“Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:”
Jeremiah 32:17
At the foot of a mighty mountain, people gathered to gaze at the spectacle. A massive cloud unlike anything they’d seen before hung on the mountaintop. Thunder and lightning shattered the sky, and the mountain trembled. The trumpet blew, growing louder and louder as it reached a crescendo. “What is it?” children asked their parents, eyes round with wonder. “It is the Almighty,” their parents whispered. “Moses commanded us to be ready for His coming.”
The Israelites of Exodus 19 had the privilege of seeing God’s glory firsthand. And, today, though we rarely see mountaintop experiences, our God has not changed. He is the same almighty God as He was then. Today, let’s answer the question…
What is God’s omnipotence?
What does omnipotence mean?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, omnipotence means the quality or state of having “absolute power over all.” It means that God holds the keys to the universe. Nothing is beyond His power or authority.
-No army, however great, can halt His will.
-No politician, however evil, can thwart His plans.
-No organization, however influential, can prevent the spread of His kingdom.
However, God does allow His creatures to hold limited authority and exercise it as they see fit. A. W. Tozer explains how this does not diminish His own power:
“God has delegated power to His creatures, but being self-sufficient, He cannot relinquish anything of His perfections and, power being one of them, He has never surrendered the least iota of His power. He gives but He does not give away. All that He gives remains His own and returns to Him again.”
Why is God omnipotent?
In 2 Chronicles 20:6, King Jehoshaphat called out to God for help, saying, “And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?”
Jehoshaphat knew that, because God ruled over all the earth, He obviously had all power. Nothing less than omnipotence would be necessary to rule the nations. As Tozer wrote, “To reign, God must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power.”
As the psalmist wrote, “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” (Psalm 115:3) God’s sovereign rule and His omnipotence go hand in hand.
How is God’s omnipotence shown in nature?
Today, man looks at the orderly rhythm of nature and says, “I know the law of gravity is true. I believe in the laws of thermodynamics. And I’m amazed that birds and butterflies can migrate thousands of miles and survive.”
Yet, what he often fails to see is the almighty hand of God, shining through His creation. He has no eyes of faith to see the Creator.
Without God’s omnipotent power to sustain it, life on earth would wither and die. As Paul said in Acts 17:28, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being…” Each life is wrapped in God’s care, and each law of nature leans on His power.
As Tozer said so well, “The trustworthiness of God’s behavior in His world is the foundation of all scientific truth. Upon it the scientist rests his faith and from there he goes on to achieve great and useful things…”
At the local church’s prison ministry, we are thankful that God chose to reveal His power through creation.
What does God’s omnipotence mean for me?
To the believer, God’s omnipotence is a source of comfort. Recognizing that we are weak, we rejoice in His infinite power. We lay our weary heads upon the pillow of God’s omnipotence and trust Him.
When we are needy, we run to Christ. And, in His presence, we find courage and strength. And we echo the psalmist’s glad testimony, “In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.” (Psalm 138:3)
From these simple truths, we learn that our God is almighty. Nothing is too hard for Him. And, as His children, that means nothing is impossible when we trust Him. May these truths encourage us to trust and obey our Father. Join us at the local church’s prison ministry to learn more!
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Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy. Harper & Bros. 1961.
