What an amazing night! I didn’t get a chance to post earlier today as I was preparing for a healing service. I want to share a little of what I shared with those who attended tonight.

A few months back at our monthly healing service I shared on having faith in the mercy of God. Sometimes we get a little off track when we lose sight of Who God is and what Jesus has done, and start relying and who we are in ourselves and what we’ve done. It doesn’t take too much of this kind of thinking to begin to lose confidence in receiving God’s promises in our lives. If we lose sight of God and His mercy, His love and His power, things begin to seem overwhelming and impossible.

This can especially be true where receiving healing is concerned. If we look at our own works and realize we fall short, then we begin to lose faith that healing is ours. People try so hard to have faith for healing and find themselves getting discouraged and feeling like they are falling short. For many it just seems too hard to believe to be healed of a serious or life-threatening illness.

But what I shared a few months back was to not try so hard to have faith for healing, but develop your faith in His mercy. That message all began when I heard someone minister from Matthew 14 on the account of Peter walking on water.

I’ve heard messages about Peter beginning to sink because he got his eyes off Jesus and onto the problem. But I saw something here that I hadn’t seen before. Jesus comments on Peter’s “little faith”. He mentions the fact that Peter doubted, but what else do we see here?

…and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him… (Matthew 14:30-31, KJV).

When I saw that Jesus “immediately” helped Peter even though he doubted, even though he got his eyes off Jesus, I suddenly said to myself, “That’s mercy.” Peter hadn’t done it all right, but it didn’t stop Jesus from saving him immediately.

A few weeks later I unexpectedly found myself having to teach a class on hesed (the Hebrew word for God’s covenant love). I didn’t know alot about hesed at the time. So I went to the Lord and said, “Teach me.” Do you know what I discovered? I had already taught on hesed. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word translated “mercy” is the Hebrew word hesed.

Now for the really exciting part. I was watching Billye Brim teach on Hebrew this week and she was teaching us the Hebrew alphabet. She was talking about the second letter of the alphabet which is beth. She took us to the 5th chapter of the Gospel of John. She was commenting on the account of the pool called “Bethesda”. This is where the angel stirred the waters and whoever entered the waters first was healed. She said this is a Hebrew word (as noted in John 5:2). She said it is made up of two parts, beth and hesda. “Beth” from the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet means “house”. She said “hesda” comes from the root word hesed. Which she said was “mercy”.

So the place where the people were healed, was at the “house of mercy”. It wasn’t based on works. It wasn’t based on keeping the law perfectly, Jesus did that for us. It was based on God’s hesed, on God’s mercy.

Please take the time to look up these scriptures: Matt 9:27-30; 15:21-28; 17:14-18; 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 17:12-19. In each of these accounts the person or persons needing healing for themselves or their childern asked Jesus to have mercy on them. He did and every one of them was healed.

I have trusted in thy mercy; I have trusted, leaned on, and been confident in Your mercy and loving-kindness… (Psalm 13:5; Amplified)

For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. (Psalm 86:5, KJV)

But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. (Psalm 86:15, KJV)

…He delights in mercy and loving-kindness. (Micah 7:18, Amplified)

But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation: It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfullness. (Lamentations 3:21-23, Amplified)

Tonight as I shared this many people were healed in the service. It wasn’t me. It was Him. It was Him pouring out His love, His mercy, His hesed on the people. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He had mercy and healed then. And He has mercy and heals now.