Lamentations 3:22,23 It is because of His mercies that are new
every morning that we are not consumed.
What is the opposite of mercy? It is judgment and with the absence of mercy
in the house of God we become guilty of what Jay Vernon McGee, a famous
preacher and writer stated, ‘the only exercise some Christians get is jumping
to conclusions and running down others.
The Good Samaritan is the clearest example
of mercy in action.
Mercy gets involved in the lives of others
no matter what the cost.
The gift of mercy has an ACTIVIST instinct
This person sees all of Christ following as
an activity of service. Their key word
is involved. They love to take action
with God and commune with Him about what is so needed in our world. They have great compassion for the
disadvantaged and poor. They are angry
about oppression and have a sense of urgency to introduce Christ to
others. They are committed to changing
His world and love to connect with other activists, to plan, to think globally. Prayer for this person is a tool or weapon to
advance the kingdom of God. The worst
insult they could hear is ‘you are lazy or a hypocrite’. They feel best when they are engaged and
really don’t like to take time off. The
warning for this person is that they rarely relax and can experience
burnout.
1 John 3:16-20
The Design of A Person With The Gift of
Mercy
When I think of those who exemplify mercy
at Grace, I think of Bobby Clark. I had
a chance to visit Bobby in his Auto Body Shop and there as I sat, he was the
one praying for me. As people came in
with car related needs, God gave Bobby a window into their soul. I also think of Dr. Anne Marie. It is
the restlessness of her soul is to erase the injustice that the aids
epidemic has robbed life from the ‘beautiful people of Lesotho’ The dream now is to for Grace to lead the way
so that other churches may catch the vision of partnering with churches in
Lesotho to minister to the widows, the children, to enable them to see both a
physical and spiritual harvest!
Do you have a real heart for people?
Do you feel tenderness toward others?
Do you have a desire to see people love one
another to a greater degree?
If so, you probably have the gift of
mercy. The apostle John certainly
exemplified this gift in his writings as we will see and in being chosen to
look after Mary, the mother of Jesus.
A person with the gift of mercy will
naturally empathize with those who are hurting and they don’t look to fix the
problem but are ready to be there with the wounded, to listen to the painful
stories and not be shocked. They are
ready to pray, to love and are not there to judge.
They are willing to move into the places where
things can’t simply just be fixed and they know that healing often comes for
them and for those that they minister to when they immerse themselves in that
broken place.
This temperament had tremendous capacity to
show love, always looking for the good in other people. They are attracted to people who are hurting
or in distress. They take care with
words and actions to avoid hurting others.
Few enemies
Those with the gift of mercy rarely have
enemies. It is easy for them to get along with anybody in any context. They
have many people that admire and respect them for all that they do.
Safe
They are a very safe person for those who
are wounded. People can come to them, share their hurts, pain, and woundedness,
and know intuitively the mercy is a safe place, even if they are almost a
stranger.
One of the diagnostic questions you can ask
when looking for a mercy is, “Do people come up to you frequently and bare
their entire soul without being asked?”
Sensing
They have the ability to take the
initiative. In a room full of strangers they can sense who the wounded people
are no matter how good the plastic smile on their face is. They can see right
through it. They just know who is feeling rejected.
Transparent
Typically, a mercy has a huge number of
acquaintances, many people they enjoy and who enjoy them, but there is just one
or two that are close intimate friends. And they share everything about
themselves with that friend. There is no holds barred, complete transparency.
Craves intimacy
The intimacy the mercy craves transcends
soul contact to physical contact. More than any other gift, they are designed
by God to want and need touch. John at the last supper is an example. It is
important to understand this for young men.
Sensitive to the Spirit
When a mercy hears from God, they
frequently will have difficulty explaining the why. The gift of mercy is
designed by God to know His heart and to operate on a very subjective,
intuitive basis.
Hates confrontation
Along those lines, the mercy hates to
confront someone else. It is the hardest thing for them to tell someone they
are wrong. Their DNA is to keep people from hurting, to protect people from
pain. When they have to confront, it is very difficult. It usually takes them
an hour of beating around the bush. This can be a major downfall for mercy and
so they can be indecisive.
Pre-disposition to worship
The most important characteristic on the
surface for the mercy is the pre-disposition to worship. He loves to worship
and enters in easier than the other gifts when he is mature.
Philemon 1:8-12
The Ministry of Mercy
The gift of mercy calls us to sanctify
time, to not race with our schedules.
The gift of mercy’s calling is to sanctify
time in his own life and in the lives of others. It was the first thing that
God sanctified and He did it with blessing.
When the unclean woman touched the tassel
on Jesus’ prayer shawl, she was healed. When He touched lepers, they were
healed. This is the most holy level in which the mercy walks.
God has called the mercy to walk in that
arena of most holy. The blessing that the mercy imparts is not the blessing of
affirming design and releasing it, or of having authority to impart authority.
It is the blessing to be able to sanctify the environment where they go.
The reason mercy can do it so easily is
that God has designed for him to come into His presence to absorb the holiness
of God to increase the mercy’s authority. God calls the mercy to cross over
that threshold and experience intimacy with God. Therefore, there can be a
release of the holiness of God in his spirit.
And we all, who with unveiled faces
contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with
ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18
This is not a “doing” verse but a “being”
verse.
The gift of mercy knows that the
Father heals the woundedness.
We are in a Kairos time…different from
‘chronos’ time. Kairos reflects the fact
that there is a sensitivity to timing of a season when God opens a door of
opportunity for us to minister.
We are in a kairos time where God is
bringing His fathering to heal everyone, especially the mercies. It is time for
the mercy to know who the Father is, and who they are in the Father. And for
the mercies then to be able to walk in their full identity, to walk in the
fullness of this gift in the church, to
bring the manifest presence of God forth in a holiness that will sanctify
others, and to release the holiness of God into the camp in a most holy way. Arthur Burke
1 John 4:7-11
The Character of the Merciful
We will have confidence on the day of
judgment v17
Why? The mercy of God’s love through His
Son, the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
We will be able to love others when we experience this mercy in its
fullest understanding.
That is why we must go to the place of
spiritual intimacy, to know how profound, how deep is the love of God for me.
The Takeaway
The gift of mercy displays compassion in
the face of judgement.
When others simply pass judgment, mercy
responds with kindness and faithfulness.
Hebrews 4:15,16 For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted
in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s
throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to
help us in our time of need.
