So I sit here in the Global Prayer Room at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City tonight with a very tender heart. The Lord is unlocking something for me. I want you to consider something…mercy!I am looking at the simple fact that in the chronology of the New Testament, James actually falls as the first book of the NT. James is my life’s blood and the whole key to James is found in chapter 2 verse 13.
‘Mercy triumphs over judgment.’
So consider this as a New Testament Survey….
1. The Gospels announce the life and ministry of the man of mercy – Jesus Christ.
2. The Acts represents the witness of the Holy Spirit through men/women of the mercy of God to the earth. It gives us the primary mercy strategy to the earth in the first century – a church that witnessed and testified of the man of mercy, Jesus. The church is a part of God’s mercy strategy to the earth.
3. The Epistles [Romans to Jude] develop the lifestyle of faith that bears the marks of mercy. They are personal letters from men who have received the mercy of the man [Jesus] and have marked out with clarity how that mercy develops. They are letters of mercy to set boundaries for the relationships in the growing church of the Man. They are letters that set an order and government in place that demonstrate the evidence on earth of a higher coming kingdom government lead by the Man Jesus. Many of these letters are written by Paul who was taken from darkness into light and given revelation of the government of this kingdom of God.
4. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The prophetic revelation of the final years of human history before the 2nd Coming of the Man Jesus. It reveals his mercy strategy of love for how he will protect his church [Bride], judge the wicked, save the lost and make all things new.
It’s all about mercy my friends. There is no other way to see it. The call away from homosexuality is not some back woods, ‘old school’, ungracious, out of touch boundary. It is a set boundary of mercy and the Lord says, ‘Do not move the ancient boundary stones…’
The cry for justice is innately a cry for mercy. The cry of the oppressed is a cry for mercy. The cry for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is a cry for mercy. The cry for the leadership of Jesus is a cry for mercy.
Yes, it is all about mercy! And, he delights in showing mercy. [Micah 7: 18]
