Donkeys for Dummies!
I predicted in January 2021, “I’m out on a limb here, but not really.
Leadership Core: Character, Competence, Capacity will likely be my 2021 book-of-the-year. It will take a phenomenal book to jostle this pick off its perch.”
Did I speak too soon? Yikes! From May to December, I’ve read about one chapter every weekend from
Experiencing God (2021 Edition): Knowing and Doing the Will of God, by Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby, and Claude King. This powerful/powerful update of the classic book/workbook was published in May 2021 with seven new chapters and dozens of memorable stories that you’ll share with families and friends. (I shared one story around our Thanksgiving table last week.)
It's likely you spent time in the
Experiencing God workbook years ago. Ditto. But…wow. This new edition (now with Henry Blackaby’s son,
Richard, as the third co-author) is fresh, convicting, and so, so insightful. (
How did I miss these truths on my first read-through?)
In more than 500 book reviews, I’ve featured only a handful of books that required two reviews. This book also requires two reviews, maybe three. Here’s Part 1 of 2:
FOUR MEMORABLE INSIGHTS (Part 1 of 2)
Note: Click here to read my second review, Part 2 of 2, at the Pails in Comparison blog. Plus view the powerful video from an inmate at Angola Prison!INSIGHT #1: The Two-Word Answer! Henry Blackaby shares the story of a couple who heard God direct them to take early retirement and serve overseas. Instead, they delayed until all their ducks were in a row and their dream home was built. But then… “a violent tornado swept right over their house, tearing it to splinters and leaving only rubble.” They asked Blackaby, “What do you think we should do?”
Blackaby’s two-word response:
“OBEY IMMEDIATELY!”INSIGHT #2: Mistakes! Blackaby writes,
“Nowhere in the Bible does God promise to stop us from making mistakes!” He lists four inappropriate ways for discerning God’s voice. (Even well-meaning people make these mistakes! Yikes!) These are serious mistakes—because people are misunderstanding what the Bible teaches. They include:
1) Asking for a miraculous sign
2) Seeking a method
3) The “name it and claim it” method
4) Open and closed doors
On seeking a method, Blackaby comments,
“Balaam heard God speak through a donkey even though he had never heard God talk through a donkey before. If Balaam lived in our formula-driven day, perhaps he would have written a book, Donkeys for Dummies, so people could discern when God was speaking to them through a donkey, too!”INSIGHT #3: “See Where God Is Working!” When Henry Blackaby was a pastor, the church was located near a college campus. “One Sunday, I pulled our students together and said, ‘
This week I want you to go to the campus and watch to see where God is working. If God shows you where He is working, immediately join Him!” (He explained that the Bible teaches that “people don’t ask questions about spiritual matters unless God is at work in their lives.”)
He writes, “That Sunday, I told the students, ‘If during the course of your day attending class, someone starts asking you spiritual questions, what else you may have planned, don’t do it. Cancel what you had planned and spend time with that individual to discover what God is doing.’ That week our students went onto the campus, watching to see where God was at work so they could join Him.”
What happened? “On Wednesday, one of our female students excitedly reported, ‘Pastor, a girl who had been in classes with me for two years approached me after class today. She said, ‘I think you might be a Christian. I need to talk to you.’ I remembered what you said.
I had a class in a few minutes, but I skipped it. We went to the cafeteria to talk. She said, ‘Eleven of us girls in the dorm have been studying the Bible, and none of us are Christians. Do you know someone who can lead us in a Bible study?’”
Blackaby notes, “As a result of that contact, we started three Bible study groups in the women’s dorms and two in the men’s.
For almost two years we had tried to do something for God and failed. Then for three days we looked to see where God was working, and what a difference that made!”The authors remind readers not to look for a formula to experience God. Instead, they articulate seven key principles (realities) across the 26 short chapters—with dozens of memorable stories. The seven realities:
•
Reality 1: "God is always at work around you.
•
Reality 2: God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
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Reality 3: God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
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Reality 4: God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
•
Reality 5: God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
•
Reality 6: You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
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Reality 7: You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.”
INSIGHT #4: “Please Cancel My Request!” In Mark 2, when the four entrepreneurial friends of the paraplegic man brought their friend to Jesus for healing, Jesus—instead—forgave the man’s sins. Meditating on that passage prompted Blackaby to weep and pray,
“O God, if I ever give You a request and You have more to give me than I am asking, please cancel my request!”Read this gem—slowly—and the truths will seriously whack you. Example: “Focusing on identifying [spiritual] gifts instead of determining what God’s assignment is can also be severely limiting for believers who base their future usefulness for God only on their past effectiveness.” Blackaby adds,
“The common approach to spiritual gifts can easily become self-centered rather than God-centered.” Stay tuned for more whacks (Part 2 of 2) in a future issue.
To order from Amazon, click on the title for
Experiencing God (2021 Edition): Knowing and Doing the Will of God, by Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby, and Claude King. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on
Libro.fm (11 hours, 3 minutes).
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:1) “When God speaks, it is important to write it down,” says Henry Blackaby. That’s from my short 2008 review of
Experiencing God (
click here).
Why might you find value in reading an updated and expanded version of a book you’ve already read—and this time, making notes as you read (when God speaks). 2) Glub. Glub. Glub? Henry Blackaby writes, “The affirmation comes after the obedience.” He notes: “When Jesus invited Peter to get out of the boat to walk on the water, He did not assure Peter he would stay afloat! The Lord simply said, ‘Come!’ (Matt. 14:28). Peter wouldn’t know he could walk on the water until he took his first step.”
This past year or two, what have you learned about taking the first step?
John’s “I’m trying” efforts were fruitless. “In trying to honor God as a college student, I wanted the fruits of the spirit to be evident in my life. But I focused on the fruits—instead of the spirit.” (See Mistake #21 in Mastering Mistake-Making.)Mistake #21 of 25: Striving Really Hard to Walk With God
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned
John’s Mistake #21: “’I can do this by trying harder’ was my failed strategy. ‘Just be more disciplined.’ I missed the simplicity of John 15—being connected to the Vine.”
Read this chapter to discover what John learned during his college days about the difference between human striving versus simply enjoying a relationship with the God of the Universe! And…learn what happened when he violated that semester’s evangelism training mandate, “Never say ‘TURN OR BURN!’”
For Mistake #21, John recommends two resources from Cru:
• Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?*
• Have You Made the Wonderful Discovery of the Spirit-Filled Life?*
*See bulk pricing from Cru Press.
Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake-Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
For supplementary resources, click on John's "Bucket" book and workbook below:
JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Henry Blackaby suggests you conduct a personal inventory and ask, “’What am I presently doing that can only be explained by God’s activity in my life?’ If you cannot think of anything, spend time with the Lord and ask Him why.” Need help conducting both personal and organizational inventories? Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
Issue No. 658 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Oct. 3, 2025) features a new book coming Oct. 7—describing the four seasons of a CEO. The “...
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