S4 E19: The Wonders of God

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Season 4 of Spirit-Led Hope covers the Doctrine of God, or theology, from a Spirit-led perspective. In this episode, Glenn ends the Season by giving a recap and encouraging everyone to ponder on the majesty and awesomeness of God. Glenn also gives thoughts about Season 5.

This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/ . These transcripts have been edited for accuracy and are typically of higher quality than those produced automatically by many podcast apps.

Season 4 is part of a long term goal to study systematic theology from a Spirit-led perspective. If you want to know more about systematic theology, or expand your study, Glenn is using the following text as a helpful framework to make sure the main topics are covered:  Foundations of Pentecostal Theology, by Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave.  The book is published by Foursquare Media and Glenn is using the Second Edition published in 2016.

Transcript

S4 E19 TRANSCRIPT 

THE WONDERS OF GOD

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are discussing:

     THE WONDERS OF GOD

We are going to close out Season 4 with this episode so I can take some time off for the summer and get a little break. At the end of this episode, I will give you an idea of what you can expect for the next several episodes, and maybe even a preview of Season 5.

One of the difficult things about this episode, is that I realize there are many more things to discuss about the doctrine of God. We have looked at some very important topics when it comes to God, but we have also left out some big ones. For example, in 1 John 4:15,16 we read:

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

1 John 4:15-16 CSB

Just with those verses alone we see that God is love, and we have not focused on that in any of the episodes. We might also wonder from these verses if we stop loving others, will God stop remaining in us and leave us. These are big topics and would justify complete episodes. But as much as I see the value in tackling these issues, we will just have to wait for a future season. And remember, I encourage you to study on your own and you can always send me an email.

RECAP OF SEASON 4

As we wind down and end the season, I thought it would be useful for us to stop and reflect on the material we have covered. It seems hard to believe, but we started this season about 8 months ago. In that time, we have looked at everything from God’s names and attributes to his nature. 

So now, let us step back and marvel at this picture of God we have painted over the season.

One of the first things we realized is that we will never fully understand God. We can try to think up analogies and create diagrams, but they will all fall short in some way. And this is a good thing. Because if we can fully describe God, we can be sure that he is a product of the human imagination.

The Bible does not shy away from describing God, but it does so by laying out the facts without watering them down or simplifying them. It is often in the struggle to put the pieces together that we have our own personal revelation of just how amazing God is.

 For example, Jesus said in John 4:24…

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.

John 4:24 CSB

Just this one sentence, blows apart any idea we have that we will fully understand God using our intellect. You can take the person with the highest IQ on the planet who is apart from God, and they will know God less than a child who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The person with the high IQ may know facts about God, but it is the child who knows God.

But even though God is beyond our full comprehension, he is still knowable. And he is knowable because he has chosen to reveal himself to us. God could have, if he wanted to, kept himself hidden. But he did not. In fact, he ultimately entered the world as Jesus the God-Man. We looked at that in the last episode.

God has revealed himself to all humans so that no one has an excuse for not seeking him. God has given us general revelation of himself through nature, and special revelation through the Bible. He also speaks to us directly through dreams, visions, and in any way the Holy Spirit chooses.

One of the most important attributes of God we looked at is that he is good. When God reveals himself to us, we have no excuse for not pursuing him because he is good. If God were cruel and evil, that would be a different situation. But it is the goodness and kindness of God that leads us to repent and follow him. 

God is good all the time, even if bad things happen to us. Somehow, God can make all things work together for our good if we respond to his call and love him. It is not that the bad becomes good, but somehow good comes out of the situation. My wife, Monica, and I have seen this take place in real-time as she lives with Stage 4 cancer. It does not seem possible, but God does it. We may not agree with God’s actions, but there will be a day when we see that he was justified in everything he did, even if we cannot see it now.

Another way that God has revealed himself to us is by his various names. His names speak of his character. What we find through his names, is that God meets us in our places of need. 

God is Yahweh Raah—The Lord is My Shepherd.

God is Yahweh Jireh—The Lord Will Provide.

God is Yahweh Nissi—The Lord is My Banner.

God is Yahweh Rapha—The Lord is My Healer.

God is Yahweh Shalom—The Lord is My Peace.

All these names are based on God’s personal name of Yahweh; I AM WHO I AM. God allows us to call him by name at any time. What kind of Creator does that? One who is good and one who loves us.

When we think about God and try to understand what he is like, we must come to a place where mystery is okay. As I mentioned earlier, we need to accept that we cannot know or understand everything about God.

Probably the place where this is most true is with regards to the Three-in-One nature of God. The Trinity is taught progressively in the Bible, but our brains are limited to grasp how God can be One in three Divine Persons. 

We try and try to come up with analogies, but none of them work. In fact, many of them give us a wrong picture of God. I am not saying we should stop trying to think about the triune nature of God, because there is value in the process. But accepting the mystery and leaning into it can fill us with awe and wonder and joy. So let us do both. We will think about God through the lens of our intellect, but we will also view God through the lens of our spirit and worship the God of glory and majesty who is far beyond us and worthy of our worship.

One of the amazing things the Holy Spirit does when he lives within us is allow us to embrace the truth of the Trinity. This is another mystery surrounding God. How can God live within each of us? How does that work? I do not know, but this is what Scripture says, and I experience the truth of Scripture in my daily life. And I know many of you do too. There is nothing like the Christian life when lived to its fullest.

This season we also looked at many of the attributes of God. Some of them are just what you might think about when you think about God. The omnis are a good example of this: omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. If you took a poll of what people think a mighty God should be like, I think these would come up. Most people view God as knowing everything, being everywhere, and having all power.

But some attributes like immutability might not come up in a conversation. And yet, it is the unchanging nature of God that allows us to approach him because we never need to worry that he will change from good to evil. Or that he will lose his power or love for us.

We also see in God, that all his attributes are present all the time. This can be hard for us to understand because we can be driven by our emotions and intellect where one personal attribute overrides the others. But this is not the case with God. God is always good, he is always just, he always hates evil, he is aways powerful, and not a mixture of measures. Every attribute of God is always present fully. To our eyes, it may seem like one attribute is stronger than another, but that is because our perspective is limited.

It is important for us to realize that the God I have been describing is not some distant theory or imaginary construction. He is personal and present. God’s very nature is relational. We see this in the works of God where each Person of the Trinity plays a role. While Jesus and the Holy Spirit follow the will of the Father, they are fully God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as One God exhibit perfect unity in all they do. And they invite us to join them. And for us, this is one of most wondrous things about God.

To end the Season, I want us to pause for a moment and think about the majesty and glory of God. Think for a moment about everything I just summarized and how remarkable God is. Just take a moment.

Now, consider this…God made us so that we can join with him in relationship and in activities. Humans were never created to simply sit on a couch, eat popcorn, and watch endless streams of YouTube videos. We were made to live in God’s Presence and participate with him. Unfortunately, the sin of Adam damaged our relationship with God. But through Jesus, our relationship can be restored.

As we finish up the Season, I hope this brief study of God fills you with a desire to know him better. Jesus paid the price so that the very Spirit of God can live within us. It amazes me to think that God would do that. It seems to me that the reasonable response is to humble ourselves, confess our sins and failures, and accept the free gift of life that Jesus made possible. When we do that, a whole Spirit-led adventure becomes possible. I hope you will join me in that adventure.

CLOSING

And…that officially ends Season 4. Thank you for joining me this Season!

You may be wondering what comes next. Well, over the summer, I plan to continue releasing episodes on my normal schedule. However, these will be short “minicasts” that will be removed from publication once Season 5 begins. I am looking forward to a summer break from writing, recording, and editing shows. I am excited about spending time with my family and doing some bike riding. I recently bought an electric bicycle and that has been a lot of fun.

But all that does not mean I will stop studying. I am currently reading the most recent book by John Eldredge, and when that is finished, I plan on reading the book of Enoch, which was written about 2300 years ago. It is not a part of the Bible although it is quoted in a couple of places. 

You might wonder why I am reading those books. It all has to do with a resurgence of interest in the supernatural that is taking place in the United States. This interest in the supernatural, and the paranormal, is spilling over into the church. And Christians are hungering for more of an experience with God and the supernatural.

If you are a regular listener of this podcast, you know that I want everyone to experience the Presence of God. And you also know that I value an intellectual pursuit of God. But the intellectual part has become so emphasized in the American church, that I fear Christians have lost intimate experiential relationship with God. And I believe this is fueling a recognition that there is more than just a materialistic world that we can understand only through a physical interpretation of the mind. 

And this may give you a glimpse into Season 5. My original thought was that we were going to move into a study of the Doctrine of Humankind, but now I am not so sure. We may first take a journey into the world of the supernatural and paranormal. This could include ghosts, exorcisms, and telepathy. A lot depends on where my studies over the summer take me. If any of these topics are of interest to you, please let me know by sending comments, or questions, by email to glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com. You can also send me a one-way text message by going to the episode show notes and clicking on the link with your smart phone. 

And, as a reminder, if you find these episodes useful, please share them with your friends, leave a good review on your podcast app, post them to social media, and make sure to follow the podcast so that you are notified when the next episode is published.

I hope that you have a great break while I have mine, and…

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Until the next episode and next season, take care.

Copyright 2025 Spirit-Led Hope