I’m sure you could name some things that hinder your life, areas that are detrimental to your walk in Christ: disunity, disobedience, strife, pride, rebellion, dishonor, doubt, fear, comparison, entitlement, compromise, opinions, complacency, apathy and offense…to name a few!
We’ve all experienced these curses in our lives. Now, did you ever go back and ask, “How did that have access in my life?” I have, and it’s not always just because the devil is bad and that’s what he does. You need to understand that there has to be an access point. “How did that little fox get in?” Remember, it’s always easier to keep him out rather than kick him out.
There’s something that stands guard and stops the curse from invading the blessing. “What’s that?” you ask. (Insert Indiana Jones theme here.) The answer is…HONOR! Honor stands in the middle and protects us from the curses. It’s the very guard for every element of heart attitudes and pursuits. It’s not just a word, or even a system, but it’s a presence! It’s an understanding of the supernatural side of obedience… And here it stands, making sure the curses don’t invade the blessing.
So let’s talk about those blessings, the promises of God, for a minute. When someone makes a promise, doesn’t it change the level of commitment? In fact, it opens up a whole NEW level of commitment. And adds expectation! God isn’t like man that He should lie; when He makes a promise, you can be sure He means it!
They say there are over 9,000 promises recorded in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. If you tally that out on a daily basis over the course of one year, that makes a little over 25 promises per day! …That’s one every hour! …With a little extra! (Even His leftovers are good!) Every hour of our lives, God says, “I promise.” When someone says, “I promise,” it changes the level of hope! You don’t have to hear anything else, because they said, “I promise!” And just remember who said it: God said it!
Outside of the Garden of Eden, the very first promise began with Honor. I’m sure you know it well: “Honor your father and mother…” The Bible says that this is the first commandment with a promise, and it all started with the five letter word: honor! God’s promises come with honor!
Now, the Word talks about 8 categories of honor. These 8 categories stand guard at the center and make sure Honor stays there repelling the curses from your life. The first one is God. When you honor God, He brings honor into the forefront of your life. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whatever you do, do it all to the honor and glory of God.”
Honor is stuck on obedience. God cannot honor any level of disobedience. The only reason any of the curses have access to your life is because honor wasn’t able to stand in its place. But the devil wants you to compromise with the will of God because the will of God is where you find the blessings. He won’t change the words of the promise, but he will add to them. What used to be obedience becomes DISobedience. He wants to bring an addendum to the Plan of God and that addendum is called options. The first time options were introduced was in the Garden of Eden: The devil gave Eve an option to disobey God through compromise.
When you’re confronted with the option to compromise, remember these four words: “Stop, think, pray, obey!” Honoring God keeps us in the safe zone of blessing. Honor keeps us thinking properly! (But when you think, think out of the mind of Christ, not Steve.) When you put God in His proper place of honor, stuck on obedience, you will never compromise again.
Honor God’s Word, you honor His will, and He’s got 9,000 promises that are ready to jump ship into your life! They’re all sitting there, wondering, “Can we come in now?!” THIS IS WHAT HONOR DOES! It changes every level of pursuit and priorities…and it keeps your heart pure in the midst of it.
Remember: Your future is counting on you honoring God first!
Now CHARGE!!!