GODS POWER PART TWO - MEANING OF THIS POWER

WHAT IS GOD’S POWER

The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases to do. Power brings to life that which God desires to do, whatever his infinite wisdom pleases to do. As holiness is the beauty of all God’s attributes, so power is that which gives life and action to all the perfections of the Divine nature. Without power His mercy would not be effective, He would not be able to manifest himself to our daily lives. God’s power is like Himself: infinite, eternal, we cannot comprehend; it can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by anyone.

God has powerful wisdom and mercy to remove all our miseries; a powerful justice to lay all misery upon offenders, a powerful truth to perform his promises, an infinite power to bestow rewards and inflict penalties. Thus God's power gives activity to all other perfections of his nature.

Power belongs to God, that is, solely. In Psalm 62:11 “Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,” He  grants this power to people; what he acts by them, he could act himself without them, and what they act from themselves, is derived to them from him. Thus God can works through men, (he grants us this power that is he acts through us with his power), for to be omnipotent is to be God. Omnipotence is essentially in God.

Ephesians 1:19 “and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.”. No creature can imitate God in this power.

God’s Power in Genesis

The earliest revelation of God’s power is seen in the creation of the world in which we live: Romans 1:20. “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse;” Throughout Scripture, the creation of the world is cited as a compelling testimony of the power of God.

In Psalm 18:1-2, “¹ I love you, O Lord, my strength.  The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” David praises God for His strength, strength in which he can take refuge. David was in great distress, and God rescued him.

God’s Power
In delivering children of Israel from Egypt

After having first displayed His power at creation, God’s second great demonstration of power is seen at the Exodus,

In Exodus 5:1-2, “Afterwards Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.” ’ ²But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

The nation Israel praised God for the power He displayed in delivering them from their bondage in Egypt even after Pharaoh’s resistance and hard stance. They confessed that their deliverance proved God power and that they were now confident on their journey ahead.

The Power of
God in sending His only Son Jesus Christ our Savior

In Isaiah 9:6 “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his houlders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.” God was called the “Mighty God”. God’s power manifested by virgin Mary being pregnant “by the power of Holy Spirit”.

Our Lord’s power was evident through the many miracles He performed. The people were awe-struck by the evidences of His power:

Jesus power to heal was in order to show that His power extended to the forgiving of sins Luke 5:17-26.The greatest demonstration of our Lord’s power was His resurrection from the dead:

God’s Power
in the Lives of His Servants.

Let us consider the way God’s power transformed the lives of several men in the Bible.

In the life of Abraham. In the early days of his life, Abraham did not have confidence in the power of God. He made his way to the land of Canaan in obedience to what God had commanded him. In Genesis 12:1-3. “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” But when a famine came in the land, he could not wait for God who put him into that land to manifest his power and save him and his family. He made his way to Egypt, and this did not go down well with God.

He did not believe God’s power was sufficient to enable him and his wife Sarai to bear a son because they were getting old, and Sarai was barren. So he followed easier ways, first by adopting his servant’s son, two through his wife’s maid Hagar. God purposed to produce a son in a way that would demonstrate His power, by miraculously producing a son in their old age through a woman who had been barren all her life.

The great test of Abraham’s life came when God called him to take this son, and sacrifice him Genesis 22:1-19. Here, Abraham was set to obey God, he had faith now that the power of God will resurrect his son. He was convinced of the power of God to resurrect his son from the dead. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He considered that God is able to raise him even from the dead. We see that God is able and Abraham had a resurrection faith in him. We are supposed to emulate that. The faith in Abraham is manifested by increasing belief in the power of God. Abraham, who began with little faith in God’s power, grew to have great faith in the power of God.

In the life of David. His faith in the power of God diminished over time. He had great faith at the start of his life but it diminished with time. First, he is ready to do battle with Goliath, the giant who arrogantly spoke blasphemously against God. David was confident, and through faith in God he knew he could kill this Giant of a man by just using his sling. In 1 Samuel 17:33, 36-37, Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth , in verse 36 “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.” David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, “Go, and may the LORD be with you”.

We later now when David was the king, the failer on his part to go to war with his troops. In both cases, Israel was at war. He stayed home. And the result was he ended up in bed with his soldier’s wife and instead of repenting he went ahead to cover up by having the same soldier killed in the battle. Here we see his diminishing faith in the power of God.

In the life of Daniel. In Daniel 6:16, “Then the king gave the command, and Daniel was brought and thrown into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you faithfully serve, deliver you!” The life of Daniel and his three friends, recorded in the Book of Daniel, provides yet another example of the way faith in the power of God made men to be victorious on wicked rulers of this world. When Daniel refused to cease praying to his “God,” the King cast him in the lion’s den. Daniel had belief in God’s saving power, and surely he was saved from lion’s den. The last words of the King before he left Daniel in the den of lions overnight expressed his hope that Daniel’s God might deliver him and surely he was right. Likewise, in Daniel 3:14-15 it was through the faith of Daniel’s three friends in the power of God that Nebuchadnezzar came to make a similar confession. Nebuchadnezzar had a great golden statue set up before which all men were to bow in worship when prompted by the king’s musicians. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego refused to bow down to this image, infuriating the king who made this threat. They were cast in raging fire. It is secondly an expression of submission on the part of these men to the will of God, which may be to deliver them from the fire or to deliver them through a fiery death. In fact, God delivered these three men in a way they could never have imagined. Rather than keeping them from the fire, He brought them through the fire, alive, and without as much as the smell of smoke on their clothing Daniel 3:27. “And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counsellors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics^* were not harmed, and not even the smell of fire came from them.”  Nebuchadnezzar was soon to learn yet another lesson concerning the power of God compared to his own “power.” He discovered that his “power” had been given to him by the God of all power. After God humbled him and took away his power, he came to his senses and issued these words for us to hear and heed:

Conclusion

No one who takes the Bible seriously can deny the power of God. God is omnipotent; He is all-powerful. This truth transformed the lives of men in the past, and it can transform our lives today.