Thank you for your sincere and heartfelt questions. I believe it is healthy to question a Bible teacher’s teaching, especially if it doesn’t line up with God’s Word. In Acts 17:10-11 we read, “Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and SEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES DAILY TO FIND OUT WHETHER THESE THINGS WERE SO.” Think of it, the great Apostle Paul comes to Berea and teaches the Word of God to the Jews there. The Jews are open-minded and ready to receive Paul’s teachings, but they weren’t willing to accept his teachings as absolute truth before “searching the scriptures” to see if his teachings were in accordance with the scriptures. They weren’t being rude to Paul by doing this; they were being zealous for the truth and wanted to compare what he said with what the former inspired scriptures said. We read next “Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men” (verse 12). After searching the scriptures, they were persuaded that the gospel that Paul preached was true, and thus they BELIEVED the gospel and were saved. You can be sure that Paul was not offended by their act of comparing what he said with the Word of God to see if his teachings were true. How can we be sure of that? Here is what he wrote to the Thessalonians after they believed the gospel, “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, also effectively works in you who believe” (1^st Thessalonians: 2:13). Like the Bereans, they were “ready to receive the Word” and they too were persuaded that the good news he brought to them lined up with the scriptures that had been written before (the Old Testament scriptures that foretold the coming of Christ and his sacrificial work on the cross to saved sinner…see John 5:29 & Luke 24:13-27, 33-47).

As for Mr. Blackaby’s book “Experiencing God,” there are many who speak in glowing terms of how they were helped by his book. But there are others, who are also “Bible teachers,” who gave it a thorough critique and found it had areas of concern. They said that he was “sound in the faith” when it comes to the Person and Work of Christ, but that his teachings on the main subject of the book (that dealt with a believer’s walk with God and getting to know Him and His will in a deeper way) were not scriptural in some places and could lead one to count on their “feelings” to know that they were doing God’s will instead of relying on “faith” in what God has said in His Word. They even brought out that some could begin to doubt their salvation if they weren’t “experiencing” exactly what “God was telling them to do through experiences or impressions.” He speaks much of “hearing God’s voice” through these means, which would supposedly give them to “sense they were in God’s will for the job He had for them to do.”

I am glad that you are acting like the Bereans and you should not be intimidated because of one being a “pastor of a church.” In fact, if you were to “search the scriptures” you would see that there is no such thing. There are “elders” in a local church who are there to “guide and feed the flock of God” (see Acts 20:17-32 and 1^st Peter 5:1-4), but the Word of God says nothing of one man being “the pastor of a local church.”  You have no obligation to believe everything a Bible teacher teaches for no one is infallible and incapable of error. I cannot decide the matter for you, but if it were me, I would not violate my conscience by sitting under teachings that are in error. If you decide to approach him with your concerns, may you do so in the manner laid out in 2^nd Timothy 2:24-25, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth.”  (DO)  (605.1)