[dropcap]W[/dropcap]elcome to the month of God’s fullness! We’ve completed the first half of the year, and for this we need to give God thanks. Some of us may be disappointed, however, that our expectations have neither been fulfilled nor show signs of happening at all.
Cheer up–this is your time. Trust Him for your turnaround!
Let’s look at the ways deliverance and honor are connected. Take heart in this truth: You are delivered by God to be put in the place of honor. “Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land” (Psalm 85:9).
In another translation, the same passage reads as follows: “Certainly his loyal followers will soon experience his deliverance; then his splendor will again appear in our land.”
1. You must fear Him, just as the Scripture says: His salvation (or deliverance) is nigh them that fear him. He will “arise with healing in his wings…” for those who fear Him (Malachi 4:2).
2. Blessed also is everyone who fears Him (Psalm 128:1-5).
3. And those who fear him shall see the glory, or honor, of God (Isaiah 35:1-2).
4. Which means that not fearing God is an open door to bondage and dishonor; no wonder the Bible says, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).
5. God’s intention from the beginning was to create you for glory or honor. This is one reason He puts you in dominion:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26. Additional references: Genesis 1:27-28; Leviticus 26:9; Exodus 23:25-26; and John 10:10.)
6. It follows, then, that you were created to be in dominion so that you can show forth His praises or glory (I Peter 2:9).
7. If glory or honor is missing in your life, then bondage is at work—in the spirit of Ichabod (which means “The glory has departed”). But the greatest desire of the Son is to make you free (John 8:32, 36). Therefore do everything by His grace to be set free!
The Lord is so particular about deliverance that He shows us in Mark 11:1-10 an illustration of bondage through a colt, tied by the door of destiny where two roads met (confusion). Jesus dispatched two of his disciples to set it free.
As I write, there are innumerable destinies tied down in every village, town, and city, yet they have no helpers. But for the colt, which was in an impossible situation, the day of deliverance and honor came. In contrast to Lazarus, who was still bound by the spirit of limitation—signified by his grave clothes–even after he was delivered from the power of death (John 11:44), the colt was bound by impossibility.
What is impossibility? This is when all doors are shut, and no sure hope is in sight—for example, a woman who married seven brothers in succession yet produced no children from any of them, then each brother died (Matthew 22:25-27). The colt was bound by the door of destiny, just like a brother who is always interviewed but never gets the job or gets invited for interviews but never succeeds in attending. It was tied where two roads met, but Jesus chose to remove the confusion. Therefore He told His disciples, “Loose him and bring him” (Mark 11:2). Honor met the colt along the way as it was being brought to Jesus (Mark 11:7-9)—“Honor and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary” (Psalm 96:6).
Limitation makes you arrive late at your destination, like Methuselah, who had his first son at 187 years old (Genesis 5:25). As we see in John 11:44 through the experience of Lazarus, a man suffers limitation when his:
● Vision is bound.
● Hands are bound.
● Legs are bound.
(For more on this subject, read my books Help for Troubled Destinies and Smashing the Gates of the Enemy, available at www.authorhouse.com.)
Stagnation, going around in circles, failure at the edge of success, profitless hard labor, as well as delayed blessings are all indicators of bondage and dishonor, but when there is deliverance (Ezekiel 34:27) there will be fruitfulness (Revelation 22:1-2); increase (Psalm 85:12); showers of blessing (Ezekiel 34:26-30); and honor.
Beloved, seek His fear and connect to honor. God bless you.
Taiwo Ayeni is president of Rehoboth Bible Ministries, Inc., in Grand Prairie, where he lives with his wife Abidemi and their son and daughter. You may contact him at rehobothbministries.org.
