experiencing God

By Elizabeth Prata

My “Cut To the Chase” articles are shorter form, bulleted discernment outlines, rather than a longer essay.

@JustinPetersMin wrote, “Experiencing God was one of the most damaging books introduced to the evangelical world in over a hundred years.” 11:01 PM · Jan 31, 2026

That us a lot of power in a book. False doctrine does not only emerge from the pulpit. In fact, it is more likely to emerge from the tangential ministries in a church, such as the women’s Bible study, the church Library, or brought in as evil seeds from external conferences members attend elsewhere.

Why was “Experiencing God” so damaging? Let’s take a look.

Issue #1: Normalizing hearing from God

5 Solas wrote on X about Blackaby and Experiencing God, “The false teaching that the way God speaks to His people under the New Covenant is audibly or internally by some “still small voice,” and not through His all-sufficient written Word, has done unimaginable harm to the church. The idea that it’s not a personal relationship unless you are hearing voices or getting impressions is damnable. You are essentially saying that God doesn’t speak through His Word.” Jan 31

This issue relates to the “Sufficiency of Scripture.” We often refer to 2 Timothy 3:16-17 when saying that God’s written word as contained in the 66 books of the Bible is enough for the Christian to learn, absorb, and live by. We do not see and interpret signs or omens, hear whispers, or listen to audible voices directing our steps. The verse says:

All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.

Note the words- All, fully, every. Those words are quantifiers that indicate total, complete, or inclusive quantity. Note what the Bible is good for- all the things a Christian might need to do- teaching (and learning), training, rebuking. Note the benefits of living by the Word only- righteousness, capable, equipped.

How many verses does one need when we have such a perfect description of the Christian life right there in 2 Timothy? But wait, there’s more: Hebrews 4:12, Romans 15:4, Matthew 4:4 and other verses reinforce the sufficiency of God’s word alone.

Issue #2: Believing we can see where God is working

A refrain comes up frequently in the book: “watch to see where God is working and join Him in His work.”

One question: Where ISN’T God working? There is not one molecule not under his jurisdiction, command, and movement. If there is one maverick molecule in the universe (as Sproul famously said) then God is not God, not in control, and not working. It would invalidate His divine sovereignty.

One thought: Do we, being sinners with sin-darkened minds and a finite perspective, have the intelligence to see and know exactly where God is doing a work? The way Providence operates is that it sometimes can be seen but only AFTER the work is done.

One warning: God doesn’t ‘invite’ us to join Him. He commands us to do His will. Working out our salvation with fear and trembling and pursuing holiness is not a cafeteria experience of choosing. ‘I want to join Him there, but not there, that looks uncomfortable…’

Issue #3: That we can come to know God through our own, self-interpreted experiences

In the book, Blackaby (and co-author Claude King) constantly prioritize personal experience over the commands of God through scripture. From the book blurb at Lifeway: “God is inviting you into an intimate love relationship through which He reveals to you His will, His ways, and His work” but the book teaches that He does this not through scripture, but through our experiences and observations.

We don’t come to know God by looking around and observing. Romans 1 teaches that the danger in doing this is that we begin to worship the creation and not the creator.

Justin Peters said in his teaching linked below that, in “Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby says this: “If you have troubling hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the very heart of your Christian experience.”

That is a dire warning that Blackaby and King issued in their book. ARE we in trouble is we don’t hear God speak? Many conscientious and committed Christians would not want to make a mistake in failing to do something God wants us to do, so they would in all diligence strain to listen. Others who are not as conscientious but are more prideful would seize that claim and puff themselves up as conduits for God. Many professing Christians did just that and claims began popping up like multiplying viruses that various people claimed to hear from God all the time and ‘He said…’

Peters continued, “I would submit to you that the resource, the book that is singularly most responsible for introducing charismatic theology into at least theoretically non-charismatic churches is Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby that came out in 1991. If you go back before 1991, at least in non-charismatic churches, almost everyone would have understood that God speaks to us through the Bible, we speak to Him in prayer. Today hardly anybody understands that; and I believe experiencing God is singularly most responsible for introducing these notions into non-charismatic churches.” –end Justin Peters quote.

The Bible is the most trustworthy source for living life under God’s heaven, for understanding HIs will, and for how to pursue holiness. God gave us His book and that is where He speaks, nowhere else. Avoid “Experiencing God” and experience living by His word from the Bible instead.

Further Resources

“The book that is singularly most responsible for introducing charismatic theology into at least theoretically non-charismatic churches is Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby…” said Justin Peters at the 2019 Truth Matters Conference.

https://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/09/non-sola-scriptura-blackaby-view-of_15.html

Bob Dewaay at Critical Issues Commentary: Unbiblical Teachings on Prayer and Experiencing God

Book: God Doesn’t Whisper by Jim Osman (Author)

By Elizabeth Prata

SYNOPSIS

This essay explores biblical decision-making, explaining that Christians need not seek mystical signs or personal revelations to know God’s will. Instead, believers should obey Scripture, apply godly wisdom, and trust God’s providence, understanding that no decision can derail His sovereign plan or purposes.

Does the Bible speak to whom we should marry? Which college to attend? Whether to join the Army? Should we relocate to another state? Change careers now, later, or never? Go back to college?

While we cannot know God’s infallible will about anything except that which is revealed in Scripture, we are not to think that we have been left on our own with no assistance from God.”

from God’s Will and Personal Decision Making, by David Boxerman, TableTalk Magazine

Paul just decided things. He wrote often that he decided this or decided that. You would think, if we had to wait for a sign or a word from the Holy Spirit, which Paul absolutely directly received many other times, that he would wait to hear, watch for a sign, or listen to omens. But no, more often than we think, Paul just decided things.

2 Corinthians 2:1 But I decided this for my own sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again.

1 Corinthians 16:6 Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help …

2 Corinthians 1:23, But I call God as witness to my soul, that it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth.

Acts 20:16, For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to lose time in Asia; for he was hurrying, if it might be possible for him to be in Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.

It’s OK to decide!

In the 1970s and 1980s an extremely popular author was Richard Bach. He wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull which was on the NY Times bestseller list for years. He was New Agey, mystical, advanced soul, self-enlightenment kind of guy. Lots of man-made philosophies in his books. He followed up Seagull with The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story. In it he sparked a frenzy for finding one’s “soulmate.” He proposed that there was one true predestined soulmate for each of us and it is our job to find her (or him). If we do not, then we miss out on the one fulfilling relationship we could have had.

The book centered on Bach eventually finding his alleged soulmate, Leslie Parrish, whom he married. They later divorced. In fact, Bach has been married 4 times.

But it was books like his with their massive cultural impact that sent people into an anxious state of mind, thinking that everything hinges on ourselves to figure out the right decision for everything or our self-actualization will never occur.

Sadly, the Christian culture of the 90s and 2000s absorbed some of that leaven, and introduced a similar mysticism to decision-making (and to Christian life in general) that unfortunately included waiting for personalized whispers, looking for signs, or other extra-biblical methods that will guide Christians along in decision-making, a process that that forgets God’s sovereignty.

Just as much as Seagull and Bridge from Bach made a cultural impression in the previous generation, Henry Blackaby and Claude King’s book “Experiencing God” advanced these philosophies into Christian culture. Pastor Gary Gilley explained in his site Think on These Things, (TOTT), Gilley said;

For example, as in Experiencing God, the Blackabys say much about prayer being two-way communication with God (pp. 113, 117, 122, 131) — we speak, then wait for God to speak.

At the Website Stand to Reason, we read,

“Your task is to wait until the Master gives you instructions” (141). This is the critical fourth step in the “Seven Realities of Experiencing God.” Blackaby sums it up simply as “God speaks” (52). The Christian receives an “assignment” from God that is special and unique to each individual, the specific will of God for his own life.

Pastor Phil Johnson debunked about inner promptings and whispers, (transcript here from Super Session at the 2002 Shepherds’ Conference, audio here)

Now this kind of thinking is totally at odds with the principle of Sola Scriptura. We believe as Protestants don’t we, that the written Word of God – the Bible – contains everything necessary for our salvation and our growth in grace. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…listen to the next phrase…that the man of God may be PERFECT, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Scripture alone is able to equip us thoroughly, perfectly for all good works. Everything we need in the process of our sanctification. There is no need for extrabiblical revelation. The Bible will equip you for all good works. It will give you all the explicit guidance you can possibly get from God. It contains principles to help you be wise and discerning as you pursue the course of your life, and beyond that we simply trust God in His providence to order our steps. You don’t need an explicit message from God telling you whom to marry, or where to go to school, or where to go to the mission field. [italics mine]

So how should we approach making decisions? As Johnson said, either there is explicit guidance in the Bible or there is wisdom to guide us as we read the Bible.

Any first step to decision making would assume first that one is saved. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. (John 15:5). Secondly it assumes that the thing you’re undecided about does not involve sin. We never decide toward sin, we flee from sin. ( 2 Timothy 2:22; Genesis 39:12). Thirdly, it assumes that you’re relying completely on God’s word. If the item you’re trying to decide about is directly in the Bible, follow that command. “Should I submit to my husband?” isn’t really a decision to ponder, because it is already commanded.

Fourthly, the decision-making process assumes that you’ve yielded yourself to the Spirit of Christ within you. You’ve been striving for holiness, and you’re as much as a clean plate as you can be, being a sinner, lol.

Now, how to decide those things which are not directly addressed in God’s word?

Book Review: Decision Making and the Will of God, by Garry Friesen

Garry Friesen wrote a good book on Christian decision-making, linked above. He wrote that:

God’s guidance according to the way of wisdom can be summarized in four simple statements:

1.Where God commands, we must obey.
2.Where there is no command, God gives us the freedom (and responsibility) to choose.
3.Where there is no command, God gives us wisdom to choose.
4.When we have chosen what is moral and wise, we must trust the sovereign God to work all the details together for good.

–end Garry Friesen quote

Did you know that You Are Part of a Grand Plan? It’s not like you can mess it up. If you make this decision or that decision, it isn’t going to surprise God, or alter what He has planned for you. Providence, as mentioned above by Phil Johnson, is secure. His plan will be fulfilled, and your decision making isn’t going to change it. You aren’t going to miss out on anything. Beyond what is specifically prescribed in the Bible, and “we simply trust God in His providence to order our steps” as Phil Johnson explained.

In my own life, I moved from Maine to Georgia. I wanted a place with lower cost of living, and warmer weather. That’s it. He would have worked it out of I’d chosen Texas or North Carolina. Deciding on Georgia wasn’t a life-or death decision, just one that wasn’t sinful, fit my lifestyle, and made sense.

When I got to Georgia I applied for a number of jobs. I applied using common sense. What did I have experience in, was trained for, and was good at? It’s not like I consulted the Lord and waited for a sign or anything. I was following the biblical principle that he who does not work does not eat. I sought jobs I thought I had the best chance of getting and sustaining myself.

Some jobs I applied for were at the University in the journalism department, some with local magazines. The one I got (in His providential care) was for the Athens Banner Herald writing feature stories of people in my county as a freelancer. Later when I decided to go back to education – subbing at first and applying for parapro jobs, I didn’t consult the Lord. I just used common sense. The freelance job simply wasn’t paying enough. A job with the County Education system would:

-be fairly secure as jobs go (education is the largest employer in the county)
-had health benefits (I was soon to be 50)
-was what I was trained for. (formerly certified teacher with Masters degree)
-I’d be working with kids (something I love).

If I’d decided to get a job as a bungee jumper trainer, lol, that would not be common sense. Watching for omens and signs, or waiting to hear directly from God would not make sense, either.

I knew the Lord would work it out. In His providence He did not ordain that I was given the first job I’d interviewed for as a parapro at another school, but a year later I got a job at the school I’m at now, a great fit. I’ve been there 17 years, 15 as a parapro. It’s not like there is only ONE decision or only ONE path.

I’ll conclude with Phil Johnson–

If your life is in harmony with all the commands and principles of the Bible, you can actually do what you want to do without beating yourself up with introspection and fretting over whether God told you to do something or not. When Scripture says He orders our steps it’s talking about His guidance through His hand of providence. We step out in faith, and He guides our steps.