Because He Loves Them

Minister Jesse Duplantis, in relating his visit to heaven, named a famous person he saw there with the remark he’d get flak for it. I heard a similar comment by a prophetess who’d also spent time in heaven. You would know both names they mentioned. How would you react, though? I withhold them to make a point.

When I wrote THE PASSIONATE CHURCH, the Lord gave me the outline. The Scriptures gave me the title. But the heart behind it, the heart of the Father, I didn’t fully know yet. Now, don’t doubt my humility in writing it. I was obedient to the script He’d given me. My desire was to share His Words, and the book will bless you. However, since then, I’ve experienced Him in ways I cannot begin to detail in this one short post. He has shown me a glimpse of His love for people. I have seen the size of His mercy, and both changed me forever.

THE PASSIONATE CHURCH, a people who desire to build God’s house, are a people FULL OF HIS MERCY. Luke 6:36 says, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” The previous verse told us to LOVE OUR ENEMIES. Mercy is HOW we love them. Mercy is that quality which enables us to SEE THEM through the Father’s eyes and not our own shortsighted ones. I look at that man or woman and see how much THE FATHER LOVES THEM instead of their sinful behavior and how much they annoy me.

Our doubts, our anger and frustration over other people’s actions, our need to criticize and correct our neighbor, all of those emotions aren’t God at all.

God does not need our defense. Downvoting a video only shows our ignorance of HIS HEART. Leaving nasty comments on a person’s social media post (much less on a minister’s), only shows the state of our own soul. BECAUSE A MAN OR WOMAN WHO’S GLIMPSED GOD’S MERCY WILL NEVER DO THOSE THINGS. Never. They’ve seen the size of His forgiveness and love, and they can’t turn loose of it.

We are the temple of God, the apostle Paul says. (1Cor 6:19) Then Peter calls us “living” stones. (1Pe 2:6) But what builds us into a habitation for God’s presence is HIS MERCY. Not simply for ourselves, so that we fit in, but for the others we need to construct the building.

Going back to Luke’s gospel, chapter 6, verse 37 says, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” Now, notice verse 38. We’ve used this verse to speak of financial blessing, but in this context, it is talking about MERCY. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” What MERCY you give to others, you will receive.

The book of Jude says, “But of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” (Jude 1:22-23)

We are the building of God, not made with hands. (2Cor 5:1) MERCY IS THE MORTAR WHICH HOLDS THE STONES TOGETHER. God’s incredible love for us is the fuel that builds the house, and remember, those LIVING STONES ARE PEOPLE. Faith is the action that does the building, and faith without love is inert and ineffective. (See Gal 5:6) Love without MERCY has no substance.

God’s house should never be a series of broken walls because the stones spent so much time kicking each other out of place. God’s house falls into ruin when we pick HIS MERCY out of the joints. Then, we’re all loosey-goosey, slipping and sliding, and go tumbling to the ground. We’re no longer a wall of defense from the enemy. We’ve become rubble which stops up the well. The purpose of the well is to water the people. It is to water the flocks and the fields. Tear down the wall, and you have no buildings. Fill the well, and you have no supply. Neither action had anything to do with God’s will for us.

MERCY IS WORDS AND ACTIONS. You can’t “think” mercy but must act upon it, and MERCY is not mercy unless it is extended to those who don’t deserve it, whether through actions done to them or actions they have done to others. Ask yourself, who that person could be if God’s MERCY were allowed to work in them. Then rejoice when you see one, who didn’t deserve it, make a change. Because that is the PURPOSE OF MERCY, to bring change. It is a powerful force. Not a weak moment where we decide to tolerate someone, but it is the holiness of God sweeping through a man or woman, altering them forever.

MERCY rebuilds what strife and discord has destroyed. PRAYER is an action of MERCY. PRAY for your enemies. PRAY for those who despitefully use you, and in so doing, STAY IN MERCY. You can only do your part. (See Mt 5:44 and Lk 6:38)

You MUST do your part so that God has a house to abide in. Not until the temple was completed did His presence enter in, and it was there, inside its walls, that the sacrifice was laid on the altar, a figure of the work of Christ, the Messiah, who would come in the ultimate act of MERCY that the world did not deserve. (See 1Ki 8:10; Ez 43:4)

Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay

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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.feelgoodromance.com
www.suzannedwilliams.com