Discovering the Great and Precious Promises of GOD (GOD our Strength)

Continuing in GOD's Abilities becoming ours once we have acquired His Plan and Purposes or Will for our lives en (unity with) Christ Jesus. When the Spirit of Christ and His Grace and Truth have had their beginnings of His perfect work within us, we become One en Him. We know that it is He that speaks through us. Because He is me and I am He.  I will pull from some general references to GODs Power. But first Pastor Hoekstra and his writing on the revelation of Grace. Then I will use the ESV translation to look into my targeted subject. 

"Encouragement for Others, Glory for God"

"So then death is working in us, but life in you . . . For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God." (2Corinthians 4:12, 15)

We who live en the New Covenant of Grace are earthen vessels. We have no true spiritual life in ourselves. "You have no life in you" (John 6:53). The treasure who lives within us (is Christ Jesus) in our daily resource of spiritual life: "Christ who is our life" (Colossians 3:4). Consequently, we must always be dying in order to live. We must be embracing the cross of Christ so that our bankrupt self-life will not be our resource for living. We must look to the LORD Christ as our sufficiency. 

The Lord helps us in this process by putting us into impossible situations that necessitate our dependency upon Him. He faithfully responds to our trust and manifests Himself through us. "For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the divine Life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2Corinthians 4:11). Others observing this receive encouragement to look to the Lord for the Life they need. Thus, Paul could write to the Corinthians (who were aware of this process in his own life): "So then death is working in us, but Life in you." 

Every difficulty that GOD brings into our lives not only has significance for us, but it can also have an impact on those to whom we are ministering. "For all things are for your sakes." How important it is to have a perspective on life that includes GOD's working in us that He might touch others. Paul certainly viewed life and ministry in this manner. "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you . . . Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all . . . Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory" (Colossians 1:24; Philippians 2:17; Ephesians 3:13). Keep in mind that it both GOD and His Christ at work within those receptive of them in accord with John 17 in which we find the Lord's Prayer as our High Priest.

As the Lord works His Grace into and through our lives, Grace can be spreading to many other lives: "that grace, having spread through the many." When GOD's Grace is at work in people's hearts, thanksgiving is so often the beautiful fruit that results. Such thanksgiving brings much glory and honor to GOD: "may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of GOD."

General References to GOD's Power:

1Chronicles 29:10-13 "Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: "Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and You are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand are power and might, and in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 
And now we thank You, our God, and praise Your glorious name."

2Chronicles 25:5-10 "Amaziah assembled the men of Judah and set them by fathers' houses under commanders of thousands and of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those twenty years old and upward, and found that they were 300,000 choice men, fit for war, able to handle spear and shield. He hired also 100,000 mighty men of valor from Israel for 100 talents of silver. But a man of God came to him and said, "O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel, with all these Ephraimites. But go, act, be strong for the battle. Why should you suppose that God will cast you down before the enemy? For God has power to help or to cast down." And Amaziah said to the man of God, "But what shall we do about the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel?" The man of God answered, "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." Then Amaziah discharged the army that had come to him from Ephraim to go home again. And they became very angry with Judah and returned home in fierce anger."

Job 26:5-14 "The dead tremble under the waters and their inhabitants. Sheol is naked before GOD, and Abaddon has no covering. He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the waters in His thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them. He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over it His cloud. He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light (justice and righteousness) and darkness (evil). The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at His rebuke. By His power He stilled the sea; by His understanding He shattered Rahab. By His wind the heavens were made fair; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Behold, these are but the outskirts of His ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?"  

Psalm 62:11-12 "Once GOD has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to GOD, and that to you, O LORD, belongs steadfast love. For You will render to a man according to his (faiths) work."

Psalm 65:5-8, Psalm 93:4 and Nahum 1:3 "By awesome deeds You answer us with righteousness, O GOD of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the One Who by His strength established the mountains, being girded with might; Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at Your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy." 

Psalm 93:3-5 "The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty! Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits Your house, O LORD, forevermore."

Nahum 1:2-8 "The LORD is a jealous and avenging GOD; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries and keeps wrath for His enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD Will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before Him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before Him, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the heat of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by Him. The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who take refuge in Him. But with an overflowing flood He Will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue His enemies into darkness."

Romans 16:25-27 "To Him Who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal GOD, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise GOD be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen."