11 For I want you to know, brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known by me is not man's gospel [a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standard].
12 For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but [it came to me] through a [direct] revelation [given] by Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
The True Gospel, the Gospel of the Kingdom, the Gospel that Jesus preached, has to be Divinely given to us. We must first be glorified so that we can then be used to glorify, John 17:1. It has to be first given to us by our Father because man on his own wants to have the control of what transpires in his own life. So many people boldly proclaim that God does not want puppets or robots, yet that is exactly what they make Him. Without the power of the Holy Spirit we want to make God reactive to our will, instead of us being reactive to His. It all sounds religious, but as long as the power is directed towards man and what we must first do on our own, it is a false gospel. Man doesn’t want to think that we are owned, even though we read that Paul repeatedly called himself the slave of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 7:23. Man apart from Jesus wants to think that we decided to accept the Truth, yet the Bible repeatedly tells us that the Holy Spirit caused us to accept and that we were chosen and that we did not choose, John 6:44. This is why the True Gospel is hated and this is why those who are used by God to share it were hated, and are still hated today!
13 You have heard of my earlier career and former manner of life in the Jewish religion (Judaism), how I persecuted and abused the church of God furiously and extensively, and [with fanatical zeal did my best] to make havoc of it and destroy it.
Paul loved it and was zealous about it when he was persecuting Christians and yet our Father chose him. Paul wasn’t seeking Jesus when he was called and the glorious Truth is that Paul was chosen before he was born, this means that he was a child of God, even when he was doing all of this evil, Galatians 1:15-16.
But when He, Who had chosen and set me apart [even] before I was born and had called me by His grace (His undeserved favor and blessing), saw fit and was pleased To reveal (unveil, disclose) His Son within me so that I might proclaim Him among the Gentiles (the non-Jewish world) as the glad tidings (Gospel), immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood [did not consult or counsel with any frail human being or communicate with anyone]. Galatians 1:15-16
Paul was set apart by our Father before he was born. He was chosen before he was born and yet our Father allowed him to joyfully persecute his brothers and sisters in the Lord! How could our Father do such a thing? Our Father can and He does, because the Truth is that when we are being persecuted and tried, He becomes strong within us.
But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength). 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Trials and persecutions are to be gloried in, because when we have no idea what to do, our Father is His strongest within us. So it is not at all freaky to think that our Father, Who owns us, may have used us to persecute our brothers and sisters so that they could be strong. This takes true Holy Spirit inspired and empowered humility to accept, but when He does empower you with it, what peace and joy!
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