Thorn In The Flesh

What is thorn in the flesh to Apostle Paul? Apostle Paul never said, but he offered one tantalizing clue: “To keep me from getting puffed up, I was given a thorn in my flesh”

2 Corinthians 12:7 ~ And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.

Whatever it was, this thorn indeed humbled him. Many preachers said it was a physical problem, such as recurring malaria or a kind of sickness, since he traveled through some swampy lands. Or perhaps it was epilepsy. Because of this wrong understanding, many believers still believe that the sickness that they have are from God and the purpose is to humble them... But my friend, Apostle Paul was so anointed with divine life that handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him could heal the sicks and cast out evil spirits.

Acts 19:11-15 ~ God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. (One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"

Others think that his thorn was the troublesome Corinthian church he started. The word thorn did not show up anywhere else in the New Testament except in his epistle to the Corinthians. Lets bear in mind that Apostle Paul did not had the New Testament like us. Through his revelation from his Jewish Bible, he wrote two third of the New Testament and this Jewish Bible he used was the Old Testament. There in the Book of Numbers, it describes what the Canaanites would become to the Jewish people – “thorns in your sides”

Numbers 33:55 ~ But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live.

So to Paul, thorn in the flesh was not a sickness but a character… As such, do you have thorn in your flesh? Well, I have... and concerning this thing, Apostle Paul pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from him. But the Lord said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."

It is in the Grace of God that a thorn is still call a thorn. Legalism would alienate thorn, throw into the fire and burn. Legalism is contradicting to Paul's revelation on one Body, many parts in this same epistle. Therefore, I want to have the revelation that Apostle Paul had for he chose to boast in his infirmities, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me...