Finding Refuge in God's Omnipotent Power

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Has it ever hit home to you what it means to say God who loved me and gave himself for me is Almighty? If we could live that Faith, what a revolution in our church, in our families, at our work it would be. Freedom, Joy, hope, power because the one who loved us and gave himself for us is infinite in power. [00:00:17]

Isn't it the case that very often when you're discouraged it gets darker and darker just before it gets brighter? Isn't it the case that the Knight seems to have the worst setback just before Deliverance comes? That's exactly what God allowed to happen for these people. Here comes the deliverer, he's right around the corner. [00:03:33]

God is saying now Yahweh is a greater name than God Almighty. It's a bigger name. It Embraces the old one and includes it. I've kept this privilege of knowing me as Yahweh I am who I am for you Moses and for the people at this particular time. [00:05:36]

The omnipotence of God implies that he does whatever he pleases. To put it positively, Psalm 115:3, our God is in heaven, he does whatever he pleases. Or Isaiah 46:9, I am God and there is none besides me, my counsel shall stand, I will accomplish all my purpose. [00:08:37]

Reverence is a foreign emotion to Fallen human beings. Very few people have tasted reverence. Is that true? If you consider God a pal or sidekick or grandfather or religious drug for the uneducated, you can't reverence God. There are a lot of affections that you can feel for a little God, reverence is not one of them. [00:14:40]

Reverence, I think, is a combination of admiration and fear, a combination of awe and Dread, a combination of Wonder and Terror. It's an emotion that we were made to experience. We long for it. Everybody Longs for it. Why else do people create and make millions on Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi? [00:15:37]

The omnipotence of God means recompense, a recompense of wrath upon those who do not believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus. There's a scene in The Book of Revelation that John paints for us, one of those terrible scenes. A white horse comes forth from Heaven and the rider is called faithful and true. [00:16:56]

If God is Almighty, people who resist him cannot succeed. He will crush them and soak his robes in their blood. But they seem to prosper, do they not? The unbelieving and the Arrogant, the hard of heart and the callous, they seem to prosper. But oh, the Bible is so clear in Psalm 73 what their latter end will be. [00:18:54]

The omnipotence of God means refuge for those who have accepted the terms of his treaty. He does hold out a treaty, this Warrior God, right up until the day you die. The treaty is there awaiting your signature. Psalm 91:1-2, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high who abides in the shadow of the almighty. [00:19:08]

Elizabeth Elliot wrote two years later, the world did not recognize the truth of the second Clause of Jim Elliot's Credo: he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. She called her book The Shadow of the Almighty from Psalm 91 verse one because she was absolutely convinced. [00:21:58]

The Refuge of the almighty is not a refuge from suffering or even murder. It is a refuge from final and ultimate defeat in the universe. It is a promise of final Victory. God did not exercise his omnipotence to deliver Jesus from the cross. He did not exercise his omnipotence to deliver Jim Elliott. [00:22:58]

The omnipotence of God is a refuge for his obedient people. Nothing that befalls you comes but by his ordination and afterward he will receive you to Glory. Almighty God and heavenly father, I yearn for this people and for myself. Oh, how I want more of you God, how I want more power, more faith, more purity. [00:23:10]

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