Table of Contents
Guide
Copyright by Henry Blackaby,
Richard Blackaby, and Claude King
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by B&H Publishing Group
Nashville, Tennessee
Dewey Decimal Classification: 231
Subject Heading: GOD - WILL \ CHRISTIAN LEE
Art on page 54 is used with permission from Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King, published by LifeWay Press, 1990.
Henry and Richard Blackaby are represented by the literacy agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.
Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the Holman Christian Bible Standard Bible, copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers.
To my parents, Mr. and Mrs. G. R. S. Blackaby,
and parents-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. M. A. Wells, Sr.,
for their faithful example before me;
and to my wife Marilynn,
for her faithful companionship,
and my children, Richard, Thomas, Melvin, Norman, and Carrie,
as we have been experiencing God together.
Henry T. Blackaby
To my amazing children, Mike, Daniel, and Carrie.
May you always enjoy experiencing God the way
your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents have.
Richard Blackaby
PREFACE
When I became a Christian, I couldn't have imagined all God intended to do in and through my life. I grew up in an isolated community on the west coast of Canada near the Alaska border. My father was a bank manager and a dedicated man of God. As a boy I came to a profound realization: God is God and I am not.
That seems straightforward enough, but that truth revolutionized my life. I came to believe that not only is God real, but He wants to take an active role in my life. I grew up to be a shy, introverted teenager. Then in a special worship service, God made it clear that He wanted exclusive access to my life, to use it for His purposes. I'll never forget the evening when I fully surrendered my life to God and told Him I would do whatever He instructed me to do. From that point on, I no longer attempted to set the agenda for my life. My only goal was to do God's will, whatever that might be.
When I was a young man, God did not reveal to me that I would one day be a pastor, or a denominational leader, or an author or mentor to corporate executives. God simply gave me one assignment at a time, and I sought to be faithful. Eventually I grew to realize that God is always actively at work around me and, if I look for it, I will recognize God's activity in the lives of the people around me. I also discovered that every time God told me to do somethingno matter how difficult it might appearHe always enabled me to accomplish what He asked.
Over time, God led me to serve as a youth leader, worship director, education minister, senior pastor, Bible college president, denominational leader, author, and international speaker. Each new assignment took me well beyond what I felt comfortable or skilled to do. Yet each time, God proved to be more than just my Creator or Savior. He was also my sustainer, counselor, comforter, teacher, strength, protector, guide, and much more. Every time I obeyed God, I came to experience Him in new and deeper dimensions than I had ever known.
I was occasionally asked to speak at conferences, especially student meetings, to tell others how I had learned to walk with God. My relationship with God seemed pretty ordinary to mesince it was the only one I had experiencedand I am extremely ordinary! Yet time and time again, people told me my sharing had convicted them that they had been religious, moral, and orthodox, but they had not been experiencing God the way I was describing.
I found that a growing number of people wanted to work with me in my church and then in the denominational association in which I was a leader. Pastors would leave strong churches and move to a mission setting, living on faith, to become involved in what God was doing in our midst. It seemed so simple. And yet every time we believed God, He would show us what He wanted us to do next. As we obeyed Him, we would experience a fresh demonstration of His power, love, and provision. This became such a natural part of how I and those around me walked with God that we scarcely realized it was not the way most Christians and churches were functioning.
In the midst of those exciting dayswhen I worked with churches in the city of Vancouver, CanadaAvery Willis approached me to ask if I would put into writing the lessons I had learned from my walk with God. That way, others could study and learn from them. I was keenly aware of how ordinary I was, so this was a humbling moment. I was not a writer. I had a full and hectic schedule, and attempting to put into a book what I had learned over a lifetime of relating to God seemed a daunting task.
Eventually, the publisher assigned an editor, Claude King, to work with me. Claude was and is a Spirit-filled, gracious man. He listened to me teach. He read over transcripts of my sermons. We spent many hours discussing how God walks with people and reveals His will. At one point the publisher suggested we call my work, Knowing God, but I said absolutely not. My concern was that God's people were already immersed in Bible studies and Christian books that gave them an enormous amount of information about God. As a result, sincere Christians were coming to church every week and learning more and more about God, but they were not experiencing Him. To many, He was simply a faraway God to be believed in, a doctrine to affirm, an invisible deity to whom they recited their prayers. They needed to know He is a Person with whom Christians can enjoy an intimate, growing, loving fellowship.
I prayed that the result of our efforts would not merely be another course people could take. I asked God to somehow guide us in such a way that through our writing, people would experience a life-changing encounter with the living God. Claude and I enlisted prayer warriors from all over North America and asked them to pray every day that God would guide us to produce something He would be pleased to use to bless His people. Eventually, the material was published as an interactive study entitled Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God.
The literary world was not standing in long lines to purchase copies of the book upon its release! No one had heard of Henry Blackaby Interactive studies were not popular, and the publisher did not launch a major advertising campaign. Expectations were modest, to say the least. But something began to happen. A few small groups worked through the study, and they encountered God in a fresh, new way. They and their churches began to experience renewal. Word began to spread that this was unlike any other course people had taken. Before long, we were hearing of God doing amazing things across the country among various denominations, as well as internationally. Often, as people studied the material, they would sense God calling them into Christian ministry. I heard from mission agencies and seminaries that the number one reason people were listing for entering the ministry was that God had clearly spoken to them as they were studying Experiencing God. Many people expressed to us that the truths they encountered helped them become God-centered in their thinking and taught them how to recognize God's will for themselves, their families, their businesses, and their churches. A couple of years later, the material was developed into a trade book, the revised and expanded edition of which you are reading now.
