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

If you didn’t read my previous article, please do so before you read this one (But just as a recap: The thorn was not sent from God, it was not sent to humble/humiliate Paul and it was not a sickness). This time I want to address what the thorn actually is and why it was sent. In the previous article I showed that when Paul referred to his thorn he called it his infirmity which I showed to be the persecution he suffered while spreading the gospel.

Matt 5:11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.” (NKJV)

Luke 11:49 Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute (NKJV)

John 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (NKJV)

There are many more verses like this where Jesus spoke of the persecution some believers will face for His Name’s sake. The awesome work He did on the cross to provide us with salvation and healing did not include setting us free from the hate the world has for us. In fact, being saved is what pulled us out of the world. That is the reason why it hates us now, more than it did before we were saved and why it is trying to destroy us. When we accepted Jesus, we turned our back on the world and the devil in regards to their ways and their destiny. After being saved we turn back to the world to bring salvation to those still caught in it. When you actually do this, you make the devil pretty angry. When you do it with signs and wonders following like Paul did, you definitely rub him up the wrong way (And making him angry is not something to fear, it is actually something you should enjoy doing!). Since your spirit is now united with Christ, hidden in Him and seated with Him in the Heavenlies, the devil cannot find the real you to destroy you, yet your unredeemed body and soul can still be attacked. That is how this spiritual being (messenger from satan, unclean spirit, demon etc) could inflict damage to Paul’s body (flesh).

The thing you need to understand about persecution is the reason why it was employed. Why were Christians imprisoned or killed? Because that was the most effective way the devil could stop them from reaching a problem that needed the power of God. When an early Christian reached a problem, the problem got solved with the power of God. Jesus said to heal through laying our hands on people. If you can keep the Christian from the sick person, you in effect stop the delivery of God’s power to that sick person through the laying on of hands. I know you can minister over a long distance, but long distance, though effective, should not be the first line of attack. Let me explain it like this: You are walking in the mall and see a man in a wheelchair. In your head you pray and command healing to restore his ability to walk. Suddenly he jumps out of his chairs and shouts: “I can walk!” You run up and say, “Yes, it is because I just prayed for you and God loves you, He did this.” That guy is going to look at you very funny and think, “Whatever!” Now imagine the same scenario but instead of praying in your head, you go over to the man and tell him the Gospel: that God loves him and God is bigger than his paralysis. Then lay your hands and command him to get up. If he then gets up and shouts, “I can walk!”, will there be any doubt that it was actually God? No, and that is why Jesus said “Go!” and not “Watch and pray in your head.”

If you are there to actually speak the gospel (which is the power of God unto salvation) and then lay hands and heal somebody, it is much more effective display of the love of God towards a person then when just praying for them over a distance, them getting well and not knowing why. Back to the point, if you can physically stop the believer from reaching the person or problem, you reduce the authenticity and effectiveness of the gospel for the person with the problem. The physical restraining is what we refer to as persecution. Anything that physically stops or tries to stop you from spreading the Gospel is a form of persecution. That persecution is the messenger of satan. What is the messenger’s message? “If you don’t stop spreading the Gospel I am going to kill you!” It is merely a scare tactic the devil uses to try and stop us from fulfilling the great commission. The downside for us is that it hurts, even kills and it is not nice to go through things like Paul or the underground church in China goes through. The upside is that the greatest periods of growth in Christianity happened during the greatest periods of persecution. The further you chase somebody, the further they get. The disciples went to one town, spread the gospel there and got persecuted for it. The persecution forced them to go to a new town and do the same thing. If there were no persecution in the first town, the disciples would have probably stayed there and the gospel would not have reached the nations.

Paul asked for this messenger to be taken away three times, and three times God said, “My Grace is sufficient for you.” What does that mean? If you want to know, look out for Part 3 in this series J But to end of, ask yourself honestly: What is keeping me from going? What is hindering me from stepping out for Jesus? Any excuse you give is the very thing that is keeping you from walking out your destiny, the Great Commission, here on earth.

Glory to God! Freedom to Man!

Cornel