Steve Simms's Blog, page 12

Present Day Disciple Making “en” Costa Rica

Daily writing promptWhat are the most important things needed to live a good life?View all responses

I experienced a place where the uncommon concept of disciple making is being carried out in an astonishing way. It’s in the Central American country of Costa Rica. It’s called Casa Vidanet. My wife, Ernie, and I just spent a few days there.

Because it is rare disciple making is difficult to define. Jesus said to make disciples, but I don’t think we really know what He meant.

There’s a strong sense of spirituality at Casa Vidanet. From the things that they say and do it’s obvious that the people there really love Jesus, each other, and any visitors who come by. At Casa Vidanet I saw people being trained to continually listen to and obey the risen Jesus Christ.

Every September Casa Vidanet welcomes about 20 people 18 and older to a 10-month disciple building experience. Half of them are from the USA and Canada and the other half from Latin America. They live together, have their meals together, worship together, pray together, work together, play together, and listen to God together in a bilingual, multi-cultural community for 10 months.

After 3 months of training, they are sent in missions teams to 4 different Central American countries for 5 months. There they focus on showing people love, kindness, compassion, and service. When they return to the Casa Vidanet base, they serve as leaders and welcome various youth groups from North America to 10-day missions experiences during their final 2 months.

Many of the Vidanet leaders and staff are graduates of the experience. They are young people who radiate excitement about humbly loving God and joyously serving people. Their lives demonstrate that Spirit-led discipleship is a reality that can be seen, felt, experienced, and continually surrendered to throughout each day.

To learn more about this life-empowering discipleship experience, click here.

The Invisible Inner Net in Your Heart

Daily writing promptDo you remember life before the internet?View all responses

Search your heart
Until you find
The quiet place
That God designed
To give you
Peace of mind.
Let Him unbind
All your fear
And worry
So you can
Be aligned
With His presence
And great love
And not be blind
To Divine
Revelation.

Fearless love produces great peace of mind. To welcome, rely on, and align your will to God’s perfect love is to drive away fear and live free from its torment and worry. (1 John 4:18)

Set aside your resistance to God by continually surrendering to, absorbing, and savoring His inner peace that confounds your comprehension. (Philippians 4:6-7) Let Christ’s peace consistently rule you and govern you from within. (Colossians 3:15)

Keep the affection of your heart (Colossians 3:2) and the thinking of your mind always fixed on and captive to Jesus, (2 Corinthians 10:5) the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6) Say goodby to love as a mere concept or impossible ideal and welcome it as the inner reality of the kingdom (government) of God (Romans 14:7) produced by God the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) — “Christ in you the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

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I Want to Be Good At “Revelationship”

Daily writing promptWhat are you good at?View all responses

I strive to be good at what I call revelationship. It’s the ability to humbly receive the insight, ideas, and wisdom directly from God.

We know Christ lives within us “by the Spirit He gave us,” (1 John 3:24) — by supernatural revelation as “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:16)

As we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit (Romans 8:16) we will develop an ongoing heart-to-heart “revelationship” with the risen Jesus. Pray for revelation beyond your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5) Then surrender your heart to God and humbly receive supernatural insight and the ongoing glory of His presence.

Revelationship makes you perceptive to God’s eternal perspective. God’s revelation is best received with an open, honest, and humble childlike heart. Otherwise, it’s easily overlooked. Religion can easily distract people from and quench God’s supernatural revelation. (1 Thessalonians 5:19) Christians and churches should continually expect and receive supernatural revelation, not fear it or avoid it. (Matthew 16:17)

Revelationship sails beyond human understanding. It cruises with the wind of God’s Spirit. It makes the words of the Bible burn in your heart. (Luke 24:32) Do you have an ongoing revelationship with Christ?

Human understanding tries to knuckle down and figure God out. Faith opens up and welcomes God to come in and take control with Divine revelation. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) Christ builds on the Rock of supernatural revelationship, not on the sand of human understanding.

The more you try to figure God out, the less you will let Him come in and take control of your life. The more you analyze, categorize, and box God up, the less you will be open to a revelationship with Him.

Vanity is self-focused insanity that torments humanity. God’s revelation cuts through it and drives it away.

God wants you to have a direct personal revelationship with Him so that He can reveal great and mighty things to you that you don’t know. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10 & Jeremiah 33:3) Will you let Him lead you beyond the fog of religious analysis into the Light of His presence?

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Catchy (Original) Statements About Having It All

Daily writing promptWhat does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?View all responses

These catchy statement about materialism can make you aware of how catchy materialism can be — how it can capture your heart and drag you through shopping mart after shopping mart.

If materialism made people happy antidepressants wouldn’t be a best seller.

The happiest go-getters go get peace of mind, not piles of stuff.

I object to the idea that objects are more important than people!

The bad thing about materialism is that it doesn’t see beyond things.

No material thing will ever be the missing piece that will give you inner peace.

The newest and the best stuff won’t stay that way for long. Very soon newer and better stuff will be clamoring for your attention.

Stuff-esteem
Can never heal
Low self-esteem.
More stuff
Won’t ever
Be enough.

Worry about wealth
Can harm your health.

The greatest wealth
Is mental health.

Stuff-focused people miss out on the deep heart-to-heart connection that people-focused people enjoy.

The nicer our material things, the more they tend to trap us in a comfort zone.

Control the material things in your life. Refuse to let them control you.

Worrying about their possessions makes people peace-poor.

Here’s something obvious: Unnecessary stuff is unnecessary.

Materialism makes us proud of our possessions. It’s okay to succeed, but to be truly happy, we need to avoid greed.

Long lasting happiness comes from nonphysical reality like friendship and contentment, not from material things.

To buy into materialism is to purchase worry and concern about stuff.

I believe that nonmaterial things are more valuable than material things, for example, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Materialism disregards non-financial assets and never includes them on a balance sheet.

If your bank account’s right but your heart’s not, you’ll stay in an emotional knot.

If you never tally your nonfinancial assets, you’ll never know how truly blessed you are.

People protect their possessions but tend to trivialize and toss away their time.

People who give you their time, attention, and friendship are giving you much more than people who only give you things.

Anybody can show off their stuff, but it takes great personal and spiritual growth to demonstrate godly character.

Materialism is to make a living without making a life full of love, joy, and inner peace.

You can never consume enough materialism to create a happy heart.

When money distracts you from the meaning and purpose of your life it makes you poor.

True net worth isn’t measured in money. It’s measured in service, kindness, and character.

Instead of keeping up your spending, perhaps it would be more effective to tone down and control your desires.

Heart matters matter more than money.

Materialism will never fully satisfy a human being. Contentment, happiness, purpose, and meaning must be found beyond it.

Buying and consuming
Things that you don’t need
Can be a form of greed.

Materialism tends to rob people of the joys of nature and the simple pleasures of daily life.

If you can’t be happy with a beautiful sky, you won’t be happy with a mansion.

Materialism is a distraction from true bliss — a soul at peace and full of joy.

More is never enough. Enough never needs more. Having food and clothing we can capture contentment. (1 Timothy 6:8)

Stuff-focused people miss out on the deep heart-to-heart connection that people-focused people enjoy.

People who refuse to let their heart feel deeply tend to fill up their life with distracting things.

Materialism is a very deceptive myth-perception — it’s the myth that things can satisfy the human heart.

Doing and being are more important than possessing.

People focus on material things when they don’t believe that they have anything else to focus on.

If you like my creative statements about materialism, you’ll love my catchy statements about other topics. Check out my book of 365 original inspirational and fun statements (with funny elephant illustrations). Click on Elephants INspiring the Room.

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Having It All Is a Distraction

Daily writing promptWhat does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?View all responses

Having a lot of stuff is a distraction. It can distract you from making and improving friendships. It can cause you to forget about helping other people. It can make you ignore your personal and spiritual growth. Jesus Christ put it this way: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36)

Dare to set aside your distractions. Dare to boldly search for, courageously rely on, and daily depend on the living resurrected Jesus Christ.

If the only place
That you look for God
Is while you’re in church
You need to broaden
And extend your search.
God doesn’t live in
A chapel or church.
He lives inside of
Humble, hungry hearts.
God wants you to be
His holy temple.
(Acts 7:48-49 &
1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Go beyond both the distraction of wealth and the distraction of church.

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The One I Talk to All the Time (And Vise Versa)

Daily writing promptWho would you like to talk to soon?View all responses

There is someone who I am in ongoing conversation with. Day and night, we’re always talking to each other. He is called, God the Holy Spirit.

Do you have the Holy Spirit? (Does He have you?) If you allow God the Holy Spirit to live and freely work inside of you, He will:

* Assure you when you are remaining steadfast and faithful to follow and obey Christ (and also, He will try to warn you when you are drifting from Him). (1 John 4:13)
* Speak to you and guide you into the truth. (John 16:13)
* Teach you so effectively that you won’t need any person to teach you. (1 John 2:27)
* Remind you of things that Jesus said. (John 14:26)
* Bear witness with your spirit. (Romans 8:16)
* Supernaturally reveal things that your eye can’t see, and your ear can’t hear, directly to you. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)
* Empower you to understand the things that God has freely given you. (1 Corinthians 2:12-13)
* Make you a powerful and effective witness for Christ. (Acts 1:8)
* Unite you in a strong, heart-to-heart relationship with other believers “through the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:1-3)
* Give you words to say as He personally speaks through you. (Matthew 10:20)
* Fill you with power, love, and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
* Flow out of you like rivers of living water. (John 7:37-39)
* Himself pray from deep within you. (Romans 8:26)
* Convict you of sin and give you the desire and power to repent and to be free. (John 16:8)
* Set you free from bondage to guilt producing sins and tormenting temptations. (John 8:32)
* Produce the fruit of His character and holiness within you. (Galatians 5:22-23)
* Transform you into Christ’s image from glory to glory. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
* Release supernatural gifts in and through you. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).
* Personally direct and lead you through out each day. (Romans 8:14)
* And much, much more. (Ephesians 3:20)

The Holy Spirit will never lead us to confess a false Jesus, but only the true Jesus — the risen Son of the living God — the Word become flesh. The Bible says that there are many false Christs. Any Jesus who is proclaimed to do or be any of these things is a false Jesus:

* Approves of sin,
* Refuses to confront sin,
* Neglects to call for repentance,
* Focuses on prosperity or self-esteem,
* Refuses to call for self-denial and cross bearing,
* Neglects to call for obedience to his words and to his will,
* Is wrapped up in politics or aligned with a particular country,
* Is lacking the supernatural power to do miracles and to transform human hearts today,
* Is unable to personally lead and direct people by his Spirit,
* Neglects to preach the kingdom (inner government) of God,
* Is still in the tomb,
* Is less than the same yesterday, today, and forever,”
* Is unaligned with what the Bible says about him,
* Is less than Almighty God, the Creator Himself.

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It’s Dear to Know That I Belong

Daily writing promptWhat personal belongings do you hold most dear?View all responsesWhen you know you belong
You truly get along.
Let Jesus make you strong
And forgive all your wrong
So He can sing His song
Within you and through you.

To know about Jesus is to know some theology. To know Jesus is to know and to experience the reality of the presence and love of God. The better you know Jesus, the more God’s love overflows from deep within you — the more you know that you belong to Him.

True love doesn’t come from learning facts about Jesus. It comes from flaming faith in and total reliance on His ongoing presence and powerful working in and through your daily life.

Learn to know Jesus. It’s not enough to only know about Him. To know Jesus as your Lord and Friend is to realize that He created the heavens and the earth. (John 1:1-3 & 14) Freedom from emotional pain can’t be found in alcohol, drugs, pornography, sex, gambling, or other forms of self-focus. It’s found in full surrender and obedience to the risen Jesus Christ.

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A Collection from Out of This World

Daily writing promptDo you have any collections?View all responses

I have a wonderful out-of-this-world collection that I treasure and keep safe and secure deep inside of my heart. It’s a collection of inspiring thoughts that have spoken to me in profound, life changing ways. I frequently ponder various ones of them, and they never fail to encourage and strengthen me. Many of my collected thoughts are from the Bible. Others have come to me directly from God.

“I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthains 10:2-5)

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Are you right now actively pursuing (as your first priority) God’s inner government and His righteous rearrangement of all of your thoughts, feelings, and desires? (2 Corinthians 10:2-5)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Are you hungry now? Are you blessed (at this moment) with thirst for what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy? (Philippians 4:8)

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Are you actively longing and seeking to continually and completely surrender your mind to be directly led by God’s Spirit into His inner transformation and renewal? (Romans 8:14)

It’s time to speak the truth in love! (Ephesians 4:15) God doesn’t want Christ-followers to monitor, control, and weaken what He wants them to say. He calls them to boldly speak it without compromise. Jesus said: “Many false prophets will arise and mislead many.” (Mt 24:11) Are you being careful not to listen to and follow them?

Freedom from emotional pain can’t be found in alcohol, drugs, pornography, sex, gambling, or other forms of self-focus. It’s found in full surrender and obedience to the risen Jesus Christ.

Righteousness isn’t
Just God’s rubber stamp
That says admit one
Into paradise.
It’s Christ’s shinning lamp
Glowing in your heart
And changing you from
Glory to glory
Into His image.
Let Jesus Himself
Completely revamp
Your thoughts and desires
And remove the clamp
Of sin from your life.
Are you hungering
For His righteousness
To burn withing you?
Are you seeking first
The kingdom of God
Inside of your heart?
Nothing less than that
Is Christianity.
Let Jesus encamp
Forever in you
And replace your thoughts,
Feelings, and desires
With the kingdom of God.

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The Legacy of the Invisible King

Daily writing promptWhat is the legacy you want to leave behind?View all responses

There is an invisible King. However, you can’t follow the invisible King if you’re unaware of His presence.

The invisible King is continually offering to establish His kingdom in human hearts. Dare to be a disciple of the invisible King. Follow and obey Him. Let Him be your boss in everything.

Focus your attention on the invisible King, not on your desires and feelings or on people’s perspectives, opinions, or interpretations of Scripture. The invisible King isn’t seen with eyes of flesh and blood. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) He’s supernaturally revealed by God the Father. (Matthew 16:17) Ask and you shall receive. (Matthew 7:7)

Let the invisible King take control and rule within your heart. Those who haven’t seen the invisible King yet believe in Him and chose to rely on Him day and night are greatly blessed. (John 20:26-29)

There are many spiritual counterfeits that try to pull us away from the invisible King. Discernment is vital. Anyone who changes the biblical definition of who Jesus Christ is, isn’t speaking for God.

John begins his Gospel with the statement: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” A few sentences later John writes, “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us,” clearly referring to Jesus Christ as God in human flesh.

Later in the letter that we know as 1 John, he wrote: “This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God.” (1 John 4:2-3)

The way you can tell whether a person is speaking by the Spirit of God is by whether or not what they say and how they live aligns with who Jesus is. That’s the key. Jesus, Himself, said: “By their fruits you will know them.” (Matthew 7:20)

Church isn’t God. Jesus is. Religion can become an idol. (John 1:1)

I Like What Wakes Up Cold Hearts

I don’t like coldhearted environments. I prefer to be around people who are warm, kind, open, and friendly. Sometimes those environments can be difficult to find. Here’s how I have experienced the most warmhearted atmosphere that I’ve ever encountered.

To do what is pleasing to God is an interesting biblical concept. (1 John 3:22) That of course means that we don’t do what we want to do or what we feel comfortable doing but instead we surrender our desires to God’s will and let Him lead and control us. That’s what Christ’s mother, Mary, told the servers at the wedding where Jesus turned the water into wine, “Whatever He says to you do it.” (John 2:5) Then Jesus told the servants to do some weird and risky things (and those brave guys were willing to leave their comfort zone and do what Jesus said).

I believe that over the early centuries of Christianity, Christians made Sunday worship comfortable and set it up so that it pleases people instead of letting the Holy Spirit take the direct lead and personally direct it in the “spirit and truth” ways (John 4:21-24) that please God the Father. It’s much easier and more comfortable to worship God with programmed words that someone else says for us (or has us repeat) than it is to allow our heart to be near to and controlled by the living God, Himself. (Matthew 15:8)

Ever since I encountered and surrendered my life to the living Jesus, I’ve been hungering and thirsting (Matthew 5:6) and searching for a spiritual city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10) — for people who will courageously gather in Jesus’ name (Matthew 18:20) and in His presence to set aside their desires (Luke 9:23) and their programming and let Jesus, Himself, take the wheel. (Romans 8:14) I’ve found that kind of gathering a few times, but it never seems to last. Human programming and control strive to enter in and to set aside the Holy Spirit’s direct control. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

I love unprogrammed Christian gatherings that are directly led and controlled by God the Holy Spirit, but they are so rare that few people have actually experienced one. I’ve spent my life seeking for them because in a Spirit-controlled environment I encounter the real presence and supernatural power of the resurrected Jesus Christ living and working in and through ordinary people. If you know of a Christ-controlled meeting like that, please tell me about it. (Search for: Beyond Church Ekklesia.)

You can’t manage a Spirit-controlled meeting. If you (or another person) begin to manage it yourself, it’s no longer fully managed by God the Holy Spirit.

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