Book Review: “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God” by Henry & Richard Blackaby and Claude King
If we went for a coffee today, this may not come up in conversation, but you can bet it will have been running through the back of my mind since the morning.
How did I get this book?
My friend Angie gave it to me along with “Soft-Wired.” She picked it up in a thrift store, knew our church was doing the course that summer and thought it would be good to add to the church library. I snagged it from there. I had never read it.
What is it about?
It’s about developing the mindset of looking for what God is doing and joining Him in that work. It’s a simple idea. Profound in difference.
In the book, this way of living life is explored in every way with wonderful stories and insights into various situations and circumstances that occur.
I’ve dog-eared several pages. Here’s a couple of them.
There’s a fantastic story to open up chapter 7 - “God Pursues a Love Relationship with You.” At the end of the story, he writes:
“God created you for intimate fellowship with Him. A life walking closely with the Lord is both exciting and rewarding. God does not want you to miss out on what He has intended for you from eternity. Sin causes us to follow our own selfish desires, but in doing so, we reject God’s best fo our lives. So God takes the initiative to draw us closer to Himself.”
I needed to read that whole chapter. It’s easy to forget about how much God loves us. Later in that same chapter, in talking about devotional times, he writes:
“Don’t merely discipline yourself to read your Bible and pray as if it’s a life sentence you must carry out. Instead, approach your times with God as an opportunity to get to better know someone who loves you with an infinite love. Simply making yourself read a chapter of the Bible each day and then reciting a prayer will not lead you into a deeper walk with God. Make it a priority in your life and devotional times to love Him with all your heart. That will solve most of the problems with your question time. Read in Scripture of God’s vast love for you. Recall what He has done to demonstrate His love. Share your heart, your concerns and your burdens with Him in prayer. Remain silent before Him, and allow Him to share His love with you. The better you know God, the more you will love Him.”
In the chapter 9 - “God Invites You to Join Him” he writes:
Two factors are important if you are going to recognize God’s activity around you.
You must be living in an intimate love relationship with God.
God must open your spiritual eyes so you can see what He is doing. Unless God allows you to see where He is active, you will not recognize what God is doing even though He may be working mightily all around you.
In chapter 13 - “God Speaks Through Prayer,” he writes:
“But how do you know what the Holy Spirit is saying? While I can’t give you a formula, I can say that you will know His voice when he speaks (John 10:4). You must decide that you only want His will. You must dismiss any selfish or fleshly desires of your own. Then, as you start to pray, the Spirit of God will touch your heart and cause you to ask in the direction of God‘s will… if you’re not keeping a spiritual journal or diary, you should start one. When the God of the universe tells you something, it is important enough to write down. When God speaks to you in your quiet times with him, immediately record what He says, before you forget. Then add your prayer response.”
In chapter 14 - “God Speaks through Circumstances,” he writes about a terrible medical situation that one of his children went through. Afterwards he writes:
“A whole lot of wrong conclusions can result if you try to look at God from the middle of a painful situation. What should you do instead? First, ask God to show you his perspective on what’s happening. Look at your situation from what you already know about God. When you face troublesome times, the Holy Spirit will take the Word of God and help you understand the event from God‘s perspective. He will reveal to you the truth of your circumstances. Then you can adjust your life and thinking to what God is doing.”
That’s super helpful. That was a powerful chapter.
I was also blessed in reading chapter 15 “God Speaks through the Church.” Here’s an excerpt:
“Many Christians today feel that their walk with God is private and independent. They see no need for joining a church or making themselves accountable to other believers. Some view to church in terms of how it can help them accomplish the ministry God has given them personally, rather than seeking how their lives fit into the larger work the Lord is doing in the congregation. The Bible teaches our walk with God is personal, but it is not private. Sin makes people independent. Salvation makes us interdependent on one another. Scripture teaches that the church is a body in which each member is vitally important to the others.”
I think the book is summed up best by the following testimony included in chapter 20 - “Returning to God.”
“If there is one comment I hear over and over from people who study Experiencing God, it is this: ‘I thought I knew what it meant to be a Christian and to walk with God. But after studying this material, I realize that, although I was a religious person, I did not really know what it meant to enjoy a personal relationship with God.’ That is the heart of this book—to move you from merely being religious to having a vibrant, real, growing relationship with God.”
What did I think of it?
It blessed me. It reminded me of my early years as a pastor in Ottawa. It reminded me of the mindset that I had before ministry. The chapters on the love of God affected me deeply.
It did take a few chapters for me to really dig into the message… but once I did, I was richly rewarded.
It’s easy for me to see how the Baptists really took to this. It’s Scriptural, and so it comes in a language that makes sense. The Pentecostals do this automatically.
It made a profound impact at Calvary Chapel St. Pete while I was there in the late ‘90s and early ‘00’s. It blessed our church this summer.
Conclusion:
This is a classic Christian book. If you haven’t read it, or haven’t taken the course, you really should. It will bless you and help you. If it’s been a while, it will be refreshing.
