Spiritual Mercy
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
Spiritual Mercy
Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series
where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years,
the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them
with you. This morning we ponder our lives as we seek to understand spiritual mercy.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Spiritual Mercy
"Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak." Psalms, Chapter 6, Verse 2
Brothers and sisters, in today's broadcast, we shall examine how mercy is applied to the soul. By using
the physical, emotional, intellectual, moral analogues of this quality, we hope to better grasp this
quality and appreciate what a tremendous kindness is being rendered towards us by the heavenly
Father, who is full of mercy for us. Mercy is giving more than justice requires. To better understand
mercy, we shall first understand how it relates to justice.
It has been stated that justice will never destroy that which mercy can save. Now what does this
mean? Justice is a concept that we are familiar with. We have come to associate it with the criminal
justice system, having a dual function. It is not only the sacred duty of justice to punish the guilty but
to set the innocent free as well. This statement implies that justice and fairness are very closely
related. In fact justice is fairness. It has been said that justice is blind. This metaphor means that
justice is impartial. It does not take sides. It is what is right. But we know that justice and mercy are
also linked.
The Trinity sets the standards of justice in the universe, and we must meet them eventually because
they are fair. They are the standards of perfect beings. When they are applied by imperfect beings, the
Father supplies us with mercy, applied love. For the purpose of our discussion, we shall deal with the
merciful aspects of justice.
In dealing with the ascending concepts of mercy, though the intent of mercy is the same, the
understanding of it differs from level to level. Thus the understanding of spiritual mercy as we shall
see is vastly different from physical mercy. Physical mercy we are all familiar with and have at some
time being the recipients of it. The classical example of physical mercy is the story of the Good
Samaritan. You recall how a stranger was set upon by robbers who assaulted him and robbed him of
his possessions. After people had passed without offering help, a Samaritan came along and bandaged
up his wounds, took him to safety, and paid for his lodging. Now this Samaritan was under no
obligation to come to the rescue of this individual (justice), but he went out of his way to show
kindness to this stranger (thus demonstrating mercy). Mercy means to give more than justice requires.
Emotional mercy has to do with the alleviation of emotional difficulty. This is best demonstrated
when we comfort (by showing sympathy and empathy) someone who is distraught over an
emotionally distressing event. When we are willing to enter into emotional turmoil with someone,
bringing the calming balm of assurance and tranquility, leading the individual out of the raging storm
of emotional fear into the safe harbor of acceptance and calmness, we are demonstrating emotional
mercy. And again we see that this goes beyond justice in that the person who soothes and calms
someone who is emotionally distraught is doing more than what justice——fairness——requires.
Intellectual mercy can be seen when ignorance is replaced by knowledge. When we lack knowledge,
we resort to superstition to try to explain things we don't understand. We can think of countless
examples in our lives where knowledge has replaced ignorance, and our lives are much better because
of it. And we can again see how this satisfies the criteria of mercy in that it provides more than what
justice requires.
Next we move to moral mercy. Now this concept of mercy as it applies to morality is harder to grasp.
Morality, though not spiritual, is the foundation for spiritual development. The concept of morality
is the recognition of relative right and wrong. And all bonafide human beings are moral creatures
because they can distinguish between right and wrong. This ability to choose right over wrong is a
part of the humanity of humans. But humans are imperfect, and thus their sense of morality is also
imperfect. At one time or another, human sacrifices were thought to be moral because it was believed
that unless these sacrifices were made, the well-being of the group would be jeopardized.
Jephthah, a warrior of the Old Testament, vowed, for example, that if God would give him the battle
over his enemies, he would sacrifice the first person who came out of his house to greet him. And of
course he thought that it would be a servant or a trusty slave who would greet him. Instead it was his
daughter. And he kept his promise by sacrificing her as he felt it was his duty to keep his promise.
Now it is clear that the true understanding of his moral responsibilities constitutes mercy. And those
of us who live in this age can better see the error in his moral thinking. We have the benefit of moral
mercy that delivered us from these practices we recognize today as immoral. It is moral enlightenment
that constitutes moral mercy. But moral enlightenment like all other ministries of mercy can only be
received if the individual or group is willing to receive it. Sometimes it takes quite awhile before
mercy is accepted in some areas of reality, particularly intellectual, moral, and spiritual.
And finally we move to the last level of mercy. Spiritual mercy (applied love) is a little harder to
understand and grasp. We are all in need of spiritual mercy. We need to be assisted with our
weaknesses and sometimes forgiven for our wilful rebellion. But let us see how spiritual mercy
interacts with the soul. The Father has commanded us to be to be perfect even as He is perfect. This
is the standard of justice, but this perfection is subject to the delays of time. But because the Father
is merciful, He sends His Son in our likeness to show us what the heavenly Father looks like in
human form. The Son reveals the Father to us, and leaves His Spirit of Truth to guide our souls into
all truth.
The first step of spiritual mercy is the birth of the soul. Were it not for the Spirit of Truth, the soul
would remain in embryonic form until it was resurrected on the heavenly worlds. But with the Spirit
of Truth, the soul can become conscious while it is still living in the flesh. The process of the soul
becoming conscious is in actuality the born-again experience. This merciful act allows the soul to
perceive the truth, beauty, goodness of the Father's love. The hunger for truth and thirst for
righteousness is satisfied in spiritual mercy, for the revelation of truth is the liberation of the soul; the
revelation of beauty is the aesthetic response of living in a beautiful universe filled with spiritual
values and meanings; and the revelation of goodness to the soul is the eternal foundation of trust in
the Father as the soul progresses in the uncharted infinity of the Father's love, exploring truth to the
further borders of infinity, and becoming raptured by the beauty of it all.
The Spirit of Truth is constantly compensating for the immaturity of the soul with spiritual
endowments that allows the soul to make tremendous progress even in the flesh. The Father sends
also his spiritual helpers to minister to the soul, thus making available many spiritual influences that
would not be available otherwise. These spiritual helpers also provide stimuli through social and
moral environments of individuals. This additional help is essential for soul growth and constitutes
spiritual mercy.
This concludes today's message on understanding spiritual mercy. We hope you find something in
this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
