Mercy: Provision to Change

1/7/1990

His Mercy

His mercy is that He gives us resources and provision. His mercy is not that he overlooks or lowers the standard. His mercy is that He first gives us complete forgiveness, and then He gives us His Spirit so that we can walk in His Life! His mercy allows us to put on the breastplate of righteousness and to put on His armor and live His life out of His bounty and out of His resources. Rather than just overlooking our ignorance, sin, and rebellion, He gives us resources to come into His standard, which is far better than Him lowering the standard.

As you consider this, you can see why it is such blasphemy to whine. Not only has He given total forgiveness, but He’s also given His Son and ultimately the very Spirit by which he lives! Let me say that again. . . HE HAS GIVEN, to every individual that calls on the name of the Lord, without exception, THE VERY SPIRIT BY WHICH HE LIVES! So, to whine is just utter blasphemy. To whine is to put a burden on God that doesn’t belong on His shoulders. It cost Him His LIFE to give us His Spirit! To whine and complain and withdraw, and to be fearful and skeptical and cynical and judgmental... all those things are blasphemy, not just because God said, “Don’t Do It!”, but because He gave His Life! He spilled His own blood so that every single person without exception would have the resources to live by His Life. It is blasphemy to say, “I don’t have that... I can’t do it... Well, you’re just different than I am and I understand that for you, but I can be unfruitful and I can be a complainer and I can be unproductive and I can live in sin and compromise because, after all, I don’t have the resources.” God says, “Wait a minute! It cost Me My life to give you the resources.” The burden isn’t on God’s shoulders anymore. It’s our job to empty ourselves so that He can fill us. And it’s our job to praise His name rather than to complain and moan and whine and walk in unbelief.

In Romans 5 it says that we reign in Life by receiving. “...those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness, reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” It is by receiving that we are able to tap His resources. We are to be walking in assurance and in confidence and in praise and adoration of Him, rather than in introspection and in our own details.

It’s a big thing to walk in babyhood and rebellions and slothfulness all the days of our life. That’s a big thing not just because God forbids it, but because it cost Him His life to offer you a new and a living way. And you are not the exception to that. The resources and provisions are there for you by His blood and by His Spirit. The resources are there to walk in freedom and in liberty. . . for every last one of us! ! !