Part II in A Spirit of Fear Series
Having received a firmer concept of God’s extraordinary love for us, we can now dwell on His complementary characteristic: His overwhelming power.
Ps 62:11 (Amplified) God has spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongs to God.
Please notice that this next verse starts with the word “surely” – that word is one of the most emphatic in the Bible. It means absolutely sure:
Is 14:24,27 The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, ‘Surely, as I have thought and planned, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand…For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? And His Hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? (answer, no one).
Is 55:11 So shall My Word be that goes forth out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void – without producing any effect- but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose.
Is 41:10 Fear not; for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties; yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My victorious right hand of rightness and justice.
All of Isaiah 40 emphasizes the magnificent power of God in every small and mighty thing.
Jeremiah 32:17 Ah, Lord God! Behold Thou hast made heaven and earth. By Thy great power and outstretched arm, there is nothing too hard for Thee.
Daniel 4: 34-35 …and I praised and honored and glorified Him Who lives forever, Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing in comparison to Him, and He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stop His hand or say to Him, What are you doing?
Job 42: 1-2 Then Job said to the Lord, ‘I know that You can do ALL things and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted or stopped.
See also Psalms 29, 54, 62, 65, 68, 71, 91, 104, 121, 139.
Having read those verses, I want you to try to think of any situation or creature – earthly or supernatural – over which God does not have all power always. I want you to go back to the very beginning of eternity past and realize Who simply had to say one word – Light (Genesis 1:3) – and I frankly don’t think He had to say it very loud – and everything was formed. I want you to think on the fact that on the day of His choosing He will blow a trumpet and it all will be over. Beginning to end and all the days in between belong to Him and so do all the people who inhabit this earth. He is in total control.
ALL power belongs to God. With everything that Job went through he was not under Satan’s attack; it was all by the initial command of God. Job 1:8 explicitly tells us that it was God Who started the conversation with Satan about Job and it was God in all the subsequent verses Who set the boundary lines. How then can we fear if we know that everything in our lives is ultimately in God’s control?
The beauty of the Amplified version of the Bible is that it magnifies – amplifies – the meaning of a verse to such a degree that you cannot miss what it is trying to convey. The following verse is a perfect example of this:
Hebrews 13:5 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)
…for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]
He always has a purpose for what He does – it is never a whim – and it is always for our good.
Ro 8:28 We are assured that ALL things work together for GOOD to those who love God and are called according to His design and purpose.
Gen 50:20 As for you (our enemies), you thought evil against me; but God meant it for GOOD.
2 Cor 4: 17 -18 (LB) These troubles and sufferings of ours are, after all, quite small and won’t last very long. Yet this short time of distress will result in God’s richest blessings upon us forever and ever!
Or, if you prefer the Amplified Version:
2 Corinthians 4:17 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)
17 For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease]
These verses in 2Corinthians 4 are some of my favorite verses, and there is a great deal of much deeper meaning to them as you study the original words that I’ll share with you when we cover trials and suffering in future months. They show God’s purpose in our lives but also give us the right perspective in our troubles.
2 Timothy 1:9 (LB) It is He Who saved us and chose us for His holy work, not because we deserved it but because that was His plan long ago before the world began – to show His love and kindness to us through Christ.
See how He really has planned it all out and how that plan is absolutely for good!
Look back up at Is 14 and notice the words “purposed” and “planned.” He leaves nothing to chance.
Ps 12: 5-8 (LB) The Lord says, ‘I will arise and defend the oppressed, the poor, the needy. I will rescue them as they have longed for Me to do. The Lord’s promise is sure. He speaks no careless words. All He says is purest truth like silver seven times refined. O Lord, we know that You will forever preserve Your own from the reach of evil men.
God speaks in absolutes. He doesn’t speak in maybes, or perhaps, or I hope so’s. He is God Almighty, Sovereign, Master of Heaven and Earth. Wrap your mind and heart around the absolute truth of Who He is – and believe Him.
The Lord of Hosts
At the beginning of this blog in Isaiah 14:24 reference was made to “the Lord of hosts.” Additional reference was made in Daniel 4:35 to the “host of Heaven.” Months ago while writing on worship I researched exactly how numerous were these “hosts” which our Lord reigned over. The answer amazed me.
When Jesus came into the world, His appearance was made known by a mighty chorus of the angelic heavenly host singing “Glory to God in the Highest.” (See Luke 2:13-14). We’re so accustomed to this “little scene” that we might make the error of gliding right past it; so let’s pause for a while, shall we. Have you ever wondered how many were in that heavenly host?
Verse 13. – With the angel a multitude of the heavenly host. One of the glorious titles by which the eternal King was known among the chosen people was “Lord of sabaoth,” equivalent to “Lord of hosts.” In several passages of the Scriptures is the enormous multitude of these heavenly beings noticed where the Hebrew is much more expressive than the English rendering as in Daniel 7:10, “Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him”
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/2-13.htm
If you literally multiply ten thousand times ten thousand, you arrive at a staggering figure: one hundred million!! Yet, look below at the commentary on Revelation 5:11-12
[ten thousand times ten thousand] Lit. myriads of myriads, the Greek (and Hebrew) language having a single word for the number 10,000: so that the effect is as if we should say “millions of millions and thousands of thousands” (in Genesis 24:60 words equivalent to these are translated “thousands of millions.”) In Daniel 7:10 the order is the reverse, “thousand thousands … and ten thousand times ten thousand,” with the obvious motive of a climax: here the effect is, “there were hundreds of millions massed together, and if you counted those in the mass, the numbers you would leave over would be millions still”…” “their number was infinite, not to be numbered.”
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/revelation/5-11.htm (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and Matthew Poole’s Commentary on Revelation 5: 11-12)
“Infinite, not to be numbered.” Such is the almighty, unequaled power of your Heavenly Father. Now, knowing the definition of the “Lord of hosts”, read Isaiah 14 above and Daniel 4 one more time and know that you have nothing to fear.
Holding His Word Higher 