The Messiah ~ Celebrating our WONDERFUL God!

Jesus' first name is WONDERFUL! (Isaiah 9:6)

A Testimony of Hope, Healing, Dreams, Declarations, and Tenacious Faith

Little did I know how significant that moment would be in our lives, as we listened intently to a lovely live rendition of Handel’s Messiah in a beautiful church on the evening of Saturday, December 6, 2008, and heard the words of Isaiah 9:6 sung by a huge choir. The voices and music swelled to a crescendo, singing, “And His Name shall be called WONDERFUL!” At that moment a Rhema Word from the Lord was born in our hearts: “JESUS’ FIRST NAME IS WONDERFUL!”

For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

In January 2008, David had been diagnosed with renal failure; his kidneys had shut down and he was forced to go on dialysis in order to stay alive. David had become radically ill and, during the course of that year, he was critically ill and hospitalized eight different times, often for weeks at a time. A few weeks after starting his grueling schedule of four hours of dialysis on each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, starting at 4am, David ended up being exposed to a staph infection during his dialysis treatment and he suffered a severe and debilitating infection that attacked his eyes in an excruciatingly painful way, leaving him completely blind in his right eye.

“We were clear that God was not the one afflicting David with illness. This trouble was not coming from the hands of God, not even to teach us some sort of mysterious lesson. Because of that clarity, we were able to worship God wholeheartedly.”

At the time, we had all six of our kids living at house, ranging in age from 17 to 3 years old. As we would be driving together in our car, often faced with the challenges of David’s illness and all of the difficulties that it brought to our family, we would sometimes struggle with what to say or do. Oftentimes, we would start out feeling worn out and discouraged by the heavy weight of our circumstances but then, we would start the DVD player playing declarative worship music and soon our whole family would be singing along, reminding ourselves of who God is, and who we are in Him, reminding ourselves that God is good and He wants good things for us, reminding ourselves that God is indeed our healer, our deliverer, our salvation, our wholeness, our provider, our protector, our Good Shepherd, and our loving heavenly Father. The Lord is the one who sees our difficulties and makes a way for us and He is the one who has already overcome the enemy and all of the works of the enemy, including sickness and death. Thankfully, we were already well grounded in the warfare worldview before David’s debilitating illness struck. We were clear that God was not the one afflicting David with illness. This trouble was not coming from the hands of God, not even to teach us some sort of mysterious lesson. Because of that clarity, we were able to worship God wholeheartedly, even when David was so weak he could barely stand in church for worship. Worship was for us a declaration that even though the enemy had ravaged us on every side, we still had the victory in Jesus Christ.

“The Lord is the one who sees our difficulties and makes a way for us and He is the one who has already overcome the enemy and all of the works of the enemy, including sickness and death."

Worship was, and still is for us, a declaration that our circumstances do not dictate to us who God is or who we are in Him. We are already victorious; we are already overcomers in Him. We can rejoice and be exceedingly glad, even in the face of illness, of financial crisis, or of any other attacks from the enemy. Even in the midst of the battle, we can live at peace in our heart in the eye of the storm as we worship and focus on Jesus and what He has done for us and how much He loves us. This hope sustained us through many dark times.

“Worship was for us a declaration that even though the enemy had ravaged us on every side, we still had the victory in Jesus Christ.”

This hope kept David and I in good spirits, even when getting up at 3 in the morning to take him to dialysis. This hope kept us going, even when we were physically worn out and down to our last five dollars for gas and almost nothing to eat in the cupboards. As much as was possible, David didn’t act like a sick man. We still pressed on to go to church, to worship with our community and to fellowship with them as much as possible. David was so weak at times that he needed help to just walk up the stairs to our seats in the sanctuary at church. But then, when worship started, David would stand and worship with his hands up in praise, even if he felt terrible physically. This was a physical declaration of worship, a sacrifice of praise. There were times when our circumstances were terrifying and David was severely ill, but even then we would intentionally continue to praise the Lord and remind ourselves of His love for us; we would worship, declaring that He is on our side, that His good will was and is for David’s healing and that He is in the process of bringing restoration for our entire family as we partner with Him. We would worship with all of our strength, declaring that He is faithful and that He would continue to take care of us and sustain us.

“Even in the midst of the battle, we can live at peace in our heart in the eye of the storm as we worship and focus on Jesus and what He has done for us and how much He loves us. This hope sustained us through many dark times.”

So, to back up a bit in the story, a few months earlier, on the day of his 50th birthday David had a special dream, during his dialysis treatment. That was the only time David had ever fallen asleep and had a dream during dialysis. The dream felt like a powerful word from God. In that very vivid dream, David was well and healthy and was trying to get in to see a special worship concert. In the dream, a young girl had given him her ticket to a sold-out worship event. When he looked down at the ticket in the dream, he was surprised to see that it had his own social security number on the ticket. When David entered the theater, in the dream, he was astonished to find he was the only one in the theater. The curtain pulled back and the worship band in the film began playing and singing in a lovely outdoor meadow. In the foreground, in the film, with her back to the camera, was a beautiful young girl worshipping with her arms open; she had long blonde hair and looked like the girl who had given David her ticket to go into the concert. After he awoke, back into the ugly reality of the hemodialysis center’s normal chaos, we pondered the meaning of the dream and rejoiced and believed for David’s coming healing.

Then, a few weeks later, on December 6, 2008, David and I went with the whole family to a live performance of Handel’s “Messiah,” sung by a huge choir and played by a live orchestra at the beautiful St. Matthews Methodist church in Hacienda Heights. This was already an event which we attended every year, but this year it was particularly powerful, and we intentionally meditated on the scriptures being sung and the meaning behind the glorious and complicated music, which had been a miraculous download to Handel over just a 21-day period over the summer of 1741. At one point, the choir was singing out the words of Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And David later told me that he felt as if the Holy Spirit took him by the shirt collar at that moment the choirs sang, “And His name shall be called WONDERFUL” and spoke into David’s heart that “JESUS’ FIRST NAME IS WONDERFUL!”

“JESUS’ FIRST NAME IS WONDERFUL!”

This idea, that “JESUS’ FIRST NAME IS WONDERFUL!” became the Rhema word for David and I, the Word that sustained us all through that Christmas season. We worshipped and meditated on that Word continually, and prayed that Word over the New Year’s Eve prayer vigil at our church. The Holy Spirit rose up in us and prompted us to declare that the New Year 2009 would indeed be a “Year of Wonders” because His Name is WONDERFUL! And that Rhema word, that “JESUS’ FIRST NAME IS WONDERFUL!,” continued to sustain us throughout the challenges at the beginning of 2009, as we went through the process of trying to get David medically cleared as stable and health enough to withstand undergoing a kidney transplant. Before the end of 2008, I was already cleared as healthy enough to donate a kidney to David, but it took almost another 6 months to get David cleared. That process is another whole story in and of itself, but suffice it to say that it was indeed a battle in many ways.

“The Holy Spirit rose up in us and prompted us to declare that the New Year 2009 would indeed be a “Year of Wonders” because His Name is WONDERFUL!”

On Palm Sunday 2009, David and I worshipped in the front pew of our church, enthusiastically waving our palm branches and as we worshipped, we both felt that something “shifted” during the worship; something powerful had happened, but we were not quite sure what exactly it was. At the time we were in the midst of several battles, contending for the life of a beloved pastor with a cancer and contending for the restoration of a beloved Christian school and church that were in the process of being stolen, destroyed and abandoned by an unscrupulous leader who had illegally changed the church structure so that he could sell the valuable 17 acres of land and then move to a much less expensive building, pocketing the difference. So we were hopeful for breakthrough in one of those areas. Honestly, as we were worshipping the Lord, waving those palm fronds, we were not even crying out to God about our own circumstances or hardships at all. But there was definitely a tangible shift that David and I both felt as we worshipped, something that felt like a breakthrough.

Early the next morning, during dialysis, David got a call and found out some very wonderful and amazing news. David had just been moved to the top of the list in the nation-wide database of people waiting for a kidney transplant because there was a healthy kidney available that was a PERFECT MATCH for David’s blood and tissue typing! As one doctor put it, David had “just won the Kidney Super Lotto!” The chances of a perfect match kidney are extraordinarily rare. This was truly a miracle, and what should have been an 8-year wait on the list ended up being only a 6 day wait! Tragically, there had been a young lady who had died in a surfing accident (remember David’s dream about a girl handing him her ticket, and it had his social security number on it!) but her parents decided to let their tragedy find some small redemption in helping others who needed transplants.

David received his perfect match transplant kidney on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, during Holy Week, on the 7th day after being officially placed on the transplant list. The transplant went very smoothly, and the kidney woke up and started working right away. David felt amazingly well and full of energy and life immediately. We were hoping that David would be released from the hospital in time to give his testimony on Resurrection Sunday. But David was not released until the day after Easter, on Monday April 13th, 2009. Later this date became very significant. We became aware that the same date that David was released from the hospital was, in fact, the actual anniversary of the debut of Handel’s “Messiah,” which was released to the public with an Easter concert on April 13, 1742. David was released from the hospital on the 267th anniversary, to the day, of the debut of Handel’s “Messiah!”

267 became a very significant number to us and we found a WONDERFUL verse in a Psalms of David, Psalm 26:7 states, “I will shout aloud with a voice of thanksgiving and declare all of Your WONDERFUL deeds!”

This testimony and the transformation of David’s health, in which he literally went from chronically ill to thriving with life, became a point of passionate worshipful thanksgiving for David and for our family.

“I will shout aloud with a voice of thanksgiving and declare all of Your WONDERFUL deeds!” Psalm 26:7

So for us, worshipping the Lord is about declaring the testimony of His WONDERFUL works in our lives- rejoicing for the breakthroughs that we have already experienced and, as an act of Faith, believing for the breakthroughs still to come.

Jesus’ first name is still WONDERFUL. And even though 2009 has come and gone, this truth remains. This is still the Year of Wonders! And His WONDERFUL deeds are still unfolding!

I pray that we would all become grounded in the clarity that Jesus is perfect theology, that Jesus’ first Name is WONDERFUL and that we can worship and rejoice, despite any difficult circumstance, fully expectant that we will indeed see His WONDEROUS (which can also be translated MIRACULOUS) deeds breakthrough in our lives and in the lives of people all around the world!

1 John 1:5 (NIV) This is the message we have heard from him (Jesus) and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

At “Coffee with the Clancys,” we believe that Jesus’ first name is indeed WONDERFUL and that He longs to show Himself WONDERFUL to all peoples! Jesus is the Messiah, the fullest and clearest revelation of the love of God, and He fully and completely represents God’s true character and nature, which is OVERWHELMINGLY GOOD, even in the face of opposition and evil circumstances. Because of His WONDERFUL GOODNESS, we have a VICTORIOUS HOPE and we are more than conquerors in the midst of the battles of life and we never have to settle for the lie that disease and affliction and difficult circumstances and losses are the will of God. It is our desire to help both believers and non-believers alike to experience for themselves WONDERFUL BREAKTHROUGHS in the Name of Jesus Christ! We desire to create a safe place to share a cup of coffee and discuss and discover a new perspective and a renewed Hope for Life. We also desire to stir up a passion for worship, because our God and Savior is indeed gloriously WONDERFUL. We are thankful that many people are being encouraged in the midst of life’s battles; because Jesus brings such a WONDERFULLY clear revelation that our Father God is GOOD and HE DOES NOT PARTNER WITH EVIL!

#WonderfulJesus