But I know you, that ye have not the love of God
in you. I am come in my Father’s name, and ye
receive me not: if another shall come in his own
name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe,
which receive honour one of another, and seek
not the honour that cometh from God only?
(John 5:42-44).

Here is the honor that comes from God only. By
coming to Jesus, instead of going away from Him as
these Pharisees were doing, we learn God’s definition
of honor from the Bible.

Man’s definition of honor is a derivative of the
honor of God, but it is light and shallow. There is no
depth to it. It is almost dishonorable in view of what
some men do to get it.

Let’s take the military, for example. One man is
honored by rank. He is given honor because he has
proven to be a leader of men. The longer and better
he does his job, the more promotions to higher rank
he receives. Finally he is promoted to general. Rank
has privilege. It has honor. This man has come to his
high position honorably. Men stand in awe of this
officer, and they should.

However, some men who wear the marks of high
rank get them dishonorably—by scheming, begging
or doing favors to gain approval. The only reason they
want rank is so they can walk in money and pride
and throw their weight around. That is not honor;
it is dishonor.

Such men are a discredit to the uniform they wear.
They are a particular discredit to those who have led
men into battle and won their badges of rank honorably.
The schemers have the same rank, the same
“honor,” the same privilege, as those who deserve
them—but they did not come by them honorably.

They achieved man’s honor—man’s way.
Let’s look at Psalm 8. It will help us understand
the kind of honor that comes from God only.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in
all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou
ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou
mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast
ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower
than the angels (Hebrew: “God”), and hast
crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest
him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet (Psalm 8:1-6).

This is the Bible definition of honor. God has
given us honor and dominion over the things
that are His.

The Honor of Jesus’ Name

But God has honored us in an even
more important way: He has given us the
honor of His Son, Jesus. And Jesus honored us
even more by giving us the use and
authority of His Name.

After Jesus was raised from the dead
He said to His disciples: “All power, all
authority, has been given unto Me both
in heaven and in earth. Therefore, you go
into all the earth. Take My Name and cast
out Satan. Lay hands on the sick, and they
will recover. Do it in My Name”
(Matthew 28:18-19; Mark 16:15-18).

Jesus gave us authority and dominion
over Satan, sickness and disease.
He also gave us authority over spiritual
communication. We have every right to
pray in the spirit.

What did He do? He honored the Church
with His Name, His blood, His covenant
with God. He gave us dominion over all
the forces of darkness because He gave us His Name.

With what else could He honor us?
What more could we possibly want or need?
Eternal life? He has honored us with everlasting
life when we were born again (John 3:16).

His presence? He promised never to leave
us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). His own person?
He made us bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh,
spirit of His Spirit (Ephesians 5:30; 1 Corinthians 6:17).
His love? He loved us so much that He gave Himself for
us (Titus 2:14). You cannot honor a person any more
than by giving your whole self.

Crowned With Honor

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth!…hast
thou ordained strength…. and hast
crowned him with glory and honour
(Psalm 8:1-2, 5).

Crowned with glory and honor.
Here the psalmist is talking about praise,
power and dominion, about the Name of God
and His glory. “How excellent is Your Name.
How powerful is Your Name.
How filled with authority is Your Name.”

He is talking, too, about God having given
man dominion over all the works of His hands.
Isn’t that an honor? Certainly. It is an honor
that could have come only from God.
He’s the only One with the authority to
give dominion over what belonged to Him.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

We have explored the kind of honor that comes
only from God. In doing so, we looked at John 5.
I want us to take another look at that same passage
of scripture, so we can better understand man’s honor,
or the “honor game” as I call it. To do so, we will go
further back, to John 5:15. This will help set the stage
for what Jesus is saying.

Prideful Men Won’t Accept Jesus

The man departed, and told the Jews that it
was Jesus, which had made him whole. And
therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and
sought to slay him, because he had done these
things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered
them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him,
because he not only had broken the sabbath,
but said also that God was his Father, making
himself equal with God (John 5:15-18).

The Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus. He had healed
a man on the Sabbath day, and had said God was His
Father. They were so filled with pride and envy, they
refused to accept Him as God’s Anointed.

Jesus Receives No Honor From Men

As we have already seen in John 5:37-38, Jesus
rebuked the self-righteous Jews for their stubbornness,
pride and unbelief. He said to them:
Ye have neither heard [the Father’s] voice at any
time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his
word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent,
him ye believe not.

He tells them in verses 39-40 that they read the
Scriptures trying to find eternal life, but refuse to
come to Him that they might have it. He says:
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have eternal life: and they are they which
testify of me. And ye will not come to me,
that ye might have life.

Then in verse 41 He goes on to say, “I receive not
honour from men.” He does not mean that He refuses
honor. He means, “God is the One honoring Me, not
men. If you want to honor God and His Word, you
must come to Me.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom
do men say that I the Son of man am? And they
said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist:
some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the
prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say
ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto him,

Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto
thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church; and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it (Matthew 16:13-18).

Jesus is not talking about building His Church on
Peter. There have been all kinds of controversies about
this. But that is not what He was talking about. When
Jesus said this He was using two different genders. He
used the masculine gender in one and the feminine
gender in the other. So he couldn’t have been referring
to Peter both times.

He told Peter, “This truth has not come to you
from flesh and blood, but from My Father in heaven.”
What did Peter receive? A revelation from God—a
spiritual revelation. That did not come through his
eyes or his ears or any of his physical senses. It came
from his spirit into his mind.

Jesus said to Peter: “Your physical senses did not
reveal this truth to you. My heavenly Father revealed
it to you. Because of this revelation, you are a rock. You
have a foundation.”

In another incident He told Martha that Mary
sat at His feet, heard His Word and chose that good
thing which nobody could take away from her
(Luke 10:40-42). What was it? The Word of God.

A revelation of God’s Word comes from your
spirit into your consciousness. No human being on
earth can take that away from you. Only you can
turn it loose or ignore it until it becomes inoperative
in your life.

It will lie there dormant until once again it
becomes the foundation for your faith. If you stir it up,
the seed will germinate again. It will come alive.
Jesus told Peter: “You are a rock, because what
you have received is a revelation from God. I will
build My Church on that rock—the foundation of
revelation knowledge—and the gates of hell will
not prevail against it.”

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and
the man that getteth understanding. For the
merchandise of it is better than the merchandise
of silver, and the gain thereof than fine
gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all
the things thou canst desire are not to be compared
unto her. Length of days is in her right
hand; and in her left hand riches and honour
(Proverbs 3:13-16)

This scripture says Wisdom holds life in one hand
and riches and honor in the other. Without honor,
wealth—or the prospect of wealth—is dangerous.
As we saw in chapter 3, Proverbs 1:32 says prosperity
will ruin a fool. Why? Because a fool will not know
how to handle prosperity honorably.

When prosperity ruins a fool, he doesn’t know it.
He will do everything he can to gain wealth—including
running right over you. He is a thief. He will steal
your time, even your thought life, by telling you a lie if
he thinks it will help him. He will steal your honor to
get what he wants.

A dishonorable person will always have money
problems. No matter how much wealth he accumulates,
he will always be in financial trouble.
A dishonorable person is driven by fear. That is
the reason he lies. He is afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid
of losing what he does have. He is also afraid of never
getting what he wants and doesn’t have.
Sadly, many “good” Christians, and even the
Church itself, have adopted this same attitude.

Our thinking has been so perverted by the world’s
ideas of finance that our attitude has become, “If I get
anything, I have to keep it. I must not let it get away.”
Actually, that is the most selfish, self-defeating attitude
a Christian or Christian organization can have. It is
also the most dishonorable thing we can do because
God gave us the power to get wealth in order to establish
His covenant on the earth.

Use what you have to establish God’s covenant,
to spread His Word throughout the world. The Lord
will replace that money if you honor Him and follow
the dictates of the covenant. If you are dishonorable
and hold tight to what you have, you will never have
much more than you do now. You will always be
either headed into financial trouble or just coming out
of financial trouble, and worried about it all the time.
Be honorable before God and do your part. He will
honor you. Believe God for your finances and act on
your belief.

If you don’t want to keep more than a few hundred
dollars a month for yourself and your family, that’s
your decision. I think you are cheating your family;
but that’s between you, your family and God. Go ahead
and believe God for $10,000, keep a few hundred dollars
of it, and put the rest into the work of God. The
blessings of the Lord will start overtaking you if you
stay in honor with God and keep His covenant.

God appreciates what you do for Him. He will
return it to you faster than you can invest it. I know,
because He has done it for me. These blessings will
overtake and overwhelm you. God will bless you
with riches faster than you can get rid of them. When
you begin to honor the covenant by supporting the
preaching of the gospel, God will honor you richly.

The Lord has promised, “Those who honor Me,
I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30). What is that honor?

Can we identify it in Scripture? Yes, we can. He who is
faithful (or honorable) over little will be made master
over much (Luke 16:10-12; Matthew 25:21).

Riches and honor come with wisdom and
understanding. They are a part of the heritage of
the saints—those who honor God with their lives
and substance.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries