We've read Paul's testimony in his letter to the Church in Corinth and about his ministry and the revelation that God,the Father, personally gave to him. In this revelation, we learned letter by letter, what the Father told Paul and as he began walking in this knowledge, Paul continued growing from "faith to faith." He was more mature in his last days than in his first days. Paul told of the times when the devil tried to stop him and to shut him up about the revelation God gave him, about the Church. He said in 2Corinthians 12:1 (Amplified), "I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord."
There have been many instances where we focus more on Paul's trials than on the revelations that he received from God. We've even come to the place where we thought all the problems that became him, came from God Who was testing and afflicting Paul. Can you imagine how God gave him the revelations about being the righteousness of God, as well as the knowledge of God, the Gifts of the Spirit, the sonship relationship, the knowledge of being made to sit together with Jesus in heavenly places. God gave him the mandate and the commission to teach these things to the Church. And, then God put all these different things on Paul, in order to prevent his doing what God called him to do?
If God didn't want us to know all these things, then He could have withheld them from Paul in the first place. Can you imagine that God gave Paul these revelations about the new covenant, told Paul to go and reveal them to the Church, and then did everything to prevent Paul from accomplishing this? Paul was growing in wisdom and favor, just like Jesus did, from the knowledge of God. He didn't understand (like many of us today) the meaning of God's grace (His unmerited favor).
Some things Paul taught have been misconstrued by carnally minded people. He said in 2Corinthians 12:7-9 (Amplified), "And to keep me from being puffed up and to much elated by these exceeding greatness (preeminence) of these revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh (a splinter) a messenger of satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted. Three times I called upon the Lord and besought (Him) about this and begged that it might depart from me. But He said to Me, My grace (My favor and loving kindness and mercy) is enough for you (sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully) For My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in (your) weakness."
God gave Paul the revelation and the calling, while satan tried his best to stop it, leaving Paul not understanding why if he was doing what God told him to do, why am I having all this trouble? Then Paul received the revelation again about the very power of God's grace and mercy. It wasn't God feeling sorry for him, it was God's power being made manifest through him.
We've been taught that it was our Heavenly Father making it tough on Paul, to keep him humble. Paul, though, said it was a "messenger of satan" who was sent to stop him. Which is true? 1Peter 5:6 (Amplified) says, "Therefore humble yourselves (demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation) under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you." Peter, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, said we must "Humble ourselves." He never said that God was going to do it for us. Peter also said that when we did humble ourselves, God would exalt us in due time. Was the Apostle Paul not exalted by God? He was the one God used to write two-thirds of the New Testament. Did God exalt him? Yes, He did, according to Peter, who said in 1Peter 5:8-9 (Amplified), "Be well balanced [this doesn't mean equally in unbelief and in true belief] (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant, and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil roams around like a lion roaring (in fierce hunger) seeking someone to seize upon and devour." Verse 9 goes on, "Withstand him; be firm in faith (against his onset-rooted, established, strong, immovable and determined) knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world."
If God sent satan to afflict us, then are you withstanding him in faith? When do you know whether to submit or withstand? If it's God, then we are to submit and if it is the devil, then we are to withstand him. How are to ever supposed to know what to do to have faith against the onset of the devil?
When we read the Word with carnal minds and don't know what the true will of God is for His family, we have shifted our faith into neutral and are simply revving our engines. We can't go forward or backwards. We are simply in neutral.
We've somehow confused our Heavenly Father with the enemy and cannot distinguish between the two. Peter goes onto say in 1Peter 5:10 (Amplified), "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace (Who imparts all blessing and favor) Who has called you to His (Own) glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you."
God Himself will deliver us "out of afflictions of the devil," by His grace and mercy. Each of us will suffer trials and afflictions as we strive to go on from infancy to adulthood. We have an enemy who wants us to stay babies. There are responsibilities that come with adulthood, as we grow into mature sons of God. These things come with growth. Once we learn to trust in God's grace and mercy, we walk above these things and simply go on from "faith to faith."
We must never allow satan to put us into a place of being in neutral, in our walk with God. If you truly wish to know God's will, then simply watch Jesus. He said in John 6:38 (Amplified), "For I have come down from heaven not to do My Own will and purpose, but to do the will and purpose of Him Who sent Me." Jesus also said in John 18:9 (Amplified) that, "Then they said to Him, Where is this Father of Yours? Jesus answered, You know My Father as little as you know Me. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also."
If Jesus was healing the sick and God was making them sick, then are they of the same will? If God was binding them and Jesus was loosing them, then are they in the same accord? If God was their problem, then Jesus couldn't have been the answer to their problems. God sent Jesus to "undo" the problems they had gotten themselves into, through their failing to walk in the covenant God told them to walk in. They couldn't get out of their problems by themselves, so God had to do it for them. God didn't need to be their problem, because they had already done it by choice, according to Deuteronomy 30:19 (Amplified), "I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live."
We have unknowingly made some very wrong choices, by being carnally minded. We have negated our prayers by repeating the old prayer of, "If it be Thy will." We don't want to pray outside God's will and He isn't obligated to answer prayers outside of His will. Jesus came so that we wouldn't only know God's will, but so we could actually see God's will.
1John 5:14-15 (Amplified)says, "And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him; (we are sure) that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His Own plan) He listens to and hears us." Verse 15 goes on, "And if (since) we (positively) know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know (with settled and absolute knowledge) that we have (granted us as our present possessions) the requests made to Him."
Jesus never prayed for the sick saying, "If it be Thy will Father." He knew that it was the Father's will for them to be whole. He never asked if it was the Father's will for someone to be healed of leprosy or some other crippling disease. Jesus knew God's heart and His will for us.
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