The New Testament normally we don't care much for this kind of inner life, but he sort of challenged the situation of the church, challenging them, and he feels he must say something about it, and he says, he speaks, you see, of this... He speaks of being, having visions and revelations, being taken up to the third heaven, and paradise.

[01:13]

And the third heaven is only one of the heavens, there are usually seven heavens, and paradise is only one stage. And most visions and revelations belong to the lower levels of spiritual experience. When you get to the higher levels, you get beyond visions, you get beyond all sense phenomena altogether. So nevertheless, obviously, it's a very profound experience, and he says, first of all, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. And he would say it's in the subtle body, you see, the gross body is very clear, but there is also a subtle body, and in that body one can stand and go beyond. And he must have had that experience in the subtle body where you get these visions and revelations. And then he says, I have a series of heretic codes which no man may utter.

[02:13]

So obviously, it is a very profound human experience, and this must be entirely familiar with him, he must have had many visions and revelations, that's why he has that confidence and all this preaching and preaching of the body's beauty all the time. And then he mentions, very interestingly, having this thorn in the flesh. Nobody knows quite what it was. Some people think it was some disease, malaria or something, or maybe they thought that was an epilepsy, I think. But probably, you know, people who have psychic experience, or who often have some psychic disability at the same time. Anyway, it was some weakness that he experienced, and he asked for it to be taken away in time, and he was told, and it's really important, like this is sufficient for you. The body is made perfect in weakness. And of course, people have made contributions to this, I think it's been nice that he recognized how it makes such a great deal of weakness, you see.

[03:18]

It's interesting to think that I'm a strong and powerful, but that I'm weak and powerful, but also that I'm weak in feeling that I'm weak, and that there's a special grace in God, showing that I'm all of those, and I have the grace that I'm weak with, but the power of Christ that rests upon me. And so I'm content with weakness, thinks I'm powerful, but the truth is that I'm weak when I am strong. That's an extraordinary achievement, I think, that most people think they've got to be strong all the time in order to achieve, but they were very much being weak and suffering, and with even a greater knowledge, a greater human resource, in that sense. So it is a deep meaning. Amen.

[04:06]

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