Steve Simms's Blog, page 13

Life Balance Revealed

As people something within us wants to live a balanced life. Yet living in a culture of haste, hustle, and haughtiness, it’s easy to get pulled (or thrown) off balance. Personally, I’ve discovered that I don’t have to “only imagine” how to balance my life. I can be directly led by divine revelation.

God the Holy Spirit supernaturally reveals things that the human eye can’t see, and the ear can’t hear, and the heart can’t imagine. Ceaselessly seek, pursue, receive, and surrender to the Spirit’s direct personal revelation so that you can dynamically experience and boldly proclaim this:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man he things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:8-9 NKJ)

Christians need to become aware of, open up to, receive, and obey what God is revealing to us through His Spirit. Too many Christians quote the “eye has not seen,” part but completely leave out the “but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit,” part.

Multitudes of Christians let the fear of being misled keep them from asking for, receiving, and obeying God’s personal revelation to them. They falsely believe that their imaginations, feelings, and opinions are more accurate than God’s supernatural revelation. They put their trust in what preachers say instead of in the Holy Spirit’s direct teaching. (1 John 2:27)

We don’t need to stay stuck in human wisdom and human understanding of Scripture! We can step into God’s direct revelation and be led by the Spirit. (Romans 8:14) If we ask for bread, God the Father won’t give us a stone. (Matthew 7:9-11) We have not because we ask not. (James 4:2-3) Have you asked the Father for direct, supernatural revelation? “Ask and you shall receive.” (Matthew 7:7)

How can you recognize God’s revelation? It will burn in your heart (Luke 24:32) and it won’t contradict what He revealed to the apostles, prophets, and other writers of the Bible.

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My Momma and Elvis Were Next Door Neighbors in a Black Neighborhood in Tupelo, Mississippi

My mother, her maiden name Dorothy Beeding, grew up next door to Elvis Presley in an extremely rare predominantly black neighborhood in Tupelo where poor blacks and poor whites lived side by side as friends and neighbors and as outcasts of society. This was in the forcibly segregated South.

My mother was 4 years older than Elvis, but my uncle was the same age. He and Elvis played together with the black children who lived around them. When Elvis recorded the song, “In the Ghetto,” he knew first-hand the struggles of living in a marginalized and oppressed neighborhood.

While they were living there Elvis’ father was sent to prison. My grandfather used to drive Elvis and his mother Gladys to visit his father Vernon at the prison. When Elvis was famous and would come back to Tupelo, he would sometimes drive by my grandmother sitting on her front porch and wave at her.

That’s my family ties to the King of Rock and Roll and to a heritage of racial equality in a land of legally enforced racism and segregation. I never heard my mother (or my father, also raised in the arrogance of the racist South) ever say anything racist. The blatant racism of the time and place, however, won my uncle over as he got older. For as long as I can remember, my uncle would frequently and randomly throw out cruel racist remarks, slurs, and insults.

Being a Southerner, Elvis was sometimes rumored to be a racist, but his ex-wife Prisilla Presley is quoted in IndieWire (July 21, 2022) as saying this about Elvis: “He was not a racist. He had never been a racist. He had friends, black friends, friends from all over. He loved their music, he loved their style. He loved being around black musicians . . . He loved being around anyone, actually. He was not prejudiced in any way.”

For some reason, although growing up in segregated neighborhoods and schools in Arkansas and Tennessee, I never thought anything negative about black people. I graduated in 1969 from a segregated high school in Jackson, Tennessee, right across the street from the city’s black high school. Integration finally arrived in 1972.

When in college I got the very strange summer job of selling black history books door-to-door in the deep South. That was my first real personal exposure to black people and to black history. It was life changing. I loved black people and was grasped, shocked, and inspired by their history, their suffering, and their courage. I wrote a book about the beauty of color. It’s called Off the Race Track–From Color-Blind to Color kind. Click the link for more.

“Elvis was a great man and did more for civil rights than people know.” –African American photojournalist Ernest Withers

Beyond Sacrifices to True Love

Most people would consider setting aside their desires and feelings in order to serve someone else to be a sacrifice. I disagree. I would call that true love. Sacrifices are often made reluctantly or with regret, but true love is given freely from the heart. True love is supernatural. It is given by the Spirit of God.

People today need to see and interact with Spirit-led people. Will you be someone who shows them the presence and reality God’s Spirit? Let the Holy Spirit free so He can do whatever He wants to in and through your life. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

To allow “a Holy Spirit–inspired disposition of the heart” to motivate and direct you into obedient action is to be led by the Spirit. Christ-followers are called to learn to truly trust in, rely on, surrender to, and obey the workings and leadings of the Holy Spirit within us. (Romans 8:14) That’s how we begin to seek first the kingdom (the interior government) of God. (Matthew 6:33)

Refuse to deny or ignore the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit. Discern them, (1 Corinthians 12:7-10) recognize them, and dare to continually put them into action. (James 1:22) The way to grow in Christ is to go about sowing and doing what God the Holy Spirit teaches and directs you to do. (John 14:26) If your life isn’t frequently producing, manifesting, and demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit, then you aren’t being very well led by the Spirit of God. (Galatians 5:22-23)

To call “the deep wellsprings of Christ in us” “subjective” is to deny that He is God. If the Holy Spirit is God, then nothing that He says or does within you is “subjective.”

Your subjective desires that the Bible calls “the flesh” (Galatians 5:16-18) work against the Holy Spirit. To be led by the Spirit we have to continually deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow the living Jesus. (Luke 9:23)

Love proclaimed with words or speech is not the same as love demonstrated with heart-felt actions that are truly (and objectively) inspired and empowered by God the Holy Spirit. Instead of trying to force yourself to love, plug your heart into God’s supernatural love and let His Spirit flow unceasingly through you like a powerful electric current. (Acts 1:8) Then God’s love that you are personally experiencing within you will overflow like rivers of living water, (John 7:37-39) filling you and the people around you with shock and awe at the goodness and reality of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

Wherever you go and whatever you do, be sent out by the Holy Spirit. (Acts 13:4) “Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go up and join this chariot.:” What is God the Holy Spirit saying to you?

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My Wedding Ring and the Challenge to Be Faithful

I was asked, “What is the oldest thing you’re wearing today?” It’s my wedding ring which is a symbol of love and commitment. Its a challenge and constant reminder to be faithful to live out and demonstrate the love I profess. I proclaim love for my wife, for my daughter, for all my family, for my friends, for all human beings, and especially for Jesus. Living up to those professions is life’s greatest challenge.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:3-5) “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16)

Both history and the present day are full of examples of how selfish ambition and vain conceit cause people to arrogantly and recklessly ignore, disrespect the humanity of, and even demonize other human beings. “My way or the highway isn’t “the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus Christ is, and He laid down His life for us.

Jesus challenged us to: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:27036)

Now that’s a challenge! Do you have the courage to embrace it and to pursue it with all your heart?

I Strive To Follow the Inner Objectivity of God the Holy Spirit

There is nothing subjective about God the Holy Spirit, (Romans 8:14) “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) He’s not the product of our human feelings or imaginations. He’s the Creator of the universe. We need to learn to discern the difference between our own thoughts, the temptations of the devil, and the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The more we die to (Galatians 2:20) and deny ourselves, (Luke 9:23) the more we can recognize and align with the living God and with the inner objective teaching of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:13, 1 John 2:27, & John 14:26) Then our life and character will begin to clearly and outwardly demonstrate the objective inner reality of the Spirit in and through us. (1 Corinthians 2:4-5) The world desperately needs to see people who call themselves Christians begin to surrender to and demonstrate the real presence and power of God the Holy Spirit.

“Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:7-8) The battle you experience within you between the devil and God is real. It’s not your subjective imagination. “Fight the good fight of faith.” (1 Timothy 6:12)

Resist hatred. Draw near to love.Resist sadness. Draw near to joy.Resist anxiety. Draw near to peace.Resist frustration. Draw near to patience.Resist rudeness. Draw near to kindness.Resist badness. Draw near to goodness.Resist rebellion. Draw near to faithfulness.Resist harshness. Draw near to gentleness.Resist self-focus. Draw near to self-control.Resist pride. Draw near to humility.Resist despair. Draw near to hope.[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://hopethoughts.com/wp-content/u..." data-large-file="https://hopethoughts.com/wp-content/u..." src="https://hopethoughts.com/wp-content/u..." alt="" class="wp-image-43418" />Photo by Jan van der Wolf on Pexels.com

Training to be Fruitful

This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.” (1 John 3:11) Let’s do it now. Christ-followers let’s train to love better every time we gather. It’s not enough just to hear more sermons about love, we need hands-on training in love, not just talks. Let’s train to cultivate and demonstrate more of the fruit of God’s Spirit everywhere we go. (Galatians 5:22-23) Let’s train like medical professionals!

For many centuries Christians who “ought to be teachers” have been trained to sit passively and be taught the same religious basics, what the Bible calls “milk, not solid food,” over and over week after week and year after year. That tedious teaching (that never graduates anybody) has trained Christians to be spiritually inexperienced infants. Pastors have repeatedly given their congregations the same basic info about Christ, but they have given them little or no practical, hands-on training in and experience of being personally led by His Spirit. (Romans 8:14)

The Bible says in Hebrews 5:12-6:1: “Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food! For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity.”

It is time for Christians to do what the Bible says. (James 1:22) It’s time to set aside our redundant religious infancy and to go into rigorous training for spiritual maturity. But how?

Stop the repetitive Sunday service passivity. Make church interactive and hands on. Enough teaching about prayer, train and release people to pray. Enough teaching about heaven, train people to experience the will of God “on earth as it is in heaven.” Stop teaching people the same information about God, train them to experience, demonstrate, and share His reality. Stop teaching people about community, train them to obey the 50+ New Testament “one another” commands here and now. Stop teaching about Jesus like He’s not in the room, train people to continually listen to and obey Him. Stop keeping Christian spiritual babies, train them to be mature and mighty men and women of God.

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One Simple Improvement You Can Make in Your Life Is to Open Your Heart

Daily writing promptWhat’s one small improvement you can make in your life?View all responses

One simple improvement that you can make in your life is to open wide your heart. The closedness inside your heart is weighing you down with a heavy load to carry. Open your heart to God’s brilliant light so you can be lighthearted.

How’s your heart care going? There’s “something better” than watered down faith. Simply obeying Jesus day after day is far more powerful and rewarding than routine religion.

God doesn’t want people to occasionally lip sync His words with a faraway heart. (Matthew 15:8) He wants people to let His words continually burn within them (Luke 24:32) and empower them to obey Him. (John 14:15)

Open your heart to holy discontent. When God the Holy Spirit corrects something that you are saying or doing, stop it. (John 16:7-11) Then replace it with what He tells you to. (Matthew 4:17)

God never allows us to be discontent so that we will be discouraged, but so that we will hunger and thirst for His presence and righteousness. (Matthew 5:6) Then we will seek first His kingdom. (Matthew 6:33)

A closed heart has no ears to hear. (Revelation 3:22) It is spiritually blind. (Mark 8:18) A closed heart is self-preoccupied and in bondage to self-deceptive. (John 1:8) It is separated and disconnected from God’s revelation. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

A heart open to Christ is filled with wonder and gratitude (Ephesians 5:20) and the fruit of the Spirt. (Galatians 5:22-23) It is sensitive to and concerned about the needs of other people. (Philippians 2:3) Fully and unceasingly open your heart to the presence of the risen Jesus. (Colossians 1:27) Learn to be continually led by God the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:14)

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The Impact of Looking Beyond Public Opinion

Daily writing promptShare a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.View all responses

Public opinion pressures us to think other people’s thoughts, to utter other people’s words, and to copy other people’s behaviors. Public opinion polls follow the crowd, not the wise. The mainstream of public opinion is often overflowing with deception.

Public opinion is the collected accumulation of human pride rising up to override the inner voice of the conscience. It frequently pressures people to say and do things that they believe are morally wrong. If you’re unwilling to openly disagree with public opinion, you’re trapped by it. When your conscience and public opinion clash, work up the courage to obey your conscience.

Public opinion despises innocence and calls it naivety, but the conscience seeks to preserve innocence. When public opinion compels you to violate your conscience, you’ve lost your freedom.

Public opinion sees honesty, kindness, humility, and apology as weakness when in reality they require great strength. It promotes pride, self-righteousness, deception, and manipulation. Public opinion is popular propaganda.

Because public opinion is built on people’s turbulent emotions and dark desires it often departs from truth. It corrals people in a community of common deception by criticizing the wisdom and counsel of their conscience. It proclaims that accumulating costly possessions is more important than living with honesty and integrity.

When religion is mixed with the desire to rule a nation, oppression is not far behind. Live to please God, not to please the public. The pride of public opinion tends to resist openly admitting the cruelty and injustice in a nation’s past.

True Christianity has never been an ally of public opinion. It has always been a prophetic voice calling people and nations to humility, honesty, integrity, compassion, justice, love, mercy, forgiveness, peace, kindness, self-control, righteousness, and to the voice of God. True Christianity is found in the Bible, not in religious ceremonies.

Break with public opinion. Be a Christ-knowing Christian, flowing with His presence and going wherever He tells you.

Much applause
Should always cause
Us to pause
And to ask,
If we’re trapped
In the claws
Of public
Opinion.

A public opinion poll
Can be like a black hole
And pull people into
Merely playing a role.

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Being Free from Controlling Thoughts, Feelings, Desires, and Habits

Daily writing promptWhat does freedom mean to you?View all responses

Freedom isn’t words. It isn’t an idea or an ideal. Freedom isn’t a form of government. It isn’t produced by patriotism. Freedom is within. If a person is bound to thoughts, feelings, desires, and habits, he or she isn’t free.

God is always wanting to communicate with people so He can set them free, but we are too often unwilling to hear His voice speaking within us (especially when He disagrees with us). A person who is too distracted (or unwilling) to receive direct communication from the living God will be swept along by the inner wolves of self-driven desires and insecurities and by the influence of self-focused people.

Wolves within your heart that are camouflaged in sheep’s clothing cause much confusion and corrosion. Ask God to reveal them to you so you can drive them out and find peace at last.

True Christian leadership always glorifies the Lord. Any leadership that glories in personal accomplishment isn’t Christian. It’s a slave to self-focus. Whoever tries to convince people that he is more than he is becomes less, because he becomes a deceiver and a liar. Be honest and humble.

Lies can shout loud and long. That makes them deceptively dangerous, but it never makes them true. Neither hate a person because of their words and behaviors nor accept and embrace words or behaviors because of a person.

If you always reply to replies, a conflict or disagreement will never end. Try something different. Do what Jesus said to do. “Bless those who curse you.” Then notice what happens to the conflict.

The more you defend sin, the more you become its detainee. Then you stay captured and chained to its compulsive thoughts, desires, and behaviors.

There is something that God has given me the ability to do that brings great joy and freedom in God as well as intense awareness of His presence far beyond anything my emotions, intellect, or physical pleasure can produce. The Bible calls it speaking in tongues. It’s something completely supernatural that I could never do without God. It’s an inner flow of unending words from deep within me (that I don’t know) that can be spoken and released at any time. Whenever I do, I am embraced with a closeness to God that is indescribable. This humbling yet incredible and undeserved gift from God has released power and peace and healing and so many other wonderful things within me. Its benefit is incalculable. I highly recommend asking God for this gift and using it throughout each day.

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Jesus is Way Beyond Religion

Daily writing promptWhat public figure do you disagree with the most?View all responses

I disagree with almost all public figures on the topic of faith and religion. I’ve been molded from within by spiritual experience, by a ravenous appetite to live out what the Bible says, and by an overwhelming love for and desire to follow and obey the risen Jesus Christ. I believe with all my heart that:

Christ’s sinless inner rivers (1 John 3:5) are our hope and strength. The more we let them flow the stronger we will grow and the more we will know His presence within us and experience His power over sin. (2 Timothy 1:6)

I love to put aside my resistance (1 Thessalonians 5:19) and let pure mountain streams come rushing from deep within me (John 7:37-39) with God’s life-giving inner flow (John 4:14) — cleansing, empowering, and carrying me day after day. I often open my mouth and release refreshing roaring rivers to flow through my lips in languages that I’ve never learned. (Acts 2:4) At other times I listen with my inner ears as the Holy Spirit’s whitewaters speak my mother tongue within me and communicate with wisdom, inspiration, and revelation. (1 Corinthians 2:10)

I love to write what God’s rivers say and post it so that people who read it can run with it. (Habakkuk 2:2) Open your heart and be led (Romans 8:14) by the Spirit of Christ. (Romans 8:9)

God’s inner rivers always hit their target, but we humans always struggle and miss the mark when we slow them down or shut them off. (Colossians 1:27) Make it your aim to abide in Christ (John 15:4) and keep the Spirit’s rivers always freely flowing within you so that Christ’s sinlessness can manifest through you. (Luke 3:4) (Amos 5:14)

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