Every Christian at one point or another in their walk with Christ will encounter the suspicions of a non-believer. They will hear the questions of the doubtful who wonder whether the God we worship is as powerful as we claim He is, as His Word says He is. Ever examine the followers of religions? Ever listen to the conviction with which they defend their religion? We are meant to have the same conviction accompanied by love proving nothing is too hard for an omnipotent God.

Those asking you how they can be sure your God is all-powerful will first want to know you believe it and exemplify it. How can you have faith in the truth that is His power?

Ask yourself: Is there anything too hard for God? How can you be sure there isn’t?

God's Fourfold Power

How do we know God is powerful? If we were appearing before a jury to convince them of the power of God, what evidence would we bring? The demonstrations of God’s power are as infinite as His power itself, but since we don’t have an infinite number of pages in this book, I’ll only mention four.

First, I would point the jury of humanity to the power of God in creation. This is the way the apostle Paul began his arguments in the book of Romans. He said all the world is guilty because the power of God is visible to all the world through the created order. Romans 1:19-20 says: “What may be known about God is plain …. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (NIV).

As I studied this in Scripture, I was genuinely surprised to see how many biblical passages speak of this. According to Genesis 1, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (verse 3).

God spoke the world into existence, and His power was conveyed by the simple syllables He spoke. Psalm 33 says, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth … He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (verses 6-9).

The existence, immensity, and complexity of the universe is indisputable evidence for the omnipotence of God. The heavens declare the glory of God! By looking into the stellar sky, we can learn many facts about God. Since the universe appears almost limitless in extent, the First Cause—God—must be virtually infinite. Since the universe appears almost endless in duration, He must be virtually eternal. Since the universe is phenomenally complex and contains intelligent life, God must be omniscient. Since the universe contains feelings and emotions and love and human relations, its Creator must be personal. Since the universe contains goodness and righteousness and love and justice, He must be moral. And since the universe pulsates with energy, He must be omnipotent.¹

This was God’s answer to Job as he tried to grapple with all his sufferings. The Lord appeared to him saying, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements?” Job 38:4-5)

In response, Job simply put his hand over his mouth (Job 40:4). Job had no answer, overwhelmed by the omnipotent power of Him who was coming, in due time, to his rescue. The book of Hebrews speaks of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, “through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2).

While researching this chapter, I came across a picturesque perspective from the pen of William Law, an eighteenth-century English clergyman: “What an immense workman is God, in miniature as well as in the great. With the one hand, perhaps, He is making a ring of one hundred thousand miles in diameter, to revolve round a planet like Saturn, and with the other is forming a tooth in the ray of the feather of a hummingbird, or a point in the claw of the foot of a microscopic insect. When He works in miniature, everything is gilded, polished, and perfect.” ²

I cannot comprehend the creative brilliance of God in vast measurements or in miniature. With one hand, as it were, God flings the stars into the immensity of space, and with the other He fashions the tiny feathers of a hummingbird. No wonder we love the hymn that says:

I sing the mighty power of God,
that made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad,
and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained
the sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at God’s command,
and all the stars obey.

If I were trying to convince a jury of God’s power, I would point them to His creative omnipotence, and then I would talk about His sustaining power. The God who created the universe also keeps it going. Isaiah 40 says, “Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing” (Isaiah 40:26).

Jeremiah 10:13 tells us, “When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses” (NIV). Jeremiah was speaking poetically, but truthfully, telling us of a God who watches over His creation and still holds the world in the palm of His hand.

Psalm 104 speaks of this, and it’s an excellent passage to take with you when you go hiking or camping or walking through mountains and valleys, for it celebrates God’s continual watch-care over His creation. It’s one of the original, biblical creation hymns, praising God for His omnipotent power displayed in His creation. It says, in part:

He sends the springs into the valleys;
They flow among the hills.
They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst ….
He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the service of man,
That he may bring forth food from the earth,
And wine that makes glad the heart of man,
Oil to make his face shine,
And bread which strengthens man’s heart ….
O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all ….
These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season …
You renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
May the Lord rejoice in His works.

What would happen if for a single moment Almighty God withdrew His hand from the universe? It would fly off into oblivion and chaos. It would collapse like a building imploding. The God who created the universe is the One, according to the New Testament, “in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17). He is the glue that holds it together. He is the God who preserves the world in which we live. He is power. He is power. He is power.

And, of course, if He sustains His universe, how much more does He sustain His own people who are in the universe. He knows how to care for you and keep you going. Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you.”

During a very difficult time in his life, David wrote, “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me” (Psalm 3:5). Psalm 18:35 says, “Your right hand sustains me” (NIV). And Psalm 54:4 says, “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me” (NIV). And I especially like Isaiah 46:4 which says, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (NIV).

God’s endless energy and omnipotent power radiates from the everlasting arms beneath you. If you feel overwhelmed with life, think of these verses. Ponder them. Pray them. Claim them. And let God’s power lift you, sustain you, and strengthen you as He has promised.

Hebrews 1:3 says of Jesus, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (NIV).

Now, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let me present another category of evidence for the omnipotence of God. Not only do we see His power in how He has created the universe and is sustaining His creation. We see it vividly in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:4 says Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power … by the resurrection from the dead.” The apostle Paul describes this in Ephesians 1 in a very applicative way, praying that our eyes would be open to see “his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:18-21, NIV).

I’m struck by that unexpected verb exerted. As I’ve already said, one thing is as easy for God as another. Yet to help us understand the tremendous undertaking of the Resurrection of Christ, Paul said God exerted His strength.

God, by His exerted power, reversed the process of death, overturned the processes of decay, caused a silent heart to beat again, made our Lord’s closed eyes to open again, His lifeless corpse to walk again. But there’s so much more. Jesus didn’t simply return to life. He wasn’t merely resuscitated. He was resurrected with a glorified body, one incapable of aging, pain, sickness, or death. He was resurrected with an eternal body, which, according to Philippians 3:20-21, serves as a prototype for our own resurrected bodies.

In raising Christ from the grave and transforming His body for eternity, God was exerting His strength. He displayed His omnipotence in the very center of human history.

There’s a fourth way I want to demonstrate God’s omnipotence to our assembled jury. Not only can we see God’s creative power, His sustaining power, and His resurrection power, we also see the transforming power of the Gospel. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”

Let me give you one case to consider. Some years ago, a boy named Jimmy, who grew up on an Indiana farm, fell into the sordid world of drugs. He moved to Chicago and lived in holes beneath the streets where he feasted on an endless supply of heroin, opium, cocaine, and morphine. His nickname became “Jimmy the Rat.”

One day while lying in a filthy bunk below the level of the street, Jimmy heard someone singing hymns on the street above. He recalled the songs he’d sung in church as a boy and something stirred in him. Shortly afterward, he staggered into the Pacific Garden Mission, where he heard more singing. Holding up both hands, he called out, “I want somebody to pray for me!”

Mission workers gathered around and earnestly prayed as he gave his life to the Lord, and Jimmy’s life was changed forever. By God’s grace he was able to overcome his addictions. He returned to Indiana and became a successful farmer with a Christian wife and children. He often shared his testimony of God’s saving grace, and his children were heard to say in their family prayers, “Thank God for Pacific Garden Mission where daddy learned to know Jesus.” ³

Every Christian has a unique testimony. Yours may not seem as dramatic as Jimmy the Rat’s, but it’s just as real and just as glorious, and the change should be just as lasting. Every Jesus-follower is Exhibit A to the world of the transforming power of the Gospel and the omnipotent grace of God.

1. This observation was made by Henry Morris in Many Infallible Proofs (San Diego: CLP Publishers, 1974), 101-104.
2. Quoted in Forty Thousand Quotations, edited by Charles Noel Douglas (London: George G. Harrap & Co., 1917), 848.
3. Carl F. H. Henry, The Pacific Garden Mission (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1942), 80-82.