The Experiencing God Bible Study outlines seven realities for knowing and doing God's will in our lives. These realities are principles found in the lives of Bible characters that we can learn from and apply to our own lives.
1. God is always at work around you.
At this very moment, God is working all around you, as well as in your life. One of the greatest tragedies among God's people is that, although they deeply long to experience God, He is at work all around them day after day but they do not recognize Him.
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
God Himself pursues a love relationship with you. He takes the initiative to bring you into this relationship. He created you for fellowship with Himself. That is the purpose of your life. This love relationship can and should be real and personal to you.
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
The Bible reveals that God has always been working in the world. He has never been absent from it or indifferent to what was taking place in history. When we read the Bible, we are reading God's redemptive activity in our world. We see that He chooses to take the initiative and involve His people in His work. He determines to work through people to accomplish His purposes.
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
A critical requirement for understanding and experiencing God is clearly knowing when He is speaking. If people don't know when God is speaking, they are in trouble at the heart of their Christian lives. In this unit we will discover ways God speaks through the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways. We will also examine ways God speaks through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church or other believers.
5. God's invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
When God invites you to join Him in His work, He has a God-sized assignment for you. You will quickly realize you cannot do what He is asking on your own. If God doesn't help you, you will fail. This is the crisis of belief when you must decide whether to believe God for what He wants to do through you
6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
When God speaks to you to reveal what He is about to do, that revelation is your invitation to adjust your life to Him. Your faith will be most clearly demonstrated by your actions. Actions you will take include the adjustments you must make to be in a position to obey the Lord. Once you've adjusted your life to the Lord, you act in obedience. Then God accomplishes through you what He has purposed to do. Adjustments prepare you for obedience. You cannot continue life as usual or stay where you are and go with God at the same time.
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through you.
After God has taken the initiative to involve you in His work, you believe Him and adjust your life to Him. Only then do you reach a place of obedience. You must obey Him first. Then He accomplishes His work through you. When God does a God-sized work through your life, you come to know Him intimately by experience.
These realities are not a step-by-step approach to knowing and doing God's will. It describes a love relationship through which God accomplishes His purposes. The best way to sum up these realities is "watch to see where God is working and join Him!"
Learn more about the seven realities and discover God's will for your life in the Experiencing God Bible Studyby Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby, Mike Blackaby, and Claude King.