More On Blackaby

I received the following reply to my critical review of Blackaby’s Experiencing God on Amazon.com (my response follows below):

I would like to address your concerns regarding Jesus speaking today, individually to His followers.

Proper discernment of God’s Word vs. our experience or traditions or dogmas can only come through the gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corithians 2:14).

Jesus is the way shower for every born-again Christian (1st John 2:6). Jesus told his disciples that He had many things to say to them, but they could not bear it at that time, but after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit would come to dwell within them, He said that He would teach them all things (Jn 14:25, 26). Jesus’s statement clearly implies that the Spirit would be SPEAKING all that Jesus was unable to speak to them while He was on earth. Still not convinced?

In John 16:13 Jesus said, “However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears, HE SHALL SPEAK. And He will announce to you THINGS TO COME. (MKJV)

Jesus said that His sheep (i.e. not just the apostles) HEAR His voice and no other will they follow (John 10:27). Jesus described the born-again experience as a wind that we don’t know where it comes from or where it is going (John 3:8). The Scripture further says that only those that are led by the Spirit are children of God (Romans 8:14).

Regarding prayer, our lives, according to be Scripture are to be lives of continual prayer (1st Thess 5:17), and the Spirit prays through us because we don’t know how to pray (Romans 8:16). Now I ask you, how can the Spirit pray through us if He is not speaking to us?

Jesus became like us (Philippians 2:7-8) and was tempted in all points as we are and yet never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). If Jesus did not become fully human than He could never say, “Follow me;” He would be able to say, “Admire me, worship me, obey me,” but not “Follow me.” 1st John 2:6 says, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.”

With this in mind, let us ask the question, how did Jesus walk (i.e. live)?

Jesus said, “I have many things to say and to judge of you, but He who sent Me is true, and I speak to the world those things what I heard of Him (John 8:26, MKJV),” and “I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you, then, do what you have seen with your father. (John 8:38, MKJV).”

From the two verses quoted above is it not clear that Jesus lived as a man in CONSTANT two-way communication with the Father? Why do you think it should be any different for those that have Jesus living within them through the Holy Spirit (John 17:20-21, 23, 26, Colossians 1:27)?

I encourage you consider the Scriptures I have shared with you and to pray by faith for the Holy Spirit to help lead you further in the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

My reply:

Thank you for offering a thoughtful response to my review. Note that I do have a robust presentation on this topic (a week-long course, actually), but I did not exactly have enough space for that. Here are some initial responses:

• 1 Corinthians 2:14 does not teach that “proper discernment of God’s Word vs. our experience or traditions or dogmas can only come through the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  Rather, it teaches that men will not accept the truths of revelation without the Holy Spirit. In any case, this is not an argument for ongoing specific guidance from God.
• 1st John 2:6 and Jn 14:25, 26 say that the Spirit would be SPEAKING all that Jesus was unable to speak to them while He was on earth. This was fulfilled with the disciples (to whom Jesus was speaking) – this is no promise to us.
• John 16:13 does not say the Holy Spirit will teach US all things (has He done so for any believer since the apostles???).
• John 10:27 has to do with faith, not ongoing specific guidance from God.
• John 3:8  has to do with faith, not ongoing specific guidance from God.
• Romans 8:14 has to do with acting according to the flesh (i.e., sin) – not ongoing specific guidance from God.
• Neither 1st Thess 5:17 nor Romans 8:16 say that the Spirit prays through us, much less speaks to us.
• 1st John 2:6 cannot be used to justify just anything that Jesus ever did. Clearly Jesus is a unique case! You need to show that a given thing that Jesus did was part of the example for us – not just ask rhetorical questions. But even so, how many times does the Scripture actually teach that He received Blackaby-style ongoing specific guidance from God? Remaining in God’s will is possible without it. 1 Tim. 3:16 says we have all we need for a life of godliness in the Scriptures, so do we need more or not?

I encourage you to read the Scriptures in context and try to understand them sans your presuppositions of ongoing specific guidance from God. It was eye-opening for me after a decade immersed in the popular view.