Paul’s Thorn In The Flesh Was Not Given To Humble Him!

[image error]Lately we’ve been laying some of the foundations for being completely convinced from scripture of God’s will to heal. We started with 13 Solid Biblical Proofs Of God’s Will To Heal. Then we answered the question If Jesus Redeemed Us From Sickness, Why Are So Many Christians Sick? Last week we gave The Answer To Job’s Question. Today we have part 1 of a series on Paul’s thorn in the flesh.

This is one of the scripture passages that has been most abused with terrible exegesis and reading human traditions into scripture. When I got a solid scriptural understanding of this and of the book of Job, my life changed forever! Here’s part 1 of a solid take on Paul’s thorn, which uses scripture to interpret scripture. These two posts are adapted from an excerpt of my book The Power-And-Love Sandwich. If you haven’t already, you can support my work by purchasing a copy here.

Being Exalted Is Never Pride

Often, the fear that powerful spiritual experiences will lead to pride comes from a confused interpretation of what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. When I was at the Healing Fusion conference, a preacher named Joe McIntyre shared about this passage, and it changed the way I saw everything! Most of what I have to say here was inspired by his sermon, although I have added some of my own thoughts as well.

“Being exalted” in 2 Corinthians 12 is not pride, but it is a good thing. A detailed explanation of 2 Corinthians 12 is necessary to make the case that we should not expect supernatural experiences to lead us into pride, but rather that they should humble us. This may be one of the most misunderstood passages in the Bible. Let’s look at what it says in the KJV:

2 Corinthians 12: 2-4 (KJV) I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth