God has spoken once, twice I’ve heard this: that power belongs to God. God has spoken once; twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God. One more time: God has spoken once; twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God.

Power is the ability to do work. When we talk about the power that God possesses, God possesses universe-creating power—unlimited power. Power that is matchless, power that we cannot really even comprehend, what kind of power God possesses. But we know that it is His possession.

There is an adage or a saying, and I’m pretty sure most of us have heard it. The saying is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. I was reminded of this last week—that the only one who is able to wield unbridled power without corruption, without the risk of corruption, without it corrupting Him, is God. God is the only one.

Man does not have the capacity to wield unbridled power without there being some buffer, without there being someone or something in the way that prevents him from just doing what he thinks is right—what he decides he wants to do himself.

We all have limited power, of course—limited ability. There are things that we can do on our own, and there are things that we have done on our own that have not turned out good. The Bible tells us that in all of our ways we should acknowledge the Lord, and He will direct our paths. We notice in scripture that there are times when kings got too big for themselves, and God raised up prophets to address those kings and to take His message to them.

We see in Exodus 5:1 that Moses went to Pharaoh.

We see in 1 Samuel 10:1, the anointing of Saul. Then in chapter 15, verses 1 through 26, we see that God sent the prophet Samuel to rebuke Saul because Saul had gotten too big for himself and had gone away from what God wanted him to do.

Also, we see in 1 Kings 17, Elijah going to Ahab and announcing to him that there would be no more rain in the land except at his word, because he had received this commandment from the Lord.

So God has a way of bringing things back in line—bringing leaders back in line.

Here in the United States we don’t have a king; we have a president. The same thing is true in other countries. You have people who are prime ministers, and you have some places where there are dictators. They wield the authority of a king. Their word is absolute, and in their country, if you go against them, they may have you killed.

But we know that God is able to subdue everyone and everything. Our prayer is that God’s will be done, His kingdom come, His will be done.

Even though sometimes we are praying, it was the same with Israel. In those passages of scripture we set forth—in the case of Pharaoh—we see, and we see it throughout scripture, that at times it was necessary for God to send a prophet to straighten leaders out.

Even though the scripture says the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, and as the rivers of water He turns it wherever He wills, we still see that the decisions made by rulers and leaders are sometimes outside of the will of God.

It is not the will of God that they do these things, but nonetheless they are permitted to do them. But God ultimately is going to work out His plan and His purpose.

So be encouraged this morning. In the midst of all that we see going on in the world today, God definitely has the final say. We have it in the book. We have the end, and we know that God’s will prevails. His will prevails. That which He has determined will prevail.

So we want to encourage our prayers, and we want to pray that God raises up people who will speak to these leaders—people who think that no one can put them in check—and that they will take the Word of the Lord to them.

That’s on every level. That God will raise up some Moseses, some Samuels, some Elijahs who will go and speak to these world leaders.ecause what we see a lot of is that people are operating out of fear. They operate out of fear. They perceive someone or a group of people to be a threat, and because they feel they can go in and destroy what they perceive to be a threat, they go and do it.

A lot of times they do this prematurely. They do it without the counsel of the Lord. They do it because they feel they can do it and get away with it. So we just want to continue to pray—pray for our world, pray for our country, and especially pray for those who are in harm’s way who are innocent.

When these things happen—when wars are started and wars are being engaged—innocent life is destroyed. Innocent life is destroyed. And God is the giver of life. He is not the destroyer of life. Our prayer is that His will be done.

Father, we thank You. We give You praise, we give You glory, we give You honor. We thank You for Your faithfulness.

Thank You for this time that You’ve given us, that we can pray, that we can cry out to You—even on behalf of those who may not know how to cry out to You, or who are in such anguish that they are unable to cry out to You.

We ask this morning that You would have mercy. Have mercy, Father God. Have mercy upon those who are in areas of war—whose homes and families are being bombed, whose lives are being destroyed because of the will of men.

We ask that You have mercy, God. Have mercy. Have mercy in Lebanon, Father. Have mercy in Ukraine. Have mercy in Russia. Father, have mercy in Israel. Have mercy in Palestine. Father, have mercy in Sudan. Have mercy in Nigeria—in the troubled places in Nigeria. Have mercy, O God, throughout the world where there is conflict, where there are wars, where life is being destroyed.

We ask that You intervene, that You save, that You cause the devices of men to be of no effect. Father, that these bombs may be launched but not destroy the lives of innocent people. We ask that You have mercy. Father, we ask that You have mercy.

We give You glory. We give You praise. We give You honor this morning in the matchless name of Jesus.

Amen.