I don't know specifically what Paul's thorn in the flesh was in actuality but I just ran into an excellent analogy for what Paul's thorn in the flesh accomplished.
Dr. Kevin Zadai got to the place where he sure seems to have gotten a high level of guidance by the Holy Spirit but this guidance can be rough.
He was qualified as a pilot but.....
Messiah Yeshua - Jesus told him to work as a mere flight attendant for twenty nine years..... He absolutely HATED the job but he knows that doing this changed him so that he is now able to teach university level Theology courses for Mr. Andrew Wommack!
The relevant part is after the 41:00 mark in this video:
I didn't see anything in the video, in the area you mention, which mentioned the Thorn in Paul's flesh. I wrote a paper a number of years ago about this and the rather bad translation in most Bibles. I showed where root of the Greek word meant leg and it was my theory that Paul suffered from arthritis in his hip or knees. If you imagine the amount of walking that he did, this was probably very common in those days.
That being said, the humility which is mentioned in the video is like that Paul needed and which we all need to remain in faith. There is so much in the Old Testament which can be seen as allegorical and if we look at the Kingdom of Israel we can see how the ups and downs of that country mimic our walk with God.
When times of strife hit Israel, the people turned to God and prayed for his help but after God delivered them and times were good, the country turned away and became sinful. God would allow their enemies to conquer them and they turned back to God, only to have them turn away after being delivered.
This also occurs within Christians as we see ourselves reaching for God in hard times and slacking away in the good. This is why the sick and poor are cherished because their faith is stronger than the rich man who's idol is money and power. We can look at the story of Job to understand this. He was rich and powerful and appeared to be faithful. When Satan took his family and riches he seemed to remain faithful but when Job was attacked with disease and sours he broke and challenged God. This showed that he wasn't really faithful enough.
It may be hard to understand but mankind needs to have the world broken from his spirit so that we can learn to truly live by faith. When we have been truly baptized by the Trinitarian method, we receive God's Holy Spirit. He isn't some distant unknowable spirit but he lives within us and the Holy Spirit is our direct connection with the creator of all things. That freaks me out. GOD IS OUR FATHER.
God wants his children to have a very personal relationship with him. As a Catholic I am amazed to go to Mass and partake of the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am amazed at the wonders which are contained within scripture as we can find so many revelations about ourselves.
Humbleness before God is a necessity. We cannot in anyway be responsible for our own salvation and have to depend on the blood of Jesus. God has given us his Spirit and we need to depend on that Spirit to change us from within. The most important thing that we can do is to surrender and allow God to create us new creatures in his image.
God Bless
