Increasing Knowledge of God's Power

In order to fight fear with trust in God, we have to know more about who God is--or more accurately, we have to remind ourselves what we have already heard and believe it. We'll start by looking at four facets of God's power and how they work together.

Show Notes:

We have been talking about fear and anxiety and how to battle them in our everyday life. One of the things we've learned is that fear is the opposite of trust. If we could completely trust God in every moment with everything, we would not experience fear anymore. However, here is where we find ourselves with a problem. We can't just decide to trust God more. Trust is built on knowledge and experience. The more we know and experience a person or thing, the more we can choose to trust it or them.

If I sit down in a chair without thinking twice, it is because I have made the decision to trust that it will hold me, but I have made that decision based on my knowledge of its structure and past performance. I trusted it, and then I proved that trust by sitting in it. Now if the chair does not have a good track record or looks unsafe, I can't force myself to trust it fully unless it's fixed or proven to be safe. I can force myself to sit in it, but it will be with a dose of caution and fear because I do not trust it.

Trust is also easier to destroy than it is to build. We all know how one bad experience can change the way we see things and ruin our trust. One bloody encounter with a dog can make us fear all dogs. One relative in a plane crash could cause us to decide never to fly again.

Trust in God works the same way. Until our knowledge and experience with Him increases, we will not trust Him more. Additionally, if we have a faulty view of God—like one that says He must protect us and those we love from all harm—one negative medical test result or car crash can bring our trust in God crashing down.

So the real problem in combating fear seems to be that we do not know enough about God. Though it might also be accurate to say that we do not actually believe everything we have heard is true about Him. Even if we believed and acted on certain truths about God in the past, we may not anymore. Our fallen human nature has an annoying way of throwing out truth when we're not looking and replacing it with lies. Where once we believed God was loving and attentive, now we perceive Him as distant and indifferent to our lives. This is often an unconscious shift. If asked, we would say that of course we believe God cares about us. But like we talked about several weeks ago, we always live what we believe. So our behavior has become fearful, then we need to evaluate if we really believe what the Bible says about who God is.

In order to help us better understand the character of God as it relates to fear, I want to focus on two larger facets of who He is—His power and His love. If we are to place our trust in God, we must know that He is both capable of handling anything in our lives and caring enough to keep our best interests at heart. Our God is both these things, but you don't have to just take my word for it. Let's see what the Bible has to say.

One of my summers on staff at a camp was spent as a counselor. Over the course of the summer, I had over seventy campers come through my cabin. Some of those kids were from great homes and Bible-believing churches. Others came from rough backgrounds and were going back to a place with no church support and families who didn't know Christ.

While they were in my care, I had influence in their lives. I could speak truth to them and answer their tough questions. When they went home, however, sometimes I was afraid for them. What if they fell away from Christ? What if those who were supposed to be caring for them ended up hurting them instead? Sometimes I thought it would be easier if I could just keep them all, but I knew that wasn't practical. I had to trust in God's power to care for them as He knew they needed. I had to trust God's omnipotence.

"Omnipotence" is a fancy word that means "all-powerful." The Bible is full of examples of God's power, starting with Creation. Genesis 1:3 says, "Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." God spoke light into existence, and He didn't stop there. By the word of His mouth, He created everything that is, apart from Adam and Eve, whom He formed out of dust and a rib, respectively.

In the book of Job, after Job has tried to show his own innocence and vindicate himself before God and his friends, he is confronted by God. God asks Job a lengthy series of lofty questions designed to humble him, and it works. Job's response in chapter 42 begins with this, "I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted." That's power. Sometimes I wish I could make anything I want happen, then I realize that a world following my every whim would definitely end in disaster.

In Numbers 11, God promises to bring meat for the wandering people of Israel, enough for a whole month. Moses doubts that it is possible, but God answers him, saying, "Is the Lord's power limited? You will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you." God comes through with quail, just as He promised.

Daniel 2:21-22 is a portion of Daniel's prayer of praise to God for revealing the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

"[God] changes the times and seasons;

He removes kings and establishes kings.

He gives wisdom to the wise

and knowledge to those

who have understanding.

He reveals the deep and hidden things;

He knows what is in the darkness,

and light dwells with Him."

God's power and control extends even to weather, rulers, and knowledge. Take a moment to think about that. What do you control? How much power do you have? Can you make your phone charge by thinking about it? Can you convince the gas in your tank to last you until the next gas station? Can you make your children or siblings obey you? Can you prevent your hair from turning gray? Can you keep a deer from jumping out in front of your car? Can you keep your nail polish from chipping? We like to think that we have control, but we really don't. Our power is so limited.

Speaking about how difficult it is for rich men to be saved, Jesus says in Matthew 19:26, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Based on the other passages we've explored, we can safely apply this to more than just salvation. God is capable of anything. He wields unimaginable power, enough to speak galaxies into existence and radically change the lives of sinners.

So that's God's omnipotence, the fact that He has the power to do anything He wants at any time. Let's look at another facet of God's power.

I don't know about you, but I often wonder what my life will hold in the future. A few years ago, I had no idea what I was supposed to do with my life or what my next steps should be. I was so scared to make a wrong move and step outside the will of God that I was paralyzed. I thought that in order to choose the next thing, I had to have a significant part of my life planned, but that was impossible because I didn't know everything that was going to happen. My mind just kept going in circles trying to figure it out. What I didn't realize was that God has always had a plan for my life, but He doesn't reveal the whole thing at once. I don't have to have my whole life figured out, because He does. I just have to trust Him and listen for the next thing I have to do. I have to trust His omniscience.

If God is omniscient, it means that He knows all things across all time. There is nothing beyond the scope of God's knowledge, and nothing and no one can outsmart Him or keep a secret from Him. 1 John 3:20 says that God "knows all things." He has known them for all time. As a finite human, my knowledge and memory are so small. I have to set alarms to remind myself to do all kinds of things, even things I enjoy and want to do.

Isaiah 40:13-15 says:

"Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,

or who gave Him His counsel?

Who did He consult with?

Who gave Him understanding

and taught Him the paths of justice?

Who taught Him knowledge

and showed Him the way of understanding?

Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are considered as a speck of dust in the scales;

He lifts up the islands like fine dust."

Just think about that for a moment. I am a learner. I pride myself in the things I know and am constantly trying to learn new things. I will never come remotely close to having as much knowledge as God has. If God's knowledge could be measured and represented as all the grains of sand on the earth, my knowledge would not even be equivalent to one atom of one grain of sand.

While teaching his disciples to fear God and not men, Jesus says, "Aren't two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's consent" (Matt. 10:29). This speaks to both God's power and His omniscience. He not only knows when sparrows die, but He also has to give permission for it to happen.

David says of God in Psalm 139:1-6:

"Lord, You have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I stand up;

You understand my thoughts from far away.

You observe my travels and my rest;

You are aware of all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue,

You know all about it, Lord.

You have encircled me;

You have placed Your hand on me.

This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me.

It is lofty; I am unable to reach it."

In 1 Kings 8:39, Solomon says of God, "You alone know every human heart." It is one thing to know statistics and historical facts; it is quite another to know the intimate thoughts and feelings of each person to ever live—including you and me. That is how far God's knowledge goes.

What's another way God is powerful?

As I'm writing this, some of my friends just landed in Haiti, and a few more are headed out this weekend. Haiti has had a lot of civil unrest recently, and their trip was postponed from February to now. Even though things seem to have settled down, the US government has not lifted the travel advisory for Haiti. This means that if something does happen while they're there, getting help from our government is complicated. In order to not be anxious for them, it helps to remind myself that the same God who is present with me in the States is also present with them in Haiti. I have to remember that God is omnipresent.

The omnipresence of God means that He is in all places at all times. This is not like when you and I try to multitask, and each thing we are doing only gets a small piece of our attention. God is fully present everywhere. He is present and available with me as I type this, as He is with my friend in Pennsylvania, my cousin across the country, and my friend in the other room. This also does not mean that He is small enough to be contained by the walls of my bedroom but has managed to replicate Himself so as to be in multiple places at once. God cannot be measured as we measure matter.

David continues in Psalm 139:7-12 with these words:

"Where can I go to escape Your Spirit?

Where can I flee from Your presence?

If I go up to heaven, You are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.

If I live at the eastern horizon

or settle at the western limits,

even there Your hand will lead me;

Your right hand will hold on to me.

If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me,

and the light around me will be night'—

even the darkness is not dark to You.

The night shines like the day;

darkness and light are alike to You."

God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere present. What else?

In October of 2011, I began thinking about what position I would be interested in pursuing the next summer at camp. Through a series of events, I determined that God was calling me to a particular position at the camp I had grown up attending and working at. I went after it but was turned down. I was so sure that this was where God wanted me that I didn't pursue any other position for the summer but kept waiting to hear that they had changed their minds about me. It sounds silly now, but I have hardly ever been so convinced of where I was supposed to be than then.

About two weeks before camp started, I still didn't have a job for the summer, and I needed one. My aunt called and told me about a position at a camp near her that had been posted in their church bulletin. I called about it and was told that the position had been filled and was never supposed to have been posted in the bulletin. Desperate, I asked if there were any other positions available. He said there was one spot left.

I came to this new camp that summer as the breakfast/lunch cook. My plan was to work for three months and make some money. I didn't want to form attachments or lasting connections. I was angry that I wasn't at the camp I loved, and I didn't understand why God would bring me to this new place that I didn't know.

What I didn't realize was that it was there that God would introduce me to a nine-month internship designed to help me understand my identity in Christ and God's purpose for my life. It was there that God transformed a scared and scarred, timid girl into a woman after His own heart.

God never intended for me to get that position at the camp I had always worked at, but He put that desire in my heart to lead me to something far better. I never would have voluntarily left that camp for another; I was very loyal to my roots and scared to try anything else. God knew that, and He knew that I needed that internship, and through His sovereignty, He led me right where I needed to go.

The three characteristics of God's power that we have talked about combine into what we call the sovereignty of God—that because God knows all things, is all-powerful, and is everywhere present, He makes all things take place as He has planned them and for His purposes. Because of God's sovereignty, nothing is pointless; everything works for His glory. Isaiah 48:9-11 shows how zealous God is for His own glory. Notice how many times He says things like "for My name" or "for My praise":

"I will delay My anger for the honor of My name,

and I will restrain Myself for your benefit and for My praise,

so that you will not be destroyed.

Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

I will act for My own sake, indeed, My own,

for how can I be defiled?

I will not give My glory to another."

God speaks to Israel in Isaiah 46:8-11 saying:

"Remember this and be brave;

take it to heart, you transgressors!

Remember what happened long ago,

for I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and no one is like Me.

I declare the end from the beginning,

and from long ago what is not yet done,

saying: My plan will take place,

and I will do all My will.

I call a bird of prey from the east,

a man for My purpose from a far country.

Yes, I have spoken; so I will also bring it about.

I have planned it; I will also do it."

What God sets in motion, no one can stop. What Satan and men plan for evil, God turns to his own purposes, just like the story of Joseph. That is power like no one else possesses. Such is the power of our God. Next week we are going to talk about the attribute of God's love and answer the objection that 'if God is so powerful and loving, how does He allow bad things to happen to good people?'. I hope you'll join me then.