Steve Simms's Blog, page 109

Make every now a holy wow!

Take the King’s crown in your life off of yourself and keep it ever on the living Jesus Christ. As Christians we don’t need more strength. We need fuller surrender to Christ’s strength.

Any day without glimpses of God’s glory is a boring story. It takes guts to be guided by God’s glory instead of by our own self-focused story.

Continually beholding
The glory and magnificence
Of the risen Jesus
Gives life true significance.

Greater glory
Than was on Moses
Fills the heart
That fully exposes
Itself to Jesus.

Look!
Jesus is everywhere
Not here and there,
He’s all the time
Not now and then.
Let His presence
Make every now
A holy wow!

All the words in the world
Can’t truly explain the Word
Who created the world
And became flesh
To live among us,
But hearts
That welcome Him
To freely live inside
Experience a radiant glory
That that rises far above
All the sermons
That have ever tried
To describe Him.

Self-glory,
The ride
Of pride,
Will destroy
Awareness of God.

Embrace full-time everywhere Christianity, not just part-time special-building Christianity. To experience the glory of God together Christians need to gather face-to-face and heart-to-heart, not just line up in rows and see the backs of people’s heads. See Hebrews 10:25. Unfortunately, church history drifts from committed discipleship to critical scholarship to casual showmanship.

A God-designed marriage is a place for His glory. It is a spiritual vineyard where the True Vine grows grapes of glory for the new wine of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of a man and a woman ever committed and surrendered to daily obeying the present, living Jesus together. Godly marriage is a model — a visible prototype — of the invisible relationship between Christ and His totally committed followers. The best (the new wine) lasts, and true love endures and flourishes in a marriage when both the husband and the wife continue to cultivate and quench not God’s Spirit.

God wasn’t invented to make you happy. You were created to daily follow and obey Him. Self-glorification is a deceptive medication.

This is a glory quencher. Since cussing is completely irrational and erratic, you’d think that educated, logical people wouldn’t do it.

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Supernatural hero, Jesus — full of justice and mercy

The hero in Christianity is Jesus. Exalt Him! All the rest of us have an equal status as His servants. If any Christian acts like he is superior to you, he’s being led by human ego, not by God’s Spirit.

My life isn’t about who I am but about who my Creator, the great I AM, is. His identity has captivated me! John the Baptist demonstrated the process of awakening from the striving life to the surrendered life. Talking about Jesus he said: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

If you want to experience Jesus at work, look inside you. He’s knocking and asking you to open your heart’s door wider to Him. Open up and encounter His presence and power.

Remembrance of Jesus from the past without remembering, experiencing, and surrendering to His presence in the present is to forget and abandon His Good News that “I am with you always.” To miss the dynamic now of Bible verses and settle instead for merely recalling their former events and proclamations is a tragedy.

Without direct exposure to the inner light of “Christ in you” corruption darkens, hardens, and deceives the human conscience. Light shines wherever it’s not blocked. Step out of deceptive shadows and see.

Christians have been trained to hear what the preacher is saying to the institutional church instead of what the Spirit is saying to the family of God. I believe in the separation of church and spiritual state. No religious membership can make a person right with God. The only person I want molding me into his image is Jesus.

The great I AM and the slain LAMB OF GOD together demonstrate the unity of justice and mercy. The Old Testament focuses on religious rites, the New Testament on new life in Christ and Spirit-empowered righteousness.

The refusal to admit, expose, and turn away from injustice is a declaration that we trust in our merit more than in God’s mercy. People who don’t believe in God’s mercy can only hope in their own merit. That’s why people feel a need to say: “But I’m a good person.”

When guilt is denied, there are no grounds for mercy, forgiveness, or grace. If we offer our merit to God, it comes back marked “insufficient funds.” If we embrace His mercy, He replies, “Well done!”

Human nature has put mercy and forgiveness on trial and our jury of hardened human hearts has convicted them of being soft on crime. Forgiveness is reciprocal. If you’re unwilling to admit your great need for it, you won’t be willing to give it to others.

If you're still here
On planet earth
You need to hear
With your inner ear
To find out why
You're still here.[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-34732" />Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Hot thoughts and perky poems for starting spiritual fires

Christians have too low a view of Jesus. He is the Creator of everything and became a man. He is ever-present and all powerful. Yet few of us believe that Jesus can lead a church service all by Himself. If the risen Jesus isn’t the play caller, Christianity can feel like a game or a show.

I see Jesus knocking on the doors of churches and individuals pleading, “Let Me come in and take over.” I can’t be silent about it. Most churches and individual Christians claim that we let Jesus in, but we do it on our terms instead of His terms of unconditional surrender. Church often seems like fire prevention — keeping spiritual sparks to a minimum and never letting them interfere with a pastor’s control.

If a king could live inside all of his subjects, he’d have no need for an organizational chart. One king does that — Jesus Christ. Free and open-hearted expressions of love for Jesus will revitalize a church service and make it come alive.

The physical distance between you and God is zero. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” The distance between your heart and His, that’s another story.

When you’re being fed something that’s feeding and stirring your soul, you don’t watch the time. History shows that somebody needs to walk on the water with Jesus, so Christians don’t stay stuck in the boat of tradition. Step out in your congregation. If the pastor’s unwilling to make spiritual waves in church, somebody in the congregation (with humility, tenderness, and persistence) needs to stir up the gifts of God.

Numbers don’t count when Christians meet to experience the presence of Jesus. Church should be about encountering Jesus, not about counting the attendees.

Religion is convenient like a thermos. It can hold the warmth of God when we want it and keep it out when we don’t. Christians, “Let us approach God’s throne of grace,” not just hear a sermon about it. Come on, y’all, dare to do it. Hebrews 4:16.

Right or Left, our ideas and anger aren’t working. We need the living God to show us the way to well-being. Now is the time to stir up God’s inner fire with spiritual desire and make some Spirit-led waves.

If you follow Jesus
You’ll learn to avoid
Being annoyed
Or paranoid.

By letting one man explain
How to maintain
The status quo
Church tends to train
People to contain
Their love for Jesus.Fast-faith,
Every moment
Scheduled,
Quickly in
And quickly out.
Duty done,
Then we can be about
What we really want to do.There's got to be more
To attending church
Than religious status,
Status quo,
And a sweet show.We can sit in the boat,
Do church by rote,
And gently float
With religious tradition,
Or daily follow Jesus
Out on the water
And make some
Spirit-led waves.Let Jesus clearly show
In and through your life.
Let His presence in you grow
So that everyone will know
(Including your foe)
That you're carrying Him
And He's leading you
From within.Don't just sitOn these hot thoughsAnd let them burnIn your head.Share them!Do them![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-34720" />Photo by Sebastian Su00f8rensen on Pexels.com

Remember Jesus is present now

Church should make us remember that Jesus is dynamically present and active now (not just a vague remembrance from the past). Remember and refocus on Him in the now as you read this!

“Behold and become.” We need to do more than remember Jesus in the past. As heart-warming as that is, an occasional memorial or celebration of history isn’t enough for an awakening level of faith. We need to recognize and be reminded to be constantly aware of His presence and leadership in the now. “Do this to increase your awareness of My ongoing presence with you, in you, and through you.” Our faith needs to be far deeper than an annual collection of religious ceremonies. We desperately need to continually behold and become.

God’s Spirit leads to humility, truth, and justice. Many individuals and congregations don’t want to go there so they choose to follow a preacher or program instead. If churches would stand for truth, there wouldn’t be so many secrets that are hidden and hushed up in congregations.

For me following the church calendar is a distraction from my daily relationship with and dependence on the presence of the now Jesus and what He wants me to think, say, and do moment by moment. If I rigidly follow an annual, it may keep me from being led by the Spirit. It may cause me to read a Scripture that isn’t the one the Holy Spirit has chosen for me at that moment and to miss the one that He has.

So why did Jesus follow some of the religious format of His day? The age of the Spirit had yet to be released. In the age of the Spirit, Christ-followers don’t become united by following the same script throughout the year. We become united by beholding and obeying the risen, present Jesus every moment.

Would you like for someone you love to keep their eyes fixed on a calendar that schedules every year that you have together in the same way? Or would you rather they interact with you personally from the heart. I think Jesus feels the same way.

People who have a spiritually alive relationship with the living Jesus are too often quenched when they are systematized by organized religion. I’ve seen it happen many times. When one person controls the mic in church, he controls the narrative in the congregation and the full truth isn’t able to emerge.

In these troubled times the nations of the world desperately need gatherings of people who know how to listen to and obey Jesus together and to be the interactive, Spirit-led body of Christ. The purpose of preaching is to introduce people to the risen Jesus so they can and will listen to Him directly. Most preaching instead makes people dependent on and subservient to the preacher.

Religion is convenient like a thermos. It can hold the warmth of God when we want it and keep it out when we don’t. The people who are the least forgiving are often the people who need forgiveness the most. Jesus meets that need for those who know they need Him.

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Love stops . . .

Love builds people up by stopping the inner thoughts, feelings, and desires that tear them down. If you want to stop the negative and tormenting things that are operating within you, follow the way of love. Never stop inwardly stopping the things that love stops!

Love stops evil. When love stops stopping, the things that love stops, stop being stopped. Love doesn’t win by competition, coercion, or compulsion but by caring, compassion, and commitment.

Love stops anger, resentment, and bitterness. Love stops self-focused desires, impatience, and unkindness. Love stops ego, self-seeking, and pride.

Love stops the delight in wrongdoing and ends the pleasure of sin. Love stops lying, dishonesty, and deception. Love stops discouragement, despair, and hopelessness.

Love stops worry, fear, and tormenting thoughts. Love stops enslaving desires, cravings, and addictions. Love stops apathy, spiritual passivity, and hard-heartedness.

Love stops boasting, envy, and jealousy. Love stops rudeness, insults, and bullying. Love stops recklessness, mistrust, and giving in to wrongdoing. Love stops the approval of wrongdoing and the disobedience of the conscience.

Love received and nurtured never fails to stop the self-destruction in a human heart. Instead, we humans let our pride and self-will cause us to reject and give up on love. It’s no excuse to say that you aren’t loved. Even in the darkest places someone will show you kindness and compassion. And no matter where you are God’s love is knocking on your heart’s door.

Focus on love until it comes clearly into the view of your heart:

I have a dream for Christ-followers

Jesus isn’t dead. It’s time for Christians to quit acting like He is. I have a dream today that Christ followers will wake up and become much more than divided religious institutions called churches. I dream that we will become God’s “beautiful symphony of brotherhood” clearly reflecting the glory of the risen Jesus in all places and situations.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.” That will happen when the body of Christ wakes up and begins to follow the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.

I have a dream today of a world-wide revival of Spirit-led Christianity! Revival doesn’t rely on programs; religion does. I have a dream that church will become a Spirit-led Jesus-experience! Being Spirit-led isn’t weird; it’s Christianity! See Romans 8:14.

I believe that “the fierce urgency of now” cries out for the body of Christ to cease from operating under the control of institutionalism and to come under the direct authority of its rightful Head — the living, resurrected Jesus Christ! I have a dream that Christ-followers will begin to gather to experience an in-breaking of God’s government (His kingdom) as they listen together to the risen Christ and then awakening to His inner voice (Christ in you), courageously say and do what King Jesus tells them to.

I have a dream today that one day Christians will meet to interact with the risen Jesus like He’s truly alive — that people won’t just hear lectures about Jesus but will actually experience Him. Depending on a one-man preacher every week prevents the members of the body of Christ from functioning together as led by God’s Spirit.

I have a dream that members of the body of Christ will know they are free to be led by the Spirit instead of by religious programs. I have a dream that Christians will move beyond the fantasy-faith-wall and begin to trust in and rely on the living Jesus instead of on our religious programs.

I have a dream that one day Christians will meet as the body of Christ and not as a one-man show. The body of Christ needs to be more than the same person speaking every week.

I have a dream that one day Christians will gather to personally encounter and obey the living Jesus, not just to hear a sermon. It does little good to say Jesus is alive and present if we act like He’s dead and gone.

I have a dream that one day churches will give Jesus the mic and let Him prompt people to speak as He directs them. I dream that the love of Jesus will freely flow from our hearts unhindered by institutionalism and that our childish fear, anger, and divisiveness will cease. I’m never giving up on the dream God’s given me!

I have a dream today that Christians will stop listening to preachers and leaders who are saying listen to me and start listening to those who are saying listen to Jesus. “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!”

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There’s no perfect church but there is a perfect Savior!

To go to Jesus
You don’t need to go
To a special building.
You can go to Him
Any time and any place.
All you need to do
Is to open and surrender
Your heart to Him
And He’ll be there!

Being led by God’s Spirit,
Christ in you,
Who speaks with
The still small voice,
And releases inner rivers
Of glorious living water,
Is an amazing adventure!
Learn to follow and obey
The risen Jesus
Every day.

Church isn’t the focus of New Testament Christianity; the living Jesus is. There’s no perfect church, but there is a perfect Savior! Keep your focus on the risen Jesus. If everyone who goes to church would actually go to the risen Jesus, the world would experience an amazing spiritual awakening.

True community isn’t lecture and audience based. It requires open sharing and heart-felt interaction. If various members of the body of Christ aren’t allowed direct input when they gather in His name, the body becomes a one-man show.

Where do you go to Jesus? I go to Jesus wherever I am because I need Him everywhere I go.

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Let God’s Spirit set you free

Are you in sync with God's Spirit?
Hear what the Spirit is saying.
Be filled with the Spirit.
Be taught by the Spirit.
Quench not the Spirit.
Be led by the Spirit.
Walk by the Spirit.
Live by the Spirit.
Pray in the Spirit.Let your heartBe continually touchedBy God's SpiritAnd be guidedAnd directedBy Him.[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-34658" />Photo by Yusuf Ace on Pexels.com

Learn to be God’s Spirit-led marionette

Jesus is the puppeteer and Christians are the puppets. We need to let Him and Him alone pull our strings! Let the risen Jesus be your invisible puppeteer all day long! To successfully navigate the jungle of this life, learn to be God’s Spirit-led marionette.

When I try to run my life, I get my strings tangled up. When I let Jesus take the strings, He causes me to dance with true joy. It’s important to learn to be God’s marionette. A Christian is called to be God’s puppet, not a puppet to the pulpit. Be led by the Spirit.

With many thousands of denominations and hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of independent churches, which religious organizations can truly ordain someone? Since Jesus said there will be many false prophets, surely some organizations are producing false ordinations.

I believe all true Christ-followers are ordained by God and “called to be saints.” The purpose of the five leadership functions in Ephesians 4 isn’t just to do the ministry, but to train the saints to do the ministry powerfully and as led by God’s Spirit. Biblically, Christian leadership takes the low place and turns hierarchy upside down with the greatest being on the bottom while training, empowering, and releasing others to follow and obey God’s Spirit even more effectively than they do. Although the people of God are equal through Christ, we are called to “consider others better than yourself.”

To sow for a great awakening, we need to stitch our hearts together with humility and allow all Christ-followers to listen to and obey the risen Jesus. The four principles of the great Welsh Revival of 1904 were: 1) Repent of and put aside all sin, 2) Stop any questionable behavior, 3) Do whatever the Spirit says, and 4) Openly and publicly declare your love for Jesus. That’s what we’re all genuine Christians are ordained for. Let’s all do it!

When lecture and /or liturgy-based church services replaced the direct leadership of the risen Jesus, Christianity lost much of its power. A key question when visiting a church is who’s in control, who’s pulling the strings. Is it a pastor or committee or is it the risen Jesus?

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Let Jesus in your heart before you head out of this life

Here's the deal:If you're asleep to the thrillOf knowing JesusAnd caught in the chillOf a cold heart,You'll seldom feelHis real presence.A Christian audienceCan easily overlook the radianceOf the presenceOf the risen JesusThat continually wowedThe first Christ-followersAnd become uninspired,Lone rangers in a crowdHearing one man speak aloud.

If “If you snooze you lose,” applies to Christianity, we better wake up! Let Jesus in your heart before you head out of this life.

If you think you deserve good things from God, you don’t understand grace. God gave me a wonderful relationship with Jesus that I didn’t earn and don’t deserve.

When church is an audience, people are personally disconnected from each other and become lone rangers in a crowd. Instead of being a gathering for heart-to-heart connection and Spirit-led expression, church became a place for head talks and mentally-prepared messages.

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