Steve Simms's Blog, page 118

Every church needs an after-sermon-practice-session

Rituals, programs, and ceremonies? Podiums, platforms, and pulpits? Liturgy, lessons, and lectures? Be careful not to replace the risen Jesus with religion. When religious practices become routine it’s easy to do them without heart-felt involvement.

A sermon that doesn’t facilitate the occasion for people to practice together what they’ve been taught, is incomplete. “Be doers of the word not hearers only.”

No matter how many sermons are heard, without hands-on practice sessions, people won’t learn to effectively do God’s word. Christ-followers should always practice to be more effective at doing the word.

If people were treated on a sports team the way they’re treated in church (all lecture with no hands-on practice) that team wouldn’t be very effective. Many Christians have never been trained and motivated to install God’s playbook in their mind and heart.

All sermon and no hands-on practice makes church a place of hearing but not doing. To train Christians to hear and do God’s word, a sermon should be followed with a practice session.

When religious systemization shuts out the living Savior it’s gone too far. Better than a sermon on hearing God’s voice is a group learning to listen to God together. Better than a sermon on prayer is people praying together. Better than a sermon on repentance is a group crying out to God for forgiveness and deliverance.

When Christians meet and the focus is on one person, it distracts people’s attention from the risen Jesus working in and thru the various members of His body. It’s time for Christians to shift their attention from podiums, platforms, and pulpits to the living resurrected Jesus Christ.

For too many people church is a check off box. They check their faith at the door as they walk out of church, and it’s left behind.

If a church has a roof and a floor it’s a building, but the body of Christ consists of people. It’s not a building you go to.

To resist God (even to ignore Him) is to sacrifice and miss out on the beautiful new life He wants to freely give you. Learn not to do that.

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The lures that flyfish in your mind

The more
We allow sin
To numb
Our conscience
The more dumb
Things we say and do.

Beware of the temptations that flyfish in your mind with enticing lures to yank you out of the inner river of life-giving joy. When you let your desires distract you from God’s direction you’ll be dragged into deception.

Most people don’t really believe they’re sinners. That’s why they don’t ask for and receive God’s forgiveness and deliverance from their sins.

Heaven is a sin-free zone. It would be a living hell for people who love to sin. If your heart can only feel at home dancing to Hell’s tune, Heaven would be torture for you.

Many people suffer from GRD–God Recognition Deficiency. They’re unaware of and fail to enjoy His omnipresence.

Throughout history politics has wallowed in the sin of cruel words and antagonistic actions. True freedom requires respect, compassion and kindness, even for those you disagree with. Instead of anger, we can speak the truth in love.

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Refreshing inner rivers

When you ask Jesus
To enter your heart
And lay down your life
To His full control
Refreshing rivers
Start to freely flow
From deep within you
Streaming awareness
And revelations,
Inner reality
Beyond your belief.I move my mouth
And a river
Of unknown words
Creatively flows
From deep inside me
Washing my being
With awe and delight
And with amazing
Connection to God.
Flow on word river,
Such a beautiful
Gift from my Father
Keeping me aware
Of His glorious
Presence and power.God wants you to be
His conveyer belt
Always flowing with
The fruit of the Spirit
Wherever you go
And with whomever
You encounter.[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-33735" />Photo by Alya Rudi on Pexels.com

Self-focus is confusing, not identifying

Self-denial’s not
Self-sacrifice,
But a pearl
Of great price
That leads
To paradise.

Self-focus blurs everything else. Self is like a telescope. If you focus on it, you won’t see much but if you use it to look beyond it, you’ll see a glorious universe. One of the greatest blessings in life is to lose your focus on self by getting caught up in a worthy goal or purpose.

Self-focus messes us up. It doesn’t set us free.

When we’re led by our self-focused desires, we often step into self-deception. Your own self is often the goo that’s holding you in bondage. Instead of identifying or loving yourself, step beyond yourself. Until you find a compelling focus other than self-fulfillment, you’ll stay stuck in futile attempts at making yourself feel good.

Self-focus is the enemy of happiness–the key to unhappiness. It is confusing, not identifying. Clear vision requires looking beyond self, not staying self-mesmerized. I’m happiest when I ignore the sticky clamor of self. Never side with the desires and demons that try to torment and destroy you.

Desires are something you have, not something you are. Identifying yourself by your desires is completely misleading.

Wanting to be a good person and/or self-identifying as one doesn’t make you a good person. Jesus said that none are good. Until we set aside what we want to do, we won’t be able to focus on what God wants us to do.

Christian discipleship involves learning to set aside self and to identify and align with the inner promptings that come from Christ. Any sermon that doesn’t stir us up and make us hungry to be free from selfishness and closer to God hasn’t done its job. Too often church is like attending weekly lectures at a travel agency but never taking a trip.

I am a being of limited consciousness with the ability to freely choose where to focus my attention. I can focus on physical objects and activities, on internal thoughts, feelings, and desires, and on intangible realities like self, justice, good, evil, forgiveness, and God. I can make choices that help or harm myself and others.

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How I realized I’m a mess without Jesus

I used to compare my behaviors to the worst human behaviors that I knew about. By that standard I believed that I was a good person with a good inner instrument panel. Then one day I had an encounter with the living Jesus Christ, and He became a continual real presence and guide in my inner life and gave me a hunger to read the Bible. The more I read it, the more I began to see that although by my outward behaviors I considered myself to be a good person, my thoughts, desires, feelings, and opinions were full of sin.

Then I began to see that many of my outward behaviors were also sinful. I tried to stop them, but some held me so tightly in bondage that all I could do was cry to Jesus for mercy, forgiveness, and deliverance. Gradually I began to see that my sin was deeper than my behaviors and realized that I was a sinner by nature. I began to ask God to set me free from the bondage of self. That’s when He began to show me that I need to die to self (my old man–my human nature–the faulty instrument panel in my inmost being) and I wrote these words:

Watching your old man dieMakes you want to cry,Seeing all your hopes and dreamsTake their wings and fly.I know that old manHis name is myself,But I can’t help him now,He belongs to someone else.Cause, Jesus, I gave myself to you,Said you can doWhatever you want to.But watching him dieIs such a painful thingAlthough, I knowNew life it will bring.It’s hard to say,“Lord, have Your way.”That old man sticks aroundAnd says He’s gonna stay.He moans and groans in agonyTill I just can’t bear to see,Then he grabs me by the handAnd says, “Save me boy, I’m your old man.”Jesus, I give myself to you.Go ahead and do whatever you want toTo me.[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-33715" />Photo by Maddy Freddie on Pexels.com

If you know Jesus, tell the world how you met Him.

It’s an incredible and life changing thing to encounter the risen Jesus. Those who do, have an amazing story to tell. People who have encountered Jesus have a powerful tool for telling others about Him–their story about how it happened.

Telling the story of how you first met the risen Jesus can change people from the inside out. Tell it far and wide.

Many people, even faithful church attendees, are unaware that Jesus is alive, present, and accessible to individuals today. I was an agnostic who was unaware of the reality of Jesus until I suddenly experienced Him when I heard two people tell how they had individually encountered Jesus. I was immediately changed from within. I’ve never been the same

If you’ve encountered the living Jesus, tell the amazing story. Don’t keep it to yourself. Telling the story (in a brief and direct way) of how Jesus changed your life can help other people encounter Jesus.

Sermons give a superficial understanding of Christianity. To really understand you must surrender to Jesus and experience Him daily. Sharing how you met Jesus and gave your life to Him helps people to surrender to the risen Jesus. Churches should train attendees to tell how they met Jesus and then have them practice telling it during the Sunday service.

Here are some pointers. People today are busy and often unwilling to listen for very long, so it helps to make your story short. Make it ABC: accurate, brief, and Christ centered. Quickly tell what you were like before you met Jesus, how you met Him, and how your life was changed by Him.

Here’s my story:

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Christians at church? Passive hound dogs or obedient sheepdogs?

Should a Christians be like a hound dog asleep on a porch or like a sheepdog obeying his master?

I believe that attunement to Jesus’ voice or the lack thereof (whether we’re like a lazy hound dog or an obedient sheep dog) depends on our choice, not on our ability to hear Jesus. He said that all His followers can hear Him: “My sheep hear my voice.”

As a new believer reading the book of Acts, I became frustrated seeing how often God spoke to the early Christ-followers and I suddenly said to God: “You spoke to people in the Bible, why aren’t you speaking today?” In an instant these words came to my mind: “The problem’s not that I’m not speaking but that you’re not listening.” Oops! The problem was with me, not God.

I began to notice that as I read the Bible and the words burned in my heart, that Jesus was speaking to me. Sometimes during the day or night a thought consisting of words would drop into my mind and I knew it was Jesus talking. Sometimes a godly inner prompting without words and sometimes a soul-stirring image would come to me. With a holy sense of awe, I recognized that they were from God. Sometimes my conscience would begin to steer me away from wrongful thoughts or actions and I could tell that Jesus was lovingly directing me to safety.

In college a friend and I would listen to Jesus together and then tell each other what we heard. After I married my wife and would listen to Jesus together with each other and sometimes with friends and share what we heard. The results were always inspiring, even life changing.

As employees of The Salvation Army, my wife and I were asked if we would open up a Salvation Army Corps (church) but to do it in a non-traditional way. We were thrilled to accept the offer. For 10 years we would gather on Sunday morning and engage in heart-felt worship and singing. Then we would ask people to listen to Jesus and then say and/or do whatever He told them to.

It’s not an overstatement to say that every Sunday morning was miraculous. Ordinary people spoke with humble heart-felt elegance. They ministered in great power to one another. They explained Scripture with profound insight. They testified to wonders God was doing in and through them. They confessed sins and humbly repented. All this was done as they were prompted by the risen Jesus. We had no ending time and sometimes this would go on for up to 2 1/2 hours.

“He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the ekklesias (the name of the interactive town hall meetings in various ancient Greek cities which literally means “the called-out ones” that the NT writers used as the word for a gathering of members of the body of Christ). I believe God is speaking to gatherings of His body, but we as individuals have been trained to listen to a human speaker more than to the ever-present, living Jesus. Thus, we unintentionally quench the promptings and directings of God’s Spirit and curtail what the living Jesus wants to do in the meeting through the ordinary believers assembled in His name.

Ordinary Christ-followers can hear Jesus’ voice. Let’s set up Christian gatherings where they can practice listening to Jesus and then say or do whatever He tells them to.

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Experience “innermost being” Christianity

Innermost being Christianity is much more powerful than mere church attendance. What does the Bible mean when it talks about your “innermost being”?

The innermost being is the place of awe-releasing rivers of living water that flow from deep within carrying the fruit of the Spirit and the blessings and characteristics of the Beatitudes while washing over and continually cleansing and attuning my distorted mind, emotions, desires, and will to the presence and power of the risen Jesus living in me. All I need to do is to abide with Him and refuse to quench His spirit by going mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or physically where I’m not supposed to be.

Christianity should be seen as full surrender to the living Jesus, not as membership and meeting attendance in a religious institution. You’re either being led by the Spirit or you’re quenching the Spirit. Which are you doing? You can’t do both at the same time.

People who haven’t clearly experienced the living Jesus have no desire to put Him first in their life. Religious organizations divide people, but people led by the Spirit discover they’re moving closer to God and closer together.

A reformed church without reformed and Spirit-led people will remain a form of religious programming. Perhaps churches don’t need to be reformed but transcended. Maybe we need to follow Jesus instead of a religious organization.

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How to help someone be aware of God’s presence

It’s easy for people to live with God completely off their radar–with no awareness of His presence and power. In fact, for most people that’s where they are most of the time. They’re missing out on the thrill and healing of noticing the living God.

Can you help wake people up to the reality and presence of God? Yes. Here’s a simple way that works.

Make sure you, yourself, are aware of God’s presence in and around you. Learn to enjoy Him and spend time lovingly interacting with Him throughout the day. Approach someone and ask them if they have anything that you can pray about for them.If they say yes, ask them what it is they need pray for.Then ask them if you can pray with them right now. (It will surprise you how many people will say yes.)Next put your hand or their shoulder (or take their hands if they offer them to you) and begin to pray a heart-felt, compassionate Spirit-led prayer for them and the concerns they voiced. Let the words freely flow from your inner most being. Let deep concern and love for them that rise in your heart. They will usually close their eyes. If you keep your eyes open and watch them while you pray, you will see evidence of God working in their life. Their facial expression will become more peaceful. Their body will relax. Their breathing will slow down. They may sigh, or relax, or smile, or tear up, or jerk, or show other physical manifestations of become aware of God’s presence. When you say Amen, they’ll usually sincerely thank you and may even hug you.

Don’t just take my word for it. Try it today. You will be amazed both at what God does in the person you pray over and what He does in you. I love to pray over people! It’s so glorious that it is addicting.

My wife and I and others used to regularly prayer walk the most dangerous innercity streets in Nashville. Tough looking people would ask us what we were doing there. We’d tell them that we were praying and ask if they wanted prayer. Often, as they were hiding the evidence of their drug dealing, they would stick out their hands, bow their head, and say yes. We would take their hands and begin to pray. Afterwards they were often wiping away tears, hugging us, and saying thank you.

Currently we pray with people on the phone, with people we encounter day to day, with friends and strangers, and on Sunday nights we gather with students at a technological college and pray with them. We’re always amazed at what God does in people (and in us) when we open our heart and pray for them as we are led by the Holy Spirit.

Breathe in the air of prayer. Then breathe it out with sincere compassion for others.

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Where are you supposed to be?

Mentally and physically,
Refuse to go
Where your not
Supposed to be.
Refuse to look at
What you shouldn’t see.
Refuse to embrace
Anything that can
Take God’s place
As Lord of your life.

Everything that happens around us and to us isn’t God’s will. Peter wrote that “God’s not willing that any should perish,” yet many will. People who perish aren’t where there supposed to be. Sin is a violation of God’s will and He calls us to turn away from it and stop doing it. When we’re in active sin, we’re not where we’re supposed to be.

“All things work together for the good of those who love God,” but all things are not good. We are supposed to live in and stay in God’s will, but we don’t (even when we love God). Anytime we exit God’s will, we’re not where we’re supposed to be.

Just because I have loving feelings toward God I’m not always where I’m supposed to be. I can still be completely lost and off course and not even know it. I can love God and still sin and contradictively believe that my rebellion against God is part of His will for me.

Faithfulness to God means that we learn to know where He wants us to be (mentally and physically) and that we go there and abide there. Grace doesn’t excuse unfaithfulness. Instead, it calls us and empowers us to supernatural faithfulness.

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