HONORING THE LORD

“Honor the Lord with your wealth, and with the firstfruits of all your produce: then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine” (Proverbs 3:9-10, ESV).

This passage of Scripture is widely used to encourage people in their giving—and rightly so. Most of us need to be encouraged to be generous givers, to break out of the status quo in giving and move into the blessedness of generosity.

It is important to remember that the reason we give is not to get. The fact that God blesses the giver is not relevant to the reason God blesses him—not because he gives but because giving is an act of obedience and honors the Lord. As the Word says, God blesses the giver who “honors the Lord with his possessions and the firstfruits of all his increase.”

Honor is not a widely used word in today’s church vocabulary. We talk about faith, miracles, blessing, increase, relevance, worship, joy and praise but rarely is the subject of honor and honoring the Lord raised.

The root of the Hebrew word honor as it is used in Scripture means “heavy or weighty.” Proverbs says that we are to “honor the Lord,” which means that we are giving the Sovereign Creator and loving Father the important, weighty place in our life—by putting Him first!

While honor is an attitude of respect and reverence, it must be accompanied by our attention and obedience. Without our willingness to be attentive to Him and His direction, honor is little more than trash talk or, as the Bible puts it, “lip service” (see Isaiah 29:13-14).

This subject of “honoring the Lord” came to be a focus for me while I was in prayer and the phrase “a new season” was impressed upon me by the Holy Spirit. As I pondered the phrase, the Spirit directed my attention to the first few chapters of 1 Samuel where we read about the birthing of a new season in Israel. I wrote about this in last week’s blog.

At that time, Israel was in a very dark period as a nation. We read in 1 Samuel 3:1 that there was no open revelation of the Word, as only a few true prophets preached righteousness and repentance to the people. The religious leaders of the nation were typified by Eli, the chief priest, a passive leader who was not responsive to the voice of God. Busy enjoying the fruits of being the head priest, Eli did little to turn the people away from their sin. His two sons, also priests, were blatantly corrupt. And as a result of being led by sinful, immoral religious leaders, Israel was in a pathetic state.

A new season began in Israel when a brokenhearted, barren woman named Hannah cried out to the Lord for a child. God heard her cry and she became pregnant with Samuel, who later became a prophet. With Samuel’s birth, a new season was born for the nation. As the child grew to manhood and prepared for his time of leadership as a prophet and judge over Israel, God began to remove the corrupt religious leaders.

An unnamed man of God brought a prophecy (see 1 Samuel 2:27-36) saying that what had been happening in Israel was not His (God’s) plan. He stated that because of Eli’s disregard for God and the blatant carnality of his sons, they would all be removed from their priestly offices.

Within this prophecy is one of the most incredible statements regarding honor in the Bible. As I read and pondered this passage, these words struck me with great force: “Those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (v. 30). This colossal statement made by the Sovereign Creator just blows me away! God is saying, “When you honor Me, I will return the favor and honor you. If you disregard Me, however, as Eli and his sons did by disregarding My Word and My plans, My blessing will not be upon you.”

Understanding this truth totally clarifies the meaning of verses like Proverbs 3:9: “Honor the Lord. . . .” The blessing of the Lord is not on the firstfruits. The giving of the firstfruits is the act of obedience and the blessing is on the honoring of the Lord—so clearly the blessing comes because we honor Him, and we honor Him by our obedience and our generosity.

  

Honor is an attitude of respect and reverence and in order to be complete, it must be accompanied by obedience. God is honored when people do things that please Him (see 1 Corinthians 6:20 in which the word glorify means “honor”).

Jesus teaches this to His church when He says, “Whoever serves me must follow me . . . My Father will honor the one who serves me” (John 12:26, NIV).

We honor the Lord when we follow His leading for our lives. We honor the Lord when we take time out of our busy lives and spend time with Him. We honor Him by being generous—as He is!

“Those who honor Me I will honor.”

A NEW SEASON

It was during one of my early morning devotional times that I had a very strong impression from the Lord. It was just three words: a new season. I pondered that phrase and then the Lord directed my attention to the first chapters of 1 Samuel and the birthing of a new season in Israel.

As a nation, Israel was at a very low point. Chapter three, verse one tells us that there was no open revelation of the Word and there were only a few true prophets who would preach righteousness and repentance and bring the Word of God to the people. The priests were typified by Eli, who was passive and did little to turn the people away from their sin. Eli’s two sons, also priests, were blatantly corrupt. Israel was in a pathetic state with its sinful, immoral religious leaders. At that time, the center of national worship was in Shiloh.

Elkanah and his family lived a distance from Shiloh and each year they traveled there to worship and offer sacrifice. One of Elkanah’s wives was a godly woman named Hannah. Hannah’s husband loved her dearly but she was desperately unhappy because she had no children—and that broke her heart.

During one of the family’s visits to Shiloh, Hannah went alone to the temple to pray. She poured out her brokenness and pain to the Lord and also made a vow that if God would bless her with a son, she would give him to the Lord for His service all the days of his life (1:11).

Eli the priest saw Hannah silently praying and rebuked her because he thought she was drunk. When Hannah corrected Eli’s misunderstanding, he quickly backpedaled and muttered a blessing.

Hannah wanted a son and Eli was so misguided that he did not recognize her desperate hunger. However, God used this occasion to usher in a new season for Israel and sweep out the corruption that had built up from the past. There is much for us to learn from this story, told largely in 1 Samuel chapters one through four.

Hannah represents the hungry saints who even now are praying into existence the new thing God is doing. Hannah recognized that she was barren and refused to accept it as the status quo. On the contrary, she took her burden and sorrow to the Lord in prayer. She was persecuted by her husband’s other wife for being barren and chided by Eli for her intensity in prayer. However, these acts did not deter Hannah but seemed to strengthen her resolve to see God’s answer.

My dear friends, please understand that if you begin to pursue the heart of God for a new season in Him, you will be persecuted, not by the world but by the religious establishment. “He who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now” (Galatians 4:29, ESV). Largely, the contemporary church does not want to pray and has replaced following the Lord with acceptance by the world. They are more interested in numbers than being the people of God!

Eli, who was simply going through the motions of being a priest, represents the old corrupt, broken-down religious system. He did not quickly recognize the voice of the Lord when He spoke. He was extremely passive toward sin even when it was being carried on within the temple grounds. His sons were highly immoral to the point of forcing themselves on women who came to worship and sacrifice. “They did not know the Lord” (2:12). Eli saw it all, knew about the sin, and did nothing.

Hannah was not the only one whose heart was broken and open to the Lord. There was a small remnant of faithful men and women of God. One of the men, most likely a prophet whose name we never get to know, came to Eli and prophesied what was about to happen. The prophecy established that Eli’s family (his house, including both of his sons) would be destroyed (see 2:31) and that God would raise up a new and faithful priest. “I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house” (2:35).

God was about to sweep out the old and bring in the new!

Samuel represents the new thing God is doing. Into the religious and political confusion that was so clearly seen at that time came a miracle of God in the person of Samuel. Samuel was a miracle child born to a barren mother, and the renewal and joy that his birth brought to Hannah prefigures the renewal and joy that this godly man brought to Israel.

Dear friends, don’t be discouraged by the mess of the moment. God is still in charge and a new day is about to dawn. Thank God that there is a praying remnant in our land. They are not deterred by the political and religious confusion that now reigns. The remnant is “pouring” itself out to the Lord in prayer. It was the brokenhearted prayer of one woman that God was waiting for and a new season dawned in Israel—and so it will be in our day!

A new day, a new season is coming!

ABOUNDING IN HOPE

A few weeks ago while reading in Romans during my devotional time, I stopped abruptly because chapter fifteen, verse thirteen, simply captivated me. As I read and reread this verse, I began to understand that this prophetic prayer by the apostle Paul is as pertinent to us in 2015 as it was when Paul wrote it almost 2000 years ago.

Paul penned this prayer before he ever visited the church in Rome. I believe the Holy Spirit was using Paul to prophetically prepare the Roman believers for the horrible persecution that would be coming within a few years. Several years after Paul wrote this letter and prayed this prayer, the emperor Nero set the city of Rome on fire and then turned and blamed the Christian church for what he had done. You can imagine the persecution that descended on the church.

Here is Paul’s prayer.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13, ESV).

With all my heart I believe this is a key passage to know and have an understanding of as we face the increasing chaos and persecution that is now descending upon the church.

A few key points to take hold of:

1.      “May the God of hope”

God is the author of hope.

What does the word hope mean, as it’s used in the Bible? Don’t confuse the weak contemporary meaning of the word hope with the Bible word. Biblical hope is, “A confident expectation based on the certainty of God’s Word, His promises.” Hope is never inferior to faith but is an extension of faith. Faith is the present possession of grace; hope is the confidence in grace’s future accomplishments.

2.       “Fill you with all peace and joy”

The word fill means to be completely full; not partially full, not sporadically full. It means to be full all the time and that is God’s promise for us to lay hold of.

The word all used here means that we will be filled with “every kind” of peace and joy. Don’t jump past this word, because if you do you’ll lose some of an explosive truth. Peace and joy are a complete package and they come because we have put our faith in (we have believed in) Christ as our Savior.

3.      “By the power of the Holy Spirit”

The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us at salvation. Unfortunately, some Christians choose to limit the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives and they do so to their own detriment. 

Personally, I want the full activity of the Holy Spirit in my life at all times. I need His power and His gifts operating in me now more than ever. The church of 2015 needs the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit as much or more than the first century church. Because of wrong-headed thinking about the purpose and place of the Holy Spirit in today’s church, we are losing the battle to win America for Christ.

            Please remember that the Holy Spirit is the third member of the Triune Godhead and you can feel free to speak to Him and to ask Him to be freely active in your life.

            The Holy Spirit is God’s agent of power. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NIV).

            How do we cooperate with the Holy Spirit so that we will see His power released?

            “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and   for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:18-20, ESV).

            One of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned in my walk with God has been to discern when to stop asking and start worshiping. There’s a time for making our requests   known to Him and an equally important time for worshiping Him. The Holy Spirit  responds when we worship; He is the Father’s agent of power and He manifests Himself.

4.      “You may abound in hope”

Abound means “to have in excess, to have an overflow” of hope. Abounding in hope brings strength and fruitfulness into the life of the believer who puts his or her trust/expectation in God.

What does this verse have to do with us in our world in 2015? What is the “takeaway” for us? Allow me to put this verse in my words:

“Because we have invited Christ into our lives, God, the author of hope, will fill us with the fruit of that step of faith and fill us with joy and peace through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Because of that we will abound in the confident understanding that God has everything under control!”

In the increasing chaos of the world we live in , I believe God wants His people to be “abounding in hope.”

CAN WE LIMIT GOD'S ABILITY TO WORK IN OUR LIVES?

How do you define a marriage? By the number of children produced? The length of the marriage? The estate of the married couple? What do you think? Maybe the number of friends or perhaps the size of the couple’s house or the make of car they drive?

The exteriors of marriage are simply interesting anecdotal information. The heart of a marriage is the personal relationship between the husband and the wife. Some of the strongest and best marriages I have ever seen are those of couples who have little of this life’s “stuff” but they are in love, they communicate, they have weathered some difficult circumstances, and they are happy in each other’s presence. Some of the most troubled marriages I have ever seen involve couples who are wealthy, they barely tolerate each other, and they can hardly wait to go out and do something that does not involve the other spouse. They seemingly have everything but they actually have nothing much.

How do we define our walk with God? Is the smiling, Scripture-quoting, endlessly positive, ever chipper nuisance that you see at church actually the ideal believer? I don’t know if he or she is or not and neither do you. The definition of the ideal Christian is simple and yet it is hidden. I’ll explain what I mean in just a moment.

The definition of our personal walk with God requires an answer that only you can give. The one issue that defines our walk with Him is our devotional life. In marriage, the issue is defined by the relationship between the two involved (a man and a woman, I mean; let there be no mistake about that in my definition). In our spiritual journey, the defining issue is our relationship with the Father. The marriage relationship has an uncanny similarity to our devotional relationship with our heavenly Father.

In marriage the husband and wife do not exchange their vows, give each other a ring, kiss, and then move to separate parts of the world. For argument’s sake, let’s have the husband move to Iceland right after the marriage ceremony and the wife to Australia.  They frequently exchange letters, e-mails and talk to each other on the phone but from the time of the exchanging of vows in the marriage ceremony they are never intimate with each other. Now I ask you, is that really the kind of marriage God intended for a man and a woman? It is a marriage in name only and there will be no fruit from this arrangement.

“But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:6-9).

The communication of the partners in marriage finds its fulfillment in the consummation of physical intimacy . . . they become one flesh. And so it is in the spiritual realm; our communication is fulfilled in the intimate relationship that we have with the Father. When we close the door on life and spend time talking to Him in prayer and letting Him talk to us through His Word, we are building our intimate relationship with Him and fruitfulness begins to develop.

I believe the devotional life is so important that the enemy attacks us there as much or more than he does anywhere else. If the enemy can derail your devotional life, he will cripple your growth and spiritual vitality and render you spiritually impotent!

It is one thing to say, “God is a master craftsman and He will make me into a beautiful instrument.” But the fact is, some are so spiritually passive that they never do anything to cooperate with God. They never take the time to fine-tune their spiritual life, they just stumble along with no real vibrancy in their intimate life with Him. If you are not willing to work at your devotional life, then what you are really saying is, “God doesn’t have all of me. I’m just too busy and way too cool for that old-fashioned stuff.” You limit God’s ability to work in your life. Yes, that’s what I said, you limit God’s ability to work in your life!

How about surprising God by spending a little more time than usual in His presence? You could really shock Him by going on a fast for more than three hours (that’s about as long as most Texans and Canadians can go without a feeding). You could surprise and shock Him by making a special love gift (I’m talking money here) to a ministry or a needy person and doing it in the name of the Lord. Or a random act of kindness because you know that’s the kind of thing Jesus did. No one else ever needs to know about the “special” things you do in your relationship with the Lord, but He will know and He will smile!