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I believe the thorn in his side was the attitude of some of the people he taught. He taught as Jesus taught and some of the "followers" wanted to pick and choose which beliefs they wanted to follow. This caused the split in the Church.
To me it was a spiritual thorn, something or someone that opposed him;
this kept Paul on his toes, praying always, he spoke a lot about being puffed up with pride and haughtiness; high-mindedness; and it's so easy to fall into these type of temptations and sins;
So I agree with most of t he above replies;
I don't feel that anyone will ever really know what this thorn was.
But I have experienced this in my walk with Christ;
No matter where i go and who i'm around, this same behaviour will occur from at least one person: and it is a tormenting type of spirit, that will control at least one person
and this thing (I call it a thorn) , mocks at me, and forces me to pray; A noise demon if you will;
I can go to the most remote place, and something or most times at least one person will keep up a harrassing type of noise, loud music, television, thumping etc., and will continue, until I position myself .........spiritually
I have at times thought that this is a weird phenomena/occurenece...
I've prayed about this, and I believe I understand that it is a thorn in my flesh, similar to that of Paul.
Hope I haven't been too redundant, but it's difficult to explain
which leadf to believe that Paul would have told the epistles about it, had he found the words to explain this weird coincidence, that kept happening to him, no matter where he went, or who he was around.
My $.02 cents
God Bless You
God bless your peace, grace, mercy unto you today.
Yes we suffer in Christ's sufferings, All unbelief is a weopon agaisnt all who believe truly in faith. It is against the Spirit of God in His obedient worshipers, of those who worship Him alone.
The thorn: Paul thanked God profusely that His disease kept him to the will of God, it was given to him for he asked for it to keep him to the will of God. Lord God shake me brake me us me have your way in me.
It is a death defying disease, or teeth rotting, and at the same time in faith having only God to direct us to His true healing. The word His gospel, by His stripes we must believe in faith we are healed. If we run to a doctor or dentist we fail, and we will get another thorn to keep us to Him if we are true in desiring His calling. We fail and worship another we do not believe in Him alone when we run to men for help when their help is vain, empty.
Wait, you mean you don't accept help from anyone for anything unless it comes directly from God Himself? Not even a dentist? With all due respect, How are we supposed to help and serve one another on this Earth? This reminds me of a modern parable:
There was a man who crawled on top of his roof in a flood to avoid drowning. Telling all who tried to help him that his God would save, him, he refused help from first a crew in a raft, then a boat, then later a helicopter who passed by to save people. Soon he drowned when the water came up higher than the rooftop. Confused when he got to heaven's gates, he asked God, "Why didn't you save me?" God's answer: "I sent a raft, a boat, and even a helicopter to save you, but you refused them all- what more did you want?"
Paul suffered fronte hernia but inspite of his persistent prayers God did not heal him but comforted him with those powerful words. Paul the healer also suffered affliction! God is indeed mysterious.
In Romans 7 Apostle Paul reasons with the law and sin and say how he struggles with the sin in his flesh on his members of his body and reason with the ways of Christ .... but it does sound like he did struggle with lust or covetness in the flesh .... Like in Romans 7: 24... Paul said `` O wretched man that I am! who will deliver me from the body of this death?``....verse 25``I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.....
Wait, you mean you don't accept help from anyone for anything unless it comes directly from God Himself? Not even a dentist? With all due respect, How are we supposed to help and serve one another on this Earth? This reminds me of a modern parable:
There was a man who crawled on top of his roof in a flood to avoid drowning. Telling all who tried to help him that his God would save, him, he refused help from first a crew in a raft, then a boat, then later a helicopter who passed by to save people. Soon he drowned when the water came up higher than the rooftop. Confused when he got to heaven's gates, he asked God, "Why didn't you save me?" God's answer: "I sent a raft, a boat, and even a helicopter to save you, but you refused them all- what more did you want?"
Kind of like God will do for us what we can't do for ourselves but he won't do for us what we can do for ourselves.
Wait, you mean you don't accept help from anyone for anything unless it comes directly from God Himself? Not even a dentist? With all due respect, How are we supposed to help and serve one another on this Earth? This reminds me of a modern parable:
There was a man who crawled on top of his roof in a flood to avoid drowning. Telling all who tried to help him that his God would save, him, he refused help from first a crew in a raft, then a boat, then later a helicopter who passed by to save people. Soon he drowned when the water came up higher than the rooftop. Confused when he got to heaven's gates, he asked God, "Why didn't you save me?" God's answer: "I sent a raft, a boat, and even a helicopter to save you, but you refused them all- what more did you want?"
True faith means not taking medication but trusting the Lord for everything even sickness. Modern man has no such faith. Paul had the faith, so prayed to God to take away his hernia but God did not do it. A lesson to people who think that God must answer all their prayers.
I believe that the thorn in Paul's side was some carnal sin, or desire ... It may have been something else, but he said that the lord told him that the grace of God would suffice. Its seems to me to have been something to do with his Pride.
Last edited by Ironmaw1776; 05-07-2011 at 11:01 AM..
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Wait, you mean you don't accept help from anyone for anything unless it comes directly from God Himself? Not even a dentist? With all due respect, How are we supposed to help and serve one another on this Earth? This reminds me of a modern parable:
