SEEING GOD AS HE IS part 6 (Connection # 2)
$1.00
Discover what it means to connect with God beyond religion through revelation, intimacy, and the transforming power of His love in this powerful sermon.
Description
Seeing God Connection Overview
In this sixth installment of the series Seeing God As He Is, the pastor continues to unpack what it truly means to know God beyond religious duty or surface-level petitioning. This message focuses on the second connection point between believers and their heavenly Father, drawing a powerful distinction between head knowledge and heart knowledge. Using rich biblical passages from John 3:16-17, John 14:21-24, 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, Ephesians 1:3-6, 2 Peter 1:1-4, Romans 5:17, and Psalms 63:8 and 118:14-17, the sermon explores how God longs for an intimate, reciprocal relationship with each believer, not merely a transactional one. The pastor illustrates this truth with a personal story of searching an entire year for the perfect cardigan for his wife, showing how genuine love thinks constantly about the other person. He further develops the metaphors of a divine kiss, representing revelation breathed into the heart, and a divine hug, representing the strength and embrace of God’s presence that keeps believers grounded in faith. Transformation, the message insists, does not come by human effort but by fellowship with God, clinging to Him, and allowing His love to reform and renew the believer from the inside out.
Seeing God Connection Outline
- 0:00 – Introduction and Series Recap: The pastor opens by reviewing the ongoing series on seeing God as He truly is, addressing how misunderstood words and corrupted doctrine keep believers from drawing close to God.
- 6:30 – God Is Not an Angry God: The message addresses the false image of a punishing, wrathful God, clarifying that all wrath was poured out on Jesus and the church is not appointed unto wrath.
- 14:00 – Harmonizing With God: Using the metaphor of piano harmonics, the pastor explains that true connection with God produces beauty and peace, while religious dissonance drives people away.
- 22:00 – Receiving and Returning Love: Drawing from John 3:16 and John 21:20, the pastor distinguishes between God’s universal love for the world and the reciprocal love exchanged when a believer truly receives and responds to that love.
- 31:00 – Head Knowledge Versus Heart Knowledge: An extended teaching from 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 contrasts pride-inflating head knowledge with humbling revelation knowledge that builds and transforms the believer.
- 40:00 – The Divine Kiss and the Tree of Life: The pastor explores the Hebrew concept of face-to-face or mouth-to-mouth communion with God, as seen with Moses, connecting it to the breath of life God breathed into Adam.
- 49:00 – Ruling and Reigning Through Humility: Using Philippians 2 and Colossians, the message teaches that dominion in Christ comes through humility and intimate relationship, not self-effort or striving.
- 56:00 – The Divine Hug and Holding Fast: Drawing from Psalm 63:8, Genesis 2:24, and Psalm 118:14-17, the pastor presents the right hand of God as a sustaining hug that gives strength to stand firm in faith and revelation.
- 1:03:00 – Helen Lamel and Living With God: The sermon closes with the story of hymn writer Helen Lamel, who in blindness and abandonment turned wholly to Jesus, illustrating that true Christianity is living with God as Father every single day.
Scripture References
John 3:16-17, John 14:21-24, John 17, John 21:20, 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, Ephesians 1:3-6, 2 Peter 1:1-4, Romans 5:17, Colossians 1:21-23, Psalm 63:8, Psalm 118:14-17, Psalm 17:7, Genesis 2:24, Hebrews 11:6
Key Takeaways
- God is not an angry God; all His wrath was poured out on Jesus, and the church is not appointed unto wrath.
- True faith is not a mechanism to get things from God but a response of trust rooted in knowing His character and ways.
- Head knowledge puffs up with pride, but heart revelation knowledge produces humility and genuine transformation.
- God desires a reciprocal, intimate relationship with every believer, not a transactional arrangement where He is only called upon in times of need.
- The revelation God breathes into your heart is like a divine kiss, while His sustaining presence that keeps you standing is like a divine hug.
- You are already holy, blameless, and above reproach in God’s sight through Jesus Christ, and seeing yourself through His eyes is essential to walking in that reality.
- Transformation does not come through human effort or self-change but through yielding to fellowship with God and allowing His Spirit to reform you from within.
Seeing God Connection Notes
The Core Teaching of This Message
At the heart of this sermon is a call to move beyond a transactional relationship with God into genuine intimacy. The pastor challenges the common pattern of only seeking God when a physical need arises, describing it as a form of idol worship. Instead, he draws from John 17 and the prayer of Jesus that believers would be one with the Father and the Son, arguing that this union is available and must be actively embraced. The goal is not merely to receive from God but to know Him so deeply that His purposes, character, and love become embedded in the believer’s heart.
Head Knowledge Versus Revelation Knowledge
One of the sermon’s most developed contrasts is between intellectual knowledge of God and genuine revelation received through fellowship. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, the pastor notes that head knowledge inflates pride while revelation knowledge produces humility. He connects this to the Garden of Eden, where the tree of knowledge of good and evil represents rationalization and self-reliance, while the tree of life represents ongoing communion with God. True spiritual growth, he argues, comes not from accumulating biblical facts but from allowing God to breathe His truth directly into the heart.
The Cardigan Story and Selfless Love
To illustrate what a life oriented toward God’s desires actually looks like, the pastor shares a personal story about spending an entire year searching for a specific embroidered cardigan his wife had admired. He visited stores across the region while traveling, unable to find the exact item, until days before Christmas when a donation box providentially contained the very sweater. His point is memorable: the year of searching and thinking about what would bless his wife did more for him than the gift did for her. This is the posture God invites every believer into, a constant, attentive love that thinks of the other.
The Divine Kiss and the Divine Hug
The pastor introduces two vivid images drawn from Hebrew Scripture to describe how God communicates with and sustains His people. The divine kiss refers to face-to-face or mouth-to-mouth communion, the Hebrew panim el panim used to describe how God spoke with Moses, and the breath of life breathed into Adam. This kiss represents revelation entering the heart. The divine hug is drawn from Psalm 63:8 and the Hebrew word for the right hand, yammen, which pictures being cradled alongside someone in strength and safety. Just as a hug can transfer strength to a person overwhelmed by weakness, God’s embracing presence empowers believers to stand firm.
Sit Walk Stand and Holding Fast
Toward the close of the sermon, the pastor introduces a three-stage framework for spiritual maturity drawn from the epistles: sit, walk, and stand. The sitting posture represents resting in the good news, hearing again and again what God has done and who He says you are. Walking is putting that revelation into daily life. Standing is the ability to hold fast when everything around you tries to dislodge what God has given you. The key to standing, he teaches, is not human determination but clinging to God as Psalm 63:8 describes, allowing His right hand, His strength, to uphold you through every trial.
You Are Holy and Without Blame
The sermon draws powerfully from Ephesians 1:3-6 and Colossians 1:21-23 to declare that every believer is already seen by God as holy, blameless, and above reproach. The pastor is direct: it does not matter how flawed or broken a person feels, because in Christ that identity is established. The challenge is not to earn this standing but to see yourself the way God sees you and to allow that vision to become the lens through which you live. When believers accept this truth, God’s transforming power is released not through self-improvement but through the intimate embrace of His love.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to see God as He really is?
Seeing God as He really is means understanding Him through Scripture and intimate fellowship rather than through fear, religious tradition, or cultural distortion. It means recognizing that He is good, loving, merciful, and forgiving without variableness, as described in James 1:17. This revelation transforms how believers relate to Him and to themselves.
What is the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge of God?
Head knowledge is intellectual understanding of Scripture that, as 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 warns, puffs up with pride without producing transformation. Heart knowledge, or revelation knowledge, is truth breathed into the believer by the Holy Spirit through intimate fellowship with God. This deeper knowing produces humility, genuine change, and the ability to trust God in all circumstances.
What does Hebrews 11:6 mean when it says God rewards those who seek Him?
Hebrews 11:6 teaches that faith is not primarily a mechanism to obtain things but a posture of trust toward a God who is good and who responds to those who earnestly pursue Him. The reward is not simply material blessing but God Himself, His presence, revelation, and transforming power made available to those who diligently seek relationship with Him.
How does God transform believers according to this teaching?
According to this message, God transforms believers not through their own efforts at self-improvement but through intimate fellowship with Him. As believers receive His love, spend time in His presence, and allow His Word to become revelation in their hearts, He reforms them from within. This is drawn from 2 Peter 1:3-4, which states that His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through knowing Him.
What is the biblical meaning of the right hand of God in Psalm 118?
In Psalm 118:14-17, the right hand of the Lord is described as doing valiantly and being exalted. The Hebrew word for right side carries the meaning of strength and support. The pastor connects this to the image of God cradling the believer alongside Himself in a sustaining embrace, providing the strength needed to declare life in the face of death and to continue standing in faith.
What does it mean that God spoke to Moses face to face?
The Hebrew phrase translated face to face in descriptions of Moses communicating with God can also mean mouth to mouth, conveying the idea of intimate, direct, personal communion. It is the same image as God breathing life into Adam, suggesting that God’s goal has always been a nearness and intimacy that goes far beyond hearing about Him from a distance or relating to Him only through formal religious observance.
How can believers hold fast to revelation so it does not slip away?
The pastor draws from Psalm 63:8 and Genesis 2:24 to describe clinging to God the way a spouse cleaves to their partner, with intentional closeness and dependence. He teaches that believers must build a landing strip for revelation by clearing away offense, pride, and false thinking, and by consistently returning to praise, prayer, and the presence of God where His strength becomes theirs and revelation is reinforced and deepened.
What does Romans 5:17 teach about reigning in life?
Romans 5:17 declares that those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign as kings through Jesus Christ. The pastor uses this verse to show that God’s original plan for humanity to have dominion, spoken in Genesis 1, was never cancelled. Through the last Adam, Jesus Christ, that plan is restored, and every believer who receives His grace is positioned to reign in life rather than be dominated by sin, death, or circumstances.
