Mercy and the Formula to Freedom (conclusion) by Brother Duke Hansen

            God will not only give you favor in your walk but also in understanding. If God shows you mercy and truth when you are searching yourself and discover something hidden or a flaw, and you demonstrate discipline in working to overcoming it, God will help you overcome it as well. Tests, whether they be in school or in real life, ultimately reveal knowledge of what you know. Trials are not tests, but we confuse the two frequently. We go through trails to arrive at the test. If you fail the test, you sometimes have to back to the trial. We have to really pay attention through our trials in order to learn the lesson. Not only learning the lesson but applying patience by waiting on the Lord. I'm not waiting on God if I follow the world's advice and not the scripture. If you have faith, true faith, you are going to read and study the word, pray and cry out to God, seek his face. The results may vary, but God remains the same. Mercy, truth, discipline plus trails will eventually lead you to a test. Don't sit and say you love God and do the opposite of what he wants you to do. 

            Be careful in what you trust, what you listen and read in seeking advice. Be not wise in your own eyes, another way of talking about our pride. If there is no fear of God in life, you don't believe the truth. You swallowed the lie.

        We are going to go to Matthew chapter 22 and start with verse 37.

        37 Jesus said unto him, Though shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

        38 This is the first and great commandment.

        39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

        40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

        

        When you are in a truly committed relationship with another, you give your all, your everything to each other. God wants everything from you. Your time, your thoughts, your efforts. Quit treating him like a middle school crush where you have feelings for him, but 2 seconds later you are crushing on someone else. Commit yourself with a whole heart and not halfway. You phoning in your commitment is phony in the world, how much more offensive is it to God? Most people are blind about God but have an active imagination to determine who Jesus is in their life. God doesn't talk to you in conversation face to face. He does it through his word. Where you read a passage and a revelation is opened to you through the Holy Spirit. What you had read over and read over where they're just words on the page become something different and life changing. You have access to it. While you are going though a trial, don't rush through it, sidestep it, fight it, or mistake it for a test. In the last 6 verses of Matthew 22 Jesus asks the Pharisees and asks some of you today if he's the son of God or son of David? He's referencing Psalm 110. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost that Jesus was the son of David, he knew that the crowd assembled knew that. That had been taught that through life. Peter also references Psalm 110 to the crowd. In the spirit the right hand of God is authority and power.

        Mistakes lead to growth and understanding. You have to have determination and discipline to see results in your walk. To reference last Sundays message, if you will prune your own tree, God will not. If you can cut the dead limbs from your tree, God won't have to do that. Learn to let go at times and fall. A mistake will not kill you. How can we correctly fear the lord and depart from evil? When we pray God take this from me! Will he do that? No. We need to recognize what is evil and remove ourself from it. How do you know what's evil? Its in the Bible. Points to a lot of things you need to steer clear from. Mercy allows two things. Mercy provides a chance and offers direction. Two things truth gives us in knowing who we are and who God is. It takes discipline to deny your flesh. Don't ever get to a place where you can be deceived. We all are capable of getting to that place. God wants to heal more than just your flesh, he wants to heal your mind, you soul, and to make you whole if you just open your own understanding.