There are two sides to God’s Character…
His Lovingkindness and His Justice…
His Righteousness is the Overarching Definition of who He is…
but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:24 NASB)
He Delights in these things…
He further Defines Himself in this scripture…
The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. (Exodus 34:5-8 NASB)
This is who God is…
Lovingkindness
who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin;
Justice
yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.
Fast forward to the book of Romans and scripture tells us…
Behold then the kindness and severity of God; (Romans 11:22a NASB)
So we see that there have always been and always will be two sides to the Character of God – His Lovingkindness and His Justice…
This is His Righteousness…
Which side triumphs?
Which side does the Lord wish to triumph?
For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:13 NASB)
Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness. The LORD utters His voice before His army; Surely His camp is very great, For strong is he who carries out His word. The day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, And who can endure it? “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent And leave a blessing behind Him, Even a grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD your God? (Joel 2:10-14 NASB)
Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him…
This is the Heart of God – no matter how worthy the recipients are of Justice (and thus His Wrath and Vengeance or Retributive Justice) – He, Himself, is begging them to return unto Himself so that He need not Judge them…
“Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord GOD. “Therefore, repent and live.” (Ezekiel 18:31-32 NASB)
What makes the difference?
Intercession…
“I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. (Ezekiel 22:30 NASB)
The Lord searched for a man who would “stand in the gap” before Him for the land so that He would not destroy it…
It can’t get any clearer than that…
And He saw that there was no man, And was astonished that there was no one to intercede; Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, And His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, so He will repay, Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; To the coastlands He will make recompense. So they will fear the name of the LORD from the west And His glory from the rising of the sun, For He will come like a rushing stream Which the wind of the LORD drives. (Isaiah 59:16-19 NASB)
None of us raised ourselves up to seek after God so He had to do it Himself…
But once He began to raise some of us up we began to pray…
And we began to intercede…
And we began to lay ourselves out before the Lord and ask Him to do to us what He was going to do to our lands…
For Him to get satisfaction for His Justice in destroying in us the things which were going to be the reason He destroyed our lands…
As we began to lay ourselves out in this fashion and let the Lord deal with the root of sin in us He began to turn in Mercy towards others in our nations…
He needs to Judge something to satisfy His Wrath…
Why not offer ourselves as the recipients of His Judgement, our old selves which have already been Judged – why not offer the remains of them – our whole lives – anything which is in us which is not pleasing to Him – why not offer this for Him to Judge – this is standing in the gap for our land…
There are depths of depravity in each one of us which we know nothing of until we have an experience of His Holiness coming close to us…
I have had one such experience of His Holiness…
Where He came close to me and truly all my righteousness – which I thought was pretty righteous – was as filthy rages in His Presence…
And I prayed and cried and sobbed and begged Him to destroy me – that was all that there was for me to do as I lay prostrate on the floor before Him…
He initiated this in my heart, my heart was crying, “Fill me with Your Holy Fire” over and over and over that day (that afternoon) – I could not stop it and then in the middle of the night after a typhoon had gone through and I was awoken by the generators I was meditating on Him – how He is Fire (Jesus) and then He came…
I did not see Him but I felt His Presence and had to get out of my bed and lie prostrate on the floor…
I was changed that day…
I have never been the same since…
I am still being changed…
Not long after that the Lord told me to offer my heart to every person in the world – basically to make myself a slave so that my happiness would be linked to theirs…
This is intercession language – standing in the gap – always wishing for Mercy for all – sure God may Judge – He is Perfectly Entitled to do so – but our heart is for Mercy…
My heart for every human being alive on this planet today is for Mercy – I know that God will Judge – He is Perfectly Entitled to do so – I know that there are false workers out there who the enemy is using to speak lies in the Name of the Lord – but we are called to know our God – we are called to hear His Voice and follow Him and we are told that a stranger we simply shall not follow because we do not know the voice of strangers…
Are we willing to offer up our lives on the Altar of God in Intercession for our nations?
May God find us willing to do so…
Thank You Lord…
a house of prayer for the nations 
I had time to sit and read through this today Andrew, and I so agree that we can lay our lives down for others, let Him work in our hearts and lives, and maybe even live out our lives in ways that He can use to bring His lovingkindness into others. Sometimes when I read Isaiah 59 I think we are also seeing Jesus prophecied as He utimately stood in the gap for all.
Intercession is beyond description really, so much that takes place in this precious relationship between God and man. We experience the workings of God in such personal and unusual ways, often it becomes so personal it is only when I make it out the other side that I realise He has known I would fight in such a way as to see this through, even though I knew nothing else in the moment!
How very amazing and creative our God is!
Blessings,
Judith
The verse which came to mind Judith after reading your comment above was…
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. (Colossians 1:24 NASB)
He has given each of us “our share” 🙂 , Amen sister?
No one else can fill up “our share” but us… 🙂
The other scripture which comes to mind as I type is…
For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. (John 17:19 NASB)
I remember when the Lord gave me the understanding of that scripture and I saw that He was applying it to me in my “intercession” – that my “offering myself” and all that I might ever hope to be, all my desires and my wants and my wishes and my preferences, all of these things up to Him – that in doing this as He set me free He was then able to set others free through the prayer which came out of me when I was set free…
No act of surrender towards God is ever selfish…
i.e. It does not end with ourselves…
There is always a flow on affect to every act of surrender which we ever undertake…
Life is really serious (I know I’m preaching to the converted here 🙂 )…
It really is…
Our lives really do matter…
(Yet we can relax in Him)…
He has saved us for a purpose and He has prepared good works which we are to walk in…
And we will and as we do His will is unfolded in our lives and not in our lives only but in every life of every person who He has called us to touch…
This is not a heavy burden once we realise that He is the One carrying it… 🙂
We are not capable of carrying it and once we surrender to Him carrying it, then He carries it in us…
Praise You Jesus…
Love in the Lord sister,
Be encouraged… 🙂
He will finish in you everything which He has begun…
And your family…
Praise His Holy Name…
Cover them with Your Blood Lord, in the Mighty Name of Jesus…
God bless you sister…
Andrew