Steve Simms's Blog, page 106
February 13, 2023
The ongoing Jesus-led gathering at Asbury University
A huge Jesus-led gathering has been going nonstop at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky for days! I’m so glad I got to be there for a while! On February 11 and 12 I was at the Asbury Revival. Here are my observations:
1) The attention stays on Jesus;
2) People are thrilled to be there;
3) People are free to come and go, interact with each other, and move about as they wish;
4) No one seems to be aware of the time;
5) Everybody present looks fully engaged (there seems to be no spectators or reluctant contributors);
6) There is no hype or manipulation and minimal programming;
7) No one individual is controlling or directing things,
Faces are beaming, people are being deeply touched by God, and lives are being changed.
9) In all this freedom there is a holy sense of order and glorious awareness of Jesus’ presence and leadership.
A Jesus-led like that gathering can be few people or many as long as the focus stays on connecting with and obeying Him. I love to experience Jesus-led gatherings every day. Most are small; some are even so tiny it’s just me and one other person with Jesus. Even a phone call can be a Jesus-led gathering if we let Him lead and direct our conversation and prayers.
A Jesus-led gathering doesn’t meet around a human leader, a hierarchy, or even a speech. It comes together around Jesus! For me the real Super Bowl is a Jesus-led gathering overflowing with His glorious presence.
Repentance is an important part of revival. There’s no right time to do the wrong thing, but it’s always the right time to obey God. When the Holy Spirit releases the flames of red-hot faith it’s vital that we don’t fold it into formalism.
I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for how God is moving at Asbury! Spread it everywhere, Jesus! If you’ve been to the ongoing Jesus-led gathering at Asbury take it home with you. Gather with one or more people and let the living Jesus take direct control.
While I was at the Jesus-led gathering at Asbury people gathered at the windows around the auditorium to pray that God will send the revival in all directions. I went to the closest window to me, put my hand on it and prayed for God to pour out His spirit in that direction. When I open my eyes, I saw this stained-glass window image right in front of me. Then these words came to my mind: “Revival happens when you’re broken at My feet.”
Revival can happen in you!O hear and heedThe inner seedThat Jesus is plantingAs He whispersIn your heart’s ears,And let Him daily writeHis living WordDeep within your soulAnd make youGloriously whole!I love to be partOf a Jesus-led gatheringAnd let His presenceOvreflow my heart!
February 12, 2023
Jesus can . . . Let Him . . . The revival will come!
Jesus can do amazing things when people gather in His name. Revival happens when we let Him! It happens when people realize that Jesus can take over and be the One in control and they humbly let Him!
Revival: Jesus can . . . Let Him! Release your control and give Jesus the wheel. Let Him be the Pilot, not your co-pilot To be spiritually revived is to be awake to the presence of Jesus and joyously led by His Spirit. (See Romans 8:14.) Jesus has no problem bringing revival and spiritual awakening, but we have a big problem letting Him!
Perhaps God is searching for people who will open their heart to receive the outpouring of His Spirit (2 Chronicles 16:9), who are willing to decrease and make room for Him to increase (John 3:30). Will you? Jesus can spread revival everywhere. Let Him!
Jesus is knocking on your heart’s door seeking to continually fill you with His presence, power, and reality. Let Him!
Jesus can lead and guide your every step from within you. Let Him!
Jesus can heal your broken heart. Let Him!
Jesus can fill you with unspeakable joy and peace beyond conprehension. Let Him!
Jesus can rekindle the fire and excitement of the love you had for Him when you first discovered His reality. Let Him!
Jesus can set you free from the thoughts, desires, feelings, and behaviors that interfere with your relationship with God. Let Him!
Jesus can and does personally speak when Christians gather in His name. Let Him! Jesus can and will speak through you. Instead of speaking on your own initiative, let Him prompt what you say.
Jesus can prompt you to speak out publicly during a church service. Let Him! (See 1 Corinthians 14:30-31.)
Jesus can use you to manifest various gifts of the Spirit. Let Him!
Jesus can embolden you to pray out loud with people. Let Him!
Jesus can give you the courage to share your salvation testimony with individuals, in social settings, and even in church. Let Him.
Jesus can give you deep heart-to-heart connection with other Christ-followers. Let Him!
Jesus can give you the boldness, confidence, and power to obey the 50+ New Testament “one another commands.” Let Him!
“God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Let Him lead you into humility and poverty of spirit.!
Jesus can take full control of and directly lead a church service, conference, or other Christian worship gathering. Let Him! When people make room for Jesus by removing the things that are keeping Him out, He shows up.
Recipe for revival: Set aside religious protocol and make room for people to follow and obey Christ’s inner call.
Jesus can be your Pastor. Let Him!
Jesus can! Let’s step aside, clear the way, and make a clear path for Him.
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Who’s Jesus?
Who’s Jesus? O, for a clearer view of the real Jesus.
I woke up this morning with these thoughts about Jesus going through my mind and heart:
“Jesus is the Maker of all things — Emmanuel, God with us! Realizing who Jesus is — that realization is the rock of revelation that turns dry bones into living stones so Jesus can build them together as His assembly and be the Head of His Spirit-led body. Christ, the Creator-man, living in you is infinitely more powerful than any religious activity. Let Jesus, the Creator-man, personally show Himself to you. You don’t have to die to meet your Maker. Christ will interact with you right now! Jesus, the Creator of the Universe who became a human being, is now reaching out to you.”
Receive Him as your literal Lord and Master. Enough religious lecture-hearing, Christians need Spirit-led lab work.
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Church should be windy!
Church needs to be windy — overflowing with the blowing of God’s Spirit. The stale air of this world needs to be refreshed by the windy city of God. Hierarchy and institutionalism take the wind out of the body of Christ. Too many Christians have never gotten wind of the glorious prsence of the living Jesus. O for windblown churches!
Learn to enjoy the windy weather of God’s Spirit. It’s time for Christ-followers to run with the wind! Let’s get off the religious rail and begin to soar and sail. I love it when I’m blowing in the Spirit’s wind, getting carried away by the presence of the risen Jesus.
If you’re never blown away in church that’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is being quenched there. The sound of systematized, structured religion should never be a substitute for the sound of the blowing of God’s Spirit. People caught up in a religious system tend to see the wind of the Spirit as an irritation.
If you hide your heart deep in a cave you won’t be able to hear the sound of the wind of God’s Spirit. Open your heart and turn your face to the wind of God’s Spirit. Let the wind of the Spirit free up your soul the way that wind reshapes your hair. Follow the living Jesus down the windy road where God’s Spirit freely blows.
The old wineskins of religious practices or human effort will burst if they open up to the blowing of the wind of the Spirit that releases heart-to-heart friendship and intimacy with the risen Jesus. Windy Spirit-led behavior doesn’t conform to religious institutionalism but breaks out into the glory of God! Churches too often knock the Spirit’s wind out of their members.
Churches are often compromised by looking for government favor and political advantage. Instead they need to follow the wind of the Spirit. Read the Bible with the risen Jesus and let Him teach it to you.
Learn to bend
Like a tree
And dance
In the wind
Of God’s Spirit.
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
Jesus loves to sendThe power of His wind.To lead you from withinBy the presence of His Spirit.[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." data-large-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." src="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." alt="" class="wp-image-35015" />Photo by Maria Isabella Bernotti on Pexels.comFebruary 8, 2023
Focus on what was chosen to be in the Scriptures
For an accurate view
Of God’s Chosen One
Read the Bible every day
As you pray
And listen to God’s Spirit.
Avoid being a puppet
Of your pet pulpit,
Search the Scriptures
Like they did in Acts 11:17.
Many details and events from Jesus’ life were chosen to be in Scripture. Focus on them, not on streaming imaginary depictions and additions. If we ignore the Bible, we can easily be deceived about who Jesus is.
Christians need to be careful that we don’t let people’s descriptions and depictions of Jesus divert us from what the Bible says about Him. Anybody can make up entertaining and even inspiring stories about Jesus, but if those stories aren’t contained in the Scriptures, they’re going to be inaccurate.
The first Christ-followers
Knew Jesus personally
And were supernaturally
Empowered by God’s Spirit.
The closer we get to Jesus,
The more our experience
Will match what they describe
In the Bible.
Going to church (or streaming religion on TV) is often an attempt to avoid having to rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us and to lead us into spiritual growth. The ancient Greek town meeting met without a program or agenda. Any citizen was free to speak spontaneously. That’s what Jesus said He would build: His “ekklesia.”
Before you make
A life-altering choice
Make sure you hear
God’s voice!
Decide to hide in Christ’s Light!
Jesus invites us to reside
In His presence
And to continually abide
With Him,
But it’s so easy
To be yanked aside
By the world’s
Compelling clamor
And to follow it
Stride for stride
Until we collide
With despair.
The risen Jesus
Is the only guide
Who can lead us
To safely hide
Ever by His side
And to overflow
With glory
As we ride
The inner tide
Of His streaming Light.
February 7, 2023
If a tall man says he’s a short woman
People have the right to express their desires and feelings. People also have the right to disagree with other people’s desires and feelings.
A tall man has the right to feel like he’s a short woman. However, his feelings don’t make him short, and they don’t make him a woman.
A man can say he’s a woman and a woman can say she’s a man, but their words don’t magically make it so. The physical differences between male and female are fundamental not incidental. Those differences are determined by our chromosomes. Denying that biology determines who is a man and who is a woman is like denying that height determines who is tall and who is short.
Throughout history male and female roles have been set by society. However, as equal human beings gifted with free will, we all have a right to choose our lifestyle. Two female roles, however, are determined by biology: giving birth and breast feeding. One male role is: fertilizing an egg so a human being can be conceived. No matter how much we change our lifestyle or alter our body, we are still what our chromosomes say we are.
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Instead of showing people the presence of the risen Jesus church too often presents a religious show. Church should be a Jesus reveal meeting always presenting the presence of Christ.
The religious establishment tends to train people to snuggle into and wear the self-righteous mask of pious rituals, rules, and routines — the I’m-holy-wardrobe. However, Jesus is searching for the lost — the real and the raw who know they are needy now and aren’t just hoping for a someday pass into Heaven.
Before I encountered and surrendered to the risen Jesus, I believed the lie that I was a good person because I was outwardly moral and wanted to follow the rules. However, when Jesus entered my life and I began to devour the Bible, He began to show me my great need for His presence, mercy, deliverance, healing, forgiveness, and empowerment.
By the grace of God, I’m now aware of my great need to be continually clothed with Christ. I agree with Jesus. He said: “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” I feel the reality of those words every day. Yet, I’m also aware of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” I’m ever amazed at how He speaks and calms the storms in me moment by moment and keeps me afloat when I would surely sink without His presence!
Let me introduce you
To somebody
That nobody
Should ignore:
Here’s Jesus!
Your awareness
That Jesus is alive
You'll be filled
With peace
And have no need
To strive
Or conive.[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." data-large-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." src="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." alt="" class="wp-image-34987" />Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com
February 6, 2023
10 better questions than “Where do you go to church?”
Christians need to be Christ-controlled not church-controlled. It’s much more important to focus on connecting with and staying connected to the risen Jesus than it is to join a religious organization.
Teaching Christianity with sermons is like teaching swimming with lectures. Most sermons box up the Bible like a boxed lunch that is quickly forgotten. The essence of Christianity isn’t sermon-hearing; it’s listening to and obeying “Christ in you.”
Here are my answers to the 10 questions:
I open up and connect heart-to-heart with other Christians in homes, in cars, in parks, in small groups on the phone, online, and sometimes in restaurants. I spontaneously pray aloud with and for other Christians in the same places as number one.I try to follow 2 Chronicles 7:14 wherever I am.I try to be sensitive to and open up to the gifts of the Spirit anywhere and everywhere.Wherever I am with other people I try to obey the one another commands.I read the Bible everyday mostly in my living room.I overcome the devil with the word of my testimony any chance I get to tell someone about what Jesus has done and is doing in and through me. I frequently testify about Jesus on my blog and on social media.This one is difficult to succeed at, but I try to consider others before me anywhere I am. I seek to let the Spirit lead me everywhere I go.I pour out my heart in praise, worship, and adoration most frequently when I’m at home. Both my wife and I love to ask Alexa to pray anointed worship songs and then we passionately sing along with them. Some of my favorite Alexa requests are: Andre Crouch, Selah, Rick Pino, The Maranatha Singers, Jesus Culture, and All Sons And Daughters. [image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." data-large-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." src="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." alt="" class="wp-image-34979" />Photo by Rumeysa Nur on Pexels.comFebruary 5, 2023
The type of meeting that can manifest and maintain a Spirit-led movement . . .
The ancient Greeks had the secret to maintaining a movement. Jesus borrowed their word for it!
Spiritual movements happen when people spontaneously open their heart to one another as equals and to Jesus as their daily Lord. Institutions don’t maintain spiritual movements. They box them in and suffocate them.
The best time to be aware of the presence of Jesus is now. You can’t see Jesus with your physical eyes, but if you open your heart, you can with your perception. I see Jesus with the senses of my heart and I’m ever in awe of Him!
Learn to recognize and obey the promptings of Christ working in you. The kingdom of God begins in the domain of the invisible and the immaterial. It starts to manifest when you recognize and obey Christ’s promptings within you.
Jesus wants His body to be built around a meeting that is open to revelation and can indefinitely sustain a movement. There was such a meeting occurring regularly in Jesus’ day — the ancient ekklesia that met in Greek cities and maintained the Greek movement of non-hierarchical democracy where any citizen could speak as they felt led.
Referring to the supernatural revelation that Peter received that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said, “Upon this rock, I will build My ekklesia. During the first three centuries, Jesus’ Spirit-led ekklesia gradually transitioned into a programmed meeting planned and controlled by a human leader and turned Christianity into a structured religion rather than a spontaneous movement of God. In the 21st century, it’s time to make church ekklesia again!
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Being suspicious of people because of the skin they’re in is to judge them by their color instead of by the content of their character. The color of a person’s skin is never a shameful thing, but corrupt character content always is.
For centuries skin color was seen as an excuse for abuse. Today it’s still often used as an excuse for suspicion. Skin-shaming creates a climate for injustice. Skin color is never indicative of a person’s character or intelligence.
A “My skin is better than your skin,” attitude is dangerous. If someone truly believes that all skin color-shaming is gone, they will have no skin color preference.
History that minimizes (or ignores) some people’s accomplishments and suffering because of their skin color is inaccurate Until history is taught without regard to skin color and simply seen as what people did to people, our view of the past will be skewed. People should never feel shame or pride because of their skin color.
A colorblind reading of history evaluates historical figures by all their beliefs and behaviors. It neither excuses nor blames them because of their skin color. Regardless of the skin-shaming in history, all skin color is equal. It was in the past. It is today. It will be forever.
Jesus said, “What you did to the least of these you did unto Me.” Skin color has never been a valid excuse to mistreat people. The sin of skin-shaming is so subtle that it can influence us below the level of our awareness.
I had no choice. I was born in the skin I’m in. If you’re either proud of or ashamed of the skin you’re in, you’re focused on something that you had nothing to do with.
It’s not easy to get centuries of skin color-shaming out of a culture’s structures and belief systems. However, after centuries of black-skin-shaming, Black History Month invites all people to discover the greatness of African Americans. This can help erase the racial myths left behind by skin color-shaming.
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