Steve Simms's Blog, page 143

Everybody is open-minded to some things and closed-minded to other things

Perhaps open-mindedness isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Sound-mindedness guards and shields itself from the inner arrows of errors and falsehood that continually fly through consciousness. It rejects and knocks down the fiery darts of deceptiveness and wickedness, like a hockey goalie guards the goal net.

An undiscerning, unguarded, and undisciplined mind quickly becomes chaotic. A mind that’s open to anything is closed to logic and reason. An uncontrolled mind is like a runaway truck. It’s headed for a crash.

The mind works best that is open to good and closed to evil. Feelings and desires often try to get the mind to be the opposite.

A human mind is most effective when it is discerning. A narrow mental focus on what is right is a key to mental health. Opening the mind to freely embrace the wrongful thoughts that flow through it is the broad way of mental torment and self-destruction.

Although human philosophy is hollow and resounds with the echos of emptiness and eternal hopelessness, it’s often a source of misguided pride. Hallowed wisdom that leads to humility comes from inner revelation–a supernatural aha of the heart. Hope-filled, eternal insight is beyond the analysis of the brain.

True sound-mindedness is Christ-mindedness. I’ve discovered that Christ-mindedness is pragmatic. My life works best when I surrender my mind to be led by the inner light of the living Jesus instead of following my own opinions, analysis, and rationalizations.

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Refusal to validate isn’t hate

It’s not hate
Not to validate
Someone’s behavior.

Christians are called to love people, not to validate their sin.

Wanted: Holy Spirit walkers (water walkers)

After a year or two of listening to Sunday sermons, it would be good if Christians would get up and begin to “walk in the Spirit.” Christianity needs more Holy Spirit walkers! Walking in the Spirit is like walking on water.

To follow the New Testament commands of “walk in the Spirit,” “live in the Spirit,” and “be led by the Spirit” requires that we be like Peter and step out of the boat of our comfort zone and on to the water of hearing and obeying the living Jesus. We must obey Him instead of holding on to the comfort of our own analysis, excuses, and emotions.

The “self-help” that Jesus wants us to focus on is to train ourselves to deny self, take up our cross, and follow Him in surrender and obedience. Just as Peter chose to deny His own desires, feelings, and evaluations by actively stepping out of the boat and moving his legs to walk on the water, we too must actively listen to Jesus and do what He says, especially when it goes against our perceived self-interest. The best way I can help myself is to moment-by-moment do what Jesus tells me to–to actively train myself to walk in the Spirit, not in my human nature or by pride in my own ability.

Instead of building up our self-confidence, Christ-followers are called to humble ourselves. By being willing to sink and appear like a fool to his friends, Peter humbled himself and received the grace of God. As he sank in fear and unbelief, Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him above the water and they walked together on the surface. God spoke to me recently and said, “Stop trying and start trusting.” Now I’m experiencing a paradox. It’s an ongoing struggle to put the brakes on self-effort and instead to simply listen, trust, and obey.

Unless individuals are being inwardly led by God’s Spirit, Christianity is mere religious institutionalism. Increase your receptivity to Jesus’ call to step out of the boat. Walk on water today!

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I have the most fun when I’m:

Singing worship songs to Jesus;Letting the words of the Bible burn in my heart;Praying together with other people;Connecting heart-to-heart with people;Listening to Jesus and writing down what He tells me;Prayer walking;Experiencing the fruit of the Spirit;Flowing in the gifts of the Spirit;Gathered with people who listens to Jesus and then each one does what He tells them to;Reading books by passionate and radical Christ-followers from the past;Encouraging people;Preaching (which I rarely get to do).

Deceivability–we’ve all got it

Deceivability–all humans have it. We can be misled, tricked, and duped by other people. Even our own feelings, thoughts, and desires can deceive us. We can be sincerely convinced that we are right when we are wrong.

Outwardly we are surrounded by so much information, distraction, and confusion, that we can easily get lost in the mess. Inwardly our psyche is also loaded down with ideas, emotions, and wants that push and pull and try to compel us in many directions.

We need anchors–sources of truth–that keep us from being tossed about and deceived in life. How can we know the truth that sets us free from the lies that abound both around us and within us?

We need to desire truth and seek it. We need to be radically honest with ourselves and with others–“speaking the truth in love.” Living in a world full of falsehood, we need to be on guard. We need to test everything for truth and if it doesn’t pass the test, we need to refuse to believe it or to proclaim it.

Here are some tests I use:

* Does it align with my conscience?

* Is the person or group proclaiming it humble, reliable, and radically honest?

* Does the person or group proclaiming it have anything to gain by talking me into believing it?

* Does it align with the Bible?

* When I ask God about it does He confirm it or cause me to question it?

* Does the person or group proclaiming it have compassion for the people who disagree with them and/or who want to fact check their claims?

* Can it be backed up by solid evidence or is it merely hearsay?

* If the tests show that another person or group is right, am I humble and willing to admit that I am the one who is wrong?

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Self-life is full of strife; Christ-life is full of peace

The Bible calls self-life “the desires of the flesh.” It says that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

True Christ-followers are in the process of abandoning self-life and surrendering to Christ-life. Being a Christian doesn’t mean that you don’t have wrongful desires, feelings, and thoughts, but that you are continually at war with them and fighting to overcome them.

Self-life glorifies comfort. Christ-life glorifies God. Self-life is nourished and built up by following our human desires. Christ-life is nourished and built up by following God’s Spirit. You have the right to exercise your authority over your thoughts, your desires, and your feelings, and make them align with God!

The desires of our self-life and the desires of God’s Spirit are opposed to each other. When Christianity promotes self-focus, it replaces the kingdom of God with the kingdom of self. It should be about exchanging self-life for Christ-life–self-focus for Christ-focus.

Self-life is saturated with strife. Christ-life overflows with inner peace.

When self-focused desires
Are not denied
But glorified,
A self-cult
Is the result.

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Band of heart-connected Christ-followers

Ekklesia

God’s supernatural assembly
Consists of a multitude of
Worldwide members
Invisibly banded together,
Not by agreement
Or by organization,
Not superficially,
But by deep
Heart-connection
With the risen
And living Jesus
And with all
Who truly love Him.
When they meet
With open hearts,
Even as strangers
They discover Jesus
Working in each other
And behold His glory
As they experience
His presence.

Lord, open our eyes
So we can see
That’s there’s no place
In Your body
For us to be
Privatized.

The Christ-band I continually interact with starts with my wife and then our close brothers and sisters in Christ. It includes a group of students at Lincoln Technical School in Nashville and expands to Christ-followers near and far. It’s continually being expanded as God brings us more and more people to open our hearts to and to practice the 50+ New Testament “one another” verses. Heart-connection isn’t bound by time or place!

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“A mature follower of Jesus”

Someone asked me to describe “a mature follower of Jesus.” Here’s my attempt at that:

Christianity’s about exchanging self-life for Christ-life. It’s about replacing self-focus with Christ-focus.

A full follower of Jesus can boldly testify along with Paul, “the energy (of) Christ so powerfully works in me.” A mature Christ-followers pays attention to and quickly obeys the inner promptings of Jesus and thus vividly demonstrates the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit in day-to-day life. Fully mature Christians continually let the living Jesus melt their will and mold it into His. They align their lifestyle and beliefs to the living Jesus, not to the world or to their own desires.

I search the living and the dead for mature Christians. I find many mature Christians in writings from the past–from Watchman Nee to Augustine, From Mother Teresa to John Wesley, from the Catholic mystics to the Orthodox writers in the Philokalia, from the Quakers to the Anabaptists. I’ve also been blessed to know many mature Christ-followers in the flesh–people sold out to the living resurrected Jesus. Throughout the week my wife and I connect with many mature disciples of Jesus who come from various backgrounds and traditions.

The measure of Christian maturity is not in “enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstrations” of the living resurrected Jesus in and through humble, surrendered lives. If you want a measurement, how about: How well does a person live out the teachings of Jesu daily life and “consider others better than” themselves? How “poor in spirit,” “mournful,” “meek,” “hungry for God,” “merciful,” “pure in heart,” “peacemaking,” and “persecuted” are people?

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Let Jesus live in you & tell you what to do

When Christ
Is freely allowed
To live and reign
In you,
He will continually
Renew, empower,
And refresh you.

Christ in you is not “the hope to cope”–to just get by as a carnal Christin. He wants to live within you and be “the hope of glory!”

I think that “think” isn’t the right word for how to respond to Christ in you. “Savor” is better. Savor His inner presence and His glory. “O taste and see that God is good.” Savor the risen Savior!

When we surrender to the presence of the living Jesus and let Him live in us and continually direct us from within, we experience ongoing rivers of living water that flow from our innermost being as the fruit of the Spirit and as spiritual gifts. We overflow with His hope and glory, regardless of our outward circumstances.

The more attuned we are to the indwelling Jesus and His inner Light, the more the kingdom of God comes to rule and reign within us and through us–His will being done by us as it is in Heaven. Our conscience is activated and directed by His presence, and we eagerly obey it. His Lordship is no longer a theological concept, but a practical, daily reality. He’s no longer just our figurehead but He becomes our literal Head. We not only hear His voice; we do what He says! We are “led by the Spirit.” We “walk in the Spirit. We “live by the Spirit.” We “glory in Christ Jesus.”

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Supernaturally demonstrating Jesus beyond words

The risen Jesus lives inside of Christ-followers and can express Himself thru them. All we need to do is to listen to His voice and then say and/or do whatever He tells us to. This results in supernatural demonstrations of His presence.

Jesus said: “I will build My town meeting.” (The Greek word that Jesus is quoted as saying in that statement is ekklesia, which was the official name of the town meeting in Greek city/states.) A Jesus town meeting is a forum for Him to express Himself thru everyday Christians.

Historically church has tended to have one man talk about the Gospel every week with little or no demonstrating of the actual presence of the risen Jesus. Talking about Jesus without demonstrating His presence and reality falls short of sharing the Gospel. True Christianity is more than mere explanations about Jesus. It’s actual demonstrations of Jesus’ presence and power through present-day Christ-followers.

Doing good things for people is nice, however, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Jews and people from every other religion can do that. Even nonreligious people do good things for others. Thus, being nice and serving others demonstrates human kindness, but it doesn’t necessarily demonstrate the reality and love of the living, present, and active Jesus.

I’ve always tended to be uncomfortable telling people about Jesus. I’m better at sharing Jesus thru writing and speaking to groups than talking to people one to one. I guess that is because I still struggle with shyness, fear of man, and the intimidation of the devil. I’ve tried to overcome that by will power and self-help. I’ve also prayed to have more boldness for talking about Jesus to people one on one. For 5 1/2 years I was a counselor and chaplain in a Salvation Army alcohol and drug rehab center with 86 beds. In that setting I found that I was able to freely talk about Jesus to individual men without intimidation. Another thing that helps me is that I find it easier to ask someone if I can pray for him or her. The majority of people I ask say yes, so I close my eyes and talk to Jesus on their behalf. Many times, people will have tears in their eyes afterwards.

I think that if churches would give people the opportunity to talk about Jesus by giving their salvation testimony during church services, it would help train Christians to talk about Jesus to others. It would be quite simple for a church to schedule one or two people each week and put them on the Sunday program to give their salvation testimony. That simple action would make a powerful difference in any church courageous enough to implement it.

There are many parts to the body of Christ, but too often church only recognizes two parts–the preacher and the congregation. Perhaps it is time to recognize every individual member as being an active part of the body instead of being confined to the mere role of a passive attendee.

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