P O W E R // God’s Omnipotence & How It Should Inform Our Daily Life
By Kyra Gold
For The PĒØPŁËŠ Church
[This Article has been adapted from what was originally a message I taught at the Lighthouse gathering on June 12th 2022 at For The PĒØPŁËŠ Church]
I am going to start this message, not by sharing a title or a brief overview of the doctrine we’ll be covering today but instead with three passages:
Ephesians 1:17-23 // “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Luke 24:49 // “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.””
Ephesians 3:20 // “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,”
What do all of these passages have in common? Amongst other things, they all talk about power. More specifically, the power of God.
Introduction aka the warning
The message I am going to preach today is on the power of God and how His omnipotence should show itself in our daily pursuit of Him.
Why is this message important? As I was seeking the Lord’s heart for this Sunday, I believe He revealed to me, through His Word, that the fruit you are and are not seeing all come down to trusting Him. Our trust in God will inform our obedience to Him but our lack of trust will call us to hord, to withhold and to denounce Him choosing ourselves over Him. Our trust of Him is reflective of knowing Him and believing Him because we will always live what we truly believe.
Powerlessness is a universal human experience in our fallen world. And too many of us Christians today, live daily with no sense of the spiritual strength that resides in us. The world offers us escape from weakness, from difficulty, from pain, from soul care and health, from spiritual growth, from maturity and sanctification, however false and fleeting that escape is. But Christ offers us something better, something lasting. He offers us the power to endure weakness in love, security and strength.
God is all powerful for He alone is Omnipotent
Omnipotence is the state of being all powerful. So when we say that God is omnipotent, we are saying that He is almighty in power. His Word affirms the irrevocable and unchanging truth that all power belongs to God.
We read in Psalm 147:5 // “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit”, and in Matthew 19:26 // we read Jesus say “... “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” We also read famously in Job 42:2 // Job cry out after an elongated season of severe suffering “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
God is able to do without effort, whatever He wills at any time and in any place that He chooses to exercise His power. His power exceeds what humans can ask for or think of (Ephesians 3:20). God is utterly and completely unique in power. There is nothing comparable in heaven or on earth in power to God. God’s power has no limits. This is the highest possible definition of power. There is nothing that God cannot do, according to His holy and wise will and pleasure, and nothing that can inhibit or stop God’s exercise of His power. Hallelujah.
Our God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in His power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through Him and by His will. The doctrine of creation itself is a public display of the all mighty power of God. And if you are a Bible believer, you already know and believe that God made this world out of nothing. It was spoken into existence by the power of His will and word.
Many of us have heard sermon after sermon and sang song after song about the power of God and yet we still live unaffected by it because we see it as some abstract theological thing. God‘s power is not some abstract theological thing; it is your hope right now no matter who you are and what you are facing. And yet, we don’t often take the time to unpack that which we say we believe. We become so familiar with these deeply beautiful and amazing truths and doctrines that they fail to move us as they should. This is heartbreakingly sad because our lives are shaped and directed by what has us in awe. Since we have been hardwired for awe, something will always capture the awe capacity of our hearts, and what has captured our hearts has control over us.
How should the power of God then, inform our lives?
God Himself lives in us, and yet we’re strangely content to live days, weeks, months, even years without attempting to tap into His holy wisdom and authority. He has invested limitless power, that is endless resources, strength, and help, into every single believer by His Spirit. Sadly, many of us simply don’t know what to do with Him. So instead, we chose our own understanding, our own emotional or physical capacities and limitations instead of entrusting them to Him who is not only all powerful but who is unequivocally faithful. Exhausting both ourselves and those who have been entrusted to care for us.
So today I pray that God would draw our attention not to the wisdom of men, but to the power of God in Jesus Name.
Being a child of God means you are no longer left to the finite resources of your own limited power. God not only gifts you with power but He also acts in power on your behalf. Did you catch that? God Not only gifts us with His power, but He also rules in power on our behalf. He exercises His Almighty power to rule what you cannot rule, so when you become painfully aware of how much you lack power, know that it does not mean that you are powerless, because God never lacks power and He never forsakes His commitment to unleash the power of His presence and rule on our behalf. Yes, you may feel weak, but God is not and He is working His power over and in your life. Where have you been tempted to give up? Where have you let your weaknesses, insufficiency and finite understanding shape your responses to life more than the resurrection power that is yours right now as a child of God?
The same power that raised Christ from the dead is now yours as His child.
The power Jesus promises us is what God used to bring Himself into the World through a virgin.
We read this in Luke 1:34-35 // ““How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
The power Jesus promises us is the power by which he’ll come again:
Luke 21:25-28 // ““There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.””
How do we often live in rebellion to this truth & by the power and work of the Spirit, what lies need to die so we can accept His truth & walk in His freedom and the power purchased for us?
Oftentimes, we are tempted to live as though everything shared thus far is not true, and we live subtly but dangerously in rebellion to this truth so;
1. We must get real about the fact that we are all tempted to doubt the power of God.
Are you living in such a way that shows you doubt the power of God?
How does this temptation show up in how you serve, in how you are generous? In how you love, in how you give yourself to Jesus and the things of Jesus?
Many of us don’t think we are doubting His power but when we withhold what He asks us to give out of preservation, fear, etc. we are.
2. We must get real about the fact that God’s sovereignty does not excuse us from our responsibility as His children.
Many of us become apathetic and but call it trusting in God. When really, Trust in God’s power should encourage us to engage in His mission on earth
We all struggle at times to entrust our needs to the care of our almighty Lord. When we believe that our God is always active, unleashing His power for the sake and good of His children it doesn’t make us passive it actually results in stepping out in courage and hope into situations you would otherwise have been avoided. What are you avoiding right now because you don’t believe in His power?
3. We must get real about the truth that it is vital that the power of God become a key way we interpret our world and our identity as His child.
Because our problem is never with God’s power. It is with the limits of our faith. What do I mean by this? I mean that our problem is never the extent of the power of God or the willingness of God to exercise that power for our good, it is instead that we all experience moments in life when we seem to forget everything we know about God and His character and in turn, lose sight of who we are as His children. When we are in these painfully blinding moments, the problems of life seem significantly larger than His power that resides in us. And before we know it, we are living in a fear based mindset built on the lie that His power for us and within us is inactive. When the truth is, we are never in a situation that is bigger than the extent of God‘s power, and there’s never a moment when His power for you and within you is inactive. I share this because when we forget who God is, we forget what it means to rest in Him by faith and we lose hope and courage. God’s power is never the problem. Our problem is the limits of our ability, our willingness to rest in the power in a way that transforms the way we live.
4. We must get real about the fact that we aren’t always going to like how God exercises His power
Let me just rip the bandaid off for all of us, so we can stop masking in a false narrative that we are always happy with God’s choices. You and I will not always be happy with the way God exercises His power. Our problem is not just whether we will believe that God will exercise power for our good but whether we will like it when He does. One of the struggles of God‘s people has always been doubting God‘s goodness because of the way he chooses to exercise His power. How many of you can relate? I know that has been a struggle for me in this present season. Even though we know that God is always exercising His power, we are often deeply discontent with what He does or does not do. How many can relate? There are times when I know, I am very aware that God is exercising His power for His glory and my good, the good of my family, the good of the GC church and ultimately the good of the world but it sure doesn’t look like it. I will think to myself…how are you being glorified in this? And how is this for my good?
Our weakness is a doorway
Before I can elaborate on this point and how everything that I am sharing today I am sharing in hopes that His word would fulfill the purpose for which He has sent it and that it would bear the fruit of intimacy and obedience with and to the Father, we need to understand and be willing to confess: that the Christian life is impossible. Yup, I just outed us all. WE CANNOT DO THIS.
According to both 1) scripture and 2) evidence from living on this side of eternity, I know that it is impossible for me, if left to myself, to live, love, serve, endure and forgive as God has called me to live, love, serve, endure and forgive. But the glorious message of the gospel is that I have not been left to myself. I have been rescued by God unto Himself which means that I have been left to my God who meets my weakness with His power. His power is not passive, apathetic or idle. It is never confused, caught off guard or on vacation. God does not take PTO. So even when I am discouraged, tired and beaten down and want to give up or give in, I know my almighty God’s rescuing and providing power is at work.
How does this tie into the stated point, that our weakness becomes a doorway? In this point I am sharing that our weakness is a doorway. Either to prison or by the grace of God to freedom.
Many of us are imprisoned by our weakness and it’s reflective in how we are living. Confessing one thing with our mouths but confessing differently with our lives. But I want to remind us today of God’s power so we can lay all of that down and actually be set free by our weakness, because we are reminded that it is He who covers us and it is He who has the power to help us. No one but God is autonomous and self sufficient. Let us become more and more thankful and more and more reliant upon the grace of God‘s power that is at work within us.
I understand that some of you have broken hearts and spirits. Some of you are so discouraged because you have been in such difficult, heartbreaking and heart wrenching seasons for so long that you’ve let go of any hope that things can or will be different or better. Some of you are so discouraged that you can’t even put together the words to pray anymore.
I want to encourage you with Romans 8:22-28 // “22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
God hears your cries and is interceding through your wordless groans in accordance with His will. So we will not bow down to our fantized life that tells us to let the hardships of life crush our hearts. Would we know Him and would we believe that He is the God of the Bible.
Ephesians 1:18-21 // “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”
I want to conclude this message by answering this question “What does God want to do in us and through us with all of that power?”
Acts 1:7-8 // “He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””
As the children of God, we are called to do the humanly impossible. Every single one of us, if we belong to God, is called to do things beyond our individual ability to do and that is what His power is for.
Jesus does not clothe us with power to get a promotion at work, to live out our preferred standard of living, to build a stronger family life, or to fulfill all our dreams. We’re not even clothed with power primarily to free the enslaved, meet the physical needs or the poor, or to heal the sick. We’re clothed with power ultimately to carry His name, witness to the awe provoking worth and wonder of Jesus Christ. We are clothed with His power to invite people into the greatest relationship they’ll ever know, extending to people everywhere the chance to repent, believe in him, and receive His forgiveness for their sin. So that they may taste an everlasting joy and security, a present peace and satisfaction greater than any they’ve ever known. We are clothed with His power to build the church to which He died to enable us to receive. We are clothed with His power, by the power and work of His Spirit to share His message, the message of Jesus.
Pro-tip: If you want to experience the power of God at work in you, and watch the power of God move through you, and witness the rescuing power of God at work through you for those that are perishing that He has called to you, then boldly tell the world that Jesus lives! And that He is your Lord, Savior, and greatest Treasure. Bear the name of Christ in how you live and in what you say.
The omnipotence of God means eternal, unshakable refuge in the everlasting glory of God no matter what happens on this earth. And that confidence is the source and power of radical obedience to the call of God. If we really let the truth of God’s omnipotence get hold of us, what a difference it would make in our personal lives, in our families, in our churches, in our ministries! How humble and powerful we would become for the life- giving and saving purposes of God!
As we conclude, know this there is nothing the Holy Spirit is happier to do through you than to make much of Jesus. So would His Name be hallowed and His will be done at For The PĒØPŁËŠ Church as it is in heaven.
In Christ with prayers and love,
Kyra Gold
P.S.
Thank you so much for reading! For more information on For The PĒØPŁËŠ Church, you can visit forthepeopleschuch.org.
