Objects of His Mercy

It never ceases to amaze me, how I can take a perfectly good teaching and stumble all over it. I have been learning about prophetic acts and how God uses them to move in our lives. As such, I have learned to ask the question "What do I need to do to see the breakthrough I am looking for?" a perfectly good question to ask. This morning in my prayer time I was talking to God about clients and asking him what I needed to do to always be closing deals. As I was doing so, the Lord led me to Romans 9 and revealed the condition of my heart to me.

Apparently, whereas the prophetic acts are good and must be done, I had began to rely on them as the source of the answer. That because I have sown a seed, or prayer walked or made certain confessions it would happen. Like magic! And if it didn't work that way, that particular prophetic act did not work. This morning the Lord said "I am sovereign. I do my will". He said to me, "You do the prophetic acts because they change the spiritual atmosphere, but your trust remains in me." Everything is a result of the great mercies of God. He blesses you out of mercy. He favors you out of his great compassion over you. It is never because of what we have done. Salvation, from sin, death, sickness, poverty, debt, torment etc is by his mercy and grace. There is nothing you or I will ever do to deserve God's favor. Not a single thing.

So he says in vs 15
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

We would all be wiser to go before the throne of Grace and appeal at the mercy seat for his help that our lives may go forward and we may experience extraordinary success in every area of our lives.

Vs 16-17 say it best:

"It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

It is not about your keeping the law it is about his mercy being effective in your life. It is about God saying of you " I will display my power in you that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

So does that mean we should stop with the prophetic acts? Of course NOT! They have their place, and they are indeed for a purpose. Jesus did not come to abolish the law. We are to keep on tithing, keep on sowing, keep on doing good, keep on prayer walking, making confessions and the like. Why? The answer can be found in Acts 10:4 "...The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God." Your works and prophetic acts will come up as a memorial offering before God, and he will show you mercy.

vs 23 - 24 says that we are "the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called" We are objects of his mercy and this mercy is what causes him to show us favor, causes him to bless us, causes him to endow us with supernatural skill, ability and wisdom. Our posture should be that described in Ps 123 below:

1 I lift up my eyes to you,
to you whose throne is in heaven.

2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he shows us his mercy.

3 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.

4 We have endured much ridicule from the proud,
much contempt from the arrogant.

and we know that he never runs out according to Lamentations 3:22-23

"The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning."

We are objects of his mercy and his mercy towards us is fresh every morning. God will move us forward. We are only but helped! If it was not for his mercy where would we be?