“I will move on to supernatural visions and revelations of the Lord.” —2 Corinthians 12:1, NWT

The room was silent except for the scratch of a quill on parchment. Flickering lamplight danced across stone walls, chasing shadows as a weary but resolute figure pressed forward. His body bore the scars of beatings and shipwrecks, hunger and cold. Yet Paul’s eyes—tired though they were—shone with something that could not be touched by suffering: hope.

He had known affliction. But he had also seen glory.

Fourteen years earlier, he had been caught away—whether in the body or out of it, he could not say—into “the third heaven,” a sacred dimension of understanding. There, he heard words too sacred to speak, glimpsing a divine arrangement far beyond human sight. A vision, a revelation. It was not for his time… not yet. But it was real. And it was sure.

He kept going. Because truth, even when veiled, is a promise waiting to be fulfilled.

Paul would later write of an ominous falling away. “I know that after my going away,” he told the Ephesian elders, “oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness.” (Acts 20:29) The congregation would be infiltrated. A rebellion would emerge. Teachings not rooted in Christ would replace the pure wheat with weeds of confusion. (2 Thess. 2:3, 4)

So what about us?

We’ve seen the long shadows of that foretold apostasy. The centuries that followed did not echo Paul’s vision—they buried it. The spiritual temple became unrecognizable. Religious leaders seized power, and Christ’s teachings were distorted. The prophetic outlines he had once glimpsed blurred in the fog of man-made traditions.

And yet… Jehovah never forgot the vision. Nor the vessel He used to pen it.

In 1914, Jesus was enthroned. And by 1919, the time had come. The faithful remnant—those willing to be refined, corrected, and cleansed—were gathered. (Mal. 3:1-4) Their loyalty to Jehovah, purified by trials, marked them as approved. The spiritual temple was no longer obscured. The worship conducted there was no longer hidden. Isaiah’s words came alive: “Those remaining in Zion…will be called holy.” (Isa. 4:2, 3)

Paul’s vision? It began to be fulfilled—just as Jehovah promised. Though centuries passed between the vision and its realization, not one moment of delay was accidental. Jehovah’s timetable is never late. His purpose is never thwarted by human rebellion.

We may not be caught away to the third heaven. We may not hear sacred words too wonderful to repeat. But we are standing in the fulfillment of that long-ago revelation. We see what Paul only glimpsed.

“I will move on to supernatural visions and revelations of the Lord.” Those weren’t just words about the past—they were glimpses of a future that has become our present reality.

So if you ever feel invisible in your service… if the world mocks your faith or dismisses your worship as insignificant… remember this:

Jehovah sees. He refines. He restores what was lost and makes it shine brighter than ever before.

You are part of a vision foretold.

Source: w15 7/15 p. 1 pars. 6-8