Tracing the Amazing Wonders of the Personhood of God, Pt. 4
Study Guide, November 9, 2025
Pastor Clay Olsen
This might sound familiar: “You’re travelling through another dimension, a dimension beyond that which is known to man. It’s a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It’s a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop, the Twilight Zone!”
That was quite an imaginative TV Series, with a lot of twists and turns and unusual outcomes, for sure. But one thing is that it pointed to another dimension or dimensions beyond the normal or the usual. And what is fascinating about that is that the Scriptures themselves call for us, too, to both experience and to embrace this other dimension of time and space. And it’s not the Twilight Zone…but it is the ‘True-light Zone.’ It’s living in the light of what is true. It’s living in the light of truth…what is true about this world, and true about the new world in the making, and true about you and me, and, especially, what is true about our God.
This is the dimension that we have begun to explore, particularly as it relates to having, not a superficial relationship with God, but an ‘experiential’ relationship with our God and Savior, just the way our God wants our relationship with Him to be. So let’s continue our adventure.
The Puritans actually called their quest and knowledge of God not just ‘Theology’, but ‘Experiential Theology.’ In fact, knowing God to them meant ‘experiencing God.’ Experiencing God was central to their thinking as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in their quest to experience God, it redefined the nature of prayer for them, and their own identity and purpose, and how they then dealt with struggles and sufferings…all by how they were able to relate to God not only on a mental level and volitional level, but also on an emotional level. And by relating to God on this ‘experiential’ level, it changed everything about their lives. And Friends, it will do the same for us.
In our last study we stated a surprising thing to many people about the Doctrines of the Scriptures. And that is, that every doctrine of the Bible has a corresponding emotion or emotions related to it. And why not? For we serve an emotional God. Plus, it is this emotional correspondence that reinforces how the truths of the Bible are to transform and shape the whole person – our mind, our will, and our heart. Our Heavenly Father is not only concerned about what we believe about our God, but also about how we feel about our God in relation to what we believe. So let’s take a walk through some of these remarkable connections between these Theological Doctrines and their corresponding emotions.
Now, we are not going to enumerate all the Scriptures that are related to each of these, but just enough of them to get a really good overall picture of God’s attributes and some emotional components that are connected with them. Here we go…
What about the Doctrine of God? Or, it is also referred to as Theology Proper. Let’s look to Isa.6:1-5 – “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” NASB
Certainly, the ‘Holiness’ of God is central to His very nature. God’s holiness is often depicted by light…glowing light…blazing light, where nothing unclean or impure can even exist in His presence. That’s why we see Isaiah’s emotional response of fear and awe, and a sense of his sinfulness in light of God’s holiness.
I have to resist shaking my head when people talk about the first thing they plan to do when they see God is to ask Him about this, that, or another thing they want answered, and so on. Well, I’m sure that they’ll get to that at some point. But in in the Scriptures we often see that the first thing people did when they saw God was to fall down! Oh yeah…they simply just fell down in stunned amazement and godly fear and awe, like with Joshua and with John in the Book of Revelation! I think the first week or so in Heaven is pretty much spent just starring at the Lord Jesus Christ…with someone helping you close your mouth that’s hanging wide open!
But then at the same time, Isaiah experienced an overwhelming feeling of acceptance, as God assures him that He will indeed cleanse Isaiah from his sin so that he can rest and relax and feel blessed even in the presence of his Awesome and Holy God. Remember God’s words to Isaiah? “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” Isa. 1:18 And our holy and awesome and merciful God says the same to you and to me.
Then there’s the Doctrine of the Trinity. Whoa! Talk about wonder! “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Gen.1:26 From the beginning of Creation God reveals that the identity of our God is a Godhood. The Hebrew name of God here is ‘Elohim’, which is grammatically plural. Yet, here it is also in a singular context, just like in the pronouncement of the Great Shema of Deut. 6:4. ‘Shema’ is the Hebrew word for ‘hear.’ “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” And Jesus gives us the Trinitarian identity of God in the Great Commission… “…baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Elohim also implies the power of God as Creator, or as the all-powerful Creator who knows all, creates all, and is everywhere, at all times. And therefore, as Creator, our God is also the One Source of all that is good and wonderful. Which right away then, emotes the corresponding emotions of wonder and delight and a desire for communion with our Creator, the awesome Three in One – Trinity of the Godhood of God!
By the way…one of the strangest and saddest and most illogical aspects of the sin nature of man is man’s resistance toward God, Who is mankind’s Creator! All logic and common-sense states that the most normal response of a Creature to its Creator is the innate desire of the Creature to commune with its Creator. There actually is a God-implanted-hunger of the soul for the Creator…the Creator of Souls. But the sinful irony of sin is that, as both the Psalmist and the Apostle revealed: “…we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” Rom.3:10-12 Remember, it is the Lord Jesus who comes to us, knocking at our door – not the other way around.
But, again, the point is, as it is aptly described…there is a God shaped hole in our soul that can only be filled with God Himself. Nothing else will fill or satisfy that hunger of the soul. Nothing mentally, nothing materially, nothing that is false spiritually…only the Creator Himself can fill that hunger of the soul for a saved and united relationship with the Creator of the soul.
It’s like we often remind fellow Christians, that you already know something about every unsaved person around you. You already know that they are sensing something in their life, but they don’t yet know what it is. You know that there is a hunger in their soul for their Creator and Redeemer, but they have been trying to fill it with everything other than God. But the thing is, for us…in knowing just that about every person, it takes some of that pressure or reluctance we often have about witnessing. Because it’s like with a hungry person, you don’t have to convince them that they are hungry. They are already hungry…all you need to do is to offer them some bread. We have the Bread of Life, the truth of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. All we have to do is to just pass it out to the hungry souls around us.
Prison Fellowship had a great theme statemen they used in their ministry. When introducing their ministry to a new group of Inmates, they always started by saying: “We are only beggars who have found bread and are now sharing with other beggars where to find bread.” And then they would tell them about the Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And while we are on this subject about what we as followers of Christ already know about others who have not yet become followers of Christ, but do not yet know it about themselves, is something that God has also imprinted upon their conscience. So we know that God has implanted a hunger in their soul for a relationship with their Creator and God…and we know that God has imprinted in their conscience His law which convicts them of their need for His mercy. Notice: “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.” Rom. 2:14,15 NLT
So you already know that God is calling to unbelievers in their soul and convicting unbelievers in their conscience. God is already at work in the soil of their life. That’s why all we have to do now is to ‘Sow some Gospel Seed’ on the soil of their life. Remember, we are just the ‘Sowers’ onto soils…God is the ‘Saver’ of soils… ‘Savior of souls.’ And note carefully; they themselves are responsible for what kind of soil they are going to be…remember…road soil, rocky soil, thorny soil, or good soil. Again, you are not responsible for the kind of soil people are or have become, so you can let go of the weight of that burden. You just need to carry a burden for soils…a burden for souls…and try to sow some truth seeds…some Gospel seeds on the soils around you. The Harvester of soils and souls will take it from there.
Now notice the Doctrine of Revelation. God has made Himself known to us through both His creation around us and His revelation to us. Whenever you pick up your Bible you are picking up and holding in your hands one of the greatest miracles in the Universe. The Bible is a repository of the direct revelations of God to mankind. Throughout the Scriptures this miracle of God’s communication to us is simply referred to as ‘Thy Word.’ In the RSV translation of Ps.138:2 we find this: “I bow down toward thy holy temple and give thanks to Thy name for Thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness; for Thou hast exalted above everything Thy name and Thy word.” And so here is something else we know about this world in which we live and the heavens above us. There are two things that stand above anything else in all creation…in all the universe…and those are: One…God’s name, which means God Himself. And the other is this…God’s Word, the recorded words of God Himself! Why do you think that the greatest attacks of Satan have been against the Name of God and the revelations of God’s Word? Because the Person of Jesus Christ and the revelations of the Scriptures are exalted above all things and Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life…and His words reveal Him as such!
And what does God’s miraculous words do in our lives? “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.” Ps 19:7-11
This one Psalm is like a fountain of emotional waters flowing out of the Revelations of God. It is God’s Word that recharges and restores the strength in our soul. It is God’s Word that illuminates our minds with wisdom. It is God’s Word that stimulates a joyful heart. It is God’s Word that calms you with an understanding spirit. It is God’s Word that fulfills you with spiritual wealth. It is God’s Word that comforts you with a happy soul. And it is God’s Word that assures you of both present and future rewards!
To be sure…God’s Word is not just to be read and heard and learned by His people, but it is also to be tasted and trusted and deeply experienced by His people…mentally, volitionally, and yes – emotionally!
Even in our devotional readings we should add another question to the question of “What did I learn from God in my time in God’s Word?” We should add the question – “And what did I feel from God in my time in God’s Word?” For it’s when you come to better know your God and to better experience your God that you find your life becoming transformed by your God more and more into the very image of your God…which is also the highest goal of every life.