Originally posted 10/21/25
As little children, we view our fathers as the smartest and strongest men of all. Many times it is stated on school playgrounds, “My daddy can beat up your daddy.” Little children think that their daddies can do it all.
Most people have heard that God is omnipotent. It is the third of the attributes that begin with “Omni”. Omnipotent means “almighty or infinite in power” as stated from dictionary.com. I am reminded of the phrase, “For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” from the song “Hallelujah Chorus”. I have been familiar with the term since I first sang that song in high school.
Gotquestions.org puts it this way, “The word omnipotent comes from omni- meaning “all” and potent meaning “power.” As with the attributes of omniscience and omnipresence, it follows that, if God is infinite, and if He is sovereign, which we know He is, then He must also be omnipotent. He has all power over all things at all times and in all ways.”
Arthur Pink states in his book, The Attributes of God, “We cannot have a right perception of God unless we think of Him as all-powerful, as well as all-wise. He who cannot do what he will and perform all his pleasure cannot be God. As God hath a will to resolve what He deems good, so has He power to execute His will.” p.49
In his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, Pink writes, “Omnipotence is not a name given to the sum of all power, but an attribute of a personal God we Christians believe to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of all who believe on Him to life eternal. The worshipping man finds this knowledge a source of wonderful strength for his inner life. His faith rises to take the great leap upward into the fellowship of Him who can do whatever He wills to do, for whom nothing is hard or difficult because He possesses power absolute. P. 102-103
Scripture speaks of God’s power in multiple places:
- Psalm 147:5 “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.”
- Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
- Numbers 11:23 “And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”
- Jeremiah 32:17 “’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.”
- Jeremiah 32:27 “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?”
- Romans 1:20 ”For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
- Ephesians 1:18-20 “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,”
- Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”
- 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 “in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began”
- Hebrews 6:18 “so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”
AW Pink in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, states, “Sovereignty and omnipotence must go together. One cannot exist without the other. To reign, God must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power. And that is what omnipotent means, having all power. The word derives from the Latin and is identical in meaning with the more familiar almighty which we have from the Anglo- Saxon. This latter word occurs fifty-six times in our English Bible and is never used of anyone but God. He alone is almighty.” P. 100
“God possesses what no creature can: an incomprehensible plenitude of power, a potency that is absolute. This we know by divine revelation, but once known, it is recognized as being in full accord with reason. Grant that God is infinite and self-existent and we see at once that He must be all-powerful as well, and reason kneels to worship before the divine omnipotence. Pink, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 100
Got questions states, “Nowhere is God’s omnipotence seen more clearly than in creation. God said, “Let there be…” and it was so (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, etc.). Man needs tools and materials to create; God simply spoke, and by the power of His word, everything was created from nothing. “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth” (Psalm 33:6).”
“God’s power is also seen in the preservation of His creation. All life on earth would perish were it not for God’s continual provision of everything we need for food, clothing and shelter, all from renewable resources sustained by His power as the preserver of man and beast (Psalm 36:6). The seas which cover most of the earth, and over which we are powerless, would overwhelm us if God did not proscribe their limits (Job 38:8-11).”
“God’s omnipotence extends to governments and leaders (Daniel 2:21), as He restrains them or lets them go their way according to His plans and purposes. His power is unlimited in regard to Satan and his demons. Satan’s attack on Job was limited to only certain actions. He was restrained by God’s unlimited power (Job 1:12; 2:6). Jesus reminded Pilate that he had no power over Him unless it had been granted to him by the God of all power (John 19:11).”
“Being omnipotent, God can do everything that is in harmony with His Holy character. The Bible reveals that He cannot do things which are contrary to His Holy character. For example, Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, and Hebrews 6:18 teach that He cannot lie. God lacks the ability to lie because lying is contrary to His moral perfection. In the same way, despite His being all-powerful and hating evil, He allows evil to happen, according to His good purpose. He uses certain evil events to allow His purposes to unfold, such as when the greatest evil of all occurred—the killing of the perfect, holy, innocent Lamb of God for the redemption of mankind.”
“As God incarnate, Jesus Christ is omnipotent. His power is seen in the miracles He performed—His numerous healings, the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44), calming the storm (Mark 4:37-41), and the ultimate display of power, raising Lazarus and Jairus’s daughter from the dead (John 11:38-44; Mark 5:35-43), an example of His control over life and death. Death is the ultimate reason that Jesus came—to destroy it (1 Corinthians 15:22; Hebrews 2:14) and to bring sinners into a right relationship with God. The Lord Jesus stated clearly that He had power to lay down His life and power to take it up again, a fact that He allegorized when speaking about the temple (John 2:19). He had power to call upon twelve legions of angels to rescue Him during His trial, if needed (Matthew 26:53), yet He offered Himself in humility in place of others (Philippians 2:1-11).”
I have quoted far more from other sources than I normally do. It wasn’t that I was tired and couldn’t think, but others said it so much better than I ever could.
What does this mean for us today? God’s power is complete and over everything else. Everything fails in comparison to God’s strength and power. We can trust and rely on our God who is limited by nothing as long as it aligns with his character. God spoke the world into existence and raised Jesus from the dead. He can certainly handle my problems.
Prayer
Precious Lord,
You spoke the world into existence. The wind and water obey your commands. How can I do anything but trust you? I love to control things in my circle. However, I know that you are so much better at it than I am. I completely trust your power for this world and for my life.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Link to other Attributes of God articles:
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