Experiencing God

Title: Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God

Author: Henry and Richard Blackaby

Copyright Date: 2008

Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, written by Henry and Richard Blackaby and Claude King is a book of significant influence in this era and will be for decades to come. The authors set forth seven realities of experiencing God that have served countless followers of Christ in deepening their personal relationship with Him. There is a steady drumbeat throughout the book that perhaps is captured best in this statement: God is far more interested in a love relationship with you than He is in what you can do for Him.

Years ago, this book was instrumental in my growth as a Christian and as a leader. Re-reading it has allowed me to rehearse essential realities that lead to a fuller experience in my daily walk with Christ. I trust it will do the same for you. Check out these Book Notes to whet your appetite for more.

Book Description:

The Experiencing God ministry is even more vibrant today than when it began. As it continues to rise, and the world continues to change, the Experiencing Godbook has been revised and expanded with more than seventy percent of its material newly written. A modern classic that has sold millions of copies worldwide, Experiencing Godis based on seven Scriptural realities that teach us how to develop a true relationship with the Creator.

Book Quotes:

When your life is in the middle of God’s activity, He will start rearranging a lot of your thinking.  God’s ways and thoughts are so different from yours and mine they will often sound wrong, crazy, or impossible. Often, you will realize that the task is far beyond your power or resources to accomplish. When you recognize that the task is humanly impossible, you need to be ready to believe God and trust Him completely. LOCATION: 25

The focus needs to be on God and His purposes, not my life! LOCATION: 29

God will never give you an assignment that He will not, at the same time, enable you to complete. LOCATION: 31

God is far more interested in a love relationship with you than He is in what you can do for Him. LOCATION: 36

A servant of a human master works for his master. God, however, works through His servants.  LOCATION: 39

Anyone who will take the time to enter into an intimate relationship with God can see God do extraordinary things through his or her life. LOCATION: 45

The truth is, He is able to do anything He pleases with one ordinary person fully consecrated to Him. LOCATION: 46

SEVEN REALITIES OF EXPERIENCING GOD:

1. God is always at work around you.
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
5. God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you. LOCATION: 50

This love relationship with God is both real and personal. It is an intimate love relationship.  This is probably the most important aspect of knowing and doing the will of God. If your love relationship with God is not right, nothing else will be right. LOCATION: 54

God is wanting to reveal Himself to a watching world. He does not call you to get involved just so people can see what you can do. He calls you to an assignment that you cannot do without Him. The assignment will have God-sized dimensions. LOCATION: 58

To follow God, you will have to walk by faith, and faith always requires action. LOCATION: 58

Right now God is working all around you and in your life. One of the greatest tragedies among God’s people is that while they have a deep longing to experience Him, they are experiencing God day after day but do not know how to recognize Him. LOCATION: 71

When the love relationship is right, God will be free to begin giving you assignments at His initiative. Whenever you do not seem to be receiving assignments from God, focus on the love relationship and stay there until the assignment comes. LOCATION: 72

Obedience is the outward expression of your love of God. LOCATION: 80

Everything in your Christian life, everything about knowing Him and experiencing Him, everything about knowing His will depends on the quality of your love relationship to God. If that is not right, nothing in your life will be right. LOCATION: 82

The essence of sin is a shift from a God-centered to a self-centered life. The essence of salvation is a denial of self. We must come to a denial of self and return to God-centeredness. LOCATION: 100

You never find God asking persons to dream up what they want to do for Him. LOCATION: 104

Don’t get in a hurry. God may spend years preparing your character or developing your love relationship with Him. Don’t get discouraged if the assignment or “call” does not come immediately. LOCATION: 116

God is far more interested in accomplishing His kingdom purposes than you are. He will move you into every assignment that He knows you are ready for. Let God orient you to Himself. LOCATION: 117

Two factors are important for you to recognize the activity of God around you: (1) You must be living in an intimate love relationship with God; and (2) God must take the initiative to open your spiritual eyes so you can see what He is doing. LOCATION: 120

When you want to know what God is doing around you, pray. Watch to see what happens next. Make the connection between your prayer and what happens next. LOCATION: 126

An intimate love relationship with God is the key to knowing God’s voice, to hearing when God speaks. LOCATION: 138

If God has a great assignment for you, He has to develop a great character to match that assignment before He can give you the assignment. LOCATION: 148

Planning is a valuable tool, but it never can become a substitute for God. Your relationship with God is far more important to Him than any planning you can do. LOCATION: 157

Whenever a silence comes, continue doing the last thing God told you and watch and wait for a fresh encounter with Him. You can respond to the silence of God in two ways. One response is for you to go into depression, a sense of guilt, and self-condemnation. The other response is for you to have an expectation that God is about to bring you to a deeper knowledge of Himself.  LOCATION: 183

When you face difficult or confusing circumstances, the Spirit of God again will take the Word of God and help you understand your circumstances from God’s perspective.  LOCATION: 190

You need to have your life radically oriented to God. The most difficult thing you will ever have to do is deny self, take up the will of God, and follow after Him.  LOCATION: 193

When God invites you to join Him in His work, He presents a God-sized assignment for you to accomplish. You will realize that you cannot accomplish it on your own.  LOCATION: 212

No one can sum up all God is able to accomplish through one solitary life, wholly yielded, adjusted, and obedient to Him.  LOCATION: 237

Note: should you wish to find any quote in its original context, the Kindle “location” is provided after each entry.