Andrew Wommack - God Wants You Well - Part 9

Welcome to our Thursday’s broadcast of The Gospel Truth. Today I am continuing a series talking about, God wants you well. We’re nearing our end of the second week of this teaching and I’ve still got another few weeks to go on this. I tell you, there is a lot of material in the Word of God about healing and there is a lot of doctrine to change and to challenge. The church, by in large, has rejected healing.

Now, that needs a little bit of qualification. I think that most Christians would admit that God can heal and that even sometimes a person may get healed, they might accept healing on a random basis, but to come out with a statement that healing is in God’s will for you, that it’s a part of the atonement, as a whole, the body of Christ would reject that and I’ve been trying to make this point that it’s exactly that way, that God wants you well. He’s provided it, it’s a part of his atonement and it’s not just for some people, it’s for every person. A verse that I haven’t used that makes this point very clearly is 3 John, chapter 1, verse 2, and it says, beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers.

Man, that’s a huge statement right there. I wish above all things, not some things, this is paramount, that you might prosper, and be in health, even as your soul prospers. That is not the attitude of the basic church and Christian today. Instead, they actually have embraced sickness believing that it’s something good that God has sent, but I’ve tried to change that.

So, what I want to do today is to begin to start dealing with Paul’s thorn in the flesh. He wrote about this in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, and I just want to turn over and read these scriptures, and let me say, I made this point on our program yesterday, but if you didn’t already have a bias and a prejudice, if this hasn’t been taught against so much, I don’t believe that people would get from these scriptures what religion has taught, but once it’s taught and once it’s been repeated over and over and over, it’s like you can’t even mention Paul’s thorn in the flesh without people just instantly coming to wrong conclusions. Somehow or another, I would like you to just open up your heart and as I read these things, read it like you’ve never read it before.

Let the scriptures speak to you without having tradition speak to you and tell you what this says. Read it with an open mind, and if you’ll do that, I believe that you’ll get some things out of this that will totally change your opinion on Paul’s thorn in the flesh. So, here in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, and in verse 6 it says, «For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool». The terminology here is awkward for us, but this is just talking about, I’m not going to act like an unbeliever.

That’s what he’s calling a fool here, I’m not going to act like a lost man. He says, for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of satan to Buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Now, this passage of scripture, here’s the way it’s traditionally been interpreted, the way that probably most of you watching this program have read this, that God gave Paul some type of a sickness, that he asked three times for God to heal him of this sickness and God wouldn’t do it because God wanted him to stay sick, and so this is what’s taught and people, anytime I teach on healing they’ll always bring this up and say, well what about the apostle Paul? The apostle Paul wrote half of the New Testament and he had a sickness and God wouldn’t take it away. God said that he gave it to him to humble him and do all of this. Well, first of all, again, this is tradition.

Look at what the scripture says right here. In verse 7, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, comma, the messenger of satan to Buffet me. He says it was a messenger of satan, not a messenger of God, and yet, despite what the scripture says: religion has turned this around and said that this was from God, that God willed it, and it says just real clearly, I mean this is amazing to me. It says, it was the messenger of satan, and Christians will read this and say, God gave Paul a thorn in the flesh. Paul said it was the messenger of satan. What part of «The messenger of satan» do you not understand? God did not give this to him.

You know, I remember one time when I was pastoring in Childress, Texas, I was painting houses to supplement my income and I worked at a woman’s house for a solid week. She went to the Baptist church. I told her I used to go to the Baptist church, and I invited her to come to our church, and anyway, as we went through the week, she got to know me and she told me one time, she said, you know, you’re a fine young man. She says, why did you ever leave the Baptist church? And I said, well, I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they asked me to leave. They didn’t want it, they didn’t believe in what I had, and she says, are you talking about speaking in tongues?

And I said, yeah, that’s a part of it. I said, that’s not all that there is, but yeah, I started speaking in tongues and they asked me to leave, and she says, well, they would have kicked you out of my Baptist church too, and I said, how could you say that? And I turned over to 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, and it says right there, forbid not to speak in tongues, and I showed it to her in black and white. I said, it says right here, forbid not to speak in tongues, and this woman just looked at me and she says, hey, there’s lots of things in the Bible that we don’t believe, and when she said that, it was just like, how do you talk to a person when they just say, oh, I don’t believe what’s in the Bible.

You know, that’s the way that I feel about some people right here. It doesn’t matter what the Bible says, Paul said, it was the messenger of satan sent to Buffet me, and people read that and then they just go right back to their religious traditions regardless of what the scripture says. This was not from God. God did not send a messenger of satan. The word for «Messenger» right here is the exact same Greek word that is translated «Angel». This is talking about a demonic angel: a demon came and afflicted Paul and Buffeted him. The word «Buffet» means, to strike over repeatedly like for instance, the waves Buffet the shore. They just hit and recede and come back and hit again. This is talking about that Paul was just hit with this messenger of satan over and over and over and over again.

Now, I will admit you, there are some things here that on the surface, if you look at it, it might make you think that this came from God, but it very clearly says that it was the messenger of satan and that ought to trump anything else. Here’s one of those things that makes people think this is from God because he says, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelation, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, and so the purpose of this thorn in the flesh was to debase Paul. Well, people just automatically assume that God is the only one that wants to abase anybody. The devil would never want to abase anybody, that the God is the one who’s always doing this.

Well, there’s a wrong type of exaltation, pride, and God resists the proud, but there is a godly type of exaltation. If you read over in Joshua, chapter 1, the Lord told Joshua, he says, «Every place that you set your sole of your foot I’m going to be with you, the same promises I made to Moses I’m going to make to you», and then he told Joshua, he says, «I’m going to begin to exalt you in the eyes of the Israelites so that they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses». So, God right there talked about exalting Joshua. There is a godly type of exaltation. It also says over in 1 Peter, chapter 5, it says, humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he might exalt you in due time. Not all exaltation is bad.

If you serve God, like for instance, you know, Paul went in and saw people healed and miracles and the people fell down and began to worship him as Gods and they were going to offer sacrifices unto him. You know what they were doing? They were exalting him. He was exalted because they saw the power of God operate in them. There is a godly type of exaltation and that’s what this is talking about. In the previous verses, Paul had said, I don’t want anybody to think of me above what they should. Now, this is the guy that wrote half of the New Testament, it’s the guy that saw people raised from the dead: it’s a guy that everywhere he went, just miracle after miracle happened.

I mean, he sang at midnight in prison and God sent an earthquake and opened up all of the prison doors and their chains fell off. I mean, there was just miracle after miracle after miracle that followed Paul’s life and he didn’t want people to exalt him or to think it was him. It was God that was getting all of the glory, and he said that this is why this thorn in the flesh was given unto him, to keep him from being exalted, not that God gave him the thorn in the flesh, but satan came against Paul to keep him from being magnified, exalted, glorified in the sight of people.

If Paul would have just been, you know, magnified, then people would have been attracted to his message because man, everything just went so good for Paul, and so to keep that from happening, there was a demonic messenger or angel that was assigned to Paul from the devil that just Buffeted him. I’m going to explain this more as I get on into this, but let me go down to another thing right here.

It says in the latter part of verse 9, he says, most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, and then in verse 10, «Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong», and the word «Infirmities» right here, makes some people think that this is talking about some type of a sickness because of the word «Infirmity». But the word «Infirmity», the way we use it today nearly always refers to sickness, but in Paul’s day that wasn’t so. Matter of fact, if you take it in its context, let me just remind you that men are the ones that put the chapter and verse divisions.

This is one letter that was written and if you just back up a few verses and go into chapter 11, and in verse 30, if I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities, and Paul had just listed all of the things that he called infirmities. Let me read a few of them to you. 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, and in verse 22 he says, «Are they Hebrews? So am i. Are they Israelites? So am i. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am i. Are they ministers of Christ? (i speak as a fool)», or like a lost man, «I am more: in labours more abundant».

So, here’s some of the things he’s calling his infirmities, hardships that he had to deal with. He talks about, labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, that means you couldn’t count how many times he was whipped. In prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one, so that’s five times 39, that’s just under 200 stripes that he had received. Thrice I was beaten with rods, being beaten with rods is where they hung you up and elevated your feet off of the ground and then they would take, literally, metal rods and beat the back of your legs and your feet until they broke bones and often crippled you for life. It was a terrible thing.

So, he says, thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned. You can read about that, and he was stoned and left for dead. The people who tried to kill him thought he was dead and it turned out as the disciples stood around about him and prayed that he rose up and walked 20 miles the next day and went and preached, so it was miraculous that he was raised up. It doesn’t say that he was dead, but the people who were trying to kill him, thought he was dead, so it’s possible that he was dead and raised from the dead. We don’t know that for sure, but if he wasn’t dead, he was so close to it that the people trying to kill him thought he was dead.

So, he was stoned once, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep: in journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren: in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches, and then he says, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities. So, the very context here shows you that infirmities is not referring to a sickness, but rather it’s referring to these hardships.

If you look the word «Infirmity» up in the dictionary, it means, any lack or inadequacy, and sickness fits into there because sickness is a lack and an inadequacy. You’re lacking health, you’re inadequate to go out and do the right things, but the word «Infirmity», to us it means «Sickness», but in the day that this was written, it wasn’t talking about a sickness, it was talking about his infirmities. The context is talking about these sufferings. I believe Paul’s thorn in the flesh was not some sickness, but rather it was a demonic messenger that just plagued him constantly with persecution, being stoned, being shipwrecked, in perils, being beaten with rods, beaten with whips, all of these kind of things.

There was demonic opposition: it was persecution is what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. The only thing that leads people to believe that this was some kind of fix, sickness is this word «Infirmities» and by context it shows you it’s not talking about sickness, but rather hardships. Another verse that goes along with this is Romans, chapter 8, and in verse 26 it says, «Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities». The word «Infirmities» there is used exactly the same here, and then it says, for we know not what to pray for as we ought. It explains what the infirmity is.

The Holy Spirit helps our infirmities, for we know not what to pray for as we ought, and infirmity there is called not knowing how to pray properly, that’s an infirmity, that’s a lack, that’s a hardship, and so there’s multiple examples in the scripture, but the word «Infirmity» is not necessarily referring to a sickness, it’s just talking about a lack or inadequacy. And I believe that it’s describing that there was a demonic messenger assigned to the apostle Paul to afflict him and the purpose of it was, that here was Paul and he was flowing in the power of the Holy Ghost, if satan hadn’t have done something, he would have been so magnified, so exalted in the eyes of people that people would have flocked to him because man, everybody wants to have this kind of power to heal people, to do all of this, but to counter that, satan afflicted him and everywhere he went, Paul wound up in jail.

When he went into a town, he didn’t check into the holiday inn, he would check into the prison and say, save a spot for me. I’ll probably be there before the week’s out. I mean, he was afflicted, and because of this, even though people saw the supernatural power of God and the wisdom of God and the boldness of God flowing through the apostle Paul, they also saw persecution and all of these things that tempered people’s response and satan used this to keep him from being exalted and just drawing more people to him. It was a thorn in the flesh: it was a messenger of satan. It wasn’t from God. Here’s another verification of that. Let me just turn over and read some of these passages.

Look at this, in numbers, chapter 33, and in verse 55, the Lord was speaking through Moses or to Moses about the children of Israel driving the inhabitants of the land out and getting rid of every one of them, not letting any of them live, not compromising with them, and he said this in numbers 33:55, but if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you: then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Notice the terminology, that they will be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, very similar to a thorn in the flesh, that we just read about Paul using.

Here’s another reference, Joshua, chapter 23, and it’s the same context. He says, know for a surety that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you: but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off the good land which the Lord your God hath given you. Here’s another one in judges, chapter 2, verse 3, wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you: but they shall be as thorns in your side, and their Gods shall be a snare unto you.

So, here are three Old Testament references to people being thorns in the side and pricks in their eyes. I believe that when Paul used this terminology that there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, he was writing to Jewish people who understood this, who knew this terminology and immediately there was an identification that this is talking about, that satan used people to stir up persecution and opposition to Paul everywhere he went. It’s only the modern church, totally separate from the scriptures, they don’t study the scriptures, they didn’t know the scriptures as well as the people that Paul was writing to, and so they just take this word «Infirmity» and immediately think that this is talking about some kind of a sickness.

Paul made it really clear. He said, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, comma, the messenger of satan to Buffet me. It was a demonic angel that buffeted him, and how did he do it? Through people that came against him with all of these things he listed as his infirmities, being shipwrecked, being beaten with rods, being beaten with whips, being in hunger and in thirst, in perils among men and brethren and all of these things. It was all people related, and if you go down here to verse, well, let me read the last part of verse 9. He says, most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, and in verse 10 it says, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities.

Now, look at this. There’s five things listed here, and the first one is infirmities, the next one is reproaches, the third is necessities, the fourth persecutions, the fifth distresses for Christ’s sake. So, there’s five things listed. Four of those things very clearly are not referring to sickness, but talking about things that come because of people, opposition, persecution, criticism against the gospel. Look at this, reproaches, that’s talking about people reproaching him. Necessities is talking about that he went out and he didn’t always have enough: he had to make tents to supply his own needs, he went without sometimes. In persecution, that’s very obvious that that’s talking about people. In distresses, man, he was put in prison, he was threatened to be killed, they tried to rush him, they had to sneak him out of the town, he was stoned and left for dead, and on and on it goes.

Four of these five things are very clearly not associated with sickness and it’s just this word «Infirmity» that makes people think that Paul had some kind of a sickness, but as I’ve spent this whole program trying to make it clear, this word is not referring to some type of a sickness. In context, it was talking about his afflictions and persecutions. That’s what Romans, chapter 8, verse 26 says, that an infirmity is not knowing how to pray as you ought, and the very context right here shows you that he lists five things, and obviously he was referring to an infirmity not in the form of a sickness, but just talking about the hardships that he endured because of a demonic messenger, a demonic power that had come against him.

Again, I say that there’s a lot of people that don’t let the Bible get in the way of what they believe. They say, I don’t care what you say, it was a sickness. Well, the Bible doesn’t say that and I’m just encouraging you, Romans 3:4 says, let God be true, and every man a liar. God did not put sickness on the apostle Paul and the scripture doesn’t say that he did. I’ve got some other things to say about this, but I’m going to have to continue this on my program tomorrow, I encourage you to listen in.