Mercy - Bob Hartley

A transcribed word from Bob Hartley, from March 26th in the IHOP–KC Prayer Room

This is a recap of a series of dreams—hundreds in fact—about Marketplace Reformers. These dreams were alarming, stunning, shocking and they were all do to with how Marketplace Reformers had not responded to mercy. The narrator of this dream said, "American Marketplace Reformers were to take people from sorry to soaring." This was to be especially applicable to the nation of Australia.. Shortly a month after this dream, Australia declared a ‘Sorry Day’. Which I knew wasn’t right since it did not reflect true mercy. I spoke to comrades about this in Canberra, Wellington, and Melbourne about this at our recent event in their area.

Marketplace Reformers
[Begins the transcribed prayer]

The Lord began this series of dreams and took me back to memories of 1983. He said in order to understand and call forth Marketplace Reformers, [referring to] political and Church reformers, you would have to see from the beginning what has happened and how and others have gone out to learn compassion on mercy. I saw the people that I knew from 1983 (South Kansas City Fellowship, Kansas City Fellowship, etc). Then all the others, from the present day, arrived in the dream. They were the Hilary's, the Obamas and the John McCains. The narrator was going through details of their personal lives, of which I didn’t pay much attention to because I was still dealing with my own issues. I was nobody else’s judge of how they were starving for mercy or not.

Definition of True Mercy
The narrator started talking about Marketplace Reformers and began to describe what true mercy looked like... Mercy was valuing God, His blood, and the incredible worth that He had placed on human beings. As I went through hours of listening to the narrator address different people and how they responded, the dreams showed me four or five ways where I saw how I measured the willingness of people, not seeing the true willingness of their heart or the value He placed on them. And I had been like Moses—hit the rock twice with other people. I also was dealing with my shame over not receiving mercy in areas that he had died to give me. I turned to the other person next to me and they said, “It will be a harder lesson to learn mercy than we ever thought it would be and yet, that’s what was required of us." And I knew that in the marketplace there was a lazy spirit about this and it was tremendous discipline commitment to learn mercy.

Bridging the gap between Marketplace Reformers & the other Reformers
He spoke to the Marketplace Reformers that they were to reflect mercy and the different faces of God in the marketplace. They were to be different than political or Church reformers. Because of the differences in their callings, the other reformers might misunderstand thoe called to the marketplace. The good news - the Lord would build a bridge to help create a heart connect. The reformers were to reflect a face of God in mercy through patriarchal means, which would lead the marketplace redemption. As a result, they would have the Zechariah 12:10 experience:


"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace
and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him
as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son."

Simon & the Marketplace Reformers
He spoke to the Marketplace Reformers next and said “You’re like Simon; you were the prostitutes in other ways in the Luke 7 passage.”


"Simon replied, 'I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.' 'You have judged correctly,' Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman?' I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." Then Jesus said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'"


To the marketplace reformers, He is saying, "I had given you mercy; however, you were incapable to give mercy to the prostitutes when they came in. Even more what you fail to realize is that the prostitutes were really YOU. You have been prostituting yourself in business as a consequence of not giving yourselves mercy."

I saw that we were like David when asked by Nathan what he would do to a man that stole another man’s prized lamb. David was harsh in punishment towards that man, and yet he himself was that very man. In the same way, we are not appraising how much mercy we ourselves need, and are not releasing it to others. And then He said, the only place you’ll understand this mercy is on your knees.

Getting on our knees

We ask that you join with us and pray the Philippians 1:8-9 prayer.


"God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer:
That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight…"


Pray to receive the true knowledge of discernment of His mercy. In the dream, the Lord was giving everybody an invitation to mercy. I saw us walking on a high ridge path that lead to a place called Mercy. This path, I believe is modeled in the life of Daniel, who lived a holy life, so that they didn’t lessen His mercy toward others or the king himself.

From that place of living like Daniel, He would take us on this journey of mercy and He would tell us more on the days to come, just like he relased in that hour. Let us take the high ridge path to mercy through living a holy and intensely devoted life as exemplified by the life of Daniel. Let us get on our knees, receive His invitation to mercy and encounter Him in the place of love. Now is the time to be merciful. Now is the time to receive mercy. We must freely give and freely receive this, and most of all, we must do it together.