Nothing is impossible with God

… by Tim Coad, December 2006

In November the church received what I believe to be a prophetic word of promise and of challenge for us into 2007.

The word was Nothing is Impossible with God!

I began, after that Sunday morning, to look at Scripture to see where that expression or thought occurred. My search first took me to Genesis chapter 18. Here Abraham and Sarah are surprised at their home (their tents!) by three visitors. Some 24 years previously Abraham had been promised by God that he would have many descendants but, at this point, Abraham and Sarah are still childless. As the visitors share a meal with Abraham one of them says to him, “I will surely return to you next year and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah, listening at the tent entrance laughs to herself at the incredulity of such a promise, after all she is well past child-bearing age! But the Lord, for that was who the visitor was (a pre-incarnate Jesus?), hears her laugh and responds in Genesis 18 v 14,

“Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”

It wasn’t Abraham or Sarah’s quantity of faith that achieved this. Sarah’s response showed how weak her faith was after 24 years of waiting! However, God was going to achieve his purpose in such a way that everyone would see this was God at work! I believe that will be true for us at Main Street Community Church in 2007.

The second passage I found is in Jeremiah chapter 32. As the king of Babylon literally hammers on the gates of Jerusalem and Jeremiah tells the people that they are about to be carried away to exile, God tells Jeremiah to buy a field. Jeremiah does as he’s told but, gently and politely, asks God ’Why?’. (By the way it’s never wrong to ask God that question but the answer sometimes takes time!) God replies in Jeremiah 32 v 27

“I am the Lord the God of all mankind. Is there anything too hard for me?”

The point he was making is that exile was not the end for his people. Restoration and renewal was coming! That field would be a reminder and a symbol for them of that expectation or restoration! I believe that God is promising a time of renewal for us at Main Street in 2007, a time we need to believe and trust God for.

Finally, there is a New Testament verse. It’s in Luke chapter 1 v 37. The angel appears to Mary to tell her she’s about to become a mother. Mary’s response is, like Jeremiah’s, a one word question. ’How?’. Not a lack of faith, she accepts the angel’s word, just a practical question. “How will this happen since I’m a virgin?” The angel explains with the words, For nothing is impossible with God. Mary responds, “May it be to me as you have said.”

As 2007 looms ahead of us I believe God wants to act as he did for Abraham in ways past our expectation or imagination. I believe God wants to move as he did for Israel in Jeremiah’s time in renewal and restoration. I believe God wants us to respond as Mary did - “May it be to us as you have said.”

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen”

Ephesians 3 verses 20, 21