- Well welcome back to the show, everyone.

Have you ever had a prayer and it seemed

like God was silent?

Or maybe you actually received an answer

and the answer was no.

Well, one of the mostprolific writers of the Bible,

the Apostle Paul, can relate.

Let's take a look at some scripture.

It's 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

This is Paul and he says,"Therefore, in order to keep me

"from coming conceited, I wasgiven a thorn in my flesh,

"a messenger of Satan to torment me.

"Three times I pleaded with the Lord

to take it away from me.

"But he said to me, 'Mygrace is sufficient for you,

"'for My power is madeperfect in weakness.'

"Therefore, I will boastall the more gladly

"about my weaknesses, so thatChrist's power may rest on me.

"That is why, for Christ'ssake, I delight in weaknesses,

"in insults, in hardships, inpersecutions, in difficulties.

"for when I am weak, then I am strong."

So Gordon,

- [Gordon] All right.

- The anointed one.

(Gordon chuckling)The gifted one,

we are gonna go into this.

Okay, so what does Paul meanby the thorn in his flesh

and a messenger was sent to him by Satan?

- Well theologians have puzzledover this for centuries.

It is obscure what isthe thorn in the flesh.

There's some speculation that Paul had

some kind of eye condition.

There's, in his letters, youknow, I see what big letters

I write 'cause I'm writing in my own hand.

But I don't think it's that.

I think it's exactly what he says it is

that it's a messenger fromSatan sent to torment him.

So what, exactly, does that,

how did that resolve itself in his life?

I think he was anintentionally quiet about that.

And I think there's good reason that

you don't want Christianstrying to imitate that

and say well I now havePaul's messenger of Satan

and you know, "look howholy I am 'cause I've got

the messenger of Satan."

You can get into a penancemindset and he didn't want that.

His whole theology isbased on the theology

of Jesus Christ doing everything.

You can have fellowshipwith His sufferings,

but you don't ever addanything to the cross.

So the messenger of Satan is,

the reason he has it is in the first part

of that same chapter.

You know, it's the verse you quoted,

therefore, so I wouldn't get conceited.

What was going to make Paulconceited was the abundance

of revelation he had.

And right before that,he's talking about himself

being carried up into the third heaven.

He's having a visions andphysically being pressed

is it's unbelievable the conceptthat you could have that,

being told things thatit's not lawful to discuss.

He couldn't tell us what he had observed

in that third heaven.

But here he is saying I can't tell you.

The Apostle John had thesame experience, you know,

I heard a voice, come up here.

And so he's up, literally inthe throne room seeing the end

of days and he's givenauthority to write it.

Paul wasn't.

And so because of theabundance of that revelation

there was a messenger ofSatan sent to afflict him.

Now, don't take this thewrong way, but unless you've

had that experience(chuckling) don't expect

to get a messenger of Satan.

It's all designed to keepyou from getting conceited

to that you would think more

of yourself than you really should.

You know, the great heroes of the Bible,

Moses was the most humble man on earth.

That's what the Bible says.

Paul had great humility.

Here he is, an Apostle,he boasts on his gifting

and calling, but henever boasts on himself.

He boasts on what Jesus has done for him.

And that's the proper attitude.

And then he says in this verse,

"I boast about my weaknesses."

So he talks about the numberof times he's been beaten,

the number of times he's been in prison,

the number of times he's been shipwrecked.

And he says well, theseare all points of time

of great weakness, but in that,

the power of Christ was made perfect.

So for us as believers,when you think you're weak

it's actually yourgreatest point of strength

'cause you can finally get out of the way

and let God do it for you.

And so that makes you very strong.