As I was driving down the street one day, I saw a frightening sight. A car on the side of the road ahead of me was engulfed in flames. Dark smoke billowed up into the sky as fire charred nearly every inch of the car. Somehow the gasoline that was supposed to power the car had instead ignited it in a destructive inferno.

Power vs. Energy
This scene graphically displays what a powerful fuel gasoline is. The fire it produces can either simply produce a bunch of energy — flames and smoke, or it can be used to release power. The dictionary defines power as “energy that can do work.” Much of the energy around us may seem “powerful,” but unless it is actually accomplishing something it is not truly delivering power. For example, some estimates say that a lightning strike releases 15 million volts of electricity. That’s a lot of energy! But since we are unable to harness this energy to help us do work, it really produces no power.

This same principle holds true in the spiritual realm. When the Lord pours out the fire of His presence, it can either release great power — power to set free and overcome, or it merely produces wild fires which, though they may seem spectacular, can create great damage. For some people, God’s flames of freedom burn off the ropes of bondage, but others use their liberty as a license to sin. What makes the difference? Why does the presence of God bring power to one and cause wild fires for another? Why do some receive glorious freedom and others fall into folly?

Power Converters
What is it that converts energy into power? For the gasoline engine there is a combustion chamber of specific dimensions and design to contain, control, and channel the ignited gas to drive the piston. It is the same for nuclear power plants. Things are meticulously designed and painstakingly controlled so that the energy released from splitting the atom is productive and not destructive. In both the engine and the power plant the energy released becomes power — power with a purpose.

What is the “engine” that contains and channels freedom to make it powerful in our lives? … obedience! Freedom without obedience is like energy that doesn’t produce power. Our carnal minds tend to think of obedience as limiting, but freedom is not restricted by obedience, it is released. This is one of the paradoxes of God.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11). But it says of Jesus that He was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power (Acts 10:38). Why the difference? Jesus was the one man who lived a life of total obedience. “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). As He walked in obedience, the fire of God in His life was always used obediently, producing power.

The Importance Of Obedience
We need our minds to be renewed in regards to obedience so that we will have the mind of Christ and not our old, carnal thinking. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5–8). Under the Old Covenant obedience was the law. Under the New Covenant it is the path to experiencing abundant life.

One day last winter while I was driving north in Wisconsin, the Lord gave me a very powerful vision. The horizon started to become brighter and brighter. It looked like the brilliant light that streams from an early morning sunrise (only the sun was already up, and never rises in the north in Wisconsin). As the intensity of the light continued to increase, I realized that the Lord was giving me a vision of something very important. The light turned into a dazzling ball of fire rising on the horizon. As its blinding brilliance continued to ascend, I began to wonder what it was I was about to see: the ravished heart of the Bridegroom … the love of God … and then jumping up into full view in flaming letters was the word “OBEDIENCE.” It was altogether lovely. More beautiful than I can describe. I knew instantly how precious obedience is in the eyes of God.

The Freedom Of Obedience
The freedom of obedience has always been a hallmark of the children of God. The freedom of obedience was seen when the three Hebrew children who had refused to bow their knees to the golden image were protected in the fiery furnace and then set free. It was seen in the protection and elevation of Daniel, who would rather face a den of hungry lions than stop praying to the one true God. The freedom of obedience was Israel’s applying the Passover blood to their houses, which brought them out of bondage. In each of these cases we see that God has us do our part, and it usually involves obedience — often in ways that seem ridiculous to our natural minds.

Obedience is a very important key to the Christian walk — not legalism — obedience. Oswald Chambers once said that, “The spirit of obedience gives more joy to God than anything else on earth.” The reason obedience brings God such joy is that those walking in obedience are pleasing to Him, for they are walking out their faith. This is what we have been called to: a walk of faith. Obedience is simply faith in action. If faith is never acted upon and worked out, is it really faith? The book of James says otherwise.

Liberty To Obey
Under the covenant of grace God has made with us as believers, there is great liberty — even liberty to be sinfully disobedient! Although we have freedom to be disobedient, there is no freedom in being disobedient. This is one of Satan’s great snares. He comes to us and entices us to be disobedient under the guise of liberty. “You’re not under the bondage of legalism. You’re free to exercise your will!” And so we gullibly disobey the Lord, and as we do we think “I really do have freedom.” But this is not liberty, it is license. In the end it doesn’t bring freedom but captivity.

King Saul is an example of one who fell into this trap. He missed the wonderful freedom of obedience and found himself ensnared by self-determination, delusion, and rebellion.

The prophet Samuel was sent to Saul by God to tell him to attack and destroy the Amalekites. “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey’” (1 Samuel 15:1–3). God left no room for mercy or covetousness. Saul was ordered to “utterly destroy all,” to “not spare them.” All their animals were also listed for destruction.

Saul did gather Israel and attack the Amalekites, but he and the people were unwilling to completely destroy them. Everything despised and worthless they utterly destroyed, but they spared the king and the best of cattle.

After setting up a monument in honor of his great victory, Saul saw Samuel the next day and reports, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord” (1 Samuel 15:13). I do not believe Saul was lying to the prophet here … he actually believed he had been obedient. Saul was under the delusion that he and Israel had obeyed the Lord’s command. He felt their actions were correct, and that they had been obedient.

More Than Feelings
This is the first lesson we can learn from Saul’s disobedience. Obedience has nothing to do with feelings. Unfortunately, for so many believers their spiritual walk is not obedience to God, but obedience to their feelings. Their theme song should be “Feelings … nothing more than feelings …” But as Oswald Chambers put it, “Right feeling is produced by obedience, never vice versa.” Obedience brings right feelings, not the other way around.

We don’t obey what we feel like obeying, or obey only when we feel like it. How could an army function if the soldiers only obeyed orders when they felt like obeying? “I obeyed your order, Sir. I just felt that delivering pizza to the front-lines was more important than delivering ammunition.” Who would want a wife who only obeys her marriage covenant when she feels like it? “It wasn’t adultery … I just didn’t feel like I was married today!”

Obedience is an action, not a reaction. It is an exercise of our wills. For example, we do not forgive only when we feel like it. We forgive when we are asked to forgive by others, or led to forgive by God. We don’t have to feel like forgiving someone to forgive them. They probably didn’t hurt you because they felt like it, and you don’t have to feel like it to forgive them. This is not hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not going against your feelings (this happens often in the walk of faith); hypocrisy is going against what you say you believe. If you believe in forgiveness, exercise your will in obedience to God.

Defending Disobedience
It was quite obvious to Samuel that Saul had not been obedient. He replied back to Saul, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” (1 Samuel 15:14). When there are a few thousand cattle behind you, it is pretty hard to hide your disobedience from a prophet. Saul began to rationalize why they brought back the cattle. We “have spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed” (1 Samuel 15:15). In essence, Saul was saying “We knew God’s plan, but in order to bless God, we decided to disobey Him. Through our disobedience we will be able to make sacrifices to God and honor Him.”

This shows us two important points. The first is how quickly we begin to justify our actions. The natural mind is quick to exonerate itself, but slow to repent. Secondly, in seeking to appease his disobedience through sacrifice, Saul reveals his lack of understanding the importance of obedience in the eyes of God. Samuel answered Saul’s rationalization in 1 Samuel 15:22–23, “Has 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 heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” In the Old Testament over and over again the Lord required sacrifices of His people … yet God states clearly here that obedience is greater than sacrifice.

With every step of self-defense, we can see Saul becoming more bound up. There is no freedom for those who choose disobedience and resist repentance. Saul next tries the defense of partial obedience. “I have brought back the king, but I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.” This statement doesn’t even make sense. How can you totally and completely destroy something you’ve brought with you? Partial obedience is just another name for disobedience. Partial obedience is like being “kind-of-pregnant.” Certain things are all or nothing, black or white. Obedience is one of these things. It is “yes” or “no,” “obey Me” or “deny Me,” there is no middle ground.

Finally, Saul admits that he has been disobedient and sinned. But even in this he uses the oldest excuse in the Book. “But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen … I have sinned … because I feared the people and obeyed their voice” (1 Samuel 15:21–24). Even in his confession he brings in the “blame game.” “The people You put me in charge of, they took the cattle, and I sinned.” Doesn’t this have the similar ring to Adam in the garden of Eden? “The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Genesis 3:12). No one can be obedient for you, and no one can disobey for you. Obedience is a decision we personally make for ourselves.

We can also see in these words of Saul the power of the fear of man. “I have sinned … because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” Let us never lose the freedom of obedience by giving in to the fear of man. Remember, “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5:29).

How often do we, like Saul, fall short of the mark because we fail to walk in the beautiful freedom of obedience? Saul lost so much in his life because he had not made God Lord of his life. He was trying to serve God on his own terms, instead of pleasing him through a walk of simple obedience. Jesus is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all. With God it’s all or nothing. There is a beautiful freedom for believers as we walk with the Lord in the simplicity of obedience — an obedience that will release power and freedom into the lives of those willing to obey.