Steve Simms's Blog, page 14

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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The Best Career Plan

Daily writing promptWhat is your career plan?View all responses

The best career plan for me has been to stay inwardly attentive and to ceaselessly seek guidance and direction from within me. I believe that an amazing presence has been living inside of me since I was 19. That is the presence of the risen Jesus Christ. I ask Him to lead and to guide me and I try to focus my attention on Him throughout each day. The results so far have produced an amazingly rewarding career and life, and more is still to come.

True hope in Jesus causes people to continually focus their attention on Him, (Hebrews 12:2) to hunger and thirst for righteousness, (Matthew 5: 6) and to seek first His kingdom. (Matthew 6:33) As they do they purify themselves day after day as He is pure. (1 John 3;3) The more people allow themselves to be led by His Spirit (Romans 12:11) the more they are aware that Christ is literally living inside of them (Colossians 1:27) and the more they realize and are attentive and surrendered to the love that God has given them by making them His children. (1 John 3:1)

Unceasingly behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. (John 1:29) The more you behold the risen Jesus and grasp the reality of God’s love, the more you will become filled with the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

A new Pope
Can bring hope
But Jesus
Christ in you
Is the hope
Of glory
Unending.

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I Love to See Discipleship

Daily writing promptWhat was the last live performance you saw?View all responses

A disciple-developing church is much more powerful than an audience-attracting church. Yet, disciple-developing churches are extremely rare. Too many Christians want self-gratification more than they want Christ’s inner transformation. (Romans 12:2)

A discipleship church produces Spirit-led Christ-followers not mere service attendees. Discipleship church is about training and releasing people to listen to and obey God the Holy Spirit. It refuses to make people be a passive audience.

There is no discipleship without the self-discipline and humility to listen to and obey God the Holy Spirit, day and night. It does no good to listen to a sermon if you won’t apply the biblical aspects of that sermon to your daily life. (James 1:22)

Beyond the subjectivity of your desires and emotions, and the rationality of your mind, there is a wisdom that comes directly from the inner objectivity of God the Holy Spirit. To learn to be led by the Spirit’s wisdom is true life! That’s discipleship.

Disciples:

Love one another. (1 Peter 4:8)Hunger and thirst for righteousness. (Matthew 5:6)Are doers of the word, not hearers only. (James 1:22)Seek first the kingdom (inner government of God). (Matthew 6:33) Bring their every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)Teach and admonish one another. (Colossians 3:16)Deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus. (Luke 9:23)Rejoice in the Lord always, (Philippians 4:4)Serve one another. (Galatians 5:13)Are led by the Spirit. (Romans 8:14) Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17) Overflow with the fruit of the Spirit. Forgive one another. (Colossians 3:13)Flow with the gifts of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:8-ll)Humble themselves. (James 4:10)Encourage one another. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)Quench not the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)Are witnesses. (Acts 1:8)Consider others better than themselves (Philippians 2:3)Are givers. (Luke 6:38)Bear one another’s burdens. (Galatians 6:2)Are persecuted. (Matthew 5:10-12)Love their enemies. (Matthew 5:44)Bless those who curse them. (Luke 6:28)Pray for those who despitefully use them. (Luke 6:28)Speak the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15)Confess their sins to one another. (James 5:16)Aren’t conformed to the world. (Romans 12:2)Resist the devil. (James 4:7)

The Community of Heart-to-Heart Unity

Daily writing promptWhat do you do to be involved in the community?View all responses

The best opportunity
For true community
Is heart-felt unity
That comes through
Christ in you
Leading all you do.

Refuse to waver
From Christ the Savior.
Stay in God’s favor.
Let your heart savor
Christ’s presence each day
And your behavior
Be Spirit-prompted.

Christianity
Abandoned ship
When it gave up
Spirit-prompted
Discipleship
And fellowship,
To follow a script,
And sank into
Passivity.

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If I Could Be the Pope for Just One Day, This is What I’d Say

Daily writing promptWhat’s a job you would like to do for just one day?View all responses

The keys to happiness are internal, not external. Your exterior situation can never fully satisfy you. Satisfaction is an interior experience. An external masquerade can hide your internal disfunction and pain, but it can never heal it.

Achieving exterior superiority won’t ever fully overcome your interior feelings of inferiority. New possessions bring fleeting pleasure, but the inner renewal of a joyful heart goes on and on.

Exterior problems can be outsourced, but you have to seek, hunger, and thirst for interior healing. Long-term happiness can never be found in external possessions. The key is to learn to possess, regulate, and control your own thoughts, feelings, and desires. Allowing your thoughts, feelings, and desires to dance around and define your destiny will drive out any delight that comes your way.

The internal characteristics that you cultivate or allow to grow within you will lead you to happiness or duress. Choose them well. Notice the thoughts, feelings, and desires that are trying to forcefully define, dominate and enslave you. Internally resist them.

Your exterior behavior reflects your interior nature. To consistently change externally you must first change internally.

Self-realization is the shocking awareness that I am insufficient. That I desperately need help. That I need to continually surrender my life to and align my life with the risen Jesus Christ.

The answer you need isn’t externally blowing in the wind. It’s aligning with Jesus Christ within. If you feel dead inside, there’s great hope. The living Jesus can give you internal life! Resist inner death and surrender to “Christ in you.”

Where is your heart? Is it indifferent toward Christ or intimate with Him? Is it receptive to Christ or resisting Him? Seek to be internally surrendered to Jesus, not externally religious.

Jesus said, “Deny yourself,” not “Rely on yourself.” Self-focused thoughts, feelings, and desires lead to self-consumed confusion, but self-denial paves the way for Christ’s inner peace. No amount of external security can produce deep peace in us until we allow the risen Jesus to continually heal and overcome our internal insecurity.

A person behind a mic
Cannot make you be Christ-like,
But Christ living in you can.
Let Jesus renew your psych.

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Promoting the Brand of Truth

Daily writing promptWhat are your favorite brands and why?View all responses

Honesty never deceives. It never hides in darkness. It always receives light and humbly submits to and aligns with reality “because no lie comes from the truth.” (1 John 2:21)

Dishonesty dances around truth and distorts it under the cover of darkness, but never fully embraces it. Dishonesty dips into truth and uses twisted parts of it as tools to strengthen deception.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:26) Surrendering your heart and life to be continually anointed by His presence and power always leads to truth. (1 John 2:20) To walk in the truth (3 John 1:3-4) fully surrender to “Christ in you,” (Colossians 1:27) and let Him help you to deny yourself, (Matthew 16:24) constantly lead you by His Spirit, (Romans 8:14) and keep you overflowing with “the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)

An amazing thing will happen if you’ll consistently live a Christ-centered, fully surrendered life. “You do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in Him.” (1 John 2:27)

True Christianity
Is always Christ-centered
And fully surrendered
To the risen Jesus
And to His anointing.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” ―G.K. Chesterton

If you attend church but don’t daily listen to and obey the living Jesus, you’ve missed the point of Christianity. No human religious organization is the body of Christ. Not one. Can we handle the truth?

The body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27) is the worldwide family of God. (Ephesians 2:19) It’s parachurch. It’s beyond church. It works outside of and across denominations and institutional churches. The body of Christ is Spirit-led, relational, and organic. (Romans 8:14) The living Jesus is its only Head — if Christ isn’t the literal and active Head, then it’s not His body. The true body of Christ isn’t controlled by a human hierarchy. It consists of people who are connected to and surrendered heart-to-heart to the risen Jesus and to each other.

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I’m Always Looking for Advice

Daily writing promptList the people you admire and look to for advice…View all responses

I’m always looking for advice, day and night, but I don’t just ask anyone. I’ve found an amazing source of advice who never misleads me or lets me down. Pope Francis said: “I believe in God — not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God. There is God, and I believe in Jesus Christ, His incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor.” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”

No idea? Ask your Creator.
Need advice? Ask the Creator.
Want less stress? Ask your Creator.
Don’t reinvent the week. Ask the Creator.
Wanna get unstuck from a rut? Ask your Creator.
Puzzled by life’s puzzles? Ask the Creator.
Can’t find forgiveness? Ask your Creator.
Confused about life? Ask the Creator.
Need a tune-up? Ask your Creator.
Looking for joy? Ask the Creator.
Can’t find forgiveness? Ask your Creator.
Got other problems you can’t solve? Ask the Creator.

“True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise or a vocal performance. It’s far deeper than that — it’s a spiritual transaction with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.” –Charles Spurgeon

For creative ways to ask the Creator, google:
The Joy of Early Christianity.

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I Admire People Who Seek to Live Beyond Deception

Daily writing promptList the people you admire and look to for advice…View all responses

It’s easy to think that something is true with it isn’t. Often the truth is obscure or hidden and all we are left with is the fallibility of our feelings, desires, and opinions. No one is immune to deception. There is no vaccine that can prevent us humans from catching ahold of various lies. None of us knows (or says) the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Our human nature works in opposition to Christ. (Galatians 5:17) who is “the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) That’s why we need to deny our self-focused desires and allow the risen Jesus to directly lead us by His Spirit moment by moment. (Luke 9:23) It’s much easier to follow self away from Christ than it is to follow Christ away from self. To remain close to Christ and continually abide intimately in His presence requires being poor in Spirit. (Matthew 5:3)

Pride pries us away from Jesus, humility draws us to Him. (James 4:6) How fortunate are people who have no confidence in their human nature (Philippians 3:3) for they are being trained to trust in and rely on King Jesus living and working within them through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 5:3)

Preaching that causes people to look toward and rely on a preacher more than on the actual presence and the direct inner leadership of the Holy Spirit, does great harm to Christianity. It makes people think that they have been spiritually fed when all they did was hear some words spoken to their head. That type of preaching is like hearing a talk about food (or watching Food Network) but not eating anything.

Preaching that describes or informs people about God but doesn’t cause people to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6) and for the kingdom of God, which is His inner government, is deceptive. (Matthew 6:33) Without life-changing Spirit-given inspiration, preaching is merely religious information. The preaching that is needed isn’t a studiously prepared message, but a message that so passionately burns in a preacher’s heart that it vividly demonstrates the power, presence, and reality of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

O how we need for the members of the body of Christ to step up and allow the Spirit of God to empower them to be sent ones (apostles), speakers of the truth in love (prophets), Christ spreaders (evangelists), spiritual shepherds (pastors), and disciple-making trainers (teachers). (Ephesians 4:11) Then the body of Christ can be built up, come to true unity in the faith, and experience the presence and reality of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians: 4:12)

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