The Culture of Heaven - Honour

I am, shortly, going to be sharing about The Authority of Heaven. In May the Holy Spirit was talking to us about The Atmosphere of Heaven, then we followed that up with The Culture of Heaven. God wants both the atmosphere and culture on earth to be like it is in Heaven . . . and he’s given the church that mandate: “when you pray, pray … your kingdom come, your will be done on earth”

The specific effect of the authority of heaven that’s on my heart is healing, deliverance and the prophetic word. We will experience an increase in all those things.

So today, I want to share one more wonderful aspect of The Culture of Heaven that is going to be a key in seeing the Authority of Heaven.

Matthew 13:54-58

When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?" So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honour except in his own country and in his own house." Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

There was a reason why the authority he carried was not activated, not released among these people – Matthew called it unbelief. However, Jesus was more specific as to the form their unbelief took, Jesus identifies the issue as being a lack of honour.

A prophet – in a general sense, one whom God uses to express his own heart to people. God wanted to express his heart to the people of Nazareth, through Jesus, by doing dunamis things for them (mighty works – power – miracle)

We can reduce or increase the effect of the authority of heaven, by the way we have embraced honour as part of the culture among us.

Jesus addressed this issue in Matthew 10:41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.

The reward that the people of Nazareth might have received was the release of the power of God through Jesus. If they had received the prophet, Jesus, in the name a prophet they would have received the reward of what he was carrying on his life.

They identified, or named, him as . . . the carpenter’s son, but not the Son of the Almighty God . . . the son of Mary, but not the son of David (Royalty)

. . . the brother of James, but not the Messiah

In “Culture of Honor”, by Danny Silk, Danny states what he calls The Principle of Honour: accurately acknowledging who people are will position us to give them what they deserve and to receive the gift of who they are in our lives.

The folk in this story failed to “accurately acknowledge who Jesus was”. Jesus called it honour.

Here’s an obvious example: “Wayne, I acknowledge you as a prophet among us, I honour you and the gift God has placed in your life, and I have faith to receive anything from your gift that God gives you for my life.”

You know what happens next? My accurate acknowledgement of who Wayne is realease both confidence and anointing in him to express the heart of God to me – through prophecy.

Many others: healing / pastoral / teaching / gifts of mercy / people gifted to lead us into the presence of God / gifts to facilitate . . .

This is Honour 201 – receiving specific ministries and gifts in the name of those ministries and gifts. Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher, Miracles, Healings, Helps, Exhorters, Special Givers, Leaders, etc (combine of Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Romans12:6-8)

Honour 101 - identifying the true name/nature of every child of God, and treating them according to the “names” God gives them. In a culture of heaven, the principle of honour is embedded there … so there are sons and daughters, not slaves; righteous, not sinners; honorable, not dishonorable; prince, not pauper; chosen, not rejected; and so on.

Honour identifies AND treats people according to their true God-given identity. It’s an awesome part of the culture we can experience here.

When we accurately acknowledge who people are, it positions us to give them what they deserve and to receive the gift of who they are in our lives.

That’s honour, and that’s a key link between the culture of heaven and the authority of heaven.