The Spirit of Grace and Supplication

"I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn."Zechariah 12:10

21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. 

2 Cor. 1:21,22

13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.  

Ephesians 1:13,14

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.  Romans 8:22-25

One day the Spirit of grace and supplication will be poured out on the Jewish nation as a whole, but now as part of our down payment, one of the most precious things available to us as first fruit, as a pledge is the Spirit of grace and supplication.  

Oh God break us as we truly see "Him who we have pierced" and we come to a revelation knowledge of grace, of the tremendous cost of grace, of the unknowable depth of grace, and that leads us to supplicate, to intercede with no limits on what it will cost us for the lost.

Break us and pour us out Father God!

Spending time with mercy

A little focused time on “mercy.”  

Hosea6:5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Matthew 9:12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Matthew 12:6 But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

 
So Hosea says it once and Jesus quotes it twice once when He is being criticized for who He is hanging out with and once when His disciples are being criticized for their actions on the Sabbath. 

 
One more Psalm 102:13 You will arise and have pity on Zion;
    it is the time to favor her;
    the appointed time has come.
14 For your servants hold her stones dear
    and have pity on her dust.   
God is moved to pity when He sees His servants having pity/compassion/mercy.  I think He is working in us a knowledge, a deep knowledge of how much we need mercy, so that, we are then vessels of mercy to other people.  

Romans 9:22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 

 
Suffering is tied to “our” glory, and mercy is tied to “His” glory.  

Stuff worth thinking about.