Omnipotent is a word used to describe God and it simply means all powerful.

Of all of the things we could look at to discover what God is really like, I chose to start here because I want you to know one thing first and foremost:

God can.

If you’ve ever thought about, wondered about, or struggled with the question of God’s power, words like omnipotent don’t necessarily have the emotional weight you might be looking for. Chances are, you question God’s power because you want to know if God can do something specific.

• Can God heal my marriage/my child/my cancer/my mind?
• Can God bring peace overseas/with my in-laws/at work/to my spirit?
• Can God control the rain/the hurricane/the tornadoes/the drought?
• Can God provide financial help/power over my addiction/a job for my husband?
• Can God save me/my son/my sister/our nation?

When discussing God’s power, most people don’t care if He can control the universe, they just want to know if He can control their universe.

Can God? The answer is yes He can.

Consider these verses:

• Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible” (Matt. 19:26 NLT).
• The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command (Heb. 1:3a NLT).
• “Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You” (Jer. 32:17 NASB)

But God’s power is not just reserved for major trials, questions or needs. It’s actually evident in the small, everyday things that we’re so accustomed to that we brush them off as ordinary.

The truth is, there is nothing ordinary about the fact that you have breath. That the sun remains in its place. That rain falls. That your body can digest food, fight an infection, or grow a baby while you sleep.

The thing that looks ordinary and simple and, dare I say unimpressive, is really God’s great power at work.

What gets more press though are miracles – the things that God does which are outside of the natural laws of the universe. These are the things we like to talk about. These are the things we pray for. These are the times when we feel God really shows up!

• Creation. Awesome display of power.
• The virgin birth. Greatest miracle ever.
• Destruction of Jericho. Awesome!
• Calming the storm. So cool!

But when it comes to God’s power, miracles do not show a greater degree of God’s power. They just show God’s constant, unchanging, consistent power in a different way. Miracles are not difficult for God anymore than making grass grow is easy for Him. With God, there is no easy or difficult, no natural or miraculous.

There is only done or not done.

Another misconception comes into play however when we see things as not done. When God chooses not to calm the storm, delay death, or prevent disaster. It’s easy to think, “God didn’t do what I wanted Him to do, so that must mean that He can’t.”

It’s not that He can’t. It’s never that He can’t. It’s just that God has power over Himself too. We call this ability self control, and we usually think of it as something only we need. But God has it too. He has the power to control Himself so perfectly that He never does anything that contradicts His own nature or will.

But that’s another tangent entirely. And we’ll get to it. I promise. Just not yet.

 Let’s Talk! How have you struggled to understand or accept God’s omnipotence? Leave a comment.