Student Study Guide
Lesson 35
Building a Mercy Seat
Section 1 - The Heaviest Word in Scripture
Kabod - The Manifested Weightiness of God
The position of the throne is the position of power. The true anointing flows from the throne room of God. Before we can walk in the commanded blessings of God and take the full armor of God into spiritual warfare, we must be positioned right. We must be where His glory dwells - at the mercy seat.
Hebrew Word Study
Kabod - the Hebrew word for glory - means "manifested weightiness." When the glory of God filled the tabernacle, Moses could not stand in it. When it descended on Solomon's temple, the priests fell prostrate and could not continue their service. The kabod of God is not atmosphere. It is the actual, manifested, weightiness of all that He is.
✍ The Man with the Coat - God's Parable
A man weighing over 500 pounds visited a close friend. He stood in the doorway with his coat still on, looking into the rooms. When asked to come in, he excused himself and left. Days later at a restaurant, he wept as he explained: the last time he had visited, a chair had broken under his weight. This time, he had come looking for a new chair - one strong enough to hold him. He did not see one. So he walked away broken, longing to stay.
God said: "That is the way I am. I show up to My church, time and again, with My cloak on, longing to manifest My glory. But I am looking to see - have they built Me a mercy seat? Have they built a seat strong enough to handle the weightiness of My glory? Far too often, I do not see that seat. So I keep the cover on My glory and walk away broken, because I long to come and sit in the midst of My people. But I must have a mercy seat. For the glory of God cannot dwell in the midst of a church of judgment."
1. Only the seat can handle the of His glory. The glory of God cannot dwell in the midst of a church of .
Your Reflection
Section 2 - The Mercy Seat: What God Built and Why
The Place Where God Meets, Speaks, and Dwells
2. God chose to with His people not at the brazen altar, not at the altar of incense, not at the candlestick or the table of showbread. It was at the seat, in the innermost chamber. From that seat, He .
The Meaning Embedded in the Mercy Seat: His mercies are renewed every morning - every morning God is saying "Not today. Not going to pass final judgment on them today." And His mercies endure forever, meaning that "not today" never stops for the redeemed. The mercy seat is the place where judgment is perpetually withheld from those who come by the right way - those for whom the judgment was paid by Jesus.
3. The mercy seat is a seat, in direct contrast to the judgment seat, which is elevated. To build a mercy seat where the Glory dwells, we have to come down from whatever height has erected and humble ourselves to meet people where they .
Your Reflection
Section 3 - Mercy and Grace: Two Words the Church Has Confused
They Are Not the Same - and the Distinction Matters Enormously
Mercy
When you deserve judgment and you do not get it. Like standing before a judge and throwing yourself on the mercy of the court - acknowledging judgment is deserved and pleading for it to be withheld.
Grace
The undeserved favor of God that gives you access to the power of God for everything you need for life and godliness. You are not saved by mercy - you are saved by grace. But grace brings you to the throne where mercy is received.
4. You are not saved by . You are saved by . But because of grace, you can come boldly to the and receive mercy.
Grace in the Word: When God releases His word to a person, when the revelation comes that Jesus Christ died and rose again, that word itself is the favor of God arriving. Without it, no one could respond. No one could be saved. And in the command of God is the faith to access the power to obey it. He never left obedience subject to human strength alone. He put the power to comply inside the word itself. That is grace.
5. God speaks from the mercy seat. When He speaks from that place, what He speaks carries the full of who He is - Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Shalom. When God speaks those things over a life from His mercy seat, every demonic must yield. Every weakness of the flesh must .
Your Reflection
Section 4 - The Judgment Seat and What It Costs
Three Consequences of Sitting in Judgment Rather Than Mercy
What Jesus forbids here is not the declaration of truth. The Bible commands us to speak truth in love, call people to repentance, and declare the righteous standard of God. Declaring the standard is not judging - it is mercy, because bringing someone the word of truth is bringing them the very thing that gives them access to the mercy seat.
What Jesus forbids is the act of sitting as judge over another person's motives and interior life. We see actions; only God knows motives.
The "Gift of Suspicion" vs. The Gift of Discernment: We judge others by their actions but want to be judged by our intent. An intern called in late to spend the day with his father. Staff speculation ran immediately: "He is flaking out, immature, irresponsible." The truth: his father was at the VA hospital facing possible amputation. The moment they found out, they felt the full weight of what they had done. That is the cost of the judgment seat. It's not just that we are wrong - it's that we become blind.
6. Three things happen when a person operates from the judgment seat. First, they will be with the same measure they use. Second, they become - judgment closes the eyes to grace. Third, being blind, they cannot .
7. Love "is ever ready to believe the best of every person" (1 Cor. 13:7 AMPC). until proven guilty. Not naive, because love is not blind - but love refuses to construct a case against a person in the absence of .
The Line We Must Hold: We are called to expose the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph. 5:11). That command is real. We are not to look the other way when darkness operates in God's house. Address the sin. Speak the truth - publicly if needed. But leave the judgment of motives, the final sentence on a person's heart, where it has always belonged: in the hands of the only One who truly knows the heart.
Your Reflection
Section 5 - Learning to Extend Mercy
The 1999 Account - "You Chose to Extend Mercy, and I Honored Your Word"
✍ The 1999 Account - Corona, California
During an extraordinary outpouring - services running five nights a week, the glory of God falling - a household of disciples failed to show up to a prayer meeting they were supposed to lead. They had been watching a vile R-rated film. The rebuke was right. The rebuke was necessary. It happened twice. But even after both confrontations, the burden did not lift.
On the road, driving to pick up another young man, the thought came: rebuke them again even more harshly, a third time. And then, quietly, a small prayer: "Father, I choose to extend mercy to them right now." That was all. No long prayer. Just a choice.
The next morning the burden was gone. By midday the question was clear: "Lord, what happened?" And He said: "Son, you chose to extend mercy, and I honored YOUR word."
8. That is not a soft conclusion. It is a revelation about how the Kingdom operates. God desires over judgment. When His people choose to extend it, genuinely, from the low seat - not as condescension but as - He honors it.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. When you choose to extend mercy, God honors your word.
Your Reflection
Section 6 - Building the Mercy Seat in the Church
Mercy and Truth Together - Not One Without the Other
9. None of us did one thing that deserved salvation. Not one. God extended to us the full operation of , holding back the judgment we had earned. The servant who was forgiven an enormous sum and then went out and throttled his fellow servant over a small debt is a description of the church operating from the seat instead of the mercy seat.
Mercy Without Truth
Sentimentality. It fails the people it claims to love because it leaves them in the bondage they need to be freed from. It never points them to the mercy seat - it only offers comfort in the mud.
Truth Without Mercy
A gavel without a hand extended afterward. It declares the standard but fails to draw the person toward the place where the standard can be met - the mercy seat itself.
10. The goal of speaking truth is always to get people to the seat, because it is there that God meets them, speaks to them, and changes them. opens the door. Mercy draws them through it.
✍ The 40-Day Fast - "But My Mercy Endures Forever"
During 40 days of prayer and significant fasting, over 6 hours a day in prayer, lying on the altar at the end of a service - God spoke: "Son, during this season you have never lived so holy. Yet even now, your sin is worthy of eternal damnation."
The realization: I could never, no matter what, even get close to His righteousness. But as He spoke, a second voice of the Lord - the first like face to face, the second one echoing through the heavens - spoke: "BUT MY MERCY ENDURES FOREVER."
If God's mercy ever stopped for one second, we would be completely consumed by rightful judgment. But His mercy is eternal.
11. A church that builds a mercy seat will preach without apology and extend grace without . It will call sin sin and simultaneously refuse to place itself the sinner, because it has never forgotten what it was before grace arrived.
12. God is looking for churches that will build a mercy seat. He comes to His church with His glory, the full of His presence, longing to manifest, longing to speak, longing to fill the room. He is looking to see whether His people have humbled themselves enough that the full weight of His glory will be .
God's glory is manifested from the mercy seat. Build the mercy seat, and He will come and sit in it.
Final Reflection
Lesson 35 - Practice Test
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Part A: Multiple Choice (5 questions · 2 pts each)
1. What did God mean in the parable of the man with the coat - the man who stood at the door and would not come in?
2. What is the precise distinction the lesson draws between mercy and grace?
3. What does the lesson say Jesus actually forbids in Matthew 7:1-5 - and what does He NOT forbid?
4. What did God say when the burden lifted after the prayer "Father, I choose to extend mercy to them right now"?
5. What is the lesson's definition of a church that has built a mercy seat?
Part B: True or False (6 statements · 1 pt each)
1. The Hebrew word kabod means "manifested weightiness" - and when God's glory filled the tabernacle, Moses could not stand in it.
2. According to this lesson, you are saved by mercy - and grace is a secondary blessing that follows salvation.
3. The lesson teaches that one of the consequences of operating from the judgment seat is that a person becomes blind - judgment closes the eyes to grace.
4. The lesson teaches that mercy without truth is sentimentality, and truth without mercy is a gavel without a compassionate hand extended afterward.
5. The lesson teaches that the mercy seat is a high seat, elevated above the people, from which God declares His judgment with authority and power.
6. God's glory is manifested from the mercy seat - when His people build the mercy seat, He comes and sits in it.
Part C: Fill in the Blank (5 items · 1 pt each)
1. The Hebrew word for glory - kabod - means "manifested ."
2. Mercy is when you deserve and you do not get it.
3. The mercy seat is a seat - in direct contrast to the judgment seat, which is elevated.
4. James 2:13: " triumphs over judgment."
5. God said: "Son, you chose to extend mercy, and I honored word."
Part D: Short Answer (completion credit)
1. Explain the parable of the man with the coat and what God said it means about His relationship to the church. What does "building a mercy seat" actually require?
2. The lesson distinguishes between what Jesus forbids in Matthew 7:1-5 and what He does not forbid. Explain that distinction precisely. What is the difference between speaking truth and judging motives?
3. Explain what happened in the 1999 account when the simple prayer "Father, I choose to extend mercy" was prayed - and what it reveals about how the Kingdom operates.
Part E - Before You Leave
Is there a specific person or situation in your life where you have been operating from the judgment seat - rendering verdicts on motives you cannot actually see? Name the situation honestly. What would it look like to pray "Father, I choose to extend mercy right now" and mean it?
What would your church, small group, or family look like if it genuinely built a mercy seat - preaching righteousness without apology AND extending grace without condescension? What one thing would have to change for that to become real?