Experiencing God is a Wonderful Bible Study
Copyright 2001 by Julie McDonald
Have you had a chance yet to study the wonderful Experiencing God Series by Henry Blackaby? Henry is a Baptist preacher who plants new churches where they are needed and shares his experiences in relying on God to do the work and also to provide the money. The study has become very popular and understandably so.
It is such a great study it would be worth your while to look for it to be offered in your church and take it when it comes around. You can also purchase the books or workbooks at your local Christian bookstore and study it on your own or with a small group. It is exciting to see what God does through His followers. How He brings people together for common purpose, even perfect strangers.
This great study has changed my life. I had not realized how God is at work around me all the time. Through the study I learned to look for Him at work and join Him there so that I could serve Him.
I didn’t need to think up something to do for God. He was already at work all around me and all I needed to do was join Him in that work and allow Him to work through me to complete His miraculous plan.
He already had a wonderful plan. He already had everything under control. He already had His plan in the works. I just needed to look for it. It was there all the time.
I have taught this bible study series about four or five times in my own church and continue to learn something new every time I study it. Most recently I changed my career and five years ago I never thought it could happen.
This had been a situation I had been praying about and had written comments in the margin about back then and now it has already taken place. Isn’t God amazing?
Henry Blackaby goes through seven realities that are so simple yet so profound I wondered why I hadn’t figured them out before on my own. I discovered I had not understood these principals before because I was caught up in doing something for God and had not stopped long enough to really listen to God.
I had not developed my relationship with God to such an extent that I listened to what God was trying to tell me. I didn’t realize how to get confirmations regarding the directions of my life. There are a number of ways to get direction and confirmation for one’s life discussed in the study.
First, it is important that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior before you will be able to understand any of the basic principals in this study. Having the Holy Spirit in your heart will open the door to understanding all God’s teachings. Without it you will just be confused. You will miss the messages that are offered in the Bible.
Once you have accepted Jesus Christ as the son of the living God and accepted that He died on the cross to save you from your sins and have asked Him to come into your life, you will receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will then help you to understand and interpret the inspired Word of God, the Bible.
Then you can develop your relationship with and experience God. When I developed my relationship with God and began to listen to Him I began to see Him at work all around me. I could see how He was working in people’s lives and how He wanted me to encourage these people to rely on Him for everything.
Sometimes He wanted me to answer questions about Him to these people so they could come closer to Him. Sometimes He wanted me to witness to them or set an example for them. I didn’t have to seek them out, God brought them to me.
What was important was that I was ready to answer the questions by having the knowledge of God from studying the Bible. It is so important to study the Bible and it’s principles. My current Bible study group is a small group of ladies who meet in our homes bi-weekly. One of the great things about my small group, besides the Bible study, is the fellowship. It has been such a blessing to get to know all the ladies. They have become like an extended family.
If your church offers small groups and you haven’t joined one yet you are missing something wonderful. Between the Bible study and increased learning and fellowship with other Christians it would be one of the most rewarding things you could do.
I will write more articles on my experiences with God in the weeks to come.
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To purchase the Experiencing God workbook or get more information, click here.