Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  2024  Day 105

April 14;       2 Corinthians 12:2;        161/260;        ‘The Third Heaven’

2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago — whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows — such a one was caught up to the third heaven.

Paul was an incredibly scholarly man.  Prior to meeting Jesus, it is said that he was the most scholarly Pharisee in all of Israel.  Quite often, the Lord can take natural talents and ‘sanctify’ them for His use.  The epistles, or letters to the churches and ministers, written by Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, contain incredible revelation concerning who we are as Christians, what we have been given as Christians and what we can do as Christians.  Fourteen years ago refers to the time prior to Paul’s ministry and missionary trips.  He was taken to heaven and it must have been at that time that the Lord taught Paul all of the revelation truths that he taught the churches, ministers and us in the his letters.  Because of these incredible doctrinal truths given to Paul and because of his steadfast diligence to minister what he had been taught, satan assigned a demon to Paul to constantly harass and hinder his ministry wherever he went.  Paul’s thorn in the flesh (verse 7) was a messenger of satan, sent to do all he could to prevent Paul from sharing the life changing truths Paul had been shown.  Paul was not sick.  Paul pleaded with the Lord for the demon to depart and was told the Lord’s grace is sufficient.  In other words Paul had authority to bind the demon and God’s grace would enable Paul to minister even if there was demonic harassment.  Paul, realizing the privilege he had, to be taught by the Lord in heaven, knew the sacredness of what he had been given.  Much was given, Paul surely gave much back.