Steve Simms's Blog, page 203

“Spiritual reality explodes from inside me “

"I will pray with my spirit"

Gloriously refreshing hope
Flows from within me
As rushing rivers
Of unknown words
Produce the Spirit's fruit.
What a life-changing blessing
It is to pray in tongues.
Spiritual reality explodes
From inside me!

(Based on these Scriptures:1 Corinthians 14:14-15, Colossians 1:27, John 7:38-39, Galatians 5:22-23, and 1 Corinthians 14:2, and on 50 years of daily experience.)

If the living Jesus Christ is active in you, He produces gloriously refreshing hope. (“Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27)

To pray with your mind is only half praying. You can also pray with your spirit. (“So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding . . .” 1 Corinthians 14:15)

You’re designed for rushing rivers of living water to flow from within you. (Jesus said: “Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him. He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.” John 7:38)

The produce section of your life should be overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit. (“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law . . .” Galatians 5:22)

It’s a life-changing, awe-releasing, supernatural blessing, to often pray in tongues! (1 “For anyone who speaks in a tongue a does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 14:2) I made a video about tongues. Check it out here.

The Bible challenges us to be led by God’s Spirit, not by our feelings and desires. Jesus said His followers will be taught by the Spirit, not just by human teachers. When I am Spirit-led instead of organization-led, I experience amazing unity with other Spirit-led Christians.

Christianity’s not about what we can do. It’s about what we let the living Jesus do in and thru us! If we will get our control, ego, and thoughts out of His way, we’ll see Jesus do much more!

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Where do you go to Jesus?

Where do you go to the living Jesus? You can go to Jesus anywhere, since He’s everywhere.

Nobody (and no thing) has the right to stand between you and the living Jesus. Accept no substitutes for the continual presence of the living, resurrected Jesus. Church should connect us to the living Jesus, not serve as a substitute for Him.

As a doctrine the presence of Jesus is nice, but as lived reality, it’s continually life altering. The living Jesus, when unhindered by religion, revolutionizes human lives! It’s fine to quote what a preacher says, but it’s much more powerful to continually do what Jesus says.

The purpose of preaching is to proclaim the living Jesus and connect people directly to Him, not to substitute for His presence. Jesus didn’t come to offer us church services, but to make a way for us to repent and realign with His will and His presence.

A daily walk with the living Jesus is much more powerful than a weekly talk about Him. If King Jesus isn’t the everyday ruler of your life, you’re in rebellion against His kingdom.

The more aware we are of the presence of the living Jesus, the more awe in our heart. Theology studies and analyzes Jesus. Christian spirituality experiences & obeys Him.

There are many amazing things, currently outside of your awareness. Find them. There are always reasons for hope & reasons for discouragement. Which do you see?

The optimist opts out of discouragement. The pessimist persists in it.

Dare to care intensely for people even when you disagree with their behaviors. If two people see something from different angles, it looks different. (Switch places.) All human perception is partial. Be kind when others see things differently.

Lies distort or deny reality. They’re out of synch with the real world. What we perceive can easily deceive us with imperceptible illusion.

Experiencing Christ in you as an amazing reality

When you get to know “Christ in you,” you don’t have to look for Him elsewhere. Surrendering to the life of Jesus working inside of you is like soaring in the wind.

Christ-followers are citizens of God’s kingdom, His ambassadors, only visiting the nations where they live. Need a solid foundation for your life? The living Jesus is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Exalting individual members of the body of Christ, distracts from the Headship of Jesus. An omnipresent leader doesn’t need a hierarchy. Listen directly to the risen Jesus. Christians are called to gather as a Spirit-led body, not just as an audience for a one-man show.

Sincere surrender to the living Jesus is a choice that will make your heart rejoice. The living, present Jesus doesn’t need an institution or a person to represent Him.

Finding kindness by choosing peace & joy

A non-hostile approach to life opens the heart to joy and beauty. Fight more against the evil in yourself than the evil in others. (It does you more harm.)

Choices are building blocks. However you stack them up, they form your life. There are always better and more effective ways to live. Find some.

Life gets better when we stop making self-destructive choices and quit obeying tormenting mental voices. All thoughts are not equal. Some are friends to welcome; some are enemies to resist. As the buffet of thoughts stream thru your mind, choose the best & ignore the rest.

Bad choices don’t have to be permanent. Make a re-choice; turn from wrong to right. Choose to look for truth, even when it’s uncomfortable and you don’t want to hear it.

Conscience is standard equipment in human beings. Overriding it is optional. We can choose to receive forgiveness or to live with guilt. Lord, have mercy on me!

Rudeness reaps retaliation. Choose to be kind instead. Choose to be rational. Choose to think with honesty, humility, and compassion–not just to react. Anger is hostile to rationality. Thinking things through gets in its way.

Kind people expect to find kindness in others. Hostile people expect hostility.

Kindness has the power to de-escalate hostility. Antipathy, hostility, malice, and loathing are loads too heavy for a heart to carry. Opposing anger with anger increases it. Responding with kindness de-escalates it.

Bad behavior reveals a person’s need for compassion. Fight their fire with kindness. When you feel hurt, retaliate with kindness and notice the surprising effect it has.

People who disagree
Aren’t your enemy
Just because they see
Things differently.

Empathy
Replaces antipathy
With heart-felt sympathy.

Evil often presents itself as good and tells you that you’re entitled to it. To know what’s right but choose to do what’s wrong, creates guilt. Repentance brings peace. Even when sin has been dethroned from your heart, it still lingers and tries to deceive.

Cruelty is always a bad choice.

Unconditional approval creates chaos

True love is unconditional, but when approval becomes unconditional, chaos ensues. God’s unconditional love is a call to unconditional character–to always do right. Think, live, and do right, unconditionally–even love your enemies.

God loves us so much that He disapproves of how we cause pain for ourselves and others. Love can disagree and love can disapprove, but love isn’t unkind.

There’s no excuse
For verbal abuse.
Let’s call a truce
And put kindness to use!

Be a love-lighter. Brighten people’s hearts by showing them God’s love.

Life is conditional. Your choices and behaviors create certain conditions. If you want to be happier, make happier choices. When bad choices become habitual, life stays filled with turbulence.

Improve your choices. That’s what Jesus meant when He said to repent.

Self-focus hampers happiness. Self-forgetfulness is happiness.

Train your brain to compliment, not complain

Complainers grumble. Complimenters express appreciation. No one likes complaints, but everybody likes compliments. Go to work in the compliment department.

More compliments and fewer complaints would improve any relationship. Life goes better if you make a grateful list and a to-do list, before a complaint list.

Life is a gift to be treasured; not a purchase to be complained about. Complaining is mental pollution that hides your solution. The best restraint for your complaints is to bask in your blessings.

Asking, “What’s wrong with this?” leads to complaints. Asking, “What’s good about this?” leads to gratitude. If you train your brain not to complain, you’ll be happier.

There’s little comfort in complaining. It mostly just annoys other people. There seems to be no shortage of things to complain about. Complaining is a great way to cultivate frustration, disappointment, and anger.

Gratitude offers no complaints. Complaining chases appreciation away, replacing it with judgment. Complaints provide excuses for being unhappy, but don’t make misery more bearable. Welcoming unwholesome thoughts is the Trojan Horse of mental oppression.

To mope and complain is a drain on hope, but gratitude is the attitude of encouragement. Pride produces complaints; humility produces gratitude.

The more you brood,
The worse your attitude.
It will put you in the mood
To fight and feud.

You can choose.
Win or lose
Don’t blow a fuse.
Trust it’s something
God will use.

Your thoughts need a traffic cop . . .

Never cleaning your mind is like never cleaning your bathtub. It’ll get real nasty. Some thoughts are tormenters; some, inspirers. I block one group and welcome the other.

Uncontrolled thoughts will jam up your brain like a city with no traffic lights. Your brain needs you to be its traffic cop. If not, it’ll run wild with reckless thoughts. If you let destructive thoughts control your heartstrings, you’ll crash.

Some thoughts torment the heart; others make it soar with inspiration. I prefer the second. Some thoughts are rip currents, dangerous undertows; others are healing streams. Go with the best inner flow.

The brain’s like a rose garden. We need to pick the flowers and dodge the thorns.

When marauder thoughts barge in to pillage your brain, immediately drive them out. Some thoughts resist your will and try to stay when you want them gone. Don’t let them. Resist tormenting thoughts, no matter how strongly they persist and insist on your approval. Those thoughts try to force feed your brain with anxiety and worry. Kick them out!

Thoughts are blueprints. You’re life is built around the ones that you continually choose. With your thoughts, you can create inner torment or inner bliss.

All thoughts are not created equal. Some crash your brain; others heal your pain. When you’re scrolling thru your thoughts, let your conscience be your chaperon.

When torment is allowed to rule the mind, there’s no room for inspiring ideas to ferment and inspiration to grow. If you allow dread in your head, it’ll torment you. Instead, look ahead with hope.

If you daily journey, mentally unarmed, into society’s jungle of negativity, it will overcome you. If you don’t filter your thought, much that you think will make you distraught.

Many problems come from listening to deceptive thoughts that invade our brain. However, most people are better at protecting their computer from viruses than their mind from harmful thoughts.

Tormenting thoughts barge in and bully the brain; uplifting one’s must be sought. If you surrender your mind to disagreeable thoughts, you’ll soon become their captive. Feelings often outrun reason, rushing recklessly and arrogantly down illogical trails.

If you change your circumstances but not your thoughts, you’ll still be stuck with the same attitude. Try not to let noise and mental torment, drown out the voice of the living God.

Grateful thoughts to keep thanksgiving going

Make America Grateful Again

Gratitude beautifies life. It is an attitude changer, a depression diluter, a mental health magnifier. Where there’s gratitude there’s no complaining and accusation.

You don’t have to feel grateful to give thanks. Thank someone anyway!

“Thank you,” is not an empty phrase. Those words can deeply touch a human heart. Expressed gratitude grows.

A conscious connection with gratitude releases heart-felt appreciation. A thankful heart doesn’t just happen. It grows as we focus on our blessings.

Happiness often seems hard to find because it is hidden behind gratitude. Unhappiness follows ungratefulness. Without gratitude, happiness is hard to come by.

Gratitude is a far more pleasant emotion than bitterness. Some people get stuck in bitterness. I want to frolic in gratitude.

When gratitude slips away, we seldom even notice that it’s gone. Ingratitude happens by neglect, not by intention. It’s the failure to appreciate. Wake up to daily life-appreciation! It’s an amazing experience.

A grateful heart makes it much easier to thank people than to insult them. Expressing gratitude draws smiley faces on your heart and on the hearts of those you thank

No gift is ever deserved; no blessing ever earned. Appreciation is the realization that your life’s full of blessings you don’t deserve.

Thanksgiving goes beyond seeking joy, to expressing gratitude for the joy you have. Another day above ground is something to be thankful for! You can’t give thanks unless you express your gratitude.

Show some gratitude. It’ll help your attitude. Desires and wants don’t inspire thanks. Appreciating what you have, does. Life’s most ignored goal: Cultivate gratitude for what you already have.

Pride looks to receive thanks; humility to give thanks. The secret to giving thanks: Just say “thank you.” Make a to-appreciate list and check it off as you express your gratitude. 

Earthly life has an expiration date. Be grateful for yours while it lasts!

Let people be grateful to you. When they than you, just say, “You’re welcome.”

Seeing yourself as blessed will make you grateful; as a victim will make you hateful.

Human nature tends to be proud of what we think we deserve and grateful for what we think we don’t deserve. Pride hates to say “thank you.” Gratitude revels in giving thanks.

Pride smashes heart-felt gratitude like an unwanted insect. Humility collects it like fireflies in a jar. Humility sees undeserved blessings where pride sees entitlement.

To seldom say, “Thank you,” is to take much in life for granted. Ingratitude is a self-defeating attitude. To live with ingratitude is to miss out on much joy.

Thanking is banking kindness. People are kinder to you when they feel appreciated by you.

This is good to do:
Say “thank you”
To those who
Have helped you.

Heal America: Give kindness to all and express gratitude whenever people are kind to you.

Ungrateful hearts find Thanksgiving Day boring. Gratitude for what you have is more encouraging than complaining about what you don’t have.

As I count my blessings, I find Jesus behind everyone of them.

I can’t boast
Before the One
Who’s done the most
For me. Thank you, Jesus!

I’m eternally grateful
That Jesus pardoned me
And set me free
To follow Him.

Thank You, Jesus, for being so real to me everyday. 

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How to have a grateful day on Turkey Day!

Focus on your blessings, not on the things that you think you’re missing. Taking things for granted eradicates gratefulness. It’s hard to be grateful for unnoticed blessings.

Thanksgiving is much more powerful as a daily habit, than as only an annual holiday. Daily gratitude washes away negative emotions. Gratitude is the recognition and appreciation of unearned favors. It’s is a form of celebration, a way to get high by showing appreciation.

Pride takes credit for success and blames others for failure. It sees no reason to say “thank you.” Humility is grateful for success and takes responsibility for mistakes. Gratitude recognizes that we all receive many good things that we didn’t earn. It rejects the spotlight and gives credit to others (and to God).

Half full or half empty? Just be grateful for the glass and what’s in it! Grateful living is glorious! Thinking about and expressing gratitude ignites joy! Gratitude matters.

Fact: life is a gift. It wasn’t earned or deserved. We were given life and all it’s amenities. Look for reasons for gratitude. If you can’t find any, pinch yourself, because you’re sleeping thru life.

Unexpressed gratitude fades into grumpiness. Begin to express gratitude to people (and to God), and grateful feeling will follow. Expressing gratitude in the present will give you hope for the future. True happiness is to be grateful for the gift of any given moment.

Gratitude is a behavior, not just a feeling. Show some today! Have a gratitude visit: Call or go see someone and express your gratitude to them. Regularly expressed gratitude leads to much inner healing and happiness. Show appreciation and return some kindness and you’ll feel uplifted today.

Recall in detail some good things that have happened to you. That’ll shoot you up with gratitude! Don’t let appreciation be “once and done.” Re-appreciate your blessings everyday.

Grateful eyes see life differently than grumpy eyes. Greater gratefulness will lower your level of stress, anxiety, and worry. When you’re gratefully aware that you’ve been blessed, it’s hard to stay stressed. Yet, gratefulness is more than a coping skill; it’s an inner thrill!

To experience the greatness of gratefulness is to be overcome with joy. Grateful people see value in everything that comes their way. Gratitude requires humility, but pride tends to push it aside. Entitlement is the opposite of gratefulness.

A grateful person lives with awe and wonder. Gratefulness is a wonderful goal and appreciation a beautiful destination. When people feel appreciation for their blessings, they want to bless other people. Hateful people are seldom grateful.

Have a grateful day! Thank you, Lord, for the gift of gratitude.

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To blame your foes is to step on your own toes

If you blame your foes for your woes, you’ll step on your own toes! Defy foes. Continually put your kindness under their nose.

When you know that your biggest foe is yourself, you don’t feel a great need to fight someone else. You can let your fingers dance on the keyboard, without making it a war dance.

Disagreement doesn’t create a foe. Fighting does. Find common ground. If you really get to know the heart of your foe, you might find a friend.

No amount of anger, blame, and hostility can turn falsehood into truth. The they-cheated-card is usually played from the bottom of the deck. To blame others is to refuse to take responsibility. Accepting responsibility makes a brighter future. Blame gets stuck in the past. Blame doesn’t empower you or fix a situation. It just keeps you stuck in anger.

Blame often leads to anger and retaliation. Taking responsibility leads to healing. Beating the blame drum will make you feel glum & think you’re a victim. (“The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.” ― President Dwight D. Eisenhower)

It’s easy to see things the way you want them to be; hard to see how they really are. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize plain falsehood, even when its standing right in front of you. It’s hard not to get mad at anyone who points out our fantasies.

Many people don’t know that their hate hurts them more than it does their foe. Perhaps your biggest foe is what you don’t know about the people you see as threatening.

Instead of seeing a face as friend or foe, you can see a person made in God’s image. If you get to know your foe, heart-to-heart, your animosity will go.

When people say “no,” don’t attack them as a foe. Listen and let them show you what they know.

Biblical Christians extend love beyond family and friends — all the way to foes. They try to touch their foes with God’s kindness and love. There is no kindness so amazing as that given by a foe.

Human foes are people too.
They’re really very much like you.
Take the time to say, “How do you do”?

Friend or foe, I want you to know the amazing peace and joy of daily following the risen Jesus.