Supplication and God's Mercy

My previous messages covered many areas concerning prayers - intercession, prayer of petition, agressive and authoritative prayer, binding the strongmen and warfare prayers. There is a type of prayer which I believe has not been given enough emphasis in the contemporary Local Church. It is called "supplication".

In our prayer life there may come a time when we are faced with a situation where there is a desperate need for prayer. But what are we to do if we do not know how to pray in that particular situation, or when we are alone and do not have the authority to exercise against the evil forces operating in our situation? The situation could be in your family, your job or your ministry in the Local Church. If you are a woman you may also ask, "I would love to pray, I love to see the situation change, but I don't have the authority"?

There is another way to pray and I believe anybody in desperation can pray this prayer. This prayer is called "supplication" which simply means desperately calling out to God for mercy. You will discover that in many occasions God almost instantly answer this type of prayer.

The importance of Supplication

God's people in the Old Testament seem to place more importance to supplication than believers in the New Testament. The word "supplication" occurs 35 times in the New King James Version of the Bible, of which only 4 times are in the New Testament. Similarly the word "supplications" occurs 20 times in the New King James Version of the Bible, of which only 3 times are in the New Testament. In most occasions the words "prayer" and "supplication" are used together to describe desperate prayer. Here are some examples:

1. In time of distress, David, the psalmist said, "The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord will recieve my prayer" (Ps. 6:9, NKJV, emphasis added).

"Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications! In Your faithfulness answer, and in Your righteousness" (Ps. 143:1, emphasis added).

2. At the dedication of the temple, Solomon prayed. "Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today; ..." (1 Kings 8:28, emphasis added).

Solomon's same prayer was recorded in 2 Chronicles 6:19.

Solomon continued to pray, "... then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You" (2 Chron. 6:39, emphasis added).

3. Daniel prayed for Jerusalem and the people of God who sinned against the Lord:

"O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate" (Daniel 9:16, 17, NKJV, emphasis).

Immediately(Dan. 9:21) after Daniel's prayer and supplications, Gabriel, the archangel, came with the following words:

"O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therfore consider the matter, and understand the vision; ..." (Dan. 9:22, 23, emphasis added).

4. The Upper Room Prayer Meeting

After Jesus had ascended to Heaven, 120 of his disciples, including Mary, the mother of Jesus and other women went to a prayer meeting in an upper room:

"These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers" (Acts 1:14, emphasis added).

We all know about the outcome of this prayer meeting.

5. Pray all kinds of prayer with perseverance

Paul said, "... praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" (Eph. 6:18, emphasis added).


Believers are expected to pray always with all kinds of prayer with perseverance. Also, to pray for one another, led by the Spirit of God, to pray in understanding and pray in the the Spirit.

Paul also gave us this wonderful promise of God:

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6, 7, NKJV, emphasis added).

The above passage of Scripture includes all forms of prayer - prayer, supplication, thanksgiving and requests (petition). "In everything" means "in every situation or every circumstance - in repect of afflictions, conflicts and trials".

What Paul means is that, in any given situation, no matter how depressing it may be, we should not worry, and we will have the peace of God if we pray with all forms of prayer, including supplication.

6. Jesus' prayer and supplications

The writer of Hebrews said, "... who (Christ), in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:7, 8, emphasis added).

Jesus, in His humanity, prayed, supplicated, and cried out to God, the Father, at the garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:39). Feeling that God had the power to save Him from the mode of dying, the burden of His supplication was that, if human redemption could be accomplished without such sufferings, it might please His Father to remove that cup from Him.

His prayers and supplications were heard and were not discarded though it was not literally answered. The cup of suffering and death was not taken away, but His suppliction was not diregarded.

The two important things we learn from the above examples concerning supplication are: One, prayer, in general, is different from supplication which is desperately entreating God's favor. Two, God will not disregard or discard any supplication. he hears our supplication, but we might not receive the answer that we expected.

The benefits of Supplication


Basically, I believe supplication is the place where most of us have to begin before we go on to other forms of prayer. This is because anyone, with or without authority, can supplicate before the Lord. We can supplicate alone or in a group of two or more believers. We can do it in the privacy of our prayer closet or in a Church prayer meeting.

I believe God's people, especially the ladies of the Local Church, should get involved in supplication whenever they are faced with problems in the Church. They should humble themselves, get together and forget about Spiritual Authority in this type of prayer. Primarily, they should be the ones on their face before the Lord crying out for God's mercy on the Pastors, Elders and leaders of the Church who are facing various types of problems - slandering, sexual immorality, discouragement, rejection, lack of integrity, lack of honesty, lack of loyalty and the like.

They should cry out to the Lord, "O merciful God, we don't deserve Your mercy, but we come to You for it. We ask of You Lord to be merciful to all of us and help us! You are the only source of help we have! We are not asking You for justice but asking You for Your mercy!"

This form of prayer is precisely what the writer of Hebrews referred to:

"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:15, 16, NKJV, emphasis added).

God's throne is called the throne of grace. The reason we can come boldly to the throne and obtain mercy and grace is because we have a great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who sympathizes with our weaknesses.

In my opinion, the only reason that we do not obtain mercy is that we do not come for it. We are too proud to kneel down before God. And yet the safest place to be in, is on the floor, for when we are there we cannot fall any lower! It may take a bit of boldness and struggle to get there. We may begin to think about our dignity, about what other people may say about us, but we will feel secure when we are on the floor!


A Biblical pattern of supplication


A wonderful pattern of supplication is found in the life of Rahab, the harlot who lodged in Jericho (Joshua 2:1 - 13). Rahab had no authority or had any claim on God. All she did was to cast herself upon the mercy of God. She could not ask for justice because she was not an Israelite and furthermore, a harlot! But all she asked was mercy and not justice. That is the essence of supplication.


Her supplication is found in Verse 12 and 13: "Now therefore, I beg you (the spies), swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house, ..."


When Joshua and his people went in to Jericho, Rahab received mercy from God and whatever she asked for was given to her (Joshua 6:22, 23)! Joshua spared her life and the lives of her father, her mother, her brothers and all that she had. Ultimately, Rahab found herself (a harlot and not an Israelite) in the genealogical line of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:5)! The key to Rahab's success was that she knew how to lay hold of God for mercy and she knew how to supplicate!


A prophetic picture of Israel and the Church


God is going to open the eyes of Israel and the Church through the prophet Zechariah:


"And I (the Lord) will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn" (Zechariah 12:10, NKJV, emphasis added).


I firmly believe that this Scripture will be fulfilled in the history of Israel. Nevertheless, it also has pattern for the Church. I believe God is going to pour out the Spirit of Grace and the Spirit of Supplication to Israel, His chosen people and to the Church, also His people. Without the pouring out, the eyes of the children of Israel and the Church will not be opened. The first outpouring is the Sprit of Grace. As we all know, grace cannot be earned because you and I will never deserve it. Believers are accepted by grace. It is important to realize that without God's grace we cannot even pray a prayer that is worth praying! He will not hear us because we are not worthy to have our prayer heard, let alone receiving an answer from Him. Therefore, the first thing we need is grace. And if we have received grace, then in the appropriate situation God will pour out the Spirit of Supplication. When we begin to cry out to God with the depth of supplication, intercession and agony that we couldn't believe would be possible, and then I believe we will get the revelation of what the Church need most - the wonderful revelation of the One we "pierced" (grieved) - The Lord Jesus Christ!


The Spirit of Supplication will reveal to us how much we have grieved our Lord Jesus by our disobedience, prayerlessness, indifference, apathy and general wickedness. In our natural mind we can't understand the extent to which we have grieved Him. We are very much blinded by our stubbornness, our rebellion, our pride, our arrogance, our sectarianism and our personal ambitions. I believe we will not see this unless we are on our face before God in supplication. I do not believe we could stand the revelation unless the Lord gave us, first of all, His grace. And if we want to see the situation in our Church changed, we need to put this before the Lord, on our face and let Him bring us to a place where we can contemplate what will be the end, unless God visits the Church. The Church is in serious danger of going the wrong spiritual pathway, because God's people are taking their eyes from the Scripture. They neither know the truth nor practice the truth because there is no true shepherd to lead His people.


Jesus (quoting Isaiah) said, "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. 15:8, NKJV).


I believe God is willing to visit His Church but we must first meet His condition. We must repent and cry out to Him for mercy in our supplication. We must turn from our wicked ways and seek His face. We must deny ourselves and carry the cross and follow Him daily!