(Ver 1.1) Today is the next lesson, “Part 9” in the series on understanding the Bible subject of spoken words.  If you have not read this series from the beginning you should go and start reading with “Part 1“.  Most Christians possess the belief that God is omnipotent.   “Omnipotent is a theological term that is technically not found in the English translation of the KJV Bible.  However the word “Almighty” (H7706, G3841) is found in the KJV Bible and it means “omnipotent.  The word “Almighty” appears some 57 times in the KJV Bible with only 10 occurrences appearing in the New Testament and 9 of these are found in the book of Revelation.  It appears to me that God emphasized His power and ability more directly in the Old Testament and has given the subject less emphasis in the New Testament based upon His word selection and distribution.  The 9 instances of “Almighty” in Revelation seem to be related with God’s sovereign ability to execute judgment.   Judgment is not a predominate theme of the New Testament except when you come to the book of Revelation.  I did not say that you cannot find judgment in the N.T., I just said it was not the dominate theme of the church age.  If you recall when Jesus was walking the earth, people brought a woman to Jesus who was caught in the act of adultery and Jesus’ response should have been that of a judge according to the law; however Jesus was mercy driven with compassion and told those who were without sin, to cast the first stone.   However, did you ever think that the only one without sin in this group was Jesus and that He should have been the first one to cast the first stone, but did not?   The mercy of God is a much greater predominate theme in the N.T. than the judgment of God.  But that is another different subject to discuss at another time.  Today we are talking about the subject of spiritual power and the power of spirits.  Let’s look at the “Power” of God first.  Does God have ALL Power?

2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

The Greek word G3841 translated as “Almighty” is a word meaning “all powerful” or “omnipotent”.  God has the power, strength and ability to do anything.  The power of God is massively demonstrated throughout the Old Testament.  From the creation account in Genesis 1 all the way to the flood of Noah, to the scattering of people at the tower of Babel, to the demonstration of power before Pharaoh in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, to the miracles in the wilderness.  There are just too many examples found in the Bible to list them all.  So we can easily understand that God has great and awesome power.  But, does God hold “ALL” power?  That was my question originally.  Meaning ONLY God has any power?  A lot of religious people think in these terms and miss what the Bible says on the subject.

Let me introduce you to a new concept and another term used to describe nature and character of God other than as the “Almighty”.   This new term that I will show you is used in the KJV Bible approximately 48 times; again 38 times in the Old Testament and only 10 times in the New Testament.  This term or name of God reveals Him to be the “Most High God”.

Gen 14:18  And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

Reading this verse we can clearly see that God is described as being “Supreme”.  Meaning among spirits there is none greater or more powerful than He is.  God is at the top of the spiritual food chain, proverbially speaking.  What do we learn from reading this verse?  If there is a “Most High God”, then there are other gods that are below him in rank, power and ability.  That statement might get some people upset at me, but yet I’m just reading the Bible and seeing what is written there.  Can you understand what was said by God?  You do understand that the author of the Bible does not need to qualify the name “God” with the adjective modifier of “Most High” if there are no other gods that exist?  It only takes limited basic logic and very simple reasoning to see what God says in this verse.  Of course some will try to say that God is the only “True God” and all of the others are just false imaginary gods.  However, the title “True God” is also found in the Bible and it is a different Hebrew word than “Most High”:

Jer 10:10  But the LORD is the true God he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

We can clearly see that the LORD is called the “True God”.  So we can automatically conclude that there are also false imaginary gods that also exist.  But this verse also claims God is the “Living God” meaning these false imaginary gods are only defined as those that are dead or have no life in them.  A false god would be like when people in the world worship idols, the objects made by the hands of man.  These idols are “false and dead gods” and they have no power on the earth whatsoever.   Another example of a false god would be like those found in mythology.  False, gods like Atlas, Hermes, Mercury and etc.  These are gods made up in the minds of men that do not have any basis for existence.  So what we have learned is that there are several different types of gods in the world.  We created the following list diagram explaining what we have just learned with our God on left and others mentioned or implied on the right.

So what is my point?  Where am I going with all of this?  What I want you to see and learn is there are other gods in the world other than our Almighty God.  I am not talking about Greek mythology or Roman mythology or any other kind of imaginary, fictitious of mythological deity powers.  What I am about to show you are created spiritual beings in the Bible that God has called other types of “gods”.  You can clearly see these gods exist by the implications that we have just read in the Bible from the names given to us by our God.  Here is a N.T. verse that you should be aware of, but I’ll remind you of it:

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

So who blinded the minds of all those that believe not in this world?  This verse is not speaking of humans since they are the ones that have their minds blinded.  No this verse is speaking of another spiritual power that exists in the world.  This spiritual power is Satan and he is called the “god of this world”.  This Greek word translated as “god” in this verse means “deity”.  It can also mean “supreme”.   This word occurs over 1000 times in the N.T. and is most often used for references to our God.  For example in Matthew 1:23 where Jesus is described as “Emanuel” translated as “God” with us it contains the same Greek word.  However, in 2 Cor 4:4 we have a new mystery being stated using the same Greek word in reference to Satan.  Who gave Satan this title?  Or did he steal it from someone?   If Satan is called a god by the Most High God, do you accept it?  In other words is God a liar?  You see that is the problem with many Christians, they do not know that Satan exists and who he is.  So if Satan is a god, what type of god would he be?  He is not the “Most High”, nor is he the “Almighty God”.  I cannot call him the “True God” either.  He is certainly alive so he might fall into the living god category.  It really depends upon your definition of death.  Satan is not a physical being so he cannot die naturally.  If you do not know it, you cannot kill a spiritual being or cause them to cease to exist.  But, yet the Bible does talk about a “spiritual death” which can be defined as a separation from God.  I believe that Satan is now and has been separated from God ever since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The Bible tells us that if Satan would have known what was going to happen to himself, he would not have crucified the Lord of Glory (1 Cor 2:8).

Is Satan a lesser god than the Almighty God, I believe he is definitely on a lower spiritual plane than God Almighty.  Satan is not omnipotent, and he is not omniscient, and neither is he omnipresent.   So Satan qualifies as both a “lesser god” and a “limited god”.  So the question arises does this god Satan have any power?  I had one reader tell me that he didn’t think anyone could create anything other than the Most High God.  God is the only being that has the power of creation.  I’m not sure if I agree with that statement totally.  Where in the Bible does it say that only God can create anything?  If you know of a Bible verse like that I would be very pleased if you would share it with me.  Also, please do not assume that I am saying anything that I have not said.  God Almighty is the creator of everything that we see around us in our world.  But, many people think that Satan has no power to do anything and that is just not what the Bible says.  At least 3 times in Revelation the beast, the false prophet and Satan are stated as having done “miracles” (Rev 13:14, Rev 16:14, Rev 19,20).    A miracle is defined as a “supernatural” sign and wonder.  That tells me that Satan has significant abilities that he has not fully demonstrated to us.  That tells me that Satan is not powerless.  I learned a lot from what Jesus taught about Satan:

Luk 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the pwer of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Apparently Jesus did not think that Satan had no power either.  There are two words in this verse, both translated as “power” but they are dramatically different Greek words.  The first word translated as “power” (G1849) was spoken to us (the church) and it means spiritual “Authority”.  Jesus gave the Church legal jurisdiction over Satan (serpent) and the rest of his demons (scorpions).  The second word (G1411) translated as “power” is in direct reference to a symbolic serpent and some symbolic scorpions.  These are the symbolic representations for the enemy of the church called Satan and his demons.  This word for “power” means “miraculous power” or the “ability to do supernatural miracles”.    So what is a miracle?   A miracle would be anything that occurs that is not of the ordinary course of nature.  If you scrape your leg and it bleeds, it will heal in the ordinary course of time and nature.  However, if you lost your leg in a motorcycle accident and it grew back from a stump that is a miracle.  So according to Jesus, Satan is capable of doing supernatural miracles.  So do you understand that a spiritual being like Satan has a miracle working type of power?  Jesus told us in John 10:10 that the thief came not but for to kill steal and to destroy.  The thief is again a reference to “Satan”.  To have power to kill and destroy something is the opposite power of giving life and creating new things.  So does Satan have spiritual power and ability to do something supernatural in our world?  I believe that the Bible says that he does.  God’s word at the very least implies that Satan has great power in the spiritual realm.  However, He is still well under the level of the Most High God in power and ability.

Then there are other references in the Bible that says people are gods.  Jesus looked at the Jews in John 10:34 and said “is it not written in your law that I said ye are gods”?  Jesus was quoting a scripture verse written in the O.T. in Psalm 82:6 where God told them they were gods.  People in the church today struggle with believing that concept.  Does man have the power and ability to do things in the spiritual realm or are we just limited to the natural realm?  We understand from Genesis 1:26, that man was created in the image and in the likeness of the Most High God.  If we were created to be like God Almighty that would mean that we had the similar features and characteristics that God had.  If God had all power, we must have been created with the likeness of this power on a lower scale.  You might call us gods of a lesser power.   Here is another verse found in Psalms that speaks about the creation of man:

Psa 8:5  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

As you can see, this verse places man in certain spiritual rank and position of ability.  However, the translators really dis a very poor job with this verse ignoring what the original Hebrew language said.  The translators did not believe that man had any spiritual significance.  You see the Hebrew word (H430) translated as “angels” in this verse is the Hebrew name for God called “Elohiym”.  This is the name of the Supreme God used in the O.T. Bible over 2000 times, and it is translated as “God” the majority of the time.  What we discover from reading this verse, is that man (Adam) was created to be a little lower than the Supreme Most High God.  That does not sound like anyone with No power or ability.

We are children of the Most High but not of the same ability to create worlds, planets and universes.  One of our greatest weaknesses is that we lack the knowledge.    While knowledge has increased rapidly in these last days that we live in, the ability of man to create real life in a test tube has not even come close to God’s knowledge.  Man can create robots and simulated life but, we are not God and cannot create a human body.  So man has creative power in a very limited form.  Man can write new songs, books and create new movies.  While all of these acts demonstrate God’s ability in us, we are still not anywhere close to God’s ability.  We are lords, gods, and kings; we recognize our position but do not exalt ourselves above that position.  We recognize that we have power, but note the fact that we are NOT all powerful.  We can see ourselves as being so valuable to God that He came to purchase us with His own life and blood.  We can therefore know that we are not worthless, we are not powerless and that we have great value to God.  Knowing who you are and who you are not is very critical to knowing God.  Recognizing your correct position in the spiritual food chain is critical for you to know your purpose in life.  To know that you are not a nobody,  while you recognize that you are also not the Most High.

So who knows how many religious people I have offended by telling the truth.  If you are offended I’m sorry, but get over it and learn.  We have learned from the words of God in the Bible that there are other spiritual beings in the Bible that are called gods.  These spiritual beings have some power or limited power below the scale of the Most High God who holds Supreme Power.  But, what is power?  How does God define power in the Bible?  To our natural minds power is simply someone’s strength and ability to use it.  Naturally speaking the bigger your muscles are the stronger you are in this realm and this feature makes others think of you as being more powerful.  Take the example of Olympic weight lifting.  The strongest man can lift the greatest weight over his head.  The winner is the one that lifts the most.  That feat makes him the strongest man of the strong.  That was a sports analogy of power. But, this is not what God says is power in the spiritual realm.  What gives a spiritual being power?

Heb 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

You can read this verse and totally miss what God is saying.  In this verse, God is informing us that His Word is His Power.  The Word of God = the Power of God.  Many modern Bible translations mix the words up in this verse and translate it as God’s “powerful word” or “mighty word”.  However, if that is what God wanted to say he would have written it that way.  God is not stupid; people are just ignorant and come up with these incorrect translations.   The “Word” of His “Power” is exactly what God wanted you to see.  This informs us that ALL of God’s power is in His Word.  If you translate it the wrong way it only says God word has some of His power and this means that there is other power somewhere else not in His word.   So if God’s Words are His Power, what are words?  Words are thoughts, ideas, knowledge, understanding and wisdom expressed in a spoken language.   I hope that you understand these basic concepts.  To say that God is the Most High God would inform us that God holds ultimate knowledge, understanding and wisdom above all other spiritual creatures.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus is described 5 times as a being with a “sharp two-edged sword” coming out of his mouth (Rev 1:16, Rev 2:12, Rev 2:16, Rev 19:15, Rev 19:21).  In Bible days when this was written, the sword was the weapon of war and wielded much power and strength by the one that was using it.  It would be like someone with an AK-47 rifle today.   These verses found in Revelation again confirm and demonstrate the location of the “Power” of God as being in His mouth and His spoken words.  In Revelation 19:15 Jesus uses this sword to smite the nations that oppose him.  In a recent news article I heard about a group of militia in some state that was arming themselves to help God fight the coming anti-Christ.  I just laughed at their ignorance.   Your little AR-15 will be no match for the Sword of God.  What we have discovered is that God’s word is where His power is located and we can clearly understand this by reading Genesis 1 to observe how the world was created.  In Genesis 1, God saw a problem, God said the solution and then the solution was.  It is just very basic to conclude that it was the act of God speaking that released God’s power to create.   I hope that you understand those concepts because I am not going to explain them in more depth today.  Let’s move on to see what God says about this power in other verses in the Bible:

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Now we learn some new concepts.  The sword of God’s mouth is not all of the swords that exist in the spiritual realm.  If God’s sword is more powerful and sharper than all the rest, that makes God’s Sword the Sword Almighty, and the Most High Sword.  But, do you see that there is more than one sword in the world?  That is telling us that Satan has a sword coming out of his mouth, you have a sword coming out of your mouth and I have a sword coming out of my mouth.  That implies power of a lesser or limited capacity.  These are all just simple concepts, derived from reading the Bible.  If you recall in Isaiah 14:13 Satan uses the sword of his mouth to say the following “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit…” and on I could go.  Satan was wielding his power and making great plans to raise himself up to the Most High level.

But, God wielded His sword and said “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit”.  Whose sword is sharper?  Whose sword is greater?  Whose sword will prevail in the end?  These are valuable lessons for your life.  Humble yourself and do not allow pride to exalt your own power, ability or knowledge to cause you to think that you can also be like the Most High.

If you would like to continue reading about the power of words you can go to “Part 10“.