Matthew 12:7-8 “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.” This episode is about the Lord's mercy and how much he wants to share it with us and He wants us in turn to share it with others. I also share four words of prophecy from my prayer group. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Have Mercy!
Matthew 12:7-8 “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
What stuck out most to me in this verse is when the Lord says, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” Today during prayer group, we had several words about mercy. I was also typing up the minutes from our meetings last September and there were several words given about God’s mercy then too. Also, the teaching today at the meeting was on God’s mercy. There is no way I could hear God talking about mercy that many times, and then not mention to all of you. This verse is about the Pharisees are complaining because Jesus and His disciples were picking grain in the fields on the Sabbath because they were hungry. They needed to eat. This is when Jesus speaks up and tells them that if they knew what the phrase “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” meant, then they wouldn’t be condemning the innocent. What does that phrase mean? The Lord desires mercy from us. He desires us to be merciful and to share His mercy with others. I actually have four words of prophecy to share with you today because they were given to our prayer group to share and because who better to help us understand how much the Lord desires mercy than the Lord himself.
The first word I want to share is from the meeting that we had today. This word shows how much the Lord longs for us to ask for mercy and to share mercy with others. Here is what was said: "If you only knew how my mercy longs, it aches to be sent out to more and more. Ask the Lord for mercy every day, every hour, to relieve my pain. The pain in my heart that suffers for you and for all who need my mercy, who are afraid of my mercy, who run away from my mercy. Call them in, draw them to me, pray that the Lord of mercy will have mercy, so that my heart will be relieved of more, of more, of more mercy." Wow, can you hear the desperation in the Lord’s voice? He wants to give us mercy. Why aren’t we asking for it? Why are we afraid of his mercy? Why are we running away from it? Is it because we don’t think we deserve it? It is because we don’t think we need it? Take a moment and think about yourself. Are you accepting the Lord’s mercy? Are you asking for it? Are you one that is afraid of it or are you running from it? Why is that?
The next word that I want to share was also given to us at the prayer group meeting today. Listen to His words and see how God is calling out to us, He is calling out to you. Can you hear Him? He said: "Come, come to me. I call you often but you get distracted. Come, come to me first. Come to me quickly. Bring everything with you, bring everyone with you. My mercy is so great, my love, my forgiveness is so powerful. I am the Lord God most high. I will save all who seek me, don't give up on anyone. One little movement of their soul and they can have heaven with me for eternity.” I don’t know about you, but I can definitely relate to this one too. I feel as though I am constantly distracted. I want to come to the Lord, I want to come to Him first and yet I let so many things get in my way and distract me. I seem to constantly be getting off course on my way to Him. I love when it says, “I will save all who seek me, don’t give up on anyone. One little movement of their soul and they can have heaven with me for eternity.” How great does that sound? What this word is saying is that God can save anyone. It sounds like He knows we have a tendency to think that some people are beyond saving. I love that he lovingly reassures us that no one is beyond saving. He reminds us that his mercy is great and his love and forgiveness are so powerful. God is good!
The next word that I want to share with you was given last September. It talks about God’s mercy and how God wants us to share His mercy with others. He said: “Remember I am light in the darkness and as you walk, because you are my light, you bring light into the darkness. And in that light is my mercy and that is what you bring to others, my mercy, through your speaking, through your loving, through your compassion. You are part of letting my mercy go, so walk always in my light and know that no darkness can cover you because you are mine. You are mine for eternity. Remember you are mine.” How great is that word? We are His for eternity, yes please. That is awesome. What amazes me the most is that God wants us to share in brining his mercy to others. He could just do it himself, He doesn’t have to include us, and yet he does. He lets us share His light with the world too. We bring light to the darkness. In that light is the Lord’s mercy. This word says that we bring His mercy to others through our speaking, our compassion and our loving others.
Take a moment to evaluate yourself. Are you living up to this? Are you spreading mercy or are you spreading judgement and condemnation? The Pharisees were not spreading mercy. They were condemning the blameless because of their judgement. We must be very careful not to do this. We must be very careful to be a light in the darkness. It is easy to judge, it is easy to add to the darkness. That is not what we are being called to do. We are being called to share the Lord’s mercy with others. We are being called so spread God’s light to others. Are we doing this? If we aren’t doing this, what needs to change so that we can do this? What do we need to do differently?
The last word I want to share with you today is from last September. In this word, the Lord is asking us, yet again, to share His mercy. He said: “My children, my mercy flows from me to you so that in turn it may flow from you to others. Mercy is what I give so that you in turn can give my mercy to others. Do not be afraid, I am with you. Be a people of mercy, reflect my heart for I am a merciful God and you must be a merciful people.” The Lord speaks to us at every single prayer meeting. He says all sorts of things to us. What are the chances that there would be this many words of prophecy on mercy today. This wasn’t even all of them. mercy was mentioned at least three more times. It is so clear to me and after hearing all these words from our Lord, I hope it is clear to you too. The Lord is calling us to be a merciful people. Can we answer this call? Can we offer more mercy and less judgement? Can we work on being a light in the darkness and sharing the Lord’s light with others? What is one thing we can do today to help share the Lord’s mercy with others? If you are not sure, ask the Lord, He will tell you.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us be a light in the darkness. Help us to share your mercy with others. Help us to ask for mercy and to give mercy. Lord, help us to be the merciful people that you are calling us to be. We need your help Lord. We are so grateful that you gave us these wonderful words. We are grateful that you give of your mercy so freely. We love you Lord, you are so amazing. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you on Monday. Have a blessed day!