Introduction , 12 min read
Rediscovering Wonder in the Divinity of Jesus
There are moments when the Spirit of God moves not by adding something new, but by restoring what has been forgotten.
A breath returns. An ember grows. A fire rekindles.
And suddenly, what once felt distant becomes alive again.
We are living in such a moment.
Across the earth, the Holy Spirit is awakening fascination and love for Jesus, not through novelty, spectacle, or noise, but through the quiet unveiling of His excellencies. Not a different Christ. Not a rebranded Christ. But the Christ who is simply seen again.
And yet, in much of Western Contemporary Christianity and the world, Jesus has become far too familiar.
We have spoken His name so often that it has lost its weight in the depths of our hearts. We have explained Him so thoroughly that mystery has been replaced with mastery. We have rendered Him safe, manageable, predictable, and even I dare to say….tame. Somewhere along the way, reverence quietly slipped out the door.
Somewhere along the way, something died. What that something was, is WONDER.
Wonder did not die because we stopped believing. It died because we assumed we already knew.
But Jesus is not a concept to be conquered. He is not a doctrine to be completed or a lesson to be exhausted.
He is the living God who walked among us, whose presence caused fishermen to leave their nets, demons to cry out, storms to obey, and men to fall to their knees encountered by Love itself.
A healthy awe of the glory of God found in the person of Jesus Christ will cause one to tremble. Tremble with a freshly energized infilling of life, the light of life where living fully alive becomes the new normal, fully alive living in the presence of life itself.
When familiarity replaces reverence, the heart ceases to tremble. The eyes stop widening. And we stop beholding. And when we stop beholding, we stop becoming.
Though theology matters deeply, this book is not an attempt to offer new theology. It is not a correction as much as a reorientation. An invitation to slow down, to look again, to behold… not casually, not hurriedly, but carefully and attentively.
Think Wonder over answers. Captivation over normality. Reverence over familiarity.
Not because we need a newer Jesus, but because we need to see again the Jesus who is.
Do You Really Know Him?
I grew up surrounded by the language of religion and of Christianity. I knew the stories. I knew the verses. I knew the vocabulary. I knew the rhythms of faith. I knew what I now call Subscription Jesus which is familiar, manageable, even pause,able for my own personal counterfeit “benefit” at any given time.
But when I was fifteen, someone asked me a question that pierced through all that familiarity:
“Do you really know Jesus?”
The question was followed by a clarification that exposed the difference between head knowledge and the deep KNOWING:
“I know you know about Jesus, but do you really KNOW Him? Have you made Him Lord of your life?”
In that moment, I realized I had information about him without surrender, familiarity without allegiance. I knew of Him, but I did not know Him as Lord. I did not know Him as the Master who calls us “friend,” the Good Shepherd who leads with quiet strength exercised in gentleness.
The primary Greek word for knowing is Ginosko. Ginosko speaks not of information, but of encounter. Not of observation, but of participation. It is the language of lived experience, of knowledge formed through relationship.
Ginosko is the word Scripture uses when it speaks of knowing God, not merely knowing about Him, but knowing Him in the depths of intimacy, presence, and communion.
This is the journey we will embark upon in the pages ahead. A journey away from Oida knowledge, being the knowledge of facts, concepts, and mental agreement, and toward the truer knowledge that can only be born through encounter.
A knowledge that is not held in the mind alone, but carried in the heart, shaped by nearness, and forged through experience. This is the knowing that comes from walking with God, personal, intimate, and alive.
Once we have this revelation of Christ and his love for us, our heart transforms, the first commandments are restored in the realm of our souls to love him back and love our neighbor. We begin to live fully alive again, beckoning Jesus to come even closer to receive his full reward, which is us. We are that reward, the people he demonstrated his resurrection love for on Calvary. The ones he calls the “joy” of his suffering.
I have since come to believe something unavoidable:
When you truly see Him, when you truly know Him, the only fitting response is to bow. To yield. To enthrone Him as Lord of all. The same Lord of all that calls us “friends”.
Because that is who He truly is. This book is written from that conviction.
The Word Made Flesh
The pages ahead are an invitation into restorative wonder, a return to beholding, a rediscovery of the infinite worth and beauty of the word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Not more noise. Not more novelty and charisma. But a holy re,seeing, a recognition that He is wholly other than, beyond comprehension, and yet astonishingly near.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”
The God who SPOKE the UNIVERSE into being came near. He made His home among us.
Universe is broken down “Uni” = One, “Verse” = spoken word, utterance, declaration. Universe = A spoken word.
“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.”
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
Throughout Genesis Chapter 1, the pattern is repeated: “And God said…”
God did not create the world with a hammer. He created it with a WORD.
Before there was light, there was a Voice. Before there were oceans, mountains, stars, and galaxies, there was, “And God said…”
Creation is the evidence that God's Word carries creative power. He spoke to nothing, and everything appeared. He spoke into darkness, and light answered. He spoke into emptiness, and worlds were born.
The earth is not merely the work of His hands, it is the echo of His voice.
“Through faith we understand that the world was framed by the word of the God.”
The Cornerstone
This is the mystery, the centrality of Christ, The word made flesh.
“For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.”
“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
And the greatest mystery of wisdom and love, was that of Jesus, the greatest demonstration of love for us in laying down his life. This is the divine plan of God that he set before the foundations of the earth. It is the wisdom that holds the world together on its perfect foundation.
“The lamb slain from the foundations of the World.”
God chose Jesus as the chief cornerstone, the rock upon which the foundations of everything would be built that is to last eternally.
“The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.”
There comes a pivotal choice in your heart as you read this to either accept Jesus as the foundation that he is and the true wisdom of God to touch your heart even more than ever before, or be offended at the Word and reject him as the Chief cornerstone and rock of your life, thus moving forward in your own strength and ideas building your own castles of sand on just that, a foundation of sand.
The fullness of God stepped into a human body. The One who spoke galaxies into existence took on flesh. The hands that stretched out the heavens were wrapped in swaddling clothes. The voice that said, “Let there be light,” cried in a manger.
The Creator entered His creation. Not a fraction of God. Not a representative of God. Not merely a messenger from God. The infinite clothed Himself with humanity so that humanity could be reconciled to God through Him.
An Invitation to Behold
One of my enduring prayers has been this: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things from Your word.” (Psalm 119:18)
This is the wonder that is not manufactured. The wonder that is remembered. The wonder that is discovered.
What follows is not merely theology; it is an invitation back into awe: to behold the strength that kneels, authority that washes feet, truth that absorbs violence rather than returning it, and love that covers shame and gives us a brand,new name.
This book is for those who believe but feel numb. For those who are weary of religious noise, void of true transformation. For those stuck in addictions and craving authentic excitement. For those who miss being astonished. For those craving genuine exhilaration. For those doing all the “right things,” yet sensing something quietly missing within.
It is for those who suspect that God is far more beautiful than they have been told.
As A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” This book is for those curious to take another look, those who desire to know God more deeply.
The fullest revelation of God's wonder is not found in power, distance, or abstraction, but in the ordinary, surprising, deeply human life of Jesus Christ. This same Jesus laid down His life and rose again in glory, now holding the keys of death and life itself.
This is the God who is alive, right now, surrounded by the hosts of heaven, beings who see Him exactly as He is and respond, again and again, with a single word:
“Holy!”
A word that stands forever in opposition to boredom.
So let us look again, friends. Let us ask, seek, and knock once more. There are mysteries awaiting. There is majesty unfolding. There is an uncreated God who has promised that if we seek Him, we will surely find Him.
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him. I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints.”
This prayer from Ephesians is my prayer for you as you begin this journey: that as your heart is opened to see Him more clearly, you would discover who you truly are…His inheritance, His beloved.
Will you be the one to embark on this journey of rediscovering wonder in the fascination of Christ? A journey into the life of the most exciting life there ever was, The Way, The Truth, and The LIFE itself.
Prepare for Encounter. For as deeply as we long to see and know Him, this is His desire as well, to be seen and deeply known by the ones He loves…..YOU.
This is your invitation to sit at his feet. Let us gaze together upon the One who is altogether lovely.
This is your invitation………… to Behold.