Taffi Dollar - Rediscovering The Wonder of God - Part 1
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We want to talk about this area this morning concerning the wonders of God because so many times the scriptures remind us to be like little children as we enter into the things of God so that we can understand how a childlike attitude approaches the things of God and just in the earthly realm, looks up in a place of humility, in a place of openness and in a place of amazement and wonder. So many times in the life of a child it doesn’t take a whole lot to be amazed. They can just, in the moment of just most simplest easiest thing, just find wonder in it.
And so, it is my prayer today that as we have that childlike attitude and reflect on who God is and just be amazed in a place of being astonished by all the marvelous things that he’s doing in our life. Indeed today he is the God of wonders. Look at Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, we’ll start there and we’ll look at a couple of scriptures that says, «For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace».
We see here in Isaiah’s account in the description of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He refers to him as wonderful. He says the wonderful counsellor because God is a God of not just a few wonders, but he is full of wonders today. And so, he says, he describes himself as the prince of peace, the everlasting father, the mighty God and he also says, the wonderful counsellor. And so, when we establish some things concerning his wonder, in essence what we’re talking about, is his ability to put his glory on display in our lives. His ability for us to recognize and delight in who he is and all that he is. That he is full of wonders.
And so, when we understand that, we recognize the vastness of our God. That word wonder is pele in the Hebrew. And it means unusual, extraordinary, marvelous, hard to understand. If we were to look back on our lives and look at where God has brought us from, many of you who are seated here today. How unusual it would be that you would be seated here in College Park in the midst of a miracle. That’s because he’s a wonderful God, and he is full of wonders. I recollect it how back in the '90s when we were over in the chapel and we were full in all of our services and it was the time to expand and we recognize that perhaps God would want us to build a bigger building and we saw the vision.
Many of you were there, pictures were there that we stretched our hands toward speaking to the mountain, calling those things that be not as though they were. This area was vacant. There was nothing here. That building over there was Cave Mart and Ridgeway and none of this was in effect. But you know what? We had no money. They said we weren’t a church old enough to qualify for a loan. No one would give us money if we begged and pleaded and cried. And pastor Paul, one of our assistant pastors, he did all that. He begged, he met, he talked, he did everything that he could do. They said absolutely not. But thank God that he’s a God of wonder. And I’m telling you when we walked in here, it wasn’t just something that was prayed for, but it was something that was what paid for.
Talking about the God of Wonders this morning, you are sitting in the middle of a wonder of God. And when you look back over your life, there are things that are just unusual. There are things that are just out of the ordinary, that are just marvelous. And that’s the God that we serve. And so when we look at this, as I mentioned in Mark chapter 10, verse 14, let’s look at that. Mark chapter 10, verse 14. It says, «But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and say unto them, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.'»
And so what happens is, in our lives, if we don’t continue to stay as a child, we get to a point where we’re too grown. And we’re too grown. We’re experts now on how to go from a small place to a big place. We’re writing books and podcasts and we got it all figured out. But God says, «For of such are the kingdom of Heaven and those who can come to me». And so we have to stay in that place of humility, that place of being teachable because he doesn’t want us to lose our sense of wonder. Look at what he says in Proverbs 28, verse 26 because we can become know-it-alls and we lose that. There is no wonder in our life and no wonder things aren’t happening. No wonder we’re stressed out. No wonder we can’t hear the voice of God. No wonder we can’t begin to behold his majesty and the vastness of who he is.
Look at this in the message translation 28, 26 in the Message. He says, «If you think you know it all, you’re a fool for sure; real survivors learn wisdom from others». I don’t wanna be a know it all. I don’t know about you today. I wanna stay in that place of humility and no longer be in a place of dullness because we’ve gotten so dumbed down from the world’s voice and the world’s way of doing things. And now the good news is no longer good news. It’s no longer the things that are encouraging us and building up our faith. But God wants us to be radical, and to be sold out to him and recognize that there are so many things that he wants to do in our lives.
So these are the things that as we experience wonder and as we experience all in our lives, I mean, you know, it will affect not just our spiritual life, but it will affect our mental and our physical health. Our entire body restores to the awe of God and the awe in our life. That level of playfulness, that level of recreation that God wants us to have in our life. Even if we were just to look at creation in and of itself. How many you know, that’s the wonder of God. When we look at our bodies, the comprehension and the complexity of our bodies. That is what? The wonder of God. The heart and all the different systems and the nervous systems and all the things concerning who we are and the makeup of our lives. He is a wonder this morning.
And so, once we realize that even in our physical body, that it lowers inflammation and provides better health and strengthens our immune system. Look over at Psalms 77, verse 14. Psalms 77, verse 14. He says, «Thou art but God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people». He says, «You are the God that does wonders». One of the descriptions in the past is the fact that he has done great things even concerning the children of Israel. Look over at Psalms 72. Psalms 72, verse 18 through 20 in the message translation. He says he is the one that does wonders. He says, «Blessed God, Israel’s God, the one and only,» the one and only.
There’s nobody like him this morning y’all. Don’t forget what he’s done. The marvelous things that he’s done in your life and how he didn’t have to do the things that he did to save you and to provide for you, allowing you to be in a place where you have something to support you, where you’re sitting here now and you got a shelter by which you can hear the word of God. And you have the ability to read your Bible and you have the ability, some of you, to hear. You have the ability to touch, to love and to be loved. He’s a God of wonders this morning. He says, «God, the one and only wonder-working God! Blessed always his blazing glory! All earth brims with his glory. Yes and Yes and Yes». He’s a wonder this morning.
Now, as we look at this, we recognize that we could go through countless situations all the times of different places in the Word of God and different seasons where he performed wonders. It means that everything about God begins and ends with wonders. This whole universe in which we are a part of began and it will end with his wonders, with his amazement, with his awe, with his surprise. To be in wonder means we look and cannot believe our eyes. And so when we look at the things that he has done, we can refer to how in the book of Jonah chapter 1, verse 17, that he performed wonders with animals. He performed wonders with Jonah being swallowed up by the whale.
In first Kings chapter 17, verses 2 through 6, he performed a wonder with Elijah and the birds. The fact that the scripture says here in the message translation, let’s look at that the wonders that he even used animals to be a part of. It says, «God then told Elijah, 'Get out of here, and fast. Head east and hide out at Kerith Ravine on the other side of the Jordan River. You can drink fresh water from the brook; I’ve ordered the ravens to feed you.'» He’s a wonder this morning. Elijah obeyed God’s orders. He went and camped in the canyon on the other side of the Jordan. And sure enough, the ravens brought him meals. How can a bird bring steak and potatoes and bread and he’s a wonder. He says, «Sure enough, ravens brought him his meals».
Both breakfast and supper twice a day and he drank from the brooks. Somebody say, «He’s a wonder». He also used the donkey over in Numbers chapter 22, verse 28. Let’s look there. He performs wonders through whoever and however, because his will, will be established in the earth. He is the end and he is the beginning. He is the first and he is the last. He is the alpha and he is the omega. And he’s our soon coming king, amen. Look at how he performed wonders through this donkey here or this… Look at it in the KJV. KJV. «And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, 'What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? '» A talking, I’m telling you, he’s a wonder today. He says, «What have I done unto thee»?
Look at verse 29, «And Balaam said unto the ass, 'Because thou hast mocked me, '» He’s sitting up here talking back. «I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. And the ass said unto Balaam 'again, Am not I mine ass, '» whole conversation, just a wonder taking place. «'Upon which thou has ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever wont to do so unto thee? ' And he said, 'Nay.'»
Somebody say He’s a wonder. My God, my God, let’s keep going. And so when we recognize and we understand this, we realize that God is a wonder and He does wonders and more importantly, he can perform wonders through you and through me. He can perform these same things that we just read about and the lives of his children and already has his wonder working power has already been manifest. There were mothers who said they could, doctors who told them that they could not conceive, they could not have children, whatever was going on in their reproductive system. And the doctors began to tell them the likelihood and just the fact that these were things that they would never be able to experience. But I’m telling you, there’s a promise that talks about how he’ll make the woman, the barren woman, a mother of children.
Look at Acts chapter 3 verse 7. And then we’re gonna look at a couple of personal things here wonders that he wants to perform through you and through me. He is a wonder. He does wonders and he wants to perform them through us. And so we have to ask ourselves, how do you think of someone who created everything? But he himself was never created. He himself was never created. What if we had more childlike wonder in our lives? How would our interactions with God be different? How would we interact with him in a different way?
This is a wonder that the Apostle Paul experienced here. Acts chapter 3 verse 7. It says, «And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up,» this was the guy who was laid at the gate called beautiful and he was there normally begging and looking for a handout, a hand up for someone to be able to give him the financial things, the physical sustenance. And he says, «'Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: ' and he took him by the right hand and lifted him up».
The scripture says, «And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked and entered with them and to the temple, walking, leaping and praising God». He’s a wonder working God. Look at Acts chapter 19, verse 7. He wants to do the same wonders in our life. Immediately, things will begin to change. It was just like with the children of Israel and how they were being pursued across the Red Sea and how there were all kinds of things that were going against them, problems that they were dealing with. And then God manifested himself in their life and caused the chariots and everything to be drowned out. Because he’s a wonder working God.