What do you Honor?

I used to think the secret to being blessed was how much faith I had or how much I tithed or my church sowed. While  there is  truth in that, I came to realize that wasn’t the whole story. We can know the truth but there are truer truths we can also know. I saw that the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, was also the wealthiest and that those who are the most blessed had wisdom to do the right thing in each situation. I discovered the key to abundance rests on understanding honor. We honor those things that we value, but will not get things of real value as long we value the wrong things. Jacob valued his brother Esau’s firstborn birthright as the oldest son yet he talked Esau into selling it to him because he was hungry and wanted a bowl of porridge.This is why Malachi 1:3 says “Jacob I loved and Esau I hated”. While the Hebrew word means “love less”, it is actually talking about the nation of Israel versus the nation of Edom who became a source of problem for Israel. The bottom line is, we  should see the importance of viewing things through God’s priorities. It seems incumbent upon us to put a proper value on those things God esteems worthy of honor. If we do, we end up blessed and happy, but if we don’t, we might live in lack and frustration.
God says, if we honor our fathers and mothers, we will have a long life. He says marriage between a man and a woman should be honored by all. If we honor what He thinks is important, we receive both riches AND honor. David honored God’s presence and went to great lengths to get the Ark into Jerusalem. When God asked Solomon to ask anything of Him, he didn’t ask for money or revenge, but instead for wisdom to lead. He ended up getting riches,honor,glory and peace! The offering King David took up for the building of Solomon’s temple was so immense because the people knew they wanted to honor God. And before they did anything else,David made a massive sacrifice to the Lord that same day he took that temple offering! He had 1000 bulls,1000 rams and 1000 lambs as well as drink offerings.  (1 Ch 29:12-25) They both chose wisely.
Recently I wondered, is the American church valuing the wrong things? Are churches so in fear of losing the 501(c)(3) or tax-exemption, preachers avoid preaching the truth about same-sex marriage, immorality,abortion and other topics,considered “taboo” by the media?? I just returned from preaching in 9 different churches in Australia and none of them have a tax-exemption but their churches thrive. So are our priorities  skewed? Does the church value money and being PC by media standards? Don’t we know our authority is in bringing to our culture the Word of God? 
Recently, Wikileaks revealed that mainstream media, the New York Times,Washington Post, CNN, ABC,MSNBC, Salon, were ALL in collusion with & pushing a narrative for the DNC to elect Hillary Clinton. While liberal bias is no surprise,to be covering up bad stories and highlighting untrue stories, basically telling lies and spreading propaganda means they are no longer “speaking truth to power” but instead “power speaking propaganda to people”. This election exposed how  blatantly out of touch ,corrupt and deceitful  the media is! Even though it is the largest communicator and legitimizer of deceit & immorality in our culture, the church still seems to tip its hat to it, bows down to Mammon and worships Jesus on Sunday-Baal,Mammon and Jesus! In ancient Israel when they worshiped many gods that was called pantheism. Isn’t that what churches are doing today? 
I told a pastor friend recently, you get what you value and what you value ,you talk about. If we value the Holy Spirit and welcome Him, He shows up! If we honor wisdom ,talk about it and run to get it, we will have it. If we talk about miracles and supernatural things and value those, we will get them! But if we don’t esteem these things God esteems important, we end up doing without that blessing. We can have as much of what God has by accepting or rejecting it. God rewards us when we honor what HE esteems and so we need to learn to love what the Lord loves and even hate what He hates because He sees things in a vastly different way than we do! (Is 55:7-9) My question to you is, what do you honor in your heart,your life priorities, your home, lifestyle and culture of your church?