Deuteronomy 5:16
KJV—Honour thy father and thy mother, as
the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that
thy days may be prolonged, and that it may
go well with thee….

AMP—Honor your father and your mother,
as the Lord your God commanded you, that
your days may be prolonged and that it may
go well with you….

Moffatt—Honour your father and your
mother, as the Eternal your God has ordered
you, that you may have a long life and that all
may go well with you….

NIV—Honor your father and your mother, as
the Lord your God has commanded you, so
that you may live long and that it may go well
with you….

Psalm 33:18-19
KJV—The eye of the Lord is upon them that
fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
to deliver their soul from death, and to keep
them alive in famine.

AMP—The Lord’s eye is upon those who fear
Him [who revere and worship Him with awe],
who wait for Him and hope in His mercy and
loving-kindness, to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.

Moffatt—The Eternal’s eye rests on his
worshippers, who rest their hopes upon his
kindness, that he may rescue them from death,
and during famine-days keep them alive.

NIV—The eyes of the Lord are on those
who fear him, on those whose hope is in his
unfailing love, to deliver them from death and
keep them alive in famine.

Psalm 56:12-13
KJV—O God…thou hast delivered my soul
from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from
falling, that I may walk before God in the light
of the living?

AMP—O God…You have delivered my life
from death, yes, and my feet from falling, that
I may walk before God in the light of life and
of the living.

Moffatt—O God…thou hast saved my life from
death, my feet from stumbling, that I might live,
ever mindful of God, in the sunshine of life.

NIV—O God…you have delivered me from
death and my feet from stumbling, that I may
walk before God in the light of life.

Psalm 66:8-9
KJV—O bless our God, ye people, and make
the voice of his praise to be heard: Which
holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our
feet to be moved.

AMP—Bless our God, O peoples, give Him
grateful thanks and make the voice of His
praise to be heard, Who put and kept us
among the living, and has not allowed our feet
to slip.

Moffatt—Bless our God, O ye nations, sound
his praise aloud, who keeps us safe in life, and
never lets us come to grief.

NIV—Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound
of his praise be heard; he has preserved our
lives and kept our feet from slipping.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Psalm 37:39
KJV—The salvation of the righteous is of
the Lord: he is their strength in the time of
trouble.

AMP—The salvation of the [consistently]
righteous is of the Lord; He is their Refuge
and secure Stronghold in the time of trouble.

NIV—The salvation of the righteous comes
from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time
of trouble.

TLB—The Lord saves the godly! He is their
salvation and their refuge when trouble comes.

Psalm 50:15
KJV—Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will
deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
AMP—Call on Me in the day of trouble; I
will deliver you, and you shall honor and
glorify Me.

Moffatt—Call to me in your hour of need, then
I will rescue you, and you shall honour me.

NIV—Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will
deliver you, and you will honor me.

Psalm 91:15
KJV—He shall call upon me, and I will answer
him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver
him, and honour him.

AMP—He shall call upon Me, and I will answer
him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver
him and honor him.

NIV—He will call upon me, and I will answer
him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver
him and honor him.

TLB—When he calls on me I will answer; I will
be with him in trouble, and rescue him and
honor him.

Psalm 107:6-7
KJV—They cried unto the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them out of their distresses.
And he led them forth by the right way, that
they might go to a city of habitation.

AMP—They cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and He delivered them out of their distresses.
He led them forth by the straight and right
way, that they might go to a city where they
could establish their homes.

Moffatt—They cried to the Eternal in their
need, to save them from their evil plight, and
straight he led them to a settled town.

NIV—They cried out to the Lord in their
trouble, and he delivered them from their
distress. He led them by a straight way to a
city where they could settle.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

I will be the first to admit that I was not always
this devoted and committed.

Back in the late ’50s I was running from the
Church. I planned never to attend one again. Then,
just to please my father, I attended a meeting of the
Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship. What a joy it
was to hear testimonies of men who affirmed that
God was in their businesses. Before that time, we
never heard such men stand up and talk about God.
If they prayed, they were hiding in their prayer closet
somewhere so no one would know about it. None
of them ever wanted to say anything about God out
in the open.

This event was like a breath of fresh, clean air. It
caught my attention. A group of Christian businessmen
got my attention that night. My dad was part of
the chapter in Fort Worth, Texas. One of the first men
I heard speak was Lester Sumrall. The minute I heard
him I knew I was in the presence of a real man a
man of God.

When I walked into that room, those men started
hugging me. I had never seen anything like it! I was
being treated like I was somebody. That got my attention.
The Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship had
gotten the attention of businessmen all over the world
who woke up to the importance of honor and integrity
in business and dealing with others because of
the organizations influence in their own lives.

At this point in my life I had spent a lot of time in
the entertainment business. I would much rather have
been John Wayne than Kenneth Copeland. I also liked
to lie. When someone asked me a question, I would lie
just to see if I could get them to believe it. I said ugly
things, too, just to see people cringe. It was terrible.

My wife said to me one time: “I’m never going out
in public with you again as long as I live. You’ve got
the nastiest mouth I’ve ever heard.” And she was right.
I was foulmouthed, and I lied habitually. It was a
game I played. I knew it was wrong, but there was a
spirit dogging me. Then I came to the Lord.

The very first thing God did was clean up my
speech. He took the profanity and the lying out of my
mouth the night I got saved. That was a night I will
never forget.

The devil tried to tell me, Oh man, you’re just on
some kind of emotional kick.

I was and I’m still on one! I knew my experience
with the Lord was real because something had
changed within me. There was peace on the inside of
me, and I had no desire to lie or curse.

What was working in me? God’s honor.
All of a sudden I had a desire to be honorable. I
didn’t want to lie or be foulmouthed. Today, I have a
new desire a new spirit within me.

As you develop the honor of God in your life, it
begins to work in your heart, in your marriage, in
your business, in your career. The hard decisions
are already made once you decide to live and walk by
faith a life walk. You do your part, God does His part.
The devil does his part and runs!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

There is a man I want to tell you about. His story
will help you see just how important it is to have
honor in business—important in ways you may not
have imagined.

This fellow was about 20 years old and had a
good job. He came from a family that had very little
money. He was the youngest child, and there was a
lot of difficulty in his household. He worked his regular
job all day, and at night fixed cars to sell. Gradually, he
began making money.

He finally saved enough so he could buy a
better type of car to restore and sell. He began to
make a bit more money. He was good at his work,
a gifted businessman.

His folks attended a Baptist church in Fort Worth.
There was a meeting at church, and he decided to
go. At the end of the service when the invitation was
given, the conviction of the Holy Ghost came on him
as he stood there. He had a tight grip on the seat in
front of him, trying to resist responding to the
wooing of the Lord.

The Spirit of God was all over him, and he was
trying to keep from going forward and receiving Jesus
as his Savior and Lord. A man in the church came
over, put his arm around the young man and told him
he loved him. He encouraged him to go forward. In
fact, that man walked with him down the aisle.

Before that week was up, the same man who had
led him to the altar to accept Jesus beat him out of
all of his profit on a car. It wasn’t a mistake. He just
skinned that young man in a deal—on purpose. The
older man should have known better. Any Christian
ought to know that you don’t get a man saved
on Saturday night, then cheat him on Tuesday.

That’s wrong.

The young man had a temper. He was angry, so
he rebelled against the Lord. He said he never would
go back to church again. And he didn’t.

He became very successful in the car business,
and eventually had a business that was nationwide.
Then he went into the airplane business, and I started
flying for him. He and I became close friends.

My mother and father lived just two doors down
from him. He liked my parents and would sometimes
eat with us. Mama would feed him and preach to him
and just love him. She would say, “I’m telling you right
now, I’m going to pray you into the kingdom of God.”
He would just smile.

She prayed for him just as she prayed for me—all
the time. She treated him as if he were her own son,
and he just ate it up. But she could not get him inside
the church door. Why? Because of a dishonorable
Christian businessman.

Years later, after I had entered the ministry I had
the opportunity to pray with him. He stayed with it
for a few days, then went right back to the way he had
been. Afterward, he stayed on my mind and heart a
lot. I was praying about his situation once while I was
in a meeting and I thought to myself, I’m going to call
him as soon as I get back to town.

When I got home and called him, a lady
answered. When I asked if I could speak to him, she
said, “He died day before yesterday.”
You can imagine how I felt. I thought, I missed him.
Although I rolled the grief and pain over on the Lord,
something in my spirit would not let it end that way.

I went to the funeral, and the man’s son asked me
to say a few words about his father. So I did. I told the
people exactly what had happened in this man’s life,
what had caused him to be the way he was.

After the funeral when we were gathered at the
memorial park, a woman walked up to me and said,
“Kenneth, I need to tell you something.” I want you
to see God’s faithfulness and honor from what she
told me.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not

be judged (1 Corinthians 11:31).

Honor demands that we judge ourselves. Many in

the Body of Christ are not doing this. Many Christians

are waiting for someone else to do the judging. They

live with the attitude, “When I get caught, I’ll repent!”

There comes a time when each of us needs to

judge himself. This scripture says if we will judge

ourselves, judgment will not come on us.

Gloria and I are married in the three basic worlds

of existence: spirit, soul and body. We are working at

and learning about our threefold marriage. She and

I are a solid front, especially before our children. Our

children have always known that if they come against

one of us, they will have to deal with both of us.

We have always stood firm before our children. If

I told them, “I’m going to spank you if you do that

one more time,” and they did it one more time, then

the spanking began. Gloria has always supported

my decisions and I have supported hers. We have

never lied to our children. It is dishonorable to lie to a

child—to tell him you are going to do something and

then not do it.

It is also dishonorable to spank a child for every

little thing he does wrong. Punishment should be

suited to the offense.

When I was growing up, a spanking was a major

event in our house, a serious incident. We would carry

on and on about it. It was a big deal. My father had to

travel in his work and when he came home and took

charge of the situation, it was a serious occasion. But

it was not done dishonorably. We would talk about

what I had done and why I was being punished. We

would sit down and discuss the wrongdoing and the

consequences, then I got what was coming.

Our son John came in one day and asked his mother,

“Mama, do they send five-year-old boys to jail?”

When your child asks a question like that, you

know immediately something is wrong. It turned

out that he had set the grass on fire. An entire vacant

lot was burned. Fire trucks and flashing lights were

everywhere. It scared the daylights out of him! He

was worried about what was going to happen

when I got home.

“Do we have to tell Daddy?” he wanted to know.

“Yes,” his mother assured him, “we have to tell

your daddy.”

I think he would rather have gone to jail.

When I got home Gloria said, “John has something

to tell you.” He came in and told me what he

had done. I guess he figured I was going to unload on

him right there, just bend him out of shape. Instead

we sat down and had a family discussion.

I said, “John, I was present one time when they

dragged two little charred bodies out of an old garage

and put them in body bags. That’s all those little boys’

daddy had left. I want you to know right now that I’m

not going to go through life without you. I’m not willing.

And you won’t ever forget this.”

We talked and talked and talked. Then I did

several things to reinforce the point I was trying to

make—that’s been over 20 years ago and he hasn’t

forgotten it yet!

The Bible does not say spare the rod and spoil the

child. This is the secular interpretation of Proverbs

13:24 which actually says, “He that spareth his rod

hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth

him betimes.”

The rod is not just a stick. It is any type of honorable

correction. The Bible also says, “Withhold not correction

from the child: for if thou beatest [spank, not

abuse] him with the rod, he shall not die” (Proverbs

23:13). It is an honorable thing to teach our children

and to discipline them according to the Word of God.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries