Seeing God as He Really Is, Part 6: Connection #2 — God’s Kiss and God’s Hug

Seeing God as He is means knowing Him through connection, not just collecting facts about Him. In this sixth message of the series, the second on connection, the pastor teaches that God is not an angry God waiting to punish you, and that real change comes when you let Him draw you close. He describes it with two pictures: revelation comes from God’s kiss, His breath of life breathed into you, and the strength to hold on to that revelation comes from His hug, the embrace of His right hand.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a word study table, a timestamped outline, and practical steps for drawing close to God this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was posted on April 23, 2026, as a Word of the Day teaching at NTC Ministries. The pastor explains that the series follows an earlier one on drawing near to God, and that it looks at words the church has misunderstood. His people perish, he says, for lack of understanding, and words lose their power when they are distorted.

His focus here is connection, or as he puts it, harmonizing with God. Prayer, he says, is not mainly petition; it is fellowship and communion. The message closes with a time of confession and cleansing.

Seeing God as He Is: Harmony, Not Noise

Many people, the pastor says, struggle to get close to God. He seems far away, and they only reach for Him when they have a natural need. He calls that a kind of idol worship: dragging God out when something goes wrong and hoping He will act. Others picture Him as a hard man who will punish their weakness. But He is not an angry God. The wrath was poured out on Jesus, and the church is not appointed to wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

God does not want us to see ourselves through carnal eyes, the way fallen Adam did. In Christ we see ourselves through Him. Jesus prayed that His people would be one with the Father and the Son (John 17:21), and the pastor says the word one means to harmonize.

He uses a piano. Notes that clash are irritating, and that, he says, is religion; people walk out, and they should. Notes in harmony bring a soothing sound and good emotions. That is what happens when we embrace the good news of who Jesus really is.

He tells a story he attributes to Reinhard Bonnke. An atheist argued that if God is good, there could not be so much evil. The reply was that soap must not exist either, since there are still dirty people. Soap only cleans when you apply it, and God only transforms the one who embraces Him.

The pastor draws a distinction here. God does not want us to change by our own strength, because that rarely works. He wants to transform us, which is greater than anything we could do, and that comes from fellowship with Him. Peter says that whoever wants to love life and see good days should keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceit (1 Peter 3:10), and the Lord is the one who perfects what concerns us (Psalm 138:8).

Loved and Loving Back

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16–17). The pastor teaches that God loves the world with pure, perfect love, but the world does not know it and does not embrace it. Many mistake His love for tolerance. By contrast, John 21:20 speaks of the disciple whom Jesus loved, and he describes that love as reciprocal: received and then returned.

He admits that early in his marriage to Pam he did not know how to love her well. He copied what he had seen and acted from emotion. As he grew in God’s love, he learned that love means looking out for the interests of others (Philippians 2:4).

In the late 1990s, he says, God began showing him that the kingdom is all about gifts. A visiting Christian family from Sweden ministered at the church, and Pam remarked how much she loved the embroidered cardigan the mother was wearing. He spent the year searching every women’s store he could find while traveling, without success.

About a week before Christmas, a department store in another city called and asked him to collect boxes of clothing for the needy. When he opened the first box, the exact cardigan Pam wanted was folded on top. His year of searching, he says, did more for him than the cardigan did for her, because it kept his heart turned toward her every day.

That is the relationship God wants. He wants to give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4), and He wants us to ask and receive so that our joy may be full (John 16:24). He even calls His people His inheritance (Ephesians 1:18). Jesus said that whoever keeps His commandments loves Him, and the Father and the Son will come and make Their home with him (John 14:21–24).

The Kiss of Revelation: Knowing His Ways

When God created Adam, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). The pastor sees humility in that scene: almighty God kneeling in the dirt to breathe life into it. The first thing Adam saw was his Creator.

God spoke with Moses face to face (Numbers 12:8), which he teaches is literally mouth to mouth. God wants to breathe life into us, so this is more than head knowledge. It is revelation that comes with feeling and purpose. Israel knew God’s acts, but Moses knew His ways (Psalm 103:7): His character, His reasons and the love behind what He did. You can receive a miracle and enjoy it without receiving the relationship it was meant to open.

That changes how he defines faith. Hebrews 11:6 says that whoever comes to God must believe that He is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. Too often, he says, faith became a tool for getting things. But God has already given us everything, and seeking only what He gives instead of Him is what Israel did.

Adam could have eaten from the tree of life and understood God’s purpose. Instead he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The pastor says we do the same whenever God asks something of us and we start reasoning over whether we should. Faith is not something we do to make God respond; it is our response of trust in Him, because we are His children, not His servants.

He illustrates it with church boards. The first time a group is asked to trust God for something big, everyone goes white in the face. God provides. The next time it is only clenched knuckles. It is not by might nor by power but by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6).

Head Knowledge and Heart Knowledge

The key passage is 1 Corinthians 8:1–3: knowledge puffs up, but love edifies, and if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him. Head knowledge, the pastor says, only magnifies pride. Revelation, the knowledge God breathes into the heart, builds us up and brings humility.

The word know, he teaches, is the most intimate word in the Bible. Adam knew Eve and a son was born. When we know God, what He is and what He has said come to birth in us. He asks how a handful of people could have ministries in 37 nations, preaching in churches where he cannot speak the language, and answers that it came out of intimacy with God.

The farther someone gets from God, he warns, the darker life becomes, until what they think is light is really darkness (Luke 11:35). His test for any revelation is humility. Pride means it came from the head; humility means it came from God.

Jesus is the model. He came humbly through a woman’s womb, was laid in a feeding trough and rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Because He humbled Himself, God gave Him the name above every name (Philippians 2:8–11). Ruling and reigning with Christ, he says, also comes by humility.

Revelation does not have to be new information. It can be something you have heard many times that suddenly becomes real and part of you. Then you stop questioning God’s goodness, because every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation (James 1:17).

How God Sees You

God made man in His image and gave him dominion (Genesis 1:26). Adam never had to ask for anything, not even a wife. Loneliness, the pastor says, comes from a lack of fellowship with God, who satisfies our mouth with good things (Psalm 103:5). Believers present themselves as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), and God replaces whatever is sacrificed: time with strength, money with abundance. The wealth of the sinner, he adds, is stored up for the just (Proverbs 13:22).

From Ephesians 1:3–6, he shows that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing and chose us to be holy and without blame before Him in love. He teaches that the word accepted comes from the word for grace and means highly favored. “I don’t care how jacked up you are,” he says; a believer is holy and without blame.

2 Peter 1:1–4 says we have obtained like precious faith with Peter, and that God’s divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, so that we may partake of the divine nature. Faith works through love (Galatians 5:6), so he suggests starting every morning by asking the Father to tell you again how much He loves you.

He describes three stages of growth: sit, walk and stand. You sit and hear the good news again and again, then walk it out, and finally, having done all, stand (Ephesians 6:13). Standing is how you keep revelation from slipping away.

God’s plan never changed after Adam fell. Death reigned through one man, but those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through Jesus (Romans 5:17). Colossians 1:21–23 says He reconciled us to present us holy, blameless and above reproach, if we continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast. You have to see yourself through His eyes, he says: by God you can run against a troop (Psalm 18:29), and you can run and not be weary (Isaiah 40:31).

The Hug of His Right Hand

How do you hold on to revelation? “The revelation comes from a kiss, but the strength comes from a hug,” the pastor says. First you build a landing strip by clearing out offense and false thinking and asking God to cleanse you. The bigger the revelation, the longer the runway. He recalls a Boeing 727 in 1991 that landed by mistake at a small downtown Wausau airport, on a runway far too short. To take off again, crews stripped out the seats, galley and everything else.

Then you need the hug. Psalm 63:8 says, My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me. He teaches that the right hand pictures God’s right side, as if He draws you to Himself in an embrace. David, after his failures, needed that strength to keep seeing himself as a king. Genesis 2:24 uses the same idea: a man shall cleave to his wife.

He says he would never have made it as a pastor without God’s hugs. Humility, he teaches, is not thinking less of yourself but losing thought of yourself in God’s presence. When a magazine asked how so much happened in a small town, he said he simply kept wanting God more than anything else.

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, and I shall not die but live (Psalm 118:14–17). David also asked God to show His marvelous lovingkindness by His right hand (Psalm 17:7). The pastor compares God’s presence in prayer to a weighted blanket that holds you through the night.

He then tells the story of the woman who wrote the hymn “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” As he tells it, she went blind, was abandoned and left destitute, and drew close to the Lord asking for nothing but Him. Out of that embrace came the song. Enoch walked with God, and God took him (Genesis 5:24). The message ends with confession: if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Drawing Close to God This Week

These steps come straight from the pastor’s application of the kiss and the hug:

• Start the day in His love. Ask the Father to tell you again how much He loves you, and take time to receive it.
• Seek Him, not just His gifts. Like Moses, ask to know His ways and His heart, not only His acts.
• Trust instead of reasoning. When God asks something of you, take a step instead of debating whether you can manage it.
• Build your landing strip. Confess offense and false thinking quickly so nothing blocks what He wants to give you.
• Lean into His embrace. In prayer and worship, come for Him alone and let His presence strengthen you.
• See yourself His way. Declare that in Christ you are holy, without blame and highly favored.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Words the church has misunderstood
• 1:20 God is not an angry God
• 3:37 The soap story: you must embrace Him
• 6:10 Connection means harmony
• 7:20 John 3:16 and reciprocal love
• 11:00 The kingdom is all about gifts
• 12:56 The cardigan story
• 15:04 John 14: manifesting Himself
• 17:56 Face to face: Moses knew His ways
• 19:07 Hebrews 11:6: what faith really is
• 22:53 Trusting God together
• 25:29 1 Corinthians 8: knowledge puffs up
• 29:38 Revelation brings humility
• 33:26 Adam never had to ask
• 36:13 Ephesians 1: holy and without blame
• 38:54 2 Peter 1: like precious faith
• 41:43 Sit, walk, stand
• 43:55 Romans 5:17: reigning in life
• 46:30 Colossians 1: seeing yourself as He does
• 49:08 A kiss and a hug; building a landing strip
• 54:20 Psalm 63:8: His right hand upholds me
• 58:43 Humility and Psalm 118
• 1:02:21 The hymn born in a dark hour
• 1:05:29 Confession and cleansing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it wrong to ask God for things?

No. The pastor teaches that God wants to give you the desires of your heart and wants you to ask and receive so your joy is full. His concern is a relationship that only ever says give me this. He compares it to his year of searching for a gift for his wife: the giving grew out of thinking about her every day. Prayer, he says, is fellowship first, and the asking flows from knowing God’s heart.

What if I keep losing what God showed me?

That is exactly the question the pastor answers at the end of the message. Revelation comes from God’s kiss, but holding on to it takes strength, which comes from His hug. He says to clear out offense quickly, stay in His presence in prayer and worship, and hold fast to Him as David did. Having done all, you stand.

Does God see my failures when He looks at me?

The pastor points to Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1, which say God chose believers to be holy and without blame before Him and presents them holy, blameless and above reproach in His sight. Everyone has weaknesses, he says, and they do not matter to God the way they matter to us. What matters is what He has done, so we must learn to see ourselves through His eyes.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• 1 Corinthians 8:1–3 — knowledge puffs up, love edifies
• Psalm 103:7 — Moses knew His ways
• Hebrews 11:6 — He rewards those who seek Him
• Ephesians 1:3–6 — accepted in the Beloved
• 2 Peter 1:1–4 — partakers of the divine nature
• Colossians 1:21–23 — holy, blameless and above reproach
• Psalm 63:8 — Your right hand upholds me
• Psalm 118:14–17 — the right hand of the Lord does valiantly
• John 14:21–24 — the Father and Son make Their home with us

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

Watch More Messages

If this message drew you closer to God, there are many more teachings from NTC Ministries waiting for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep seeing God as He really is.