Upwards Church

I read recently that the power of the sun produces more energy in one second than has been used in the history of the world.  Wow. The sun, at its current rate, will be able to burn for another thirty billion years.  That’s a lot of power.  But it’s not as great as the power of the Creator who made the sun.

This is what theologians call the omnipotence of God.  God is all-powerful. His power is unlimited.   He never gets tired.   Everything He does, He does easily.  Nothing is ever too hard or difficult. It’s easy for him to answer a prayer.  It’s just as easy for Him to create a universe.

“For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37

The amazing thing is that God wants to empower you.

“I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great His power is to help those who believe Him the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead.”  Ephesians 1:20 (Living Bible)

Some will say, “It doesn’t work for me.”  You’re probably right.  Most believers don’t experience God’s power in their life.  They are just as defeated and hopeless as unbelievers.  How do you get get God’s power?”  2 Major Ways:

1.     Admit my lack of power. 

I admit that I don’t have it all together.  Our problem is that we think we’re omnipotent.  We think we’re God.  We think, “I can handle anything.  I can do everything.” If you don’t believe it, look at your schedule.  Who are you kidding?  If you burn the candle at both ends you’re not as bright as you think you are.  Admit your need for God’s power in your life.  You can’t do it all on your own.  You come out of high school as Joe Jock or Smart Sue believing you can take on everything. Then, later, you realize that you don’t have all power.  Stress, tension and frustration come as a result.  You cannot control everything.  You are not going to reach every goal you set in life on your own.  You’re not going to make as much money as you may have thought.  You are a human being.  You have weaknesses.

What do you do when you realize you are weak?  2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul says, “God said to me `Where there is weakness, My power is shown more completely.’  Therefore I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses, because they mean a deeper experience of Christ’s power.  For my very weakness makes me strong in Him!”  When you pretend to be self sufficient, you close off God’s power in your life.

When I think about the awesome task of communicating God’s truth on a weekly basis to so many different needs it is almost overwhelming to me at times.  I am intimidated by it and I feel very inadequate.  Then add to that the fact of the eternal implications of what is going on here on Sunday morning that lives are in the balance between heaven and hell!  And I add to that the sense of my own personal accountability to God that as the pastor, as I direct and lead this church, that God is going to hold me accountable for the direction this church takes.  I tremble inside sometimes when I think about that.  And sometimes the last place I’d like to be on Sunday morning is to come in here and try to minister God’s word to so many different kinds of needs.  But I have found, just like Paul, that in my greatest weakness that in my time of greatest fear and weakness, I am strong and that God pours the power into my life when I don’t have it in myself.  God’s power rests on my life.  I know that.  Not because of who I am because I’m not anybody special.  But His is and He says that anybody who will admit that he needs power, He gives power.

The second way to get God’s power is to…

2.     Act in Faith

The key to personal power in our life is faith.

Matthew 9:29 says, “According to your faith it will be done to you.”  If that is true, and it is, here’s two questions to consider:

What am I expecting God to do in my life?

What am I expecting God to do through my life?

He works according to faith.  Since God has unlimited power, we should not limit Him because of our expectations of Him. We limit what God can do in our lives by our belief.  God has given us dynamite power and we live smoke bomb lives.    Here are two more questions about your faith:

a.     What I am saying?   

The Bible says in the book of James that my tongue is the rudder of my life.  The way I talk to myself and others directs the course of my life.  The Bible says in Proverbs, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”  So what are you saying… about your marriage, about your job, about your health, about your finances, about your kids?  Many of you are waiting for God to do something and believing Him for a miracle but you negate it by the way you talk. “Yeah, I believe God is going to turn my marriage around.  But my marriage is the pitts!”  “Yeah, I’m praying that my kids will live for God, but my kids are hopeless!  “I want God to change my life and help me break those bad habits but it’s just the way I am!  I’m never going to change!”  What we say has power and reveals our faith.

b.     What am I doing?

You need to do those things you know are right even when you don’t feel like it.

Immaturity is living by your feelings.  Maturity is living by your commitments.  Faith is living by what God says.

You act as if, in advance.  So many people miss God’s blessing on their life.  “There is something I’d really like to do….  BUT I don’t think that I can do it.”  So you don’t!  And as a result you miss God’s power. If you don’t even act in faith you will never sense God’s power in your life.

When Joshua and the children of Israel came up to the Jordan river, the whole nation had to pass over the river in order to get into the Promised Land.  It was springtime and the banks of the Jordan were overflowing.  It was impossible.  God said to Joshua and the leaders of Israel, “Take the leaders and put them out in front of the people and tell them to walk into the river.  The leaders began to walk into the river.  They were probably thinking, “I’m not going to walk very much further!”  But look what happened.  The Bible says in Joshua 3, “When the priests put their feet in the water, the Jordan river stopped flowing” (vs. 15-16). They acted in faith and God released His power.

God wants you to take action even before you feel or see anything.  You act as if God is going to provide.   Give 10% of your income to God when you think you can’t afford to. Serve a need in His name when you think you don’t have time or energy.  And when you step out in advance then God sees your faith.

You can begin to live a different way today.  You can stop living on your own power and start living on God’s power, which is the solution to burn out and to that frustration and depression that creeps in on your life.

Would you pray this prayer in your heart?  “God, I admit that I need Your power. I admit that there are things that are just too hard for me. I’m tired a lot of the time.  Yet, Father, I believe nothing is too hard for You.  I want to start believing in faith that You will fill me with Your power this week and even this moment.  Help me to start speaking in faith.  Help me to guard my mouth and quit being negative and stop saying things that are and start saying things the way You see them — the way they could be.  By faith I’m going to start acting in faith this week.  Help me to love that person, not to wait for the feelings.  Help me to give and serve even when I don’t feel like it. I need your power Lord, In Jesus name, Amen.”

For more about the series God is, go to www.Ridgefellowship.com

Darrell

Look around you and see how vast this universe is that God has made. God is truly all powerful. The power of God is amazing and it has always been a wonder for me. I often look at the stars in the sky and am just amazed by God’s power. The Bible gives some great descriptions and verses about God’s great power.

God is all Powerful

1 Chronicles 29:11

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.  (NIV)

Matthew 19:26

But Jesus looked at them and said,  “With man this is impossible,

but with God all things are possible.”

2 Chronicles 20:6

You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.

Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. (NIV)

Job 12:13-15

“To God belong wisdom and power;

counsel and understanding are his.

¹⁴ What he tears down cannot be rebuilt;

the man he imprisons cannot be released.

¹⁵ If he holds back the waters, there is drought;

if he lets them loose, they devastate the land. (NIV)

Psalm 66:7

⁷ He rules forever by his power,

his eyes watch the nations–

let not the rebellious rise up against him. (NIV)

Strength from God

2 Corinthians 13:4

For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

1 Corinthians 6:14

And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

Ephesians 6:10

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

God is Mighty to Save

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save…

God’s Power Created Everything

Jeremiah 10:12

It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

Quote About God’s Power

“It is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself.”  — John Piper

I pray that these Bible verses about God’s power were what you needed to read today. God is all powerful and as followers of Christ we need to understand, believe it and live with faith. With God all things are possible.

Darrell  www.RidgeFellowship.com

Sources:

http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-god%e2%80%99s-power-15-great-scriptures/#ixzz23qONnVfi

 Read More at “What Christian’s Want to Know”:

Bible Verses About God’s Promises

Bible Verses About Generosity

(NIV) – The New International Version of the Bible

“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

Featured Bible Verse on God’s Love

 Romans 8:37-39 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s Love Shown Through Jesus Christ

 John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God. who loved me and gave himself for me.

Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, evenwhen we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—

1 John 4:9-11 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

God Loves and Cares For Us

Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

1 John 4:7-8  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 Peter 5:6-7  Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,  casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Job 34:19 who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor,  for they are all the work of his hands?

Psalm 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

What God Says About Love

 Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

Proverbs 8:17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

John 13:34-35  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Respond To God’s Love Through Thankfulness

 Psalm 136:26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Romans 5:2-5 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Colossians 2:6-7  Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.

Darrell www.RidgeFellowhship.com

For this and other other great articles check out What Christians Want to Know:

http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com

25 Bible Verses About Love– What does the Bible say about love? Check out these great scriptures and quotes.

1 Corinthians 13: Study on Love– A Bible study on one of the most talked about chapters relating to love.

20 Bible Verses About Hope– A great collection of verses for those seeking hope and encouragement.

“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”