. As long as Paul is alive on earth, Christ is glorified in his body. The strength to face persecution and not give up comes from grace. If Paul however were to die, as he himself says, it is gain, meaning he cannot lose. Whether he dies or lives another 20 years, he cannot lose. If he dies it is again grace that takes him home to be with the Father. So grace keeps him alive and gives him the strength to go on and the same grace also ensures his eternal life. So live or die, he wins. If you have this attitude, you will also realize that God’s grace is always sufficient. In life on earth or life hereafter, His grace sustains us, keeps us, protects us, delivers us, heals us and is always in all things entirely sufficient.

Heb 11:35 Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. (NKJV)

Some of the early believers who were also tortured and persecuted even gave up the deliverance available to save them just so they could obtain a greater resurrection. In other words their thinking was: “If my body is ripped apart and totally destroyed, my resurrection will give God even more glory and would be a greater testimony then if I die with my body intact.” To us that might sound crazy, but these guys were not just trying to be brave. They lived to give God glory even in their death. Without grace that would be impossible to do. Grace supplies that boldness. So no matter what you are facing right now, sickness, persecution, oppression or anything else the devil is bringing against you, know that God’s grace the sufficient for you. That doesn’t mean sit back and just take it because God is not going to come through; it means acknowledge that the grace is there to be used to overcome any situation. There is no problem greater than the grace of God. Grace is bigger and stronger than any sin, any devil, any sickness, any plan of man or any hindrance to your mission.

Even the devil has a purpose in all this. The devil’s purpose is to be beaten. He is there to be overcome. Sickness is there to be healed. Death is there so Christ’s life can destroy it. Grace is the common denominator that supplies us with the determination, the power, the boldness and the will to get back up, dust ourselves off and run straight back into the battle facing down our enemies even if it kills us. If you have not found anything worth dying for, you have not found anything worth living for either. If you are willing to die for Christ, you will surely be willing to live for Him.

When you lose the fear of death, you lose the final hold the devil has on you to stop you from being effective. Being afraid of dying shows that somewhere deep inside us we still doubt the grace and goodness of God to save us to some degree. If you know for a fact that if you were to die you would just end up in heaven, would you be afraid of dying? Now don’t get me wrong, I do not have a “death wish” but living life and life abundantly means to even be freed from the fear of death.

1 Cor 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (KJV)

Never give up, never surrender.

Cornel

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