In a dream I once had, a certain man told me that he had had a dream in which God told him that: “I will not administer a growth hormone to one of the muscles of Ezekiel (not real name), because he does not honor Me.” In real life, because I was acquainted with Ezekiel, I knew that ‘bambi’ he was struggling financially, and this had gone on for several years. I also knew that Ezekiel never took seriously the things of God. For example, his church attendance record was extremely poor for really no good reason. I therefore knew that my dream meant that God was going to treat Ezekiel the same way Ezekiel was treating Him. God was not going to give Ezekiel the muscle to overcome his financial struggles because he was treating Him lightly. Ezekiel’s financial misery was not about to end – and God was going to see to it – until he repented of, and turned away from the big sin of despising God.
In the Bible, we read of the priest Eli who failed to rein in on his sons who were profaning the worship of God. Collectively, father and sons were despising God. For that matter, God was not going to tolerate being despised any more. He therefore sent a man to Eli with this message: “Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people? Therefore the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the LORD says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming that I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house . . . all the descendants of your house shall die in the flower of their age’” (1 Samuel 2:30-33). If you read the subsequent chapters of First Samuel, all that God promised to do to Eli’s house came to pass; God avenged on them the sin of taking Him lightly.
This should serve as a lesson to all of us. We should really honor God because first and foremost He is God. The other reason why God deserves all our honor is because He is our Savior, having redeemed us from eternal damnation by the death of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. If we honor Him, He promises to honor us in return, in whichever way/s he chooses. As it is written, “Those who honor Me I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30a). However, if we deliberately choose to despise God by taking lightly His instructions such as “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some” (Hebrews 10:25), – an evil Ezekiel was guilty of – true to His word, God will pay us in kind! As it is written, “Those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Samuel 2:30b).
I heard that Kathryn Kuhlman used to say, “If you mean business with God, God will mean business with you.” No wonder she walked in such great power; she honored God, and God honored her in return. This generation of Christians who play with God, treating the Almighty like He is their boyfriend, girlfriend, ‘kid sis’, ‘kid bro’, buddy, or ‘Charlie wange’, need to think twice. God is a Lion, and He can be severe. The earlier you learn and embrace this truth the better your days on earth.
God bless you.