Living and Promoting a Culture of Honor

To understand honor, we must first understand the priorities of bringing Heaven to Earth. The priorities of Heaven are freedom, empowerment, and love - whereby honor being the result of our process of walking out these priorities. This process is accomplished through our earthly relationships, which require us to not only trust those around us, but also to allow them the freedom to be powerful by having influence in our lives.

Because Heaven is full of God’s presence, it is also FULL of freedom. The Apostle Paul writes, “…where the presence of God is there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Let’s remember, we are children of the Limitless One; so how much power, love, and self-control of the Spirit are we actually demonstrating?
The Bible says to honor all peoples, which also includes honoring those who don’t necessarily “earn” or “deserve” it. We cannot allow the character defects of others to determine the way we behave. Self-control means, ‘I will never allow the way you conduct yourself to control me’. Furthermore, the character defects of others will never control the core values I uphold. It doesn’t matter if they are a child, an elder in the church, or a terrorist. Choosing a lifestyle of honor means we no longer require others to earn our love or honor – partly because we no longer withhold love or honor – but also because as honorable people motivated by love we give honor and love freely. It is a byproduct of our love relationship with our King.

In 2010 we need to ask ourselves, “What is vital for me to be me?” “Do the core values I live by line up with the priorities of Heaven?” “How can perfect love flow more powerfully in my relationships this year?” These questions will lead us toward developing a Culture of Honor in our own lives. True honor is powerful people in relationship with one another. Jesus honored us when he said, “I no longer call you servant, I call you friend,” He leveled the playing field, handed us the Earth, and said, ‘I’m going away for a while, what are you going to do about it?’ I say, Lets bring Heaven to Earth in 2010 by living and promoting a Culture of Honor.

April Lewis