God Is Able

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shalom-dodi
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God Is Able

Post by shalom-dodi » Tue Jan 23, 2018 2:20 am

Welcome to the Monday Night Bible Study: God is Able. I am Shalom Dodi over mic and I will be leading tonight. It is good to be here with one another, isnt it? And of course with God as our focus.

The format is Welcome, Song, Prayer, Lesson, Closing

Song God is Able by Hillsong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTSknArjnWM
Don Moen Jehovah Jireh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9h-LPV3h2Y


***** http://www.yourtimeofgrace.org/video/the-moon-is-round/

Prayer: Lord God thank you for loving us. For sending Jesus to us and for calling us unto yourself. Father be with each of us, those we love as well as those who are not here tonight. Help us to choose to give you all the cares of this day and those swirling thoughts in our minds and simply “be” with you for this time. We ask healing for all who need healing, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual. We are here to hear from you. In Jesus name amen.

I was listening to a teaching by David Jeremiah a while back and he was talking a little bit about how God is “able”. Sometimes do you ever wonder if God really is able to fix your “issues” whatever they are?

And then if God IS able, do you ever wonder WHY he does not?

I can not even wrap my own head around how very able God is and that when he does not there could be many reasons.

We could, like the Hebrew people did in their 40 years in the desert, be choosing wilful disobeidence. We might be using idols aka BEEPS (Behaviors, Events, Experiences, People or Substaces) to meet our very legitimate God given needs. Needs God Himself longs to meet. Because God is surely able, isn’t he?

I want to digress for a minute and share some information from James Wilder about “attachment”. God designed us and created us for attachment.
To Himself and to others. We need to belong.
We need to matter.
In other words, we need to be loved and to love.

We need to be able to regulate those strong emotions which come along into every life.
Fear…Anger are usually the main unsettling ones.

When we were small, God gave us parents. One of the tasks of a good parent was to teach and model for how how to return to PEACE and JOY (our natural God given state) from any strong emotion. But often parents dont know how themselves. And then BEEPS take over.

As an adult and a child of God the best way to return to peace is to connect with God Himself.

But if we dont believe God is “able” to meet ALL our needs or we think (wrongly) God doesnt have time for us we can’t do that. We have to learn how.
It is called trusting God. To fully trust God, we have to believe God is able and loves us.

One of the “tasks” of an adult is to discover the main characteristics of his/her heart, proclaiming and defending their personal (and community) group identity, and bringing self and others back to joy simultaneously.
Developing a personal style that reflects his/her heart is a task for adults as is learning to protect others from himself/herself. Mutual satisfaction in relationships characterizes this stage.

And it can be learned. But we must understand and learn how to depend on God’s ability. Not our own. Not any other person.
Having others take care of us and meet our need to return to joy and peace is a childhood/teen stage.

There are further stages which is just interesting. Parenthood is one. And then my favotite one. ELDER. Elders practice hospitality, give life to those with out families, and they parent and mature their communities. An elder will build and maintain a community identity and act like him / herself in the midst of difficulty and trial.

Elders enjoy what God puts in each person they meet, and sees them through the ‘eyes of heaven’. Trust is built through the elder’s own transparency and spontaneity.

God wants us to grow up! He wants us to learn to come directly to HIM to have all our needs met and to learn how to help others grow up. This is not codependency.

My favorite part is that as we grow in the LORD, we will “act like ourselves” even when life is hard. We will not lash out at others.
We won’t need the approval of others in order to be safe because we know that GOD is able.
Able to meet ALL our needs.

You can read about the stages of life here: http://www.lifemodel.org/download/Five% ... rstone.pdf

One of the verses I cling to, especially when life is hard or people are not treating me like I wish they would is found in James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

When… not if…when we encounter “various” trials. We all have some, don’t we?
We are to consider it JOY? Really?
Why? Because it leads us into a place of STEADFAST faith, hope, trust and love.

How? When we go through those trials, trusting God to meet out needs, leaning on God so that we can “act like ourselves”, then we are changed and become more who God created us to be.

Lacking nothing…Do you see how this fits with what I shared about the adult and Elder stage? If we know we “lack nothing” because we have learned that God is able to give us all we need, then we don’t remain stuck in those strong unhealthy emotions do we?

We can get what we need from God in any moment or season AND be able to point others TO God without becoming an enabler or codependent.

But v 5+ remind us, we are to ask GOD for wisdom. We are to ask in faith, without doubting. In other words, we ask from a position and mind set that God is able to do it.

A caution is needed here. We do not ask and believe God will do what we want, when we want, in the exact way we want… we ask expecting that God, who loves us WILL (is able) meet all our needs. In His way and in His time for our long term good.


One barriers to receiving is pride. Pride is rooted in “self”.

Self protection. Self ways to get what we want etc.

The Hebrew people had to confront that. We see an example in Matthew 3:9. It is one of those “God is able” verses.
And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

Imagine, God is so able that if God wanted to he could raise up stones to be children. I guess He can sure fix our “stuff” if He is able to do that.

We better not get all proud in what “we” can do. Or “our ministry” or whatever.
None of us actually own any “ministry”.

We find out where God is at work around us and we join GOD in that work. Doing whatever our part may be, visible or invisible.

One of the most wonderful women of God I ever met was a lady named Pat. Pat could pray. Much like Joyful here. And when Pat got really old and could no longer come to church or leave her home, you know what Pat did? She prayed. She took phone tree calls for the prayer chain. But she did not just “take a call” she listened and prayed.

It is interesting that Jesus mentioned the same thing in luke 3:8 and linked God is able to raise up children from stones to our need to bear good fruit by repentance.
“Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”

Bye Bye pride. Right?

The next one is a favorite “God is able” passage. We are going read just verse 8 and then pick up the context.

Lord help us hear with our hearts as we listen/read. Help us connect durning these next moments with your heart for us.

2Co 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

AMP 6 Now [remember] this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows generously [that blessings may come to others] will also reap generously [and be blessed]. 7 Let each one give [thoughtfully and with purpose] just as he has decided in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver [and delights in the one whose heart is in his gift]. 8 And God is able to make all grace [every favor and earthly blessing] come in abundance to you, so that you may always [under all circumstances, regardless of the need] have complete sufficiency in everything [being completely self-sufficient in Him], and have an abundance for every good work and act of charity. 9 As it is written and forever remains written,
“He [the benevolent and generous person] scattered abroad, he gave to the poor,
His righteousness endures forever!”

10 Now He who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed for sowing [that is, your resources] and increase the harvest of your righteousness [which shows itself in active goodness, kindness, and love]. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous, and this [generosity, administered] through us is producing thanksgiving to God [from those who benefit]. 12 For the ministry of this service (offering) is not only supplying the needs of the saints (God’s people), but is also overflowing through many expressions of thanksgiving to God. 13 Because of this act of ministry, [d]they will glorify God for your obedience to the gospel of Christ which you confess, as well as for your generous participation [in this gift] for them and for all [the other believers in need], 14 and they also long for you while they pray on your behalf, because of the surpassing measure of God’s grace [His undeserved favor, mercy, and blessing which is revealed] in you. 15 Now thanks be to God for His indescribable gift [which is precious beyond words]!

WOW! Usually this passage is used for tithes and offerings. But what if… what if… we sowed all the fruit of the spirit?
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." And forgiveness and things like that… how would our lives change?
Wouldn’t that also help us with what we started with? “Consider it all joy, etc”?

There is a promise tied to this. It is one of the God is able passages:

8 And God is able to make all grace [every favor and earthly blessing] come in abundance to you, so that you may always [under all circumstances, regardless of the need] have complete sufficiency in everything [being completely self-sufficient in Him], and have an abundance for every good work and act of charity. 9 As it is written and forever remains written,
“He [the benevolent and generous person] scattered abroad, he gave to the poor,
His righteousness endures forever!”

Do you need/want/desire all grace… every favor and every earthy blessing that God desires to bless you with? In abundance? Under ALL circumstance? No matter what?

Then we need to remember the stated purpose… to be completely SELF-SUFFICIENT in HIM.

So that we can live in a fancy house and drive a cool car and eat bon bons all day and never get fat?

Ummmm, no. So that we have an abundance to give forth others who are in need.
Do you see the way this ties in with those adulting tasks and elder tasks we looked at?


Next God is able passage is Eph 3:14+ 14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Another WOW. God is able to do FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY all that we ask or imagine according to the POWER (of GOD) at work in each of us.
Why?
In this case that we may know the BREADTH and LENGTH and HEIGHT and DEPTH of his love. Be filled with His Spirit in our inner being. In other words know who we are… the BELOVED of GOD… and be able to trust, lean and rely on Him no matter what.


When we are temepted, guess what? 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
God is able and will and does provide the way out from every single temptation that comes our way.

Next one is back to a reason we do NOT want to get prideful…God is able to humble us if we do. Ha ha.
"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride." Daniel 4:37


Another thing we need not do is fear man. We dont need to go about seeking approval or even acceptance from people. It is nice but God will protect us even if our faith causes us to lose our lives.

Matthew 10:28 "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

One of my favorite “God is able” verses is found in John 10:28

…and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand…..
NO ONE can ever ever ever not ever snatch us out of God’s hand. No person. No situation. Not even death.

And you have heard that song? All God’s promises are yes and amen?
Romans 4:21 says God is able to perform (accomplish) all his promises to us.
….and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

God is able to establish us. Which implies heal us, do whatever we need.
Romans 16:25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past,


Another favorite and one of my own life verses is found in 2 Corinthians 1:4
….who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
God is able to and does comfort us and then God causes/enables/allows us to turn and comfort others. I think by pointing them to God as “able to meet our every need”.


This one is another good “God is able”. 2 Timothy 1:12
For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

Notice the little nuance… God is able to GUARD, what? Well it says whatever we have entrusted to Him.
God a wayward child? A wounded heart? A physical need? Have you entrusted it… or really have we entrusted ALL that is “us” to him?

Let’s pause and do just that before we close.
Lord God…. here we are. We all have those “places” where we struggle entrusting ourselves and “all” that pertains to us, our health, our emotional needs, our provision, our family whatever it is for us…to you. Help us/hlp me LORD to realease to you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx knowing that you ARE able to do far beyond what I/we could ask or imagine. Father we thank you for these reminders of your ability vs our perceived ability or acknowldedged inability. Help us to trust you more, to lean on you more, to look to you for all we need tonight and forever. In Jesus name amen.

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