Praise God! This is the Year of the Local Church. It is also the Year of Divine Healing, Divine Health, Divine Prosperity and Divine Recovery. By faith, receive each one of these wonderful covenant benefits our LORD has provided for us. By His stripes, we ARE healed. By His goodness, we ARE prosperous. By His mercy, we recover ALL that the devil has stolen from us.
Pastor Terri and I continue to thank God for you and your faithfulness and commitment to EMIC. We pray that He blesses you to be like the Apostle Paul, who wrote in Philippians 4:18-19, New Living Translation, “At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”
Let’s talk about how merciful our loving heavenly Father is to us.
No matter what we have done, He is ALWAYS ready to extend His mercy and forgiveness. There is never a moment when He turns His back on us. He is THE example of the kind of love that won’t ever give up. He is ALWAYS ready to forgive us for whatever we have done.
First John 1:7-9, New King James Version, is precious to me. It says, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Our heavenly Father is always ready to offer cleansing and forgiveness.
A most precious and powerful scripture that demonstrates that fact is Hebrews 4:15-16, Amplified Bible, Classic Edition: “For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly DRAW NEAR (emphasis mine) to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may RECEIVE MERCY [FOR OUR FAILURES] (emphasis mine) and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].”
Paul is saying we have a High Priest (Jesus) who understands our weaknesses and the assaults of temptation. We are invited to confidently and boldly draw near to the THRONE OF GRACE to receive mercy and grace for our failures. He is assuring us that we will be offered all the help we would ever need—appropriate and well-timed help coming just when we need it.
God’s mercy is defined as His kindness and good will toward the miserable and the afflicted, joined with the desire to help them. He wants to help us overcome every sin we face. Ephesians 2:4, NKJV, tells us that our God is “RICH IN MERCY (emphasis mine), because of His great love with which He loved us…” Thank you, LORD, for mercy for our failures.
David was a great king who loved God. But being “a man after God’s own heart” doesn’t mean perfection. If that were the case, he would have been dethroned for the sin he committed.
Instead, he was forgiven.
Psalms 51 fully details David’s regret for what he did, his confession of guilt, his desire to be cleansed and his hope for the future. “Have mercy upon me, O God…Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgressions. Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you.”
Whatever you have done, or whatever you are doing, come now to the throne of grace and say:
“Father, I have sinned before You. But Your WORD declares that if I confess my sins, You are faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me, by the blood of Jesus, from all unrighteousness. I plead the blood over everything I have done. I receive Your mercy and forgiveness. Even now, as I am confessing my guilt, I receive Your pardon. Even now, according to Isaiah 43:25, You have blotted out my transgressions and You have already forgotten what I did. You have made me the righteousness of God in Christ. Because of that, I offer my body, my mind, and my spirit to You today as instruments of righteousness. Thank You, LORD. You have given me mercy for my failures. In Jesus’ Name, I fully receive my forgiveness by faith.”
Forgiven and Cleansed by the Blood,
Pastor George Pearsons
