Jesus Christ has forgiven us our sins and has poured out his mercy upon us as believers.
What would happen if we did the same to each other? It might transform the church and the communities we live in.
Jesus said in John 13:34-35:
"A new command I give you: Love on another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Forgiveness and mercy are key to loving one another.
Should we be praying that the Holy Spirit stir up a spirit of forgiveness and mercy among believers? I believe we should.
Francis Frangipane, author of The House of the Lord: God's Plan To Liberate Your City From Darkness, tells of a warning by the prophet Jeremiah that God would hand over the city of Jerusalem to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. (Jeremiah 34) This was because of Judah's rebellion against the Lord.
Panicked, Judah's leaders obeyed - for the first time in years - a law that called for freeing their own people from slavery for debts every seven years. They were to be forgiven their debts.
Evidently, Nebuchadnezzar abandoned the seige of Jerusalem after the leaders took this step.
But as soon as the Babylonian king was gone, the Judean leaders re-enslaved the people they had freed. Nebuchadnezzar returned, the city was taken and burned, captives enslaved and Jeremiah's prophecy was fulfilled.
"We are just like the Judeans of Jeremiah's day," writes Frangipane. "Our cities are also under attack, and no program of government aid can help us. What we need desperately is divine intervention and deliverance. We need to see the mercy of God and his convicting power poured out supernaturally on the people!"
He says that as we forgive each other, God will move in our churches and ultimately in our cities.
People will begin to see the power of forgiveness and love in our churches and that spirit will infect our communities.
Too pie-in-the sky? No, that's how the early church grew and spread.
And it is at the root of revivals - local and national - through the centuries since the resurrection of Christ.
What would happen if we did the same to each other? It might transform the church and the communities we live in.
Jesus said in John 13:34-35:
"A new command I give you: Love on another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Forgiveness and mercy are key to loving one another.
Should we be praying that the Holy Spirit stir up a spirit of forgiveness and mercy among believers? I believe we should.
Francis Frangipane, author of The House of the Lord: God's Plan To Liberate Your City From Darkness, tells of a warning by the prophet Jeremiah that God would hand over the city of Jerusalem to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. (Jeremiah 34) This was because of Judah's rebellion against the Lord.
Panicked, Judah's leaders obeyed - for the first time in years - a law that called for freeing their own people from slavery for debts every seven years. They were to be forgiven their debts.
Evidently, Nebuchadnezzar abandoned the seige of Jerusalem after the leaders took this step.
But as soon as the Babylonian king was gone, the Judean leaders re-enslaved the people they had freed. Nebuchadnezzar returned, the city was taken and burned, captives enslaved and Jeremiah's prophecy was fulfilled.
"We are just like the Judeans of Jeremiah's day," writes Frangipane. "Our cities are also under attack, and no program of government aid can help us. What we need desperately is divine intervention and deliverance. We need to see the mercy of God and his convicting power poured out supernaturally on the people!"
He says that as we forgive each other, God will move in our churches and ultimately in our cities.
People will begin to see the power of forgiveness and love in our churches and that spirit will infect our communities.
Too pie-in-the sky? No, that's how the early church grew and spread.
And it is at the root of revivals - local and national - through the centuries since the resurrection of Christ.
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