And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being King. I Samuel 15:22-23 I know, I know, in our world obedience is an “old fashioned” way of thinking! We are the “we can do it ourselves” generation! We don’t need anyone to help us we can pull ourselves up by our own boot straps… You can give all your time, money, effort and talents, but according to these verses it will not do you any good if you are not obedient to God and His word. I looked up the word obedience in the dictionary, and this is what I found, it means, 1. the act of obeying; dutiful or submissive behavior with respect to another person 2. the trait of being willing to obey Sometimes, well, many times obedience takes work, it is very hard to obey, especially when it goes against our way of thinking, but we just need to keep practicing it until it becomes your nature, until it becomes a trait, a trait is something that is built into your character, it distinguishes you from others! We must also obey our pastor and those that have the rule over you, but if they are leading you astray by not teaching the Word you must search it out yourself! Them not teaching the Word doesn’t give us the right to not obey God, we still have His word to read and study ourselves! In the Christian walk there is much sacrifice to be made, and when it is coupled with obedience that is where the power comes from! We were given power when we received the Holy Ghost, but we must obey God and His word to use this power. When a road is being built through the mountains dynamite must be used. A man lights the fuse and that dynamite has the power to blow through that hard rock of that mountain, the same goes in the spirit, the Holy Ghost is our dynamite, but the fuse cannot be lit without obedience! Think about this, in Matthew 17:20 Jesus talked about our faith, if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can tell the mountain in our way to move out of the way! I’m going to take it a step further; with obedience as our “fuse” we have the power through the “dynamite” of the Holy Ghost to move any obstacle out of our way…wow! Another thing that struck me concerning obedience, in Matthew 7: 21-23 Jesus talked about how many people will come to Him in the last day telling Him they did many wonderful works in His name, but Jesus sent them away, because He never knew them…you know why? It was because of disobedience, they wanted the power, but weren’t willing to obey His word. A marriage cannot survive if we never listen to each other, and yes we even have to obey what our husbands say too, ladies! (I know pretty “old fashioned” but oh so needful in the world we live in!) We can never survive as Christians either without listening to and obeying His voice, His word! In verse 23 of I Samuel 15, it talked about the sin of rebellion, to rebel is to show defiance against something, to try to gain control over your authority….that stunned me when I saw that, there have been times in my life when I was in a state of rebellion, and after seeing what that word really means I will daily pray for my heart and mind never to be in that state again! When we are rebellious against our authority we are actually trying to be in control of it! The meaning of stubbornness was even more stinging to me, it means to be hard, tough or stiff as stone or wood; difficult to work or shape! We should strive to never be this way in God’s hands! We must be pliable; we must be daily changed by His spirit and word. The sins of rebellion, stubbornness and disobedience will cost this generation more than they will be able to pay, please my dear brothers and sisters don’t let yourselves be counted in those that want the power, but not the obedience, because obedience truly is better than sacrifice every time!