Author: Mark Stephenson

Married to Melissa, father of three awesome kids and Bella (our dog), pastor

By Revelation

Paul was very concerned about the Galatians believing a gospel other than the one they were originally taught. He didn’t want them “deserting” Christ and “turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all” (Galatians 1:6-7).

In order to convince them to believe in the gospel he preached, Paul reminds them that this gospel was not a teaching he received from the other apostles. Instead, Paul makes the extraordinary claim that he “received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12).

What is Paul talking about here?

Let’s put the pieces together. First, Paul had an encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:5). So Paul begins his Christian life with a “revelation from Jesus Christ.” But it didn’t stop there.

Paul lays out his journey immediately after his conversion:
“…my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem…”(Galatians 1:16-18).

What was Paul doing in “Arabia” for all those years? I believe he was being discipled by the risen Jesus himself and taught by the Holy Spirit.

Think about what Jesus did for the other men who became apostles. He spent 3 years discipling them and revealing the Kingdom of God to them. Then, “after his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). The risen Jesus kept showing up to the disciples to 1) convince them He was still alive, and 2) speak to them about the Kingdom of God. Before Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, He needed to make sure the disciples were fully aware of the truth of the gospel and the Kingdom of God.

So when the risen Jesus would show up in those 40 days, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). And “he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).

What Jesus did for the other men who eventually became the first apostles, I believe He did for Paul in those first few years after Paul’s conversion. I believe Jesus appeared and reappeared over and over again, teaching Paul the truths of the Kingdom and the power of the gospel. This is why Paul can say he received the gospel, not from men, but “by revelation from Jesus Christ.”

And that wouldn’t be the last time Jesus appeared to Paul. We know Jesus appeared to Paul in Jerusalem right at the start of his ministry. Paul said, “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’ “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles’” (Acts 22:17-18, 21).

We know Jesus appeared to Paul to encourage him in Corinth. “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9-10).

We also know that toward the end of Paul’s life when he was arrested in Jerusalem, “Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome'”(Acts 23:11). All of these accounts point to the reality that Jesus continued to appear to Paul throughout his life. This confirms the probability that Jesus started these regular encounters with Paul back in Arabia where Paul received the teaching of the gospel “by revelation from Jesus Christ.”


The Good News

We so often get lulled to sleep by a humanistic version of the gospel. This humanistic gospel puts me at the center. It tries to convince me that humanity is basically good and sin has been over-emphasized. It tries to make me believe Jesus’s main mission was teach me that I’m a good person. The picture we get from this false gospel is a person whose car is overrun with progressive bumper stickers on the back of their hybrid that proclaim peace, coexistence, and care for animals. All the while the owner of the car is sitting in a lotus position absorbing the goodness of the “Universe.” This is not the gospel at all.

It would be a shock to the system for some Christians to read the first few lines of the letter to the Galatians:

Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers and sisters with me,

To the churches in Galatia:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 1:1-5

This gospel of Jesus is not about good people realizing their potential by looking within. The gospel of Jesus is about people dead in their sin being resurrected by the power of Jesus because he himself died in our place and rose from the dead. It was a rescue mission and is a rescue mission. The age we live in is evil, and we all need rescuing from it by the grace of God. And for our rescue, all glory goes to God the Father, not to us.

We are not the main character in the history of humanity; Jesus is. This gospel does not center around us, but around Him. Because of His great sacrifice, we owe Him our complete allegiance as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Our life now belongs entirely to Him. We were bought at a price, and it is our great honor that we now get to join Him, as sons and daughters, on this rescue mission. We’ve become our King’s ambassadors, announcing the mind-boggling news that God has reconciled the world to Himself, not holding our great sin against us.

If we want a picture for this, the true gospel, it is not an overly-stickered car with a lotus-sitting driver. A true picture of the true gospel could be found in Harriet Tubman, a woman who was completely oppressed and bound in slavery, who gets rescued, and then goes back into the belly of the beast to rescue others. Her freedom did not bring her to self-indulgence or self-absorption, but to a profound gratitude and sense of mission and responsibility for others like her who longed for freedom. This is the gospel.

May we have eyes to see and ears to hear the real gospel from all the counterfeits!

Public Thought Life

Some of your thoughts are not your own. Some of them did not originate with you. The enemy tries to plant thoughts in our minds that are lies, deception, and/or condemnation. These demonic thoughts projected into our minds are the “flaming arrows of the evil one” mentioned in Ephesians 6:16.  

So, we know the kingdom of darkness can whisper lies to us, but can demons read our thoughts?

I had an encounter once where I was praying for a woman in my church who was physically sick, and I was just praying for healing. As I prayed for healing she had no outward, physical signs of the demonic. Yet, as I prayed, I sensed the Lord highlight the possibility that she had demons in her causing some of the problems. So without saying a word, I shifted in my thoughts from “healing prayer” to “deliverance prayer.”

As soon as I shifted my thoughts and directed them against the demons, even thought I never prayed out loud, she started to have physical manifestations of the demonic. She started to dry-heave and gag (common signs of demons trying to leave the body) just as I turned my thoughts from healing prayer to deliverance mode.  Obviously the demons somehow picked up on the change in my thoughts.

Did they read my thoughts? I’m not sure. I believe that as soon as my thoughts changed from healing prayer to “commanding demons to leave,” something was released out of me in the spirit realm…maybe light or power or something to which the demons reacted. It’s possible that demons can pick up when our thoughts agree with God and when they agree with a lie from the enemy. Maybe there is something released in the spirit realm that they can pick up on from our thoughts and emotions.

This could explain why Jesus was very concerned with our thought life and the condition of our hearts. What if every thought you have and every emotion either repels the kingdom of darkness or invites it. What if every thought you have and every emotion either strengthens the angels around you and the Kingdom of God or diminishes it. This is why we must “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) and stop thinking that our thought life is in any way “private.”

Thorn in the Flesh

What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh?

After the apostle Paul describes having an incredible vision of going to heaven, he writes, “…because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

Verse 9 is one of the most quoted passages of Scripture in all of the Bible. Many people use this passage as a reason they shouldn’t receiving healing prayer for their illness. They assume Paul was given some physical illness by God to keep him from becoming conceited. So, they reason, God must have given me this illness, and I just need to let God’s grace be sufficient for me.

But is that what Paul is talking about here?

First, whatever this thorn is, it was given to him because of his “surpassingly great revelations.” So unless you’ve visited heaven recently and seen inexpressible things, you don’t fit this category.

Secondly, whatever this thorn is, it is a “messenger of Satan.” That word “messenger” is the same word in the Greek for angel. So whatever this thorn is for Paul, it is functioning as a demonic fallen angel bringing the lies and deception of Satan. To say that this is “from God” is a stretch. So even if a person contends that this thorn is a physical ailment, then this passage indicates that it is a physical ailment from Satan, not God.

Thirdly, I do not believe this thorn for Paul is a physical sickness or disease because every other time in the Old Testament where it mentions a thorn, it does so in reference to people, not sickness.

Numbers 33:55 references how people with false beliefs still living in the Promised Land would become a thorn in the flesh of the people of Israel:
“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live.”

Joshua 23:13 warns Israel that if they associate with and intermarry with the Canaanite people who stay in the land, then they will become thorns:
“then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.”

Judges 2:3 once again warns Israel against the previous inhabitants of the Promised Land: “Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they will become as thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.’” (NASB)

Paul, being a Pharisee in his former life, would have know these references to thorns really well. So when Paul talks about his own “thorn in the flesh,” he is most likely talking about people who’ve become a problem to his ministry. He’s saying that the false teachers who oppose his ministry are to him like the Canaanites were to Israel. This fits with the context of 2 Corinthians 12, since Paul has been addressing false apostles in Corinth for the last few chapters.

It also fits with his concluding statement, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). The weakness, the thorn, that Paul is dealing with are people who oppose his ministry with insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties. They are the so-called “super-apostles” (2 Cor 11:5 & 12:11) who send Paul’s churches into confusion and theological error.

So, no, that sickness you’re dealing with is not a “thorn in the flesh” from God meant to humble you. I do not believe God is the author of any kind of evil, including illness. I believe God wants you healed! While God can take awful things and redeem them, He is not the source of those awful things in this world.

Third Heaven

Sometimes we forget that the apostle Paul had an incredible vision of heaven similar to John’s vision where John saw “a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it” (Revelation 4:2). Anyone who’s read John’s book of Revelation can understand why Paul considered what he himself saw and heard there “inexpressible” (2 Corinthians 12:4).

When Paul writes about his vision of being taken to heaven, he talks about it in the third person. He sort of mocks the Corinthians who were following false apostles that loved to boast about themselves. So as a response, Paul boasts about having this vision right at the start of his ministry but talks about it as if he is talking about another man.

He writes, “I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).

Paul references it happening 14 years ago. I’m not sure whether this vision happened right after his conversion while he was still in Arabia (Galatians 2:17) or after he had gone back to his hometown of Tarsus (Acts 9:30). Either way, it was before his first missionary journey. And part of what fueled his ministry was not only his encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-6) but also this vision of heaven.

Paul calls what he and John saw “the third heaven.” This begs the question, “What are the first and second heavens?” Many people believe that the first heaven is the physical universe that we can see in the sky…the sun, the moon, the stars, the other planets, etc. The third heaven is the throne room of God. The place where the fullness of His Presence resides, where His perfect will is always done, and where heavenly beings worship and serve God continuously. So what is the second heaven?

Many people believe the “second heaven” is the place where Satan and his fallen angels were sent after they were expelled from the third heaven (Revelation 12:9). It is the spirit realm around the earth where spiritual warfare happens. The second heaven is where the angel that was sent to Daniel was fought against and detained by the demonic principality over the Persian Kingdom in Daniel 10:13. It is why Satan is now called “the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2).

Suffering for the Lord?

The apostle Paul embodies what it means to suffer for Christ. He’s the one who wrote, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10). He also wrote, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17). And also, “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24).

Is there any doubt that part of the Christian life involves suffering? It’s one of the main ways that we identify with Christ. It was Jesus Himself who said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Paul even encourages his protege Timothy, “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3).

A few different times Paul gives his churches his resume of suffering to show that he is a worthy apostle to follow. To the Corinthians he wrote:

“I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”

(2 Corinthians 11:23-28)

What is conspicuously absent in this list of suffering is physical illness. Paul seems to be physically worn down from persecution, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, physical danger and travel. But if Paul listed so many different forms of suffering for Christ, one would think he would list at least one physical sickness or illness. But we don’t see a single one. Not that Paul never got sick, but Paul doesn’t seem to believe that sickness is a way to “suffer for the Lord.”

Sickness, in other words, is not from God but from the enemy. While it may honor God for us to endure persecution, it does not bring him honor for us to suffer from sickness. The way we handle ourselves while sick will definitely bring him honor, but sickness itself does not.

This is in line with what we see in Jesus. Jesus was the perfect representation of what the Father is like. “The Son is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). Jesus suffered in many ways while on the earth. Yet, we have no indication or record of Him ever being sick. This reaffirms the truth that sickness is not from God but is a product of a broken world and sometimes the result of a direct assault from the enemy.

In other words, sickness is not God’s will. It is not what God wants for us. If Jesus is the perfect picture of the will of God, and not only did He never get sick but healed every person who came to Him for healing, then we have in Jesus a pretty clear idea of how God feels about sickness.

As followers of Jesus we have to stop saying things like, “I’m not sure why God gave me this illness, but…” Friend, God did not give you that sickness. That sickness is a result of the brokenness of our world. Or, it may be that your illness is a direct attack on your life from the enemy. But that illness you are going through is not from God. Do not receive it as such! Believe, instead, that God wants you free from it! Do not passively receive it as the will of God. It’s not! Persevere in your fight against it!

Masquerading

One of the jobs of a pastor is to protect the church from false teaching. This was a primary concern for the apostle Paul and his churches. It was relational for Paul. He saw false teaching as a kind of marital infidelity between the church and Christ.

He writes to the Corinthians, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2-3).

One of the most dangerous things filtering into the church today is the false belief that dabbling in astrology, mediums, psychics, reiki healing, spells, seances, horoscopes and other forms of eastern mysticism and occult practices are harmless fun. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

A woman in my church, after years of dabbling in tarot cards and automatic writing, found herself demonized. She needed multiple demons cast out of her because of her participation in these occult practices.

Another friend of mine used to watch Long Island Medium on the TLC channel. I believe people are so interested in this stuff because western skepticism has told us there is no spirit realm, yet a part of us still believes there is more out there than what empiricism tells us.

Unfortunately, much of the church has sided with western skepticism rather than adopting a biblical worldview that acknowledges the reality of a spirit realm that contains both light and dark, angels and demons. A large segment of the church doesn’t warn against these occult practices because they see them as “fake” rather than what they are, which is a direct line to “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

So when my friend would watch this medium on TV revealing things about people she couldn’t possibly know, and it seemed like the person was encouraged, then it had to be a good thing. Right? If good things are coming from it, isn’t it a good thing?

Paul responded to something similar by reminding the Corinthians, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). He warned them not to accept things that come from a “different spirit from the one you received” (2 Corinthians 11:4).

Was this medium hearing from the spirit realm? Yep. But she’s not hearing from the Holy Spirit. She’s hearing from deceptive and cunning demonic spirits. And the same demonic spirits that speak to her about other people also torment her life.

New Age and occult practices are darkness masquerading as light. They invite us to put our trust in something other that God and His word. They are a form of marital infidelity between the church and Christ. They end up being a gateway for the demonic to access and torment the life of those who participate in them.

Wage War

The apostle Paul understood that he was born into a war. He was as comfortable describing his ministry as “warfare” as he was describing it any other way. Unlike many forms of militant Christianity, however, he knew that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but… against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”(Ephesians 6:12). 

Friend, you are a battlefield. There is a war in the heavenly realms, the spirit realm, for you. If you don’t know Jesus, your spirit, soul (mind, will, & emotions) and body are being fought for. The kingdom of darkness is trying to secure defensive strongholds in your life as the Kingdom of God calls for a surrender to Jesus that leads to freedom.

If you’ve surrendered your life to Christ, your spirit has now become one with the Holy Spirit (like how two become one in marriage). “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). 

Yet, there is still a war for your soul (mind, will, & emotions) and body. They belong to Christ; they’ve been totally redeemed, but what has been redeemed must be reclaimed. Just like the people of Israel were given the Promised Land by God yet still had to go in and possess the land, so too are we in a battle to reclaim and maintain our freedom from sin and the enemy’s influence. 

You are the battlefield in this war, and the frontlines of the battle, where the war rages most intensely, is your mind. The apostle Paul talks about the weapons he employs in this battle for the mind:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”(2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

In war, you take captive either enemy soldiers or friendly soldiers who’ve become spies. Notice that he said that in this battle we must take captive “every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” That means some of our thoughts are enemy soldiers and don’t originate with us at all. Instead, they are the lies that are whispered by the enemy. It also means that other thoughts did originate with us but have become tools for the enemy to use against us. They are not truth but instead our own thoughts that deceive us. These we must “take captive,” reject the lie, and remind ourselves of the truth. 

We should all be encouraged that the weapons the Holy Spirit gives us to fight in this war “have divine power to demolish strongholds.” No encampment of the enemy in our life can withstand the power of the Lord. But we must be willing to find the stronghold and demolish it in Jesus’s name!

Grace of Giving

There is this interesting tension in Scripture where we are encouraged to pursue, be zealous for, and excel in something that is categorized as a “grace.” 

The word grace in Greek is “charis.” When Paul talks about the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 & 14 the word translated as “gift” is “charis-ma.” The word translated as “gifts” is “charis-mata” the plural form. It’s simply the word grace with a suffix. One could just as easily translate the word “gracelet” or “grace-outworking” instead of “gift.” 

So it’s clear that gifts of the Spirit are not earned. They are pure grace. They are droplets of grace working in our lives. And we know it is the Spirit who “distributes them to each one, just as he determines”(1 Corinthians 12:11). 

But then Paul turns right around and says “eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit”(1 Corinthians 14:1). He continues by saying, “Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church”(1 Corinthians 14:12). 

So, though these gifts are droplets of pure grace, we are still commanded to eagerly desire them, pursue them, and try to excel in them. We don’t sit around passively. We go after them. 

Paul echoes this same tension when, later, he sends a letter to tell the Corinthians, “But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving”(2 Corinthians 8:7). 

He calls financial giving a “grace” (a “charis” in the Greek). Once again we see that receiving a grace from God does not mean we operate without agency. Just like any other gift, or grace, we must engage in it for it to mature. We must practice it for it to develop. Like any other grace, the way to grow in it is to be a good steward of it. The more we engage in and practice giving generously of our finances, the more we mature and grow in the grace of giving. 

We don’t sit around passively and say something selfish like, “Well, I just don’t have the gift/grace of giving.” No, what we lack is the willingness to give. If we start giving sacrificially of our finances, we will find that grace pours down like rain.