By Wendy Wood
A.W. Tozer says, “Omnipotence means having all power”.
Heath Lambert says “Omnipotence means that God is able to do anything consistent with his desires as God”.
John MacArthur says “The omnipotence of God is His ability and strength to bring to pass whatsoever He pleases”.
When we talk to counselees or anyone about God’s power, we should include the absolute truth that while God is infinitely and completely powerful, He is also infinitely and completely wise and infinitely and completely good. He is all-knowing (which we will get to in a later blog) so as He exercises His power to bring about His will and purpose, we can trust that He will use His power according to His Holiness.
It’s important to include that God’s omnipotence is His ability to do whatever He pleases because there are things that God can’t do.
Numbers 23:19 “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
Titus 1:2 and Hebrews 6:18 also say that God cannot lie. God is holy, good, and righteous so His actions and words must be holy, good, and righteous too.
God cannot change. He is always, forever the same God. He does not give grace and then have less grace than before. He is grace. He does not do a mighty work and then lose strength or power. He is always the same because He is not made up of parts, but He is all His nature at all times.
Malachi 3:6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”
Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
God cannot be faithless or deny Himself. His faithfulness is holy, and morally perfect. He will always keep His word because He is the definition of faithful.
2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself”.
Scripture teaches that God’s omnipotence means His power and sovereignty reign supremely.
Isaiah 59:1 paints the picture of God’s arm being strong enough to accomplish His purpose and that He is powerful to hear His children.
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear”.
Jeremiah builds confidence in God's power that there is nothing we can face that is too difficult for God to handle. When we see His power demonstrated in speaking the universe into being, we rest in His power over all things.
Jeremiah 32:17 says “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you!”
Ephesians 3:20 says that God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.
God’s power is incomprehensible to us. We simply cannot even imagine what “all-powerful” truly means. But meditating on God’s omnipotence should lead us to worship Him and celebrate that the all-powerful God is FOR His children.
A few key scriptures for this attribute are:
Ephesians 1:11 reminds us that God uses His power to accomplish His purpose.
“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will”.
God never stops working all things according to His will. Every moment of every day, God is working every word and action in every person to accomplish His will. We see in scripture where God is powerful over people's hearts and uses even evil kings to bring about His will with His people. We see in the story of Joseph that God used Joseph’s sinful brothers selling him into slavery to preserve Israel by moving them to Goshen through Joseph being second in command in Egypt. We see God’s power to accomplish His will in using the Pharisees, Pilate, Herod, and Romans soldiers to crucify His Son as His plan of redemption is worked perfectly. All things are working according to the counsel of His will because He is all-powerful.
We see this again in Psalm 33:10-11 says “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.”
Job 42:2 says “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
God is all-powerful and no one and nothing can alter or change or prevent God’s plan.
Psalm 115:3 “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”
There are so many verses in the Bible that talk about God’s omnipotence and ability to do all He pleases to carry out His will perfectly.
If there is something that God cannot do or if there is something that can thwart His plan, He is not God. God’s omnipotence is essential to His being.
An omnipotent God is the only One able to fulfill all His promises. Despite a counselee’s circumstances, their weakness or inability, or the schemes of the Devil, God is all powerful and will fulfill His purpose. This should bring tremendous comfort to every counselee.
God’s power matched with His holiness means that His purpose is always perfect and, however a counselee may be suffering, they can rest in God’s ability to use each situation to His glory the counselee’s good in conforming the counselee to the image of Christ.
God is powerful over human hearts. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”
When a counselee is dealing with a difficult person in their life they can trust that nothing is happening outside of God’s will. Even when someone is sinning against our counselees, God is still more powerful than that person and God’s will will always prevail.
Job 42:2 that God can do anything and nothing can thwart his plan is again helpful for all counselees. There is no boss, child, spouse, illness or situation that is more powerful than God. He will truly use “all things” to fulfill His purpose as Ephesians 1:11 and Romans 8:28-29 state.
Let’s encourage our counselees to celebrate God’s omnipotence. They can find rest for their souls as they depend on God's power and not their own. They can trust that God has the ability to bring about His perfect plan and purpose. There is nothing more powerful than God, not a hurricane or tornado, not a virus or cancer cell, not a spouse or boss. God is powerfully working His plan at all times.
Isaiah 46:10-11 says, “for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it”