I thought I had finished writing an email when I had an inkling there was something else that needed to be included in it, and there was: As I waited on the Lord, a simple vision of a huge thorn came and I remembered a post I had written two years ago: https://ridetheheavens.com/2021/03/23/the-mystery-of-the-thorn At the time, I didn’t understand all of the mystery in that writing, and even now, I realize that there is more to be revealed. When I write an allegory, its message has to be made known by the Spirit, even to me, the one who is writing it, so if God gives any of you more revelation, please share it. I love it when God supplies the missing pieces of His divine puzzle/mysteries through the members of His body. We are each a composite of the input from many, eh? We would not be who we are, changing and changing into His image without each other.

It’s written that Paul’s thorn came after he had been in the third heaven, and I believe that everyone who fulfills the high calling of Christ Jesus, which has the greater revelations that come with it, are ordained to have the thorn in their lives. We would be tempted to think we were “really something” and that we have “arrived” without it. It might seem like we are high and lifted up at times, but only ONE is…. the One Who is in us. The thorn is a reminder of this that prevents us from thinking more highly than we ought to of ourselves. Hallelujah, for the thorn that keeps God’s people humble! In his excellent book called “Humility,” Andrew Murray states that it is “the root of every virtue and that pride is the root of every sin and evil.” Yes, the thorn is a much needed and very great blessing.

So tell me: Are you, like the Apostle Paul, GLORYING in yours?!?

Note: This is not to say that we accept all that the devil throws at us. We are to resist him and fight the good fight of faith, believing and decreeing that “we were healed by the Lord’s stripes”, (1 Peter 2: 24)…. that “no weapon formed against us shall prosper” (Isaiah 54: 17) and stand on all the other scriptures that bring us into victory IN THE END…..The Bible states that “we must go through much tribulation to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14: 22) and that “the Lord will deliver us from ALL our troubles!” (Psalm 34: 19) It doesn’t say that we won’t have suffering. One of my favorite scriptures is in the “Book of Job” which records him saying: “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but NOW I KNOW YOU! Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust in ashes.” (Job 42: 5, 6) Truly, before all of our troubles come, we just know ABOUT Him, but AFTER we go through suffering, we come to the end of “self’s rule” in our lives, and finally understand God’s ways and thoughts. Yay, sorrow does make our hearts better. (Ecclesiastes 7: 3)

THEREFORE I glory in it all, and thank God for the thorn!