2 Corinthians 12:1-10 - A Vision Of Paradise
1 There is nothing to be gained by this sort of thing, but as I am obliged to boast, 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. In the body or out of the body? That I do not know: God knows. 3 I simply know that in the body or out of the body (God knows which) 4 this man was caught up to paradise and heard sacred secrets which no human lips can repeat. 5 Of an experience like that I am prepared to boast, but not of myself personally ??not except as regards my weaknesses. 6 (If I did care to boast of other things, I would be no 'fool,' for I would have a true tale to tell; however, I abstain from that ??I want no one to take me for more than he can see in me or make out from me.) 7 My wealth of visions might have puffed me up, so I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to rack me and keep me from being puffed up; 8 three times over I prayed the Lord to make it leave me, 9 but he told me, "It is enough for you to have my grace: it is in weakness that [my] power is fully felt." So I am proud to boast of all my weakness, and thus to have the power of Christ resting on my life. 10 It makes me satisfied, for Christ's sake, with weakness, insults, trouble, persecution, and calamity; for I am strong just when I am weak.