Are You a Merciful Person?
By David Wilkerson
July 2, 2007 Dearly Beloved:

YOUR BATTLE IS THE LORD’S. (See 2 Chronicles 30:15.)
The purpose of this letter is to remind you that the battle you are
facing is not yours, but God’s. If you
are a child of God, you can be certain that Satan will “rage against
you.”
In 2 Chronicles 20, a great multitude came against God’s people. King
Jehoshaphat and his people set
their hearts to seek the Lord and they fasted. The king cried to the
Lord a prayer that most of us have
prayed at one time in our spiritual journey: “We have no might
against these that come against us,
neither do we know what to do; but our eyes are upon you” (20:12).
“The Spirit of God came in the
midst of the congregation…saying, Be not afraid nor dismayed…for
the battle is not yours, but God’s”
(20:14–15).
Isaiah warned satanic forces, “Who have you reproached and
blasphemed? And against whom have
you exalted your voice?…even against the Holy One of Israel”
(Isaiah 37:23).
God told his people, and he tells us, “The battle is not against you.
It is Satan’s rage against me —
against the Lord who abides in you.” God said to Satan, “I know
where you abide, and where you
come and go, and your rage against me” (37:28).
Where is your battle? In your marriage? Your business or job? Your
finances? Your health? Does your
battle get more intense day after day? If you have a heart for Jesus
and a desire to cleave to him, you
will face the rage of hell. But it is still not your battle.
You can end your battle quickly if you choose — by simply quitting
and giving in to your fears and
doubts. Satan will not bother those who give up their confidence in the
Lord.
Yes, the battle is the Lord’s, but we have a part — and that is to
trust and believe in the face of
hopelessness and what seems to be impossibilities. “Why sayest thou,
O Jacob, and speakest, O
Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over
from my God?” (Isaiah 40:27).
Faith demands that I turn all my problems — all my critical
situations, all my fears, all my anxieties —
into the hand of the Lord. When I know I have done all I can do, and I
know my battle is beyond my
power, I must turn it all over into his hands.
Our Lord knows the raging of Satan, and I must truly believe he will
act. He will bring us through
floods and fires, and put to chase all spiritual enemies. Here is
God’s Word concerning what he will
do: “Because of your rage against me…and it has come into my ears,
therefore I will put a hook in
your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the
way you came” (Isaiah 37:29).
If you will hold fast to your faith — trust him, rest in his
promises, reject all lies of Satan coming at
your mind — then expect him to come by his Spirit into your situation
and bring an expected end to
your particular battle. God will move heaven and earth to deliver you
and make a way. The way out is
to trust — trust — trust! “He makes wars to cease” (Psalm
46:9).
A very special thanks to all who have prayed for us and who have been
led by the Holy Spirit to send

support for our outreaches to so many worldwide. God is meeting those
needs as we pray and
believe. He always blesses ministries that trust him to meet all needs
In Christ,
DAVID WILKERSON
DW:bbm 7.2.07

Newsletter: Are You a Merciful Person?
July 2, 2007 “Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord” (Psalm
119:156). “The Lord is gracious and full of
compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all;
and his tender mercies are
over all his works” (145:8–9, my italics).
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.”
I believe all true Christians have a good measure of mercy for the lost
and hurting. 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:
● Most evangelical denominations do not even extend God’s tender,
loving mercies to each other, or
to those who have split off from them and started another group.
Over the past five years I have visited some fifty countries conducting
ministers’ conferences. All over
the world 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. Too often they refuse to fellowship or even speak
to one another.
A denomination in one country wouldn’t let our advance team even
enter their office doors. They said
they refused to work with us as long as we were cooperating with other
ministries who were alienated
from them.
● A vast number of white churches do not even extend God’s tender,
loving mercies to their black
brothers and sisters, or to Hispanics or Puerto Ricans or other ethnic
groups.
Tragically, this prejudice is just as true in some ethnic churches as
well. The congregation becomes
uncomfortable when whites show up. In some places, the unspoken
attitude is, “This isn’t your place.
You’re not welcome here.” 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.
● 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

who work in godless brothels. I think of people in Africa and other
continents dying by the thousands
with AIDS. I think of homosexuals who endure endless heart-aches and
mental anguish, the trials of
their lives, and who drink themselves into oblivion to try to 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 even 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 friends
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.
Let that old, dead system ordain and marry gays, let them trample the
divinity of Christ, let them go
their way apart from God. They preach a “tolerance” that is
altogether different from what Scripture
calls God’s tender mercies. Theirs isn’t tolerance but blindness,
and it has drained their organizations
of all gospel power. 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.
There is a triumphant church rising up even now, coming out of great
trials of faith.This last-days
church is emerging from fiery furnaces and long days of affliction. So,
you ask, what does God plan to
do?
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.
Right now, Islamics are preparing for a final jihad, to “take over
the world” for Allah. Islamic training
camps are rising up worldwide with a message of hate, characterized by
merciless beheadings.
Yet the Lord also has a people in training, a people he’s going to
use to face down the wrath of this
world. How will he accomplish this? He is training and equipping them
in his loving kindness and
peace. Our God is a God of love, and he won’t use bombs, guns or
suicide squads, but an overcoming
people who are fearless in the Lord of tender mercies.
All over the world, God’s people are experiencing suffering,
afflictions and torture more than ever in
their lifetime. And of this I am sure: there is a divine, eternal
purpose in the intensity of these
spiritual and physical battles now being endured in the true body of
Christ. “His tender mercies are
over all his works” (Psalm 145:9, my italics).
God revealed his last-days plan through the cross of Jesus.Our Lord has
had a plan all along. God
himself came down and took on the form and condition of man, living
among sinful men. He endured
their hatred, experienced their rejection, faced unthinkable reproach,
and through it all he never
fought back.
Jesus never established armies of vengeful, hate-filled jihadists. He
used no carnal weapons. Instead,
he pulled down strongholds by his mighty loving kindness. Our Lord had
but one battle plan: tender,
merciful love. Indeed, love drives all of his works on earth. He is the
full expression of God’s love:
“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies, and God of all
comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3).
Jesus allowed his enemies to abuse him, mock him, even kill him bodily.
And when he rose from the
grave, he did so as the anointed head of a new kind of church, a new
kind of people. Here now was a
many-member body that would consist of all races and peoples: Jews,
Gentiles, Mohammedans,
Buddhists, any who would acknowledge Christ as Lord. They would be
brought into one man, one
body, forming a new humankind. And on the final day, they all will be
raised up in one man, Jesus.
Beloved, if you are in Christ, then you are a part of this body. And
you’re also a part of the last-days
work of the Lord. You see, this one new man is God’s interest on the
earth today. As Christ was on
earth, so will be all who are in his body. And just as Jesus was the
revelation of the Father’s tender
love for lost humankind, likewise today all who are in Christ are to
manifest this same tender love.

The apostle Paul said we all are partakers of suffering (see 2
Corinthians 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” (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.
The fact is, with just one stroke God could end every battle, take down
every world leader, destroy all
works of the devil. He has at his command legions of angels to
accomplish this. At one time he
assigned a powerful angel to destroy in just a few hours’ time
185,000 enemy troops who came
against Israel. He called upon two angels to wipe out Sodom overnight.
And he could do the same
today. These same angels are still on call.
Jesus’ disciples knew this, and they wanted him to call down fire
from heaven upon unbelieving
Samaritans. But Christ told them, “Ye know not what manner of spirit
ye are of [or, is gripping you]”
(Luke 9:55).
I ask you: in these fearful days, do you know what spirit you are of?
What are today’s headlines doing
to your heart? Are you descending into the political mud-bath taking
place in the media every day?
Are you growing harder, more skeptical, more suspicious, even vengeful?
Or is your heart becoming
softer, more tender?
Is it possible for a righteous, praying, Bible-loving person to harbor
unmerciful, hard thoughts?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 of 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 an
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.
Most Bible scholars agree that Jonah is the author of this book. It is
a godly man’s unvarnished
confession about his own heart issues. At the time, Jonah was an
honored and revered prophet in
Israel. We read of his encouraging prophecy that God was going to save
Israel from bitter affliction by
its enemies.
But Jonah also shows himself in this book to be a bigoted, selfish,
disobedient servant of God. As the

author, Jonah makes no attempt to whitewash his experiences. The book
is his attempt to warn every
believer of their own biases and prejudices concerning the mercy of
God.
You see, as a Jew, Jonah was raised to hate the nation of Nineveh. This
arch-enemy to Israel was
somewhat like Iran is to the U.S. today. Nineveh was bent on destroying
Israel and stood as a
constant threat to Israel’s existence. It was also a society where
unspeakable wickedness abounded.
Jonah was trained to see Nineveh as a wicked, vile city, an enemy to
his own nation.
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. The word of my folly will reach
every port.”
So instead of preaching, Jonah went on the run. He boarded a ship that
was headed in the opposite
direction of Nineveh. It was an act that revealed his own bias and
prejudice concerning God’s mercy.
Simply put, Jonah wasn’t willing to see God’s tender mercies
extended to his enemy.
Many Christians today are just like Jonah in this way. This man
believed in God’s mercy toward his
own country, Israel, as did other prophets. They all cried, “Lord,
come and bless our land. Send your
tender mercies upon Israel.” Jonah did not extend the same loving
mercy to the Ninevites. He
couldn’t see God’s tender mercies for any nation that was set
against Israel.
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). A huge fish must have
been trailing the ship and
swallowed Jonah. 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 say, “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” (Psalm 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” (Hebrews 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.
The older I get and the longer I walk with the Lord, the more
sufferings I experience.Like Jonah, I
believe I am seeing more clearly what God is trying to work out in me.
It is the very same thing he
was trying to accomplish in Jonah in the belly of his hell. Indeed,
it’s the same thing God is seeking to
accomplish in all of our trials.
That is, the Lord was trying to soften Jonah’s heart and make him
wholly dependent on God. He
wanted to have at his call a prophet who would hate sin and warn of
God’s coming wrath, yet who
would be tender and merciful to all who repented. In short, God is
seeking to pluck out of his last-days
people all that remains of hardness and self-dependency.
So God decided to take Jonah into a situation in which no other person
or power could help him. It was
a place beyond the love or mercy of friends, family or prophets — a
place of seeming death. In short,
Jonah had to be stripped of all human hope. That’s what the prophet
describes when he writes, “All
thy billows and thy waves passed over me” (Jonah 2:3). He’s saying,
in essence, “This is all beyond
me. It’s way over my head. Only a miracle can save me.”
Then, once Jonah had come to such a place, God would pour out on him
his most tender mercies. And
he would renew his servant’s calling and anoint him afresh.
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 is going to make a
prophetic utterance involving judgment, that word must come from a
place of 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.”
For years I have been speaking of 1,000 fires coming to New York City.
If this word truly is from God,
then something of his mercy must be present in my heart as I deliver
it. First, I have to be willing to
believe it will never happen, because of God’s tender mercies. And
second, I have to be willing to be
ridiculed, so God’s mercy can be exalted.
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.
How did Jonah react to this turn of events? “It displeased Jonah
exceedingly, and he was very angry.
And he prayed unto the Lord…Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech
thee, my life from me” (4:1–3).
Jonah was now in despair. What had happened? How could he react with
anger over such an
incredible manifestation of God’s mercy?
You would think after all he had been through, Jonah might have prayed
for Nineveh: “Lord, you
showed me your tender mercies. You loved me when I was rebellious.
Can’t you do the same for this
wicked city? Can’t you spare the many children here? Won’t you show
them all the same mercy you
had on me?”
But that’s not what happened. Jonah had gone through all his trials
without his heart being softened
at all. And it happened because Jonah abused God’s tender mercies
toward himself. He took God’s
mercy for granted. He didn’t allow it to register in his heart and
thus to soften him toward others.
In writing this book, Jonah didn’t hide the hideousness of his
spiteful actions. His story is a confession,
as if to say: “Can you believe I could still be so hard, so unfeeling
and unforgiving, after all the
unmerited loving kindness God showed to me? Take warning: do not forget
God’s mercies to you. I
got angry at God because those who stood against me weren’t being
judged. I thought, ‘They’re
getting away with it.’”
Has this attitude ever been in your heart? Has someone mistreated you,
and you raged inside
because you didn’t see that person paying a price? Now, ask yourself:
how many tender mercies have
been extended to you? How many sins in your life has the Lord covered
with his mercy and
forgiveness? I tremble to think I could receive such incredible, tender
mercies and not be merciful in
turn.
Jonah didn’t end his book with a victorious testimony. He closed by
showing himself under a loving
rebuke from the Lord, for his lack of tenderness toward others. Jonah
was saying to the world, “I
didn’t learn my lesson. But I am still a work in progress.”
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 harden people’s hearts. And God’s great concern for his
people through it all is this “heart
issue” that Jonah addresses. While Islam and other religions grow
increasingly hardened of heart, God
is at work by his Spirit mellowing and strengthening the true body of
Christ through pain.
That is a testimony to a cold, grieving world. We are able to say: “I
have proven the Christ I serve to
be merciful and kind. He has loved me through everything.”

His love and mercy can be yours as well, no matter how deep your sin,
no matter how hopeless things
seem. He has tender mercies for you, to bring you through. ■
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