A very familiar text that I would like to talk about for a few moments is 2nd Corinthians 12 2nd Corinthians chapter 12.
Because Paul is struggling with something.
We’ve been talking over the last few weeks from the subject God, why are you killing me?
Because sometimes you feel like god is not on your side.
Instead of the great god that you know and love, making things better and better, it seems the more you call on him, he seems to be letting them get worse and worse.
Such was Paul’s situation in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12.
It’s hard to live in the sunshine when your life is full of fog.
You know, the sun is up there somewhere.
You just can’t see it because your vision, your sight of vision is very limited. Very narrow.
Paul says in verse 7, these words.
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason.
To keep me from exalting myself, there was giving me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.
To keep me from exalting myself.
Paul says I had a thorn The Greek word for thorne was used of a splinter or a needle or a fish hook, the the point of a fish hook.
It was an ongoing irritation that he couldn’t shake.
He calls it a thorn.
We’ve grown up, and many of us have put our hands in the thorn bushes and have been cut and have that thorn stick.
Perhaps you’ve had a thorn or splinter in your finger and you couldn’t get at it.
You get a needle and you’re digging and digging and digging, In fact, the more you try to get rid of it, the worst things get if you can’t get rid of it because you’re trying to get rid of it.
You’re trying to get rid of this thing, this situation, this pain, this needling, and it’s driving you crazy.
He says I had a thorn in the flesh. It was related to my physical life.
Now Paul doesn’t tell us what the phone is. There are many guesses.
We know from statements that Paul makes in throughout the new testament, he had eye problems.
He says in one place I’ve written with large letters so that you could read them so that he had to be able to see the right.
He talks about eyes in a number of cases. So, yeah, they could have had an eye problem.
So it could have been a physical thorn.
He talks in another place about many of the burdens that he faced, distress, and persecutions, and than all these mass shipwrecking.
So it could have been a circumstantial burden in his life.
Any number of burdens or needling My guess, and it’s a guess because he doesn’t say, well, maybe he says it depends on how you interpret it.
Because he says in this verse, a messenger of Satan.
So it could be a person in his life.
Who’s driving him crazy. Anybody have a messenger or the devil?
The Bible talks about Satan having human messengers, people who are demonically inspired to make our lives miserable.
And you can’t get rid of them. You know?
Maybe you work next to them and nobody’s getting transferred. Nobody’s getting relocated.
Nobody’s getting fired, and you can’t shake it. Maybe you live with them.
And they’re messages of the devil. In fact, sometimes we say that about people.
You ain’t nothing but the devil. Right? We say that about people.
So it could have been a person, but but we don’t know no because he doesn’t say.
We do know that it was the devil behind it.
And the devil threw whatever this thorn was was making life horrific. Horrific.
It was needling him, and he couldn’t shake it. He couldn’t do anything about it.
He couldn’t get rid of it.
Here’s something you need to know about a thorn, and it’s a critical principle.
It’s a difficult one to accept, but it’s critical if you’re going to deal with the form.
Nothing but nothing gets to you even if it’s from the devil that doesn’t pass through god’s fingers first.
The devil is not sovereign. God is.
He’s powerful, but he’s not sovereign.
Even god said to the devil, have you considered my servant Job?
So the devil only got to mess with Job. Because god ok’d it.
So we’ve gotta get something straight, and it may shake your theology.
It may make your theology uncomfortable to know that god, here it is, will sometimes use the devil to carry out his purposes.
And that that can mess with you a little bit.
That can throw you off a little bit because what because our our position is god in the devil or the eyes with one another.
War with one another. They disagree with one another. It’s good versus evil.
But god, in his purposes, Well, at times, use the devil to fulfill god’s purposes.
Peter told Jesus, everybody’s gonna forsake you except me.
In Luke 22, I am your man. I am never gonna leave you with a statement.
Jesus tells Peter Sachan has requested to sift you his week.
Satan has made a request to have you, which means Saithen gets to you by permission because he made a request.
He has requested to sift you as wheat, then Jesus said, but I’m praying for you that your faith failed not.
So Satan has to get approval.
Sometimes, many times, maybe even most of the time, god blocks him but not all the time.
Not all the time. Why?
I raised the question. Why?
Why would god allow the devil to get to me? As one of his children.
A number of reasons. Number 1, This is the positive.
Is a positive reason or negative reason? Let me give you the positive.
The positive reason is to increase your anointing. Say it again.
The positive reason that god will allow the devil to get to you is to increase your anointing.
Now what do I mean by that? To expand your usefulness for god.
God will let the devil mess with you so that you can experience more of god.
Notice when he says verse 7 first line because of their surpassing greatness of the revelations.
For this reason to keep you from exalting myself that was giving me a thorn.
Because of all the god had done and was gonna do through me. He allowed Satan in.
So I have some good news even though you won’t be happy to hear it, for those who have thorns, irritants, that you wanna shake and you’re trying to shake, but they won’t go away.
God has something special for you. I’ve got good news for you.
And you you’re feeling bad about it because it’s a thorn. It’s a irritant.
But the good news is, god has something special for you.
If you read the first portion chapter 12, Paul has been escorted into the 3rd heaven to see things no other man has ever seen.
He’s the only man who has been escorted or translated to heaven who’s been allowed to come back to Earth to talk about it.
He said, I saw things that are unlawful to other In other words, I can’t even tell you what I saw.
It would blow your mind, he says. I I can’t I’ve been held in secret.
It would be Paul who would offer 13 books in the new testament, the largest new testament writer, it would be Paul who would pin the theology of the church or the book of Romans.
It would be Paul who would be who would be the master influencer of Christianity for the ages.
God gave him a great revelation for a great purpose.
So what I want you to do now in your phone, if you happen to have one right now that you’re dealing with, If I want you to know, god has something special going on.
The negative side of the thorn to keep me from exalting myself.
There was giving me a form in the flesh a message of Satan to torment me.
Oh, So this thing is driving me crazy to torment me to keep me from exalting myself.
The other reason god gives a fawn is to correct an actual or potential sin in our lives.
Here was the center of pride.
See, when you’ve been to the 3rd heaven, are you the only one that been there?
You’re the only one on earth who can talk in detail about what heaven is like.
You there is nobody but you. You are the man. You are the one.
It’s easy to get the big head if you’d only want.
And he’s the only one. Nobody can do that with him.
That tells us that Paul either had the problem or had the propensity for the problem of pride.
So god puts something in his life to keep him humble.
Something in his life as a reminder that his anointing, his calling, he was never to become boastful about.
Something that when he was tempted to exalt himself with pulling right back down, god put a needle to burst the balloon because, you know, you blow a balloon up and get the big head.
It gets inflated. God kept this needle in there to torment him to bring him back down to earth.
So that means he had it or had the propensity for it.
It’s not that he didn’t pray about it, verse 8.
Concerning this, I employed the lord three times that it might leave me.
Glad, get this off of me. Get me away from this person.
Get me away from this situation.
It’d be in a situation where every time and look like you’re about to get out, you get dragged back again.
He says, I’m talking to god.
I I’m talking to god about three times.
One of the questions people will often ask is how often do you pray about something?
The answer till you get 1.
Why did he stop after three times?
Because he said and he said to me. He got a response.
So you keep talking about talking to god until he gives you a response, but you give him the freedom to give you a response.
And he has to have the freedom to give you his response, not the response you want him to give you.
He said, he said to me. So so there was a word from god.
That’s a rhema word because he said it to me. See, that’s a Raymond word.
Ray a Raymond word is a specific utterance with your name on it, not a general message for everybody.
This isn’t this isn’t an envelope with occupant on it.
This is an envelope that’s been mailed to you.
He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.
Translation? I am not going to take away your thorn.
But what I am gonna do is give you something to handle the phone that I’m not gonna take away.
My grace is sufficient.
I don’t want you to turn to it now, but if you have not memorized, 2nd Corinthians 98, just make a note and memorize it.
That verse will hold you steady when life is tormenting you.
And it relates to this phrase, my grace.
I have enough grace for you to handle this.
His prayer was get it off me It’s a get get it off me.
I pray that it might leave me. God’s answer was my grave is sufficient for this needle.
But the good news is it’s because of the greater revelation.
Is something bigger going on here than that you can’t see right now.
Well, what’s this grades gonna do? My power is perfected in weakness.
I’m gonna make you weaker, and I’m a use the devil to do it.
I’m a use the devil to make you weaker so that you can see my power.
God will never be more real to you.
Then when you have something in your life, you cannot fix. You can’t fix it.
You the phone won’t go away.
Nothing you try gets rid of it, and you feel weak, helpless, helpless, helpless.
You don’t know where to turn. You don’t know to whom to turn.
You don’t know if to turn. You are helpless.
He says, my grades is sufficient.
Because with my grace comes the power in the midst of your weakness, Therefore, must not be your power because he just thought you, you were weak.
Well, what am I supposed to do? Most gladly then.
I will boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Okay. Are you sitting down? But I know you are, but that’s rhetorical.
Are you sitting down? Did you just see what he said?
In my weakness, because I’m tormented in this situation and I can’t change.
When I discovered the principle of grace, of the sufficiency of grace.
God’s supply is enough for my situation And this torment is making me weaker.
God just said that his power is perfected or matured or developed when I’m weaker.
Follow this now, the needle is making me weaker.
The torment is making me weaker. It’s it’s breaking me down.
He says, well, in that brokenness, god is actually setting up a power plant.
I will, therefore, most gladly boast about my weakness.
Now that’s not what we do. We complain about our weakness.
What this thing is killing me? This thing has dropped me crazy. I can’t make it.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
He said, I’m a brag about he says, if we is how I get strong.
Since I wanna be strong, I’m a brag about weak.
Your weakness See, we wanna praise because it’s alright.
He says, praise when it’s all wrong. Notice the responsibility.
He says power is perfected in weakness I would rather boast in my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
In other words, I have it. I wanna experience it.
And what’s gonna make what I have, my experience, my boasting.
My making a big deal in the midst of my deep anguish.
Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties, for Christ’s sake because I’m maintaining my Christian position.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
That goes against every fiber of our being that goes against what’s natural.
That goes against every advice we would give anybody or that anybody would give us.
That’s not that’s not normal to boast in my weakness.
To say god this thorn in my life.
I pray that you take it. I want you to take it.
He’s not condemned for praying that it goes away. I wanna be free from this thing.
It’s killing me. It’s killing me. That was his prayer.
He wasn’t blamed for the prayer, but the answer, Paul if I take away your thorn, you’re gonna miss my power.
So, Paul, which would you choose?
Would you have would you be thornless with new power or have a thorn with great power?
And I’m not being mean with the form.
It’s because I got a great anointing for you.
And I gotta keep you humble.
So the fawn is not trying to be mean, although it does hurt.
When my son, uh, Anthony was small, And he he had his first major asthma attack, and he needed a shot of epinephrine.
We took him to the doctor, and this is the first time he saw this long needle.
And the doctor simply said to me, would you hold him down?
Because soon as he saw that needle coming, he went off because he was getting ready to get hit with a phone.
Okay. A needle. And I held him down, and he had one question as he screamed in Holland, Why are you helping him hurt me?
And that’s what I was doing.
I was helping the doctor hurt him because the doctor was gonna hurt him with the needle.
But I understood something he didn’t understand.
That in the pain of the needle would be the power that he needed to face the issue that he was dealing with.
While you’re waiting for your change, and it’s okay to wait for your change.
It’s okay to wait for your chain.
But while you’re waiting, don’t miss the power or the anointing.
Because when I am weak, then I am strong.