So what were these people really saying? “That this man was right, and God was wrong.”

In Malachi we see God speaking strong words to Israel regarding this:

Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? (Malachi 3:13-14).

“Your words are stout against Me!” God says.

Well, this really bothered me. I mean, I was new at this and they were telling me that he had done all the right things. They said he was a faith man. And he died! He was acting on the Word. And he died!

Have you ever heard that? Or been faced with that situation in your church, your family?

Well, the Lord taught me a great deal out of that situation. Another man for whom I have great respect said that he had gone to pray for this man. He went every day for a while and interceded for him. And he prayed the presence of Jesus into the man’s room.

When Jesus appeared in that room the man who was dying jumped out of bed (he couldn’t get out of bed by himself before) and knelt at Jesus’ feet. As Jesus reached out to touch the man, he pulled away and dropped back.

He began to say, “I can’t. I can’t. I’m just not worthy.”

Now the man who had been interceding was watching all of this, and he turned his gaze to Jesus. Jesus looked back at him and said, “See there, he won’t let Me heal him.”

Do you see what happened here? No doubt this was a good man. He had loved and served God, but religious tradition held him captive. Those church members were just sure he had done everything right. And maybe he did—except have his mind renewed to the Word of God. It’s so important that we receive Who God really is—a God of mercy and compassion, a God Whose will is to heal and deliver and set free.

You have to trust God. Don’t shut Him off in your mind with traditions of men, unbelief, fear and sin. If you let sin or unbelief condemn you so that you don’t have any faith that God will move on your behalf, God can’t help you. You shut Him off. The man said, “I can’t receive. I’m too unworthy.” Pentecostal, religious tradition kept him from receiving the power of God, even though Jesus was in his room to heal him.

I learned something very valuable from Jesse Winley, a great pastor from Harlem. “Don’t ever put the righteousness of God up against anybody.” That’s good advice. God is never wrong. If things aren’t working, we need to consider our ways, not God’s. If we are disobedient, we need to make adjustments. If not, we need to walk by faith and not by sight until circumstances change.

Gloria Copeland

Soldiers will put up with far more discomfort than civilians. Have you ever noticed that? A soldier in boot camp will jump out of bed before dawn every morning to run and do push-ups. He may not like it, but he’ll do it because his commanding officer has ordered him to do it. He endures the discomfort because he knows it’s an inescapable part of military life.

A civilian, on the other hand, might start an exercise program but when the going gets tough, his muscles feel sore and his schedule gets busy, he’ll just quit. If someone asks him about it, he might just shrug and say, “I tried exercise, but it didn’t work for me.”

Some Christians are like that. They hear the Word of faith and think, Well, I’ll try that. Then when the hard times come, they give up.

But that’s not how it should be. After all, we’re not civilians. We’re soldiers! We don’t try faith, we make it our lifestyle. We walk by faith, whether it’s hard or easy, not just so we’ll be blessed but because we’re determined to be pleasing to Jesus. He is our commander in chief, and the Bible says “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6)!

Of course, we will end up being blessed if we’ll walk by faith. We’ll end up healed, delivered and prosperous in every area of life because God promised we would. That, however, is not our motivation. We’re motivated by our desire to serve the Lord. That’s what makes us believe His Word, stand fast and endure when the hard times come.

Gloria Copeland

As you meditate on God’s mercy, consider these
scriptures and see God renewing and changing your life
day by day:

• Matthew 9:36; Isaiah 40:11—Jesus has compassion
  and mercy as the Shepherd of the sheep. He is the
  Great Shepherd.
• Matthew 15:32—Jesus fed the multitude because of
  compassion and mercy.
• Mark 6:34—Jesus taught because of compassion.
• Luke 6:36—You are to be merciful as your Father
  is merciful.
• Luke 7:12-13—Jesus raised the dead because of
  compassion.
• 2 Corinthians 1:3—Our Father is the Father of all
  mercy and the God of all comfort.
• Ephesians 2:4—God is rich in mercy.
• Hebrews 4:16—Mercy is obtained at the throne of
  grace in prayer.

God’s mercy is extended toward you. Sin will not keep
you from getting healed. The only thing that will keep you
from receiving your healing is hanging onto the sin and
not repenting of it. James 5:14-15 says: “Is any sick among
you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them
pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the
Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven him.”

Pray in faith, but at the same time, be extremely honest
with yourself and with God. Stop kidding yourself. If you
are living in sin, get it out of your life right now. Make
a determination, “I am going to walk holy as my God is
holy.” The devil will warn you not to make that decision
because you might not be able to carry it out, but God
sent the Holy Ghost to help you do it in His power. If you
do miss it, be honest. Run straight to Him again and call
on His mercy that endures forever.

Remember, His mercy is new every morning.

Gloria Copeland

God’s mercy provides us with hope. We must have
hope for our faith to work because faith is the substance
of things hoped for. Without it, our faith has no image to
bring to pass.

Lamentations 3:21-23 says, “This I recall to my mind,
therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are
not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are
new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

Our hope is in recalling that the Lord’s mercy is
renewed every morning. We can place our faith in knowing
that God is faithful to His mercy. Every day when we wake
up, He is there to fall in love with us all over again!

We are to remind ourselves, as the psalmist did in Psalm
103, of the provisions of God’s mercy. The psalmist told his
own soul—his own mind—to remember them. He said:

Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within
me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord…and forget
not all his benefits. (Then he went on to list the
benefits:) Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who
healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy
life from destruction; who crowneth thee with
lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth
thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is
renewed like the eagle’s.

God causes His mercy to sit as a crown on our heads
and to fill our mouths with good things. As we spend
time praying in tongues, the Holy Ghost will work on the
weaknesses of our flesh and create in us new desires to
which our bodies will respond.

God will build within us the desire to pray, walk in
love and speak the right words with the result that we will
speak out good things—good prayers and good confessions
of faith, mercy and freedom from sin. The filling of our
mouth with good things will then, in turn, produce fruit
according to the things we have spoken, and our youth
will be renewed.

Gloria Copeland

Matthew 21:14
KJV—And the blind and the lame came to
him in the temple; and he healed them.

Amp—And the blind and the lame came
to Him in the porches and courts of the
temple, and He cured them.

Moffatt—Blind and lame people came up to
him in the temple, and he healed them.

NEB—In the temple blind men and cripples
came to him, and he healed them.

Mark 1:40-42
KJV—And there came a leper to him, beseeching
him, and kneeling down to him,
and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. And Jesus, moved with
compassion, put forth his hand, and touched
him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.
And, as soon as he had spoken, immediately
the leprosy departed from him, and
he was cleansed.

Amp—And a leper came to Him, begging
Him on his knees and saying to Him, If You
will, You are able to make me clean. And
being moved with pity and sympathy, Jesus
reached out His hand and touched him, and
said to him, I will; be made clean! And at
once the leprosy [completely] left him, and
he was made clean (by being healed).

Moffatt—A leper came to him, beseeching
him on bended knee, saying, “If you
only choose, you can cleanse me”; so he
stretched his hand out in pity and touched
him saying, “I do choose, be cleansed.” As he
spoke, the leprosy at once left the man, and
he was cleansed.

NEB—Once he was approached by a
leper, who knelt before him begging his
help. ‘If only you will,’ said the man, ‘you
can cleanse me.’ In warm indignation
Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him,
and said, ‘Indeed I will; be clean again.’
The leprosy left him immediately, and he
was clean.

Gloria Copeland