As I was going to work on a day this week, I sensed the Holy Spirit revealing a new level of honor. I had turned on Family Life which was centered around the theme of honor. As I began to study honor through the Word of God, it came alive even more than it had in the past. I believe honor is not just a good idea or even something we ought to do but actually a manifestation of God's very life. God chose to forgive us, cleanse us, place us in right relationship with Himself, and even seat us in Christ in heavenly places when we He found us in the place of being a sinner (before we had a new nature). This is amazing because honor sees who you are before you even see it and relates to you as this new person. I believe the real manifestation of honor did not fully exist on this earth until Jesus came, bringing this in who He is from Heaven. You could say honor is normal in Heaven but only seen in dim shades here on earth before Jesus. When Christ came into the world it was as if the windows of Heaven opened and the very substance of Heaven began to invade the earth. I say all this to say that without Christ and then the revelation of the Holy Spirit I would have no clue about honor and how life-giving it is to walk in honor. I believe we honor people for who they are in Christ or at least made in the image of God not because we have to but because this is our new nature (united with Christ). I began to see in my own life how powerful it was to walk in forgiveness, releasing the debts I had held against people who hurt me but honor was even another level of living from my new life in Christ. In the New Covenant honor is discussed in many places but I think specifically about Ephesians 6 (honor father and mother) and 1 Peter 2 (submit to authority and honor all men). I began to see in my own life that I had spent much of the recent years walking through forgiveness but I still was not walking in the fullness of honor (life) that Christ had purchased for me. As the Holy Spirit began to show me this, I did not experience condemnation just the sense that My Father had a lot more life to reveal to me than I was currently walking in. I even began to get excited about this journey of Him transforming my heart to honor the people in my life through the working of His Spirit not my effort. Honor sees people through the lens of Christ finished work, seeing who they are through eyes of redemption not fault/sin consciousness. I don't mean that we somehow minimize sin, only that sin is not more powerful than the finished work of Jesus Christ. The Word says in Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory, God had always destined us for glory yet sin derailed us from our destination. Yet "in Christ" Colossians 1:27 says "...Christ in you, the hope of glory." In Hebrews it talks about bringing many sons to glory, not through our work but Christ's. I have heard a lot about honor in the past and new that this word was just pregnant with revelation but it didn't come fully alive til this week. I know there is so much more than I see now but I know that My Father is good and will show me more as I go along the journey. I pray that God would open the eyes of your heart to see into the heavenly realm, seeing the life of God in honor.
Honoring my Father,
Bret
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