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Grace takes you from where you are to where God wants you to be. It is a process, and studying the prayer of David as he neared the end of his life, yields rich insights regarding it. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and give strength to all. [1 Chronicles 29:11,12]
God is the Head – the Leader
He does not stand aloof. It is as a Leader, a shepherd who goes ahead, that God leads and guides you, to take you to where He wants you to be. He leads, and never forces you or drives you. He develops you in your times of discomfort so that you may discover new strengths that will one day cause you to ride on the heights. He satisfies you in times of drought, the dark nights of the soul.
He deals wondrously with you – to lead you:
You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied. And praise the Name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never again be put to shame. [Joel 2:26] He leads you in wonderful and miraculous ways that you may not be humiliated or put to shame again. Instead, you will stand in awe to praise the name of the Lord your God.
The name of the Lord your God
The revelation of a particular name of God, of the Great I AM, always comes in the context of a person experiencing something wonderful in his life from God. All through the scriptures, beginning with the book of Genesis it is a truth that is established repeatedly. Abraham calls upon the Lord, ‘Jehovah Jireh’, after experiencing Him as his provider, who meets his need miraculously. Hagar, in the barren desert, experiences the God who is El Rohi as she makes eye contact with the God who always sees, to have her thirst quenched, and know the plans He had for her. The prophet Samuel, after experiencing the divine care of the Lord for many years, calls Him Ebenezer, knowing that the God who has remained faithful thus far will remain faithful and caring until the end.
The revelation in your heart
In the New Testament, Christ is the God who is Immanuel. He is always with you, and as His child, His Spirit is in you. Therefore, He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. A revelation of His greatness needs to come within you, for your relationship with Him to be deepened. Through it you will experience His wonders in your life, as He becomes your God and your Shepherd who leads and guides you.
The God who is Wonderful
The parents of Samson experienced and called on the God who is Wonderful, when the word that they would have a son born to them who will be a Nazarite, special unto the Lord came to them. [Judges 13:16-19] The Messiah will be called ‘Wonderful’, prophesied the prophet Isaiah, when he spoke about the birth of the Savior. [Isaiah 9:6] ‘Wonderful’ becomes the foundation of every other expression that follows. He is the wonderful Counselor, mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. His name is Wonderful and He will deal wondrously with you.
How does the God of ‘wonder’ deal wondrously with you ?
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous (wonderful) in our eyes. [Psalms 118:22,23] What is rejected by man is accepted and lifted up by God. It is this that the psalmist says is the wondrous doing of the Lord. And in a sense, it could be said so about God choosing you and I to be His called out ones, His children. Rejected by the world you may be, but you being seated in the house of God shows that the Lord of heaven and earth has received you and accepted you. For consider your calling, brothers; not many of you were wise by worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong… [1 Corinthians 1:26,27]
‘No one can come to me unless the Father enables him’, says the Savior of the world. For man is so fallen that even when caught in the deepest sin he will always depend on his self effort to extricate himself and fail miserably. Therefore the greatest and most wonderful work of God in your life is your salvation. Though you were dead in your transgressions, Jesus has brought you back to life, by paying the price, His death on the Cross. So, even in the midst of your problem today, you can be filled with the hope that a miraculous deliverance will come. And it will be the Lord’s doing that is marvelous and wondrous in your eyes.
His wondrous leadership in your life
‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways’, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts, and my ways than your ways. [Isaiah 55:8,9] God has innumerable ways of bringing a change in your life. You cannot even imagine what He has planned for you, because your knowledge, your resources, your ability are all limited. But God’s ways are higher because He is not limited in any way. And He says to you, I know the plans I have for you; plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you a future and a hope. [Jeremiah 29:11] When the unlimited God comes up with a plan for your life, surely it would be wonderful. And there is no plan A, plan B and no second guessing in the mind of God. So when you believe and receive His wonderful plan, you will surely see it come to pass, and also declare that it is marvelous in your eyes.
Faith and expectation
It is at the moment that you receive and understand the word from God that it all falls in place and you can be filled with expectation. And if you find yourself stuck in a rut, bogged down in a life of boredom and all that is mundane, expect a marvelous and wonderful turnaround when God executes His plan for you. Not expecting anything good is invariably a self defense mechanism that people employ in order to safeguard their ego and their emotions. But you need to shift your focus to the God who has promised what is good to you, and lift your expectation level. Faith always needs to be accompanied by expectation. It has been said that, The Christian always lives on the verge of a miracle.. God will always deal wondrously with you as He leads you.
1) Exceedingly and abundantly – beyond your imagination:
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly beyond all you can ask or imagine according to His power at work within you. [Ephesians 3:20] This is the scope of the marvelous doing of God in your life. You may even now be praying and believing in faith for a house of your own. And in the confidence of answered prayer, you may be calculating the pros and cons of it, estimating how much you can afford or invest based on your resources. But when God has promised you a house, His resources are unlimited; it is why what He has in store for you will be exceedingly and abundantly beyond all your calculations and expectations. In the assurance that faith gives in you, of things hoped for, you may imagine the kind of house that the Lord is going to bless you with. But you will stand in awe to say, ‘It is the Lord’s doing that is marvelous in my eyes’, because what He gives you will be far beyond your imagination. It will be so glorious that you will be led to think you are dreaming !
‘We were like those who dreamed’
It was the story of the Israelites, a restoration of freedom, wealth and joy that happened so miraculously and swiftly that it seemed like a dream to them. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,We were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongues with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them’. The Lord has done great things for us, we are glad. [Psalms 126:1-3] More than four hundred years of bondage, hard toil with no wages or reward saw the Israelites in a hopeless condition. They could see no light at the end of the dark tunnel. And it was why when the Lord intervened so miraculously and dramatically to deliver them swiftly, it all seemed to them like an unbelievable dream. The Lord will do something that you can only dream about in your life too. And it is the revelation of God and His word that changes your reality. Your dreams will come true, flooding you with laughter and joy.
Your mouth filled with laughter !
Expect laughter in your life when God deals wondrously with you. Abraham and Sarah who initially laughed in disbelief when a son was promised to them in their old age, went on to see the promise fulfilled. And transformed in their hearts they named their son Isaac, a name that meant laughter. There was now the laughter of happiness in their home, for with God nothing is impossible. He remains the same even today, to do the same in your life. Coming out of captivity our mouth was filled with laughter, says the psalmist. And as you believe with understanding and faith, God’s wondrous dealings will bring laughter in you and joy.
Your tongue – with shouts of joy
Days are coming when people will come together with joy in your life. And you will enter His gates with thanksgiving and praise, as you receive the revelation of God as His personal and specific promise to you.
The people around you will see
It is not just you saying, the people around you will see how the Lord has dealt wondrously with you. And you will stand amazed saying, ‘I knew God can do it, but I never imagined it could be so wonderful’. You are ‘natural’ but when you add His ‘super’ it becomes supernatural. Expect something supernatural, as He adds His extravagance to your mundane and ordinary, to do something marvelously wonderful in your life.
God will reward you
Then He brought the Israelites out with silver and gold, And there was none feeble among them. [Psalms 105:37] The Israelites in bondage were masons building huge pyramids, making bricks in painful toil without receiving any wages or reward, unable to possess any wealth or property of their own. But in just one night, their recompense came. On the night of the Passover, God led two million people out of Egypt with silver and gold, as they miraculously found favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. The Blood of Christ, the Passover Lamb was shed for you on the Cross, two thousand years ago, and God rewards those who seek Him diligently. All your recompense will be established the moment you receive His word to you. Outstanding dues, all that needs to come to you will come, as God leads you wonderfully. And if you are the one who owes another person, God will lead you in paths of righteousness to accomplish what is right. Let your faith be raised by the Holy Spirit in you, to know that the God who led the Israelites out of bondage, will lead you wondrously too so that you may grow in your walk with Him.
2) He deals wondrously – to teach deeper truth
That you may know and understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. [Deuteronomy 8:3] For forty years in the wilderness, the Israelites were living in a miracle, as God wonderfully led them. They were living testimonies of the God who miraculously meets every need as you attend to His word and obey. But through the experience of their desert journey they needed to understand and learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by the word of God. It is the written word of God that the Lord spoke out to overcome the temptation of the devil in the desert. Your focus too needs to shift to the word that can bring about the change, to see miracles happen, to be led more and more wondrously by God.
Banquet master and the disciples – the difference
It was at the wedding in Cana that the Lord performed the first of His miraculous signs, turning water into wine. And the banquet master said with great surprise to the bridegroom, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine, but you have kept the good wine until now’. [John 2:10] To the master of the feast, it all ended there. But not so for the disciples, for Jesus did this, the first of His signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. [John 2:11] To them it became the beginning of being wondrously led by God, witnessing more and more miracles – the five thousand fed, the sick healed, the oppressed delivered, the dead raised, the list was endless. It can happen in your life too when as a learner, a faithful disciple you choose to put your trust in the Lord. You will indeed be led by the Lord to experience more and more miracles in your life.
But it should then lead you to a deeper truth and a deepening in your relationship with God. It will see you moving from a position of just enough to more than enough. Not as a banquet master, but as a disciple you can expect more and more miracles in you and your children. This is a generation that is called to proclaim the Name of the Lord from generation to generation. And through it all you need to be led to the higher truth – the One who is the source of all the miracles.
3) The source of all miracles – the supernatural God
Your way O God is holy, What God is great like our God ? You are the God who works wonders, You have made known your might among the peoples. [Psalms 77:13,14] Our God alone can do wonders. And how will you know that ? It is when He does what is wondrous in your life. It will also be the beginning of many more. You may have been humiliated thus far. But now He gives you a wonderful assurance.
You will never again be put to shame
All of them are put to shame and confounded; The makers of idols go in confusion together: But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation; You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. [Isaiah 45:16,17] You have been saved with an eternal salvation. You serve an eternal God, who works eternal wonders. Therefore you will not be humiliated. You will not be put to shame for all eternity. Find your rest in the wonderful God who is the source of all miracles, who is in you even now, leading you wondrously. May the Lord write these words through His Spirit in the tablet of your heart, that you may be filled with expectant hope.
You are indeed on the verge of a miracle
Start thanking the Lord, as you expect something wonderful, something that is exceedingly and abundantly beyond all your imagination. In the Name of Christ Jesus, Amen.
