This will actually be a series of posts on the names that were prophesied that Jesus would be called. The first one is “His Name Shall Be Called…’Wonderful Counselor.'”
Everybody needs a life coach. At least that’s the popular notion of many in the business, fitness, and health world. Yet for the Christian we have the “Ultimate Life Coach” and His name is ‘Wonderful Counselor.’ Isaiah 9:6 is one of the prophecies regarding the various names of the coming Messiah. The original KJV separates ‘Wonderful Counselor’ into two words (Wonderful and Counselor), but most modern translations include the words together as ‘Wonderful Counselor.’
Meaning Of ‘Wonderful Counselor’
This word “wonderful” is also translated “marvelous” and it means something wonderful, admirable, a miracle of God. It depicts something that is extraordinary and out of the norm. It is something that is “outside the realm of human explanation.” Something that nothing else is like it. The Seven Wonders of the World are called that, because there is “nothing else like them.” They are a “one of a kind” wonder! Just as Jesus is a “One of kind” Counselor. There isn’t another counselor like Him.
A wonder is also something that is hard to understand much like a “mystery.” Jesus Christ was a wonder and a mystery. Paul acknowledges this in Colossians 1:26 when he said: “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The wonderfulness, the mystery, the awesomeness, the miracle of God is that “Christ (is) in you, the hope of glory.”
How is Christ in you? He is in you through the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter that Jesus promised He would send. “But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26).
Jesus told the disciples in John 14:16-17 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
So Jesus, the prophesied Messiah, was given the name ‘Wonderful Counselor‘ because there is no other like Him. This word ‘Counselor‘ means to: advise, consult, give counsel, devise, plan, and purpose. As the ‘Wonderful Counselor’ Jesus gives us direction and advisement though the Holy Spirit much like a King would give advisement to his people. It is prophesied of the coming Messiah and ‘Wonderful Counselor’ that “…the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;” (Isaiah 11:2). Jesus has God’s Spirit of counsel for the purpose of advising His children.
Imagine for a moment that Jesus Christ the Messiah, the God man, were right here with you in a physical form every day. And His purpose was to advise, counsel and direct all your decisions and help you through every situation. How awesome would that be? Well in a sense, He is here with you and He is not only “with” you but He is “in” you through the Holy Spirit. Remember the Holy Spirit “shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” That is the role of the Holy Spirit, that is the role of the “Ultimate Life Coach” and ‘Wonderful Counselor.’ If you believe in Jesus you are a child of God and filled with God’s Holy Spirit and therefore you have the ‘Wonderful Counselor’ abiding in your spirit. Take advantage of this wonderful counsel that only God’s Spirit can give.
What do you need the Wonderful (One of a kind, like no other) Counselor to help you with today?
— Keith Fife
His Name Shall Be Called…Mighty God
His Name Shall Be Called…Everlasting Father
His Name Shall Be Called…Prince of Peace
His Name Shall Be Called…Immanuel
His Name Shall Be Called…Jesus
Podcast: His Name Shall Be Called… (Length 30 min.)
I sense His presence so much of the time. “And He walks with me, And He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there no other has ever known.”
This is so powerful. Oh, that we might grasp the wonder of it all.