ARE YOU A MERCIFUL PERSON?

I want to ask you a question I’ve been asking myself lately, are you a merciful person? Most of us would answer “I think I am merciful, to the best of my ability. I sympathize with those who suffer. I feel the pain of my hurting brothers and sisters in Christ, and I try to help them. I do my best to assist my neighbors in need, and when people hurt me, I forgive them and don’t hold a grudge.”(Psalm 119:156; Psalm 145:8-9). I believe all true Christians have a good measure of mercy for the lost and hurting and I thank God for that, but the sad truth is God’s word exposes in many of us deep roots of bias and very limited concepts of mercy.

Most religions that claim to fear God have a creed or doctrine that says, “God’s tender loving, mercies extend to all of humankind.” As followers of Jesus, we talk so much about his tender mercies to the wide world, but here is the truth: we do not always extend God’s tender, loving mercies to each other or to those who have split off from them and started another group. (Psalm 139:23). Over the past five years, I have visited some churches conducting conferences and healing services all throughout the tri-state, I have seen bickering, disunited church systems that are neither tender nor merciful. I think of some leaders of Baptist, Pentecostal, Charismatic and other church groups that have been so unloving to others that after they refuse to fellowship or ever speak to one another.

A denomination right here on Staten Island refused to work with us as long as we were cooperating with other ministries who were alienated from them. “A vast number of churches do not ever extend God’s tender, loving mercies to their brothers and sisters or other ethnic groups. Tragically, this happens not just in the south, but in cities in the north, east and west. I know it is true here in New York. Sad to say, even among some devoted believers there exists a biased, limited mercy that doesn’t extend to certain kinds of sinners.

There are many people to whom large numbers of Christians limit God’s mercy. I think of prostitutes, AIDS, homosexuals, alcoholics, drug addicts who cover their pain. Yes, I believe homosexuality is a sin and that it’s condemned in scripture. Yes, I believe the wages of sin in this world are bringing about disease and death. But I cannot believe God shuts out his tender mercies to any sinner who cries out to him for Christ’s mercy and love. From what I read in scripture, I can’t accept that my savior would ever turn down the desperate cry of a prostitute, a homosexual, a drug addict or alcoholic who has hit rock bottom. His mercies are unlimited: there is no end to them. Therefore, as his church – Christ’s representative body on the earth – we cannot cut off anyone who cries out for mercy and deliverance.

There are biases in our hearts running like deep rivers, and over the years they have carved out borders of prejudice. We may not ever be aware of these inner biases until suddenly they’re in our face, confronting us with the truth about our hearts. As you consider this in your own life, I ask you again: Are you a merciful person, tender and loving?

I picture many readers saying, “yes”. Yet, ask those around you - - your family, your co-workers, your friends and neighbors, your friend of a different color – and see how they respond.

Tell me, where is the church’s voice in all of this? Hear me well: the old prejudiced, opinionated, divided organizations we’ve called the church are now like “Shiloh,” “Ichabod”. The glory has departed! “The Holy Spirit will have nothing to do with those old wineskins. They long ago lost any anointing that remained from their original calling. They have no future in God’s plans for these last days; may such churches and ministries repent.

The Lord’s mercy is always extended, but he has left completely those that continue to refuse his truth. What I see happening is the Holy Spirit at work bringing a people into utter brokenness. He’s leading them to a revelation of weakness in their own flesh, in order to show himself strong.

I see him bringing his people to the end of themselves, crushing their stubborn wills, until their mindset becomes only, “His will be done.” I see him leading his beloved ones into places of trial so difficult only a miracle can deliver them and through it all, they are becoming wholly dependent on the Lord for everything!

Does this describe your situation? Perhaps you’ve been walking with Jesus for years, and you’ve never faced a test like the one in front of you right now. Things are coming at you that seem overwhelming, things that only God can do something about. And you realize only he can bring you through (Psalm 145:9).

The Apostle Paul said “we all are partakers of suffering”. (2 Cor. 1:7). Paul says, that the sufferings Christ’s body is enduring are so intense they are “above strength (beyond endurance), insomuch that we despaired even of life. We had the sentence of death in ourselves” (2 Cor. 1:8-9). Why is this so? It is to become partakers in the consolation of the Lord’s tender love and mercy. It is to experience comfort, hope and encouragement in these hard times, so we can offer comfort to suffering others who have lost all hope. The darker these days become, the more the world is going to need this kind of consolation, hope and love, people will need to see there are others who have been in the battle of their lives and were brought through that is the testimony of the last days church.

“Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of (or, is gripping you)” Luke 9:55. As I ask this question, I’m referring to all believers, as well as to anyone who may be in ministry, anyone who may prophesy, anyone who is full at zeal for the Lord, anyone who preaches holiness, anyone who is anointed by the Holy Spirit to do a work of God. Can such a person continue their godly works with any untouched area of hardness? Is it really possible to appear to be Christ-like and not have a soft heart? Yes, it is true of many Christians and it is an issue so important in God’s eyes, he gave us an entire book in the Bible that deals with the matter. The book is Jonah, and everything I have been talking about in this message is addressed in it.

Then Jonah was instructed by God, “Go to Nineveh and cry against its wickedness.” The prophet was to warn the Ninevites that they had forty days from the time of his prophecy before judgment would arrive. But Jonah didn’t want to warn Nineveh. He argued with the Lord; “I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil (or, the wrath prophesied)” Jonah 4:2. By his action, Jonah was saying, “Lord, why should I preach to these people? They are our enemy. If anything, they should be destroyed. Yet, I know if these Ninevites repent at all, you’re going to let them off. I’ll end up looking like a fool! No one in Israel will ever listen to me again. And the Ninevites will laugh me out of their city. I’ll become a world renowned reproach. Word of my folly will reach every port.”

When the ship carrying Jonah came upon vicious, stormy weather, the prophet requested that the crew throw him into the sea. We’re all familiar with the story at this point: The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah” (Jonah 1:17). For three days and nights, Jonah was in the belly of the whale, crying “out of the belly of hell” (2:2).

He confessed, “this is God’s doing. He has cast me into this place!”

Some readers might says, “I’m not like Jonah. I’m in a crisis, too, hurting as I never have in my lifetime. Day after day, I cry out of the belly of my own hell. I’m flooded by fears, and tempests compass me about. But I am no Jonah. I’m not running from God. I’m an obedient servant. And I will never say, “God is doing this to me.”

We may think of our testings as God’s chastenings or as trials of our faith. Yet the fact, remains, “many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Psa. 34:19). And we can be sure the Lord allows these things in his omniscient love for us; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Heb 12:6). Whatever we are going through, there is a divine purpose for it, and it is all happening according to God’s tender mercies.

You see, there has to be something of God’s tender mercy in any servant who speaks prophetically. That is one of the lessons God wanted Jonah to learn. If any servant of God’s is going to make a prophetic utterance involving judgment, that word must come from a place at brokenness and tears. And it has to be delivered from a heart that says, in truth, “I would rather be made a fool in the world’s eyes than for this word to come to pass.”

As we pick up Jonah’s story, we find him now preaching on the streets of Nineveh, in obedience to God. He cries out to those wicked people, “You have only forty days left. Then your city will be overthrown in judgment. Soon after he prophesied, a wave of repentance swept over Nineveh. The Ninevites “(cried) mightily unto God --- and God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” Jonah 3:8, 10. God spared Nineveh. He called off the destruction because they repented.

We all are works in progress and I’m convinced God wants to speak this lesson from Jonah to his people in these last days. Right now, every evil, fearful thing taking place on earth is designed by Satan to burden people’s hearts.

God Bless!

Rev. Millie M. Colon