The redemptive gift of Mercy is notably wonderful and mysterious. As the seventh Wisdom pillar of the redemptive gifts, Mercy has the capacity for great fulfillment and thereby, is set squarely in the sights of the enemy of our souls. Mercy & The Principle of Fulfillment – God’s Design & Satan’s Goal is a broad stroke to further highlight God’s purposeful design and frame the enemy’s plan for derailing one’s Mercy portion.
The Principle of Fulfillment, Defined
Arthur Burk’s original study of the gifts provides a succinct definition of fulfillment: using all of your abilities to do what God designed you to do.
Ephesians 2:10 states it this way:
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God’s design of His original workmanship remains, regardless of what hand life has dealt us. This is true of each of the redemptive gift portions. Then there is Mercy, who is the capstone of all that has gone before. Let’s dive into the overview of Mercy & The Principle of Fulfillment – God’s Design & Satan’s Goal.
Mercy’s Unique Design
Mercy sees the parts and the whole. Though they can view alignment in a linear way (as below), a mercy receives and processes information in a manner different than the other six redemptive gifts. Mercy doesn’t just do life; Mercy feels life. It is this that helps Mercy span the gulf that exists between function and emotion.
Prophet │Servant │Teacher │Exhorter │Giver │Ruler │Mercy
Drawn to Prophet, Mercy becomes the connector of the community of the human spirit in a more circular fashion. To freely move and flow, bringing the effects of Mercy’s birthright of worship and celebration of God to all aspects of their being, is the expression of Most High God’s presence in which Mercy thrives.
Fulfillment springs from discovering that God’s design of you is perfectly suited for the works He has prepared for you to do and be in your lifetime. Whether or not the Mercy redemptive gift is dominant in your life, I believe that without healing and developing the Mercy portion, the other six gifts are impeded in coming into the fullness of their unique strengths and Wisdom principle as God intended.
Happiness or Fulfillment?
Happiness, like beauty, is fleeting. While writing this Mercy post, I happened across a secular article on the topic of happiness. By the time I finished reading it, I could feel a hopeless despair creeping around the edges of my mind. Written from an evolutionary point of view, with pointed assumption of “no creator” and for certain, “no Creator God”, the writer concluded that humanity was born for fight and mere survival. They went on to state that since happiness has no constancy (with which I agree) and due to its come and go nature, it should resolutely be put out of one’s hopes and pursuit. The concept of fulfillment was non-existent.
For those who do believe in a God who created our human race with purpose and for fruitfulness, He demonstrated agreement with one thought the writer expressed: Happiness is not the primary goal of life. Where the writer left off with no hope (futility) and a playground for Satan’s goal (which we will look at shortly), God instead illustrated the Principle of Fulfillment starting with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Made to Solve Problems
To more clearly see how our culture has evolved, it befits us to study to know God’s original design. All of us were made to solve problems. Irrespective of one writer’s bleak outlook on the issue of happiness, our culture has made an art of defining it anyway – either not having problems, or, having enough money to pay others to take care of and solve those problems.
Most of us are familiar with the phrase too much of a good thing. Considering Adam and Eve were living in Paradise, its abundant, flourishing life of nature and animal kingdom would soon present issues. One need only look at an untended garden or hoarded animals to recognize that abundance creates more or withers away. Therefore, God introduced problem solving by telling Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. What did He mean by be fruitful? And multiply?
It helps to identify what God knew. Having created them in His image, He understood the capacity to learn and digest enormous amounts of information He had woven into their design. He gave them a body, a soul (with a brain), and a life-giving spirit. We witness today that the potential He placed within is staggering.
The other thing He knew was their human spirit and soul needed something to motivate them to learn how to be not just busy, but fruitful. All He hardwired into them required an outlet for them to grow. In His wisdom, He determined the pressure brought to bear by having a specific problem to solve would be the vehicle to fulfillment. If left unmotivated, underachievement would be their lot, while He had much more in mind. They were to take the life of the Garden to the non-garden parts of the earth, replicating (multiplying) what He had set in motion.
God designed them – and us – to experience fulfillment. The way we do that is to embrace the right problems our Father presents us that will cause us to grow and develop. Fulfillment is the inheritance of Mercy matured.
Satan’s Goal
The devil is cunning in the use of three key objectives by which he operates: to kill, steal, and destroy.1 There are myriad ways by which any of the three may affect and manifest in one’s spirit, soul, and/or body. For the Mercy portion’s spiritual and natural fulfillment (not happiness with no problems in life), Satan has a goal –
to orchestrate assaults on each person’s life so they do not have a chance to develop who they are
If he can keep them busy doing many things and chasing after happiness (opposite of contentment in life with Christ), he scores victory upon victory for himself. The epitome of pride that he is, he does not care about the individual. His goal is to leave God’s incredible creation of humanity fraught with frustration, futility, boredom, and no experience of fulfillment. Though we are caught up in the battles, Satan is still at war with our Creator.
Even now defeated, he will not stop seeking to consume fulfillment of our lives for his own honor until his allowed reign ends. You and I were created for God’s pleasure, to live and thrive, not just to fight and survive. What He created long ago was pronounced good and very good. Mercy’s strength of spirit comes from realizing Satan’s goal and resisting futility to discover and develop who they are. Redemptive living in motion.
~ Nancy
1 John 10:10
Click here for a printable PDF of this article: Mercy & The Principle of Fulfillment – God’s Design & Satan’s Goal
“You and I were created for God’s pleasure, to live and thrive, not just to fight and survive. What He created long ago was pronounced good and very good. Mercy’s strength of spirit comes from realizing Satan’s goal and resisting futility to discover and develop who they are.”
A lot to assimilate here, even in that one paragraph. Just a couple first thoughts:
“Resisting futility.” This is a tough one. I feel that I have brought some futility into my life, and can’t escape it. Somewhere I read that one of the ‘curses’ of those endowed with a mercy gift (i.e. Satan’s attack on them) is a life of “mediocracy.” It may have been on Burke’s site, or yours. Anyway…mediocracy and futility feel inseparable. And it’s a struggle. It’s a struggle to know the difference between the futility that God wants me to submit to for lessons of humility and trust (because I’m reaping where I sowed), and the futility that He wants me to actively resist. If this mediocracy it’s truly a “curse,” (which it certainly feels like) then my question is: Can it be broken more quickly, or is it a process of resisting its power in one’s life.
I’m rambling, because I have not formulated all of this in my mind yet. It’s just resident in my heart.
One other thought. I heard a great definition of “glory,” as being “satisfaction.” Meaning: to “do all things for the glory of God,” is to bring satisfaction to God in all the things we do.
I like this definition of glory, because it is less airy-fairy and more “relational.” To think of God being satisfied, is very satisfying to me. 🙂 In the metaphor of physical and emotional intimacy – it is mutually satisfying, both for the one giving pleasure and the one receiving it. We are created for the pleasure of God, but we are also created to receive pleasure from God too. But the beautiful thing about it all is — God also gets pleasure from our pleasure. It’s a never-ending loop. 🙂
Dear Pamela ~ you are a processor; thank you for that aspect of you ♥ Since I will ‘resist’ the urge to go into counseling mode here, I will keep this brief. Over the next couple of weeks I plan to write the overview of the Mercy gift (all this that has gone before is prelude), part of which will cover the battlefields where Mercy struggles most. I can appreciate your attempt to formulate and verbalize what is resident in your heart because I can relate. You are asking deep questions and regarding “can it be broken more quickly, or is it a process…”, the short answer is ‘yes’. The first and third from the last paragraph on our Counseling description on shammahsfield.com may help. What you are referring to as a possible “curse”, may pertain more to blockages and internal conflicts that need resolving that are lending to the sense of mediocracy and futility. It gets much deeper when curses are involved. I’m not sure that is what you are struggling with; I don’t know, but God does. Walking in freedom from that which has been identified, broken by the power of the blood of Christ, and renounced by us personally, is most often a process. God’s part is quick and effective. Our part has much to do with ‘being transformed by the renewing of our minds.’ How fast or slow we experience transformation depends a lot on what has been written on our hearts – our belief system (truth, lies, perceptions, hurts, wounds, unresolved conflicts, etc).
It has much to do with what I’m writing all over this site; that of learning and implementing the truth-laden life of the Word into our lives. Do we struggle? Yes. Is this the exercise of faith in actively applying it to how we live our life and the accompanying choices we make? Yes. Has He created us for this? A resounding yes! Because He has placed within us His Holy Spirit to companion with, teach us, comfort, and lead us into God’s inalienable truth. It’s not a head knowledge journey. It is a heart journey whereby that which has kept us ‘under’ is resolved and/or removed in honest heart-work with Him, and we now learn and put into practice walking in the redemption He paid for. Part of the abundant life He gives comes through having been given not a spirit of fear, but of His power, His love, and with those, a sound mind (renewed and transformed, even to how we think, view, perceive, find the mind of Christ being exercised within our thought process). I hold you in my heart and prayers.
I need to close, but I love your last paragraph, Pamela. Yes it is a never-ending loop. All I’ve written just above, if taken up with Him there in that never-ending loop, is where His life and love and truth and cleansing and power flow through all that ails us. And, in that never-ending loop we are healed and strengthened. The joy of the Lord and the pleasure of God – such beautiful gifts He gives / receives / and gives again to His beloveds ♥
Thank you, Nancy! Great response, and may all His words sink deeply inside, where the battle lies. I look forward to reading your overview, and all else the Lord gives you, when He gives you. Your love and prayers are also appreciated, as you keep on being You!
You are most welcome, Pamela. To me, it feels like a droplet but I know He knows how to bring it home ♥ Thank you for your encouragement, and I appreciate you, carrying you in my heart and prayers. Love, Nancy