Hands On Experience Of Gods Love #2 ~ Dr William P. Hohman
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Dr. Hohman reveals how God designed us for intimate encounter with Him, using Joseph’s story to show how the Holy Spirit revives depleted hearts and fulfills every promise.
Description
Gods Love Experience Overview
In this powerful message, Dr. William P. Hohman continues his series on the hands-on experience of God’s love, picking up from the previous week’s teaching on the biblical principles of putting God first. Drawing from Genesis, Romans 5, and the story of Joseph, Dr. Hohman paints a vivid picture of what it means to have a genuine, personal, and intimate encounter with the living God. He opens with the creation account, showing how both Adam and Eve first encountered their Creator before anything else, establishing a pattern for how believers are meant to live. The message moves through Romans 5:1-8, unpacking the Greek word for hope and how God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The centerpiece of the sermon is the story of Joseph and his father Jacob, used as a type and shadow of Christ and the Church. When the provision-laden carts arrived from Egypt, Jacob’s spirit was revived after twenty-two years of hopelessness. Dr. Hohman draws a direct parallel to the Holy Spirit’s role today, urging believers to respond to God’s intimate call and never deny the Spirit’s moving, especially as the Church faces increasingly challenging times.
Gods Love Experience Outline
- 00:00 – Recap of Biblical Principles of First: Dr. Hohman recaps the previous message on putting God first in creation, showing how both Adam and Eve saw God before anything else.
- 06:30 – The Hands-On Creation of Man: An exploration of Genesis 1:26-27 and Genesis 2:7, contrasting God’s spoken creation with the intimate, hands-on formation of man, and what that means for our relationship with Him.
- 14:00 – Romans 5:1-8 and the Hope That Does Not Disappoint: A verse-by-verse walk through Romans 5, unpacking peace with God through faith, the Greek word elpis for hope, and how suffering produces perseverance, character, and expectancy.
- 22:30 – The Holy Spirit Pours Out God’s Love: Dr. Hohman explains why God’s love cannot be merely intellectual and must be experienced personally through the Holy Spirit, drawing the analogy of marriage and covenant.
- 31:00 – Joseph as a Type and Shadow of Christ: Introduction to Joseph’s story in Genesis 37, including the coat of many colors, his dreams, betrayal by his brothers, and his journey from slave to ruler of Egypt.
- 43:00 – Joseph Reveals Himself and Sends for His Father: Genesis 45 is read in detail as Joseph reveals himself, assures his brothers God sent him ahead, and sends lavish provision including carts back to Jacob in Canaan.
- 52:00 – Jacob’s Spirit Is Revived: The climactic moment in Genesis 45:25-28 where Jacob’s spirit is revived upon seeing the carts, shifting from Jacob the heel-grabber to Israel the prince with God.
- 57:00 – Love Takes Hold of the Promise: The sermon closes with the distinction between faith hearing the promise, hope desiring the promise, and love taking hold of the promise, calling listeners to respond openly to the Holy Spirit.
Scripture References
Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:7, Genesis 2:21-22, Genesis 37:25-36, Genesis 45:4-28, Romans 5:1-8, Romans 8:32, 1 Corinthians 13:13, Galatians 5:6, Jeremiah 29:11, John 17:24
Key Takeaways
- God designed every human being for an intimate, personal, and ongoing encounter with Him, not merely head knowledge about Him.
- Hope in the biblical sense, the Greek word elpis, means a creative expectation of something better, and it never disappoints because the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts.
- The story of Joseph is a type and shadow of Jesus Christ, and the Church today, represented by Benjamin, is blessed with even greater provision than Israel under the old covenant.
- When Jacob saw the carts Joseph sent, his spirit was revived after twenty-two years of hopelessness, illustrating that the Holy Spirit can revive any life no matter how long it has been depleted.
- Faith hears the promise of God, hope desires the promise of God, but love takes hold of the promise of God and possesses it.
- Denying or resisting the Holy Spirit’s moving cuts off the very intimacy with God that casts out fear and fuels every dimension of the believer’s life.
- God’s plan is not merely to get His Church through coming difficulty but to bless and provide for His people abundantly in the middle of it, just as Joseph sustained the known world through famine.
Gods Love Experience Notes
Creation Designed for Divine Intimacy
Dr. Hohman opens by contrasting how God created everything else through a spoken word, let there be, but when it came to man He said let us make. God then personally formed man from the dust, knelt down, and breathed life directly into his nostrils. The first thing both Adam and Eve ever saw was the face of their Creator. This was not incidental. It established the foundational pattern of human existence: we are built for face-to-face, intimate, ongoing communion with God. Religion, as Dr. Hohman strongly argues, substitutes information about God for encounter with God, and that substitution is spiritually deadly.
Biblical Hope Is Not Passive Wishing
Working through Romans 5:1-8, Dr. Hohman unpacks the Greek word elpis, translated hope, explaining it means a creative imagination of better, a confident expectation of good regardless of present circumstances. He connects this to the helmet of salvation in Ephesians, which Paul elsewhere calls the helmet of hope in Thessalonians. Those with a genuine personal relationship with God carry this expectancy as a constant posture. Suffering in the believer’s life is not meaningless; it is a pathway that produces perseverance, then character, then this vibrant, creative hope that refuses to be extinguished.
Joseph and Jacob as Living Types
The story of Joseph in Genesis 37 and 45 is presented as a type and shadow of Christ and the Church. Joseph, betrayed by his brothers and sold for twenty pieces of silver, mirrors the betrayal and sale of Jesus. His years in prison before rising to rule all of Egypt at age thirty parallel Jesus entering His ministry. Jacob represents a believer depleted of hope after twenty-two years. Benjamin, born after Joseph just as the Church was born after Christ’s resurrection, receives a five-fold greater portion than his brothers, symbolizing the superior blessing available to the New Testament Church.
The Carts That Revived a Broken Spirit
The turning point of the sermon is Genesis 45:26-27. Jacob could not be convinced by words alone. He heard the report again and again and remained unmoved. But when he saw the provision-laden carts Joseph had sent, his spirit was instantly revived. Dr. Hohman draws a direct and urgent parallel: the carts represent the Holy Spirit coming to pour God’s love into a heart that has been emptied by disappointment, grief, and loss of hope. This is not a metaphor. It is a present-tense reality available to every listener willing to stop resisting and allow the Spirit to move freely.
Responding to the Holy Spirit’s Movement
Dr. Hohman closes with a pressing exhortation: love, unlike faith and hope, requires a reciprocal response. Jesus declared that unless we confess Him publicly before men, He cannot confess us before the Father. Jacob’s revival only became Israel’s declaration once he responded to what he saw and experienced. The same principle applies today. When the Holy Spirit moves, whether in a gathering or in private time with God each morning, believers must actively respond, open their hearts, and allow the love of God to take hold of the promises they have only heard or desired up to that point.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to have a hands-on experience of God’s love?
A hands-on experience of God’s love means moving beyond intellectual knowledge of Scripture into a personal, intimate encounter with God Himself. Romans 5:5 describes this as the love of God being poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Just as marriage requires more than spoken words to be consummated, our relationship with God requires a real, experiential encounter that changes who we are.
What is the biblical meaning of hope in Romans 5?
The Greek word for hope in Romans 5 is elpis, which means a confident expectation of good and a creative imagination of better things to come. It is not wishful thinking but a forward-looking posture rooted in God’s character. Romans 5:5 assures us this hope does not disappoint precisely because the Holy Spirit continuously pours God’s love into our hearts to sustain it.
How is Joseph a type and shadow of Jesus Christ?
Joseph mirrors Jesus in several ways: he was beloved by his father, rejected and betrayed by his brothers, sold for a price of silver, and spent time in a pit before rising to a position of supreme authority at age thirty. Just as Joseph preserved the known world through famine, Jesus came to save humanity through His death and resurrection. The parallel is intentional in Scripture, using Old Testament narrative to foreshadow New Testament redemption.
Why did Jacob’s spirit revive when he saw the carts from Egypt?
According to Genesis 45:27, Jacob’s spirit revived when he saw the carts Joseph had sent because the physical provision gave tangible evidence of what he had only heard. After twenty-two years of grief and depleted hope, the experiential proof broke through where words alone had not. Dr. Hohman teaches this as a picture of the Holy Spirit coming to revive a heart that has been emptied of hope, restoring what years of disappointment had taken away.
What is the difference between faith, hope, and love in 1 Corinthians 13?
Drawing from 1 Corinthians 13:13 and Galatians 5:6, Dr. Hohman explains that faith hears the promise of God, hope desires the promise of God, but love takes hold of the promise of God and possesses it. Love is the greatest because it completes the action. Faith without the activating power of love remains inoperative, which is why the intimate experience of God’s love is not optional but foundational to the entire Christian life.
What does the coat of many colors represent spiritually?
Ancient rabbis and some theologians suggest the coat of many colors given to Joseph may have been the same garment God made for Adam, passed down through generations and eventually worn by Jesus, over which soldiers cast lots at the crucifixion. While not established doctrine, this tradition underscores Joseph as a type of Christ, both as beloved sons of their fathers and as bearers of a unique covering that distinguished them and made them targets of jealousy.
How should believers respond when the Holy Spirit moves?
Dr. Hohman teaches that love requires a reciprocal response, and the same is true when the Holy Spirit draws near. Believers must not suppress, deny, or intellectualize what they sense the Spirit doing, whether in corporate worship or in private prayer. Just as Israel declared his conviction after experiencing the carts, and just as Jesus taught that public confession before men is required for divine acknowledgment before the Father, believers are called to actively and openly respond to the Spirit’s invitation.
What is the significance of Benjamin receiving more than his brothers in Genesis 45?
Benjamin, born after Joseph just as the Church was born after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, received three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothing compared to one set given to each brother. Dr. Hohman interprets this as a picture of the New Testament Church receiving a greater blessing and provision than Old Testament Israel. In the coming times of global famine and difficulty, God’s promise to the Church is not mere survival but abundant, Spirit-led provision that surpasses what the world around them can access.
