I believe the Apostle Paul was in a very similar situation where he had a choice. Paul knew he was in God's will because he desired to follow Holy Spirit. [Was Paul a sinner? Yes! Was Paul a nice boy? No!] So Paul was in God's will, but he had satanic attacks. Let us see how he responded to those attacks.

Paul had been taken up to heaven and he saw a revelation of heaven — he saw more of heaven than any other man, including the Apostle John — he saw things that no man has seen, and after the vision, he could not even describe what he saw. After that, Paul got a satanic attack.

 2 Corinthians 12

7 Because of the overabundant greatness of these revelations, for this reason, an enemy messenger became a thorn in the flesh to keep me from exalting myself!

Notice: This is certainly NOT a physical thorn in the flesh. Though Paul did have eye trouble, this is NOT referring to some demon that cast a disease on him.

A thorn in the flesh was a common figure of speech at the time. Anybody reading this would have known it meant a person who was a pain in the neck (an annoying, obnoxious person). Some unbelieving person was indwelt by a demon and was sent to hassle Paul.

Paul did what anybody would have done; his first reaction was to get that person out of there…

8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that he might leave me.

The first person that came into my mind was Moses (a one of a kind prophet, leader, recorder of the laws, and author of the first five books of the Scriptures). There was a situation where Moses kept asking God numerous times that he might go into the Promised Land Please can I? Please can I? Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? God said Moses, do not ask Me anymore, stop talking to Me about this; My answer is No! And that was the final word.

Unlike Moses, with Paul, interestingly enough, God does not specifically say Yes and He does not specifically say No.

9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,

That is a very weak translation — God is saying My grace can work in this situation. That is what is called a subjunctive mode. The jest of what God is saying is:

Basically, God is not making a statement here; He is asking a question. What is the significance of that? He is saying:

Three times God asks:

1. Paul says Please remove this thorn in my flesh and God says You know My grace can work here.
2. Paul says No! Get him away. God says My grace can work here.
3. Paul says Please remove him. God says My grace CAN WORK here in this situation.

What is God doing? Persuading Paul to choose, because I believe the choice was Paul's:

God is saying Paul here is your choice. I will remove that thorn in the flesh since you asked Me to. Or would you rather let him stay, because I will use him to make you more powerful? What do you want to do?

And then Paul says…

Most gladly, therefore, I will means:

That is what it means to stand. [It is NOT gritting your teeth, reading the Bible more, praying for extra strength, or standing strong – firm – like a man.]. To stand in the face of satanic attack just means to take the option of not asking God to get rid of the satanic attack and letting it happen.

Why would you want to let the satanic attack come? As we saw in the story of Benaiah — God knows, God is building something (doing something), and God is gathering [persons together] for a reason.

Paul wrote this letter (2 Corinthians) very early in his career (about the year 57 A.D.). After Paul chose to let the satanic attack continue, his ministry exploded and he became the greatest theologian of all time. Why? Because every time Paul saw that [thorn in the flesh] person, he had a living reminder:

Paul was concerned that if he did not have that [thorn in the flesh] person around all of the time, he would forget that it was God's battle and not his. Even though he was not physically impressive, Paul could wow people when he preached, and he was probably an outstanding teacher in the flesh, but he did not want SELF-effort — his desire was for Christ's power to reign in his life.

Application: Let us suppose there is a difficult circumstance that will not go away, and you know it is not a direct consequence of a particular sin in your life or as a result of your walking according to the flesh. You know you are innocent, and you desire to follow Holy Spirit so you are in the will of God. It could very well be that this situation persists, and God does not remove it, because He wants you to be aware that you have a choice, and then He wants you to choose:

If we choose to let it continue, what is the worse thing that could happen? Can demons kill believers? No! Can demons hurt their families? No! The downside is the attack –

• Can be annoying
• Can be harassing
• Can be a pain in the neck
• Can make us angry
• Can make us depressed

If we choose to let it continue, what are the benefits?

Alternatively, we can choose to say God, I do see that this is a satanic attack and I am aware that this is a choice for me. Though You may be doing something great in my life, I really do not want to deal with it and I ask You to get rid of it. I believe, in that case, God will get rid of it. Additionally, if we make that choice, there is no problem:

There was a professor at the University of Southern California who was a hostile atheist. A demonic Force who is under a demonic Ruler who is under a demonic Power (over ideology – philosophy – theology) probably indwelt him.

For years, at the beginning of every semester he would stand up and ask Does anybody here believe in God? Nobody would ever answer Yes because the professor would say Anybody who believes in God is a fool and he would go into a rage. Then he would say If there is a God, He would stop me from doing this — he would take a piece of chalk, throw it on the floor, and it would smash into pieces — God has never stopped me from doing that, not once. This went on for years. Of course, there were believers who went in and out of his classes, but they never had the nerve to stand up.

One day the professor made his usual speech Does anybody here believe in God? If you do stand up! Amazingly enough, one young man stood up. The professor yelled at him Then you are a fool! He started to swear and he called the student offensive names. The professor proclaimed If there is a God then He would stop this chalk from smashing on the floor, but He will not! He raised his hand; the chalk slipped out of his hand, tipped his coat, slid down the pleat of hit pants, over his knee, down to his shoe, and rolled off his shoe and harmlessly onto the floor. The first time ever! The professor ran out of the room, and the young man walked down to the front of the class and gave the Good News of Messiah Jesus to the whole class. Many people were redeemed.

This is a classic example of choosing to stand. The young man had a choice of getting rid of it — in which case I believe the professor would have been subdued — or standing Okay God, bring it on. The young man believed that it was God's battle so He would protect him, and that God was building something.

Let us suppose there is a football game going on and [in this make believe story] you cannot be injured. You can fight against the opponents or not, and your choice is I do not want to fight. That is okay; you are part of the football team, but you are just not fighting.

The other option is to go out onto the field and fight. What is the worst that could happen? You might get bruised. How do you know you will not get hurt? Because you have all the following precautions:

• A helmet
• A breastplate (shoulder pads)
• Knee-protectors
• Feet-protectors (special shoes)

Application: That is the purpose of what the Ephesians 6 passage shows us — what our weapons are — which is not relevant to us if we take the option of saying Get rid of them because God would have done it.

This passage, about a believer's defensive weapons (except for the sword of the Spirit), is given so if you choose to stand God let this satanic persecution continue, you know that God is gathering the demons together for you to zap.

Paul is saying I am striking at demonic Rulers, Powers, Forces (verse 12). Why? God was gathering these demons together for Paul to kill. Did Paul get nicked? Sure Paul was persecuted and harassed; however, in his mind he knew that everything that was coming at him was worth it. Why? Because Paul knew he was protected — those demons could not kill him — and he knew that God was building something.

For The Believers' Example: Demons cannot hurt their families and they cannot make them sick. So what is the worst that they can do to believers? Harass them, bring external problems to them, or even direct unbelievers to persecute them. Again, God may be building something, so to stand means to say Do not get rid of them; bring them on.

Yes, because if we say God get rid of it then we do not need those weapons, because He will get rid of the enemy. If we choose to stand Okay, go for it, then we have defensive weapons for our use, as follows:

• The Gospel of Messiah Jesus – God transferred us out of the domain of darkness into kingdom of Messiah Jesus (the Light of the world), so Satan is in a different place than we are and he cannot hurt us.
• The breastplate of righteousness – I am innocent; I am perfect. Lots of people are not judged. I am perfect; that is my weapon. Satan is evil and I am righteous. I am just as righteous as Messiah Jesus, positionally. That is my weapon.
• The helmet of salvation – When Messiah Jesus triumphed over Satan at the Cross; I am fighting a battle that has already been won.

The believers' weapons are not something that we manufacture, are not something for which we work up a lot of faith, and are not something for remembering that the Gospel is under satanic attack:

The Gospel itself is the defensive weapon; the Gospel itself has power. So believers have the defensive weapon to protect them while they are using the offensive weapon, which is Light.

What is the only thing a believer does? Stand [and watch God move].

Does the following make sense now?

• Paul says Please remove this thorn in my flesh and God says You know My grace can work here.
• Paul says No! Get him away. God says My grace can work here.
• Paul says Please remove him. God says My grace can work here in this situation.

It was a choice for Paul. I honestly believe that if Paul had said God, I really want You to get rid of it, then God would have done it, and there would have been no problem for Paul whatsoever. I really believe that the reason this thorn in the flesh persisted and God did not remove it was that God was waiting for Paul to ask Him with understanding.

See the difference? We may ask without understanding, and God will not do it. However, if we ask knowing the situation and knowing it is our choice, then God will do it. God will not test us out to see what we can endure, but He does want us to understand that it is totally up to us — it is our choice.

8 Be of sober spirit…Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a lion, seeking someone to devour.

Satan is NOT biting, but he is roaring — there is a big difference. I can put up with a little noise, because there are no teeth marks. For us to be afraid of Satan is needless, just as it is for a child to be afraid of a dog that is locked up behind a fence; the dog cannot hurt the child, but the barking can be frightening. The adversary is not biting, but he is roaring!

9 But resist him, firm in faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren around the world.

10 After you have suffered for a little while,

Suffered is a little bit too strong — restated:

After you have put up with this garbage (nonsense) for a little while, the God of all grace will Himself, perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

That is the upside of letting it happen — God will use the situation to perfect us. How will that help us? When future persecutions come along, we will have learned something about how to deal with persecutions. What is that? Give the satanic attack back to God.

A baby is going to be afraid of a roaring lion, even if the lion is tied up; however, a grown up (a mature person) should not be. I really believe that we miss out on a lot by asking God to get rid of things instead of saying Maybe this is an opportunity to get in the pit and kill one of the enemies.

Illustration: During the Gulf War (1991) the allied troops would obliterate an Iraqi unit until there was nothing left but ashes. Then some spokesperson would report The allied troops deactivated the unit, and after the dust settled a few minutes later, a picture of a group of soldiers in a crater would be shown.

Paul is saying I am destroying them; meaning that from his perspective, he had the privilege of fighting on such a high level that he was neutralizing the work of a Force or a Spirit in that arena, and those demons were out of the picture forever.

Paul was a marked man — the Gentiles did not like him and the Jews hated him — but he lived to be almost 70 years old, he pretty much went as he pleased, he was guided by God's Holy Spirit, and he was deactivating a lot (possibly millions) of high ranking demons.

That explains why Paul would be stoned in some villages, but then he would get up and go to the next village where he would not be hassled anymore. For example —

In Lystra, a demonic Force tried to kill Paul and he almost got him; however, Paul rose up from the stoning and went on. I believe Paul did something in prayer to that demonic Force — he deactivated the demon — and the demonic Force did not bother Paul in the next village, Derbe, because Paul killed the demonic Force in his sphere.

The demons could not kill Paul even though they tried; Paul would stand and then the attack could not recur. For example —

Paul himself made the choice to stand Bring him on. When Paul killed that snake, the demonic Force could not activate any other snake to get him!

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