BLESSED IN BEING COMFORTED

 My Dear Precious Child,
    The apostle Paul, though he had been divinely appointed an apostle by Me, had occasional misgivings about his being a true apostle of Jesus Christ's ministry in the earth because of some of the attitudes of the other apostles who had walked and talked and lived with Jesus Christ for three years while Paul was persecuting Jesus and his followers.  However, Paul's consolation was in the fact that he was personally chosen and called by Me for special ministry to the Gentile nations.  His calling was special, being the only one that was implemented after Jesus Christ rose from the dead and then appeared to Saul before he became Paul with a one-on-one personal encounter with the Risen Christ.  Paul became blind from gazing upon the glory of the Christ but was healed when he became baptized in My Holy Spirit.  So Paul's personal experience of meeting Jesus Christ and his absorbing His glory was divine and comforting to him.  
    Paul's one-on-one experience of his personal encounter with the Risen Christ assured him of My comforting and merciful forgiveness of him.  So his second recorded letter that he wrote to the people in the Corinthian church was filled with his attesting to My being the God of every consolation, comfort and encouragement, the God who consoles and comforts people so that they will also comfort, console and encourage other people who are in any kind of trouble or distress.  After having himself been comforted by The True Comforter, Paul was able to comfort and console other people who needed comforting.  (II Corinthians 1:1-4)  
    Paul knew his own need to constantly be comforted by My Holy Spirit in his service for Me in the earth in which he was persecuted, beaten, reviled and harassed for Me in his ministry, and he knew My readiness to comfort and console him in his distress; therefore, his being able to offer the same comfort to others.  Paul wrote that if he and his assistants in the ministry were troubled and afflicted for the sake of other believers, that it was for their sake that he had suffered and patiently endured the same evils that he had also inflicted on believers before he was converted by Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.  He wrote that he was assured that just as they were unwavering in their constant expectations that they would share in the rewards of comfort, consolation and encouragement that he received from Me, Paul wanted to make sure that the Corinthians were not ignorant of the suffering that Paul and his assistants experienced in Asia, how they were utterly weighed down and even despaired of life itself.   Indeed, they felt like they had received the very sentence of death so that they wouldn't depend upon themselves but instead that they would depend solely upon Me.  He professed that it was Me, and only Me, who saved them from human death, being convinced that I would again deliver them from destruction and danger and draw them to Me. (II Corinthians 1:1-10)  
    In his gratitude for the Corinthian church, Paul was so grateful for their intercessions for him and his fellow ministers, cooperating with them in their working for the saints in intercessory prayers.  He assured the members of the church that it was their prayers which saved him from death many times.  (verse 11) His belief was that he and his fellow ministers had conducted themselves in the world with devout and pure motives and sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by My grace, that being My unmerited favor and merciful kindness toward all people, which turns them to Me and then keeps them in the faith, strengthening them and increasing them in Christian virtues.  He was still perturbed that some had left the flock and chosen more legalistic ways, having been influenced by Jewish Christians who were determined to rob them of their freedom in Christ Jesus.  That mindset influenced Paul not to visit the Corinthian church, as was previously expected.   
    Paul had planned to visit the church at Corinth since he had evangelized them, but his ministry took a different route and he apologized that he had not been able to visit with them in the flesh.  He wrote that the change in his plans did not mean that he was unstable but instead meant that what he planned to do in the flesh might not be My perfect will for him at the time.  He asked them if his decision meant that he said yes at one minute and no at another minute when he did not visit with them.  He wrote that in Christ Jesus the answer is always a driving,"Yes," just like My promises always find their "Yes" in Me, which is the reason My children always add their "Amen," their "So Be it," in Me, to My glory.
    In this apology by Paul for his not rewarding them with a visit from him, he told the Corinthians that My promises are always Yes and Amen, confirming that it was by My putting My blessed Holy Spirit inside of My children that was My security deposit and fulfillment of My promise to them.  Paul told the people of the church at Corinth that his decision not to visit them was to avoid hurting them with his rebukes, and so he did not appear in Corinth at the time that he was expected.  He had to get over his disappointment in their being such fleshly motivated people before he could minister My Truth to them in love.  He wrote that he neither had dominion over them nor did he lord any control over them, but instead they were all fellow laborers, with the hope of promoting their joy and welcome their belief that Jesus was the Messiah through whom they all obtain eternal salvation in My kingdom of God, in which they stood firm.   In that hope they could agree and remain in unity.
    After the church at Corinth had read Paul's first letter of exhortation and rebuke and they regretted his reluctance to reward them with a visit, they repented of their fleshly ways and cleansed their church of their numerous rebellious ways, which pleased Paul.  He knew that  his first letter of rebuke had done its intended work, which was to urge the church at Corinth to return to its purity and single minded efforts to become My image in the world.
     Your Father of Truth and Purity