The Three Keys to Power Part 5: The Third Key (Obedience)

The Three Keys to Power Part 5

The Third Key (Obedience)

            We are now drawing, at last, to our conclusion.  The last of the Three Keys to Power with God, the actions we can take to best influence God for miracles and answers to prayers in our lives, is obedience.  This key is the most powerful of all keys because it is ultimately what God wants from all humans.  As you read the Bible you will see one theme played out over and over again.  We humans are rebellious, and all God really wants from us is to stop being rebellious and to obey.

            And isn’t that what any parent truly wants from their children?  Think about it, you who have children at home that are being rebellious.  What do you want most from that rebellious child?  Don’t you just want them to stop misbehaving and to just start listening to you and doing what you say?  Even if they gave you money, or whatever present they could give you, if they continue to disobey you, are you happy with them?  Wouldn’t you rather that the child keep those gifts and just obey you?

            That’s all God really wants from us, too.  So all the praying and faith and sacrificing is practically meaningless to God if a person is directly disobeying God.  If you are consciously living in sin, meaning that you know what you are doing is wrong but you do it anyway because you just don’t want to change, it is no wonder that God does not grant you authority to command miracles and they come to pass.  It is no wonder that your prayers are delayed.  It is no wonder that your life continues to fall apart and things don’t get better.  The wages of sin is death.  If you continue on sinning then you can expect more and more trouble to come your way.

            This is not saying that all trouble comes from sin.  Sometimes we suffer because of sin and sometimes we suffer because we simply live in a fallen world.  Things aren’t perfect here.  Until the world is remade to perfection again, we will always suffer.  However, the more we sin the more trouble there will be.  It is a simple fact of life.

            Think of it in terms of any job.  Does a person receive a promotion when they are constantly slacking on the job and proving that they are not responsible?  No.  You receive a promotion by obeying the boss and doing what you can to prove you are responsible and able to handle what the boss has given you.  At least, that’s the way it’s supposed to work anyway. 

            In the same way, if you want power with God, you want to influence Him so that He gives you more authority and power in your life, so that miracles happen in your life, DO more for God.  Prove that you are responsible enough to handle the miracle that you want God to give you.  Show your dedication and devotion to Him.  Pray and talk to Him and meditate, or think upon, God and His ways.  When you pray and meditate then God can direct you and speak to you in return.  Meditation is allowing God to talk back while prayer is talking to God.  Read scriptures, for through the Bible God also talks to you.  Listen to Christian music and worship God regularly.  Go to church!  The more you do these things, the more you show God that you can handle what He might give you in a responsible way.

            This is not to say that you can ONLY receive miracles and blessings if you are going to church and reading your Bible and praying and so forth.  Again, that would be like putting God in a box; the God Vending Machine concept again.  God is abundant in mercy, and He will often answer your prayers even if you don’t pray simply because He loves you.  This is just as a parent who sees their child struggling might secretly help their child to succeed simply because they don’t want to see them struggle any longer.

            However, this is not the point.  The point is that if you want to receive more authority and power, if you want to influence God more, being obedient is one of the single greatest keys to achieving this goal.  This is why 1 Samuel 15:22 states, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord?  To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

            In this passage, God commanded Saul, King of Israel, to attack the Amalekites and to destroy them and all that belongs to them.  They were to, as horrible as it sounds, wipe out men, women, children, infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.  EVERYTHING was to die.

            Let me first say that there was a good reason why God wanted to have them all wiped out.  God never wipes out ANYTHING without good reason.  These Amalekites were terrible people.  Many of the Laws that we find in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy were written by Moses because God did not want His people living like the Amalekites.  Therefore, child sacrifice, all manner of lewd sexual acts, violence, thievery, etc. were all commonplace amongst these people.

            Why have the Israelites wipe out even the women and children?  It is an unfortunate thing, but allowing even a single child to survive would likely bring trouble upon the Israelites in the future, and sin as well.  Also, it was actually an act of mercy from God that even the children would be killed.

            Think of it from a different perspective.  Think of it from the perspective of the children of the Amalekites.  You are five years old and you just watched your parents killed by the invading Israelites.  Are you going to have a good childhood?  Are you going to grow up liking the Israelites?  No.  You will grow up hating your conquerors and you will desire to rebel against them.  Even if loving Israelite parents raised you, once you learned that they were the people who slaughtered your parents, how would you feel?  The hurt, the betrayal…it would lead you to hate Israel and seek to destroy them.

            So God views this situation from a God perspective.  He is the king of life and all humanity.  He has the right to determine who lives and who dies.  He sees that by letting the children live they will turn into miserable and hateful people.  Therefore, God orders their deaths as well so that they remain as innocent children.  Their souls are not damned to Hell because they do not understand right and wrong.  They are like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, not truly knowing good or evil but being innocent of sin. 

            So ordering their deaths was a great pain and tragedy to God, but it was a necessity to ensure that the least amount of evil would be the result of the action.  To avoid having an entire generation of vengeful Amalekites, God wanted them all wiped out.

            Why the cattle and sheep and all of their possessions?  When you read what the people of these lands were doing you would see that they were even being sinful and lewd with animals!  All of it was despicable to God.  He didn’t want the Israelites to even have ANYTHING to do with the possessions of the Amalekites. 

            Besides this, God obviously did not want the Israelites to look like just a bunch of rogue bandits striving to wipe the people out just to gain possessions.  He wanted the Israelites to show the other nations that the destruction of the Amalekites was because of their sin.  This is evident by 1 Samuel 15:18 when it says, “Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.  Why did you not obey the Lord?  Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

            This passage paints the picture of bandits or pirates who simply attack someone to kill them and rob them of their possessions.  This was NEVER God’s intent when He wanted the Israelites to attack, and it angered God that His people now looked like marauders to the other neighboring countries.  King Saul disgraced God and was a horrible representative of God.  That is why He rejected Saul.  That is why He was so angry.

            And that is why He said that “obedience is better than sacrifice.”  He wanted His people to fully understand that if you want to please God, sacrifice is good, but obedience is better.  If you sacrifice to God, but you are not obeying Him, your sacrifice is for nothing and may even be an abomination to God.  First obey.  Then sacrifice.  That is how it should be.

            And Saul didn’t care about what God thought about him.  He only cared about what the people thought about him.  He wanted his people to think he was a great guy by allowing them to plunder the Amalekites.  He also wanted to show religious piety to the people, so that he would look like such a great, holy hero.  He didn’t give the sacrifice because he was genuinely wanting to please God.  This is evident because the Bible points out that Saul was more concerned about what the people thought, because Saul immediately tried to excuse his behavior, and because he pointed out his “holy” act to Samuel as if he was bragging about it to Samuel.  His heart was not towards God.  If it was, he would have obeyed.

            This is why God made an example of Saul for all to see; not just Israel but even the neighboring nations.  God wanted everyone to see that Saul was NOT his representative.  He was NOT a man of God.  That is also why God raised up David, a man after God’s own heart.  He wanted David to show the world what a true representative of God was.  He wanted Saul to be the epitome of what God did NOT want, and David to be the epitome of what God DID want.

            David, you see, was not perfect.  His greatest sin was murder and to steal a man’s wife.  However, if you look at David’s story, what you see is that when David sinned, he repented.  He fell on his face before the Lord when he realized his sin and he pleaded with God to forgive him.  Saul rejected correction.  He excused his own behavior and rejected Samuel’s word from God.  He thought he was right even when confronted by God’s holy prophet.  Even when Samuel told him to his face that he had done wrong, Saul refused to say to God, “Please forgive me!  Do not take your presence away from me!  Please, Lord!  I am a sinner!  Take this curse away from me!  I will not misrepresent you again.”

            But David…when Nathan the prophet showed him his sin, David tore his clothes and put dirt and ash on himself and pleaded before God to spare the life of the child he had conceived with Bathsheba.  He pleaded and fasted and had faith that God would do what is good and right, even if what God decided was to have the baby die.  Nevertheless, he showed his heart to God, that God’s love for David was more important to him than his own life.  David even caused all of his servants to fear for his life during his fast, because David was so distraught by what he had done.

            THAT proved more than anything that David was a good representative of God.  God doesn’t ever expect humans to be perfect, but when we mess up we are to take ownership of our sins and we are to do whatever it takes to make amends for our mistakes.  David showed ALL of his people, all of the nation of Israel, and all of the surrounding kingdoms, that when you mess up, even if you are a king, you bow before the Lord and you ask Him to forgive you.  Even if you still wind up receiving the full punishment for your crimes, you accept it and you praise God for it, for you deserved what you received.

            So if you want to be used by God, to be His representative, to have authority and power in His Kingdom, to command and have miracles happen, to lead His people, then obedience should be your primary focus.  And when you are disobedient, you should be sensitive to your disobedience so that when you are disobedient, you come before God and take ownership of it.  If you have wronged someone in your life, go to them and take ownership for it.  Confess your sin to them and ask for their forgiveness.  Admit you were wrong, and accept whatever punishment they give you.  Real men and women of God take responsibility for their actions and admit their faults one to another.

            The Bible says, in more than one place, that if we love Jesus, we will obey His commandments (John 14:15).

            So are you looking to please God?  Are you looking for a miracle today?  Do you desire to have authority in the Kingdom of God to be able to do miraculous healings, see visions, speak prophecies, teach others about scripture, see your prayers answered on a more regular basis instead of feeling like your prayers are falling on deaf ears?...If any of these things are you, then maybe you should try practicing the Keys to Power.  Speak positively, think positively and act positively.  Have faith in what God commands you to do and have faith that even in the darkest of circumstances God will help you and see you through it.  Sacrifice with purpose and meaning, offering up something in your life that you value greatly that is within the confines of God’s Law.  Finally, be always obedient unto the Lord.  Love Him and obey His commands, seeking to obey more and more and cut out the garbage in your life more and more.  THIS is truly how you please God.  THIS is truly how you can influence Him to give you more power and authority in your life, and how you might begin to start seeing your prayers answered more and more often.