POWER....Who does it belong to?

pow·er (pour)
n.
1. The ability or capacity to perform or act effectively.
2. Strength or force exerted or capable of being exerted; might. See Synonyms at strength.
3. The ability or official capacity to exercise control; authority.
4. A person, group, or nation having great influence or control over others: the western powers.
5. Forcefulness; effectiveness: a novel of unusual power.

What is power, though I have provided a definition of the word in the sense that the "world" uses it, what is power to you? Even in this worldly definition of the word I still see God.

Who performs or acts more effectively then our Father in heaven?
Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, His work is perfect;For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

Who is stronger than my God who is a greater force then Him?
Ephesians 6:10
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Who has the ability to exercise more control that Jehovah? Who has more authority the He who created the heavens and the earth and they that dwell in it?
Matthew 28:18
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

What Person or nation has more influence over others?
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,And He shall direct[a] your paths.

What man has walked this earth and had more unusual power the Jesus Christ?
Matthew 9:35
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

Where you may just see every day words I see the light of God I see Jesus. In every way power is defined I see our Lord and savior. So why is it so easy to give what comes from God and ultimately belongs to Him to dead situations, obsolete people, unimportant places and irrelevant things? We get so angry sometimes to the point where we are ready to kill over something that has little to no importance in our walk with Christ. Proverbs tells us to trust the lord with ALL our heart. If we are trusting with All then we know that He has made us some promises.

Deuteronomy 31:6 (New King James Version)
6 Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

Romans 8:37
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us

There are many more scriptures to support that if we are really trusting God we will not be easily moved. It should take someone to go way above and beyond for us to even give their action a second thought. Unfortunately that's not the case, in the world we live in today words have more power than actions. Someone can be a true example of pure love in your life, meet your every need, be there when you need them to be and in the heat of a disagreement they can say something that would turn that love into instant hate. Every act of love that they ever showed you has diminished and almost disappeared. What we forget is that in every act God did in the Bible He used people. He used people to populate the earth, he used Moses to give the 10 commandments, deliver Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. God used people all through the Bible to do just about everything but create the world. We fail to realize if God uses people what does Satan use? People

Ephesians 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places

We must learn that we are spirit and we have to fight spirit with spirit. We also must learn no one is above being used b Satan. He will try and use anyone, he tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. We need to tap into the power that God has given us the God kind of power the kind of power that will allow us to d greater works then Jesus.
John 14:12
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

Jesus knew where His power came from and He was not easily angered. The Bible never spoke about Jesus feelings being hurt, heart being broken, fighting, cursing people out or turning His back on anyone. We need the power of God in our every day lives. We need it every day, every hour and every minute. With the power of God we can do anything.
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me

I leave you with this God has told us who we are and the power we have but it is up to us to tap into our power through Him and not power in the world. The world will always try to take from you what God gave you but always remember what God has promised you and stand on it:

Deuteronomy 28:12-14 12 The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. 14 So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them

Does God Care About Our Opinions?

Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
Matthew 22:17-18 (King James Version)

On many occasions member of our church, and friends have asked me questions about scripture and more specifically, how to apply scripture it to real life.  Never wanting to be their conscious I try to guide them to scripture that may address their problem. In most cases this may be sound methodology, however we must understand that any advice (even something as simple as pointing to scripture) will be at least slightly skewed by our personal opinions and a past experiences.

Many times we become victims of our own teaching, and if our doctrine is not at least inclusive in as much relative scripture as possible it can come back and bite us on the cushiony part of our backside. One such occasion is the habit I have of telling people “Not your opinion, scripture! What does scripture say about this circumstance?” The intent of questioning this way is to remove the worldview[1] of a condition from the mind of the individual and install and avenue for them to began dealing with their problem though faith in scripture and Christ Jesus and a Christian weltanschauung. But unless we can give them complete sound scripture not just what support our personal views we are now in violation of  the very scripture we support our view on (Revelation 22:18-19).

Determining God’s Thought on Our Opinion

If anyone tells you they know what God’s thoughts are, run from them as fast as you can! Man has a very limited mind and cannot even begin to know what God thinks, (Isaiah 55:8, Psalm 92:4-6). What we have is scripture which reveals to us that small part of God that He wishes us to know.  Therefore we apply the doctrine of Sola Scriptura[2], the bible alone, and nothing of ourselves as a determining factor of the desire of God as they relate to our opinion.

With this said we come to Proverbs 18:2 (highlighted below) what may appear to be a very straight forward passages may lead the unregenerate mind astray.

Fools find no pleasure in understanding, but delight in airing their own opinions. Proverbs 18:2 (KJV)

The first thought that comes to mind after reading the above passage is that God does not care about our opinions. I know I used this as a starting point and have had this verse used against me as well. But in truth is this passage applicable to all situations? Let’s consider some other passages in the bible.

The first is Exodus 32:7-14 in this it appears that God was going to destroy all the people of Israel until Moses reasoned with God for their lives.  Did Moses change God’s mind?  It is obvious form the text that God did listen to Moses reason (opinion) and did not destroy Israel or there would be no Jews around today. So the question is if God took Moses opinion in such high regard how can Proverbs 18: 2 be correct?  (See filling our mouths with arguments in prayer)

The next passage I want to look at is in Genesis 18 which begins the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now we know that Abraham did not come to God in prayer but God and His angels came to Abraham in Theophany.  But verse 17 will once and for all answer the question of whether or not God cares about our opinion. God questions within Himself “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”  Here we see that Abraham’s opinion meant some much to God, that God would not even think of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah without letting Abraham know first.

I’ve heard a pastor one day say God does not do anything without letting His prophet know first. So how can these example be true and Proverb 18:2 be true also? Let’s re-visit Proverbs 18:2

Fools find no pleasure in understanding, but delight in airing their own opinions. Proverbs 18:2 (KJV)

What is the delimiter in this argument” “Fools” God does care about the opinion of His prophet but not of fools (sinners).  Now this is going to get hard but work with me. Our God is a God of duality; over and over again God gives us cut and dry options. Consider the bible says; We either go to Heaven or hell, We are either saved or damned, The bible speaks about good and bad, Jesus says Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with Him scatters, and of course God requires us to be either hot or cold. 

So we can say;

Before God would even consider our opinion we must be right with him first.  Sadly those that have the greatest opinion are always those that are the least right with God. Now I’m not talking about someone that thinks because they go to church and read their bible that they will be heard by God, this just is not true. You can teach a Parrott the sinner’s prayer. But God wants your heart right.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:1-2 (KJV)

Our opinion finds it origin in our will, and if we are so into our will we have failed to submit to His will and we are in transgression (Sinners) and God will not hear the opinion or the prayers of a sinner.

Your Brother in Christ

Troy C Pearsall

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[1](worldview /weltanschauung) the way that someone sees and understands world events, especially in relation to their religious or political beliefs and ideas; in this case from the view of a natural unregenerate man

[2]Sola Scriptura is  the doctrine that the Bible contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness. Consequently, sola scriptura demands that only those doctrines are to be admitted or confessed that are found directly within or indirectly by using valid logical deduction or valid deductive reasoning from scripture