The Devotional – 1109 – Foot Steps in Second Corinthians, On Going

The Devotional – 1109 – Foot Steps in Second Corinthians, On Going

As I have said a time or two before, Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians has some difficult areas to converse on. My observations are just that, an observation, yet I do want everyone who reads to know that I do follow the teaching ministry of my church and other Bible commentators who are conservative and dispensationalist, i.e.; Dr. Thomas Constable, Dr. David Jeremiah and Dr. Michael Youssef. The knowledge of these men is critical to my walk with the LORD, even though I do not agree with all that they say. I am accountable only to the LORD Jesus and He will judge the writings and beliefs of all men. Now just as I find what I believe to be spiritually disagreeable to me in these men at times, I am also aware that you must as well find fault in me. God will certainly straighten us all out in eternity.

Note: The devotional is very late this morning - It was completed at 9 A.M. but when I went to copy and paste it to the blog, I lost the entire message. While I have had some thorny moments over this I am quite certain that the Grace of the LORD Jesus Christ is sufficient and that His strength will be made perfect in my weakness. So let me move on and see if I can rebuild my previous notes.

CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Being in control of our life is top priority, I would compare our control for living to that of driving a car. If I am driving and a critical moment pops up, I am comfortable to make the necessary corrections to stay out of trouble. If someone else is driving my anxiety over the incident can go out of control, my ability to do something is limited and weak because I am not behind the wheel.

The "thorn" in the flesh is something that you and I have no control over, it is being administer by a messenger, one who is sent by Satan himself. Woe! sounds scary, well it should and it is. Yet God who is our Father has a perfect plan for His children. 1 John 3:1-3 - His plan is to purify His children by grace through faith. He will accomplish this by revealing to you and me the sufficiency of His grace, just as he did with all of his apostles and disciples.

If we are living before God and seeking to be Holy, we must be willing to gird up the loins of our mind, to be sober and REST our hope fully upon the grace of God that is always brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. To see this more clearly we must look at the context of 1 Peter chapter 1. Verses 3 - 25 and especially verses 11-13. Yes we have an inheritance and that inheritance is realized in our lives when we learn obedience to God through suffering as Jesus suffered. Hebrews 5:8.

All the words of the HOLY BIBLE are "yea and amen" but I love these words, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness". Wow! Such words are the revelation we need as obedient children to learn to take pleasure in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may REST on me. For when I am weak, which is most of the time, then I am strong. This is short compared to earlier, but I am certain it will do for today.

The Devotional – 1108 – Foot Steps in Second Corinthians, On Going

The Devotional – 1108 – Foot Steps in Second Corinthians, On Going

I sometimes feel that I am the only one who walks out on the limb to see if it will break. So far as I know, the LORD has kept me safe and so I trust Him to continue. It is never comfortable going against the wind of the day and treading in areas where something can send you grasping for safety. I have only been in fear of my physical life once that I can recall and this was during a moment seeking to shut down a diesel generator that was speeding out of control. Even some of the firemen on scene did not know what to do! Yet remembering some things of my past tours on submarines we were able to bring the generator under control, but not before I felt the urge to panic and run away. Sometimes when looking into the Living Word of God and understanding the present condition of Christendom today, the urge to panic spiritually is nearly as real as the physical event I just shared. In my mind, many in churches have never had the experience of having the Spirit of God on them, yet they know they have the Spirit of God in them. Hopefully I can qualify that last sentence this morning, don’t you hope so too?

CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – 2 Corinthians 12:1-6

Now it only takes one negative comment about someone, or the ministry of someone to turn away thousands of would be followers. A negative comment is never justified, an example would be that many have turned a deaf ear to great men of God because of statements made by them regarding a “Spirit led life”, I will not mention any current ones, but people like Watchmen Nee, Andrew Murray and Arthur Pink and many others who wrote about the inner spiritual life of the believer.

Now there is more than one reason (spirituality) that these folks received a deaf ear from most of Christendom, such as the era in which they wrote or the words that they used to express a point of truth. I am convinced that the words written by anyone can easily be picked apart and trampled on just as easily as The Constitution of our great land is being trampled on by educated yet unpatriotic men today who are anxiously seeking to destroy the freedoms of the United States of America.

Well what does the above have to do with 2 Corinthians 12:1-6 – God’s Constitution for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in his children is that we have been freed from indwelling sin, we have a Father/Son relationship with God through His indwelling Spirit, we have the power of God in us to suffer in this present time all the way to Glory and we have the everlasting love of God in us via the Spirit of God. And while we are considered as sheep for the slaughter we know that neither death nor life… or any other created thing shall separate us from the love God and Jesus Christ our LORD, all of this is found in Romans 8:1-39.

The believer who is knowledgeable of this God ordained power in us, can use the power of God and still rightly divide the Word and Glorify God in the process. He or she will not exalt their own personal life or the ministry in which they are in. Notice that even while the apostle Paul understands his vision of heaven, he remains as much out of the picture (lime light) as possible, yet some scold him even for this vision.

Verse 3: And I know such a man – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. I read this as (this was not my plan or will to be in heaven, it was God’s and how He got me there is God's business not his, but bodily or spiritually that man was there, he have no doubt).

Verse 4: how he was caught up into Paradise and how he heard inexpressible things (no choice) in other words the apostle is not bragging or boasting in his own merit as if he had something to do with this, he did not! Yet for God his purpose was clear to Paul at a later moment in time, which we should look at tomorrow. The things Paul heard were not to be repeated in his ministry or shared with on a one on one conversation. It was as he says “unlawful” for him to speak of the things which he knew.

Yet and I think we miss this point, he was able to boast about the experience, he just could not reveal what he heard in heaven, that would be foolish as he says in verse 5 and 6. It is much more profitable to boast in our infirmities since in doing this therein lies the safety net, lest anyone think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me.

Certainly the epistle of 2 Corinthians is one of the most difficult epistle to converse about, but in passages such at this, the epistle makes or builds an excitement of the Spirit led life that most believers in Jesus Christ today have NO KNOWLEDGE of. Some are ignorant and some have been taught to be ignorant. Yet in the heart of many missionaries is stored the visions of the power and glory of God which is a common outworking of God the Holy Spirit in their lives. Without this truth these folks could not survive and it is also true of all of Christendom, yet Christians especially those in the United States struggle to survive. Far too many of us seek to be entertained by the spirit and not indwelt or caught up by the SPIRIT of God.

The Devotional – 1107 – Foot Steps in Second Corinthians, On Going

The Devotional – 1107 – Foot Steps in Second Corinthians, On Going

Now many will agree with this and just as many will not, boasting to some is simply hogwash! While to others boasting provides a needed paradigm (an example of truth) that is missing today in most “conservative churches”. True, we do need to be cautious in that boasting is not bragging, but the church of Jesus Christ is alive is it not? Therefore relating things to one another that are truly spiritual simply adds to living in Christ. Spiritual experiences have not ended as of yet since the church is still active; 1 Thessalonians 5. There is proof of spiritual revelation throughout the history of the church and I believe that many in Christendom today, hunger for current proof of spiritual revelation. Yet, many when they hear someone speak of a vision or a moment of spiritual revelation, they shut down the mind and quench the Spirit. If we take a look at 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 the sin involved in quenching the Spirit is to despise prophecies and failing to give thanks.

CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – 2 Corinthians 12:1-2

The apostle Paul literally says in his opening comment of his “Vision of heaven” “It is necessary, though not profitable, to boast.” In the NKJV it is written this way, “It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast”. So overall the apostle agrees that there is nothing to be gained by boasting, but at times boasting is necessary.

I suppose I could have written more on the above, but then we would not get to the heart of the matter. Boasting of visions and the profitable outcome of both boasting and visions. Many churches seek to gain profit by boasting of spiritual ability. Profiting either by financial income or popularity. All such boasting in this manner is deceptive and controlled by Satan. This is why the apostle says that at times boasting is necessary, but it is not always Spiritually profitable since many simply do not understand and use spirituality for false gain.

The best way for me to write of this would be to refer all of us to 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 where the apostle covers all of the outworking of the Holy Spirit within the church and within the personal life of God’s children with three qualifying words. But now abides Faith, Hope and Love and the greatest of these (gifts) is Love. (Gifts of the Spirit by the way) 1 Cor 13:13. The best way for anyone to test “boasting in the Spirit, (using the command of 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21) is to test these under the guidelines of faith, hope and love.

Spiritually we should be thrilled with the apostle’s experience, some things he says are not explainable, but the things that are, need to be told. Later in his second epistle to Timothy he says that perilous times are coming, men having the form of godliness but willingly denying the power will come and from such we need to turn away from, in other words we need a dose of Spiritual revelation from time to time.

And notice that meditation on spiritual things is a major part of living in Christ; Philippians 4:8-9 in that if we are to have peace with our citizenship in heaven we need to learn, receive and do the spiritual things, things we see in the apostle and others doing. We ought to seek and follow Christ by the example of those in the Bible and not be fearful of spiritual things, a fuller context is Philippians 4:17-4:1-20.