Honor Based Warfare | Landon Schott | Mercy Culture Church

We honor you, we celebrate you, thank you so much. How many ready for the word this morning? If you want my notes, you can text notes to the number that comes on the screen. You can also text GROW for a study guide and we'll send you additional resources where you can steward this message. If you have your Bible, turn with me to the book of Numbers chapter 12, beginning in verse one. Numbers chapter 12, beginning in verse one. It says this, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman who he had married. He married this Cushite woman and they said, has the Lord not indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? Look at this, and the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek or humble, more than all the people on the face of the earth. And suddenly, look at this, the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, come out here, the three of you in the tent of meeting. The three came out and the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called to Aaron and Miriam and they both came forward. Here's what he said, hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in dreams. Look at this, not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.

With him, I speak to him mouth to mouth or face to face, clearly not in riddles. He beholds the form of the Lord. Look at this, why then were you not afraid to speak against Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and he departed. When the cloud removed from the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous like snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam and behold, she was leprous and Aaron said to Moses, oh my Lord, do not punish us because we have done foolish and we have sinned. Let her not be one of those dead with flesh and half eaten away when it comes to her out of her mother's womb. And Moses cried to the Lord, oh God, please heal her please. But the Lord said to Moses, if her father had spit in her face, should she not be shamed for seven days? Let her be put outside the camp for seven days. After that, she may be brought in again. Verse 15, so Miriam was outside the camp for seven days and the people did not sit on the march until Miriam was brought in again. I came to tell you today that honor-based warfare is when you remain in the glory of God, not in the presence of the accuser. The title of this message today is honor-based warfare. Let's pray.

So Lord, we declare right now your word is true. Let every man be a liar. We declare your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you breathe upon your word. I pray your written word becomes Logos, our Logos word becomes Rhema, personal revelation to us today. I pray right now that you would give us ears to hear, hearts to receive, minds to understand what your spirit is saying through this word. Holy Spirit, we declare we don't make room for you, but we give you the entire room. So we declare no spirit, but the Holy Spirit is welcome in this place. We say spirit of fear, you must go. You foul Jezebel spirit, you must go. You are the accuser of the brethren, you must go. We say, Holy Spirit, come, rule and reign. Father, I thank you nobody came to hear me. We all came to hear you. So we declare, speak Lord. Your servants are listening and all God's people said amen. And amen. Well, we are taking a real quick break from the fruit of the spirit series. We'll finish it. I'll be preaching the last fruit next week. So we'll finish that series next week.

But we're gonna enter in today into a spiritual warfare message. And as we're talking about spiritual warfare, it's important that people understand what we're talking about. At Mercy Culture, we have been stewarding years, or stewarding prophetic words all year long. We've been stewarding seasons and teachings of things that we're doing. But I wanted to take a quick little time out to do a one-off message on spiritual warfare. So when I say spiritual warfare, what do I mean? Well, we're familiar with Ephesians 6, 12. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, principalities, or heavenly forces. We sing about it today. But what is spiritual warfare? Let me simplify it for you. Spiritual warfare is the will of man. The war over the will of man. That's what spiritual warfare is. It is the war over your soul. Now, I taught on spiritual warfare a couple times over the last few years. Actually, it goes even back to the Paschal days, about six years ago, where I taught on different principles or strategies of spiritual warfare. Something that I have found by being raised in church

is despite. how much bible people know a lot of people do not know how to engage or respond in spiritual warfare and so you get christians that get beat up spiritually like seven sons of skeeva because they do not know biblical principles of spiritual warfare i grew up in a church where everybody was like maverick cowboy westerns like attacking demons taking them out like you're carmen devil bite the dust anyone raised in church know what i'm talking about and and and the truth is is that's foolish because imagine if you were one of the uh opposing army guys and and he runs out with the machine gun he's just firing in the air like yeah let's go to war like you're the first one shot homie it's foolish to do but we see people in the church doing that you're like i'm buying in this and losing this and attacking the devil here and cursing the devil here like you don't have a clue what you're doing but what you're doing is you're becoming a target for demonic activity so i want to give you a couple principles of spiritual warfare and if you text uh notes to 590 90 you can have a link for all of these sermons and all these strategies they're on those notes so the first thing you need to understand about spiritual warfare is that we engage by unseating principalities what does that mean it means that you lift up the highest authority you do not personally come against any demons ever even the archangel michael didn't do that where he said the lord rebuke you devil so you allow the lord to fight the battle and you do that by lifting up the highest authority i would describe it like this it would be like if you're an obnoxious uncle in a pool with kids and they're floating on a raft and you go up underneath the water and you go ahead and launch them off their seat that would be a strategy of spiritual warfare that you're not facing something head on you are unseating it by lifting up the highest authority the second spiritual warfare strategy i want you to be aware of is fear-based warfare preached another message on this fear-based warfare is when you try to engage in warfare with fear and it doesn't work you cannot use the enemy's fiery darts against him so you cannot use the spirit of fear to cast out fear it doesn't work and majority of christians you are afraid or you embrace fear as you try to fight spiritual warfare and that's why you lose because we don't battle fear with fear we battle it with the fear of the lord the other one the lord told us a couple years ago was the strategy of joy-based warfare what's joy-based warfare it's when you're constantly celebrating what pleases the lord you're constantly declaring the things that that he delights in that are excited about what he's excited about you're partnering with what pleases

the lord which becomes our source of joy and that's why you can have joy in the battles that's why you can count suffering joy because you're in the presence of god pleasing him while you're in the fight so these have been some tactics that we have been using over the last six years as the lord has been teaching us and the lord gave me a fourth one a couple months ago it was uh in march it was march 3rd it was eight o'clock at night heather and i were sitting talking uh by our fire and we're just sitting there talking together and as we're talking together the holy spirit interrupts us and speaks to me now it wasn't audible but it felt audible but it wasn't audible because she didn't hear it and here's what i heard the lord say in the middle of our conversation he said this he said honor-based warfare and as soon as he said it to me i was like the room stopped and then here's what he said he said honor-based warfare is the spiritual warfare strategy in the season of the accuser of the brethren there was a prophetic warning that came at the beginning of the year they were entering a season of the accuser of the brethren in honor-based warfare is how we engage in spiritual warfare in the season of the accuser of the brethren are you ready to spiritually grow tell your neighbors say get ready we're not slowing down for you what is honor let's define honor to understand honor we have to look at the original language of the word there's a word called etymology and the word etymology is the origins of a word and so many people get so fixated on certain translations of the bible and i really think it's silly especially the unreasonable king james only people because the bible wasn't written in king james the bible was written in hebrew greek and aramaic an easy way to understand it is the hebrew was old testament the greek was new testament and there's about one percent of the old testament has a little bit of aramaic in it and so when you begin to look at the original language you'll see there's a great depth of words within our english words so one rabbi said it like this reading the bible in english is like kissing a woman through a veil Or looking at a painting in black and white you're missing the depth of it So if you're new to the faith, don't don't don't listen to some rogue podcaster like the bible's not accurate No, that's not what i'm saying. I'm saying english isn't accurate And so when you learn how to study the original language, you see the depth of what god was saying So the doctrine stays the same but you understand a greater depth of it So let's really look at the deep meaning of what honor is you ready to go?

So we have real two hebrew words for the word honor one is a noun called kavod And one is a verb called Kavad And it means this it means a heavy weight Honor to be given or weight to be given. It's used to describe both the glory of god and human honor We see reverence respect or the giving of proper value Now this is really important if you want to spiritually grow And and I want you to begin to learn how to do this as you begin to study the bible in daily counter You have to learn how to connect the spiritual dots So when you start reading one thing for a long time and you start seeing the patterns of other things in that thing There's a spiritual connection one prayer. I pray every day is lord speak to me more clearly than anyone on the planet I pray it every single day The second part of that prayer is I pray and lord help me to teach other people to hear the same So don't think i'm arrogant. I pray for you the same thing. Okay, here we go And so one day i'm praying that prayer and I said to the lord I want to speak to you More clearly than anyone on the planet. I want to hear you more clearly I want to I want to talk to you like moses face to face as soon as I pray that I heard the lord say Moses was the most humble man on the planet Follow the dots if I want to hear god like moses did Then i'm gonna have to walk in the humility that moses did are you following the dots? Okay, i'm gonna help you connect a dot. There is a dot between honor and glory that is inseparable Because the original words for honor Are connected to that same word glory someone say honor and glory Now when we look at the septuagint in the greek we have the word timay which prop which means to properly assign value So watch in the old testament hebrew. It's Determining what the weight value is the differences in the value in the new testament We see a different aspect of it and now part of honor is assigning the value It's understanding what's more valuable It's like when the little brother gets tricked because he's got ten dollars and the older brother's like hey

I'll give you these four shiny quarters. You don't want that paper money and he tricks them out of it See, you think that's silly for a kid, but some of you that are spiritually immature are getting tricked out of honor With dishonor by the enemy because he's showing you some shiny little offense And it distracts you from the value of honor that god wants for you Come on elbow your neighbor said I told you you weren't safe today So, let me give you a really simplified definition because I don't like when pastors get up and try to pretend that they're smarter than Everybody i'm like i'm a simple guy. Just give it to me straight So let me give it to you straight the simplest definition. I could come up with honor is to properly assign heaven's value Because you are not the one determining the value Oh And this is why so many people struggle with honor because you're like I don't value black people I don't value brown people. I don't value this kind of people I don't value that kind of people and all of the things that you determine who you value or who you don't value determine Your honor watch this. I don't value democrats. I don't value palestinians. I don't value these kind of people I don't value drug dealers. So here's the problem is when you're honoring you're not assigning your value So good You are assigning heaven's value And it's pretty hard to know how god values and views you If you don't know how god values and views your neighbor We are in a season of radical love where we're determined to love the lord Your god with all of your heart soul mind and spirit watch this and then the second commandment is to love your Neighbor I would submit to you. It is impossible to love your neighbor if you don't have a revelation of honor Honor is assigning Heaven's value honor is a value of mercy culture values are standards that we have we say this all the time All throughout this church we live by this we say honor is a heart posture honor protects freedom It reflects kingdom identity honor is about self-control not about Control There are over 200 different scriptures on honor in the Bible. The reason why there's 200 of them because it's important. And watch this, just like radical love begins with honor, or excuse me,

radical love begins with loving God. Honor begins with loving God. We see in the middle of the 10 commandments to honor. We see honor your father and mother, that it may go long with your life, maybe go well with you. We see this in Deuteronomy 5.16. Jesus modeled honor. John 8.49, where he says, I don't have a demon. Pharisees, religious people are calling a demon. Reminds me of my YouTube. But he says, you call me a demon, but I honor my father, even though you dishonor me. Honor requires humility. I already talked about that from Moses in Numbers 12. Proverbs 18.12 says before destruction of a man's heart, a heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor. We are entering into a month where there's a few people starting to trying to hold on to this concept of pride month. And it's interesting because homosexual practice is not the greatest sin of the homosexual community. It is their pride. I remember one time I'm in San Francisco on a prayer trip, praying for the gay community. And I go to the Castro district, which is the epicenter of the gay community. And there is a giant rainbow flag waving over like the Texas car lot, a Texas flag sign that big. And I go and I lay my hands on this flag and I just start praying in the Holy ghost. And as I pray in the Holy ghost, I had a vision, a spiritual daydream of a rainbow over San Francisco. And when I saw that rainbow, the Holy spirit said, my rainbow hangs higher. Cause I already told you he's the highest authority and how you unseat pride is by lifting up humility. Can I get amen? Elbow the person on your left say, now it's your turn. Watch this honor releases miracles. Someone say miracles. Go to Mark chapter six, put it on the screen. It'll be in your notes. I want you to see this. Mark chapter six, Jesus is in his own hometown. And when he's in his own hometown, the Bible says this, that he could not do many miracles because of their offense and their dishonor. Jesus, this is wild. You need to look at the text. God himself, verse five, he could not do mighty work there except lay his hands on a few sick people. I'll read it again. Mark six, this is saying watch a hindrance of God himself. Only two times in Bible. The next verse says that Jesus marveled, marveled at their dishonor. He was amazed by it. Do you know, there's only two times that this Greek word is used in the new Testament and one Jesus is amazed by someone's faith. And then in this case, he's amazed by their dishonor. Here's what you need to understand. Your dishonor gets God's attention. I'm going to help somebody grow because you come up here and you're in worship and you're lifting your hands and we're singing. We honor you. And as soon as we do it, all of a sudden,

you can feel shifts in the atmosphere. When the worship leader, I think it was pastor jazz is like, tell the Lord, honor him, start doing it. All of a sudden, I started feeling goosebumps as we did that together. I felt the atmosphere shift. It is the same thing that begins to happen where there's a shift in the atmosphere. There's a lifting of the anointing of God. When people begin to do honor and God himself, according to scripture could not do miracles. Because of their dishonor. Maybe that's why we don't see many miracles in the church today. Maybe it's not a faith problem, y'all. Maybe it's a dishonor problem. Maybe God hasn't been able to do miracles in our families, in our anointing services, in the revival nights, in the healing conferences. And then we clap because somebody that was kind of walking a little funny, walked a little less funny. And then we happened to all excited about it. And if you look around the room, we're saying, no, no, no. Where are the real miracles? Where are the signs? Where are the wonders? Where's the blind eyes open? Where's the deaf ears open? Where's the lame man walking? Where are the signs that we read about? Watch. If Jesus said greater, will you do miracles? And I you'll do even more. If he said that to us, why aren't we seeing it? Like he said it. Maybe because the church has a lot in common with Mark six, where we dishonor a little too much. He hasn't been able to do the miracles that he desires to do. Let me ask you this question today. Who are you honoring? Is there honor in your life? Let me give you another. powerful scripture before I move on. First Peter 2.17 says this, honor everyone. Honor everyone. Look at this, this is wild. According to scripture, there is no one on the face of the earth that does not require honor by the Lord. This will mess with your theology because a lot of times you will categorize different people and their behaviors and determine who gets honor and who doesn't honor. Watch this church, let me help you today.

Dishonoring anyone never honors the Lord. Did you hear what your pastor said? Dishonoring anyone never honors your king. Okay, so let's get real today. So let's ask this question, because I've asked this question, so I'm sure you're asking this question, but how do I honor someone who's really challenging to honor? This is the year of Terrell and our testimony. Heather and I will be doing a podcast later this year sharing our testimony. And I've never talked about it publicly ever once. But part of my testimony is that my family's a ministry family. I was raised in church. My dad was my hero. He was my pastor. And I was excommunicated from my family. To the degree that they have never met my children to this day. Let that sink in for a second, it's hard to figure out. And I remember when we got pregnant with Preston, I said to the Lord, how do I honor my dad when I'm not even in relationship with him? I haven't heard from him in four years. How do I honor him? How do I honor him when I don't respect him? And I went to the Lord and I said, I don't know how to do this.

Tell me how to do this. And the Lord said, name your son after him. Hold on a second. So I named my son, Preston Noah Lee, after my dad. And I didn't even have a cell number to call him and tell him. So I left it on the church voicemail and still never heard back. Now, don't get in your mind that if you so honor and someone so's dishonor that you turn around and so dishonor back. Hold on, hold on. You are gonna lose your reward. You're gonna lose your anointing. You're gonna lose your spiritual growth. But a lot of times, y'all get in your flesh and you're not in your fruit. And so when someone comes to dishonor, that is the moment where God says, now I'm requiring your fruit. Come on, it wasn't when you got a prophetic word. It wasn't when things were going great. It wasn't when there was answered prayer. No, no, no, he starts requiring fruit when the accuser starts talking to you, when he starts lying about you, when they start saying things, when you are disappointed, when you feel more dishonored and disrespected you ever had.

That's the moment he says, let's see their fruit. I gotta go fast. I'm gonna give you five practical ways that you honor God. Five practical ways you honor God. Number one, elbow the person on your right again that elbowed you a little too hard. Say it now, you again. Honor God with your money. Proverbs 3.9, honor the Lord with your wealth for the first fruits, we're talking about fruit again, of all you produce. Let me give you caution today. If you struggle with giving to God, you are always struggling with honoring God. And you cannot separate, you wanna talk about the dots again? You cannot separate the giving to God with his glory. Exodus 29, this is wild. There, the place of offering, look at this. I will meet the people of Israel and it shall be sanctified by my glory. Watch, the place God physically showed up in the tabernacle for people was the place of the altar of the offerings. Remember, if you struggle with giving, you will always struggle with honoring God. Number two is you honor God with your body. Your physical body. What you eat, what you do with your body, what you put in your body, what comes out of your body,

you honor God sexually. And let me help you real quick. Any sexual activity that's outside the honor of covenant marriage dishonors the Lord. If you're in this room today and you're living with someone that's not your spouse, you are in sin. God stinking loves you. your guts. I don't know how much you love Him. You honor God with your body. First Corinthians 9, uh, 1st Corinthians 6, 19. Do you not know your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit whom you receive from God? You are not your own. That kind of destroys my body, my choice, doesn't it? But you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. Number three, honor God with your worship. Psalm 29, two. Here we go. Ascribe to the Lord, the glory, that glory is the word cavode. It is the same thing. When we glorify God, we honor God. It's declaring the rightful place in our lives. It's pretty wild. I love how God works. So the Lord speaks to me in November in a podcast. We're entering the season of the accuser of the brethren. Then he speaks to me on March about honor-based warfare and honor-based warfare. We see the connection with honor and glory, glory and worship. But God spoke to us a year and a half ago that this summer was supposed to be the summer of love or an entire summer of worship in the house of mercy culture. It is the main focus of this summer is getting in the presence of God. There was a prophetic word in January that we're going to start experiencing glory parties. Who knows? Maybe that's going to start happening this July when we begin to honor God and glorify God with our worship. How many excited about what God's doing? Number four, I'm coming at the men today. Honor God with your marriages. Hebrews 13, four, let your marriage be held in honor. Women, when you disrespect and talk down to your husband, you're dishonoring God and dishonoring your marriage. Men, when you are harsh and abusive with your wife or children, you are dishonoring God by dishonoring your marriage. When you do not honor what God blesses, the covenant of marriage, it does not honor God. Number five, practical. You honor God by honoring spiritual authority in church leadership. First Timothy 5, 17, let the elders who rule among you be considered worthy of double honor,

especially those who labor in preaching and in teaching. Let me ask you this question today. Are you a person of honor? Most people do not realize this, but honor is spiritual warfare. God teaches us to honor everyone and Satan teaches us to dishonor everyone. Honor is spiritual. Watch this. So dishonor is spiritual. See, it's not that one is spiritual and one isn't, because the enemy of honor is dishonor. Dishonor means to devalue. Honor means to assign heaven's value. So in order to walk in dishonor, you have to actually unassign heaven's value and begin to devalue what God says is valuable. So watch this. Honor welcomes the demonic like worship welcomes the Holy Spirit. So the same way we begin to worship God and his presence comes when you begin to dishonor, you invite demonic activity into your life. Are you hearing me today? I said every time you engage in dishonor, you're inviting the demonic. It is like a worship to Satan. And watch this. The number one Satan desires is for your worship. That's what he wanted from Jesus. He was a worship leader in the heavenlies. He desired the worship or the praise of people. Watch this. But if Satan can't have your worship, he will settle for your dishonor. Watch this. If he can't get you to be a Satanist, he will get you to be a lukewarm dishonoring Christian. This is his strategy to keep miracles out of the church, to get glory out of the church. I want you to hear me today. Every time you partner with dishonor, you partner with the demonic. I want you to think about all the times you prayed, Holy Spirit, come. Holy Spirit, help me. I've been teaching you to do this for years, asking the Holy Spirit to partner with you. Dishonor partners with demons. I'm going to show you. Look at this. Mark chapter nine. Watch this as well. So in Mark chapter nine, it's a story of Jesus. He saw this large crowd running together. Look at this. And he rebukes the unclean spirit. This is wild. And this is why it's so important that you read the Bible. Bible in its original language and learn how to study it because if I would read the word rebuke I would think in English it means to tell him off But if you look at this word in the Greek, it's the word epitome. Oh and here's what it means So Jesus rebukes an evil spirit But that word epitome in the Greek means to rebuke or charge or to a monist So watch this if you took if you took the word epi it means upon or over and to me Oh meanings to honor or value

So here's what Jesus was doing in that moment when he was rebuking. He was rearranging the proper honor of the situation This is why people lose in spiritual warfare because you think the devil is more powerful than God you think fear Is more powerful than the Holy Spirit you think what the enemy is doing is more exciting than what God may be doing and watch When everybody was freaking out and nobody knew what to do Jesus came and rebuked or you know what he did he operated in honor. He started reassigning Heaven's value he started saying no you guys are putting a greater value on the Demoniac and I'm gonna tell you my power is greater and he starts reassigning the proper honor Watch this if you want to win in spiritual warfare You're gonna have to learn how to start reassigning values in the spirit of what God's Word says over what a Podcaster says about what God's truth is over what a family member says and you start realigning with proper value It's the strategy of the season of the accuser of the brethren I Want you to pay attention for a second How strategic the enemy is in dishonor? It's everywhere They're raising kids to dishonor the police To raising kids dishonor their parents. They're raising kids To dishonor the government. They're raising a generation to hate America It's this Embraiding of this demonic dishonor into our culture And it's time for some honor based warfare Let's go back to this story in Numbers chapter 12, this is gonna rock you Numbers chapter 12. This is a story about Moses his brother Aaron his sister Miriam God himself in a whole lot of dishonor So Moses was the author of the book of Numbers that we're reading from it's written in about four hundred fourteen hundred BC and The purpose of the book of Numbers was to record the journey from the wilderness of the Israelites to mounts from Mount Sinai To the edge of the promised land it was supposed to highlight God's faithfulness to Israels and the failures and the necessities of

obedience and holiness in order to inherit God's promises So the children of Israel in Numbers chapter 12 watch this are one year in to their journey Now, let me just help people for a second They have bad theology and say stuff like I think I'm in a desert season and I can't find biblically any evidence that God brings people into desert seasons The children of Israel were supposed to go from Egypt to the promised land It was 11 day journey and it took them over 40 years and that was on them because their rebellion offense and dishonor Because if you partner with the demon, it's hard to follow the clout So they're there 40 years of wasted time and Numbers chapter 12. They are one year in To this 40 year waste of time. Remember it should take 11 days, but now they're one year in what's happening when they're one year in Well in Numbers 12 Aaron and Miriam, look at this are stewarding a revolt a coup or a church split against Moses God shows how he himself Responds to dishonor in this text. Look at this Romans 12 one. Look at the Word of God It says Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses Watch this if we study this word in the Hebrew that word spoke against means this opposition. It means open criticism Challenging authority watch. This is will blow your mind with an accusatory tone Aaron and Miriam partnered with the accuser of the brethren because Honor is the language of the accuser of the brethren. Let me warn you, church, be careful that you don't fall into any form of false honor as a sign of rebellion, because rebellion is witchcraft, according to 1 Samuel chapter 15. See, when honor becomes a disclaimer,

it's no longer honor. When you say, I honor you, but it's a warning that dishonor's about to come. See, the Pharisees called Jesus teacher before they begin to attack him. Judas kissed him before he betrayed him. The people yelled, Hosanna, glory to God, before they yelled, crucify him. Listen, words don't affect much. Honor is a heart posture. And watch, this is important, since we're talking about crowds. I cannot find one time biblically that a crowd rebuked a man of God and begin to correct a spiritual leader and begin to lead the people correctly from a mob or crowd. Let me warn you today, be careful when people say, we feel like many of us, and many of us feel this way, because if you wanna look in the Bible and find many, you find a demoniac, and all of the things in him were many legions of demons. I'm telling you right now, the church have found its way out of biblical order. We have abandoned biblical orthodoxy. We've abandoned the ecclesiastical structure of the church, and the church is entering into rebellion because people are being led by sheep rather than led by shepherds. Let me help you today.

So here's the problem. Numbers 12, why'd they speak against him? Why'd they accuse him? You know what it was? It's because his wife was black. She's a Kushite woman who is from a region of Egypt or Africa. Watch, and there is an inward family fight over his marriage selection. Watch this, this isn't biblical. This isn't breaking the law. This isn't something that has to do with denying Jesus. Watch this, this is important. This is about personal preference. Anytime people begin to lead with personal preference, they abandon biblical authority. Personal preference sounds like, I don't like the music. Personal preference sounds like, I don't really like the kind, but kind of savage. Personal preference says, I don't like what you said to the neighbor. Personal preference sounds like, I don't know if how we do this is really that necessary. I don't like it, I don't prefer it. I would do it a different way. Well, go start your church and do the way that God tells you to do it. But when the Lord called me to plant a mercy culture, he said, this is the kind of church I want that's built around the presence,

not built around a man, not built around a personality, not built around a ministry, but built around my presence. And when you get in the presence of God, it's easy to talk to him. When he begins to talk back to you, he tells you what to do. Then it's our job to hear and obey. It's not our job to obey people. I don't like how you talk about abortion so much. I don't like how you don't talk about abortions enough. I don't like how you talk about sin so much. It's not my preference. I don't like how you sin so much. You're wearing our pastoral care team out. I don't like this. Did you give in heart for mercy? No. Do you tithe? No. Where do you serve? Nowhere. So let me get this straight. You don't give, you don't serve, you don't tithe, you don't attend, but you got opinions. Let me help you today. Sheep don't lead shepherds. Shepherds lead sheep.

Here's the word. Here's the grass. Eat up today. Well, I gotta help somebody today because we've gone to ourself where we've abandoned God's word so we found ourself outside of spiritual authority. This is so important. Spiritual authority is not self-appointed. It's God-ordained. It's not self-commissioned. It's commissioned by biblical instructions in the word of the Lord. Watch Hebrews 13, 17. It says, obey your leaders and submit to them. I know submission's a dirty word in the church because I was abused by church leaders and I understand what that's like, but I had to understand I gotta submit to the Lord. And watch, even as Saul was throwing spears at David, he was learning how to get on his knees and hear from God. Listen, you can stay in your church, hurt the rest of your life, or you can allow the throws of a spear to turn you into a king in the making. Listen, you can allow God to fight your battles. You can learn how to let God fight for you. So I don't like spears. years, then don't be a king. Because when, when David stopped dodging spears

is when kings went out to war and he stayed back. You want to lead, get good at dodging spears. Biblical accountability is God ordained. Here's what scripture says, Hebrews 13, 17, back up, look at this. Your, your leaders are keeping watch over your souls, not podcasters. Your offended church friend doesn't watch over your soul. This is what the Bible tells us to do. Let me warn you, I want to want you to watch out for podcasters and, and, and individuals with no biblical ecclesiastical authority of any kind to lead your soul. I think it's amazing where people will come to a church, their life will be changed. God will speak to them. They'll learn how to encounter God. They'll grow in God. God blesses them. There's fruit everywhere. It's absolutely incredible. And then when a podcaster that you don't know, you don't know their marriage, you don't know their children, you don't know their secrets, you don't know their sin, you don't know who they're accountable to, says something, you will say, I'm going to believe someone I have no spiritual connection to over my pastor. Man, you've got a lot in common with the children of Israel. And for 40 years, watch, it cost them their life. I want you to hear this today. Dishonor is always rebellious. Look at this, you've got to see this. Numbers 12.2, look at this. God is confronting, or, or, or Aaron is confronting Moses. And here's what he says. Has God not also spoken to us? We're equals. Now watch, Aaron's the high priest. Like he's a big dog in the ministry. He was the one speaking with, with Pharaoh. God used him. Miriam was a prophetess. She sang the song of Moses. Watch, Moses isn't saying God doesn't speak to you. Moses isn't saying, hey, God's hand's not on you. Moses didn't say God doesn't want to use you. They're saying, hey, we don't like what you're leading. We want to do something different. And they partnered with the accuser. Hear this today.

They challenged his spiritual authority. And he, you've got to, you've got to understand this. We're connecting the dots all morning. Dishonor is always connected to the spirit of offense. They got offended over his wife's situation. They started publicly coming after him because they didn't agree with him. They start spiritually flexing. And all of a sudden they start dishonoring. I call it the lot syndrome. They start getting the lot syndrome because Lot was blessed because he was by Abraham. And all of a sudden he think, I don't think I need you Abraham anymore because I am so blessed. And all of a sudden he forgot who called him. He forgot who gave him this spiritual authority. This is important. You get this today because dishonor in your heart will become dishonor in your mouth. The things that were in their hearts eventually came out. Numbers 12, 2. Everybody look at the text. Look at the screen. Look at your phone. Look at paper. Look at something. I want you to see this. They're coming against Moses. Look what God's word says. And the Lord heard it. Do not be deceived my friends. God is not mocked. Everything that comes out of your mouth, everything that you sow, you will reap. God himself is watching. He's seated on his throne high and lifted up. Watch this. And the Bible says that the Lord himself heard it. Now I studied this over the last few weeks and I could only find five times in the entire Bible where God himself confronts a man. There's three in the Old Testament, two in the New, or three in the New Testament, two in the Old Testament. Where God doesn't use a dream, he doesn't use a prophet, he doesn't use a sermon. This isn't like, like Nathan correcting David. This, this is, this is God himself saying I'm going to handle business now. God calls them out to go and stand before them. He begins to hover over them. He says, yeah, many of you guys have visions and dreams and I give you those things. He said, but Moses, I speak to mouth to mouth

or face to face. Watch. I speak to him direct. I speak to him with intimate communication or watch this, unmatched intimacy. This is a comparison of intimacy. Look what God says in the next part of that verse. He says this, you got to, got to look at word. Everyone look, look, look, look, look. He says this. Why were you not? than afraid to speak against my servant, Moses. You know what God was saying to them? Where is your fear of the Lord? See, because when you lose the fear of the Lord, you will lose your ability to honor. They lost the fear of the Lord, so they lost honor. Watch this. They thought they were challenging Moses, but they were really challenging God, because all dishonor against any person is actually just dishonor towards God. You need to understand this. It might feel personal, but I promise you, it is spiritual. Watch this. All of a sudden, the cloud lifts, and when the cloud lifts, according to scripture, Miriam is leprous white as snow. Now watch this. Leprosy is a skin disease that typically goes undetected. You ever talk to an offended person, and you ask them if they're offended, and the first thing they say is no? So you start asking them why they're saying the things they're saying, doing the things they're saying, partnering with the things they're partnering with, and all of a sudden, they're like, oh, I guess maybe I am. Watch, because that leprosy goes undetected till things start becoming numb, and then all of a sudden, you're like, why doesn't this hurt? This is supposed to hurt, and then after things are numb, all of a sudden, they start falling off, because you start decaying from the inside out. See, what dishonor will do to the body of Christ, it begins to numb your soul, so you stop fearing the Lord, and you stop feeling the Lord, and then all of a sudden, your relationship with him gets callous, and you start participating in demonic behavior instead of being used by the Holy Spirit. See, leprosy was a sin of the flesh. Watch this. Her inner rebellion, all of a sudden, is exposed, and what was inside of her now is on the outside of her, and here's the problem, is once you have leprosy, you gotta be put out from community, because it's contagious. This will blow your mind. Aaron is the high priest. Watch. It is Aaron's job to put the people with leprosy out of the camp, so now Aaron has to take his wife and put his wife outside of the camp, because the priest's job was to

inspect it and see, how deep does this go? Is this a fleshly thing? Is this a little dishonor thing, or did this flesh get all the way into the inside of them, and they were completely corrupt? It was the priest's job, and in that moment, watch this, because you gotta see how how you understand this, is that Moses, in that moment, instead of partnering or rejoicing with what happened to Miriam, he begins to, in radical love, begin to cry out to God for her mercy. Once you see this, see, those that have the most intimate relationship with God want everyone to have an intimate relationship with God, so they know the dishonor, it's not intimacy with the Holy Spirit, it's intimacy with the demonic, so those that radically love with the demonic, so those that radically love become intercessors for those that are offended, those that are hurt, those that are diseased, those that are sick. See, just like Jesus intercedes for us, Moses started interceding for her. Watch this, this is the revelation I want to give you today, this is the revelation of honor-based warfare. I want you to see this, the Bible says this, when the cloud had lifted, the moment the cloud had lifted, according to Revelations 12 verse 10, it says, behold, Miriam was leprous like snow. The Hebrew word, kibod, of the cloud, the glory of the cloud, the heavy weight of the cloud, I want you to hear this today, the moment the presence of God lifted, her dishonor was exposed. Church, you have to leave the presence of God to engage in dishonor. Watch this, the cloud leaves when you dishonor, because honor-based warfare is when you remain in the glory of God, not in the presence of the accuser. I need you to hear this today, you have to leave the cloud to partner with dishonor. And honor-based warfare is the strategy of the accuser of the brethren. It's the strategy of the season. Of the accuser of the brethren I'm gonna tell you this again today You cannot stay in the cloud And remain in dishonor You have to choose Which place will you war from? Will you war from honor or will you war from dishonor? So here's my last question for you today Is there dishonor in you would you bow your heads and close your eyes

Every campus Is there dishonor in you? Has any part of the demonic trap of the accuser of the brethren Tried to get you to live in dishonor? Here's what I'm gonna tell the congregation of Mercy Culture today Deal with dishonor before God deals with it Deal with the dishonor in your heart before God deals with it With every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking around at any campus I don't want you to think about people that dishonored you I don't want you to think about anyone else that's struggling I want you to think about you and you alone I felt in my spirit there were some of you that used to honor well And you have stopped honoring Today in the season of the accuser of the brethren He operates in dishonor So in this season honor-based warfare Is the strategy to war from honor in this season of the accuser of the brethren I'm about to hand it off to our campus pastors all over Mercy Culture And as they come I want to read over you Revelations 12 11 This is what the Bible says about the accuser of the brethren That he is conquered by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony Campus pastors come to receive communion And all over this place would you grab your communion elements If you need an element you can raise your hand someone will serve you I want you to get into a posture of intimacy with the Lord So in this moment if you want to kneel you can kneel If you want to sit, sit If you want to stand, stand If you want to come to this altar Whatever you do just do it in the next 30 seconds so we can be still

But I want you to get into a posture of intimacy Let's go With every eye closed One moment Just love on the Lord Just radically love on Him Men tell Him He's beautiful Tell Him He's lovely Tell Him you adore Him We love you Jesus Now I want you to focus on your life Your heart Before we take communion and honor the Lord This is a moment for repentance Communion is available to every believer in Jesus If you need to confess of sins and put your faith in Jesus do it right now And wherever there is dishonor in you Deal with it The high priest is coming through the room right now and he's inspecting How deep does this go? I feel in my spirit some of you, like me, experienced horrific church abuse Where you were spiritually and emotionally abused And there's some dishonor that came in your heart in that season where you said, I can never trust church leaders. I can never trust a pastor. Some of you have had racial prejudices sewn deep into your hearts and you say, I'm not racist. You say, I'm not prejudice, but behind closed doors in your heart of hearts, in your mind and thoughts, you've dishonored. I feel in my spirit. Some of you have had dishonor in your heart towards people of different class, either poor people or rich people where you've, you've held them in a place where they don't really love God and they don't know God. And you've let dishonor come in all over this room, whatever it is, if it's your spouse, if it's your children,

if it's your parents, if it's your past pastor, if it's me, wherever it is, whoever it is right now before the Lord, repent of it. Tell him I don't want to partner with a demonic, whatever ounce of dishonor is. Oh, I just had a vision of Jim Wingate. He's my, him and Suanne are my lead intercessors. And he battled cancer in his brain. And he went back over and over and over and over and over. And they were checking. Is there any left? Is there any left? Is there any left? And he had this moment where he got to ring this bell because he said, I'm cancer free. I'm cancer free. It's all gone. It's all gone. I hear this over in my spirit today. I hear a spiritual bell ringing that today you're going to be dishonor free. So right now, spiritually, this is where you grow double down. There's no moment to embarrass anybody. This is you in the Lord. Tell the Lord, I want it out of me. Do what Aaron did repent right now. Oh, I just heard the Lord say, like Moses prayed for Aaron. I'm praying for you. Jesus, your high priest is praying for you. He's interceding for you. He's praying the mercy of God over your life. I just heard the Lord say, miracles will come now. Miracles will come now. Miracles will come now. Miracles will come to a house of honor. Miracles will come to a home of honor. Miracles will come to a business of honor. I felt in my spirit. There's been a businessman that you've dishonored people. And you said, it's just business. And I hear the Lord say today, he's calling you to be a businessman about his father's business. He's saying, bring honor back into the business. I hear this right now. If you'll bring honor back into the business, he's going to bring miracles into the business. I declare right now, even some people I feel have had a harassing dreams. You've been having tormenting dreams on a regular basis. And I see the Lord bringing healing to your mind. I hear sweet peace as you sleep. I felt in my spirit, there's people that had some emotional things going on, that you're looking for medication. You're looking for outside sources to bring healing. And I heard the Lord say, as you honor me and honor everyone, watch the healing that I'll bring to you. I feel this so strong in my spirit that the Lord has been waiting to release miracles into this house, into your family, into your life. He is waiting on your honor. One more time. This is how you lead yourself in this moment. Just your eyes closed, focused on the Lord. Just ask him, say, Lord, is there anything else? You honoring with your money, you're honoring in your marriage, are you honoring in your worship? Are you honoring in your body?

Now pray this prayer. It's one of the most powerful prayers you could ever pray. I encourage you pray this all the time. Anytime you need help, this is the prayer you pray. It's so simple. It's not difficult. This is the prayer. Holy Spirit, teach me. You prayed all over this place. Holy Spirit, would you teach me how to honor? Here we go. Here we go. Ask him what to do now. Ask him how to honor the challenging people. Ask him how to honor your dad. Ask him how to honor your family member. Ask him how to do it right now. How do I honor that person? How do I honor that candidate? How do I honor? I don't know. How do I do it? Ask him right now. This is where he comes in. I heard the Lord say, in this moment, I'm producing fruit in you. In this moment, I'm producing fruit in you. I declare right now, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. How do you honor that organization that's light about you? How do you honor that organization that has said things about you? How do you honor that person that calls themselves a Christian and hasn't honored you? Ask the Lord right now. How do I honor? If the Lord spoke to you anything of how to honor someone, raise your hand and raise it high. Okay. Now, with that hand high, just, just now use that hand to worship him all over this place. Just worship him. Just worship him. Just worship him. Did you hear what you just said? God spoke to you today. God spoke to you today. God spoke to you today. God answered my prayer. I asked him to speak to you more clearly than anyone on the planet. He spoke to you today. I break the lie over you that you can't hear. I declare right now. He spoke to you today.

He's leading you today. He's guiding you today. You can hear God. You can hear God. I had a prayer right now. Hearts be soft. Hearts be soft. Minds be still. Okay. I'm not speaking in tongues and prophesying, but I'm going to use my prayer language right now. So this is not out of biblical order. I don't want to use my prayer language because I feel like the Lord wants to do something else in the spirit. If you have a prayer language, you can pray with me. This isn't a prophecy. Paul talks about praying in the Holy Spirit, and then words of revelation come after it. I pray minds being renewed. I pray hearts being restored. I pray right now offenses are breaking. I heard it. As you honor, offenses are breaking off of you. The traps of the enemy are breaking off of you. I declare it over your life now. Grab your communion element. The Lord told me last week that we're supposed to follow the Dallas campus, and that we're supposed to take communion every Sunday for the rest of the year. Do you know how much that will cost at all of our campuses for the year? It's 50 grand. Don't waste your communion.

Hey, if your kid's not saved, don't give it to him. You know, there's joy in the Holy Spirit. When I heard the number 50 grand, I was like, worth it. Worth it. I even feel convicted about joking about it. When I think of what He did for us, would you grab that bread? Thank you. Thank you for suffering. Thank you for the lashes. Ha ha. Thank you. There's no other word besides thank you. And they dishonored you the whole time. They mocked you the whole time. But you did it for me. So we remember your body. And we say thank you. But you just thank Him as you take the bread. We lift the cup up as an act of spiritual warfare. It's your blood is the highest authority, your mercy triumphs over judgment, and I thank you that you tore the veil to give us access. So today we plead the blood of Jesus and we repent for the dishonor we have shown you, by the dishonor we have shown others. And I pray your healing blood of miracles would come back to you, church. We honor you, we worship you, we adore you, we love you. Let's take the covers. We stand to our feet and just for one more moment, just begin to love on the Lord all over this place. Just begin to lift your voice and love on him. Lift your hands as high as they go all over this place and just honor him. You don't need a worship leader to lead you. For the next minute with all of your heart, with all of your mind, and with all of your spirit. Just begin to love on the Lord. Just begin to love on the Lord.