“I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.” Psalm 16:7
In Isaiah’s wonderful description of the child that is born, and the Son that is given, he begins by declaring, “…and the government shall be upon his shoulder…” (Is. 9:6) Why does he write this specifically? It is because all revelation of God in Christ will not profit the believer, or enable him to know Christ, without the knowledge that all authority and power is His, and His call to mankind is for Him to be seen and submitted to as Creator and Redeemer. Just the very fact that He is God bids mankind come, bend the knee, and reverently worship the great I AM, the Beginning and the Ending, the one by whom all things on this earth are maintained, sustained by Him. All wisdom and knowledge is HIs, and He is the source of all things good pertaining to life and godliness. To fail to grasp the significance of the necessity of all creation to humbly submit to His authority, His power, His governing hand, is to deliberately rebel and refuse Him. One cannot have the love of God if one is not willing to yield the authority of one’s life to that Love. To know Christ is to trust Him, and to trust Him, is to surrender to His Kingship, His Lordship. There is no one higher, nor greater, than the Perfect Father, the Son of God, and the Spirit who also is Lord. Scripture well declares, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Prov. 1:7) We discover a clear application of this principle and reality when Solomon wrote the Lord’s words, “Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you, I will make known My words.” (Prov. 1:23) Where there is a willingness to surrender to God, there is the potential and possibility to know Christ as the Blessed Counsellor.
After Isaiah writes concerning the “governing” aspect of the Lord of Life, he begins to describe the Lord to his readers, so that the reader can KNOW Him as such. He writes: “…and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.” (9:6) Though we are considering the matter of God in Christ being our Counsellor, all of these attributes of God revealed by His names, are interwoven one with the other. How is this so? When Scripture speaks of Him being Wonderful, we are launched into a vast and endless sea of the blessedness, and overwhelming goodness and mercy of God, revealed to mankind in creation and in redemption. There are depths of understanding that mankind cannot fathom of the greatness of God, the knowledge of Him surpassing the understanding in every domain. So, when we come to the matter of Christ being our Counselor, we are not faced with some meager knowledge of things, visible and invisible. We are standing before the Creator of heaven and earth, whose knowledge of all things is perfect, and who in wisdom, communicates to us what we need to know. But how does He become our Counselor in reality? How do we approach this Counselor, and will he respond to our call for understanding and wisdom? He will most certainly give wisdom, but only according to His conditions.
In the epistle of James, we read: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.” (1:5,6) James expresses here that God is waiting to give men wisdom. One’s lack of wisdom is never the fault of God, for He lives to give. Part of that giving is communicating His wisdom to the one who will truly seek Him. However, “…without faith it is impossible to please Him,” …for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”
Dear Father, May Christ be our Wonderful Counselor. In Jesus’ name, Amen.