Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God [Paperback]

Henry Blackaby (Author), Richard Blackaby (Author), Claude King (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

This revised and expanded edition of the classic best-selling course guides learners to experience the kind of relationship with God through which they come to know and do His will. Written by Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby, and Claude King, the Experiencing God Bible Study is based on the Experiencing God book, which has sold millions of copies worldwide. Through examination of biblical and contemporary illustrations, participants will understand and apply 7 realities of experiencing God. Churches will be helped to better function as the body of Christ, as members understand how to experience God as a church.

The Member Book:

• Is the workbook for doing the 13 week study
• Has been updated with new illustration and testimonial content
• Is also included in the revised Leader Kit

Support Resources

• Study Samples, Testimonials, Promotional Material, and more information

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henry T. Blackaby is the founder and president emeritus of Blackaby Ministries International, an organization built to help people experience God. Blackaby has published an array of spiritually influential messages in his lifetime, most notably Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God (1990), which has sold 4 million copies and has been translated into over 45 languages. His books, Experiencing God Together and Experiencing God Day by Day Devotional, both won the Gold Medallion Award.

Henry lives with his wife, Marilynn, in Rex, Georgia. He has five children (Richard, Tom, Melvin, Norman, and Carrie), all of whom are serving in Christian ministry, and fourteen grandchildren. His long-range goal is to encourage revival and spiritual awakening in the United States, Canada, and across the world through speaking, praying, enlisting, writing and mentoring. His hobbies are reading and traveling.

From AudioFile

Wayne Shepherd's rich vocal personality matches voice to mood as he delivers the authors' prescriptions for living a God-centered life. With warmth and empathy he recounts how to develop an intimate, life-changing relationship with the Lord and how to apply God's will to all of life's circumstances. The issue of trust prevents many from growing in relationship with the Lord. With a simple rhythm Shepherd defines what trust is and what trusting God means, and how to build and renew one's faith and trust in God each day. Revised and expanded with seven new chapters and dozens of inspirational stories, this practical, God-centered audiobook is suited for individual or group Bible study. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: LifeWay Christian Resources; Rev Exp edition (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1415858381
• ISBN-13: 978-1415858387
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (181 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 72 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Workbook for a 12 Week Study Series October 6, 2007

By David Ross VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a very good resource for Christians who want to become more open to experiencing God in their lives. The authors are Southern Baptists; they emphasize the importance of the role of the Holy Spirit in aligning Christians' lives with God's purposes while maintaining a strong respect for Biblical principle and example.

The workbook is organized as a series of 12 weekly units with 5 daily lessons each week. The workbook assumes that participants in a study or homegroup session will review the daily lessons and come together once a week to discuss the lessons. The workbook presentation method tends strongly to the formulaic or pedantic and tends to get a bit repetitive. Nonetheless, working through the material with prayer and thoughtfullness and then coming together for weekly discussions brings together the powerful dynamics of personal study and prayer with group support. The workbook is based on Bible principles and examples (Old and New Testament) and other examples from the authors. The workbook makes the important point that in order to experience God we need to give him permission to disrupt our plans and our lives. This is clearly an important point for anyone who wants to be more than a "Sunday only" Christian. This point and others led to several wonderful discussions in our weekly group.

171 of 203 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Can Lead Christians to Experience God But Can Also Lead Them Astray September 9, 2010

By Fr. Charles Erlandson TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

"Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby and Claude King (and now also Richard Blackaby) seems to be a book for which reviewers find no middle ground. Almost all of the reviewers give the book 5 stars (with one 4 star book) and one 1 star review. I find that the book has the potential to lead many to a deeper, more meaningful experience with God but also has the potential to lead many into false views of how God works with His people today.

On the positive side, the book can be profitable as a devotional book that leads people closer to the heart of God. Blackaby is on target when he teaches that God is always at work around us, that He pursues a love relationship with us, that He takes the initiative, that He invites us to join Him in His work, and that God speaks to His people. He's also right when he emphasizes that joining God requires major adjustments and obedience. Reminding people of these truths and teaching them to look for a personal encounter with God is a good thing. "Experiencing God" can help God and the Bible become more personal in the Christian' life.

This new, revised edition also has additional chapters on "Experiencing God as Couples," "Experiencing God in the Church," "Experiencing God in the Marketplace," and "Experiencing God in His Kingdom." These are helpful to the degree that they help Christians realize that God is present in every area of their lives.

However, I find that Blackaby's presentation of how we experience God is misleading in some ways. For the reasons I list below, I can only give the book 3 stars. Although Blackaby includes a number of ways that we may experience God (the Bible, Prayer, Circumstances, and the Church), his fundamental approach is an individualistic one. Such an approach, without proper checks and balances, can often go astray. This is especially true because Blackaby teaches that "God gives specific directions." While this may be true in some circumstances, it is not true in most cases for most people. This is a problem in two ways. First, I've experienced too many Christians who claim God told them specific things that were not true: what check was there on this false interpretation? I've seen the most lawless Christians claim that God speaks to them quite specifically about the smallest details of life while many of the godliest Christians I know make no such claims. There is too much emphasis on what amounts to individual, subjective experiences with God. Second, what happens when you pray and act faithfully, and yet God doesn't speak specifically or act miraculously? You end up either blaming God or yourself when neither is to blame. (Or, perhaps, you could realize that He may be working in other ways in your life.) In general, Blackaby presumes that God will be following some script that I find He often doesn't follow.

These errors proceed from a fundamental error in biblical interpretation: the belief that God will speak specifically to us the way He did through the patriarchs or other biblical figures. Again, this may be true at certain times, but this is nowhere taught in Scripture as the primary means God speaks to His people, or we would have seen it taught a lot more directly, for example, in very personal Paul's letters. I'm also wary of stories where God tells people to go out and do something they are unprepared to do, only to find that God miraculously delivers them. Do I believe that God can and does do such things? Absolutely! But I've seen too many Christians act presumptuously and foolishly in the name of God on this basis. Furthermore, I've seen too many Christians become addicted to God's miraculous deliverance in their lives when what He really wants is a day by day, moment by moment faithfulness - even when the miraculous isn't present.

Of course it's not necessary that such errors will proceed from reading "Experiencing God." But because of an overemphasis on and distortion of certain ways in which God deals with us, Christians who follow such an approach should also be aware of some of the ways that such an approach may, in time, lead them astray.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Slightly Useful but hardly necessary October 6, 2007

By David Ross VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Experiencing God Member's Workbooks stand on their own without any clear need for a separate leaders book. This could be a confidence builder for an inexperienced leader but otherwise adds little to the member's workbook.