Acid Test,
The heart of sonship is a heart that has learned to honor all people! Blessings in life are promised if we honor our mother and father (see Eph. 6:1-3. Answered prayer and intimacy with God is promised to husbands who honor their wives (see Peter 3:7). Favor with God is found by honoring those in authority as well as honoring every person you come across (see 1 Peter 2:17-20). Sonship, humility, submission being subject to Father’s mission- these character qualities are often interchangeable and are a natural manifestation of a heart that has had a personal revelation of honor. HONOR INVOLVES A DECISION THAT IS MADE TO PUT LOVE INTO ACTION, TO GIVE A PERSON A POSITION OF HIGH VALUE AND WORTH. Even when we have been disappointed , hurt, or wounded by a person, honor chooses to make a decision not to respond in kind. No matter what is felt coming from another person, honor chooses to not expose but speak words that give grace to the hearer. Honor views each person as a precious gift of God’s creation and grants them a position that is worthy of great respect. Honor chooses not to respond with an unwholesome word or tone.
Not to give honor is an assign dishonor. Judgement, resentment, anger, exposure, sarcasm, criticism, comparison, favoritism, jealousy, selfishness, and envy are weapons of dishonor that are used against those who are considered of little value or worth. Each time we have a point of contact or interaction with another person, we have a decision to make. We will either arm ourselves with a weapon of dishonor,or we will give an unmerited gift of honor. Have you noticed there’s no middle ground? We can be a 100 percent right in our evaluation of a persons faults or weaknesses or how they’ve disappointed us or how they have not matched our expectations , but love covers and does not expose others weaknesses or whine about them.
What are we communicating when we talk to other people? Do people value and worth being spoken by us about those whom others may feel have little worth?
The heart of sonship is a heart that has learned to honor all people! Blessings in life are promised if we honor our mother and father (see Eph. 6:1-3. Answered prayer and intimacy with God is promised to husbands who honor their wives (see Peter 3:7). Favor with God is found by honoring those in authority as well as honoring every person you come across (see 1 Peter 2:17-20). Sonship, humility, submission being subject to Father’s mission- these character qualities are often interchangeable and are a natural manifestation of a heart that has had a personal revelation of honor. HONOR INVOLVES A DECISION THAT IS MADE TO PUT LOVE INTO ACTION, TO GIVE A PERSON A POSITION OF HIGH VALUE AND WORTH. Even when we have been disappointed , hurt, or wounded by a person, honor chooses to make a decision not to respond in kind. No matter what is felt coming from another person, honor chooses to not expose but speak words that give grace to the hearer. Honor views each person as a precious gift of God’s creation and grants them a position that is worthy of great respect. Honor chooses not to respond with an unwholesome word or tone.
Not to give honor is an assign dishonor. Judgement, resentment, anger, exposure, sarcasm, criticism, comparison, favoritism, jealousy, selfishness, and envy are weapons of dishonor that are used against those who are considered of little value or worth. Each time we have a point of contact or interaction with another person, we have a decision to make. We will either arm ourselves with a weapon of dishonor,or we will give an unmerited gift of honor. Have you noticed there’s no middle ground? We can be a 100 percent right in our evaluation of a persons faults or weaknesses or how they’ve disappointed us or how they have not matched our expectations , but love covers and does not expose others weaknesses or whine about them.
What are we communicating when we talk to other people? Do people value and worth being spoken by us about those whom others may feel have little worth?
Genuine sonship give honor, while an orphan heart takes honor and dispenses dishonor. Not to honor can actually become a self imposed curse and may result in a cloud or shadow of judgment hanging over our home, workplace, church, or relationships. Dishonor does not serve our personal interests and values, even if our judgment is accurate. It is unprofitable, and our inheritance in the kingdom of God is delayed. Probably my greatest pitfall on walking in honor is that I am often right in my evaluation of others attitudes, behavior, ad weaknesses and the way they have let me down or disappointed me. But is my body language covering or uncovering them? Is my conversations binging exposure, or is it leading to restoration? When the name of someone who has disappointed me comes up in conversation, do my words, tone, or body language being honor, or do I draw out a weapon of dishonor? Is that person’s redemption at the root of my words, or am I selling to make myself look innocent by uncovering the fault? Honor is a acid test for a heart of sonship.
Some Christians have trouble focusing their life upon being a son or a daughter because their past experiences with authority have been negative. But the sonship that we’re talking about here really has little to do with authority in our life. It is an issue of honor. Sonship is not or the benefit of authority. Getting underneath an pushing up and being subject to another person’s mission isn’t about that person. It is about honor and whether or not you choose to be subject to the Fathers mission. Submit yourselves for the Lords sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who so right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bonds leaves of God. Honor all people, love brotherhood, fear God, honor the King (1 Peter 2:13-17 NAS).
I feel like one of these central themes in his whole discussion is found in verse 17 in the phrase ,”Honor all people.” A heart of submission is a heart that honors all people. Honor begins at home. Do you honor your family, each and every member? Or do you inflict emotional pain on them with weapons of dishonor?
Do you honor the “little fish” who cross your path day by day? Or do you honor only the “big fish”? If we give a gift of honor to the “big fish” who have the power to promote us or give us something we want, but we do not dispense gifts of honor to the “little fish” those we feel have Jo value to us, then the honor that we give to the big fish is actually manipulation and control, as we try to get something we want from them. In other words if we are nice to the person buying us lunch but not nice to the one serving us lunch, then we are not a nice person, and we lack a heart of honor, and sonship. Sonship is not something you measure only by the way you respond to those in authority- big fish. Sonship is also demonstrated by the attitude we exhibit toward the little fish- the clerk at Wa-lmart at Christmas time, the person who cuts us off in the rush hour traffic, the family at home. At church, do you give with gifts of honor to the nursery or maintenance worker as much as you do to the pastor?
The call to sonship is a call to honor all people. But such a call is impossible to fulfill on our own. The only way to do so is to be subject to the Fathers mission- to submit to His love, and to look for ways to commit “senseless acts of humility and honor”- giving away gifts of Gods love that are not meant to profit us. We live because he fist loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Some Christians have trouble focusing their life upon being a son or a daughter because their past experiences with authority have been negative. But the sonship that we’re talking about here really has little to do with authority in our life. It is an issue of honor. Sonship is not or the benefit of authority. Getting underneath an pushing up and being subject to another person’s mission isn’t about that person. It is about honor and whether or not you choose to be subject to the Fathers mission. Submit yourselves for the Lords sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who so right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bonds leaves of God. Honor all people, love brotherhood, fear God, honor the King (1 Peter 2:13-17 NAS).
I feel like one of these central themes in his whole discussion is found in verse 17 in the phrase ,”Honor all people.” A heart of submission is a heart that honors all people. Honor begins at home. Do you honor your family, each and every member? Or do you inflict emotional pain on them with weapons of dishonor?
Do you honor the “little fish” who cross your path day by day? Or do you honor only the “big fish”? If we give a gift of honor to the “big fish” who have the power to promote us or give us something we want, but we do not dispense gifts of honor to the “little fish” those we feel have Jo value to us, then the honor that we give to the big fish is actually manipulation and control, as we try to get something we want from them. In other words if we are nice to the person buying us lunch but not nice to the one serving us lunch, then we are not a nice person, and we lack a heart of honor, and sonship. Sonship is not something you measure only by the way you respond to those in authority- big fish. Sonship is also demonstrated by the attitude we exhibit toward the little fish- the clerk at Wa-lmart at Christmas time, the person who cuts us off in the rush hour traffic, the family at home. At church, do you give with gifts of honor to the nursery or maintenance worker as much as you do to the pastor?
The call to sonship is a call to honor all people. But such a call is impossible to fulfill on our own. The only way to do so is to be subject to the Fathers mission- to submit to His love, and to look for ways to commit “senseless acts of humility and honor”- giving away gifts of Gods love that are not meant to profit us. We live because he fist loved us” (1 John 4:19).
ALL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO GOD WHOM GAVE A WORD OF FREEDOM TO A MAN NAMED: JACK FROST; HIS BOOK: SPIRITUAL SLAVERY TO SPIRITUAL SONSHIP
