Eph 357-391 8/28/86-10/12/86, 716 1/3/88, 768 3/16/88
DOCTRINE OF THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD (Part 1)
A. Definition and Description.
1. The Latin term omnipotence is taken from the Greek word PANTOKRATOR, and means all-powerful or almighty. It refers specifically to the power or ability attribute of God. It has the connotation of “ruler of all things;” therefore, the eternal supreme power.
2. Omnipotence is the theological term to describe the unlimited, infinite and eternal power of the three persons of the Trinity.
3. God is infinite and eternal; His power is therefore infinite and eternal. His power has no beginning and no end.
4. God exists eternally in three persons who are coequal and coinfinite. Each person of the Godhead has exactly the same identical power or omnipotence.
5. God’s infinite and limitless power functions under the control of His divine volition or sovereignty, and it is accompanied by divine virtue or holiness. The sovereignty and holiness of God must always be related to the omnipotence of God. In other words, the omnipotence of God can never be divorced from divine virtue or holiness.
6. God is able, in His omnipotence, to do anything compatible with His divine essence, but He will never use His power to compromise with sin, human good, or evil.
7. God’s power is unlimited, except through self-imposed limitation related to acting foolishly, doing silly things, or becoming irrational.
8. The greatest delegation of divine power in human history occurs between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the Church. It is the omnipotence of God provided to execute the protocol plan of God.
9. Divine omnipotence is related to both God’s promises and God’s actions on our behalf, both of which we call grace. But you will never use this power unless you learn Bible doctrine; there is no substitute for learning doctrine!
10. Scriptural documentation of God’s power.
a. Isa 43:13, “Even from eternity past, I am He, and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I act, and who can reverse it?”
b. Mt 19:26, “Jesus said to them, `With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” Man has definite limitations. God has no limitations except those which are self-imposed, for He will not use His power to compromise with sin, human good, or evil.
c. Mk 10:27, “Jesus said, `With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.’",
d. In Lk 1:37, the Greek says, “For no word from God will be void of power.”
e. Lk 18:27, “But He said, `The things impossible with men are possible with God.’”
f. God’s power was a definite spiritual issue to Abraham when both Abraham and Sarah were sexually dead. Rom 4:16-21 is the story of Abraham’s fantastic faith resulting in the use of omnipotence. Rom 4:20-21, “Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” Abraham understood the omnipotence of God, and claimed it in connection with the promise that God had given regarding Abraham’s seed.
g. Paul’s application of omnipotence is given in 2 Cor 4:6-7, “For God [Holy Spirit], who said [Gen 1:3], `Light, shine out of darkness,’ is the One who made His light to shine in our right lobes to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ [epistemological rehabilitation]. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God and not from ourselves.” How could we ever get doctrine into our human bodies? By the omnipotence of God Holy Spirit, the delegated power of God for our perception, metabolization, and utilization of Bible doctrine inside the divine dynasphere. The treasure is Bible doctrine.
B. The Delegation of the Omnipotence of God to the Great Power Experiment of the Church Age.
1. The key to this delegation is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union. (See points 13-14 (p.41ff) for extended amplification of this point.)
2. Eph 1:19-20, “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power to us who have believed for the delegation of His superior power, which [power] He made operational by means of Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places.”
3. The surpassing greatness of His power is the Christian way of life. Protocol is how you put it into action; the procedures, the mechanics.
4. The system for utilization of divine power is protocol.
a. One of the three terms used to describe God’s plan for you is protocol, which emphasizes the utilization of divine power inside the divine dynasphere.
b. Because we are royal family, we must function under royal family procedures. As a member of any royal family, it isn’t your personality or appearance or any human genetic or acquired factor that is the issue. There is a system of protocol that merges different individualities within the royal family into a system of modus operandi, whereby authority is recognized.
c. Protocol is procedure for royalty. Protocol means that there is only one way of doing a thing; so there is only one way to use God’s power, and God has ordained the manner in which it is done.
d. Protocol is divine power or omnipotence delegated to Church Age believers so that each believer has the power and ability to fulfill God’s game plan for the Church Age; hence the power and dynamics of the ordinary life.
e. Protocol is the utilization of divine power for the greatest invisible impact in all of human history.
f. Protocol is a rigid, long-established code and procedure, prescribing complete deference to superior rank and authority, followed by strict adherence to due order and precedence, coupled with precisely correct procedure. (See the Doctrine of the Protocol Plan of God for further amplification.)
5. Eph 1:19-20 relates the divine power or omnipotence of God used in resurrection of Christ to the divine power or omnipotence delegated to the Church Age believer. This passage tells us there is a very definite structural relationship between the power used in the resurrection of Christ and the power available to the Church Age believer today. 6. Before the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union and the resurrection of the humanity of Christ, divine power was delegated to very few Old Testament believers on a limited basis and on a contingency plan. 7. The divine power used to raise Jesus Christ from the dead is the same divine power which is available to every believer today; an act of God which is without precedent in all of human history. By utilization, divine power can actually be transferred into your life.
8. The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is now available to every Church Age believer for the execution of the protocol plan in its two stages, the life beyond gnosis and the life beyond dreams.
9. Between the resurrection of Christ and the Rapture of the Church is the greatest power experiment in all history. The pattern for this power experiment began with the Incarnation, 33 years before the Church Age began.
10. The power experiment is divided into two parts.
a. The Incarnation and Hypostatic Union, a period of 33 years, terminating with the resurrection of Christ.
b. The Church Age, an indefinite period of time, terminating with the resurrection of the Church.
11. In this power experiment, God, for the first time, has made divine power available to every believer, patterned after the Incarnation. Between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the Church, the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union overflows to the Church Age. Therefore, your life has the greatest significance in all of human history. We are the objects of the greatest power delegation of omnipotence in all human history!
12. Between the two resurrections is the dispensation of the royal family of God which we classify as the Church Age. This is the dispensation of the intensified angelic conflict, the dispensation of the crossroads of human history, and the dispensation of God’s delegated power being made available to every Church Age believer.
13. Therefore, the resurrection of Christ is a dividing line between limited power to a few believers before the resurrection, and maximum power to all believers after the resurrection.
14. However, availability of divine power does not mean utilization of divine power. Utilization depends upon the believer’s self-determination and epistemological rehabilitation. There is no substitute for cognition of Bible doctrine. Knowledge is power.
15. The great power experiment is therefore defined as maximum delegation of divine omnipotence, first to the humanity of Christ in the Hypostatic Union, and secondly to the Church Age believer during every generation of this dispensation.
16. Never before in all of human history has God delegated and made available so much divine power to the believer as in the Church Age. Every believer has the availability of this power, but it remains potential until you fulfill the principle of epistemological rehabilitation.
17. All precedence for the Church Age is taken from the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, including this fantastic availability of divine power. However, availability does not imply utilization of that divine power. Between availability and utilization is post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation, i.e., perception, metabolization, and application of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.
18. The utilization of divine omnipotence depends upon post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation plus the utilization of the problem solving devices, resulting in advance to spiritual maturity and the manufacture of invisible heroes.
19. The invisible hero of the Church Age is manufactured out of divine omnipotence. The invisible hero has maximum use of divine power during any given generation of the Church Age. The invisible hero has maximum use of the ten problem solving devices of the protocol plan. The invisible hero has the life beyond his fondest dreams.
20. The omnipotence of the Father in eternity past created a portfolio of invisible assets for every Church Age believer. The function of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit has provided an unprecedented delegation and distribution of divine power inside your very own palace, the operational- type divine dynasphere, the place of equal opportunity for the fulfillment of the protocol plan and the glorification of God.
21. God’s superior power, omnipotence, is delegated and distributed in two areas of the Christian way of life.
a. In our portfolio of invisible assets from the omnipotence of God the Father.
b. In the divine dynasphere from the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit: “`Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.”
C. The Issue of Divine Power versus Human Power.
1. The power for the execution of the protocol plan of God is related to:
a. The power of the Word of God. Heb 4:12, “The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, and of joints and the marrow, and is a critic of thoughts and intents of the heart.”
b. The filling of the Spirit inside the divine dynasphere. Eph 3:16, “That He may give you on the basis of the riches of His glory to become strong by means of power through His Spirit in your inner being.”
(1) “The riches of His glory” emphasize the omnipotence of God the Father related to our portfolio of invisible assets, the omnipotence of God the Son holding the universe together, and in this passage the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit providing the necessary power for the execution of the protocol plan of God.
(2) “To become strong” is tantamount to the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is the status of being controlled by the Holy Spirit inside the divine dynasphere.
2. God is perfect; therefore, His plan is perfect. It is impossible for perfect God to design for us an imperfect plan. But we as believers are imperfect, and we do not have the power or the ability to execute the perfect protocol plan from God. A perfect plan can only be executed by a perfect power.
3. Therefore, the execution of the protocol plan of God demands the understanding and utilization of the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit, available only inside the operational-type divine dynasphere. In this way, we execute the protocol plan of God.
4. In the Old Testament dispensations, there was no divine dynasphere. After the Rapture of the Church in the Tribulation and the Millennium, there will not be a divine dynasphere. So the divine dynasphere is reserved for Christological dispensations only: the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union and the dispensation of the Church.
5. Life inside the divine dynasphere is a combination of the filling of the Holy Spirit (tantamount to the Holy Spirit controlling your soul or spirituality) and perception of Bible doctrine.
6. Spirituality is not emotional activity of any kind. It is God the Holy Spirit controlling your soul so that you can understand Bible doctrine and so that you can utilize divine power. 7. Divine power in the execution of God’s plan is related to the fulfillment of such mandates as Eph 5:18, “be filled with the Spirit,” and Gal 5:16, “keep walking by means of the Spirit.” Residence in the divine dynasphere is equivalent to being filled with the Spirit or walking by means of the Spirit.
8. Therefore, only inside the divine dynasphere is the Holy Spirit’s omnipotence available to us for the fulfillment of God’s plan, will, and purpose for your life. Remember that the filling of the Spirit includes His teaching ministry, as per Jn 14:26, 16:12-14; 1 Cor 2:9-16.
9. Outside of the divine dynasphere, the believer functions under human power and human ability. Divine power and human power are mutually exclusive.
10. Therefore, spirituality is an absolute. Either you are filled with the Spirit inside the divine dynasphere or you are in a state of carnality, grieving or quenching the Spirit, living inside the cosmic system.
11. Divine power is located in the divine dynasphere; human power is located in the cosmic system. In cosmic one we grieve the Spirit; in cosmic two we quench the Spirit. Yet Eph 4:30 commands us to “grieve not the Holy Spirit;” 1 Thes 5:19 commands us to “quench not the Spirit.”
12. No believer can ever execute the protocol plan of God while residing in Satan’s cosmic system. Therefore, no believer can execute God’s plan outside of the divine dynasphere, because no believer can ever execute God’s plan in his own power, in the energy of the flesh.
13. 2 Cor 4:7, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God and not from ourselves.” The power must be from God; not our power or ability or personality dynamics.
14. Invisible heroes are manufactured by divine power inside the divine dynasphere, the only place of the filling of the Spirit.
15. The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life that demands a supernatural means of execution; not by emotion, but by the use of invisible divine power. The purpose of the filling of the Spirit is to provide the enabling power inside the divine dynasphere for the execution of God’s plan for His glorification in the Church Age.
16. The filling of the Spirit is therefore a temporary thing, depending upon whether the believer resides in the divine dynasphere or the cosmic system.
17. In sinning, the believer leaves the divine dynasphere. Through the use of the rebound technique of 1 Jn 1:9, the believer recovers his residence in the divine dynasphere.
18. It becomes obvious that the more time we log in the filling of the Spirit, the easier it is to learn doctrine and to grow in grace. The more time we log in the cosmic system, the closer we come to becoming losers.
19. Outside the divine dynasphere, the believer can only function on his human energy and his human power. Inside the divine dynasphere, the believer functions under the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, only inside the divine dynasphere is the omnipotence of the Spirit available for learning doctrine and for executing God’s plan for our lives.
20. Divine omnipotence and human power cannot coexist!
21. No believer can fulfill the protocol plan of God for the Church Age living outside the divine dynasphere, because he is under the energy of the flesh. But “`It’s not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord.” No believer can execute the protocol plan of God through human power or human energy.
22. The execution of the protocol plan of God demands two factors.
a. Residence in the divine dynasphere under the enabling power (or omnipotence) of the Holy Spirit.
b. Consistent perception of the mystery doctrine while in residence in the divine dynasphere. The two must go together for the glorification of God, for the fulfillment of His plan, and for the manufacture of invisible heroes.
23. Invisible heroes are manufactured by two powers.
a. The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit in the divine dynasphere.
b. The power of Bible doctrine in the right lobe. “The Word of God is alive and powerful.”
24. The delegation of God’s superior power (Eph 1:19) has two sources.
a. Our portfolio of invisible assets provided for us by the omnipotence of God the Father.
b. Our very own palace, the operational-type divine dynasphere, provided for us by the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit.
25. Protocol is the divine plan for the utilization of divine power for the purpose of fulfilling God’s plan, will, and purpose for your life; i.e., the glorification of Christ and of the Father. God’s plan calls for the use of God’s power. To use human power in trying to fulfill God’s plan is blasphemous and a terrible insult to God’s perfect plan. God can only be glorified by power equivalent to His own power. Therefore He cannot be glorified by human power, or angelic power.
26. Ignorance of pertinent doctrine means failure to utilize God’s power for the fulfillment of God’s will, purpose, and plan for your life.
27. Malfunction or neglect of the rebound technique means perpetual life inside the cosmic system where only human power or Satan’s power is available. In the cosmic system, it’s impossible to execute the protocol plan of God, and you suffer intensively from self-induced misery under the law of volitional responsibility, and simultaneously suffer from the three stages of divine discipline until the day you die the sin unto death. As a result, you’re only overwhelmed with your own inadequacies, never overwhelmed with the power of God.
28. Failure to utilize divine power means accepting the cheap substitute of human power and human dynamics, such as human personality improvement, human works of legalism, human behavior patterns such as self- satisfaction and human self-righteousness, human self-sacrifice, crusader arrogance and spirituality by works. All these are energy of the flesh, called wood, hay, and stubble, and are burned at the Judgment Seat of Christ; though the person still remains saved.
29. There is no substitute for the utilization of divine power in the function of the protocol plan, in the mechanics of epistemological rehabilitation and cognition of doctrine, and in the modus operandi of the problem solving devices related to divine power.
30. The divine plan demands the use of divine power for its execution. God cannot accept any form of human power for the fulfillment of His plan.
31. The unprecedented grace provision of divine power is the perfect complement to our Lord’s strategic victory of the angelic conflict.
32. The application is that the Christian way of life demands ability - - not human ability, but God’s ability for its execution.
a. Anything the unbeliever can do is not part of the Christian life, because the unbeliever functions under human ability.
b. Human ability can function under the laws of divine establishment producing morality. But the Christian way of life is exceedingly greater than human morality.
c. We use the word “virtue” to describe what is produced by the Christian way of life. Virtue is higher than morality, because we as believers are given the divine power and divine ability to do something far greater than even the best of unbelievers can accomplish.
33. Power analogy.
a. The automobile engine transfers chemical energy from the mixture of air with fuel into mechanical energy to move the automobile. This is called the fuel-combustion engine which usually runs on gasoline.
b. The human body has a system of energy or fuel related to metabolism of food. The energy of food comes from sugar. Food enters the mouth where it is chewed and swallowed. When the food travels down the esophagus to the stomach, it is broken down through metabolism into glucose, fructose, and dextrose, plus other energy derivatives. This provides the body the energy to print information on the neurons of the brain.
c. To run a car, you put gasoline in your gas tank. If you put sugar in your gas tank, the car won’t run. It wasn’t designed to run on sugar.
d. So you cannot mix divine power and human power and fulfill God’s plan. That’s like putting sugar in a gas tank, or like you drinking a quart of gasoline for energy.
e. So just like sugar in a gas tank or gasoline in the stomach is disastrous, so the attempt to substitute human power for divine omnipotence is disastrous in the spiritual life.
f. In the analogy, the automobile represents the momentum in your Christian life. The energy that runs the automobile is gas mixed with air in the carburetor. This represents the use of divine omnipotence. Sugar represents the energy of the flesh or human power. When you put sugar in the gas tank, you go nowhere. Sugar in the gas tank represents trying to live the Christian life by means of human talent, human power, and human ability.
g. You cannot substitute human power for divine power. The two are mutually exclusive. You operate on one or the other. In the cosmic system, you operate on human power. In the divine dynasphere you operate on divine omnipotence.
h. Therefore, divine power cannot exist with human power and human arrogance, which includes jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, guilt, anger, and self-pity. All these result from attempting to function on human power. Divine power and human power do not coexist.
34. Divine power can only be utilized when you reach gate #3 of the divine dynasphere, enforced and genuine humility, so that you are teachable and learn Bible doctrine.
35. The power of God is vested in the Word of God. Therefore, authority belongs to the Word of God, not even to the pastor. The pastor only has authority to teach the Word of God. Congregations are not benefitted by human power; congregations are only benefitted by divine power. “The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a critic of the thoughts and motives of our right lobes.”
D. The Law of Equivalent Power.
1. Any system in life or execution of a plan requires power or authority equivalent to the execution of that plan and compliance with that system.
2. This can be illustrated from the military very simply, in that no general officer or admiral, no matter how capable, can succeed in battle unless he has the authority or power equivalent to the task. So the greatest of officers cannot succeed unless he has control over all his command.
3. No matter how great a person may be, he must have equivalent authority or power to accomplish a given task in life. This is true in business, in professions, in every walk of life. Every challenge in life demands an equivalent power or authority for meeting and overcoming that challenge.
4. Equivalent power may reside in:
a. Authority or rank, good or bad.
b. personality, good or bad.
c. Intellect. Where one person is smarter than the rest, he develops from his intellect or wisdom the equivalent power to meet situations.
d. Leadership ability.
e. Influence, whether good or evil power. The power isn’t necessarily good; it may be evil or good power. But in order to accomplish the task, whether it is an evil or good task, there must be an equivalent power.
5. Certain things cannot be accomplished in life without the equivalent power for execution. Since the protocol plan of God or Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life, it demands equivalent power for fulfillment. God is the source of His perfect plan for your life; God is perfect and His plan is perfect. Therefore, you cannot execute His plan with human power, because human power is not the equivalent of divine power. The equivalent power for the fulfillment of God’s plan is God’s power, God’s omnipotence. The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life which demands a supernatural means of execution.
6. One of the great principles in the Christian life is the mechanics for the utilization of God’s power, equivalent to the task of fulfilling His plan, in any situation in life, whether it is prosperity or disaster. The only believers who can handle either extreme are those who have fulfilled epistemological rehabilitation and have actually learned the mechanics for the utilization of divine power. The fact that God’s omnipotence is available to you doesn’t mean a thing apart from its utilization. Therefore, the mechanics of utilization become the major issue.
7. The equivalent power of divine omnipotence is found in our portfolio of invisible assets, e.g., logistical grace. Only God has the power to keep you alive. Only God has the power to provide manna from heaven, to protect you from enemies, hidden and visible. Being a new spiritual species, Satan wants to wipe you out! And you do not have the ability to withstand the power of Satan. It’s a greater creature power than any power you might have. But God’s omnipotence is infinitely greater.
8. The power of God keeps you alive so that you can use the power of God to execute the protocol plan of God; i.e., you can use the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill the plan only inside the divine dynasphere.
9. God has delegated equivalent power to systems of delegated authority.
a. The delegated authority of the communicator of doctrine is a spiritual delegation. The authority to communicate Bible doctrine resides in the authority of the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. The authority to communicate the Gospel to a number of unbelievers resides in the spiritual gift of evangelism.
b. The delegated authority of the Word of God in your right lobe, metabolized doctrine. “The Word of God is alive and powerful,” but it is only powerful when its metabolized in your right lobe. If you do not have metabolized doctrine in your soul, there is no way you are up to the task of executing God’s plan, will, and purpose for your life.
c. Jesus used this delegated authority to pass evidence testing. He quoted Deuteronomy three times in Mt 4:1-10, “It is written.” He answered Satan in the first test with, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
d. The delegated authority in your personal life is your volition, your decisions, and your priorities. You must have the right motivation, the right priorities, and made right decisions constantly for Bible doctrine over anything else that might be a distraction.
e. Every person must take the responsibility for his own decisions under the law of volitional responsibility. This emphasizes the importance of your spiritual freedom as a royal priest inside the divine dynasphere. Spiritual freedom is the greatest of all, because it can exist in any circumstance, even under the worst tyranny in the world. God provides everything for that freedom and self-determination to exist to fulfill the plan of God.
10. God delegates power under certain functions in the laws of divine establishment, Rom 13:1-10 (written when Nero ruled Rome).
a. The husband has authority over the wife. This is a delegated authority from God, and is the only way to keep anarchy out of the human race. Left to their own devices, the ladies would destroy themselves and each other.
b. The parents have authority over the children. Where parents do not use that authority in justice, integrity, and fairness, children are turned out into the world as immature people.
c. The teacher over the student, the professor over the class, the government over its citizens, management over labor, the law of the land over the residents of the land.
11. The law of equivalent power related to coercion versus self- determination.
a. Under the privacy of your royal priesthood, you have two equal rights with all other believers.
(1) The right of cognition of doctrine or the function of epistemological rehabilitation.
(2) The right of self-determination with regard to that doctrine, i.e., the right to accept or reject Bible doctrine.
b. Cognition or perception of doctrine is always a matter of your own self-determination. You are either positive or negative toward the doctrinal teaching of whomever is your right pastor. You may only be positive under certain circumstances of stress, when you come to find “instant” answers. Any instant answer is not going to be a good answer because it’s not within the context and the framework of Bible doctrine you should understand.
c. Coercion provides false motivation, and produces that category of sin known as the guilt complex. Guilt is a system by which the weak control the strong, neutralizing the provision of equivalent power from God.
d. Coercion occurs under the principle of the weak controlling the strong where self-determination is set aside. The weak control the strong through sulking and nagging. The weak always function under arrogance, and they control the strong or the virtuous through manifestations of arrogance.
e. Self-determination provides true motivation and results in both cognition and the utilization of divine power for the execution of the protocol plan.
f. One thing that destroys leadership is the lack of proper motivation by those under any leader in any situation. If you have to be threatened or pushed into something, your self-determination and therefore your freedom is gone.
g. Self-determination is most efficient where the facts of Bible doctrine are available from which you make a decision. Self-determination always recognizes the privacy of the priesthood of other people, which means you don’t push or force yourself on other people.
h. Self-determination cannot function properly in a state of ignorance. Therefore, knowledge of doctrine is power.
i. Facts must be assembled in the right lobe of the soul as metabolized doctrine for spiritual growth, and in order to utilize divine omnipotence. The execution of the protocol plan of God, the manufacture of invisible heroes, and the resultant glorification of God must occur through the teaching of doctrine. Therefore, you must enter the local church in a state of objectivity under the filling of the Spirit, and not be under any kind of pressure from people in that congregation.
j. The pastor can only teach doctrine. He cannot force anyone to accept that doctrine. Coercion is an infringement on spiritual freedom. The functions of the pastor are related to teaching doctrine and to protecting the privacy of the normal people in a congregation.
k. Self-determination from the privacy of the royal priesthood is the true function of spiritual freedom. The utilization of divine power demands self-determination with regard to cognition of doctrine. Divine power is available to you on the basis of self-determination. You have to provide your own motivation and your own decisions. Eventually, once you learn that God’s very own power is available to you, then you will begin to utilize that power and your life will be changed. You will break free from all coercion while obeying all commands for subordination to authority; you never feel threatened by such subordination because of your spiritual self-esteem plus the use of divine omnipotence.
l. The utilization of human power is always a matter of coercion or wrong influence of human viewpoint. Once a person gains authority or power beyond his capacity, he becomes a tyrant, a “coercer.” But the utilization of divine power not only provides fantastic motivation, but it demands right decisions from a position of strength in the function of self-determination.
m. Availability of divine power demands the function of self- determination and spiritual privacy for the application and utilization of that power.
n. Whether Bible doctrine is accepted or rejected, whether the believer is in a state of ignorance or cognizance, the believer must take the responsibility for his own decisions; whether they are decisions made from ignorance, cognizance, arrogance, or virtue; or whether they are decisions made under pressure, under bullying, or under coercion.
o. Good decisions from a position of strength result in using the omnipotence of God, the Word of God, and the execution of the protocol plan of God and thereby becoming a winner. All good decisions from a position of strength are made on the basis of knowing omnipotence and how to use it. For the omnipotence of the Father and of the Holy Spirit are available to you as a believer.
p. Bad decisions from a position of ignorance or weakness result in failure to execute God’s will, plan, and purpose for your life. Such a believer becomes a loser. Losers suffer from self-induced misery under the law of volitional responsibility. They suffer from black-out of the soul, reversionism, emotional revolt of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, and cosmic involvement; everything that produces self-induced misery, intensified misery, and the three stages of divine discipline.
q. The position of strength is defined as the believer learning Bible doctrine, while the position of weakness is defined as the believer in a state of ignorance regarding the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.
r. Whatever your status on the outside, that is no issue inside the local church.
s. Losers are those who fail to utilize the omnipotence of God because they are ignorant, arrogant, and preoccupied with people rather than with the Word of God.
12. Believers who fail to utilize delegated and available divine power are described in 2 Tim 3:3-5. “Unloving [no virtue love], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of divine good, treacherous, reckless, arrogant, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power. Avoid such persons as these!”
a. “Unloving", i.e., having no personal love for God first and no subsequent impersonal love for all mankind, describes the believer who does not utilize divine power. He loves himself which is arrogance.
b. To be “irreconcilable” means to be implacable. Negative people are only reconcilable when they are having their own way. It means you cannot be reconciled to God’s plan for your life in your relationships with people, or to God’s grace system for perception so that you can learn doctrine daily. The older you become, the more implacable you become. Old age is the disgusting display of implacability without any of the compensating factors of youth.
c. “Malice” does not improve with age; it gets worse, for it becomes undisguised by age. Gossip is the most destructive thing in a local church. It cannot be tolerated, for it is an intrusion upon the privacy of the priesthood. Notice that being a gossip means you are malicious; the two words go together. This is one of the worst manifestations of arrogance. Who set you up as a judge?
d. The motivation for “self-control” is personal love for God, the only personal love with virtue. No self-control means failure to utilize the nine problem solving devices.
e. “Brutality” always starts as a mental attitude and then becomes overt. Christians without doctrine are brutal. Arrogant people are brutal and cruel.
f. These believers are “haters of divine good” because they don’t understand it. Divine good is the direct result and reflex of the utilization of the omnipotence of God.
g. No one is more “treacherous” than a believer functioning under human power.
h. They are “reckless” in the sense of not caring about anyone or anything except self. This is lack of self-control or self-restraint.
i. “Arrogant” includes all of the mental attitude sins.
j. “Godliness” is a description of the Christian way of life or life inside the divine dynasphere. But these believers only have the “form of godliness.” This refers to moral degeneracy, which is the appearance of being very Christian and very spiritual, when in truth they are against God.
k. 2 Pet 1:3, “Seeing that His divine power has given to us everything pertaining to spiritual life and godliness [life in divine dynasphere] through epignosis knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue.”
13. Losers are believers in a state of ignorance, according to Mt 22:29. “You are constantly being deceived, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God.” If you don’t know the Scripture, you don’t know the power of God.
14. The believer who is a loser does not lose his salvation. However, he does lose his escrow blessings for time and eternity. Since his escrow blessings are irrevocable, they remain in escrow forever as a memorial to lost opportunity while living on earth.
15. The loser never understands or utilizes the power of God in this Church Age.
E. The Biblical Documentation for the Omnipotence of God in the Great Power Experiment in the Church Age.
1. Our Lord prophesied this power just before His resurrection in Acts 1:8. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”
2. Eph 1:19-20, “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power to us who have believed for the delegation of His superior power, which [superior power] He put into operation by means of Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places.”
3. Eph 3:16 says that the blessings of our portfolio can only be administered by the omnipotence of God. “I pray that He may give you on the basis of the riches of His glory [portfolio of invisible assets] to become strong [enabling power of Holy Spirit and momentum from doctrine] by means of power [omnipotence of the Holy Spirit] through His Spirit [filling of the Holy Spirit] in your inner being.”
a. The action of becoming strong takes place inside your soul only when you are residing inside the divine dynasphere, filled with the Spirit. Residence in the divine dynasphere is tantamount to the Holy Spirit controlling your soul. The filling of the Spirit is the utilization of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit in glorifying God by fulfilling the protocol plan of God.
b. The power of the Holy Spirit is available to every believer inside the divine
dynasphere, but not every believer utilizes the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, because when you’re out of the divine dynasphere you are not under divine power.
4. Eph 3:20, “Now to Him who is able [omnipotence of God] to do infinitely more than all we could ever ask or even imagine on the basis of the power which has been delegated to us.” 5. Col 1:10-12, “That you might walk in a manner worthy of the Lord for the purpose of pleasing Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good achievement [three stages of spiritual adulthood]; in fact, constantly growing by means of metabolized doctrine from God, because we have been endowed with all power [omnipotence of God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit] from that superior power of His glory resulting in all endurance and patience with happiness. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us for a share of the endowment of the saints [royal family] in the light.”
a. To “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord” is the purpose for which the omnipotence of God the Father and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit sustains and blesses us. The unusual phrase “worthy of the Lord” is used because you are royal family of God. To walk in such a manner demands the utilization of divine omnipotence, just as the humanity of Christ utilized the omnipotence of God the Father and Holy Spirit.
b. In ourselves, we have the ability to please a few people in life. But what is pleasing to people is not pleasing to God. You can please people by being very hypocritical, with a facade of sweetness and light and flattery, while inside thinking just the opposite. But God doesn’t look on the outer man; He’s not impressed with your looks, personality, abilities. You can’t fool God, for God looks on the inner man.
c. So to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord begins on the inside with your mental attitude. The real you is what you think. You will one day realize that you have nothing with which to please God; you can’t impress God with anything. The only ones who can please the Father are the Son and Holy Spirit. Only God can please God. God has provided us with His omnipotence and with that of the Holy Spirit so that we can please God!
d. “To bear fruit in every good achievement” is:
(1) The advance through all three stages of spiritual adulthood.
(2) The attainment of spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity.
(3) Spiritual maturity combined with evidence testing to glorify God to the maximum.
(4) This is explained by the next phrase: to be constantly growing by means of metabolized doctrine from God.
e. “Because we have been endowed with all power” we can please God, we can bear fruit in every good achievement, and we can grow by means of metabolized doctrine. f. “Superior power” refers to omnipotence. “Glory” here refers to the entire essence of God (as it usually does).
g. “Resulting in all endurance and patience.” The Christian life demands patience. When through momentum from doctrine we conquer the hurdle of impatience and replace it with day by day patience, it becomes week by week, month by month, and finally year by year endurance. Endurance is the perpetuation of patience, which comes through momentum from metabolized doctrine. Patience day by day produces endurance. There is a lot of happiness in succeeding through daily routine producing endurance and success.
h. Each of us have a share of the endowment of divine omnipotence. We in the Church Age have more power available to us than any great Old Testament believer. Every believer has available to him the omnipotence of God.
i. Your spiritual growth is the basis for true thanksgiving. God qualified us through the distribution of divine power to receive our share of the endowment of the saints, your very own portfolio of invisible assets. But God’s power has no significance or use unless you are “in the light” the divine dynasphere, 1 Jn 1:7. God’s power can only be utilized in the light. 6. 2 Thes 1:11, “For to this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of your election, and fulfill every desire for integrity and the work of doctrine with power.”
7. 1 Cor 2:4-5, “And my doctrine and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” In every generation, there are some great public speakers, which comes from human ability. But Paul, the greatest genius of all time, did not approach his audiences in the dynamics of elocution; i.e., in the power of persuasive speaking. Instead, he stood before his congregations in the power of Bible doctrine. It is so important that our faith stand in the power of God; otherwise it won’t stand. The wisdom of man may be scintillating, brilliant, stimulating, and may have a tremendous emotional impact, but it is unstable and destroyed by the various functions in history. Yet the power of God goes on day by day, moment by moment, for the positive believer.
8. 1 Pet 1:5, “We are guarded by the power of God through faith for deliverance, ready to be revealed at the last time.” The power of God guards you even when you reject the power of God.
9. 2 Pet 1:3, “Seeing that His divine power [omnipotence of God the Father] has given to us everything pertaining to life [portfolio of invisible assets] and godliness [divine dynasphere] through the epignosis knowledge [metabolized doctrine] of Him who called us to His own glory.”
a. In our portfolio of invisible assets we actually possess everything we need for life. Yet our ignorance keeps us from enjoying what God has provided in our portfolio of invisible assets!
b. “Life” is our life in general. “Godliness” refers to life in the divine dynasphere. Godliness is the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit related to residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere.
c. Gate #4 of the divine dynasphere is epignosis knowledge of Him. Cognition of Bible doctrine is related to the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, Jn 14:26, 16:12-14; 1 Cor 2:9-16; 1 Jn 2:27. It is the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit that teaches us doctrine, not human I.Q. God did not call us to His glory until He had provided divine power for each one of us.
d. The glory and virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity was provided through His function inside the prototype divine dynasphere. Having the operational-type divine dynasphere means you have the opportunity to have that same glory and that same virtue.
10. 2 Cor 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God and not from ourselves.”
11. Rom 15:13, “That you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” This refers to hope 2 and hope 3 as a problem solving device. We abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, that is by consistent residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere. Our momentum from metabolized doctrine advances to the three stages of spiritual adulthood. Hope 2 functions from gates #4 to #8. It is impossible to abound in hope apart from the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit in the operational-type divine dynasphere.
12. 2 Tim 1:7, “For God has not given to us the lifestyle of fear, but a lifestyle of power, of virtue love, and of sound judgment [self- discipline, common sense].”
a. The lifestyle of power is the function of the omnipotence of God the Father related to our portfolio of invisible assets and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit related to our operational-type divine dynasphere.
b. Part of common sense is alertness to current events. The believer with doctrinal application has a superior common sense. In 2 Thes 1:11, Paul calls common sense “the work of doctrine with power.”
13. 2 Cor 13:4 speaks of Christ: “For indeed He was crucified because of weakness [ours], yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak [helpless] in Him, yet we shall live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.” The two phases of the great power experiment are both here; each terminate with resurrection from the omnipotence of God the Father and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. The omnipotence of God the Father who restored our Lord’s human spirit to His body in the grave will also provide resurrection bodies for the dead in Christ at the Rapture. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit who restored our Lord’s human soul to His body in the grave will also provide resurrection bodies for living believers at the Rapture.
14. Even the purpose of the ministry is related to the omnipotence of God. Eph 3:7-8, “Through which [Gospel] I have become a minister according to the gift of the grace of God on the basis of the function of His [Holy Spirit] divine power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to proclaim to the Gentiles the inexhaustible riches associated with Christ.” Wherever Scripture mentions divine power, there is always in context some concept or implication of the grace of God. One of the greatest functions of the grace of God to us is the provision of divine power to execute the protocol plan of God. The sovereignty and omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is the source of spiritual gifts. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is the enabling power for the function of spiritual gifts inside the divine dynasphere.
F. Omnipotence, the Superior Divine Power.
1. Omnipotence is not a Bible word. It’s a term used to designate the Biblical principle: “the surpassing greatness of His power.”
2. Omnipotence refers to the infinite, eternal, immutable power of God, an attribute which belongs equally and coextensively to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
3. God is infinite and eternal; therefore, God has unlimited ability, power, and authority. Therefore, His power is infinitely greater than any creature power of any kind, including the greatest power ever delegated to one creature, the power delegated to Satan before his fall. God’s authority includes the power of delegation to creatures.
4. If God appears limited in any way at any time, it is because of sovereign self-limitation, which is always consistent with His holiness or virtue, His love, and His immutable, unchanging integrity.
5. God can do all He wills to do, but He may not will to do all He can. Therefore, the omnipotence of God must always be linked with His other attributes, e.g., His sovereignty, His holiness, and His love, His eternal purpose in the decrees.
6. This means God never makes right wrong. God never uses His power to promote sin, human good, or evil. God never acts foolishly, nor does He use His power to be abusive. Since God the Father is the author of the protocol plan, He is eternally and infinitely able to do all things which are the objects of His power and within the range of His holy character. God never uses His power in an unjust or unfair manner. God never uses His power to coerce you or restrain you from making mistakes. He does use His power to warn you, but He does not stop your free will from functioning.
7. God’s power can only sponsor God’s glory. Therefore, God’s power is never used to glorify believers or anyone else in the human race. Yet today, because we’ve accepted something less than God’s power and plan, believers are being glorified all over the place. There’s no basis for calling certain believers “great spiritually,” or “wonderful believers.” This is glorifying people. People cannot be anything spiritually without the use of the power of God!
8. Some of the Scriptures dealing with God’s omnipotence include Isa 44:24; Rom 4:7; 2 Cor 4:6; Eph 1:11, 19-21; and Heb 1:3.
a. Jer 32:17, “Ah, Lord Jehovah! Ah, sovereign Lord! Behold, You [Jesus Christ] have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You.” The last sentence is a definition of omnipotence. Nothing is too difficult for the power of God. It is easy for sovereignty and omnipotence to link up and produce a miracle. It is difficult for sovereignty to link with human free will and produce the will of God.
b. 1 Cor 2:5, “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of mankind, but in the power of God.”
c. Eph 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do infinitely more than all we could ask for ourselves or be imagining on the basis of the power which is delegated to us.”
d. Col 1:11, “Because you have been endowed with all power from that superior power of His glory, resulting in all [mental] fortitude and steadfastness [stability under pressure] accompanied by happiness.”
e. 2 Thes 1:11, “For to this end we also pray for you always, that our God may make you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for integrity and the work of doctrine with power.” That describes omnipotence made available to the Christian life; it is the “work of doctrine with omnipotence.” Doctrine works with power. There is inevitably a relationship between cognition of Bible doctrine and the utilization of divine power. “The Word of God is alive and powerful . . .”
9. In application, this means that two categories of divine power are available to the believer for the fulfillment of God’s plan.
a. The omnipotence of the Father, reflected in the provision of the portfolio of invisible assets.
b. The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit, located in the divine dynasphere, the only means of fulfilling God’s plan for the Church Age.
G. God’s Omnipotence Related to The Sovereignty of God.
1. The sovereignty of God is His immutable, eternal, and perfect divine volition. Consequently, the sovereignty of God is His eternal and infinite will expressed in the divine decrees, manifest in the comprehensive divine interpretation of history, called dispensations, and in the unique protocol plan of God for the Church.
2. The sovereignty of God is very closely related to the omnipotence of God; one cannot function without the other.
3. The sovereignty of God must be related to His personality, just as our volition is related to our personality.
4. Personality denotes self-consciousness and self-determination. God recognizes Himself to be a person. As such, He functions with perfect integrity and perfect rationality.
5. God is an infinite personality; and therefore the perfection and virtue of His self-determination characterizes His purpose, His plan, His provision, and His omnipotence. Though God has infinite and eternal power, He never abuses it.
6. The sovereignty of God is related to His infinity. Infinity means all that God is without boundary or any limitation. He unites in Himself the perfections which belong to His person or essence.
7. God is not and cannot be complicated by ignorance or absurdities. Therefore, every decision in the use of divine power and divine authority, and in the delegation of divine power, is perfect.
8. God cannot use His sovereignty to sin, to tempt, to sponsor sin, human good, or evil. Consequently, God’s power is incorruptible. Omnipotence is immutable, unchangeable, and incorruptible.
9. Infinity characterizes all that God does: His sovereign decisions, His policies, the function of His perfect virtue love, His omniscience, His integrity or holiness.
10. Divine infinity cannot in any way be limited. Omnipotence is unlimited energy and power.
11. God is eternal wisdom and eternal virtue, with the complete impossibility of being wrong, doing wrong, or sponsoring wrong.
12. God’s eternal glory existed before creation. Therefore, the sovereignty of God recognizes His own glory and claims it in the interest of absolute truth.
13. Divine motivation in the function of God’s sovereignty in history is always for His glory, to which He has an eternal right. The sovereignty of God is never motivated by self-praise.
a. However, the sovereignty of God is directly related to all the assets in your portfolio.
b. In your portfolio of invisible assets, you have the delegation of divine power. Hence, you are able to fulfill the protocol plan of God. God’s plan is supernatural, and so requires a supernatural means of execution. And He has delegated power to us for its execution.
H. The Policy of Omnipotence.
1. God is infinite, eternal, and immutable. Therefore, God’s power and authority is infinite, eternal, and immutable.
2. God is perfect virtue and integrity (or holiness: His justice and righteousness). Therefore, God’s power always functions in compatibility with His essence, i.e., within the boundaries of His infinite and perfect righteousness and justice, virtue and integrity. Although God has unlimited power, He can never be unfair because of His infinite, eternal, unchangeable virtue. The perfect integrity of God can only utilize power in a perfect way compatible with His integrity. God never goes outside of His virtue with His unlimited power.
3. God’s power and authority are always in a state of coordination with His sovereignty and His holiness.
4. Therefore, God is able to do everything His sovereignty wills in the manner or way in which His sovereign volition decides, in conformity with His holiness and virtue, and in compatibility with His love and grace policy. This is the policy of omnipotence. 5. Since God is eternal, infinite, and immutable, that means He cannot change His power, He cannot limit His power which is unlimited by His infinity. Because God His holy, His power always functions within the boundaries and in coordination with His holiness, never apart from His righteousness. It is impossible for God to use His great power erroneously.
a. This is why God doesn’t bless you or keep you alive on any other basis other than the fact that His righteousness indwells you. What righteousness demands, justice executes. The integrity of God plus the omnipotence of God provides your logistical grace.
b. God’s power is infinite, He cannot abuse it. Perfect virtue plus perfect power means that power cannot be abused. Therefore God isn’t going to heal you or create a miracle for you because you have been “good” or spiritual, or have given up something.
c. The application is that since God has provided a way for us to participate and share in His power, it follows that the Christian way of life never tries to make wrong right, and does not choose anything contrary to the system of virtue in the protocol plan.
6. God cannot and does not choose to do anything which is contrary to His perfect essence.
7. God cannot deny Himself, any other member of the Trinity (the basis for divine self-esteem), or believers in Christ as per the doctrine of Eternal Security. You cannot lose your salvation; that would be God denying Himself. God has the power, the will, the organization, and the determination to keep you saved forever, no matter how you fail.
a. 2 Tim 2:13, “If we are faithless [loser believers], He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
b. Eternal security of the believer is a part of the policy of omnipotence. 1 Pet 1:5, “We are guarded by the power of God through faith for deliverance, ready to be revealed in the last time.”
8. The policy of omnipotence is always related to the sovereignty of God. With regard to His omnipotence, God does not choose to do everything by His own immediate power. Therefore, there is a policy which coordinates the sovereignty of God with His own omnipotence. 9. In this historical phase of the angelic conflict, the sovereignty of God delegates His power and His authority to intermediate agents. These intermediate agents include both angelic and human beings.
10. God determines some things to occur unconditionally, but many if not most things in history are planned conditionally in order to resolve the prehistoric angelic conflict.
a. Some things are planned conditionally through the obedience of certain people, such as through the few believers executing the protocol plan of God or through unbelievers functioning under the laws of divine establishment.
b. Some things are planned conditionally through the permitted disobedience of certain people, such as believers operating under the law of volitional responsibility, or who are carnal, or who live in the cosmic system; or through unbelievers in the cosmic system.
11. There is always divine blessing to the unbeliever who is obedient to the laws of divine establishment. There is fantastic blessing for the believer who executes the protocol plan of God. For the disobedient, the omnipotence of God is the power and the source that warns in discipline and judgment. Unbelievers and nations who violate the laws of divine establishment come under the omnipotent policy of God, sinking into the morass of history, many disappearing altogether.
I. The Application of the Policy of Omnipotence to Us.
1. Some obvious applications of the policy of divine omnipotence are noted historically in the rise and fall of nations. The five cycles of discipline are administered through the omnipotence of God to client nations who fail, either through God’s direct use of His omnipotence, or through the delegation of His power to another nation. This is the principle of evil one, the ungodly nation, destroying evil two, the client nation. The omnipotence of God applied to the rise and fall of nations is seen in every line of Psalm 2.
2. Ps 76:10, “For the wrath of man shall praise You, and the survivors of Your wrath shall be restrained.” The omnipotence of God can convert the wrath of man into great judgment of both individuals and nations. Those who survive such divine judgment are restrained, not by the grace of God, but by the omnipotence of God. In this way, God perpetuates the human race through His divine power. God uses the wrath of man to praise Him.
3. God’s will, purpose, and policy for human history is fulfilled in the policy of coordination between the sovereignty and omnipotence of God.
4. The omnipotence of God works in two ways toward us.
a. Directly from heaven, the omnipotence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all available to us.
b. Through delegated power and authority to mankind includes several categories.
(1) Under the laws of divine establishment, power and authority is delegated to the police officer, judge, and government, which are all designed to protect your privacy, property, freedom, and life.
(2) There is delegated omnipotence to the divine plan for the Church Age. God’s plan for your life requires that you understand omnipotence and that you utilize it under the divine plan.
5. God’s eternal purpose for history is never frustrated by creature failure or creature disobedience. The fact that we fail God does not mean that God fails in history. Although creatures are the agents of divine power, that does not in any way hinder the plan of God. God’s plan moves on with or without us.
6. God’s will, purpose, and policy for history is fulfilled in the manner He chooses to accomplish them. Eph 1:11-12, “In whom also we have received an allotment [delegated omnipotence of God the Father and omnipotence of the Holy Spirit], having been predestined with reference to a predetermined plan from Him [Father] who works all things in conformity with the purpose of His will; in order that we [Church Age believers] who first hoped in Christ [salvation] should be for the praise of His glory.”
a. The sovereignty and the omnipotence of God combine to form a perfect pattern of provision and planning for us.
b. Our allotment refers to the delegated omnipotence of God the Father related to our portfolio of invisible assets and the delegated omnipotence of the Holy Spirit related to the divine dynasphere. God capitalized us in eternity past. This is why, with His power, God has the ability to bless you beyond anything you could ever imagine or think!
c. “Working all things in conformity with the purpose of His will” is the function of the omnipotence of God. The omnipotence of God the Father created our portfolio of invisible assets. The omnipotence of Jesus Christ holds the universe together so that history can continue to the end of the Millennium. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is delegated to our divine dynasphere.
J. The Dynamics of Omnipotence.
1. God has the power, the omnipotence, to effect all His purposes in the way in which He purposes them.
2. No human failure of any kind can frustrate the omnipotence of God in the fulfillment of His will, His plan and His purpose. This power of God is so fantastic and so virtuous that there is no way that Satan will ever win, nor the unbeliever, nor the believer in the cosmic system. (Of the three, the one most dangerous and visible to us is the cosmic believer.)
3. Neither human failure nor human success are an issue; the issue is: whose power are you using? If you’re using God’s power, you’ll make it; if using human power, you’re a loser. No creature power or creature energy of any kind, angelic or human, will fulfill God’s plan.
4. No angelic power of any kind, including Satan’s, can frustrate the omnipotence of God in fulfilling His purpose for the historical extension of the prehistoric angelic conflict.
5. God has the power to carry out His purposes and His decrees regarding both angelic and human history.
a. God has chosen, in this dispensation, to carry out His decrees and His purpose through you! You are an intermediate agent. As such, He has delegated two categories of divine power to you. Since it’s delegated, that means it’s available.
b. But remember, God does not coerce you to use His divine power. The utilization of divine power demands cognizance of certain mechanics. Without understanding these mechanics, and without your own self- determination and proper motivation, you will never utilize divine power.
c. Lk 1:37 says literally, “For no word from God will be void of power.” In the King James Version it is translated, “For with God, nothing shall be impossible.” This includes the fact that God keeps you alive simply because you’re positive, or so that you can be used in people testing and system testing for those who have advanced to spiritual autonomy. God uses the wrath of cosmic believers to praise Him.
6. The omnipotence of God is of critical importance in the organization of God, for it is the power by which He executes His plan, His will, and His purpose.
7. The delegation of divine power or omnipotence is limited to the equal opportunity assets of predestination, life in the divine dynasphere. The omnipotence of God the Father is using His power to sustain us. God has delegated His power so that we can fulfill His perfect plan. No category of human power or dynamics can do so.
a. Equal privilege in predestination is the baptism of the Spirit, whereby we enter into union with the person of Jesus Christ.
b. Equal opportunity in predestination is your very own palace, the operational-type divine dynasphere, where divine power is delegated. This is where the believer is said to be filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. There is no operational power outside of the divine dynasphere, the place of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.
8. The mandates to be filled with the Spirit and to walk by means of the Spirit are mandates to utilize divine power. The utilization of the divine power of the Holy Spirit is directly involved in the fulfillment of God’s plan for your life.
9. Residence in the divine dynasphere fulfills the mandate of Eph 5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit.” Function in the divine dynasphere at the various gates fulfills the mandate of Gal 5:16, “Keep walking by means of the Spirit.”
10. Divine power resides in the divine dynasphere; human power resides in Satan’s cosmic system.
11. In cosmic one, the believer is said to be grieving the Spirit because he’s functioning under his power rather than the power of the Spirit, Eph 4:30. In cosmic one, human dynamics is related to arrogance.
12. In cosmic two, the believer is said to be quenching the Spirit, 1 Thes 5:19, because he’s functioning under his own power, human viewpoint, and intellect rather than the power of God the Holy Spirit. In cosmic two, human dynamics is related to intellect.
13. Residence in the cosmic system can be classified as the life of incompetence, rather than the lifestyle of wisdom, the unique life, and the protocol plan of God. Cosmic believers are substituting human dynamics for the utilization of divine power; yet there is no substitute. The life of competence is the life of the utilization of divine omnipotence.
14. Therefore, life becomes very simple. Live in the divine dynasphere and utilize divine power. Live outside the divine dynasphere and you function under the energy of the flesh and fail.
15. This means God has a plan for your life! This plan is related to His power. This plan includes the manner in which we come into contact with God’s power and the manner in which we use His power, i.e., the rules, regulations, and concepts by which His power functions in our lives to fulfill His will.
K. The Great Power Experiment of the Hypostatic Union.
1. Jesus Christ Begins His Hypostatic Union.
a. Heb 10:5-7, “Therefore, when He [Lord Jesus Christ] entered the world [Incarnation], He said [Ps 40:6-8], `You [God the Father] do not desire sacrifice and offering, but You have prepared for Me a human body; You have not been propitiated by burnt offerings and sin offerings. At that time [cradle], I said [Ps 40:7], “Behold, I have arrived (in a scroll of a book it stands written about Me) to accomplish Your will O God."’”
b. Heb 10:9-10, “At that time, He [Jesus Christ] said, `Behold, I have arrived to execute Your plan [purpose, will].’ He has abrogated the first [ritual plan for Israel] that He might establish the second [protocol plan of God for the Church]. By which will [purpose, plan], we [royal family of God] have been sanctified to God forever [baptism of the Holy Spirit] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once and for all.”
c. There are four reasons why Jesus Christ had to become true humanity.
(1) To be our Savior and to receive the imputation of our sins. As God, He could not be judged for the sins of the world, could have nothing to do with sin, could not tempt, sin, or have any contact with sin. So He had to become true humanity, as taught in Phil 2:7-8.
(2) To be the mediator between God and man. A mediator must be equal with both parties, according to Job 9. As God, Jesus Christ is equal with God. As true humanity, Jesus Christ is equal with man, 1 Tim 2:5-6.
(3) To become the high priest of the Church after the order of Melchizedek, Heb 7. A priest is a human being who represents other human beings to God. There was no place for Jesus Christ in the Levitical priesthood, since He was born into the tribe of Judah. But He is the high priest (Heb 7) for our royal priesthood; He represents the Church before God the Father.
(4) To fulfill the unconditional covenant to David. God promised David in 2 Sam 7:8-16 and in Ps 89:20-37 that he would have a son who would rule forever. This promise from God had no strings attached; it was an unconditional promise. It did not depend upon David being good or bad, but simply upon the integrity of God. That means David’s son had to be true humanity from the line of David. Jesus Christ is in the direct lineage of David and Bathsheba on two counts: from His real mother (Mary is descended from Nathan) and His legal father (Joseph is descended from Solomon).
d. By His quotation of Ps 40, our Lord makes it very clear that He has abrogated the first, the ritual plan of God, in order that He might establish the second, the protocol plan of God.
2. Jesus Christ, the Unique Person of the Universe.
a. In the person of Christ, beginning with the First Advent, the virgin birth, and the Incarnation, there are two natures (divine and human) inseparably united, without mixture or loss of separate identity, without loss or transfer of properties or attributes, the union being personal and eternal.
b. Since the Incarnation, Jesus Christ is true humanity and undiminished deity in one unique person forever. He will always be that way, and therefore He is the unique person of the Universe.
c. Jesus Christ is the God-man. He is different from God in that He is true humanity; He is different from true humanity in that He is God.
d. As God, He is infinitely superior to both angels and man. As true humanity, since His resurrection, ascension and session, He is now superior to all creatures, as taught in Heb 1-2. e. The deity of Christ continued to use His omnipotence throughout this power experiment to hold the universe together, the universe which Jesus Christ Himself created. However, His deity was not involved directly in the 33-year experiment.
(1) Col 1:16-17, “For by Him are all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible or invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. For by Him all things hold together.”
(2) Heb 1:3 describes Jesus Christ during the Incarnation, “upholding all things by the word of His power.”
3. The Trichotomy of the Humanity of Jesus Christ.
a. Heb 10:5 says, “You have prepared for Me a human body.” Two categories of omnipotence were involved in the preparation of that human body of Jesus Christ in Hypostatic Union.
(1) The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit provided the twenty- three perfect male chromosomes for the virgin pregnancy of Mary, Mt 1:20, “conceived by the Holy Spirit.” This prevented our Lord from being born with an old sin nature.
(2) The omnipotence of the God the Father seated the human life which He imputed to our Lord’s human soul. That’s the significance of Jn 3:16a, “For God so loved the world that He gave His uniquely-born Son.”
b. Therefore, the great power experiment of history began with the virgin pregnancy and virgin birth, establishing the power pattern, using the omnipotence of God the Father and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit was functioning at the virgin pregnancy; the omnipotence of God the Father at the virgin birth.
c. At physical birth, Jesus Christ did not have a genetically formed old sin nature because of parthenogenesis (virgin birth). Just as Adam was created perfect, our Lord was born perfect.
d. Dichotomy and Trichotomy.
(1) Dichotomy refers to a person having a soul and body. Trichotomy refers to a person having a soul, spirit, and body. The Greek SOMA means body, PSUCHE means soul, and PNEUMA means spirit.
(2) Adam was created trichotomous, having a body, soul, and spirit, Gen 2:7, “the breath of lives.” As a result of the Fall, both Adam and the woman became dichotomous, having body and soul. Spiritual death includes the destruction or death of the human spirit. As a result, their progeny, the human race, are always physically born dichotomous, having no human spirit. Therefore, we’re born physically alive and spiritually dead.
(3) 1 Cor 2:14 describes all the human race as PSUCHIKOS, meaning “soulish.” The verse says, “The soulish man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are discerned by the [human] spirit.”
(4) Jude 19, “These [unbelievers] are the ones who cause divisions, soulish, not having a [human] spirit.”
(5) When anyone believes in Christ, the omnipotence of the Spirit restores the status quo of trichotomy (the state of Adam before the fall). In regeneration, the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life.
(6) 1 Thes 5:23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Note the Greek order. The human spirit is most important, for that is what the Holy Spirit teaches so we can learn doctrine under grace perception. Next is the soul, the real you. The body is last.
(7) The human spirit in the believer is taught in:
(a) Job 32:8 where spiritual perception is the subject. “But it is the spirit in man [believer] and the Spirit of the Almighty that gives perception.” This distinguishes the human spirit from the Holy Spirit, cf Rom 8:16.
(b) Phile 25, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” teaches the existence of the human spirit.
© The human spirit of Titus is mentioned specifically in 2 Cor 7:13, “...we have rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.”
(d) Heb 4:12, “The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder between the soul and the spirit . . .”
(8) Dichotomy and trichotomy have coexisted in human history since the fall and regeneration of man. The unbeliever is dichotomous; the believer is trichotomous.
e. The pre-incarnate person of Christ is infinite and eternal God. He is coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Spirit. He has the same omnipotence as the Father and the Spirit. Because of immutability, He can’t change His own omnipotence and become anything less.
f. The post-incarnate person of Christ is that same undiminished deity and perfect, impeccable, trichotomous true humanity in one person forever. Jn 1:1-3,14, “The Word [eternal God] became flesh.”
g. Through the virgin birth, the humanity of Christ was and is trichotomous, having a body, soul, and spirit. He was born with a human spirit and without an old sin nature, and so He was born as Adam was created.
h. Two categories of omnipotence were employed to bring about the Hypostatic Union.
(1) The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit provided twenty-three perfect male chromosomes for the virgin pregnancy of Mary.
(2) The omnipotence of God the Father provided human life imputed to the soul at the virgin birth.
i. Two categories of omnipotence were employed by Jesus Christ in the great power experiment of the Hypostatic Union.
(1) The true humanity of Christ resided in the prototype divine dynasphere where He utilized the delegated omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.
(2) The true humanity of Christ functioned under the omnipotence of God the Father in obedience to the plan for the Incarnation (doctrine of kenosis.) After providing human life to the soul at the virgin birth, God the Father thereafter provided logistical grace to sustain the humanity of Christ during those thirty-three years while He was under constant attack and hostility from both angels and humans.
j. The omnipotence of the deity of Christ has been and always will be holding the universe together. During the Incarnation, the omnipotence of the deity of Christ (omnipotence of Jesus Christ) continued to hold the universe together, Col 1:16-17.
4. The Pattern of Omnipotence for the Great Power Experiment.
a. The example of our Lord establishes the precedence for us. Precedence is the foundation for building a pattern in the great power experiment.
b. The pattern was first established at the virgin birth of Christ, when the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit provided the twenty-three perfect male chromosomes, and the omnipotence of God the Father imputed human life to our Lord’s human soul.
c. The pattern continued throughout the thirty-three years of the Incarnation. The omnipotence of God the Father invented the prototype divine dynasphere and provided logistical grace support for the humanity of Christ during the First Advent. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit occupied the prototype divine dynasphere to enable the humanity of Christ to fulfill the Father’s purpose in the Incarnation.
d. The pattern continues to the resurrection of Christ. The omnipotence of God the Father restored our Lord’s human spirit, located in heaven, to his body in the grave on earth, and thus the Father became an agent of the resurrection. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit restored our Lord’s human soul out of Hades to his body in the grave on earth, and thus the Spirit became an agent of the resurrection. This power that raised Christ from the dead, the omnipotence of God the Father and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, is the same power made available to us for the execution of the Christian life.
e. The pattern continues in the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. The omnipotence of God the Father provided in eternity past a portfolio of invisible assets for every Church Age believer, making divine power available. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, available inside the operational-type divine dynasphere, is the means of fulfilling the protocol plan of God. This is the Christian way of life, the combination of the portfolio of invisible assets and the divine dynasphere, the use of divine omnipotence of the Father and the Holy Spirit.
f. The pattern continues to the end of this power experiment, the resurrection of the Church. The omnipotence of God the Father resurrects the dead in Christ, resulting in corruption taking on incorruption, 1 Cor 15:53-54. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit resurrects those who are alive on the earth at the Rapture, resulting in the mortal putting on immortality.
5. The Prototype Divine Dynasphere.
a. The omnipotence of God the Father invented the prototype divine dynasphere to sustain the humanity of Christ during the Incarnation. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit occupied the prototype divine dynasphere from the virgin birth of Christ up to His departure from earth.
b. This is called the prototype divine dynasphere, because our operational-type divine dynasphere is based on this pattern. The prototype divine dynasphere has the same gates.
(1) Gate #1. The humanity of Christ was filled with the Spirit from birth all the way through His resurrection, ascension, and session. The Holy Spirit sustained and enabled our Lord throughout the Incarnation. Jn 3:34, the Holy Spirit is never given in part to our Lord or the any Church Age believer.
(2) In gate #2, our Lord began physically as a baby. He learned basic wisdom. “He grew in wisdom and in stature in favor with God and man.” (3) In gate #3, Jesus Christ had genuine humility. Our Lord not only recognized the authority of God the Father, but also that of his parents and others. His enforced humility was manifest when He said in Gethsemane, “Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not My will but Thy will be done.” From genuine humility, He had objectivity and teachability.
(4) Therefore, He advanced very rapidly through perception of Bible doctrine at gate #4.
(5) He reached spiritual self-esteem at gate #5.
(6) He reached spiritual autonomy at gate #6.
(7) He passed momentum testing at gate #7.
(8) He reached spiritual maturity, gate #8, at age thirty or before However, at age thirty He faced evidence testing just before He started His ministry, as documented in Matthew 4. Our Lord’s passing of evidence testing and His work on the cross, both demonstrate His utilization of the omnipotence of the Father and the Holy Spirit and the fact that He did not use His own omnipotence.
c. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit occupied the prototype divine dynasphere beginning with the virgin birth as the basis of enablement. Isa 11:2, “The Spirit of the Lord [Holy Spirit] will rest on Him.” Jn 3:34, “For He whom the Father has sent speaks the doctrines from God, for He does not give the Spirit by measure.”
d. During the Incarnation and First Advent, the humanity of Christ utilized the delegated power of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit inside the prototype divine dynasphere, the greatest grace offer ever provided up to that point in history. Lk 4:14, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.” Mt 4:1, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tested by the devil.”
e. Our Lord’s residence, function, and momentum inside the prototype divine dynasphere was where He relied upon the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit for the fulfillment of the Father’s plan of the Incarnation.
f. The utilization of divine power by the humanity of Christ inside the prototype divine dynasphere becomes the pattern for the use of divine power for the Church Age believer to execute the protocol plan of God.
6. Kenosis and Omnipotence.
a. During the Incarnation, our Lord voluntarily restricted the independent use of His divine attributes, which includes His omnipotence. He did this in compliance with the Father’s plan for the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. For the plan for the Incarnation not only called for the judgment of our sins, the provision of eternal salvation for all members of the human race, but simultaneously for the strategic victory of the angelic conflict.
b. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily took on Himself true humanity in order to redeem mankind from sin, in order to propitiate God the Father, and to reconcile mankind to God.
c. Therefore, during the Incarnation, Jesus Christ did not even once exercise the independent use of His own divine attributes either to benefit Himself, to provide for Himself, or to glorify Himself.
d. The true doctrine of kenosis is illustrated by the humanity of Christ in facing evidence testing, Mt 4:1-10. In all three tests, He utilized the power of the Word provided by the omnipotence of the Father and the power of the Spirit provided in the prototype divine dynasphere. The first test illustrates the principle.
(1) In the first test, Mt 4:3-4, Jesus had gone forty days without food and was extremely hungry. The humanity of Christ was tempted in relationship to the delegated power of omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord used doctrine learned in the prototype divine dynasphere to solve the problem. He did not use His omnipotence to turn the stones into bread.
(2) In His state of extreme hunger, Satan said to Him, “If you are the Son of God [and you are], command these stones to be turned into bread.” Jesus Christ as God is infinite, eternal, immutable omnipotence and the Creator of the universe, which Satan recognized. Our Lord had the power to turn the entire universe into bread.
(3) But under the doctrine of kenosis, He did not use His omnipotence independently of the Father. He refused to function independently of the Father’s plan. He refused to rely upon His own omnipotence at any time during the Incarnation. The false doctrine says He surrendered His omnipotence; not at all! He had it all the time; He simply did not use it! He used only the omnipotence of the Father and the Spirit.
(4) Our Lord continued to be hungry, and met Satan’s temptation with the quotation from Deut 8:3, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” By this, our Lord established the fact that Bible doctrine had #1 priority in His life, and He used the power of Bible doctrine.
(5) The temptation of Satan was designed to lure the humanity of Christ away from reliance upon the omnipotence of God the Father for His logistical grace, and upon the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit inside the prototype divine dynasphere.
(6) Had our Lord used His own omnipotence to turn the stones into food, He would have operated independently of the Father’s plan. His humanity would have received food, but He would never go to the cross.
(7) Our Lord used Bible doctrine to meet the test, the doctrine He had learned inside the prototype divine dynasphere. For according to Lk 2, our Lord “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” That’s a reference to His humanity inside the prototype divine dynasphere.
e. Therefore, in kenosis, the humanity of Christ in Hypostatic Union voluntarily restricted the independent use of divine attributes, including omnipotence, in compliance with the Father’s plan for the Incarnation.
f. Instead, our Lord’s humanity depended upon two categories of divine omnipotence, which had never before been available on such a grand scale: the omnipotence of God the Father in logistical grace support, and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, only inside the prototype divine dynasphere.
g. This is why our Lord did not use His own omnipotence to turn stones into bread, but instead used Bible doctrine metabolized under the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 7. Impeccability and Omnipotence.
a. The doctrine of impeccability is that category of Christology which contends that our Lord Jesus Christ, in Hypostatic Union, did not sin during the First Advent, although His humanity was temptable. His humanity was tempted far beyond anything we have ever known or experienced.
b. With reference to His deity, Jesus Christ is said to be NON POSSE PECARE, i.e., not able to sin. With reference to His humanity, Christ is said to be POSSE NON PECARE, i.e., able not to sin. Of course, deity cannot sin. And because His humanity relied upon the filling of the Spirit inside the prototype divine dynasphere, He was able not to sin.
c. There are two reasons for the perfection of the humanity of Christ.
(1) Union with deity in Hypostatic Union.
(2) The humanity of Christ resided continually in the prototype divine dynasphere, relying entirely upon the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.
d. Principle #1.
(1) While our Lord was tempted in all points as we are tempted and far beyond, He did not sin. Therefore, Christ as the last Adam remained in the status quo of perfect impeccability (i.e., non-liability to sin). Heb 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we have been, and yet without sin.”
(2) Impeccability is based upon the humanity of Christ utilizing divine omnipotence in two categories: 1) the sustaining omnipotence of God the Father in logistical grace, and 2) the delegated omnipotence of the Holy Spirit inside the prototype divine dynasphere. 1 Pet 2:22, “He who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.”
(3) In Hypostatic Union, the deity of Christ is neither temptable and therefore not in any way sinful, i.e., impeccable.
(4) In Hypostatic Union, the humanity of Christ is temptable but impeccable because of His humanity’s residence, function, and momentum inside the prototype divine dynasphere, where He utilized the delegated omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.
(5) The person of Christ in Hypostatic Union was temptable but impeccable.
(6) The impeccability of Christ was the prerequisite for His saving work on the cross. Therefore, our Lord was qualified to go to the cross, to receive the imputation and judgment of all the sins of the entire human race, and to provide eternal salvation for all who believe in Him.
(a) 1 Jn 3:5, “Indeed, you know that He was revealed [First Advent] in order that He might carry our sins; in fact, sin is not in Him [impeccability].”
(b) 1 Pet 2:24, “He Himself carried our sins in His own body on the cross.”
© 2 Cor 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
e. Principle #2.
(1) Jesus Christ as God cannot sin, cannot solicit sin, cannot tempt, or have anything to do with sin except one thing: to judge it. Hence, our Lord’s deity rejected sin, human good, and evil. In Hypostatic Union, not once did our Lord sin, perform an act of human good, or become involved in evil.
(2) As true humanity inside the prototype divine dynasphere, our Lord was temptable but impeccable.
(3) Impeccability was the direct result of the utilization of divine omnipotence; i.e., the inside the prototype divine dynasphere and the omnipotence of God the Father who kept Him alive. Otherwise, Satan would have destroyed Him and made the Incarnation no contest. (Satan has the power of death.) So the omnipotence of God the Father sustained Him through logistical grace, and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit empowered the humanity of Christ to resist temptations far greater than anything we have ever known.
(a) By the end of our life we have faced maybe one- third of all possible temptations known to the human race. But our Lord resisted 100% of all possible temptations. Satan offered to our Lord every possible temptation that a human being can face. Yet, our Lord arrived at the cross totally free from sin.
(b) So our Lord was not only “tempted like we are,” but far beyond that! No one in all of human history will ever come close to enduring the temptations which our Lord endured during the first stage of the great power experiment, i.e, the Hypostatic Union. He never once succumbed to any temptation to sin, human good, or evil; for all are equally rejected by God.
(4) This same impeccability of Christ is the basis for His strategic victory in the angelic conflict, accomplished entirely through the omnipotence of God the Father and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. Heb 2:14, “Since therefore children [people] share blood and flesh, He Himself likewise partook of the same [humanity], that through death, He might render powerless the devil who had the power of death.”
(5) Our Lord’s humanity is described after resurrection at the right hand of God in Heb 7:26. There, at the right hand of the Father, His humanity is said to be “holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.”
(6) Our Lord had to be both true and impeccable humanity before He could go to the cross and be judged for our sins.
(7) Functioning under the sustaining omnipotence of God the Father and omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is the basis for the mental attitude described in Phil 2:5-8. “Keep on thinking this within you, which was the mental attitude of Christ Jesus [His humanity], who though He eternally existed in the essence of God, He did not think equality with God a profit [gain] to be seized and held but He deprived Himself of the proper function of deity [kenosis] when He had received the form of a servant, when He was born in the likeness of mankind. In fact, although He was discovered in outward appearance as a man [true humanity], He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, that is, the death of the cross.”
(8) The power for this mental attitude of our Lord came from two sources: the omnipotence of God the Father who provided logistical grace, and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit who was the teacher of doctrine to the humanity of Christ. That same omnipotence of God the Father is provided for us through our portfolio of invisible assets, and that same omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is provided for us through the operational- type divine dynasphere.
(9) Because of the impeccability of His true humanity, our Lord was qualified to go to the cross and provide eternal salvation by receiving the imputation of our sins.
(10) While on the cross, Jesus Christ was ridiculed: “If you are the Son of God, come down and save yourself and us.” He could have done that by using His own power. But He chose to remain and to subordinate His own omnipotence to the plan for the Incarnation. Therefore, in the power of the Spirit, He was able to endure the cross and bear our sins.
(11) In fact, this entire doctrine leads to teaching us how Jesus Christ was able to endure the cross, and what power His humanity used during those last three hours on the cross. Therefore, the entire structure of the Christian way of life is based on the power principle and power structure used by our Lord which kept Him on that cross during the three hours in which He was judged for our sins.
(12) Rom 1:3-6, “Concerning His Son, who was born from the progeny of David according to the flesh [hypostatic union], who has been demonstrated [to be] the Son of God [deity] by means of the power belonging to the Holy Spirit, by means of the resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord, because of whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the doctrine among all the Gentiles on behalf of His name [King of kings, Lord of lords], among whom you also [Church] are the elect of Jesus Christ [as royal family of God].”
(a) “By means of the power belonging to the Holy Spirit” is the Greek preposition KATA plus the accusative of possession, a very rare use of the accusative, used only to express something unique. The reason for this construction is because the delegated omnipotence of the Holy Spirit inside the divine dynasphere was the means by which our Lord’s humanity fulfilled the Father’s plan for the Incarnation. In other words, He was not “demonstrated the Son of God” by His own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
(b) “By means of the resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection also demonstrates that same power. For the Holy Spirit restored our Lord’s soul from Hades to His body in resurrection.
© There are two categories of omnipotence delegated.
(i) There is grace delegation of divine power, grace being the policy for the Church Age. The omnipotence of God the Father sustains you logistically; this is unconditional grace. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit empowers you conditionally, depending upon your use of rebound and resultant residence in the divine dynasphere.
(ii) There is grace delegation of authority for the communication of doctrine (apostleship). The gift of apostleship is mentioned here, because it was the greatest authority ever delegated to twelve men in the Church Age. Notice that “grace” comes before “apostleship.” A pastor is the recipient of grace like everyone else. But the pastor is ineffective unless he learns the mechanics as well as the principles of grace.
_________________
© 1989, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.