How did Christ respond to Paul’s prayer to remove the thorn?

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The Lord Jesus assured Paul that the torment (even though a messenger of Satan) was from Him so His power would be perfected in Paul’s weakness. Also, the Lord promised Paul that grace had been given along with the thorn—grace that was perfectly adequate to carry Paul along in victory.

Doesn’t this contradict what we have just taught?

No, it does not. If we as a Christian will pray and believe God for the answer to our prayers, God will hear us and give us our desire.

If we, praying diligently several times as Paul did, breakthrough in prayer to the point where we hear the Lord’s special assurance in our spirit that though circumstances are not to our liking they nevertheless are His will for this season, we then are to praise the Lord and cooperate with His leading in the problem.

Such prayerful diligence and obedience is far different from passively accepting our situation, or praising God for all that is happening to us, or endlessly attempting to "rebuke the devil," or running about here and there to get various "healers" or "deliverers" to pray for us.

We may be suffering because of our lack of knowledge or prayer, because of our faithlessness, disobedience, and spiritual uncleanness. Accepting our plight and praising God for our pain are not appropriate behaviours unless we add to these our fervent prayers to God for His help, correction, and deliverance.

Judgment falls on a saint because of his sin. Is he then to praise God that such is God’s will for him and continue in his sin? Not at all! He is to change his behaviour, take up his cross, and patiently follow the Master. This is the way of Christ.

When we are afflicted we are to pray that God will deliver us from all our fears and troubles, meanwhile looking to see if there are areas of our behaviour that are not pleasing to the Holy Spirit. Also, we always are to praise God for His ever-present help in our hour of need.

Now we come to one of the main concepts of Second Corinthians. We mentioned this concept earlier in our study guide when discussing verse four of Chapter One. It is the concept of life from death.

The Lord’s power is perfected in our weakness. His grace enables us to march on in triumph when such victory would be impossible because of the pressures closing in on us from every side.

Let us quote from previous pages:

"Life from death," "ministry from the cross," "strength from weakness," "the overflow of resurrection life," "I am crucified, nevertheless I live," "here is one of the key aspects of the Christian discipleship of victory and service." Union with the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the heart of the new covenant.

Again, when examining what we stated previously concerning verse eleven of Chapter Four:

" . . . such suffering provides the opportunity for the eternal, indestructible, resurrection life of Jesus to raise them up (Christ’s servants). The servants of the Lord thus are driven to live by the power of Christ’s resurrection rather than by their own energy and wisdom."

Paul was a man of exceptional personal ability and he had been trained from a boy to be expert in the Law of God. Therefore the Lord Jesus kept Paul off balance, just as he keeps you and me off balance, so that the Glory of Christ would be revealed to the world rather than the intellectual brilliance of Saul of Tarsus.

Jesus could have appeared to Paul before he assisted in the stoning of Stephen, sparing Paul that mental anguish throughout his ministry. Jesus has His ways of keeping us off balance. But all His dealings with His saints are loving and necessary for our welfare.

God never will share His glory with another. If the Kingdom of God is to be built, God will build it. Every one of His servants must be hindered in such a manner that the power and wisdom proceed from the Spirit of God rather than from the energy and talents of the Christian worker.

Christ, not we, builds His Church on the Rock that He Himself Is.

If we desire that the Glory of the Lord be revealed in the earth, we must allow the Lord to break us and use us as He will. It is necessary that He bring to nothing all our abilities. Such weakness on our part makes possible the bringing of the Glory of God to mankind.

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