The Scariest Thing about the Mercy of God

We often sing about the mercy of God. We celebrate it, write songs about it, and find comfort in it. But if we truly understand the nature of God’s mercy, it shouldn’t just comfort us but should make us tremble.

 

For me, the scariest thing about the mercy of God is its elasticity. I mean, dear sisters, God’s mercy endures! It endures so much, it’s scary! 

 

If you gathered all the most patient, enduring people in human history and combined their collective tolerance, it wouldn’t equal a single cube of sugar compared to the vast ocean of God’s endurance!

 

And because His mercy is so wide, it creates an illusion. 

 

A dangerous illusion!

 

What is it?

 

That His silence or blessings equals His approval!

Also Read: Lord, let there be showers of mercy 

 

The Dangerous Illusion of Success

Let’s take for instance a Christian who has given their life to Christ but has no desire to grow. She doesn’t want to move forward too deeply. She believes she doesn’t need to take God ‘seriously’. 

 

She wants the best of both worlds: she wants to love the world, climb its ladders, and make a name for herself, while simultaneously holding onto the benefits of Christ. 

 

She wants heaven, but she does not want surrender. She wants the power of God, but not the government of God. So, she clings to the world while still doing serious religious activities to buy herself a ‘mansion’ in eternity.  Oh, what a falsehood! 

 

But you see, the frightening thing is that the spiritual principles and religious activities work!

 

The Word of God is powerful. The name of Jesus works. Prayer works. Fasting works. Seeds sown into the kingdom count in the spirit. Mercy still speaks.

 

So this person can still see results.

 

She may pray and see answers. She may fast and experience breakthroughs. People may testify through her ministry. Doors may open for her. She may become celebrated.

 

And because all these things are happening, she concludes that God must be pleased with her.

 

She might be a rude, disobedient wife, yet her business flourishes and she has beautiful children. She thinks, “God must be so happy with me.”

 

It is an illusion! 

 

You might see a female leader who presides over a church, acting entirely contrary to New Testament order. She is divorced, operates completely unchecked, wears no head covering in the church, and lacks biblical modesty. She openly disregards the Epistles, tossing them aside as just “Paul’s own revelation.” In her services, she blasts in tongues without an interpreter and creates her own rules.

 

Yet, the church grows. People give tithes, gift her luxury cars, and tell her how “deep” she is. She concludes, “If this isn’t God, what is it?”

 

Even an author who writes a book full of errors watches it sell thousands of copies, seeing people claim testimonies from it, and assumes God is validating their disobedience.

 

This is the terrifying reality of mercy! 

 

God’s gifts and principles work, even when the vessel is out of alignment!

 

God is merciful beyond comprehension. He gives people opportunities to change. He exposes them to truth. He sends correction. He convicts. He warns. He stretches out His hand again and again because He desires repentance, not destruction.

 

But many people continue in disobedience while using the blessings around them as proof that God is with them.

 

God’s Mercy and Provision for Israel

When God brought Israel into the Promised Land, He gave them a unique civil and agricultural law found in Leviticus 25. He told them to farm the land for six years, but the seventh year was to be a Sabbath rest for the dirt. No planting, no harvesting, no tilling.

 

Naturally, the people panicked. They asked, “What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we can’t crop?”

 

God responded that:  “I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.” (Leviticus 25:21)

 

Think about the sheer mercy and faithfulness of that. God guaranteed that every sixth year, the harvest would magically triple. They would have plenty for the sixth year, plenty to coast through the empty seventh year, and plenty to eat in the eighth year while waiting for the next crops to grow.

How amazing! 

Also Read: The Mercy Seat by Derek Prince

 

490 Years of Silent Disobedience and God’s Mercy

Israel looked at the massive surplus in the sixth year, and instead of using it to worship and rest in the seventh year, their greed took over.

 

They looked at the overflowing barns that God provided out of pure mercy and thought, “Wow, look how rich we are. Imagine how much more money we will make if we till the ground in the seventh year anyway!”

 

So they disobeyed!

 

But scarily, God didn’t strike them down in year seven! He didn’t lock up the heavens or turn the soil to dust immediately. 

 

Ayaaaa, because His mercy endures, the rain kept falling. The sun kept shining. The laws of seedtime and harvest kept working.

 

For 490 years, Israel ran this scam!!!!!

 

They skipped 70 Sabbath years!

 

Every time a cycle hit, they ignored God, took His miraculous surplus, worked the land anyway, made a fortune, and assumed, “Well, the checks are still clearing and the crops are still growing. God must be fine with it!”

 

They mistook nearly five centuries of silent grace for divine endorsement.

 

God’s Mercy Cannot be Mocked

God is incredibly patient, but He is not mocked. He was keeping a ledger. While Israel was celebrating their flourishing economy, God was counting the skipped rests. 490 divided by 7 is exactly 70 years of stolen rest.

 

Finally, the elasticity of mercy reached its limit. God sent Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army. They burned Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and dragged the population away in chains.

 

The Bible explicitly tells us the terrifying, mathematical reason why they had to stay in Babylon for exactly 70 years:

 

“The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the days of its desolation it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.” (2 Chronicles 36:21)

 

God Will Get His Sabbath

This story should terrify anyone who is currently coasting on compromised obedience.

 

Israel thought they were getting away with it because they were succeeding materially while ignoring God scripturally. 

 

But God essentially said, “You wouldn’t give Me the Sabbath willingly while enjoying My blessings? Fine. I will remove you from the premises entirely, and the land will take its 70 years of rest all at once while you sit in captivity.”

 

Ayyyyyaaaaaaa!

 

Can you see, sisters??

 

God’s principles and blessings will continue to work while you are out of alignment, but a day of reckoning is completely guaranteed! 

 

And Oh, The Shock of the Final Day!

This is exactly why Jesus gave us one of the most chilling warnings in all of Scripture. He warned that on the final day, fiery pastors, deep teachers, and famous leaders with massive followings will stand before Him. They will say, “Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not cast out demons? Did we not in Your Name do many wonderful works?”

 

And He will reply: “Depart from me, I never knew you.” 

 

Ahhhhhh!!!!!

Matthew 7:23: “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

 

The demons really did obey them. The miracles really did happen. Why? Because the name of Jesus works. His Blood works. His Word works. Giving works. Fasting works. 

 

But the working of these things is not a substitute for intimacy!

 

I never knew you! 

 

There was no true knowing!

 

Because, see, sisters, in the end, Christianity is not merely about spiritual activity. It is about intimacy with God. It is about obedience born out of love. It is about becoming a daughter of God in truth, not merely appearing spiritual outwardly.

 

That “knowing” is the real thing.

 

Just as intimacy between a husband and wife produces life, there is a life that is formed when a soul truly walks with God in surrender and obedience. That life is what survives the fire at the end. That life is all that matters. The very life of God being formed in us!

Also Read: A Strong Warning From The Backsliding Of Solomon

 

Shift Your Focus From Physical to Spiritual

In the Old Testament, God’s blessing was heavily mirrored in physical victories and material wealth. But in the New Testament, our greatest blessings are spiritual. 

 

Under the New Covenant, physical wealth and material success are NOT the primary metrics of God’s approval. 

 

Remember Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate? They said: “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you…” (Acts 3:6)

 

They possessed something far greater than cash!

 

They possessed the very life of God.

 

Today, many people measure God’s approval by visible success, but visible success can deceive. Sometimes mercy is still speaking. Sometimes God is still giving room for repentance. And sometimes Satan himself can empower and reward people for the sake of deception.

 

Oh yes! The devil is fully capable of adding wealth, crowds, and worldly success to your life, but his blessings always come wrapped in hidden sorrow and ultimate destruction.

 

That is why this matter is frightening.

 

Do not use blessings as the final proof that you are walking rightly with God. Do not use open doors, followers, money, growth, influence, or manifestations as your ultimate confirmation.

 

The real question is this:

 

Are you intimate with the Lord?
Are you obeying Him?
Are you growing?
Are you surrendering when He corrects you?
Do you truly know Him, and does He know you?

 

One of the most dangerous places to be is outside the secret place of the Most High while still appearing spiritually successful before men.

 

Mercy is beautiful, but mercy is also terrifying because it gives people room to repent, and many use that room to continue in disobedience.

 

Run Back to the Secret Place

If you look at your life today and realize you are walking in disobedience, yet things are going ‘well’. Your business is thriving; your prayers are being answered, and you are coasting by on “blessings”; do not celebrate. Tremble! Run quickly to the Lord. Plead for mercy. Choose obedience. Choose intimacy. Choose truth.

 

Do not mistake the endurance of God’s mercy for His endorsement of your lifestyle, please!

 

Because in the end, God will be justified before every soul. Every person will have been given sufficient opportunity to choose Him.

 

And on that final day, the only thing that will matter is the life that was truly formed through love, surrender, obedience, and genuine fellowship with God.

 

His mercy endures forever; but it is meant to lead you to repentance, not to keep you in deception.

 

Do Not Frustrate the Mercy of the Lord!

Do not frustrate the mercy of the Lord! Do not use it like a tap that you can come to anytime after you have spent your day wallowing in the mud of deliberate disobedience!

 

Do not turn the unsearchable riches of God’s patience into a cheap utility. Mercy is a sanctuary for the broken and the repentant; it is not a drive-thru window for the casual compromiser.

 

When you treat the blood of Jesus like a magical tap that you recklessly turn on to rinse away sins you fully intend to commit again tomorrow; you are walking on terrifyingly thin ice! You are playing a high-stakes game with an elastic grace that you forgot has a boundary! How dangerous! 

Dangerous because the first time you compromise, your heart breaks. The tenth time, you feel a little guilty. By the hundredth time, you don’t feel a thing because you tell yourself, “I’ll just turn on the tap of mercy when I’m done.”

 

And you cannot trick the Creator of the universe. He sees the calculation in your heart before the sin is even committed. He knows when a cry for mercy is born out of godly sorrow, and when it is just a calculated insurance policy against hell.

 

Sis, God’s mercy doesn’t run out, but your heart’s ability to turn back can. If you twist the tap too many times in mockery, you might find that when you finally want to weep over your sins, your heart has turned to stone. How dangerous this richness can be! 

 

Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

 

If you are reading this and realizing that you have been treating God’s grace and His mercy as a safety net for your rebellion rather than a catalyst for your holiness, stop today!

 

Stop using His silence as an excuse to delay your surrender. Drop the arrogance that assumes tomorrow is guaranteed for you to “fix things.” Run back to the secret place, drop your knees to the floor, and ask Him not just to wash you, but to change your desires completely.

 

Do not frustrate the mercies of the Lord. They are too sacred, too costly, and far too terrifying to be played with.

 

I’d round off with this: 

 

Romans 2:4–5 (AMP) “Or do you have no regard for the wealth of His kindness and tolerance and patience [in withholding His wrath]? Are you [ignorantly] unaware that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance [to change your mind and seek His forgiveness]? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

 

‘I Plead for Mercy’ by Dynamite Films Africa

Our new song, “I Plead for Mercy,” is a vivid picture of this exact spiritual reality. It is the cry of a soul that has finally stopped playing games with God, stopped using mercy like a cheap tap, and dropped to the courtroom floor to scream for the only thing that can save her: mercy by the blood of the Lamb.

Let this be your altar today. Cry out while there is still time. And start climbing. Start soaring.