The Irradiator!

During the course of this journey, God keeps reintroducing Himself by another one after another one of His many, spectacular names. You may remember when I came to know Him better as God of Angel Armies or as the Ancient of Days. This past Thursday, I ended the blog with a song the Spirit brought to mind, one I hadn’t thought of in so long: What a Mighty God We Serve. On Friday morning as I sat with the Lord preparing my heart for the trip to the hospital and the CT scan, the Spirit was still impressing me with the name Mighty God. So, as I’ve learned not to ignore these prompts, I began to dig deeper looking up references to our Lord as the Mighty God. One verse stood out prominently to me that morning. Isiah 9:6 exclaims, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace (emphasis mine).

On blueletterbible.org (a tremendous study tool, by the way), I found an old sermon by Spurgeon dissecting this exact verse and name. The word in Hebrew for God in the name Mighty God is “El” and indicates might that can only be possessed by Deity. Basically, when we call Him our Mighty God, we are really saying, Mighty, Mighty Deity. How’s that? He’s not just mighty, that would be phenomenal, but He’s even more. He’s our Mighty, Mighty God!

Spurgeon references a couple of other theologians who believe the word for God in Mighty God in Isiah 9:6 can also be translated as . . .  get this . . . the Irradiator, He who gives light to man, or as the Illustrious, also a reference to God as bright, shining light. I’ve never before called God my Irradiator. Initially, I was struck by the similarity of this name to the term radiation and I thought to myself how cool it would have been to know Him by this name back in January and February when I was undergoing radiation therapy. Keep in mind that the Spirit is guiding me through this discovery on Friday morning before my CT scan.

The scan itself went great. Thank you for your prayers. I tolerated the contrast liquid and IV much better this time. We expected to find out results this coming Friday at my scheduled oncologist appointment. However, the phone rang test-day afternoon. It was my Doctor. I have to be honest with you, I got so excited. I raised my hand to heaven and thought in my heart that the report was so good he just couldn’t make me wait a week. He had to call and tell me.

Actually, the radiologist called my Doctor on his day off to let him know that they see something going on in the lower back. He, in turn, called me. What concerns them is the close proximity to the base of the spine. In order to prevent a possible fracture, they are moving quickly and have already lined up radiation on the back for first thing (7:30) Monday morning. As I write this, that’s tomorrow morning.

Now isn’t it interesting that the Lord would reveal to me that He is Mighty, Mighty God, the Illustrious, my Irradiator on the very day I would need to know, to really know and belive that truth! Yes, there were tears of disappointment that this time of trial is not yet past, but our Savior tells us honestly that in this life we will have trouble. He just keeps repeating from the very beginning of this journey until now, “Don’t be afraid and don’t be dismayed,” Deut. 31:8. And I am experiencing my Mighty, Mighty God at work supernaturally in my own heart, the seat of my former worry wort, fearful self. He is giving me peace . . . peace . . .peace . . . peace in the storm. Please let that encourage you, because if He can do it for me, He can do it for anyone!  What is your storm?

So, as you continue to pray for me and for my family, we invite you to pray from a place of victory because He wears the Victor’s Crown! With thanksgiving, make your requests known unto God. Like Paul and Silas in prison after a severe flogging, sing hymns to Him because He is worthy to be praised. He is our Mighty, Mighty God. The doctors, as experienced, skilled and trained as they may be, see through eyes of flesh. They don’t know the mind of God. They, nor anyone else, have ever been His counselor. We are invited to see truth and reality as we look through eyes of faith and trust our Mighty, Mighty God!