Tracing the Amazing Wonders of the Personhood of God, Pt. 7
Study Guide, February 8, 2026
Pastor Clay Olsen
So, do you like surprises? We do get some strange surprises at times. But here is something you would never hear God saying…and that is: “Well, I didn’t see that coming!” No, of course not. God sees everything even before it comes. God is omniscient…He knows all things and therefore nothing surprises Him. In fact, as we mentioned previously, God even knows everything about you and me, and yet, He loves us just the same…He loves us still!
We’ve been exploring and tracing the amazing wonders of the Personhood of God in our studies. And we have really been amazed at how even though nothing surprises our God about us, still, He loves us deeply and completely and even loves us emotionally. And even though many overlook or discount the emotional aspects of God, they do so at their own loss, for both the implications and the applications of the reality of the Personhood of God are life changing for us in our daily walk and fellowship with our God.
For example: It’s when we begin and then continue relating to our God through His Personhood that it redefines our relationship with our God. It’s no longer just a religious or ritualistic response for us, but now our connection with God is a very personal and intimate relationship. Our ‘Born-Again’ child position becomes a deeply connected communion between us as God’s own son or daughter and He as our own Heavenly Father…or our ‘Abba Father.’
We pointed out that even the Doctrines of the Bible have corresponding emotions related with them, like with this next doctrine: The Doctrine of God’s Sovereignty and Providence. And even though our God is sovereign and rules over all creation, still, there is this sense of freedom and choice in our day-to-day experience with God. It’s like David’s prayer in Ps. 19:14 – “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” NLT
David knew that God was sovereign and that He worked all things according to His plan and will. And yet, he also knew that he had the ability to choose words and thoughts and deeds that would indeed bring pleasure to the heart of his Lord and God. And so do we! How inspiring and motivating to realize that we can please the heart of our God in a deeply emotional way by the words we say, and by the thoughts and deeds we do from day to day! This reality even enriches our ‘acceptance’ with God to an ‘affectionate acceptance’ with God. Our Abba Father thinks of us with both acceptance and with great affection!
Which then helps us better understand something else the Psalmist revealed about our God that…and could we say…blew his mind…and blows our mind as well. But before we reveal that, let’s inject something else here. And that is this: Even though our God is Omnipotent…All Powerful, still there are some things God cannot do. Oh yeah, like our God cannot lie. And that’s one of the greatest reasons for our assurance of our salvation, in that Jesus promised that whoever opened the door of their life to Him to save them…He would indeed come in and be their Lord and Savior. For God cannot lie!
And now here is something else that amazed the Psalmist, for he tells us that our God and Savior cannot stop thinking about us. What? And…Really? Take a look: Ps. 139:17,18 – “How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, You are still with me.” Now, these are not David’s thoughts about God. No, these are God’s thoughts about David…and about you and about me. God is constantly thinking about us! How can He do that? Omniscient…and Omnipotent…remember? But again, only an intimate personal God and Heavenly Father would do this…and God does do this! He is always thinking about us!
And what, pray tell, does He think about in His thinking about us? (By the way, ‘Pray tell’ is old 16th century English…it does have a nice ring to it… ‘Pray tell’) Anyway, here’s one thing God thinks about in relation to us. Jer. 29:11 – “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” NASB Of course, and by way of context, God’s plans for Israel were to bring them back to their covenant lands. But also, by way of application, God also has personal plans for you. And the Psalmist revealed that God is always thinking about the plans He has for you…the plans for you in this time of preparing for His Kingdom and the plans He has for you throughout His Kingdom. Just think: God has Kingdom plans for His Kingdom kids that includes these present days of us getting ready for His coming Kingdom by our seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness day by day. Now then, in order to be sure that we receive the privileges of living out those plans…the plans God has for us in His Kingdom that is coming, you and I need to be living out God’s plans for us in our lives now, living out God’s will for us in this present world!
Which should also caution us to be careful about another emotion that the children of God can emote in their Heavenly Father. For in their faithfulness His children can not only please the Spirit of their God, but in their unfaithfulness, they can also grieve the Spirit of their God. In the Book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul gives believers reasons for being careful about their character and their conduct, and he then summarizes it all with a very striking and sobering reason…even a surprising reason to some people. Notice: Eph. 4:29,30 – “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
What? ‘Grieve the Holy Spirit of God?’ It’s important to note that the Greek word for ‘grieve’ here is ‘Lupeo.’ Paul chose this particular word because it denotes that which causes deep emotional pain, distress, sorrow, or sadness. It signifies bringing someone into a state of heaviness, hurting them emotionally, or offending them, often depicting a wounded or betrayed spirit. Paul could have chosen to use another word, ‘Pantheo’, which refers more to the outward expression of sorrow. But he chose ‘Lupeo’, which focuses on the emotional pain and distress caused or felt in relationships. This is a very real description of real feelings in a deeply experiential setting.
And as the Psalmist was recounting God’s faithfulness to the Israelites in the midst of their unfaithfulness to God, he pulls back the curtain on the Personhood of God and says this:
Ps 78:41- “Again and again they tempted God, and pained the Holy One of Israel.” Again, like with the Apostle, the Psalmist chose the Hebrew word for ‘pained’ which points to an actual emotional response. And that response was one of an emotional wound and a deeply felt distress.
When we begin to better understand just how deeply our God feels about our treatment of Him…of how our beliefs and behavior actually do emotionally affect our God in our day to day relationship with God in our faithfulness, or in our day to day relationship of unfaithfulness, it can drastically alter our entire experience of how we think and what we do and what we say…all in relation to this knowledge that it will either bring pleasure and joy to the experience of our God, or it will bring emotional pain and distress to our God. Again, where do you think we got our emotions from in the first place?!
One of the most powerful motives for faithfully worshipping and serving our God is this knowledge of this emotional response of it bringing pleasure and joy to our God who is more emotionally invested in us than we can even imagine! And alternately…one of the most powerful motives against unfaithfulness to the desires and instructions and plans our God has for us is this knowledge of the emotional sadness, sorrow, and even pain that it causes for our loving Heavenly Father. Even the fact that this Sovereign God of ours allows Himself to be affected by the faithfulness or the unfaithfulness of His children is astounding. But as both the Psalmist and the Apostle reveal: That is exactly the case. And this emotional response of our God about us should influence everything we do and everything we say day after day. Think about the choice we have every day: “I can either bring emotional pleasure or emotional pain to my emotional God today”. Choose wisely my friend!
And then, in connection with our observation of Communion today, the emotional connections with the Doctrine of Soteriology are really off the charts! The Doctrine of Soteriology speaks of the teachings of our Salvation. And in our salvation the emotions are boundless in joy, relief, peace, assurance, love, and more. And they are such for our emotional Savior as well! Remember what Luke says about how Angels react over the salvation of one who repents? Luke says there is joy in Heaven whenever a sinner repents…which includes God’s own joy.
Think about our salvation from God’s perspective a moment. We often use the term ‘Lost’ in relation to salvation, and that, foremost, as a description of the lost soul. Mark 8:36-37 tells us: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (This refers to the value of the soul and the consequence of choosing the world over God). In Luke 19:10 Jesus said: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (This directly expresses Jesus’ purpose to rescue lost individuals). And in Matt. 10:6 Jesus instructs His disciples to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So the concept of being ‘lost’ is mostly and rightly thought of in terms of a person’s soul be separated from the Creator and God because of the damage and the penalty of sin in their life. But the effect of being ‘lost’ not only impacts the individual’s state and condition of their soul…no it also impacts the personal emotions of their God. For the sinner is not only lost before their God, he or she is also lost to their God. They are lost ‘unto’ God.
You hear the sorrow on God’s part as He speaks in Ezek. 33:11 – “As I live… I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will you die…” And you hear not only the volitional preference of God, but also the emotional desire of God toward the ones who are lost from Him in verses like 2 Pet. 3:9 – “The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
So many from those God created and wanted to be part of His forever family have chosen sin instead of Him. Like sheep, they chose to go their own way instead of going their Shepherds way, and in so doing they sinned against their God and became lost in their sin and separated from God in their spirit. And unless they repent, unless they turn from their own way and return to their Shepherd, their God, their only Savior…they remain separated from God in their sin and lost from the relationship that God wanted, but they rejected or neglected it. And therefore, what they have lost in having an eternal loving relationship with God, God has also lost in having an eternal loving relationship with them.
But the other part in Soteriology in relation to the ‘Lost’ is in relation to the redemptive part, or in relation to the ‘Cost.’ For what God ‘lost’ to mankind’s choice of sin, God was willing to pay the ‘Cost’ so that some would be able to choose again…to become ‘Born-again’ by choosing Him. Realize this: It is not purely a ‘love of volition’ that the Apostle John is speaking about in John 3:16…it is heavily weighted to the ‘love of emotion’ that John is declaring to us. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” It is because God so loved that He chose to ‘give His only begotten Son.’ The redemptive price to pay in order for justice to be propitiated…or completely satisfied was ‘a life for a life.’ But in order to pay for the sins of every life it would take both a perfect life…a sinless life, and also an infinite and omnipotent life…an eternal and all powerful life in order to redeem every life…or every repentant life. And there was only One life that could pay that price! 1 Pet. 3:17-19 – “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” NASB
Never forget that the only reason Salvation is free to us is because it cost Jesus everything! It cost Jesus His sacrificed life! You have eternal life because Jesus paid an infinite price to purchase your salvation with His own sinless blood. As a saved child of God you are now ‘found.’ You were once ‘lost’, but Jesus was willing to pay the ‘cost.’ And the reason Jesus was so willing to pay the cost was because He so loved you that He gave His very own life in order to give you His eternal life. And that is the epitome of what love is…volitionally, mentally, but especially – emotionally. The Cross is the ultimate answer to the question of how deeply God feels about you and me.