Blackaby Audience Experiences God

Blackaby Audience Experiences God
John R. Petrilli

A fresh start can revolutionize our whole approach to life and how we live it. Whether a vacation, new job, or new location, our perspective and expectations can be dramatically altered by hitting the restart button. The same can be said about getting a fresh start in our relationship with God. Such was the case with many who participated in the Fresh Encounter Conference on September 9-10 at the North Syracuse Baptist Church. Sponsored by Dr. Bruce Jones’ locally-based City Reachers ministry, this highly anticipated event featured acclaimed author Dr. Henry Blackaby, as well as his gifted son, Dr. Richard Blackaby.

It was a powerful one-two punch, with the senior Blackaby delivering challenging Biblical principles while the son shared unforgettable real-life illustrations that had the audience alternately roaring with laughter then quietly reflecting. The opening Friday night public rally bore much visible fruit as many came forward in response to a dual challenge to be truly born-again of God’s Spirit, and for believers to close the distance between themselves and their Lord. It was a rare opportunity to have men of this spiritual caliber pass through our area. An interview with the father-son team revealed the following points of interest.

JP: With over 7 million copies sold, your book, “Experiencing God”, has enjoyed a phenomenal reception over the years. The title suggests the possibility that a gap exists between our knowledge of God and our experiential relationship with Him. Please comment on this important distinction.

DR. HENRY BLACKABY: The editors of my material said, “You should call this book Knowing God.” I said, “Absolutely not.” That title has the idea of intellectual excellence. But everywhere I go around the world God’s people are crying out, ‘How can I experience in my life what I know in my head?’ So I said, “It needs to be called ‘Experiencing God’.” The publisher replied, “Seminary professors won’t like the experiential/personal’ ”. I said, “I’m not writing for seminary professors, I’m writing for the common person.” The term “experience” sets it apart from a lot of other books. The book answers what God’s people are looking for. It supplies the missing link.

JP: In your chapter titled, “God Speaks to His People”, you point out that a love relationship is the key to knowing God’s voice. The absence of that love relationship with God was the problem with the people of Jesus’ day (Matt. 15:8), as well as the Church in Ephesus (Rev. 2:4). Would it be safe to say that a similar problem exists in the church of our day, and if so, how might this be remedied?

DR. HENRY BLACKABY: It certainly is. People have a sense of religion, but not relationship. So God’s people practice religious activity and assume that’s relationship, but it isn’t. All the way through the Bible you hear God saying, ‘I want you to love Me with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength’, and that’s still true today.
There’s not much being taught about it. People are not being helped to know how you have a love relationship to God.

JP: Your speaking engagements have exposed you to a large percentage of the Body of Christ. What evidence do you see of a genuine hunger for God, or the absence thereof?

DR. HENRY BLACKABY: I see a tremendous hunger for God across all denominations including Roman Catholic. The heart cry from God’s people today is “How can I experience God?” And it is a heart cry. It comes from all levels. I work with about 200 top Christian CEO’s, and that’s their heart cry.

JP: In your chapter titled, “God Speaks Through the Church”, you state that the modern church has so overemphasized the priesthood of the believer that we’ve lost our sense of corporate identity. Please comment on the way the resulting lack of accountability has affected the Church.

DR. HENRY BLACKABY: The corporate life of the church is what God intended. God intended an inter-relationship between His people. He did not intend for a solitary individual, but an interdependence. God’s first assignment was to build a church in Jerusalem, and that church proliferated into churches all over the Roman Empire and all over the world. And that’s still God’s plan. I pastored for about thirty years, and I taught our people what a church is, and that its design is to look to see where God’s at work in every other town and village, and go and teach and build churches. So a little church of ten people that was discouraged and wanted to quit, while I was there we started 38 congregations all over the (Canadian) province. I saw that as a Biblical pattern.

DR. RICHARD BLACKABY: Individuals often try to find a church that’s tailor-made for you. (The mentality is) “If the church doesn’t meet my needs or play the music I like, or if the pastor talks about money, or something I’m offended by, then I’ll just walk away.” Not to have any sense of my accountability to this body. This body needs me too. They’re not just there to meet my needs. I’m a part of the family, and that means that the family needs me as well. And a lack of accountability. As soon as you want to sin, you commit your sin, then just go down the street and you just start over. If you become accountable to that church family then you realize that you don’t live in isolation and you are accountable, and your brothers do have a right to ask things of you.

DR. HENRY BLACKABY: I had to teach the people what a church was. I don’t see that happening much today. We’re practicing culturally religious acceptance, but we’re not teaching the people what a church is from the Scriptures. That’s where the heart of the problem is. They don’t know what a church is to be or what it is to do. But when they do, it’s incredible what God does through that church.

JP: In your chapter, “Being God’s Servant”, you share how God has historically and consistently used ordinary people. Please speak a word of encouragement to the ordinary people who will be reading this interview.

DR. HENRY BLACKABY: That has been true right from the beginning. Abraham was an ordinary person. He was one of the most successful of his day, but very ordinary. And when you see the prophets, they were ordinary people.

DR. RICHARD BLACKABY: I would jump in to say that the writing of the “Experiencing God” study has been an example of that. I tell people my dad is the greatest man of God that I know, but he’s also one of the most ordinary people. I don’t say that derogatorily, just to say that he is very ordinary. I run a seminary where we train people to be preachers, administrators and leaders. I know all the skills that go into great leadership. You won’t examine my dad’s life and say, “Oh, it was his administrative genius”, or “It was his marketing savvy.” When you examine the whole phenomenon of how God’s used this material, you just say, “God just chose to find an ordinary person and just speak truth to him, and he just faithfully shared it.

JP: Many believers have spent decades praying for revival. In your travels what if any evidences have you seen that a national revival could be on the spiritual horizon?

DR. HENRY BLACKABY: People don’t seek revival, God brings it. And He looks for a people or a church that He could trust with a mighty move of His presence and power. Then He works mightily. Revival is for God’s people. Spiritual awakening is for the lost. The lost cannot be revived; they’ve never been ‘vived’. Culturally we think of revival as a great number of lost people (being affected). But Biblically, revival is what God does to His people, and when His people get right with Him, then there’s no limit to what God can through that people and to a lost world. We’ve got to get back to the Word of God. And that’s explosive! There’s not a place in the Bible (that indicates) that God cannot radically affect His people, and through His people to touch the rest of the world.