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The Father's Business Podcast
The Father's Business Podcast
He is-The Character of God: He is Wonderful Counselor
As Advent begins, we turn to Isaiah 9:6 and discover why “Wonderful Counselor” is more than a seasonal phrase—it’s a living promise of guidance that is both awe-inspiring and intimately near. As we unpack the Hebrew layers behind dominion and peace, we reframe “government” as an unshakable authority and “peace” as wholeness, wellness, and rest for restless minds. That promise doesn’t wait for perfect circumstances; it arrives as the Holy Spirit, the parakletos, who teaches, comforts, advocates, and reminds us of everything Jesus said.
If you’re in a season of waiting, you’re not alone. Advent honors that ache and points to a kingdom whose dominion and peace never end. Come for a blessing of hope, wisdom, and holy wonder that meets you in the night watches and the everyday moments where you most need guidance. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s seeking clarity, and leave a review to help others find this conversation—and the Counselor who walks beside them.
The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God. I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell. And I am Kimberly Roddy.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome to the Father's Business Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us. Hi everyone. Welcome back to our podcast. We're glad you're with us today. We are continuing our series called He Is The Characteristics of God. And as we enter into December, we are going to be covering a very familiar verse that we talk about this time of year in Isaiah 9. It's verse 6. It says, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I always love when we get to this time of year and we get to focus in on the scripture. It's one of my favorites in all the Bible. And a few years ago, I spent some time wanting to really dig more into what does it really mean in the Hebrew and what is it really saying? And so I want to read you. This is the Elizabeth translation of the Bible. I only have two verses. I have this one and the one in Job. So it's not a complete Bible, but um I want to read to you kind of my personal translation of what this really means. For to us a child is born, and unto us a son is given, is dedicated, is granted, is given in exchange for, and to pay a wage. And right there I just think about the depth of how Jesus came to pay the wage of sin that we couldn't pay. And the government, which actually means dominion, shall be on his shoulders, and his name, reputation, fame, and glory shall be called, cried out, and proclaimed to be wonderful, which is extraordinary, a hard to understand thing, a marvel of God, counselor, one who advises and consults, mighty, strong, chief, valiant God, everlasting, ancient of past times and forever and future times, Father, the head and founder of our family and clan, the first of all fathers, prince, ruler, leader, chief of peace, which means so much more than the word peace. It means wholeness, completeness, soundness, welfare, quiet, tranquility, contentment, and complete health. And that would be enough right there. But if we didn't read this uh at the top of the podcast, but I love the next verse in verse 7. It says, and of the increase, which actually means abundance, which is a word we talk about a lot around here, Kim, of his government, which again is that word dominion and peace, wholeness, completeness, soundness, welfare, quiet, tranquility, contentment, complete health. There will be no end. And these scriptures were written in a time where uh the children of God were under oppression. There was political divide in the kingdom, there was people that were being held against their will in captivity, there was corruption. Like, does it sound a little like what we might be dealing with in our modern world now? And in this to this very dark place, Isaiah speaks these words of someone who is coming. And in their mind, they thought it was a human messiah, a king that was going to come and reunite the kingdom and allow them to prosper here on earth. But we now know, looking backwards, it was talking about Jesus who came to be all of these things and more. And I love the thought that of the abundance of his dominion, not his government, because I don't think uh all of us have the same opinion about what the word government means. We've watched this fall, Kimberly, as you know, there's been a government shutdown. So it feels like government is not working uh properly as it should, because it's shut down for part of the fall. Of his dominion, there there is that is not something that is elected, that is an authority that is given to him because of who he is. There will be no end. And so we want to spend December celebrating the abundant dominion that God gives us through all of the different names of God that are mentioned here. So for today, we're gonna talk and focus in on wonderful counselor. And Kimberly, that makes me think back to a podcast we did just a couple of weeks ago where we talked about God as creator and the idea of wondering.
SPEAKER_01:In that podcast, we talked about wondering about him, beholding him, wondering him, and how wonderful he is. He is full of wonder. And and that's the name we have here. He is wonderful counselor. You you just broke down some of those words. The wonderful is the extraordinary, the miraculous, the beyond understanding. So it's like his his wisdom and his person that is beyond human comprehension meets with the counselor, who is that intimate and personal person, the one who gives wise advice, who helps us understand our purpose and our gives that divine guidance. So those two words together are powerful to think about how he is beyond our human comprehension, and yet he meets us in the intimate and personal ways. I think that's that's beautiful. So he's supernatural, but he's accessible. Yeah. And that is a wonder to behold, right? That name promises that he will meet us and offer us divine wisdom so that we can flourish and thrive in the things that we're struggling with and the things that we're wondering about and the things that we're not sure of. He will offer us that counsel in his wonderfulness.
SPEAKER_00:I think the hope for us today as we talk about God being wonderful counselor, is I often find myself going, I just wish I would have been alive when Jesus was here on earth. Or I just wish Jesus could show up and sit down with me at my kitchen table and we could just, I could ask him questions. I could get his counsel because he he is. He was proclaimed to be, and he was. When when he was walking on this earth, as you read through the New Testament, his he does give counsel, and it is beyond the understanding of the people he's talking to. You so many times you watch as he has a conversation with someone, and he's saying something very different than what they're perceiving that he's saying. And I love that idea of God and Jesus and his spirit was speaking on a spirit-to-spirit level with people. And at the same time, their mind could not fully comprehend because our minds are finite. And so often I wish I could just have Jesus here to say, okay, give me your divine strategy for what's going on. But the beautiful thing is that what was promised and fulfilled through Jesus and Isaiah continues as Jesus said, I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit, and he's gonna continue on as this role of counselor for you. And there's many scriptures, and we're gonna look at a few of them today, that talk about the way that Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to remain with us. So we do have that wonderful counselor living inside of us to speak to us, to guide us, to teach us, to comfort us. And if we what our mission here is as we live out our this Christian life, is to learn how to lean into that. How do we get our ears tuned to hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit, that still small voice that speaks to us?
SPEAKER_01:I think most of us are often asking the question, I like you said, I want to lean into a conversation with Jesus and say, give me counsel, give me wisdom, give me guidance. In James 1:5, it says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you can ask God. He gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. So I think that's like if you're wondering, like you were saying, I'd really love to just have Jesus sit down with me at the kitchen table and and ask those questions. I I think that would be a wonderful thing to have, to be alive during his time and be able to dialogue with him like the disciples and his followers did. And yet, as we have also said, we have his word that contains so much wisdom and knowledge. We have the spirit, who is our counselor. In John 14, 26, John tells us, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will and will remind you of everything I have said to you. So in the Amplified, it it says, But the comforter or the counselor, the helper, the intercessor, the advocate, the standby, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. The Father will send that Holy Spirit in my place to represent me, to act on my behalf. He's the one who will teach us all things. That verse says that he will cause you to recall everything I have told you. I remember often being in various schooling and education throughout the years, and you would pray before a test, God help bring back to my mind everything I've studied. Oh, yeah. And it's that same kind of idea, right? Like we, those of us that have been a believer for a long time, or even if you haven't been a believer for a long time, the more time we spend in God's Word, the more time we spend getting to know Him, the more readily those things will come to mind because they'll be fresh. They'll be lived out as we're as we're walking in alignment with Him, as we're living out of the Spirit. Those things are easier to access because they're they're there. But but it's always, He is always just a conversation away. He's right, he's with us. It's the the word in the Greek is the parakletos. Jesus sent the parakletos, the Holy Spirit, to be with us, to continue his role in our lives as our counselor. And so he abides with us regularly. Elizabeth, I don't, I don't know about you, but when I when I contemplate, like you were breaking down Isaiah 9.6 earlier, when I really think about everything you said there, I take such hope in that. And and like you said, culturally, we need hope. And the the people in the scriptures needed hope when that verse was written to them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they totally did. I mean, as much as we think things have changed and technology has changed, a lot of it hasn't. The same types of struggles and fears and concerns that the the people of of Israel were having back when this was written and proclaimed by Isaiah, we're struggling with it today. And and that that is the hope that we have is that we're on the other side of it. They were looking for someone to come. And we live on the side of he has come. And not only did he come, that would be enough, that we have been reconciled back to God, but as he physically left us, he did give us the paraclete, the the Holy Spirit, the counselor. And that I love the mixture of definitions of what that word counselor means, because it does mean an advocate and helper. I think sometimes we think of a counselor as someone you go to when you're having an issue and you you talk it out and you've they have empathy towards you, and they perhaps give you some wisdom as to what to do to go forward in your in your issues. But that word counselor also has a legal definition to it. There he is also our legal representative. And I think about other scriptures where it talks about how the accuser is always accusing the brethren and that Jesus and the Holy Spirit, as our advocates are interceding on our behalf before the throne. And I love the imagery of thinking. I have got the abundant dominion of God is advocating for me and saying that whatever the enemy wants to accuse me of, whatever slander anyone wants to bring against me, I have got the best legal representation on my side. We're going to win every time because of the strength and the majesty and the power that that counselor has. And yet at the same time, the gentleness and the quiet that that comfort that it can bring. And you were talking, Kimberly, earlier about how yes, we don't have Jesus across the table, we have the Holy Spirit. It's it's as if what was external talking to Jesus has now become internal, living inside of me. And there are far more conversations going on between God's spirit and my spirit than I allow my mind and my ears to turn turn into. We talk about that a lot around here, about getting into alignment, about getting our spirit, souls, and body all in alignment with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And I think about that verse, one of my favorite verses in Psalm 16 that says, I will praise the Lord who counsels me even at night. My heart instructs me. I would love to know and have an idea of what time as I go to sleep at night, my soul and body are resting. My spirit doesn't sleep. It's the eternal part of us, it's always awake. What are the conversations that God's spirit is having with my spirit through the night watches? And I mean it's a phenomenon that we've all had. You've had those times where are you, this is a common phrase you'll hear people say, let me sleep on it. I'll get back to you tomorrow. Let me ponder it, let me think about it. And whether it's while you're asleep at night or sometimes it's shower thoughts, you know, just times when you're not really thinking about anything, and then all of a sudden it almost feels like a new revelation comes to you, a new thought, a new idea comes to you of how to deal with an issue or a problem. That is the beauty of this wonderful counselor who is constantly involved. He's not far and distant and waiting on us to call him before he gives his input. He is in constant dialogue with our spirit. And it's about how do we get our minds and our ears unclogged to where we can be more sensitive to the move of his spirit? That is the question that we all have to ask ourselves. What in my life is causing me not to be able to hear him more clearly? I know for me, just honest confessions, it's because I have too much information at my disposal. It leads us because I can Google it, I can go find it, I can ask, and there's experts on everything these days, and you can go find all this knowledge is available to us. And I love knowledge. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but it does lead to more self-sufficiency where I can figure out stuff on my own. And then when it gets to the really hard stuff, then I'll go running to God and ask him about it, versus in the day-to-day decisions in the small things of life, practice in the small laboratories of how do I get myself in tune with God's spirit and his counsel.
SPEAKER_01:I think sometimes we are also looking for other things or other people to solve the problems for us or to make the give us the answers. Um, like you're saying, sometimes we have a self-reliance or we think we can find the answer through our devices through Google. In addition to that, Elizabeth, I think the other one of the other things that we do is that we we just hand over the power to other organizations or institutions or other people and we just say, we want you to fix the problem. So we don't even try to fix it ourselves. We just hand it over and say, just here, take it, fix it. And I think no matter where we land in any of this, whether we choose to be self-reliant and take, take up the answer on our own and find our own counsel and make it up in our own selves or Google it or find a great answer somewhere, or whether we just hand off the power and the decision-making to someone else and all of that, we are not surrendering and trusting in our wonderful counselor in God. Um, and and that's what faith is at its simplest form. It's trusting in him. And we have talked plenty of times, and we will continue to have the conversation that trusting him is difficult, it's painful, it's not easy. And at the same time, the act of trusting and having faith grows our faith. Yeah. And it makes us stronger. And it we see God in greater ways when we do that. And I think of Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, which is a well-known passage for many people, it says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your path straight. It's a proverb. It's a proverb to live by. So it's saying to trust him, to be confident in who he is. This whole series we have talking up, we have talked about many characteristics. We have not covered all of them, but we have covered many characteristics of who God is. And and scripture says, be confident in who he is, trust in him with all your heart and all your mind. Try to try to stay away from that tendency to rely on yourself, to rely on your own insight. We, I mean, God knows that that's our tendency. It was our tendency in the beginning of time. And so he desires for us to listen to him and seek his counsel, seek his wisdom because he is wonderful. That's who he is, and he is our counselor. And as we do that, as we practice surrendering to him and trusting him and submitting to him, he will give generously. And it's not that he's giving generously because we do that. It's that we're not seeing him giving generously because we're not going to him.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:We're subverting everything that he can do by just taking it ourselves and running with it. We're just walking out of the room and leaving him in there. And and who knows what he would do if we would just turn and ask and turn and behold and turn and look at him and wonder and ask him for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Sometimes I don't I don't think we know what we're missing.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I I definitely don't. And I I I think it's easy for us to look back on scripture and read through those stories, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, and be somewhat judgmental of like, oh my gosh, how did how did they miss what God was trying to teach them there? But what if the Bible was, what if there was a book of Kimberly? And what if there was a book of Elizabeth and it was our life story, but from God's perspective, how many times would the would the chapters talk about an Elizabeth miss totally what God was trying to say to her and ran after her own wisdom rather than leaning into what God had for her? And what I love about God is not only is his wisdom abundant and wonderful, but it's gracious. That verse you read in James, I always love the last part of that where it says that he will give generously without finding fault. Because by the time I wake up and get with the program and realize, you know what, I should have run to God with this one instead of trying to trust my own instincts to get this done. I am already feeling bad that my first thought wasn't, let me run to God for his wisdom in this. And I'm so grateful that when I do come to him, he's like, hey, I'm so glad you're here. It's there's never, he's not finding fault for the number of times I come to him asking for it. And he's also not finding fault that perhaps I chased a thousand other things before I came to him and drank of his wisdom. Kimberly, you and I both uh have admitted, I'm not outing you on anything that we haven't both admitted before. Um, we can get frustrated when we have to repeat ourselves. And yet, how gracious God is that he never finds fault. I can come and ask the same question a thousand times and he won't get the as I told you before type attitude that I find myself getting with the people around me because my personality is very much, I told you once, you should have gotten it the first time. Let's move on. So I appreciate how wonderful that that to me is part of the wonder of him is that he is always joyful to share wisdom with me when I ask him for it. And I I do want to say something to people, some people out there that may find themselves in a season of waiting. You're you you've been asking for wisdom about something, and that it doesn't feel like the answer's coming. And and we've all been in seasons like that. I think we all have situations in our life now where it's like, God, I don't know how this is going to get better. I don't know how this is going to get resolved. And we are asking and we're pleading for wisdom, and it doesn't feel like it's coming quickly. And I would just say, you're just like the people that God was speaking to in Isaiah. They were in a very dark place, and it was years, decades, generations of waiting before a solution came. And when Jesus came, who was the answer to the prophecy, there was a lot of people that didn't understand he was even the answer. And so my heart does go out to those of us that find ourselves in a season of waiting. Advent is about partly a celebration of that waiting, waiting for the light to come as we light the candles every week, the weeks of Advent. If you find yourself in that sense of waiting, there is wisdom to be found. There is counsel to be found even in the season of waiting. And that doesn't make it any easier, but I hope that brings you comfort that the the wonderful counselor is right here. And he is with you and he is advocating for you with great dominion and abundance, even if it doesn't feel like there's a whole lot of answers right now.
SPEAKER_01:And speaking of that waiting, Elizabeth, we we are entering the Advent season as we are in December. And that's what we are we are doing. We are waiting for him. We are waiting for this is a time to remember um and contemplate awaiting his arrival, which comes with anticipation and hope, but it also comes with darkness and fear because we wonder if he will show up, like you're talking about. And so we want to bless us as we close out this podcast. You know, Advent begins with wonder, wondering if he's gonna come, wondering that he will come, wondering in his coming. You can take that in many different directions, no matter no matter what position you're sitting in today. Um, and so he is the wonderful counselor. He is guiding us, he is revealing the truth to us, he is comforting us. And some of us are longing for him to show up in that way. And so we we bless you today with this blessing. Beloved one, be blessed in the name of Jesus, your wonderful counselor, the one whose wisdom is deeper than the ocean and whose understanding knows no end.
SPEAKER_00:Be blessed to rest in his counsel that is marvelous in wisdom and excellent in working. When your thoughts are tangled and your heart is weary, be blessed to receive his divine clarity and peace, for he will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on him.
SPEAKER_01:Be blessed to know that his spirit dwells within you, for Jesus promised, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you. His wisdom is not distant, but it lives inside you, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00:Be blessed to lean not on your own understanding, but to trust his gentle leading in every path. He is the counselor who never sleeps, whose truth whispers even in the night seasons, reminding your heart that this is the way, walk in it.
SPEAKER_01:Be blessed to hear his voice, the voice that gives peace where confusion once ruled, the voice that calls you into purpose and calm assurance. Let his counsel anchor your soul when storms arise, and let his word be the lamp that lights your way.
SPEAKER_00:Be blessed with the gift of holy wonder to see the marvelous works of your God, and to stand in awe of his wisdom that holds your life together. Be filled with treasures of his knowledge, for in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Let your heart overflow with gratitude for his nearness, for the Lord is near to all who call on him in truth.
SPEAKER_01:The wonderful counselor walks beside you, his hand upon your shoulder, his presence your guide and your peace. Be blessed to rest in that truth today. You are never without direction, never without wisdom, never without hope. For the Lord your God is wonderful in counsel, excellent in wisdom, and his love for you will never fail.
SPEAKER_00:Be blessed, beloved, to walk in his guidance, to listen for his whispers, and to live from the peace that comes from his wise and loving heart. This podcast is made possible through donations by people like you. To donate, go to www.thefathersbusiness.com. Be sure to follow us at the Father's Biz on Instagram and Facebook.
