Faithfullyliven:the podcast
Do you want to learn how to study the Bible? Do you wish you could understand the Bible better? Do you want to know how you can remain faithful to historic Christianity in our contemporary society? Let's take a journey to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Faithfullyliven, the podcast is here to uplift your soul and encourage you to live a life honoring to God
Faithfullyliven:the podcast
Exploring the Character of God: Unpacking the Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence of God
Imagine a world where you are never alone, where wisdom is always within reach, and where limitless power is at work for your good - this isn't a fantasy, it's the reality of God's omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. Join me as we unpack these awe-inspiring attributes of God and illuminate how they can be applied to your life, inspiring a meaningful and purposeful existence.
References
A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: A Journey into the Father’s Heart, vol. 1
Systematic Theology 2nd edition by Wayne Grudem
Do you want to learn how to study the Bible? Check out the YouTube channel Faithfullyliven youtube.com/@faithfullyliven
Do you want to read about how to live faithfully? Check out the blog http://lyfe102.org
Get a free Road Map to get started learning how to study the Bible https://mailchi.mp/88f9c9405da0/bible-study-road-map
Welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives. I am Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. I'm sure you have heard the more common omnis of God's attributes. I'm referring to His omnipresent, his omniscience and Omnipotence of God. So just to kind of define some terms here, the omnipresent of God means that God is present everywhere, at all times. His presence is not limited to time, space or location. There is not a place or moment where God is not. Then we have Omnipotence. God possesses unlimited power and is all-powerful. He has the ability to do anything that is logically possible and consistent with His divine character. And then we have the Omniscience of God is His infinite knowledge and wisdom. God knows everything, including the past, present, future, as well as the thoughts and intentions of all beings. So these are like the first attributes of God that I learned growing up and they helped me to better understand the nature of God. So we're going to take a closer look at each one of those in today's episode.
Speaker 1:Have you struggled with studying and understanding the Bible? Do you wish you could get some help. Well, go check out the Faithfully Living YouTube channel. There is a library of videos to help you learn how to study and understand the Bible better. There are videos on various topics, such as Bible study tools and how to use them, understand context and more. You can find a link to the channel in the show notes. Happy studying, alright.
Speaker 1:First is going to be the Omni Presence of God. So let's define this term a little bit more. I have two definitions for God's Omni Presence. We got AW Tozer from his book the Attributes of God. He says Omni Presence means that God is all present, he is close to, he is close to, for that is what the word means close to, near to, here, everywhere. He is near to everything and everyone. He is here, he is next to you wherever you may be. And then we have Wayne Grudem from a systematic theology text that defines God's Omni Presence as God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space, which is whole being. Yet he acts differently in different places. So God is not limited when it comes to space, he is present everywhere.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 23, 23 to 4 in the ENLT says I am a God who is only close at hand, says the Lord. No, I am far away. At the same time, can anyone hide from me in a secret place? I am not. Am I not everywhere, in all the heavens and the earth, says the Lord. We also see in Psalms 121.39.7.10, which says when King David wrote I can never escape from your spirit, I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride, if I ride, ride the wings, the wings of the morning. If I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me and your strength will support me. We can't hide from the presence of God because he's everywhere.
Speaker 1:A thing to note that God is not limited by spatial dimensions. As infinite people, we think and understand in spatial dimensions, but we can't necessarily describe God in those terms as it relates to his omnipresent. So I'mma let Dr Grunam explain it for us. So he says well, it seems necessary for us to say that God's whole being is present in every part of space or at every point in space. It is also necessary to say that God cannot be contained by any space, no matter how large. We should guard against thinking that God extends infinitely far in all directions, so that he himself exists in a start of infinite, unending space. Nor should we think that God is somehow a bigger space or a bigger area surrounding the space of the universe as we knew it. All of these ideas continue to think of God's being in spatial terms, as if he were simply an extremely large being. Instead, we should try to avoid thinking of God in terms of space or spatial dimensions. God is a being who exists without size or dimensions in space. In fact, before God created the universe, there was no matter or material, so there was no space either. Yet God still existed. Where was God? God was not in a place that we could call here, for. There was no here or space, but God just was Another thing to think about.
Speaker 1:When we think about the omnipresence of God, we must guard against, when we are learning to understand his attributes of God, that God is not equivalent to any part of the creation or to all of it. So meaning it would be the belief of pantheism. This is the belief that God is everyone and everything and that everyone and everything is God. A good example of this view would be that God is a rock, god is grass, god is the ocean. Who wins our God?
Speaker 1:The view that scripture teaches is that God is everywhere in His creation, but is distinct from His creation as the Creator, and he is simultaneously able to be present everywhere, transcending the limits of time and space. So as we think about God's omnipresence in our own lives, this should give us a source of comfort and hope. For us as believers, god is to us as he is ultimately involved in our lives. It's comforting and assuring that he is with us in our joys and our sorrows, and he doesn't leave us to navigate life's struggles alone. God's always provided us with strength and solace. It reminds us that we're never truly alone in our struggles and he is ever-present, offering guidance and support. So God's omnipresence should be a motivator for us to seek and follow His will for our lives. We should be constantly aware of His presence. When we do that, we are most more likely to make choices that are honoring and pleasing to Him. Just awareness can help us navigate life's challenges with a sense of responsibility and purpose. So by regularly seeking His presence to prayer, scripture, reading, worship we, as believers, can develop a deeper connection with God and a heightened sense of His ever-present love and guidance for us.
Speaker 1:Alright, so now let's shift to the omnipotence of God. So in short, this means that God is all-powerful. Rangudam gives us a more formal definition. He says God's omnipotence means that God is able to do all His holy will, his power to His God's power, to His own power to do what he decides to do. Psalms 24-8 says God is God, is the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. And then Ephesians says Paul says that. Ephesians 3-20, when Paul writes God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think.
Speaker 1:So we also have to remember that there are things that God cannot do and that are not in His character. So whatever God does, it has to be consistent with His character and with His attributes. So remember God can't lie, he can't be tempted with evil, he can't deny Himself or he can't sin. God can't cease to be God or he can't cease to exist. So it's not totally accurate to say that God can do anything when we consider, you know, the things that we just mentioned above, that he can't lie, can't be tempted with evil. So Dr Grudem clarifies this for us. He says God can do anything he wills to do or anything that that is consistent with His character. Although God's poser is infinite, his use of power is qualified by other attributes, just as all God's attributes qualify all of His actions. This is therefore another instance where misunderstanding will result if one attribute were isolated from the rest of God's character and emphasized inappropriately. So we have to. When we look at the attributes of God, we have to look at them all equally, kind of like all on an even plane, because whatever God displays somewhere will not contradict His other attributes that he also exhibits.
Speaker 1:So when we look closer at the omnipotence of God, we see His infinite power. God's power is boundless. He can create, sustain, transform the universe as he wills. In the Bible we find passages that allude to God's omnipotence, such as Jeremiah 32-17 that says Ah, sovereign God, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power, an outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. We can see God's power in creation. He spoke the world into existence. The sheer magnitude of creating the heavens and the earth and all of the life in it underscores his limitless power. We should truly marvel at the intricate beauty and the complexity of the world around us, we should stop and soak in all of the creation that we see.
Speaker 1:God's omnipotence extends beyond creation because power plays a pivotal role in his folding plan that we see in the Bible. So God's sovereignty is all over our lives and in the world today. So this reassures us that God is in control, even in the face of uncertainties we have in our lives. This understanding can provide us with great comfort and trust in his guidance and providential care for us. So when we face insurmountable challenges, we should draw strength from the belief in God's power. So our faith in God can lead us to have courage, resilience and willingness to embrace his plans and purposes for our lives. We should rely on God in all aspects of our lives and recognize that his infinite power is and can be a source of strength, with some guidance for us. Alright, so the last attribute we are going to look at today is God's omniscience. God's omniscience has to do with God being all knowing.
Speaker 1:In his systematic theology text, reingudam defines God's knowledge as God fully knows himself and all things actual and potential in one simple and eternal act. So I'm just going to kind of break down and read what Reingudam means by his definition. So here is what he means by this definition, and this is from Dr Reingudam's systematic theology. So I'm just reading what he explains the section that says God fully knows himself. It means God is infinite, our unlimited, and while there is vastness to God's being, god knows himself entirely. So however infinite and big God is, he knows himself fully.
Speaker 1:And in the phrase that says God knows all things, actually he says this means all things that exist and all things that happen. God knows the future. He knows every detail of our lives. He knows what we need before we ask. And in the part that says God knows all things possible, this means that he knows events that could happen but do not actually happen. So he knows that we could go down the street left or right, but he knows what choice that we're going to make. And then the part that says God is always aware of everything.
Speaker 1:So in this definition Dr Reingudam states that God knows everything in one simple act. The word simple is used in a sense meaning not divided into parts. So this means that God is always fully aware of everything. So the example he gives if God wished to tell us the number of the grains of the sand on the shore or the number of the stars in the sky. You wouldn't have to count them all quickly and make some giant computer. He would have to call a number to mind because it was something he hadn't thought of, in a way that he always knows all things at once, kind of like and this is probably a bad example. But we know our birthday, we just know it. We don't have to think, oh, I was born this time and this time. We just know Alright. And then, to continue with what he was saying, all of these facts and all other things he knows are always fully present in his consciousness. He does not have to reason to conclusions or ponder carefully before he answers, for he knows the end from the beginning and he never learns and never forgets anything.
Speaker 1:And then finally, in his definition, see that the definition talks about God's knowledge is not only a simple act but also an an eternal act. So he says this means that God's knowledge never changes or grows. If you were ever to learn something new, he would not have been omniscient beforehand For all eternity. God knew all things that would happen and all things that he would do, alright. So I want to share some scriptures with you. Psalms 147.5 says Great is our God in abundant and power. His understanding is beyond measure.
Speaker 1:And in 1 Corinthians 2.7-12 says no, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God, his plan. That was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not understood it. If they had, they would have crucified, would have not crucified our glorious Lord. That is what the scriptures mean when they say I have not seen, nor ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit. And no man can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit. And we have received God's spirit, not the world spirit, so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. So one thing we should remember is that God does not grow and learn like us. He never strains, he doesn't panic. Nothing like an air-crolls takes Him by surprise. So if God were, if he had to learn something or wonder what would happen, what would happen tomorrow, he wouldn't be God. So everything we remember, god knows everything.
Speaker 1:Alright, so we come to maybe a question you might have had what about free will, god's omniscience and our free will as humans? It co-exists. Yes, god knows what we will choose, but that knowledge doesn't negate our free will. They can exist harmoniously together. God knows what we will choose, yet he grants us the ability to make those choices. His omniscience does not dictate our decision, but simply knows our decisions in advance. I heard someone give this example and I so this is not original to me. They said that we know that the sun will rise, but we don't control the sun rising. It's kind of like the same with our free will and God's knowledge of our choice. He knows what we will choose, but he allows us to make the choice. Alright, so let's kind of bring it down to some application here.
Speaker 1:So, as you meditate on God's omniscience, think about these things. It provides us with comfort and assurance. God has perfect understanding of our lives, our struggles and our desires, and it should give us a profound sense of security. We can turn to Him when we have times of uncertainty, and we know we know this that he sees the bigger picture and has a plan, even though we can't see it. So, as God being our guide in life, we know that His way is perfect and trustworthy. We can trust His wisdom and His knowledge to lead us on the right way.
Speaker 1:So His omniscience allows us to surrender control and to seek His will and to have confidence that he knows what's best for us. His love for us as believers is unwavering. He knows us more intimately than we could ever know ourselves, and he loves us unconditionally. So remember that this love is not contingent on our actions or our wordiness, but it's a testament to His character. So, as Christians, we should be able to find solace in the fact that God, who is all powerful, is watching over us, guiding our lives through those difficult challenges, and is always available to us in our times of need. Well, that is it for this episode. Thank you for joining me in looking at the presence, omniscience and omnipotence of God. Remember God is always good and is always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you.
