THE PATHWAY TO HONOR

We are no longer slaves to fear but we are a royal priest hood, a holy nation, a people of God’s own possession. We are no longer in lack, but we have been adopted into a royal family. We are adopted by God and it’s His nature to bless you. 

Paul put it this way, “I pray the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” This verse is saying that God has an inheritance and that inheritance is YOU. Like, He wanted kids and you are it! He’s not tolerating you! He intentionally chose you. The word enlightened in this verse is the same word we get photosynthesis from. When he says enlightened, he’s not just saying that he hopes you understand what he’s talking about, he’s saying that as the Lord opens the door for you to see it, he prays you are actually become it—i.e. “You are the light of the world.”

We are now a part of the kingdom of light and adopted into a royal family. Did you know that Honor is the foundation of royalty? It’s the opposite of what many of us were raised with though. The values I was brought up with were, “dog eat dog,” “get yours before they get theirs,” “don't trust anyone,” “do unto others before they do unto you,” “stop complaining,” etc. But who knows that we don’t honor people because they are honorable, we honor them because we are honorable? However, we don’t have to worry about ourselves anymore because our heavenly Father has more than enough! It is not dog eat dog in the Kingdom. It took me years to get to understand that if I trust Him, I don’t have to trust me to make everything happen because I’m now in a Kingdom where He takes better care of me than the bird’s of the air or even King Solomon. You’re in a kingdom where you cannot out give God.

Did you know that favor is also a part of honor? We grow in favor through honor. God loves us all the same, but the amount of favor varies from person to person. But, who knows that this is great news? It means we are able to grow in favor and favor is what gives us access to more than what you’ve worked for. 

God loves us all the same, but there are various levels of favor. In Luke 2:52 we are told that Jesus grew in favor with God and man. What does that tell us about favor? It tells us that there are levels of favor, I’m not stuck at the level I’m at, and I need to understand who has more honor and favor than me. Why? Because there are 3 levels of life:

1. Curses - Genesis 2:15: Adam tilled the ground, but it yielded thorns and thistles because he was under a curse. You can do the right thing and have the wrong thing still happen because you are under that curse. However, none of us who are in the kingdom are under that curse any more because of the cross. We no longer do the right thing and have the wrong thing happen.

2. Sowing and reaping: You get what you work for. Not a bad place to be, but it’s not the fullness we have access to.

3. Inheritance - Matthew 6:26: “The birds of the air do not sow nor do they reap.” We are cared for as the bird of the air. You get what someone else worked for. How do you get that? We access it through favor. 

In short, life flows from honor. We are not a bunch of paupers that are trying to get what’s ours, we are a royal priesthood that understands how to live in the kingdom of God. We don’t have to worry about getting ours because our Father gives us ours. And when we honor those around us we get to receive the favor that is on their lives.

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:9, Romans 8:14, Colossians 1, Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 1:18-22, John 8:12, Malachi 4, Ephesians 4, 1 Samuel 10:25-27, Deuteronomy 5:16, Luke 14:7, Luke 2:52, Genesis 2:15, Matthew 6:26, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 1:11, Galatians 4:7