Kenneth Copeland — Honor and SubmissionPosted by admin on August 12th, 2009
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1).
The Bible says that humility must come before honor (Proverbs 15:33). For me to honor God, I must give Him authority over my thinking. Doesn’t the Bible tell us in Romans 12:1 to offer our flesh (our bodies) as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service? In this same chapter the Apostle Paul begins his discourse on Christian order in the Body of Christ.
Kenneth Copeland teaches us to honor God. To honor God, I must also give Him dominion over my thought life. I must give Him dominion over my flesh, instead of just doing whatever I feel like doing. If I don’t, it’s lasciviousness—one of the most cancerous sins that exists. It will eat your life away from the inside out.
If you practice lasciviousness (or complete indulgence) in any area of your life, you will lose your restraint in other areas. You will become accustomed to practicing lawlessness. If you lose your honor, if you stop acting in honor toward others, you are on your way to self-destruction. Lasciviousness will destroy you physically, mentally and financially—and it will destroy your witness. You can be pastor of the largest church in town, but without honor you will fail.
God gave man dominion over all the works of His hands. He honored him when He gave him dominion over all the earth. But what did man do? He dishonored God. He honored Satan by giving him dominion over himself. Adam honored the devil and made him lord and master, and he didn’t do it out of ignorance.
The Bible says that the Eve was deceived, but the man, Adam, was not (1 Timothy 2:14). He went into this sin with his eyes wide open. He committed high treason against God and brought dishonor to the authority and dominion God had bestowed upon him.
Honor comes from the delegation of authority and dominion. Remember, the Scripture says honor your father and your mother (Exodus 20:12). Do you realize what that is telling you to do? Give your father and mother authority over yourself. Give them dominion.
Submit to them. It does not mean just to talk nice about them in public. That is man’s idea of honor. “Oh, doesn’t he honor his mother? He always has his arm around her.”
But he won’t do anything she tells him to do. That is man’s counterfeit of honor, the kind of honor people pass around to one another. The honor of God is the delegation of authority and dominion. It is bowing the knee before your father and your mother as a little child and doing as you are told. Honor is when you are not afraid to say: “I’m sorry, guys, I can’t do that. My mother and father don’t allow it.”
“What difference does that make?” It makes a big difference. It shows that you have yielded authority and dominion to them. Oh, we have lost so much in this area. This really needs to be said over and over.
We have trained our young people to be dishonorable to a great degree because we have been so hell-bent on them attending college and becoming a success. (I’m using these strong words because they are right.) We have been so hell-bent on advancing their careers that we have neglected their character.
Why? So they can make more money. We have fostered this make-all-the-money-you-can idea and then encouraged our children to go out and “find” their own identity.
Read more of Kenneth Copeland’s articles.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries