Principle Of Honor I

‘Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.’ Prov.3:9-10 [KJV]

Another area in which you sow is the first-fruit. When it comes to first-fruit, I have been in church long enough to hear different theories about first-fruit. I have sought personally God myself, about first-fruit. I have come to this conclusion- first-fruit is not by force. It is not like tithe that if you don’t pay God says the devourer is coming. First-fruit is a principle of honor. ‘Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine’. So you need to ask yourself, are you gunning after barns that are filled with plenty and presses that are bursting with new wine? If you are, then you plug into first-fruit. At some point, I was going to dodge paying first-fruit and I was saying to myself, God understands. God did not say anything to me. He did not say pay or don’t pay. But something happened, a woman came to the church office to pay her first-fruit but she came to me to pray over it. Before we prayed, she told me the story of her first-fruit and when she left my office I was ashamed of myself. You know it is good to talk to yourself. I said to myself, ‘what is wrong with you? You taught these people this thing’. And I preached the whole sermon to myself. Then I told my wife and I took the step to pay my first-fruit like I had done in previous years. I really cannot tell you what God did for my family because if I do, you will think God is partial. I will tell you this though; I could have worked for thirty years before acquiring something that God released to me. I won’t say more than that. But if you insist, don’t pay it if you don’t want to. As for me and my own, we shall honor God. The seeds of honor are another area you can sow. ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you’ Deut.5:16 [NIV]. There are a lot of believers who think because they are Christians they can treat their parents who are unbelievers, shabbily. That is a big joke! God says ‘Honor your father and your mother…’.

Prayer: Precious Spirit of Christ, lead me to consistently honor God and those He has set in authority over me, in Jesus Name.