God is Powerful!

A Shepherd’s Musings: Week 21 – God is Powerful

One of the major characteristics of a cult is that they humanize God and deify man.  In other words—in their imagination, they make man to be God, and God to be man.  What is your reaction to such thoughts?  One common response would be to say, “I would never do that!”  But don’t you and I to some degree humanize God in our minds when we fail to trust God to follow through with His promises and prophecies?  Regardless of whether we believe it or not, God has the power to carry out what He plans in the ways and time frames He chooses.  An unlikely prophet, by inspiration of God, once said, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it” (Numbers 23:19)?  God will fulfill His words because He has the character and power to do so. This is clear from His very first act of creation.  God spoke, and creation happened (Genesis 1-2).  Jeremiah marveled at such power, “Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).  Have you come to Jeremiah’s conclusion?  Are you resting in the truth that God is so powerful that nothing is too hard for Him?

Doubting the power of God results in grave error.  When the Sadducees were disputing with Jesus and trying to show from their human point of view the absurdity of belief in a resurrection, Jesus responded, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29).  Throughout history many have read the Bible and simply discounted it as false because they could not conceive of a God that powerful. So they explain away the miracles in the Old and New Testaments.  They deify man by trusting their own mind and understanding rather than God’s revelation of Himself. Then they humanize God by making Him less powerful than He really is.  This ought not to be in their lives or in our lives! The Bible reveals God as supremely powerful.  He truly is omnipotent!

The Christian hope of future bodily resurrection after death, when Christ returns, is wholly based upon the power of God.  1 Corinthians 6:14 says, “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.”   Have you accessed this power of God?  A person can do so by believing the Gospel as Paul says in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”  Truly, the salvation of man from sin is based upon the power of God!  The disciples of Jesus, being astonished at Jesus’ words concerning how hard it would be for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, said, “‘Who then can be saved?’ But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:25-26).  Salvation is possible because God is powerful!

Let’s join the Psalmist in worship of an omnipotent God, “O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praises to the Lord, to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.  Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies. Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel–he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God” (Psalm 68:32-35)!  However, let’s not stop there.  Will you join me in making the commitment expressed in Psalm 71:17-19 to proclaim the power of God to future generations?   “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?”    There is no one more powerful than our Creator God—the Eternal I AM!

With Prayer, Mark                                                       © May, 2011  Scripture quoted: ESV – Emphasis added

Selected Verses on “God is Powerful”

Exodus 14:31, Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Exodus 15:6, Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.

1 Chronicles 29:10-13, Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

2 Chronicles 20:5-6, And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court, and said, “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.

Ezra 8:22, For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.”

Psalm 21:13,  Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.

Psalm 62:11-12, Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.

Psalm 147:5, Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.

Luke 5:17,  On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.

Acts 10:38-41, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

2 Corinthians 4:6-7, God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Revelation 4:11, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 11:17,  saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.