Truth And Mercy Go Hand in Hand

My dad and I have something in common: our spiritual gifting is that of a prophet.

Okay, before you stop reading, this definition helps to explain:

"There is a prophetic way to deal with problems, but before we can understand what that way is, we first must understand the role of the prophet.  His job was not, first and foremost, to foretell the future.  He wasn't a godly version of the carnival fortune-teller.  Neither, however, was the prophet merely an itinerant preacher.  He was a specialist of sorts, in a proper sense.  His job was to bring the Word of God to bear on problems, almost always problems within God's covenant community.  Just as the priest speaks to God on behalf of the people, so the prophet speaks to the people on behalf of God. The prophet is God's mouthpiece, his lawyer.  He lets those in covenant with God know that they are not keeping covenant and have a duty to repent."  Excerpt from When You Rise Up, by R. C. Sproul, Jr.

I see the world in black and white. There is no gray. Gray does not exist. There is only the crisp contrast between two extremes. Two complete opposites. With this lens, it can be hard not to judge others. It's hard to remain silent when the truth is so clear (to me ;) ). 

And apart from the balance of mercy, truth is often used to beat people over the head. I watched it happen all my life as I was growing up. It wasn't pretty. It hurt. It often left a path of destruction and despair. My two older sisters were driven away by it and left home at 17. My brother was convinced that he could never be "enough", no matter what he did. Each of us children made wrong choices in response, for which we are totally responsible. 

My dad meant well. I never knew anyone who tried harder to do what he thought was right. But, he completely negated the importance the role of the heart played in the equation. He believed that feelings didn't matter. What did matter was doing what needed to be done. Period. This was taken to extreme measures. 


Feelings should never be allowed to control our lives, but they are not without value. Dad, however, believed that "surgery on a soul" required no anesthesia. "Here, just let me cut this out of your heart. It's for the best. It has to be done. Shortest distance between two points, you know." That is the way Dad dealt with himself, and that is the way he dealt with others. Some can survive that kind of surgery. To others, it is fatal. He truly did want people to find the Lord's best for their lives, but he refused to consider that the collateral damage caused by that kind of "operation" often produced such a wounded spirit that further ability to speak into that life was diminished, if not completely destroyed. I tried and tried and tried to talk to him about it. But he truly didn't believe there was anything wrong with his method. When our children became old enough to receive this treatment from him, we had to limit their exposure to him. He didn't understand. It broke my heart. We tried to maintain the best relationship we could, but it was often strained. And now he is gone and I grieve the fact that there are no more opportunities this side of Heaven for my children to get to have him in their lives. I love him, but he chose not to honor the boundaries Kregg and I set regarding his relationships with our kids. My siblings and I, along with my children have chosen healing. But the price paid was high.


I loved my dad. I still desire to honor him. And I can do that by honoring the position of authority he held and focusing on his desire to do what was right. But, I must also honestly look at the fruit borne by his methodology and seek to allow the Lord to use Mercy to balance the "administration" of Truth. I had actually asked the Lord to give me almost any gift except Prophecy (as defined above). Of course, my request was short-sighted and based in fear. Fear of repeating what I had witnessed. Also knowing that I have done the same thing, at times. The Lord wanted me to trust that He had a better way. 


So, He has been teaching me about balance. Truth and Mercy go hand in hand and provide the perfect balance that brings Life. As I have studied and pondered these principles over the years, I have come to this (so far): 

1. There are times the Lord has me speak directly into a situation, a life.
2. The timing of the message is incredibly important. It must be His.
3. The ultimate purpose of the message has to be reconciliation and restoration.
4. Almost without exception, the message is to be spoken in the context of relationship.
5. Love must be the vehicle of delivery for Truth.
6. There are times He reveals Truth about a situation when I am to remain completely silent, except in prayer.
7. I cannot "convince". Only the Spirit can do that. My responsibility is to obey Him and speak when He tells me to speak.  

I don't always get it right. In fact, it is easy for me to slip right back into my "black and white", beat-someone-over-the-head routine. But when Truth is spoken in His timing, in His way, for His purpose, it accomplishes His will and bears so much fruit. 


There is a great need for every one of the Spiritual Giftings to be in operation in the Body in accordance with His design. Every member is gifted by the Lord so that the Body is healthy and vibrant in a world desperate to see Him in His Church.  Desperate for a true choice between what the world has to offer and the gift of Life in His Body. So I must allow the Lord to continue to refine His gifting in me, even if I wanted a different one, because Truth is important. Truth is necessary. But the Lord, as He walked this earth, always spoke the Truth in order to bring people to the realization that He was their only choice, the answer to all their questions and problems. He didn't speak condemnation. Condemnation is the message of the evil one. The Lord's desire was that no one would be lost. And Truth spoken in Love for the purpose of freedom and reconciliation is a message worth the telling.

I Corinthians 12 and 13

Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. 

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I still have so much to learn. But the Teacher is patient.