WEDNESDAY
Next, in our New Testament survey of people filled with the Spirit, we come to the apostle Paul.
After Jesus confronts Paul on the road to Damascus, He appears to Ananias and tells him to go and pray for Paul to receive the Holy Spirit. Again, not normative, but Ananias’s testimony of Paul’s genuine conversion is necessary after he persecuted the church.
Acts 9:17–19 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.
From here, Paul began his Spirit empowered ministry that we talked about a few weeks ago. He preached boldly, healed the sick and received direction for his ministry. What we didn’t cover in the campaign was Paul’s experience with God. It’s widely accepted that he is talking about himself, here, in the third person. Paul is arguing against some in the church at Corinth who were claiming apostolic authority over Paul’s teaching. So he “boasts” about his position and calling from the Lord to be an apostle.
2 Corinthians 12:1–10 1 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— 6 though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
We obviously don’t know anything about what Paul saw, as he doesn’t convey that information. Whatever he saw, it was an incredibly awe-inspiring experience given to him in the Spirit of God. It was so incredible that what he heard could not be told, “man may not utter” (v. 4).
This experience sounds similar to what Thomas Aquinas saw about 1,000 years later. Aquinas is arguably the greatest theological mind that the church has ever seen. He set out to write the Summa Theologica (Summary of Theology). This work intended to summarize all of Christian theology for students. He never finished it. Before he finished writing it, he had an experience with God that he didn’t say much about. Here’s what he did say, "All that I have written seems like straw compared to what has now been revealed to me." Later, when asked to continue writing, he said, “I can write no more. I have seen things that make my writings like straw.”
God is more glorious than any words can describe. He must be experienced not just understood theologically.