God Is Able!
EPHESIANS 3:20
From the beginning of time man has created problems and then looked for someone
that had the power and the ability to solve them.
The fact is; we live in an age of unprecedented
power. We have built engines that pull freight trains that are literally miles
in length, lift huge airplanes off the ground carrying hundreds of passengers
with all their cargo, and hurtle tons of sophisticated scientific equipment into
space. By harnessing the power of the atom we have created enough energy to
light entire cities and built weapons that can annihilate countries. But still
the world has not found anyone that solves the world's problems.
Throughout human history mankind has stood in awe
at the power of the natural elements--light so powerful it can blind us, water
so powerful it can wash away whole civilizations, wind so powerful it can topple
brick and steel buildings, fire so powerful it can melt rock.
Still there is no one that has the power and
ability to solve the world's problems. Athletes are power conscious. Baseball
has its power hitters, football its power runners, basketball its power for
wards. Weight lifters may be billed as the most powerful men in the world.
Athletes in nearly every sport are striving for greater power to establish new
world records.
Still the search goes on to find the person that
has the power and the ability to help our world. The problem is not that there
is no one who has the power and the ability to help us. The problem is that we
are looking in the wrong places and looking for the wrong person. My bible tells
me that God is able, able to do what, well lets see, He is able to do exceeding,
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh
in us.
The place were we need to look is Heaven, and the
person we need to look to is God. God claims to be all-powerful, and that defies
the human imagination. Add the power of the world's greatest athletes to the
power of the world's natural elements to the incredible power man has developed
through science and technology, and the total does not even begin to approach
God's power. In fact He himself is the source of all power, not only in the
physical realm, but in the spiritual realm as well, where the true nature and
extent of power escapes our understanding. God is omnipotent!
What does that mean? It means that God possesses
infinite, complete, and perfect power. He can do anything He wants to do,
absolutely anything. None of us can make that claim. Our capabilities are
limited. But God is able to do everything He wills. We sometimes use the term
power to refer to God's authority or His prerogative to do what He pleases. But
that is more accurately His sovereignty. Power refers to His strength to act,
His ability to perform, and that is the kind of power in God's omnipotence. He
is able to do anything He wants to do. If we are to understand the God Who is
able, we must first;
Meet the God Who Is Able
One of God's names tells us that He is able to do whatever He pleases, a
name He first revealed to Abraham. He had promised to make Abraham the father of
a great nation, and naturally Abraham needed a son in order for that promise to
come true. He thought Hagar's child, Ishmael, was to be that son, but God told
him that Sarah would bear a son named Isaac through whom the promise would be
fulfilled. Abraham was ninety-nine years old and Sarah was ninety, and humanly
speaking there was no possible way they could have a son. But God helped them to
believe it by the way He introduced Himself that day.
"Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old,
the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am " God Almighty "; Walk
before Me, and be blameless'" (Genesis 17:1).
In the Hebrew the Name God Almighty is El Shaddai, The Almighty Strong One,
or The Almighty Power. The word Shaddai means Almighty, the word El means
the strong one or power.
El Shaddai is God Almighty, the God who can do
anything He wants to do, even bring life to dead wombs and give babies to
couples in their nineties! He is almighty, all-powerful. That name is used
forty-seven more times in the Old Testament and never of anyone but God. It has
a New Testament equivalent, used ten times, which means literally "to hold all
things in one's power." Scripture is filled with references to God's omnipotence
from beginning to end.
He is the Lord strong and mighty (Psalm 24:8). Power belongs to God (Psalm
62:11). "Great is our Lord, and of great power" (Psalm 147:5). He wants us to
know Him as the God who is able to do anything.
It is interesting to watch Biblical characters
discover Him in that light. Abraham was one of the first who did. Sometime after
that initial revelation of Himself as the Almighty, God again promised Abraham a
son, this time in Sarah's hearing, and she laughed to herself (Genesis 18:12).
"Why did Sarah laugh?" God asked with convicting insight. Then He added, "Is
anything too difficult for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:14) When Abraham and Sarah
learned the answer to that question they would be able to believe that God would
keep His Word. And they finally did, "being fully assured that what He had
promised, He was able also to perform" (Romans 4:21). In other words, they
grasped the truth of God's omnipotence.
Most of us have had disillusioning experiences
with people who have promised more than they have been able to deliver, and we
have a tendency to transfer our skepticism to God. Does He really care? Is He
really in control? Does He really have the power to bring good Out of adversity?
Our doubts do nothing but raise our anxiety level and cause us grief. Believe
it, Christian, just as Abraham and Sarah finally believed it. God is able to do
whatever needs to be done in your life. No other being is all-powerful. No
problem is all-powerful. Only God is all-powerful, and He is on our side. His
omnipotence is pitted against our problem. The odds in our favor are infinite.
Jeremiah was another great saint who learned this
lesson. God had been telling him that Judah would be invaded by the Babylonians
and taken into captivity, but then He directed him to go out and buy his
cousin's field. That made no sense at all to Jeremiah. Why own a field if the
Babylonians are going to destroy everything and take everybody into captivity?
Could it be that God would bring them back from captivity? That was almost too
good to believe. But he wanted to believe it and he was trying to believe it
when he prayed,
"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).
Jeremiah was acknowledging that God's power is displayed nowhere more
dramatically than in creation. Everything we make requires existing materials
but God made the worlds out of nothing. He merely spoke and it was done (Psalm
33:6, 9). That is power! The writer to the Hebrews assures us that He continues
to sustain all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). A God who is able
to create everything out of nothing by a word, then continues to hold it all
together by a word, is certainly able to do anything else He wants to do,
including restore the nation Israel to her land. As if to strengthen Jeremiah's
struggling faith God Himself speaks:
"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?"
(Jeremiah 32:27)
No, Lord. Absolutely nothing! Jeremiah saw it.
God is able to do anything.
The virgin Mary questioned God's spectacular revelation to her. How could she
possibly bear a son when she had never had relations with a man? It would be by
the very same means her elderly cousin Elizabeth would bear a son when she was
past the age of child-bearing, by the supernatural power of God. "For nothing
will be impossible with God" (Luke 1:37). That verse literally says, "For no
word from God shall be without power." That puts the whole matter right where it
belongs, in the realm of God's omnipotence. He has the power to do whatever He
says He is going to do. If He wants to plant a child in the womb of a virgin He
can do it. And He did do it, giving the world a divine Saviour.
The disciples were disturbed when Jesus told them
how difficult it would be for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. "Then
who can be saved?" they asked rather hopelessly. That was when they got a
decisive lesson on God's omnipotence. "Looking upon them, Jesus said, With men
it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God" (Mark
10:27). He is able to do anything He pleases, and He longs for us to know Him as
the omnipotent God.
Know What He Is Able To Do
If we really want to know the omnipotent God intimately and experientially,
we ought to think through some of the things He is able to do. The New Testament
word "to be able" means essentially "to have power" (dunamai the verb form of
that familiar Greek noun, dunamis) When we read that God is able to do something
it means He has the power to do it. It is a concept related to His omnipotence.
The Old Testament word has somewhat the same connotation. While we know God can
do anything He wants to do, look at a few of the specific things the Bible says
He is able to do.
I. He Is Able to Save Us Completely.
"Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through
Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
The writer to the Hebrews is assuring us that God is able to save us perfectly
for all time and eternity. Once we have trusted Christ as Saviour from sin and
been born again, we never need to fear for our eternal destiny. Our omnipotent
God has the power to keep us. Peter put it in those very words.
He said we are "kept by the power of God" (1 Peter 1:5 KJV). And it is a good
thing that we are. None of us would feel very secure if our salvation depended
on our power.
II. He Is Able to Keep Us from Sin.
"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in
the presence of His glory blameless with great joy" (Jude 24).
That great benediction assures us that God has the power to keep us from falling
into sin. We know how He does it:
"For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to
come to the aid of those who are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18).
Our omnipotent Saviour has conquered temptation Himself, and now He is right
there for us to lean on when we are tempted. When we learn to lay hold of His
power we will conquer those stubborn sins that disrupt our lives.
III. He Is Able to Supply Our Needs.
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all
sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed" (2
Corinthians 9:8).
That promise was addressed to faithful and cheerful givers. They can count on
God to take care of everything they need, in every circumstance of life, all the
time. Only an omnipotent God could make a promise like that. My wife and I have
experienced that power. There were times when we acted as though God could not
really take care of our needs. Sometimes we became worried about our finances.
But we tried to be faithful in sharing our meager resources with Him, and He
kept showing us, sometimes in miraculous ways, that He was able to supply our
needs.
IV. He Is Able to Heal Our Diseases.
Jesus taught this lesson to two blind men right after He emerged from the
house where He had raised Jairus's daughter from the dead, the supreme
demonstration of His power. The two men cried out, "Have mercy on us, Son of
David!" (Matthew 9:27) Jesus turned and asked, "Do you believe that I am able to
do this?" (Matthew 9:28) When they answered, "Yes, Lord," Jesus touched their
eyes and made them to see. He may be asking you the same question: "Do you
believe I have the power to heal you?" He is able, and He wants us to believe
that. Believing it could be the very thing that starts us on the road to
recovery.
V. He Is Able to Deliver Us from Death.
Daniel's three friends taught us this lesson when they were standing beside
the door of a blazing fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than normal. They
boldly declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, "our God whom we serve is able to
deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire" (Daniel 3:17).
He does not always deliver us from death. Many have laid down their lives for
their faith through the centuries. But He is able to deliver us if He so
chooses.
Jesus knew that. The writer to the Hebrews said,
"He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the
One able to save Him from death" (Hebrews 5:7).
As He prayed in the garden to His Father, He said, "All things are possible for
Thee; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what Thou wilt" (Mark
14:36).
While all things were possible, He submitted to His Father's will and trusted
Him to do what was best. That is exactly what He wants us to do. It has been
said that we are invincible and immortal until God's time to take us home. There
is no reason for the child of God ever to fear, for God is able to deliver him
from any danger.
After Daniel had spent an entire night in a den of lions, King Darius hurried to
the den in the morning and called out to him,
"Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve,
been able to deliver you from the lions?" (Daniel 6:20)
Only someone who does not know God would ask that
kind of question. He most certainly was able to deliver him. Hungry lions are no
more of a problem to an omnipotent God than fiery furnaces, or terminal
illnesses, or scary noises in the dark, or barking dogs, or poisonous snakes, or
earthquakes, or floods, or anything else. He has power over creation, power over
nature, power over animals, power over the nations, power over rulers, and power
over demons. And He is able to deliver us.
There are other references in Scripture to what God is able to do, but none more
exciting than the one in Ephesians 3:20:
"Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or
think, according to the power that works within us."
That is real power, the very same power that
raised Christ from the dead and is operating in us right now (Ephesians 1:19-21)
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at
his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
The Holy Spirit of God, the Omnipotent One Himself, actually lives in us and
makes His power available to us. He is willing to give strength to all (1
Chronicles 29:12) Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over
all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make
great, and to give strength unto all.
Whoever you are and whatever your need, God's strength is available to help you.
From the little crisis, like a stubborn jar lid you cannot unscrew when there is
no one there to help, to the major crisis like an extended illness of a loved
one that has put superhuman demands on you physically, God's strength is
available to help.
With the promise of that kind of power at our disposal why do we feel so weak,
fearful, and powerless so much of the time? Maybe we have not yet learned to
appropriate God's power.
VI. Learn How To Enjoy His Power
The secret of releasing God's power lies in three basic principles.
The first was revealed to King Asa of Judah during a time when he was
displeasing the Lord by relying on human treaties rather than on the power of
the living God. A prophet said to him, "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose
heart is perfect toward Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9 KJV). God is actually looking
for people He can help, people for whom and through whom He can release His
power. But there is a condition:
1. He wants our hearts to be wholly His, our allegiance to Him to be undivided.
In other words, He wants us to be yielded to Him, to desire His will more than
our own will. If he is going to supply us with His power, He wants to be sure we
will use it for His glory. Some of us may be so weak and fearful and powerless
because God cannot trust us with His power. We would take the credit for
ourselves. When we yield our wills to Him we are ready to experience His power.
The second key to enjoying God's power was revealed by the prophet Isaiah to a
nation that desperately needed it.
2. Wait on the Lord
Israel was a midget surrounded by giants who were ready to pounce on her. Isaiah
sought to encourage the nation by devoting an entire chapter of his book to the
greatness of God in contrast to the weakness of men (Isaiah 40). But the nation
was saying, just as we often say, "If God is so great and powerful, why doesn't
He help us?" That is exactly what He wants to do.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator
of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is
inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He
increases power (Isaiah 40:28-29).
Well then, how can we get His power? Isaiah is careful to tell us.
Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet
those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with
wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not
become weary (Isaiah 40:30-31).
To wait for God is to keep on prayerfully and patiently looking to Him. Some of
us may be so weak and fearful and powerless because we are not consistently
looking to God for His power. We connive, scheme, pull strings, and manipulate
people to work out our problems and meet our needs rather than look to the Lord.
He says, "I want to use my omnipotence on your behalf. Just ask Me, just look to
Me rather than to yourself or to others." When we focus our attention on the
Lord, rather than on our circumstances or on human solutions, we are ready to
experience His power.
3. But there is a third key. God's power is always released on our behalf
through faith,
an unmistakable principle found through out Scripture. There is little hope of
enjoying God's power when we do not expect Him to release it, or if we are not
sure that He can or will release it, or if we do not trust Him to release it.
A needy man in Jesus' day had to learn that lesson. His son was hopelessly
possessed by a demon, which had nearly destroyed him. He brought the boy to
Jesus' disciples to be delivered, but it fumed out to be another frustrating
dead-end for him. He was about to give up when Jesus arrived on the scene. This
was his last ray of hope. He pleaded, "But if You can do anything, take pity on
us and help us!" Listen to Jesus' answer; it is the pivotal issue to enjoying
God's power: "If You can! All things are possible to him who believes" (Mark
9:23). The man cried out, "I do believe; help my unbelief" (verse 24). It was an
honest admission that his faith was weak but a sincere request for the Saviour
to strengthen it. That was all Christ asked. He spoke a word and the omnipotence
of God was released, delivering the boy from demonic power.
God is able! There is no deficiency in His power. The deficiency may be in our
faith. Believe that He can do what needs to be done in your life. Expect Him to
answer, then watch for Him to do it. He may work in totally unexpected ways, but
He will work with supernatural power. At this very moment He is looking for
people through whom He can demonstrate that power. Why not let it be you?
Action To Take
List some problems in your life that seem to be impossible to solve. Now
meet the conditions for enjoying God's power: Yield your will fully to Him;
Commit the problems to Him in prayer regularly; Believe that He will solve them
in His own perfect way.
Rush Limbaugh has this phrase as part of his self-introduction. "Talent on loan
from God." It might sound arrogant, but it really isn't. It's humble. I've heard
him explain it too. He knows that whatever he is able to do is a gift from God
with which he is to do his best for God. Your talent, too, is on loan from God.
"If God is able to place the stars in their sockets and suspend the sky like a
curtain, do you think it remotely possible that God is able to guide your life?
If your God is mighty enough to ignite the sun, could it be that he is mighty
enough to light your path? If he cares enough about the planet Saturn to give it
rings, or Venus to make it sparkle, is there an outside chance that he cares
enough about you to meet your needs.
