God is Omnipotent – He is all powerful and has all authority to do whatever He pleases (2 Chron. 29:10-14)
"Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, Our God we give you thanks and praise your glorious name...everything comes from you and we have given you only what comes from your hand." (2 Chron. 29:10-14)
In contrast to this truth, there are many who would consciously and unconsciously try to detract from our trust and obedience to our omnipotent God.
Have you ever listened to a radio station DJ who comes on the air and says, “You are listening to Power 98, the most powerful station with the most powerful tunes to power you through the day. That is a feeble attempt to try to simulate God’s power to communicate through His word and His Holy Spirit
Perhaps some of you can gain a better understanding of God’s omnipotence as you think about how you would translate this theological term into a language that does not have it in its vocabulary.
Example: In Nigeria when I tried to translate Trinity into the language they did not have a word for it so we were taught to translate three in one or Uku cikin daya. Everybody repeat that after me, Uku cikin daya. In some way it communicated the power of God that Jesus talked about in the great commission when He said, “All power and authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all things that I have commanded you. We are to respond to His power with an obedience that takes the gospel to all the people groups of the world so should obey Him as well.
When we had to translate omnipotent into Hausa we faced a similar predicament since they had nothing in their 850 word vocabulary that had been used to write the New Testament for omnipotence. So we were taught to translate it Mai Iko Duka. Everybody say, Mai Iko Duka. That means the owner of ALL power. So when we prayed we would pray, Ubangimu, Mai Iko Duka. That spoke to the heart felt center of everyone’s need to connect to the all powerful God and to fear Him and to submit to His will – especially the Muslims and the animists.
Maybe we should get Jeremiah Smith to lead us in a Trinity cheer to the Omnipotent God,
Ubangimu , Mai Iko Duka, Uku Cikin Daya, Uku Cikin Daya.
The Significance of God’s Omnipotence - (I Chron. 29:10-14)
When we know more about the omnipotence of God we can learn some of the following lessons:
1. We can learn to not fret or over react when bad things happen to us because we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. (Rom. 8:28)
Example: That is why a godly man like Joseph was able to say after 10 years of imprisonment, torture and suffering, to his brothers, in Gen 50:20, “You meant it for evil, but God turned it for good for the saving of many lives.” This way we can trust and obey God even when things do not seem to be working out for us the way we would like.
2. We can learn to be more worshipful, trusting, confident and at ease with God’s almighty power to do whatever He pleases. David wrote in I Chron 29:1
“Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord is the kingdom you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. IN your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.”
3. We cannot also learn from men like Habbakuk who said, in hab 3:19, MY sovereign Lord is my strength, He makes my feet like the deer. He enables me to go on to the heights.” He takes us to a higher level of service, satisfaction and significance through His mighty power.
4. We can sing for joy as God’s power is greater than any problem, person or predicament we will face.
Example – We can sing the song that many of learned to sing when we were children, “Our God is so great , so strong and so mighty there’s nothing my God cannot do. The mountains are His the valleys are his, the stars are His handy work too. My God is so great so strong and so mighty there’s nothing my God cannot do for you!”
5. We can learn to be less judgmental as God is judge of us all. Paul wrote, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time. (I Cor. 4:3,4)
6. Paul learned about God’s omnipotence because he knew that whenever the Lord might allow one door to close a better one would always open up. He wrote, “Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me… But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” (2 Cor. 2:12,14)
7. We can be like Jeremiah who learned that nothing was too difficult for God when He prayed, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. (Jer. 32:17) After Jeremiah bought the field, he began to wonder if such a move was wise. He sought relief in prayer from his nagging doubts. In his prayer he affirmed that God is the Creator of heaven and earth. The wise judge, who is aware of our conduct, and our Redeemer who has power that is greater than all our problems. God loves you and sees your situation today. Whenever you doubt God’s power, just pray the prayer of Jeremiah, “Lord, Nothing is too hard for you. And you will quiet your doubts and calm your fears.
8. We can know how to overcome difficult situations in our life. Just claim that as a personal promise from the angel of God who spoke to Mary when she asked, “But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin. He said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most High will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy and he will be called the Son of God. For nothing is impossible with God. “ The things that are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 1:37) Here was a young unmarried girl who became pregnant risked disaster
9. Example – One day, several new converts came to a missionary and said, “One night, ‘One night we came to kill you as a missionary we hated. But when we came to your house, there were 28 large men standing around your house guarding it and we became afraid. We concluded that your God had set powerful guards around you and we came to worship Him. Then the men in Michigan who were listening to this missionary said, “Hey, That very day, we were praying for you. And then they asked them to stand up and behold, there were 28 men in the congregation who were praying for you that very day. God’ uses our prayer in powerful ways that we may never learn about until we get to heaven. Jesus said, “He who believes in me the works that I do will He do also and greater works than these will He do because I do to the Father. And you can ask anything in my name and I will do it so the Son may bring glory to the Father. (John 14:12-14) .
Pray with the confidence that the Omnipotent God who will work through your prayers for the completion of His great kingdom purposes.
10. If you want another definition of Omnipotence just remember the phrase, He is able. Thankfully, W. T. Watson, who started Trinity College of Florida, used as his theme song. He is able. It goes like this. He is able , He is able I know He is able I know my Lord is able to carry me through.” That is God’s omnipotence in practical form.
Example – So many times in Africa, where I worked as a missionary for nineteen years, I did not think I had the strength, the wisdom or the provisions to accomplish a new church plant, the Lord worked a miracle because He promised to, He said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell, (all evil forces) will not prevail against it.” (matt 16:18) His omnipotence always works to fulfill His will through His word. The Lord used me to help start more than 650 churches all to His glory and credit.
11. There are over 500 verses in the Bible that speak of the omnipotence of God. Although the word is not used in our English translation it is clearly taught 500 times so we would get the point, He is almighty, all power and all capable of doing whatever He pleases.
12. Example - Although the word is not found in our modern translations, the concept might be truly said to be assumed on every page of the Bible. (It is found in the King James Version of Revelation 19:6, "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." George Frederick Handel composed his majestic "Hallelujah Chorus" around that phrase.)
No one can stop God’s plans.
"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2
C. He made all things and all things serve him.
"Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you." Psalm 119:91
D. He does whatever he pleases. (Psa 33:1-8)
"Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." Psal Now to 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)
Result - We can pray more confidently and with great faith, hope and love because of His promise in do whatever pleases Him exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think according to the power that works mightly within us.
There are two objections often raised against the doctrine of omnipotence—one frivolous and one serious. Let’s take the frivolous objection first. It is sometimes put in the form of a question: "Can God make a rock so big he can’t lift it?" Now on the face of it, that seems like a legitimate question, but it actually describes nonsense. It’s like asking if God can make a square circle. It’s a self-contradiction, a confusion of categories. If a circle is square it is no longer a circle. It’s a square. There is no such thing as a square circle or a rock so heavy an omnipotent God can’t lift it.
Quote: In the words of C. S. Lewis, "We may attribute miracles to God, but not nonsense."
There is no such thing by definition as a rock so heavy God can’t lift it, but if there were, God could make it … and then he could lift it! There’s no such thing as a square circle, but if there were, God could make that, too!)
There are at least four things the Bible says that God cannot do. He cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13); he cannot lie (Titus 1:2); he cannot be tempted to evil (James 1:13); and he cannot change his basic nature (Numbers 23:19). In short, God will never act contrary to his own righteous, holy, unchanging character.
"If God is All-Powerful. . ."
Here are some of more serious objections we often here from people. Although it may be stated in many ways, it goes something like this:
"If God is all-powerful, why is there so much suffering in the world?" Why do buses crash or tornadoes destroy homes? Why does God allow armies to kill innocent people? Why is there so much disease? Why do good people die of cancer? Why doesn’t God stop the suffering in the world?
Before we say anything else, let us acknowledge the honesty of the question.
All of us have wondered about this at some time or other, usually when we or a loved one has suffered a great tragedy. In a fallen world, it’s a very fair question.
Rabbi Harold Kushner
Illustration: Some years ago Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a best-selling book entitled Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. In it he wrestles with these difficult questions from a very personal point of view. He tells about his own son who died at a young age from a rare disease that caused his body to age rapidly. In the aftermath of his own loss, he came to the conclusion that he could no longer believe the traditional formulations about God’s goodness and God’s power. Finally he came to the only conclusion that satisfied him. Very simply, he concluded that God is not all powerful.
At one point he openly declares that "God can’t do everything." God didn’t want his son to die—not like that, not at such a tender age, not in such a terrible way. God didn’t want that, but he didn’t have the power to stop it either. There are forces in the universe that are beyond even God’s control.
Kushner’s book offers much consolation for hurting people. But when you come to the heart of what Rabbi Kushner says, he does not believe in the omnipotence of God.
This is indeed a difficult question—especially when we are faced with a tragedy we can’t explain. Every Christian wonders "Why?" sooner or later. So we must face this question squarely: If God is all-powerful, why doesn’t he use that power to stop the suffering in the world?
What Kind of God Do We Believe In?
Example: This is an important question because it drives us back to the character of God. What kind of God do we believe in? If Rabbi Kushner is correct, then there is no hope. For if God is not truly omnipotent, then evil is more powerful than God. In the end we must rest our faith on the goodness of God. More and more I am coming to see that this is the crucial issue of life. Is God good and does he care for us? Is God for us or against us? If you say No, you will soon lose your faith altogether. If you say Yes, then Romans 8:28 becomes more than a cliché. It is the heart of the Christian answer.
If our God is good and if he cares for us, then we can believe he has all power, even in the face of sickness, suffering, and death itself.
Your starting point makes all the difference. If you start with your trials and try to reason back to God, you’ll never make it. Start with lung cancer and it’s hard to find God. Start with divorce and it’s hard to find God. Start with rape and it’s hard to find God. Start with bankruptcy and it’s hard to find God. He’s there, but he’s hard to see when you start with your own difficulty.
13. You’ve got to start with God and reason from what you know about God back to your trials. (In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth) Gen. 1:1 - Start where the Bible starts, presupposing the existence of God and His omnipotence then all things will make sense.
There is an invisible line that stretches from God to us. That line is the line of God’s goodness. We rest our faith on that invisible line. That’s why 2 Corinthians 4:18 says that "we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen."
As long as you start with what you see around you, you’ll have a hard time finding God in the darkest moments of life. But if you start with God, his light will illumine your darkness.
Let’s think together about three implications of God’s omnipotence.
A. Job knew that no power can ultimately thwart his purposes.
This is what Job discovered at the end of his trials. I find it interesting that, as far as we know, Job never discovered the truth about the conversation between God and Satan that started all his troubles. If you take the book of Job at face value, it ends with God interrogating Job in a most humbling fashion. "Job, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Were you there when I put the stars in their places? By the way, have you ever tried to make a piece of land? What about a rabbit? A simple rabbit, Job, how are you at making rabbits? That’s what I thought." In the end Job bows in silence before a God whose ways are beyond human comprehension.
Omnipotence teaches us that no power in all the universe can stop God or impede his plans. Not evil men. Not natural catastrophe. Not reversal of fortune. Not fate or luck or chance. Not human error. Not even Satan can hinder God’s plan in the least. In the words of Martin Luther, the devil is "God’s devil" because he serves God’s purposes.
B. What God starts, he always finishes.
This is a most comforting thought because we live in a world where all our best work is necessarily unfinished. Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Hemingway, Wright, Edison, da Vinci—they all left behind unfinished paintings, unfinished manuscripts, plans for buildings that were never built. That’s the way it is in this world. In fact, of all the people who have ever lived on planet earth, only Jesus could truthfully cry out at the end of his life, "It is finished" (John 19:30). And even when we finish something, it’s never really finished. That’s why houses must be repainted and the beds made every morning.
However, when God starts to do something, he stays with the job until it is completed. There is never a divine power failure, never a black out, a brown out, or a meltdown. Our eternal security rests on the truth of God’s omnipotence. We are kept by his power, not by ours (1 Peter 1:5). He is the God who is able to keep us from falling (Jude 24).
Quote: As Tony Evans says, he may let you trip but he won’t let you fall. When God begins a "good work" in a person’s life, he won’t stop halfway through. He continues it until it is finished (Philippians 1:6).
This is a source of great encouragement to every struggling saint.
C. No matter how great the need, God’s resources are never depleted.
Example: Some of us might remember the great gas shortage of 1973 when we stood in line for hours to get a few gallons of gas. The shortage was caused by the OPEC oil embargo that cut supply to a trickle and drove prices through the roof. That never happens with God. Because he is omnipotent, his power knows no limits. He is never worn out, exhausted, or "running on fumes."
It’s no harder for him to create a universe than to create an ant. He says, "Horse, be," and there’s an hourse. He says, "Universe, be," and there’s a universe. It’s all the same to him.
Cast all your cares on him. He not only cares for you, he’s got unlimited power to carry your burdens and to solve your problems.
Psalm 23:4 says, "I will fear no evil … for you are with me." If God is walking by your side, you have nothing to fear.
The omnipotence of God is thus a doctrine of wonderful comfort to the believer. The all-powerful God is with me. He exercises his power on my behalf. Whenever I need him, and even when I think I don’t, he is there. He never fails. All his plans for me will come to pass. I can trust him completely.
If God Can Raise the Dead
First Corinthians 1:18 tells us that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to the world, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. To the world the cross was a terrible waste, a tragedy, an enormous mistake. But to those who believe it is a demonstration of the power of God.
Think about that for a moment. In the very place where God seemed to be defeated, there we see God’s power. Is the all-powerful God good and does he care for us? Look to the bloody cross and judge for yourself.
He who had all power gave it up and became weak like us. He knows what it is to die young and be cut off in the midst of life. When we come to the cross, we come weak, confused, broken, perplexed, bruised, anxious and frustrated. And there at the cross, in that place where the world sees weakness, there we find the power of God. We come helpless to the God who is our help and weak to the God who is our strength. (Notes taken from Ray Pritchard’s sermon of July 1997, Oak Park Community Church of Chicago)
14. If God were not omnipotent, Jesus would still be in the grave. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory (Over sin, death and judgment) through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 7:25) But if God can raise the dead, he can do anything. Let that thought encourage you this week as you face the impossibilities of life. Just remember, you’re not alone for Almighty God walks by your side.
Conclusion: Song: He is able, He is able , I know He is able. I know my Lord is able to carry me through. Let us sing the song that empowered W. T. Watson, the founder of Trinity College to accomplish great things for God. And He will do the same through you if you let Him.
