Manual A God Centered Church: Experiencing God Together

A God Centered Church (ebook) (ePub Format)

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Your Church Experiencing God Together | Experiencing God

Share your opinion with others, be the first to write a review. I came across this product and thought you may like it. Developing a Powerful Praying Church Paperback 0. Living Out of the Overflow: Serving Out of Your In Audiobooks Blackaby Bible Studies.. Experiencing God Calendar Bibles Books.. The New Pastor's Handbook: Help and Encouragement for the First Years of Ministry.

The Master Plan of Evangelism. Product description Review "Wayne Shepherd's rich vocal personality matches voice to mood as he delivers the authors' prescriptions for living a God-centered life. With warmth and empathy he recounts how to develop an intimate, life-changing relationship with the Lord and how to apply God's will to all of life's circumstances.

The issue of trust prevents many from growing in relationship with the Lord.

Experiencing God's Holiness by Francis Chan

With a simple rhythm Shepherd defines what trust is and what trusting God means, and how to build and renew one's faith and trust in God each day. Revised and expanded with seven new chapters and dozens of inspirational stories, this practical, God-centered audiobook is suited for individual or group Bible study. See all Product description. Kindle Edition File Size: Amazon Australia Services, Inc.

Your Church Experiencing God Together | Experiencing God

Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Showing of 1 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. I expected a quality piece of literature but finding more everyday. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. What about in the passage in question? This is one of many examples where Blackaby, like other authors, patches together verses to make his point, often excluding relevant material from the context that changes the entire sense of the citation.

His omission of verses 18, a portion of 19, and verses 21, 22, and 23 is unfortunate. Each is vital to our understanding and seriously qualifies the meaning of the passage, as this more complete citation of John 5: He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Note first of all verse 18, the overlooked verse. The word "therefore" in verse 19 indicates that what follows is meant to buttress this singular claim in verse Note also the three phrases in parallel construction: These verses are a complete unit.

In context, these verses have to do with the divinity of Christ. He is unique as the incarnate Son of God and therefore has unique obligations, unique abilities, and a unique relationship with the Father. Verses clear up any question on this score: As Messiah, Jesus has a singular role. No subsequent writers Peter, John, Paul, Luke ever mention it. Remember, John 8 is one of the great passages on the deity of Christ.

The Jews ask, "Who are you? Jesus is arguing that He is utterly unique.

He is from above, not below, and not of this world v. He is the only Savior v. He lives in perfect obedience to the Father v.

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He is a free man, a son, not a slave v. Note also that Jesus said the Jews were also "hearing" from their Father, Satan: Are we to understand that the Jews were having conversations with Satan getting direct commands from him? Or did Jesus mean rather that they were doing his deeds see v. I think the latter. Even Jesus did not expect it was enough merely to claim to speak for God. Instead, He appealed to corroborating witnesses: John the Baptist, prophecy, miracles, and Scripture e.

I do not think Blackaby intentionally misconstrued this verse. It is just one of many examples of the reckless way he uses Scripture. Later in the Gospel of John we find another. The passage in John 10 where Jesus refers to His sheep hearing His voice is central to Blackaby's view. It also frequently misapplied by others. It is important to know precisely what Jesus has in mind when He uses these terms.

John records four mentions by Jesus of His sheep hearing or knowing His voice Verse six is key to understanding this passage. Jesus begins by talking about shepherds and sheep Unlike the thief and robber, the legitimate shepherd enters by the door and calls His own by name. They then follow Him as He leads them out. Jesus' point is lost on those listening, though, so He explains the details of the illustration. He is the door of the sheep 7. Those who pass through Him find salvation and abundant life He is also the good shepherd who, unlike the hireling, lays down His life freely for His sheep , 15, The shepherd and the sheep know each other When His other sheep hear His voice, they also become part of His flock Once again, the Jews fail to completely understand v.

What is the problem?

Two key questions need to be answered from the text of John Blackaby answers one way and Jesus answers another. Blackaby seems to have a couple of things in mind when he mentions hearing God's voice. Gaining insight or applying a command from Scripture is one kind of "hearing" Getting a personal "assignment" from God through a leading or a calling is another This is not what Jesus has in mind here, though. It is critical at this point to remember John's clarification. Jesus was using a figure of speech. The word "voice" cannot mean voice. A thing is never a metaphor of itself.

It is a picture of something else. Jesus must be referring, in a figure, to something else that the phrase "hear my voice" represents. He says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me and I give eternal life to them" v. They hear His voice. Then He gives them eternal life.

What "voice" is it that draws us to Jesus and results in our salvation? Most likely it is the ineffable drawing by the Father through His Spirit of those who are His, a concept John has already introduced and developed in earlier chapters of his Gospel 5: It is a figure of speech for the inner working of the Holy Spirit that leads to our salvation. Remember, the Jews have no trouble actually hearing Jesus. They hear His instructions just fine.

The voice being referred to here is not the whispers of private direction given by God, but the effective call of the Holy Spirit bringing us to Christ. Why don't the Jews "hear" in the sense that Jesus means, that is, respond and believe? Jesus tells us plainly. They do not "hear" because God is not "speaking" to them. They are not among the sheep the Father has given to the Son. That is Jesus' unambiguous teaching.

Now the second question: What enables us to hear? Blackaby claims, "Knowing God's voice comes from an intimate love relationship with God" , and again, "As you walk in an intimate love relationship with God, you will come to recognize His voice. You will know when God is speaking to you" But Jesus never suggests such a thing. This "hearing" is not for believers after salvation, but for non-believers prior to salvation.

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There is another damaging consequence of Blackaby's misreading of this text. According to Jesus' comments, hearing His voice is essential to salvation. Those who do not hear are not His. Rather they are outsiders, bereft of eternal life, lost. There is an unavoidable consequence of blending the wording of John 10 with Blackaby's definition of hearing Jesus' "voice. In the verse Blackaby quotes, Jesus is castigating the Jews for unbelief, calling them the sons of Satan 8: Blackaby places a tremendous burden on the believer who questions his spirituality and even his salvation if divine messages are not forthcoming.

This is not Jesus' meaning. Blackaby's understanding of hearing the voice of God is completely foreign to the text of John 8 and To Jesus, hearing God is not a skill to be developed. It is not an advanced discipline opening the lines to personalized assignments from the Father. It is not a fruit of a deepening love relationship with God. It is a figure of speech. Hearing Jesus' voice is not getting an assignment; it's getting saved. It's the result of the Father drawing the non-believer into Jesus' arms.

The life and teaching of Jesus do not support Blackaby's ideas.

What about the life of the early church? In Acts we have a focused look at a relatively short period 30 years of Bible history in which there are radical manifestations of supernatural activity. Acts offers a best-case scenario for providing an inductive argument for the view that Christians ought to be receiving assignments from God, private, subjective revelations of God "speaking" to them.

What do we find? I went through Acts verse by verse looking for concrete examples of the kind of assignments Blackaby describes in Experiencing God.

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I have listed below every time God gave a special directive of any sort. An angel rescues the apostles from prison and tells them to preach the Gospel 5: Philip is sent to the Gaza road by an angel 8: Philip is directed to the Ethiopian eunuch by the Spirit 8: While traveling on the Damascus road, Saul hears the audible voice of Jesus directing him to Damascus 9: Ananias has a vision in which the Lord instructs him to visit Saul 9: Cornelius is instructed by an angel in a vision to send for Peter Peter is instructed by the Spirit to visit Cornelius Peter is ordered by an angel to follow him out of prison Paul and Barnabas are sent out by the Holy Spirit on their first missionary journey The Holy Spirit forbids Paul to speak the word in Asia Paul is directed through a vision to Macedonia Jesus appears to Paul in a vision and tells him to preach the Gospel in Corinth Paul is told through prophecy not to enter Jerusalem Jesus tells Paul in a vision to leave Jerusalem What are the means of these revelations?

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How does God communicate these assignments? The majority five are communicated through visions. Three times an angel is the messenger. Four times the Spirit speaks.