Hands On Experience Of Gods Love (Part 5) ~ Dr William P. Hohman
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Discover why God’s love is not distant theology but a hands-on, intimate reality that rejoices over you with uncontainable joy and transforms every area of life.
Description
Gods Love Hands-On Overview
In this fifth installment of his ongoing series, Dr. William P. Hohman of NTC Ministries opens with a personal testimony of obedience, sharing how a high school dropout surrendered fully to Christ and walked through 21 years of education simply because God said to. The heart of this message centers on what Dr. Hohman calls the hands-on experience of God’s love — the truth that unlike all other creation spoken into existence by a word, humanity was personally handcrafted by God, shaped from dust and breathed into life. Drawing from Genesis, Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 5, Zephaniah 3, and Jeremiah 31, Dr. Hohman builds a compelling case that God’s love is not distant or transactional but intimate, creative, and relentless. He explores how corruption entered creation through Adam’s fall, yet God immediately responded with another gift — His Son. Believers are shown that they are not merely recipients of salvation but gifts to the Father Himself. Through vivid personal illustrations, including a ruined church carpet and a couple on the brink of divorce who were miraculously restored, Dr. Hohman urges every listener to stop resisting the Holy Spirit’s nudging and begin yielding to a God who rejoices over them with uncontainable, spinning-around joy.
Gods Love Hands-On Outline
- 0:00 – Personal Testimony and Series Introduction: Dr. Hohman shares his background as a high school dropout who committed fully to Christ, eventually completing 21 years of higher education. He introduces this as Part 5 of the Hands-On Experience of God’s Love series, rooted in the church at Ephesus losing its first love in Revelation 2.
- 8:30 – God’s Hands-On Creation of Humanity: Unlike every other part of creation spoken into existence, God personally formed man from dust and breathed life into him. This intimate, handcrafted distinction sets the foundation for understanding God’s relational nature toward humanity.
- 18:00 – The Fall, the Gift, and God’s Response: Adam gave dominion over creation to corruption and to the enemy. Rather than abandoning humanity, God responded with another gift — His only begotten Son — demonstrating that the entire kingdom operates on the principle of giving.
- 28:00 – Righteousness as a Gift, Not an Achievement: Dr. Hohman unpacks Romans 5:17 and Isaiah 64, showing that all human righteousness is filthy rags. On the cross, Jesus took our corruption and gifted us His righteousness. Receiving this gift requires a revelation of God’s love.
- 38:00 – Seeing Yourself as God Sees You: Using the beauty of corrupted nature as an analogy, Dr. Hohman challenges listeners to see themselves the way God does — fearfully and wonderfully made, declared in Psalm 139:14. He addresses the damage of a worm-theology mindset and Paul’s revelation that weakness is an invitation for God’s strength.
- 47:00 – God Rejoices Over You with Uncontainable Joy: A deep study of Zephaniah 3:17 reveals two Hebrew words for joy — simca and ghoul — meaning blissful gladness and uncontrollable spinning-around delight. God the Father is not merely pleased with believers; He is ecstatic about them.
- 55:00 – Responding to the Holy Spirit Releases Miracles: Dr. Hohman argues that every miracle in Scripture required someone responding to God’s leading. He shares the story of walking forward at a convention without knowing what was said, which resulted in the restoration of a couple on the verge of divorce and widespread healing.
- 1:02:00 – The Holy Spirit as Intimate Comforter and Guide: Drawing from John 14:16-17 and 2 Corinthians 3:17, Dr. Hohman presents the Holy Spirit not as an abstract force but as a personal comforter, counselor, strengthener, and standby who lives within believers continuously to guide them into God’s hands-on love.
Scripture References
Revelation 2, Genesis 1, Genesis 2:7, Romans 8:19-21, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 5:17, Isaiah 64, Psalm 139:14, Jeremiah 31:3-4, Lamentations 1, Matthew 6:26, Zephaniah 3:17, Romans 5:5, Romans 5:8, 1 Corinthians 15:53, Galatians 5:6, 1 Corinthians 12:7, John 14:16-17, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Romans 8:14, Mark 16:9-11, Ephesians 1
Key Takeaways
- God did not merely speak humanity into existence like the rest of creation — He personally handcrafted each person from dust, breathed life into them, and that intimate, hands-on love defines His relationship with us to this day.
- Righteousness is not something believers earn through effort or religious performance; it is a gift given by God through Jesus Christ, who took our corruption on the cross and replaced it with His own righteousness.
- God the Father actually receives an inheritance through Jesus Christ — and that inheritance is His children; believers are not just recipients of God’s gifts but are themselves a gift to the Father.
- According to Zephaniah 3:17, God does not simply approve of His people — He rejoices over them with the kind of uncontainable, spinning-around, blissful joy that cannot be suppressed or hidden.
- Every miracle recorded in Scripture involved someone responding to God’s leading; refusing the nudges of the Holy Spirit keeps believers distant from the hands-on work God wants to do in and through their lives.
- The Holy Spirit is not an abstract force but a personal comforter, counselor, and standby — the very presence of Christ made intimate to every believer, guiding them continuously into the fullness of God’s love.
- Believers cannot genuinely love God or others by sheer willpower; love is only released in a life that has first humbled itself to receive and accept God’s love for them, as stated in 1 John 4:19.
Gods Love Hands-On Notes
Creation Reveals God’s Intimate Nature
Dr. Hohman establishes early in the message that the way God created humanity is the lens through which all relationship with Him must be understood. While light, plants, animals, and the cosmos were called into being by God’s spoken word, man alone was shaped by His hands and animated by His breath. This was not incidental — it was the original declaration that God is a hands-on God. Even after Adam surrendered dominion to corruption, God did not respond with a word. He responded with a Person, His Son, maintaining the same intimate, hands-on pattern from Genesis through Calvary.
Receiving Righteousness Changes Everything
One of the sermon’s most theologically rich sections addresses the gift of righteousness from Romans 5:17. Dr. Hohman uses the scientific principle of entropy — you cannot make something clean without making something else dirty — to explain Isaiah 64’s declaration that all human righteousness is as filthy rags. Jesus on the cross absorbed our corruption and gifted us His righteousness. The critical implication is practical: when believers do not have a revelation of God’s love, they cannot bring themselves to believe they could actually receive such a gift. The entire Christian life flows from accepting what God has already freely given.
The Hebrew Joy of Zephaniah 3:17
Dr. Hohman gives careful attention to two distinct Hebrew words in Zephaniah 3:17 that are both translated into English as joy or rejoicing. The first, simca, describes blissful, glee-filled, overflowing happiness. The second, ghoul, carries the image of spinning around uncontrollably under the influence of a violent, positive emotion. God uses both words in a single verse about how He feels toward His people. Dr. Hohman illustrates this with the image of someone discovering they won over a billion dollars — that explosive, uncontainable reaction is the closest human equivalent to how God the Father responds over each believer.
Obedience Unlocks God’s Hands-On Work
Through two extended personal illustrations — walking forward at a convention without knowing the call that was made, and spilling red food coloring across a newly built church’s carpet — Dr. Hohman demonstrates that God’s miraculous intervention consistently follows imperfect but willing obedience. In the convention story, every person present came forward for an altar call, and a couple signing divorce papers the next morning was completely restored. The lesson is not that believers must perform perfectly but that they must respond. Every miracle in Scripture was preceded by someone doing what God nudged them to do, however awkward or uncertain it felt in the moment.
The Holy Spirit as Personal Companion
In the closing movement of the message, Dr. Hohman draws on John 14:16-17 in the Amplified Bible to present the Holy Spirit with striking relational warmth. He is the comforter, counselor, helper, intercessor, advocate, strengthener, and standby — terms that describe not a theological abstraction but a present, personal companion as real as a spouse, child, or closest friend. Using the analogy of Joseph sending the royal cart to his father Jacob, Dr. Hohman shows that the Holy Spirit carries the evidence of everything Jesus accomplished, and when believers recognize and receive Him, their hearts, like Jacob’s, are revived from the deepest grief.
Humility the Door to Experiencing Love
Dr. Hohman closes with a call that is as countercultural inside the church as outside it: humble yourself to receive God’s love. He points out that God, the glorious Creator of all that exists, knelt in the dirt and breathed into dust with the humility of a servant. Now He asks each believer to humble themselves in return — not to rules, not to religion, but to love. Giving God the first part of each morning, asking Him to speak His love again, and saying yes to the Holy Spirit’s smallest nudges are the practical disciplines that open the door to the joy, peace, strength, and daily renewal that flow from an experiential, hands-on relationship with God.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean that God has a hands-on experience with humanity?
Unlike the rest of creation, which God called into existence through spoken words, humanity was personally formed by God’s hands from dust and brought to life by His own breath according to Genesis 2:7. This act of intimate, physical involvement reveals that God’s nature toward people is not distant or mechanical but relational, personal, and deeply engaged. That same hands-on posture continued in the incarnation, when the Word became flesh to personally redeem what Adam had lost.
What is the gift of righteousness mentioned in Romans 5:17?
Romans 5:17 teaches that those who receive the abundance of God’s grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life as kings. This righteousness is not earned through religious performance but is freely given through Jesus Christ, who took humanity’s corrupt, filthy-rags righteousness on the cross and exchanged it for His own perfect righteousness. Receiving this gift requires believing that God’s love is real and that He genuinely desires to give it.
How does God rejoice over believers according to Zephaniah 3:17?
Zephaniah 3:17 uses two distinct Hebrew words to describe God’s joy over His people. The first, simca, conveys blissful, overflowing happiness and glee. The second, ghoul, describes spinning around uncontrollably under the power of a violent, positive emotion — the kind of joy that simply cannot be contained. God is not merely satisfied with His children; the verse pictures Him celebrating over them with the intensity of a festival.
Why can believers only love God after first receiving His love?
First John 4:19 states plainly that we love God because He first loved us. This means love for God is not something a person can manufacture through willpower or religious discipline. It is a response that becomes possible only when a person opens their life to receive the love God has already extended through Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit who sheds that love abroad in the heart according to Romans 5:5.
What role does the Holy Spirit play in a believer’s daily life?
According to John 14:16-17 in the Amplified Bible, the Holy Spirit serves as comforter, counselor, helper, intercessor, advocate, strengthener, and standby — a permanent, personal presence who lives within every believer. Second Corinthians 3:17 identifies the Holy Spirit as Lord within the life of the believer, the one who leads, guides, encourages, and makes the hands-on love of God a daily experiential reality rather than a theological concept.
What happens when a believer responds to the Holy Spirit’s nudging?
Every miracle recorded in Scripture involved a person responding to God’s leading, however uncertain or imperfect that response was. Dr. Hohman illustrates from his own ministry that simple, obedient steps — walking forward at a call, praying for a stranger, speaking an encouraging word at work — open the door for God to do far more than a person could ask or imagine. Refusing the Holy Spirit’s prompts keeps a believer distant from the experiential dimension of God’s love and power.
Does God see believers differently because of their failures and weaknesses?
God’s view of His people is not altered by their mistakes or shortcomings. The Apostle Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 12 that he gloried in his weaknesses because they became the very place where Christ’s strength was made available. Dr. Hohman emphasizes that the only thing that genuinely separates a believer from experiencing God’s love is the way they see themselves, not the way God sees them, since God handcrafted each person and rejoices over them with uncontainable joy as Zephaniah 3:17 declares.
How are believers described as a gift to God the Father?
Ephesians 1 contains Paul’s prayer that believers would understand not only the inheritance they receive through Christ but also how richly they themselves enrich the Father. When Jesus died and rose, God the Father received an inheritance — His children. Just as a testament passes inheritance to family, believers are welcomed as family, which means the relationship is not one-sided. Believers receive eternal life, righteousness, and dominion, while the Father receives the sons and daughters He created humanity to become.
