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In our study of God’s attributes or characteristics we have established that He is the Eternal, Invisible Spirit Who created everything. That He is the Creator implies many other attributes, among them that He is omnipotent. There are three attributes of God that begin with the prefix “omni- ”—omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. The prefix “omni” is from Latin, meaning “all.” That God is omnipotent, therefore, means He is all-powerful; omniscient (“science” means knowledge) means all-knowing; and omnipresent means all- or everywhere-present. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere-present, which is represented in theological language as omnipotent, , omniscient, and omnipresent. With one exception, these words themselves do not appear in Scripture; but the characteristics of God they are meant to convey are. The single exception is our text, Revelation 19:6, in the King James Version, where “omnipotent” represents the Greek word pantokrator, literally, “all-ruler” or “all mighty.” In fact, this is the only place in the King James version it is rendered “omnipotent.” In the other nine occurrences of it in the New Testament (in 2 Corinthians 6:18 and eight other times in Revelation) it is always rendered “Almighty.”

The fact that God is the Almighty, having all power, is one of His most basic characteristics, one of the most common and fundamental conceptions we have of Him. The rabbis often used “the Power” as a substitute for the name “God.” Jesus Himself employed this expression in his answer to the high priest at His “trial”:

...And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. (KJV)

That power is a prominent attribute of God is evident in several names of God in Scripture. The term “the Almighty,” standing alone without any other word or noun, is used to identify God 42 times in the Old Testament. It is the English representation of the Hebrew word Shaddai. In addition to these 42 times it occurs by itself to refer to God, six more times it is used with El, the Semitic generic term for God, and is thus translated “Almighty God.” The etymology (or origin) and thus the meaning of Shaddai is disputed, but strong evidence that it means “almighty” is that this is the meaning assigned to it by the Jewish scholars who translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek two centuries before Christ. They used the Greek word pantokrator for shaddai, the same word used in Revelation that is translated “omnipotent” and “almighty.” In addition, the Latin version of the Scriptures, the second oldest translation of the Bible next to the Greek OT (called the Septuagint), uses the word omnipotens (omnipotent) for shaddai.

Evidently the etymology of the word “El” itself suggests “power” as well:

This basic word for deity is found in various forms throughout the ancient Semitic [Near Eastern] languages. Although various opinions are held regarding its etymology, it probably derives from a root meaning “power” or “preeminence.” Occasional adjectival use of the word to denote might or majesty (e.g., “cedars of ‘El”=mighty cedars [Ps. 80:10], “mountains of ‘El”=majestic mountains [Ps. 36:6], “in the ‘El of one’s hand”=within one’s power [Gen. 31:29; Dt. 28:32; Mic. 2:1]) supports this derivation. (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, G.W. Bromiley, Gen. Ed.; Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, MI; Vol. 2, p. 505)

Another name for God appearing many more times than El Shaddai, “Almighty God,” is “The Lord of Hosts,” the English representation (KJV) of the Hebrew word sebaot (or, sabaoth) used with either Yahweh (Jehovah) or Elohim (the plural of ‘El). This occurs some 285 times in the Old Testament and is always translated “the Lord Almighty” or “the Lord God Almighty” in the New International Version. The translators of the Septuagint often used the Greek word pantokrator for -the Hebrew sebaot also. Sebaot means “armies” or “hosts;” therefore, the meaning is, evidently, that God is the Supreme King, Whose power, like that of earthly monarchs, is indicated by the vastness of His armies. He is the Lord of hosts or the Lord Almighty.

Another word used as a title for God, though it appears only six times, also denotes power. The Hebrew word abir is used with “Jacob” or “Israel” for “the Mighty One of Jacob (or Israel).”

These names of God denoting power are, as other names of God, especially significant to our study of His attributes. Parents today name their children after a relative or someone they admire or because they like the sound of the name, not on the basis of its meaning. But names in the Bible always have meaning, as it was believed in Bible lands and times that the name of a person stood for the person in a most profound way. The names by which God reveals Himself or the names by which He is called in Scripture, therefore, are particularly important to an understanding of His attributes, His nature, and His character.

Although, as we have said, the word “omnipotent” occurs only once (in the KJV), the concept of God having all or unlimited power is expressed in various ways in a number of texts in both the Old and New Testaments. In Genesis 18 in a visit with Abraham in connection with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord repeated the promise He had made earlier that through Abraham’s descendants all nations would be blessed. Abraham and Sarah had been unable to have children and Abraham had hoped that the fulfillment of God’s promise would be through Ishmael, his son through Sarah’s handmaid Hagar. But at this time God was more specific—His promise would be fulfilled through the birth of a son in Abraham and Sarah’s old age.

Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.” (Genesis 18:11-14, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version [NIV] unless otherwise indicated.)

The Lord asks, “Is anything too hard for Me?” The obviously implied meaning is that there is not. Seemingly impossible things such as a barren woman conceiving and giving birth at 90 years of age, far past the natural age for childbearing, are not too hard for Him. Nothing is too hard for the Lord, which is another way of saying that He can do anything or that He is omnipotent.

Job says after his face to face encounter with God in the whirlwind: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.”(Job 42:2)

Isaiah records the Lord as saying of Himself,

“When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the sky with darkness [storm clouds] and make sackcloth its covering.” (Isaiah 50:2,3)

The King James Version reads, “Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?” Again, a rhetorical question having an obvious answer: “No, my power is not limited.” His hand or arm not being “shortened” means His power is not limited in measure. God cites His power over nature and the sea as evidence of His omnipotence. He has the power to do what needs to be done to rescue Israel no matter who or what may stand in the way.

When the children of Israel complained of having no meat but only manna to eat in the desert, God told Moses to tell them that starting the next day they would have meat to eat for a whole month. When Moses staggered at this, the Lord used the same expression as in Isaiah:

The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? You will now see whether or notwhat I say will come true for you.” (Numbers 11:23)

In Jeremiah 32:17 we read,

“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”

And in verse 27 God again puts it in the form of a rhetorical question:

“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”

Turning to the New Testament, we find God’s omnipotence expressed in the statement that with Him, “all things are possible”:

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this [a rich man being saved] is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26; also Mark 10:27 and Luke 18:27)

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:35,36)

Then, again, God’s omnipotence is implied in Jesus’ statements that “Everything is possible for him who believes”(Mark 9:23) and “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will remove. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). All things are possible to him who has faith, not because faith is omnipotent but because God is, and true faith is faith in Him.

As we have said before, that God is omnipotent is implied from creation. If God created everything, He must have all power. A number of texts, including Jeremiah 32:17, 27 above, link His power with creation:

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

Regarding the use of “eternal” to describe God’s power in this verse, Stephen Charnock, in his classic 17th Century work on the attributes, writes:

The apostle calls it “an eternal power”....If it be eternal, it must be infinite, and hath neitherbeginning nor end; what is eternal hath no bounds. If it be eternal, and not limited by time, it must be infinite, and not to be restrained by any finite object: his power never begun to be, nor ever ceaseth to be; it cannot languish [lose intensity]; men are fain to unbend themselves, and must have some time to recruit [restore in strength] their tired spirits: but the power of God is perpetually vigorous, without any interrupting qualm (Isa. 40:28): “Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?” That might which suffered no diminution from eternity, but hatched so great a world by brooding upon nothing, will not suffer any dimness or decrease to eternity. (The Existence and Attributes of God, Stephen Charnock; Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, MI; 1979 reprint, Vol. 2, p.26).

The prophet Jeremiah writes:

 

No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power....But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. (Jeremiah 10:6,12)

"He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.” (Jeremiah 51:15)

God’s omnipotence may be seen in creation (1) by the fact that He created all matter andenergy out of nothing, (2) in the magnitude and motion of the heavenly bodies, and (3) in the vastness of the universe.

We now understand that matter and energy are related, that they are really only different forms of the same thing. The power or force that holds the atom together may, under special conditions, be released as energy, and the results are spectacular. We can calculate the force or energy needed to move a certain amount of matter a certain distance, but what of the power needed to bring all matter and energy into being out of nothing, as God did in creation? There is no way to estimate or calculate it; it is omnipotence.

Stephen Charnock writes:

This creation of things from nothing speaks an infinite power. The distance between nothing andbeing hath been alway counted so great, that nothing but an Infinite Power can make such distances meet together, either for nothing to pass into being, or being to return to nothing....To imagine, therefore, so small a thing as a bee, a fly, a grain of corn, or an atom of dust, to be made of nothing, would stupefy any creature in the consideration of it, much more to behold the heavens with all the troop of stars; the earth, with all its embroidery; and the sea, with all her inhabitants of fish; and man, the noblest creature of all, to arise out of the womb of mere emptiness. (Charnock, op.cit., Vol. 2, p.38)

Our sun is a colossal ball of energy, 865,000 miles in diameter or 109 times that of the earth. A million earths could fit inside the sun. The interior temperature of the sun has been estimated at 27 million degrees. Solar prominences, huge streams of burning gas, shoot out hundreds of thousands of miles from its surface, then return. In one year, the world uses a total of approximately 50 trillion kilowatt-hours of energy to light and heat homes, factories, and carry on all the work men do. But the earth receives this amount of energy from the sun each hour! And we are 93 million miles away! This energy received on the earth in one hour from the sun, if contained in coal and loaded on railroad box cars, would make up 5 trainloads of coal stretching to the moon! But only 1/2 a billionth of the sun’s energy even reaches the earth—the rest is radiated out into space.

Despite how huge and powerful our sun may thus seem, we know that it is really only a medium-sized star of medium energy. There is an estimated 100 billion stars in our galaxy, “The Milky Way,” alone, and around 100 billion such galaxies are known to exist. The total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the words that have been spoken on earth since creation! Some stars, called supernova, shine with a brilliance of a trillion of our suns, and others, called supergiants, are hundreds of times greater than the sun in diameter. The star Betelgeuse (“beetle- juice”), one of the brightest stars in the sky, constitutes the right shoulder of the familiar constellation of Orion. It is 1200 times the diameter of our sun and puts out 120,000 times as much light energy. It is 490 light years away, but if we could move it to the location of our sun, we would get some idea of how gigantic it is in relation to our solar system. Its surface would reach out past Jupiter, over 5 1/2 times the distance from the earth to the sun! We would be inside Betelgeuse’s interior, less than 1/5 of the way from the center to the exterior!

Our galaxy is a flat spiral disc, shaped somewhat like a cookie that is fatter in the center. Distances in space are so large that the only way to measure them is in light-years, the distance that light, at 186,000 miles per second, can travel in a year—over six trillion miles. Our galaxy is 100,000 light years in diameter, and our solar system is located about 2/3 of the way from the center. The whole galaxy spins or turns on its central axis, making a single rotation in about 200 million years. This means our solar system is moving along in space at over a 700,000 miles an hour clip! In addition to this spiral motion, our whole galaxy is no doubt moving through space. At the same time, the earth is revolving around the sun at 388,000 miles an hour! What kind of power did it take to put such fantastic amounts of matter into such motion?

The universe is so vast it boggles the mind. The great distance between stars in our galaxy is evident by comparing the size of the sun in the sky with that tiny speck of light, the next nearest star, Alpha Centauri, over 4 light years away. This is about the average distance between stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy alone is so vast and so spread out that we can see only about 2,000 of the nearest of its 100 billion stars in the sky on a clear night. But our own galaxy would not even appear as a faint dot on a map of the universe, as is evident from the fact that in our hemisphere we can see only one other galaxy with our naked eye. Andromeda, two million light years away, appears, if you have good eyesight and know where to look, as a faint, fuzzy star. Our galaxy and Andromeda are part of a neighborhood “cluster” of 17 galaxies. Vast areas of empty space lie between the many billions of clusters of galaxies in the universe. Thus the vastness of the universe and the magnitude and motion of the heavenly bodies are witnesses of God’s omnipotence.

As with all the other attributes of God we have studied and shall study in our series, God’s omnipotence is linked with other of His attributes, notably His sovereignty, faithfulness, and judgment.

That God is sovereign means that whatever He wills, He carries out. He has no one or nothing else to answer to but Himself. He is the highest ruler, the sole governor of the universe. And His omnipotence fits Him for this role quite well.

The LORD Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand. I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? (Isaiah 14:24-27)

“I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?” (Isaiah 43:12-13)

Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard and said: "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. (2 Chronicles 20:5-6)

He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations—let not the rebellious rise upagainst him. Selah. (Psalms 66:7)

And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their facesand worshiped God, saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.” (Revelation 11:16-17)

God is the absolute Sovereign or Ruler of the universe because He is omnipotent and no one can withstand His power. He is able to carry out whatever His will determines.

That God is omnipotent also makes Him quite capable of carrying out whatever He promises, which points us to His faithfulness. Consideration of this is what led Abraham to complete confidence in God’s promise to him that he would father a child through his wife Sarah even though naturally speaking this was an impossibility because they were both too old:

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:18-21)

In many places in Scripture, God’s power is linked with judgment:

 

He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. “It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” (1 Samuel 2:9-10)

“His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed? He moves mountains without their knowing it and overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble. He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. When he passes me, I cannot see him; when he goes by, I cannot perceive him. If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ God does not restrain his anger; even the cohorts of Rahab cowered at his feet. How then can I dispute with him? How can I find words to argue with him? Though I were innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my Judge for mercy. Even if I summoned him and he responded, I do not believe he would give me a hearing. He would crush me with a storm and multiply my wounds for no reason. He would not let me regain my breath but would overwhelm me with misery. If it is a matter of strength, he is mighty! And if it is a matter of justice, who will summon him?” (Job 9:4-19)

The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. (Psalms 97:1-5)

Oh, the raging of many nations—they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples—they roar like the roaring of great waters! Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. (Isaiah 17:12-13)

On the other hand, God’s power toward the righteous is power to save:

The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. (Psalms 28:8)

For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.(Psalms 74:12)

The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. (Isaiah 52:10)

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” (Revelation 12:10)

After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.” (Revelation 1:19)

Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock; you who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us. Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. (Psalms 80:1-3)

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Romans 1:16)

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3)

God’s omnipotent power, therefore, is revealed in both saving and destroying: “There is one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy” (James 4:12).

Besides sovereignty, faithfulness, and judgment, Stephen Charnock links God’s power with all His other attributes:

The power of God gives activity to all the other perfections of his nature....How vain would be his eternal counsels, if power did not step in to execute them! His mercy would be a feeble pity, if he were destitute of power to relieve; and his justice a slighted scarecrow, without power to punish; his promises an empty sound, without power to accomplish them. As holiness is the beauty, so power is the life of all his attributes in their exercise.... (Vol. 2, p.15)

The New Testament speaks of the power of God in a number of ways: in creation, in redemption, and in the Person of Christ and the Holy Spirit as well as the Father. Power is mentioned in connection with all aspects of Christ’s life and ministry, from His birth to His baptism to His preaching, healing, and other mighty deeds (Luke 1:35; 4:14; 5:17; 8:46; 24:19; Acts 10:38). But the central focus of power in the New Testament is the resurrection of Christ from the dead (1 Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians 1:19,20; Philippians 3:20,21; Colossians 2:12). And because of their living connection with Christ, their identification with Him in His death and resurrection, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, believers are saved and kept by this power dwelling within them (Ephesians 1:19; 3:20; 6:10; Colossians 1:11; 2 Timothy 1:7; 2 Peter 1:3).

For centuries a supposed contradiction has been raised concerning God’s omnipotence in that there are some things, even according to Scripture, that He cannot do. My friends who preach regularly on college campuses are routinely met with the question, “Can God make a rock so big He can’t move it?,” often with a smugness indicating the one asking it has found a real dilemma for Christians. Jed Smock usually responds something like this: “You must be a freshman; it’s usually freshmen who ask that question. Of course there are some things God can’t do. He can’t lie. He can’t do anything that is a logical self-contradiction, such as make a square circle. But you, sir, you are the rock that God has made that He can’t move. He has given you a free will which He will never violate; God commands you to repent of your sins, but you won’t do it, and He can’t make you do it.” Whether the supposed contradiction deserves a serious response or not, many theologians have treated it as if it did.

Charnock writes:

The impossibility of God’s doing some things, is no infringing of his almightiness, but rather a strengthening of it. It is granted that some things God cannot do....Some things are impossible in their own nature. Such are those things which imply a contradiction; as for a thing to be, and not to be at the same time; for the sun to shine, and not to shine at the same moment of time; for a creature to act, and not to act at the same instant....It is impossible that vice and virtue, light and darkness, life and death, should be the same thing....Some things are impossible to be done, because of the incapability of the subject; as for a creature to be made infinite, independent, to preserve itself without the Divine concourse and assistance....Some things are impossible to the nature and being of God. As to die, implies a flat repugnance to the nature of God....He cannot die who is life itself, and necessarily existent; he cannot grow old or decay, because he cannot be measured by time: and this is no part of weakness, but the perfection of power....Some things are impossible to the glorious perfections of God. God cannot do anything unbecoming his holiness and goodness; any thing unworthy of himself, and against the perfections of his nature. God can do whatsoever he can will....He cannot will any unrighteous thing, and therefore cannot do any unrighteous thing. God cannot love sin, this is contrary to holiness; he cannot violate his word, this is a denial of his truth; he cannot cherish an impenitent sinner, this is an injury to his justice; he cannot forget what is done in the world, this is a disgrace of his omniscience; he cannot deceive his creature, this is contrary to his faithfulness: none of these things can be done by him, because of the perfection of his nature....No power can pass into act unless applied by the will; but the will of God cannot will anything but what is worthy of him, and decent for his goodness. The Scripture saith it is impossible for God to lie (Heb.6:18); and God cannot deny himself because of his faithfulness (2 Tim.2:13). As he cannot die, because he is life itself; as he cannot deceive, because he is goodness itself; as he cannot do an unwise action, because he is wisdom itself, so he cannot speak a false word, because he is truth itself....All unrighteousness is weakness, not power; it is a defection from right reason, a deviation from moral principles, and the rule of perfect action, and ariseth from a defect of goodness and power: it is a weakness, and not omnipotence, to lose goodness....God is omnipotent because he cannot do evil, and would not be omnipotent if he could; those things would be marks of weakness, and not characters of majesty. Would you count a sweet fountain impotent because it cannot send forth bitterstreams? or the sun weak, because it cannot diffuse darkness as well as light in the air? (Charnock, op.cit., 26-29)

What, then, should be our response to this attribute of God’s omnipotence? We should stand in awe of, worship, fear, and trust Him. Charnock continues:

If a man makes a curious engine, we honor him for his skill; if another vanquish a vigorous enemy, we admire him for his strength: and shall not the efficacy of God’s power in creation, government, redemption, enflame us with a sense of the honor of his name and perfections? We admire those princes that have vast empires, numerous armies, that have a power to conquer their enemies, and preserve their own people in peace. How much more ground have we to pay a mighty reverence to God, who, without trouble and weariness, made and manages this vast empire of the world by a word and beck [a call by gesture]!...Because this attribute is a main foundation of prayer, the Lord’s Prayer is concluded with a doxology of it, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.” As he is rich, possessing all blessings; so he is powerful, to confer all blessings on us, and make them efficacious to us....Though we value the kindness men may express to us in our distresses, yet we make them not the objects of our confidence, unless they have an ability to act what they express. There can be no trust in God without an eye to his power. (Op.cit., Vol.2, pp. 88,89,105)

God’s omnipotence should be cause for our both fearing and trusting Him. As Jesus told His own disciples:

“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” (Luke 12:4,5)

If we truly realize that God is omnipotent, what should hinder us from being able to believe Him to do anything we ask Him to do (within the limits of His nature and will as indicated in His promises)? In Matthew 9 we read of two blind men who followed Jesus, crying out,

...“Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; and their sight was restored.... (Matthew 9:27-30)

With Jeremiah we can exclaim, “Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for Thee” (Jeremiah 32:17, NASV). There is nothing to hinder the exercise of His unlimited power to save, heal, and deliver if only we will firmly and steadfastly believe Him to do it. Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20,21).

Until next month, God bless each one of you.

Leon Stump, Pastor of Victory Christian Center

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