Tuesday, June 10, 2008

All Powerful

It's Vacation Bible Camp week here. (Bible camp is the best of Vacation Bible school and overnight camp combined. Our church mixed it up this summer, took the best of both and our kids are experiencing "Amazing Space" from 9:00-1:30 each day. THEY LOVE IT!)

Since this week is a little different for me, I'm going to post portions of my study on "All Powerful".

Stay Cool!!!!

ALL POWERFUL

Jer.32:17-18 says “Ah sovereign Lord you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm……NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR YOU.”

All Powerful. How I have grown to love these two words!

My God is All Powerful.

As I’ve reflected over them this week, two concepts have continued to come to mind. It was as if God orchestrated music, sermons, blog posts, and conversations to go right back to these two concepts. He has used every avenue He could to drive these two points home in my heart. What a Drama King!!! How I love Him.

First of all, I was reminded of the power of God’s Voice/ His Spoken Word.

Psalm 29: 4a says “The VOICE of the Lord is powerful.” The passage goes on to describe how His voice breaks cedars into pieces, and strikes with flashes of lightning. It tells us that His voice shakes the desert, twists the oaks and strips the forests bare! THAT is some power isn’t it!

The Power in the voice of our God is demonstrated in the very first words recorded in His precious Word to us. Gen. 1:3 “And God said….” (We also see those three words in Gen. 1:9, 1:11, 1:14, 1:20, 24, and verse 26) Each one of these verses shows that the mere sound of His voice is powerful enough to create our universe….from nothing!

He has the power to create and the power to control His creation.

“Quiet! Be Still!” Mark 4:35-41 recounts the time Jesus and his followers were on the boat. There was a horrible storm and his followers were terrified, all the while Jesus slept.

Those three words “Quiet! Be still!” was all it took for the wind and waves to calm down. As I faced a personal struggle in my life last week, I could hear the Holy Spirit say “Quiet, Be still Stephanie”. It wasn’t long that I realized the effect of my Savior’s word to my exhausted and weary soul. I (His creation) had not been tapping into the power source enough. He had to say BE STILL so that I would listen to Him. They were life-giving, power infusing words.

Jer.32 tells us that nothing is too hard for God. He created our universe with His spoken word and He can calm the wind and the rain by commanding them to be still! I’m in awe of Him!

There are so many accounts of Jesus healing the blind, the lame. We know He fed thousands with very little and we’ve already talked about that storm. We know He walked on water, but there are three accounts that never cease to amaze me.

The power of God’s voice to raise the dead and restore life

Do you remember Jairus’ daughter in Mark 5? Jairus had come to see Jesus to ask him to come and heal his dying daughter. He was absolutely desperate for Jesus to touch his baby girl.

He was delayed a bit by another lady we’ll talk about later in the week, and it wasn’t long until they received word that Jairus’ daughter had died. Ignoring those around them, Jesus and Jairus continue on to the house. Jesus says (Mark 5:41 “Little girl, I say to you, get up! And she did.

What about the official’s son in John 4:43-53. Remember that this son was very ill and close to death? Jesus simply spoke (vs. 50) to the father “You may go, your son will live.” From a distance the words Jesus spoke were powerful enough to restore life to that boy.

And then how can we forget Lazarus. He was deader than dead! (John 11) Jesus spoke and commanded Lazarus to come out of that grave.

Jesus used the power of the spoken Word when he faced the enemy in the desert. It was hard, but the power of that Word is so much more powerful than anything that enemy could throw at Jesus.

That is some pretty spectacular power isn’t it, and that is just the power of God Almighty’s voice! How I long for the time when we look into His eyes and hear the sound of His voice!

4 comments:

BethAnne said...

God is all powerful....the problem with His children is unbelief. WE say He is all powerful, but our lives show that we really dont believe it (or we believe He is all powerful for everyone except us). When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we get all of the Holy Spirit we will ever need which means we have the power of God in us......I'm afraid it's a teaching that the church as a whole does a poor job in communicating at times. People get saved and never fully realize the power of the Holy Spirit of God that lives nside them........Good word - thanks!

Carol said...

My hairs are standing up. God has been speaking to me for a couple of weeks now. I keep getting the same thing over and over. Just one word. I get it everywhere. POWER. And here I find it again today. I am sitting expectantly on the edge of my seat waiting for the Lord.

Leah Adams said...

God is more powerful that our teeny little minds can wrap themselves around and He longs to show HImself powerful on our behalf---if we will just believe Him. Thanks for some awesome thoughts!!

Leah

Heather said...

Thank you for this reminder. I have seen tons of HIS POWER today....and I am always humbled and thankful for those displays.
Hope you are having a great week!