In Chicago, I went through Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby with my leadership team. You could say the book/study was all the rage back then. People swore by it, almost as much as Scripture itself. But in looking back, I wonder just how biblical the premises really were. It’s interesting how easily we are swayed to follow the “newest teachings.� We simply do not believe that Scripture is sufficient, that there must be a new revelation of truth and experience for people to cope with Modern day life. And so we ignore John’s words in 1 John 2:7, “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.� It’s the old commandment (Scripture) that is to be continually pursued as we pursue Christ.

Well, I found an interesting write up on Experiencing God by Ron Grove. He writes:

This book was popular at my old church and one of the reasons for my leaving eventually. It’s very serious IMO and I was burdened that I wasn’t able to reach them on the issue. Instead of experiencing freedom that the sufficiency of scripture and sola scriptura lead to, they were in the bonds of slavery to turmoil and despair until they thought God spoke to them. The results were people in my class were praying that God would tell them which car to purchase, which house to purchase, etc, not that he would give them wisdom in their decision making. I’m talking about a “felt sense” that God has approved this one or that one. They would then be excited when they felt in prayer God had answered them on which one to choose. One brother came to me after Bible study and was doubting his salvation because God wasn’t talking to him like He evidently was to others. Now, I did have reason to doubt his salvation and took every opportunity to discuss the gospel with him, but this had nothing to do with his salvation. It was very hard to communicate this to him as a result of what was going on with the others, who had all been in Experiencing God classes at the church. He was raised in an Assemblies of God church and this was very familiar to him which is why I consider Blackaby to be bringing in Pentacostalism in the Baptist backdoor. What he wasn’t seeing was that they were in turmoil until they felt like they got an answer. He only saw them telling the class happily that God had answered their prayer. Instead of thanking God and giving Him praise for their ability to make such a purchase and His graciousness in giving them so many excellent choices, they were in turmoil until their answer came. They didn’t want to disappoint God by purchasing the wrong house/car/etc. They would get frustrated when reading the Bible because they were looking for answers to their specific issue and not reading it for what God is truly trying to communicate to them. Hopefully the following will outline (very broadly) how this comes to be the end result of this kind of teaching.

On page 56 (of the softcover I have at least) my margins are red in distress over this statement because it cleared up why I was beside myself and agitated almost from the beginning. The heart of the problem, in my estimation, is this is an attack on the sufficiency of scripture and the doctrine of sola scriptura:

“The testimony of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is that God speaks to His people. In our day, God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. He uses the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church (other believers). No one of these methods of God’s speaking is, by itself, a clear indicator of God’s directions. But when God says the same thing through each of these ways, you can have confidence to proceed.”

As I flip through the pages the next time my margins light up like a Christmas tree is at this statement:

“This description of Jesus’ reveals several of the key elements in the Seven Realities of Experiencing God, God is at work. He pursues a love relationship and invites Jesus to be involved with Him by revealing what He is doing. Jesus then makes the adjustment to do what His Father is doing”.

His view of the Trinity must be very interesting indeed. I know he understands Jesus IS God because he says so several times. But that statement is just so off the wall that I have a hard time even relating to it. But back to the subjectivity of Blackaby’s teaching. on page 163 my margins again get clogged up. He abuses John 10:2-4 so badly it makes me want to cry. That passage is entirely about salvation, but here’s his take:

“Jesus compared the relationship He has with His followers to the relationship a shepherd has with his sheep. He said, “He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep…. The sheep hear his voice…. The sheep follow him, for they know his voice” (John 10-2-4). In just this way, when God speaks to you, you will recognize His voice and follow Him. God is sovereign. He can do whatever He chooses to do. With the Scriptures as our guide, we can know God can speak in unique ways to individuals. His people will hear and recognize His voice. In our time, God primarily speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church.”

The above passage is a very good example of the mix of truth and error in the book. Very difficult to separate the two at times as a result. That passage just does not teach what he says it teaches plain and simple. A little later on page 172 you see the true outworking of what he was getting at above:

“If you are not keeping a spiritual journal or diary, you need to. If the God of the Universe tells you something, you should write it down. When God speaks to you in your quiet time, immediately write down what He said before you have time to forget. Then record your prayer response.”

Then we get to my next margin notes, and something I missed, but see clearly now, is the relationship this has to the Word Faith movement. On page 176 he is addressing (again) how you can know God is speaking to you. My friends were always petrified they were missing what God was saying and then they’d do the wrong thing. Sections like this are what caused this problem and you can see how he struggles to answer the question:

“Is it important to know when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you? Yes! How do you know what the Holy Spirit is saying? I cannot give you a formula. I can tell you 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 starts to touch your heart and cause you to pray in the direction of God’s will. “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

The Holy Spirit “will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come” (John 16:13). When you pray anticipate that the Holy Spirit already knows what God has ready for your life. He does not guide you on His own initiative; He tells you only what He hears from the Father. He guides you when you pray.

I always write down what God is saying to me when I pray and I read His Word. I write down what I sense He is leading me to pray. As I begin to see what God is telling me about Himself, His purposes, His ways, I often see a patter begin to develop. As I watch the direction the Spirit is leading me to pray, I begin to get a clear indication of what God is saying to me. This process calls for Spiritual concentration!
You may be asking the question: “But how do I know that the directions I am praying are the Spirit’s leading and not my own selfish desires?” Do you remember what George Mueller said he does first in seeking God’s directions? He said he tries to reach the point where he has no will of his own.”

Again, there is some truth here, but it’s mixed in with serious error. An error that I have personally seen cause turmoil in prayer life. Benny Hinn was asked why people who were “cured” got sick again. He said lack of faith. They stopped having enough faith. The same applied here. If they didn’t know God was speaking to them and directing them then they were praying all wrong. They were praying improperly. Selfishly even! This can be very destructive to one’s faith over time.

I see the next margin note is on the following on page 200:

“God used circumstances to reveal to Jesus what He was to do. Jesus watched circumstances to know where the Father want to involve Him in His work.”

I can still hardly believe he wrote that… Right below that I noted the irony that the chapter is entitled “God Speaks Through Circumstances” and he says “Never, ever determine the truth of a situation by looking at the circumstances. You cannot know the truth of any circumstance until you have heard from God.”

I suspect that’s where I quite reading. In Blackaby’s world it seems to me you can never truly know anything.

It really is like that with Experiencing God. It becomes so easy to veer away from Scripture’s authority and power and move towards an existential perspective as our spiritual reality. Surely, that is dangerous. Also, Blackaby’s use of Scripture does seem to raise eyebrows. And finally, I found this statement interesting:

He uses the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church (other believers). No one of these methods of God’s speaking is, by itself, a clear indicator of God’s directions.

Isn’t the Bible a clear indicator of God’s directions according to 2 Timothy 3:16-17. I know that this might be simply a mistake of word usage, but that’s a mistake that seems to support how he himself utilizes to Bible to fit his “Experiencing God� theme.

I am not saying Henry Blackaby is completely wrong. But it is always important to be a Berean and check to make sure that fads do not supercede the eternity-tested Bible, God’s perfect Word.