Hands On Experience of God’s Love, Part 5 — A God Who Gives, Rejoices and Leads

Hands On Experience of Gods Love, Part 5, teaches that God spoke the rest of creation into being but shaped man and woman with His own hands, and that every part of our walk with Him is meant to be just as personal. Dr. William P. Hohman shows that God’s kingdom runs on gifts: righteousness, grace, faith and the Holy Spirit are all given, never earned, and believers are themselves a gift to the Father through Jesus.

He then calls the church to see people, and themselves, past the corruption of this world, to let God rejoice over them, and to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. This message continues from Hands On Experience of God’s Love, Part 4 — Renewed in His Love and Led by 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 August 2, 2022. It runs about 70 minutes. Pastor Hohman explains that the series grew out of his teaching on the kingdom economy and on putting God first, and then turned to Revelation 2, where the Lord tells the church at Ephesus that it has left its first love (Revelation 2:4). Going back to that first love led him to Genesis and to the way God made mankind.

He opens with his own story: a high school dropout who told the Lord he would do whatever he was told, went back for his diploma and ended up spending 21 years in college. God used all of it, he says, but obedience mattered more than the study.

Formed by His Hands, Not Only His Word

In the creation account God speaks and things appear: “Let there be light”; and there was light (Genesis 1:3). Plants and animals come the same way. But when it came to man, Pastor Hohman points out, God did something different. He said, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26), and then He gathered the dust, shaped the man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7).

He did the same with Eve. God put Adam to sleep, took a rib from his side and formed the woman, then brought her to Adam (Genesis 2:18–22). Man and woman were each a personal, hands-on work of the master artist. That is why, he teaches, everything in our relationship with God has to be a hands-on experience. Jesus, the Word who spoke all things into existence and then handcrafted man, came in person to redeem us after the fall.

God also gave Adam everything He had made, including a garden Adam never planted, and gave him dominion, which Pastor Hohman calls a jurisdictional term: Adam was the one over it and responsible for it. When Adam gave it away, a curse system came in and everything became corrupted. The north woods, with their dozens of shades of green, are beautiful, yet he reminds the church that this is the corrupted version of creation.

Romans 8:19–21 says the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God and will be delivered from the bondage of corruption. When we give our lives to Jesus, we become new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), carrying not only His image and likeness but His very life.

A Kingdom That Runs on Gifts

When Adam handed creation over to corruption, God did not give up. That is why the devil could offer Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down (Matthew 4:8–9). God’s answer, Pastor Hohman says, was another gift: He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Even our ability to believe is given, because by grace we are saved through faith, and it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

The table below follows the chain of gifts he traces through the message.

Pastor Hohman ties the gift of the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ promise that the Father gives the Spirit to those who ask (Luke 11:13), and the gifts of the Spirit to 1 Corinthians 12:7–10. He contrasts this intimate God with gods that cannot answer, recalling women he met in the Middle East who told him they did not know whether God had even heard their prayers.

The key verse is Romans 5:17: those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life. Most people, he says, lack a revelation of God’s love deep enough to believe they can receive that gift.

Our own righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). He illustrates with a mess he made on the kitchen floor: when his wife Pam wiped it up, the rag became dirty. You cannot make anything clean without making something else dirty. On the cross, Jesus took our filthy rags and paid the penalty, then gifted God’s righteousness to everyone who believes.

Seeing People, and Yourself, Past the Corruption

We look at a sky full of clouds and call it beautiful, even though it is corrupted. Pastor Hohman asks why we do not see people the same way. Nobody asked to be born; God places each person in a specific time and place (Acts 17:26), and we are to make the most of it instead of chasing a pot of gold somewhere else.

He shares what the Lord spoke to him in prayer: “any time we allow God to have hands on in our life it’s always going to become much better.” When we try to figure it out on our own, it either gets worse or stays the same, because only God can change corruption. Under the old covenant, the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin (Hebrews 10:4), but the blood of Jesus can.

People, unlike trees, wound us, and we start relating to one another out of that corruption. Jesus took all the scars and marring of broken relationship on Himself, loved perfectly and paid the penalty for what was done to Him. So salvation is not a debt. We owe Him nothing; everything is received as a gift.

Then he turns the question around: do you see yourself as a gift to God? In covenant, an inheritance goes to family, and the Father received an inheritance through Jesus: us. Paul prayed that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened to know the riches of His inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18). We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), and He values us more than the birds He feeds (Matthew 6:26).

David knew he was fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Nobody walks through a forest pointing only at the one dead tree, so why do it to yourself? Paul even gloried in his weaknesses because Christ’s strength rested on him there (2 Corinthians 12:9–10). Your mistakes are not what keeps you from God’s miracle; the way you see yourself is.

Drawn Back With an Everlasting Love

Pastor Hohman returns to Lamentations 1, where Jerusalem, once a princess among the provinces, has collapsed and had no comforter. He hears three voices in that cry of “how”: what did I do wrong, how do I get out of this, and the grief of losing a relationship that was very dear. Jerusalem had been doing things for a relationship rather than receiving from God.

Yet God’s heart did not change. In Jeremiah 31:3–4 He says He has loved His people with an everlasting love and will build them again. Hurts and wounds may have pushed you away from His love and His Comforter, but it is only one step back. The Holy Spirit is drawing you in to rebuild you, not keeping score of your wrongs.

That gives believers confidence now, not only at funerals, that this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53). 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 love in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

It is not enough to hear about His love; we must let Him demonstrate it. Works that matter come from love: what avails is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6). Hope, he says, always expects better, and faith is the substance of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1).

A Hands On Experience of Gods Love That Rejoices Over You

The heart of the message is Zephaniah 3:17: the Lord your God in your midst will rejoice over you with gladness and quiet you with His love. While the church was singing to Him, Pastor Hohman says, He was rejoicing over them.

He gives two Hebrew words. The first, simchah, means blissful glee you cannot contain, like someone waking to news of a billion-dollar lottery win. The second, gil, means to spin around in uncontrolled dancing, under the influence of a violent emotion. That, he says, is Jesus over you. Scripture compares it to a mother who forgets the pain of labor once the child is in her arms (John 16:21).

This joy depends on responding to the Holy Spirit, because there is no miracle in the Bible unless someone was led by God to do something. If a thought comes to raise your hands, that is the Holy Spirit; the devil will not tell you to surrender to God. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:7).

He tells of being the keynote speaker at a convention when the worship leader invited people forward. He had not heard for what, but the Lord said go, so he went in front of hundreds. At his altar call that night every person came forward, including a couple outside who were to sign divorce papers the next day; they were reunited.

The joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10), but it comes only from accepting His love. He does not change; He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The Word who made all things (John 1:1–3) knelt in the dirt to breathe life into man. Start each morning asking Him to tell you again how much He loves you, and your strength will be greater than the day (Deuteronomy 33:25).

Led by the Holy Spirit Into All Truth

Renewed in that love, believers can give to every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8), because His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22–23). Jesus is Lord over the church, Pastor Hohman says, and the Holy Spirit is Lord in the church: now the Lord is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17). As many as are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Romans 8:14).

Afraid of making mistakes, he once asked the Lord how to know His leading. The answer was, “here’s how you do it, William: throw it up in the air.” If it bounces, it is a ball; if it flies, it is a plane. He made mistakes, including spilling a punch bowl of red food coloring across a new church’s carpet, yet everyone there gave their life to Jesus and he prayed for the sick until four in the morning.

The Holy Spirit is not an it but a He, the Comforter who abides with us forever (John 14:16–17). Jacob did not believe Joseph was alive until he saw the carts from Egypt, and then his spirit revived (Genesis 45:26–28). The disciples did not believe Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9–11). Without the Holy Spirit, he says, we cannot believe the promises; He guides us into all truth (John 16:12–15).

His testimony is the church’s building project. Three perk tests for a new septic field were rejected, and the land was declared too dug up. A church member felt led to contact an elected official, met a senator at the county fair, and a new test was arranged on a newly bought acre. After Pastor Hohman prayed, the inspector told him, “there is no dirt like this in the Midwest,” and the officials approved it on the spot.

Living the Gift This Week

Here are practical steps drawn from this hands on experience of gods love message:

• Receive before you give. Accept His righteousness and love as gifts instead of serving Him out of a sense of debt.
• See the beauty first. Look at the people around you the way you look at a sunset, not at the one dead tree.
• Know your worth to the Father. Meditate on the truth that you are His inheritance and that He rejoices over you.
• Start the day in His love. Before anything else, ask Him to tell you again how much He loves you.
• Respond to the nudge. Raise your hands, go forward, or encourage a coworker when the Holy Spirit prompts you.
• Take a shot. Do not let fear of mistakes stop you from stepping out on what you sense God is saying.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Obedience over study: from dropout to 21 years of college
• 0:57 Part 5 and the first love of Revelation 2
• 1:56 Let Us make man: formed by His hands
• 4:10 Dominion lost and a corrupted creation
• 6:21 New creations in Christ: 2 Corinthians 5:17
• 7:28 Everything in the kingdom is by gifts
• 9:36 The gift of righteousness: Romans 5:17
• 11:49 Seeing people the way we see nature
• 17:01 You are a gift to the Father
• 21:07 Fearfully and wonderfully made
• 23:45 Lamentations: three voices of how
• 24:58 Drawn with an everlasting love: Jeremiah 31
• 32:20 Zephaniah 3:17: He rejoices over you
• 35:55 Responding to the Holy Spirit
• 39:57 Spinning with joy: the second Hebrew word
• 46:25 The Lord is the Spirit: 2 Corinthians 3:17
• 48:35 The red food coloring and the born again song
• 54:08 The Comforter: John 14:16–17
• 55:25 Jacob sees the carts
• 58:54 He will guide you into all truth: John 16
• 1:01:03 The perk test testimony
• 1:08:42 A prophecy for twelve seekers

Hands On Experience of Gods Love Series

This message is part of a short teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or go back to the previous message:

• 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 4 — Renewed in His Love and Led by the Comforter
• You are here: Hands On Experience of God’s Love, Part 5 — A God Who Gives, Rejoices and Leads

Frequently Asked Questions

If I am the righteousness of God, why do I still make mistakes?

Pastor Hohman separates two things. The gift of righteousness makes you as right as God is right, so you stand before Him without guilt. It does not make you as good as God, and he says plainly that he is not. He describes making plenty of mistakes while learning to follow the Lord, and says God laughed through them all. Mistakes are part of learning; refusing to step out is the bigger problem.

How did the twelve people respond to a strange prophecy?

At a meeting of more than a thousand people in Toronto, someone stood and spoke the words of the nursery rhyme about a twinkling star, ending with now I know. Pastor Hohman thought it odd, yet twelve people ran forward to receive Jesus. Each told him afterward that for months they had looked at the stars asking God who He was. His point is that the Holy Spirit knows what each heart needs.

Does a hands-on God mean He does everything for us?

No. Pastor Hohman says God is not our servant or slave. His hands-on love works through partnership: He leads, and we respond. He points out that the Bible records no miracle unless someone was first led by God to do something. When we ignore His nudges we stay distant and then wonder why He is not moving, but when we obey, even in small things, His hand comes in to do more than we could ask.

Scripture References

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

• Genesis 2:7 — God forms man from the dust
• Romans 8:19–21 — creation waits for the sons of God
• Romans 5:17 — the gift of righteousness
• Ephesians 1:18 — His inheritance in the saints
• Psalm 139:14 — fearfully and wonderfully made
• Jeremiah 31:3–4 — an everlasting love
• Zephaniah 3:17 — He rejoices over you
• John 14:16–17 — the Comforter
• John 16:12–15 — guided into all truth

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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