How can ye believe, WHICH RECEIVE HONOUR ONE OF ANOTHER, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? John 5:44
The “honour of man” is the single greatest influence on ministers apart from the Holy
Spirit. The honour of man is simply the respect and admiration that comes from other men in society. Jesus made it clear that He did not receive respect and admiration from men. This means that He did not do anything because men would honour Him. He explained, “How can you believe which receive honour one from another?” In other words how can you flow with God when it is important for you to have the respect and the honour of men? I have discovered that the honour of men is the single most powerful determinant of what people do. Without knowing it, most of us have a group of human beings whose admiration and respect we crave. We long for them to approve of us and to admire our achievements. Our schooling, our spouses, our cars, houses, food, and our clothes are all designed to attract the credit of people around us. Just like the Holy Spirit, the honour of man is an invisible influence, but it is very real. Virtually every decision a ministry makes is a decision between following the Holy Spirit and following the honour of men.
The honour of man will prevent you from becoming a pastor. When I became a pastor initially, there were not many pastors in town. It was not an honourable thing to become a pastor. I heard people ridiculing me for calling myself a pastor. The thoughts of people’s impressions of me could have kept me from obeying the call of God. The honour of man will prevent you from having a church. Having a church in the part of the city where our church is, was also challenging. It is situated at Korle Gonno, one of the deprived and difficult parts of Accra, Ghana. Who would want to come to church in such an area? The church building that we had acquired sat in the middle of a huge rubbish dump. Were we building a church to receive the admiration of men or were we building under the influence of the Holy Spirit?
Many years ago when I became a Christian, I would not have joined the church I did if the honour and admiration of men had been important to me. The church I joined was started by a former drug addict who had not gone beyond class three in school. I took my little sisters to that church and they could not contain their laughter for one and a half hours as they listened to amazing grammatical blunders. The church service was held in the corridor of the pastor’s father’s house. My elitist family and friends could not easily relate with such a church and such a pastor. Was I looking for the respect and admiration of the elitist community of Accra? Or was I looking to find the glory of God? I receive not honour from men.
Content created and supplied by: Dunamis (via Opera News )
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