Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands….
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with
them according to knowledge, giving honour
unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and
as being heirs together of the grace of life; that
your prayers be not hindered (1 Peter 3:1, 7).
The Word says that husbands are to honor
their wives, treating them with care and kindness
and tenderness.
It also says for wives to honor their own husbands
by submitting to them. That does not mean to be
under their thumb and to follow their orders. That
is not being submissive. That is being dominated.
Wives are supposed to submit to their husbands’
honoring of them.
First Peter 3:7 says that husbands should dwell
with their wives “according to knowledge.” This
knowledge is knowledge of God’s Word. Husbands
and wives are to dwell with each other in honor as
God has explained it in His Word, not according to
some religious tradition.
For too long, women have been relegated to second-
class citizenship in the kingdom of God simply
because proud, foolish men have not understood
what the New Testament really teaches about honor.
In their ignorance and arrogance, such men have
built dishonorable religious systems that bind up the
handmaidens of the Lord.
Some of these men are in for a big surprise. The
husband will find himself carrying around his wife’s
Bible for her while she preaches the gospel and wins
souls by the millions.
Hopefully, many of us men in the Church will
begin to realize that our wives are just as much God’s
children as we are. We will start treating them with
the honor God prescribes in His Word.
The Bible teaches that wives are to be submissive
to their husbands, and that husbands are to treat their
wives with honor as if they were weaker vessels, treating
them with tenderness and love. This does not
mean, however, that women are weaker vessels. Men
and women are each superior to the other in certain
ways. God made them that way. Both are made in His
image. “God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created
he them” (Genesis 1:27).
That means God is both male and female.
Every word in the Hebrew language has either
male or female gender—except one! Jehovah. Jehovah
is the only word that has both male and female gender;
so God is as much female as He is male.
When God made Adam, Adam was both male
and female. God separated the female part from
Adam and deposited it in Eve. Then He brought
them back together to honor one another. Where
a man is weak, the woman is strong. Where the
woman is weak, the man is strong. United, the two
of them should have no weaknesses. They should
honor and reverence one another as heirs together of
the grace of life.
Then together husbands and wives are to submit
to God by honoring Him.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new
song, and his praise in the congregation of
saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him:
let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
Let them praise his name in the dance: let them
sing praises unto him with the timbrel and
harp. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people:
he will beautify the meek with salvation. Let
the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud
upon their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
and a two edged sword in their hand; to execute
vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments
upon the people; to bind their kings with chains,
and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon
them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints.
Praise ye the Lord (Psalm 149).
What is the sword in our hand that has two edges?
The Word of God. It is sharper than any two-edged
sword. Its purpose is to execute vengeance upon
the heathen.
In the New Testament, this two-edged sword is
part of the full armor of God we use in our spiritual
warfare (Ephesians 6:11-17). We must remember,
however, that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places” (verse 12).
We are to use the sword of the Spirit to execute
vengeance upon the forces of darkness and punishment
upon Satan, to bind the rulers of darkness with
chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute
against them the written judgment. This honor
belongs to all the saints of God. (See Psalm 149:7-9.)
The Church of Jesus Christ has been given the honor
of using Jesus’ Name to cast out the devil.
The Bible says that glory and honor are in the
Lord’s presence (1 Chronicles 16:27). When we speak
in the Name of Jesus, the devil has to do what we say,
because God Almighty is in us and works through us.
When we stand firm with that two-edged sword held
in our hand and coming out our mouth, we are in the
presence of God, which gives us glory and honor.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
God created the heavens and the earth. He owns
them and has dominion over them. I cannot give you
dominion over the heavens and the earth. I can tell
you about it, but I cannot give it to you. It is not mine
to give.
As chief executive officer of Kenneth Copeland
Ministries, I have authority, and I can delegate my
authority. Any time I delegate my authority to someone,
I am telling that person he is honorable. I want
that person to act in my best interests.
If I delegate to a dishonorable person, he will use
his authority to steal. If I bring in a dishonorable man,
honor him and put rank on his shoulders, he will steal
from me.
If he is an honorable man, however, he will
use that dominion and authority for the betterment
of the community. It is a straightforward,
simple principle.
Some men seek authority and dominion so they
will have the opportunity to steal. Government at all
levels has many such people. They are exposed in the
newspapers all the time.
Even a morally minded, honorable man who gets
in one of those high-class, high-ranking, high-pressure
jobs will be tempted to do things he swore he would
never do.
Real honor comes from the Spirit of the living
God. The determination and power to stand in
honor—to do what is right—even when it looks like
it will destroy you comes from Him. That kind of
strength comes from God, from knowing Him. That
kind of wisdom comes from His Word. The Bible
says very plainly that in the right hand of wisdom
is length of days, and in her left hand are riches and
honor (Proverbs 3:16).
To honor someone, you have to delegate authority
to that person. To honor your father and mother,
you have to delegate authority over your own life
to them. An honorable parent will exercise proper
authority and dominion over his children as they
submit to him—and a dishonorable parent will not.
An honorable boss will exercise proper authority
over his employees as they submit to him—and a
dishonorable boss will not.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
There is a documentary about an abused child
which I have seen twice. It is about a little girl who
was abused by her parents. A pastor and his wife
adopted her, not knowing the extent to which she had
been abused by her biological parents. She was just
a small child when the couple adopted her, but that
little girl wanted to kill the whole family. She was
asked about it:
“What were you trying to do to your brother when
your mother pulled you off him?”
“Kill him.”
It didn’t bother her at all to talk about it. The psychiatrist
asked, “You mean you wanted to kill him?”
“Yeah.”
“Were you hurting him?”
“Yeah.”
“What were you doing to him?”
“Well, I had my hands on his throat, beating his
head against the floor.”
“Was your brother screaming for you to stop?”
“Yeah.”
“But you wanted to kill him?”
“Yeah, I was gonna kill him.”
“Why did you quit?”
“I heard Mama.”
The girl showed no remorse whatsoever about
what she had done. She had tried at one time
or another to kill her whole family with some
butcher knives.
“Where did you get the knives?” she was asked.
“Out of the dishwasher.”
“What did you do with them?”
“I hid them.”
This was an eight-year-old little girl. In
school she had made it clear that she wanted to
kill everybody in her class.
I want to inject this note. It will show you Satan’s
nature and what man is like when he is separated
from the knowledge of God.
Satan is mean. He has death in him. Without a
bonding to parents, many children wind up in the
devil’s clutches. The streets are full of them today.
They don’t care whether anyone else lives or dies.
Why? Because their parents didn’t care whether they
lived or died. Their parents never bonded with them.
They never taught them anything. They just threw
them out with the garbage and let them grow up any
way they could. Today we have an entire generation of
godless people.
This little girl was placed in a home run by
Christian people who knew how to treat this kind of
child. There were some nine year olds in that same
place who had committed murder, and didn’t care.
They were dangerous.
These adults begin to bond with the children.
The youngsters couldn’t do anything without adult
supervision. They had to ask for every drink of water.
If they didn’t ask for it, they didn’t get it. They had
to get permission for everything they did. They were
watched 24 hours a day. They had alarms on their
doors. They couldn’t move at night without somebody
being there to watch them.
The counselors were constantly working with
these children, telling them over and over again, “God
loves you, and I love you.”
A year or two after the little girl was sent to this
place, she was interviewed again and asked the same
questions. This time she was holding a little white
Bible in her hand, and she was so proud of it.
“What were you trying to do when you were hurting
your brother?” she was asked.
“It was trying to kill him,” she answered. But this
time, she started weeping and couldn’t talk about it.
What had happened to make such a change in
her? She had been born again. She had become honorable
toward her brother, her parents and God.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
