The Power of God - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, March 27th. God is all-powerful, and if you carry that thought with you, it should change the way you live. Here's more on the character of God. When God revealed himself to Abraham in the 17th chapter of Genesis, listen to what he said. When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared unto Abram and said unto him, I am the almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect. Now when he said almighty God, what he was simply saying is this, I am the God of all might and of all power.

Therefore he could say to him, walk before me and be thou perfect. Our estimation, our concept of God will govern our actions and our attitudes. What I think of God will allow certain things in my life, and my estimation of God will remove certain activities or attitudes from my life.

So that we can just about tell what each other thinks about God by the way we live. When a man understands that God is holy, something will happen to his life. When he understands that God is omniscient, something will happen in his life. When he understands that God is omnipresent, you'll see a difference in the actions of his life. When a man comes into the reality to believe that almighty God is all powerful, you're going to see something happen in that person's life.

Now watch this. It is one thing to assent intellectually to the fact that the scripture that God is omnipotent, it is something else to emotionally believe in your heart that God is an omnipotent almighty God. That means that God can do anything he wants to, anywhere he wants to, anytime he wants to, without any reservation or any hesitation or any resistance from anyone else. When we say that God can do all things that are in keeping with his moral attributes, that puts no human limitation upon God. To say that God is omnipotent says that within the self-existent being of God, and that's what the word Yahweh means, Jehovah, that he's self-existent. That means he's dependent upon no one at any time for anything, which says to us that all power within God is generated from God and is not dependent upon anything else.

Because he's self-existent, he leans upon no one and looks to no one for anything. For example, the scripture says, by the word of God, the worlds came into being. He spoke and the very word of God, listen, when omnipotent God said, out in nothing, let there be light. Light came.

Where did it come from? It came and its source was from the mouth of a holy, righteous, omnipotent God. He spoke and the worlds were framed.

God is the creator, but likewise, the scripture says that not only has he created the world, he sustains it. Now scientists tell us all about the laws that govern this universe. Who put the laws into action? Where do the laws originate? Where do we find the source of the mere law of gravitation? Did man think that up? He may have thought up the name, but who put the activity in motion? God did it. When you look out on a beautiful starlit night when there is no moon showing or shining very brightly, and you may just look up into the heavens and see hundreds and millions and billions of stars, we don't see that many, we just know they're out there.

What makes one stay in a certain orbit and not run into the other one? How do you and I account for the perfect design, and not only is the design created, but it is constantly sustained? God is sovereign. God is in control. And my friend, if God is not omnipotent, all of us are in trouble.

It is his unlimited power that is available to his children. And we walk around like we're just scared to death and we're subject to the world. We're the sons and the daughters of an omnipotent king.

And we act like frightened children, not knowing where we're going. Listen, we ought in a very humble sort of way, in a humble sort of way, walk and stand before God with all the humility of our soul. You and I are the servants and the children of the king who has all power at his fingertips and all the answers to speak.

And whatever he wants can take place. Well, you and I could talk about all the miracles in the Bible, the raising of Lazarus, all the rest. But you know, one of the great things is the fact that you and I experience more than we realize the omnipotence of God in our daily life.

I think of all the things in your life and mine. Let me ask you something. Who could save you except God?

Nobody. When it comes to saving a man's soul, it takes the omnipotence of God to do it. Only God can do that. When he says, for example, that he makes us a new creature, who can make a new creature. Let's take, for example, here's a 60 year old man who's lived 60 years in disobedience and defiance to the will of God. He drops upon his knees at this altar and crying out to God to save him and forgive him of his sin. Listen, can you tell me where is there a man? Where is there a preacher or a healer or a philosopher who can do one thing for that man apart from the supernatural power of God to forgive him of his sin and write his name in the Lamb's book of life?

Not a man. God in his omnipotence does what? He always works from the heart of love. He's God omnipotent. But now let's get around to you and me because the omnipotence of God is going to declare itself in three areas of our life.

Now I want you to get these down. The first one is in our prayer life. Now you look at your prayer life for a moment, I'll tell you how much you believe in the omnipotence of God. If you believe that God has no limitations upon him, that he is the self-existent source of all the power that there is in existence, when you and I come to God, we ought to come to him with confidence, with boldness, not with a thimble, but we ought to have a million gallon barrel waiting for God to do something. God specializes in things that seem impossible.

He knows a thousand ways to make a way for you and me. And the reason the work of God drags in this world is because the people of God are not convinced of the omnipotence of God and that that omnipotence is available to man. I do not mean that man becomes omnipotent. But this absolute inexhaustible resource of supernatural power, God is willing to do what? He's willing to turn that into your life and my life if we're willing to ask him. Now listen, why should God give you a big infusion of supernatural power if you're not going to do anything for him anyway? Why should God turn on the faucet of supernatural power in the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ today when people sit in the pews, listen to sermons and have no earthly idea that their commission is to change this world for God?

Why should he do it? Omnipotent. Listen, watch this. If you really believe that God is all powerful, you'll spend a whole lot more time praying than you've been praying. So first of all, it'll be demonstrating our prayer life and secondly, in the pathway of our daily life.

And that's what I'm talking about. The way you live every day. One of my favorite passages, Psalm 71.

Look there for just a moment. I love this because I think here is the expression of a man. Before he died, he wanted God to express his power in his life. Verse 15 through 18. My mouth shall show forth our righteousness and our salvation all the days for I know not the numbers there are.

I will go in the strength that is the power of the Lord God. I will make mention of our righteousness even of mine only. Oh God, thou has taught me from my youth and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now watch verse 18. Now also when I am old and gray headed, oh God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength under this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come. I believe that ought to be the prayer of every believer.

Lord God, let me live long enough that the power of God, the strength of God, the almighty resource of supernatural power might be demonstrated in their lives one way or the other. And you see here's what happens. We get in this pressurized content of the world and we look to see what the world has to offer and what the world has to say and what they think and what they are doing and what do we do instead of stepping out of that and say, Lord, what do you want me to do? We just get right in step. We watch the world and we're walking the way they're walking.

What are we going to do? We're going to walk in weakness and disintegration. God wants us to walk in his supernatural power. Listen, if the world is ever going to turn to God, they're not going to turn to God because we talk about God.

They're going to turn to God because they see the evidence of the supernatural in your life and my life. So first of all, our prayer life, the pathway of our daily life, the last thing is our performance. Now listen, God never intended for you and me to do anything in our strength.

Now I'm a good example of the wrong way to do some things. And for three months I had to get myself back together physically because without realizing what I was doing, I began to run in the energy of Charles Stanley and that doesn't go for very long. Six times a week I was preaching, doing all the things that I was doing, but somewhere along the way it got to be my energy. And I'm here to tell you, I can tell you exactly what happened. You just come to the point that it all, it's all gone and you're lying flat on your back looking up like I've preached to you. And there I was saying, Lord, what do I do now?

And he probably said, I've been waiting to see how long it was going to take you to get to this spot. You know what I thought about? I thought about London Hospital, John 15.

Look at it if you will. He says in verse five, talking about abiding in the Lord and in the vine, I am the vine, ye are the branches. Verse five, he that abideth in me, living in me and resting in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. That is as long as he is the source of our energy and our strength and our power, much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing.

See, it's hard for us to believe that. Without me, you can do nothing. Now listen, whatever God requires of us, God is committed to giving us the energy and the power to do it. You take on more than God wants you to take on, you have no promise to have supernatural energy to do what God didn't intend you to do. So you see, sometime we'll grab that verse and we say, oh, I can do anything. That's right, anything it is the will of God for us to do. But outside the will of God, we run in our own energy and our own strength.

And after a while, we fall flat on our face. Now listen, if you think about the omnipotence of God for a moment and think about several verses here. The Great Commission, let's turn that just a moment because you know the last two verses. It's that 18th verse I want you to notice for just a moment. Matthew 28. Remember that our Lord is giving his last word of instruction to his disciples. Let's start with verse 16.

Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, very important, we remember this, all power. That means he is omnipotent, is given unto me in heaven. My word is the last word in earth.

My word is the last word. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Then he said, Go ye therefore and make disciples. Turn to Acts chapter one, verse eight.

You know it by heart, but I want you to read it a minute. He has given to all of us the Great Commission. But likewise, he's given to all of us a ministry and the service and the vocation or to some of family, whatever it might be. But he says in verse eight, But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye should be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth.

And what does he say? That because he has saved us and because he has commissioned us and you see, you are under commission. He says, As you go, make disciples one who is proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ by the way that we live and the words that we speak. All of us are ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As you go, he said, make disciples.

What was he saying? All of the power you need to obey me and to fulfill my purpose for your life and for the kingdom. I will bestow upon you. And he put it even clearer in Acts one, he said, and ye shall receive what power. Now, what kind of power is that?

Now watch this. What kind of power did he promised to you and to me? He did not promise human generated power. He promised to infuse us with the super natural omnipotence of God. All of the power that is within us to serve him is a part of God's omnipotence. What I'm saying to you is this within you, the power of God is in operation. Look in Ephesians chapter three for a moment.

And you see, we forget this. We look up there and say, Oh God, all of his omnipotence. But look within because listen to what he says in Ephesians chapter three. Well, let's start in verse 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts. How by faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend fully understand with all the saints.

What is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge that you might be filled. Listen, watch this a believer filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think according to the what the power that worketh in us. Listen, when you became a Christian, the Holy Spirit came into your life.

He set up housekeeping and he will stay there forever. Listen, he says the power of the Holy Spirit is indwelling you. That means that the super natural power of God is indwelling every single believer that is a portion of God's omnipotence is within you and me to serve him to obey him and to walk in his will. I'll tell you, we ought to throw our shoulders back in our head up high, not to be cocky, not to be proud, not to be egotistical, but my friend to face this unbelieving belligerent warring world who understands nothing but power. Look them square in the eye with love in our heart and know that there is not one single force in the universe that can defeat a child of God walking in the will of God and tapped into the supernatural power of God and by faith, believing God for that power. Your prayer life, your daily pathway and your performance as a believer is determined by your understanding and application of the omnipotence of God. Thank you for listening to The Power of God. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.