Hands On Experience of Gods Love, Part 4, teaches that God spoke all of creation into being but formed mankind with His own hands, and that He still wants a hands-on relationship with every person. Dr. William P. Hohman shows that everything in this world is under corruption, yet believers who are renewed in the love of God every morning learn to see people, and themselves, the way God sees them.
He then turns to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter who pours that love into our hearts and leads the sons of God. This message continues from Hands On Experience of God’s Love, Part 3 — Faith Works by Love and the Comforter. Below are the full video, a structured summary, every Scripture linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway, a timestamped outline and practical steps.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was preached at NTC Ministries and posted on July 27, 2022. It runs about 71 minutes and closes with an invitation to receive Jesus and with communion. Pastor Hohman explains that the series grew out of his teaching on the economy of heaven, because Christians have to function in two worlds at once. He opens by praying that the eyes of the church’s understanding would be enlightened to know the hope of God’s calling.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Dr. William P. Hohman |
| Series | Hands On Experience of Gods Love (part 4) |
| Main text | Romans 8:14–21 and John 14:16–17 |
| Key theme | Daily renewal in the love of God and responding to the Holy Spirit |
| Length | About 71 minutes, ending in communion |
Formed by the Hands of Love
God created by speaking. He said, Let there be light, and He called plants, animals and sea creatures into existence. But when He came to man, He created differently. He said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness (Genesis 1:26), took the dust of the ground, formed man with His hands and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7).
Pastor Hohman points out that the first thing Adam ever saw was not the trees, the mountains or the waterfalls. It was the face of the God of glory. Adam was awakened to the presence of Almighty God, and that, he says, is what God wants for every one of us.
He recalls a college professor who taught that God created Adam because He was lonely and wanted a family. The Lord immediately told him that was not true. God says, I am the Lord, I do not change (Malachi 3:6). If He had been lonely, creating man would not have changed Him. God is sovereign; He exists without any external aid and needs nothing.
But God is love, and love needs a place of expression to be realized. Without someone to receive it, His love would never be known, felt or seen. So the first thing Adam and Eve saw was love itself, the One who had handcrafted them. Our attention, he says, must stay on the love of God too.
After Adam sinned, God came to walk with him in the cool of the day, but Adam hid. When God asked who told him he was naked (Genesis 3:8–11), the answer was fear. Without being renewed in the love of God, Pastor Hohman says, all we do is magnify our problems, our sins and our shortcomings.
Seeing Through Creation, Not Corruption
When Adam sinned, everything was corrupted, not just people. Paint peels, new cars rust, and metal begins oxidizing right away. Yet Pastor Hohman notes that we still look at a red sky and call it a beautiful sunrise. He once counted thirteen species of birds in his own yard. Why, he asks, do we see the beauty in nature so easily but struggle to do the same with people?
Romans 8:19–21 says creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God, because it was subjected to futility, not willingly, and will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Creation is waiting for people who take hold of God and walk in the love of God.
The table below follows the contrast he draws between seeing through corruption and seeing through creation.
| Example he gives | Seen through corruption | Seen through creation |
|---|---|---|
| A new car | Years later, everyone hears how rotten it is | Telling everyone how great it is, as when it was new |
| A new job | Coworkers say slow down; soon it is a rotten job | Showing up to perform and give your best |
| A forest after a fire | Nobody calls it a rotten fire | Look at the green and the flowers coming up |
| Other people | Focusing on their faults and flaws | Seeing them as God’s beautiful creation |
| Yourself | No good, nothing but a sinner | Fearfully and wonderfully made |
Even in the worst sin recorded in Scripture, he notes, God did not simply tell people off; He tried to turn them to repentance. And when we hide from God like Adam, we stop loving people and start treating His blessings as curses. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
David, living under the old covenant, could still say, I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Under the new covenant, Pastor Hohman says, it should be even easier. Most people blame the devil, but often he sits back while good people destroy their own lives in ignorance, which is why God’s people perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6).
A Hands On Experience of Gods Love Every Morning
Pastor Hohman explains that the word for God’s love, agape, describes a love whose quality is determined by the character of the one who loves. So the quality of God’s love is not determined by you or me. It is determined by His character. People who get caught up in corruption start to think God caused the tornado that destroyed the trailer park, but He had nothing to do with it.
If God can turn around what the devil meant for harm, he asks, can He not also turn your mistakes around for your good? The same love appears in John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Whatever corruption does around you, you still have the very life of God.
That is why God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22–23). He wants us renewed in the love of God daily, by the Holy Spirit. Pastor Hohman urges the church to give God the first part of the day, before work or family fills the mind, so He can wash away the corruption. Every miracle in the Bible, he notes, came when someone followed the leading of the Lord.
Faith also has to be hands-on. Faith without works is dead (James 2:17). You can speak to storms or to your lawn, he says, but with people you have to put your hands to it. Jesus commended the church at Ephesus for its works, but said it had left its first love (Revelation 2:4). Works mean nothing unless they come from the love of God.
God pays attention to all He made. Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father (Matthew 10:29); Pastor Hohman says He goes to a sparrow’s funeral. Jesus pointed to the birds of the air, fed by the Father, and asked, Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:26). The birds were spoken into existence; you were formed by His hands.
Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), and God demonstrates His own love toward us (Romans 5:8). A god of a book only, with no intimate element, is a false god, he says, because the true God is hands-on.
It takes effort to see value in people, and also to see value in yourself. Stop listening to the voice that calls you a no-good worm. Paul chose to glory in his weaknesses because God’s strength was available to him (2 Corinthians 12:9–10), and we are told to come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
In Jeremiah 31:3–4 the Lord says, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt. Pastor Hohman links it to Lamentations, where Jerusalem, once a princess, sat as a beggar because she had no comforter (Lamentations 1:1–2). No matter where you have fallen from, he says, God is here to rebuild you.
Loving God as More Than a Friend
Before the cross, the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin (Hebrews 10:4). Jesus shed His blood to take sin away, and now the Father can demonstrate the love of God to us daily through the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Hohman compares the Holy Spirit to the carts Joseph sent from Egypt. Jacob had given up hope, and even when his sons said Joseph was alive, he would not believe. But when he saw the carts, his spirit revived (Genesis 45:26–27). In the same way, he says, the Holy Spirit brings the love of God to life in us. Knowing stories about the Lord is not the same as a personal, hands-on encounter with Him.
He illustrates with his own marriage. He met Pam fifty-five years earlier, when she was eleven and he was twelve. He knew she was the one, but the only way he knew to show affection was the way he treated his friends: a punch in the arm or a headlock. She could not receive that as love. He jokes that husbands who belch to impress their wives are doing the same thing.
That, he says, is how we grieve the Holy Spirit. After the resurrection, Jesus asked Peter on the shore, Do you love Me? (John 21:15–17). Pastor Hohman teaches that Jesus asked for agape, and Peter answered with the love of a friend. Finally Jesus simply said, Feed My sheep. If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15).
He gives an example of responding to the Spirit without understanding why. As keynote speaker at a convention in Ohio, he missed what the worship leader said, but the Lord told him to go to the altar. He was the only one who went. Later, when he gave the altar call, every person responded.
In the Philippines, after resisting an invitation until his wife Pam encouraged him to go, he preached in a village church that met in a small barn. He told the pastor that God was giving him the property and a building. A drunk man in the front row grabbed his legs, gave his life to Jesus and sobered up at once. He owned the property and had come to disrupt the service, but he gave it to the church. The next year Pastor Hohman returned to dedicate a building that seated 500.
Led by the Comforter
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:29–30). Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Pastor Hohman says many churches do not even welcome the Holy Spirit, who wants to bring words, tongues, miracles and healings, because they only know how to love as a friend, the way tradition does.
You cannot be born again without the Holy Spirit. In John 3:3–8, Jesus told Nicodemus that the wind blows where it wishes, and so is everyone born of the Spirit. He compares the Spirit’s leading to fishing: you cannot see the fish, but you feel the tug on the line, and you must respond.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Romans 8:14). The worst times of his Christian life, he says, were when he did not follow the Holy Spirit.
Being led by the Holy Spirit requires training. He says the Word and the Spirit agree, so anything that contradicts Scripture is not God. Those who prophesy in anger are not speaking for God either, because all His wrath was poured out on Jesus two thousand years ago. Mature believers and elders help newer Christians learn to discern His voice.
Reading John 14:16–17 from the Amplified Bible, he lists the Comforter’s roles: Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener and Standby, who remains with us forever. Jesus said it was to our advantage that He go away so the Helper would come (John 16:7). The Greek word, he says, means one who comes alongside to aid, guide, comfort and encourage.
At one convention, he recalls, a couple driving to sign their divorce papers heard the Lord tell them to stop at the building, where a man would pray for them. They arrived at 1:30 in the morning, obeying the Holy Spirit. He prayed that God would renew their love, and an hour later they were still hugging in the pew. God’s thoughts toward you are of peace and a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).
Living in His Love This Week
Pastor Hohman closed with an invitation to receive Jesus and with communion as a response to the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Here are practical steps drawn from this hands on experience of gods love message:
- Give God your first moments. Before work or family fills your mind, let Him renew you in His love.
- Look for the creation, not the corruption. Choose to see the people around you, and yourself, the way God sees them.
- Respond when you feel the tug. Lift your hands, kneel or go forward when the Holy Spirit prompts you.
- Love God the way He asks. Move past loving Him only as a friend and do what He asks of you.
- Check leadings against the Word. If it contradicts Scripture or comes in anger, it is not God.
- Say, Speak, Lord. Like Samuel answering God’s call (1 Samuel 3:8–10), tell Him you are listening.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Opening prayer and the series
- 1:05 God spoke creation but formed man
- 3:17 Was God lonely? Love needs expression
- 4:37 Adam, where are you?
- 5:40 Everything under corruption
- 8:27 Romans 8: creation waits
- 13:27 Fearfully and wonderfully made
- 14:41 The quality of agape love
- 17:19 Faith without works and first love
- 18:38 The sparrows and the birds of the air
- 23:43 Glorying in weakness, coming boldly
- 25:11 Jeremiah 31: an everlasting love
- 28:00 Joseph’s carts and Jacob revived
- 31:40 Loving like a friend
- 34:02 Peter, do you love Me?
- 37:25 The altar in Ohio
- 40:46 Born of the Spirit: John 3
- 43:03 The barn church in the Philippines
- 49:10 Led by the Spirit: Romans 8:14
- 53:47 The Comforter in John 14
- 56:15 The couple on the way to divorce
- 62:54 Invitation to receive Jesus
- 66:03 Samuel hears the Lord
- 68:15 Communion as a response
Hands On Experience of Gods Love Series
This message is part of a short teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:
- First message: Hands On Experience of God’s Love #2 — The Carts That Revived Jacob’s Heart
- Previous: Hands On Experience of God’s Love, Part 3 — Faith Works by Love and the Comforter
- You are here: Hands On Experience of God’s Love, Part 4 — Renewed in His Love and Led by the Comforter
- Next: Hands On Experience of God’s Love, Part 5 — A God Who Gives, Rejoices and Leads
Frequently Asked Questions
Did God create people because He was lonely?
No. Pastor Hohman says the Lord corrected that idea when he heard it from a college professor. God does not change, so if He had been lonely, creating mankind would not have cured it. He is sovereign and needs nothing. He created because He is love, and love needs someone to receive it in order to be expressed, known and felt.
Does God cause disasters to punish people?
Pastor Hohman teaches that disasters belong to a corrupted world, not to God’s character. He gives the example of people who assume God sent a tornado to destroy a trailer park and says God had nothing to do with it. The quality of His love is set by His own character, and He turns even what the enemy meant for harm toward our good.
How do I know if a leading is really from the Holy Spirit?
He says the Word and the Spirit always agree, so anything that contradicts Scripture is not God. A prophecy delivered in anger is also suspect, because God’s wrath was poured out on Jesus and He draws people with everlasting love. He encourages newer believers to let mature elders help them learn, and to simply ask forgiveness and keep going when they miss it.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Genesis 2:7 — formed from the dust, given breath
- Romans 8:19–21 — creation waits for the sons of God
- Psalm 139:14 — fearfully and wonderfully made
- Romans 5:5 — love poured out by the Holy Spirit
- Jeremiah 31:3–4 — an everlasting love
- John 21:15–17 — Peter, do you love Me?
- Romans 8:14 — led by the Spirit of God
- John 14:16–17 — another Helper
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
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