1 Samuel 2:30 ".......i will honour those who honour me, and I will treat with contempt those who despise me."
Today, I want to share with you something powerful about honouring God.
Have you ever wondered why some people are so successful in everything they do, and yet some are not educated? Be it ministry, business, demonstration of Gods power etc.
That opening verse is taken from the book of Samuel, and during that time of Samuel, the bible says, the word and visions from God were really scarce.
This was because the Israelites were dishonoring God, most especially in the way they give their offerings and speak about God.
And so God was angry and he said to Eli the high priest who was descended from the line of Aron, Aron was chosen by God. God said to Eli, "I chose your ancestor Aron to serve me and I had promised that his family line was to serve me forever and ever but now, that's not the case...I will honor those who honor me and treat with contempt those who despise me.
And from that time, God started revealing himself through the young boy Samuel like never before.
But you see, God was supposed to reveal himself to the children of Eli the priest than to Samuel because Samuel was not in the family line of priest hood. But because Samuel himself was an honor to God, God preferred him to the sons of Eli no matter how strong the covenant he had with them was.
If you can remember, there is that time when Moses collected the walking staff from all the twelve leaders of Israel and only for Aron sprouted and God stated his covenant from there, that Aron and his family line were the ones to serve him.
The scriptures made it Clear that, the children of Eli had no regard for God neither do they do the priestly duty to the people. In other words, they didn't care who God was. And this was just because of ignorance, that's why God spoke in Hosea 4:6, my people perish because of lack of knowledge. God left them and they all perished.
The most dangerous thing have seen in this world is be in the position of serving God and when you are doing your own things, and God is also doing his own things. That's like a wifi saying, "Connected but no internet." You can't make any progress.
How the children of Eli understood God.
These children of Eli thought God works like withchraft or magic, they carried the covenant box to fight the Philistines as though it was some kind of witchcraft or magic that would produce result immediately, unfortunately when you don't have a connection with God, even what worked for someone may not work for you.
That's why when they went to the battle field with the covenant box, the scripture said, they didn't know that God had left them. And so, they were defeated badly.
Samuel honored God with all his life and delighted himself in knowing the ways of God, and the scripture made it clear that, from that time God started speaking with his people and they placed trust in Samuel as a prophet of God because everything he would say would come true.
When it comes to prophecy, Prophet Samuel could really prophecy! And all he would say would come true.
But that was God honouring him, God himself said, I will make sure everything he says come true, that means, even if he just wakes up and say, it's going to rain in the next 5mins, God had to find a way of making it rain, whether with clouds or without clouds.
If you read the previous article, "the biblical perspective of tumors and cancers," I had said that God left the Israelites and they were defeated.
Those very same people who defeated the Israelites again came back, this time, it was prophet Samuel in charge of serving God, and they thought it was going to be the usual case. But this time around, things didn't work out, prophet Samuel prayed to God, and God spoke like a blast of thunder, they were overcome with fear and all the enemies of the Israelites got so confused and they were badly defeated.
That was God honoring Samuel. look, the same covenant box the children of Israel carried and they were defeated was the same covenant box Samuel carried and he defeated the Philistines.
Honor God and he will honor you.
Let's look into the life of Jesus, the founder of our faith.
Jesus honored God with his whole life, in that, even though he was highly exalted, and being equal to God, he humbled himself so much to the point of death, and not just the usual death but the death of the Cross, the most embarrassing kind of death that only the murderers and thieves deserved. But he did this in honor of God's word.
Jesus never wanted to go through this pain, and he reached a point where he first refused and he said, father if you could take this cup away from me (he was meaning the pain he was about to suffer). But because of the honor he had for God, he said, never the less, let your will be done.
And because of that, God also honored him by making a decree that, at the mentioning of the name of Jesus, every knee must bow down, both in heaven, on earth and under the earth.
The knees in heaven(meaning the angles, saints, the elders and the four living creatures), on earth meaning (human beings and the demons), and under the earth(meaning Satan and the dead).
In other words, God decided that anything to do with Jesus must be highly exalted, starting from his name, to his blood, to his word.
The demons understand this decree that's why they don't like being in a place where there is so much of Jesus. Because every time the name Jesus is mentioned with authority, they must bow down and yet that's something they don't like, and besides that, All their activities must come to a standstill, that means whether spreading cancer, HIV or sending bad dreams, it must come to a standstill.
Why am I speaking too much about this, because if you know this wisdom, you will never be defeated by sicknesses again, not even bad dreams, the struggle will cease.
That's why when you confess Jesus as your Lord and savour, even your sins are cancelled, you become something so blessed, empowered and loved by God. Not because you were good or did something to win God's approval but because you came in the house of the one honored by God.
Honor God and he will honor you...
How can we honor God now
let's look at the life of the apostles, they honored God by believing in his son Jesus and God also honored them so much that even the handkerchiefs and aprons that touched Peter's skin would heal the sick,Acts 19:12.
Even the poisonous snake could not kill Paul after biting him so bad (and the people who expected to see Paul dead later turned their minds and started calling Paul, "God") Acts 28:5
What am I trying to say, if you honor God and believe in his son Jesus Christ and get to understand his word as it really is, God will put the same honor upon your life like he did to the apostles.
And when God honors you, even if you just caugh, demons will scream and take off, even the goats will give birth to a cows for you.
There are certain testimonies I can not air out now, because many would misunderstand me, some will start thinking that am being proud or decieving.
Testimonies
One day, I was telling a friend of mine a story of how God as been appearing to people in dreams and healing them in my image, I was telling him how I have no clue about this. Because people would call me and say, I saw you in a dream and you prayed for me, and now my sickness is gone.
One fellow first asked me, how did you sleep last night, aren't you very tired. And I said to her, no. Then I asked why. She said, last night I saw you in a dream you faught for me untill I was free from some demons that had arrested me, the dream was so real and immediately I woke up, I realized that I was healed from sinusitis.
So I was telling my friend this thing and suddenly a young man who was with him also told us the same thing had happened to him. There are so many testimonies that I can't write all of them down.
I tell you today, honor God and he will honor You...Glory to God.
How we miss it
If you believed in Jesus and believed in his word, obey the word, in that way, you will give honor to God because he said, why do you call me Lord and not do what I tell you, he also said ...this people honor me with their lips but their hearts are really far away from me.
And that's because they don't study the word frequently.
There was a time I found myself in this state, I would really talk about God, but doing the very words I speak of was becoming much harder and harder, including prayer, I had to drag my self to pray, giving in the house of God was a struggle, when it comes to giving, that's when I would remember all the problems that I have and the ones which are yet to come and ge problems my relatives and the world have at large.
But there is this one Sunday evening when I was struggling to pray and read the bible, the spirit drove me into the world of knowledge and said to me, "when you stop learning, you forget even the things you already know." This word sunk so deep into my life and from that time, I never stopped learning the word of God.
And you see, because of the honor God has placed on this one man Jesus, having his word in us is like having Jesus himself, because his word alone work as though he is the one, even his name, when mentioned by a person filled with the word, it is too effective because this word is also the spirit and life.
That's why the devil does his best to make us lazy in studying the word and when we stop studying, we forget even what we already know, because when we forget it, we loose the spirit in the word and at the end it becomes very hard to do the things of God, and that's how we end up dishonoring Him. We dishonor God because we start doing things according to the way we hear and see from other people and not according to the way he has instructed us in the word.
Admonition
Make up your mind to study the word everyday, because it's the word that will show you how best you can honor God and it will also help you do what you ought to do. Because the word is filled with the spirit and life of Christ.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always, now and forever. Amen.
Still remain your friend
Otim Brian Sundison