Steve Simms's Blog, page 26
January 4, 2025
I Try to Stay Focused on God’s Amen! (His Wake-Up Call in My Heart)
View all responsesGod is looking for people to speak, to live, and to demonstrate the wake-up call of the word “Amen!” (What does that word mean?)
The word “amen” doesn’t mean that a prayer has come to an end. It’s an affirmation that declares “So be it/May it be fulfilled.” It also means “Get going with God and keep on obeying Him no matter what.”
“Amen” is a wake-up call to “pray without ceasing,” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) — a call to consistently “live by the Spirit,” (Galatians 5:25) by staying in conscious contact with God and demonstrating His presence and power in and through your daily life. It’s a wake-up call to “hear what the Spirit is saying,” (Revelation 2:7) and to affirm it by being continually “led by the Spirit,” (Romans 8:14) of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
“Amen” is a call to live a life ever overflowing with worship “in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24).” “The four living creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the elders fell down and worshipped.” (Revelation 5:14) “All the people lifted their hands and responded, ‘Amen! Amen!’ Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” (Nehemiah 8:6)
To Jesus ”be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father.” (Revelation 1:6.) “May the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. Praise His glorious name forever!” (Psalm 72:19)
“Amen. Hallelujah!” (Revelation 19:4) “Amen. Come Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:20) Let the risen Jesus unceasingly speak these words to your heart: “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.” (Revelation 1:18)
Amen! God is continually calling me to keep waking up to the objectivity of Christ in me as He continually challenges and dismantles my subjective desires, feelings, and opinions. God is speaking in the heart of whoever will listen. Will you listen?
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January 3, 2025
The Gift of a Calming Inner Presence
View all responsesGod has given me the greatest gift. He has come to live in and work in me. I’m standing on the living Word of In-You-Christianity!
Live in the In-You-Christianity of the New Testament:
* Let God shine in your heart (2 Corinthians 4:6), draw you near (John 6:44), and work in you (Philippians 2:13).
* Let Christ be formed in you (Galatians 4:19), live in you (Galatians 2:20), and be your inner hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
* Let the Holy Spirit witness to your spirit (Romans 8:16), teach you (John 14:26), and lead you (Romans 8:14) from within you.
Receive the testimony of Jesus, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God and let it effectively work in you (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Let Christ live in you and make you alive to the glorious reality of His presence (Romans 8:10).
What is happening within you is much more important and powerful than what is happening around you. Outer peace without inner peace is peaceless. The only lasting source of inner peace is In-You-Christianity–“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Open up and fully surrender your life to the risen Jesus so that He can freely work and live in your heart (Ephesians 3:17). Let Him keep you in perfect inner peace (Isaiah 26:3).
Jesus wants to be a spring of water in you welling up to eternal life (John 4:13-14). He wants to release His rivers of living water to flow from within you. (John 7:37-38).
Fan into flame the amazing gift of Christ’s presence in you (2 Timothy 1:6). Refuse to let your heart grow cold.
If Christ is living in you, He’s not there to be your copilot or a silent partner. He’s there to interact with you day and night. He’s in you to actively direct your life and align it to His will. If Christ lives in you, it is so He can release the gifts of the Spirit through you. He’s inside you to produce and manifest the fruit of the Spirit. He’s there to empower you. He’s in you to activate and direct your conscience and steer you ever closer to full surrender and obedience to Him.
Boldly open wide your heart to In-You-Christianity. Hungrily read and devour the Bible and let Christ, the living Word who works within its pages, read you like a book and reveal His presence and reality to you throughout each day. In-You-Christianity is the answer that you’ve been longing for.
God’s not playing dead so that preachers can talk about Him from their head. He’s alive and drawing ordinary people to Himself so they can experience Him in their heart. Christianity isn’t an organization that you belong to or a meeting that you attend. It’s “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
January 2, 2025
The College of Daily Life
View all responsesPerhaps the greatest higher education comes from closely observing and learning from daily life. Are you passing the classes in the college of daily life?
Begin to observe the direct cause and effect between what people think, say, and do and the quality of their day-to-day life. Notice that people reap a (good, bad, or mixed) harvest from the quality of the behavioral, mental, emotional, and spiritual seeds that they sow.
Notice that people who are deeply hopeful and happy have predominantly sown positive seeds. Observe that people who struggle with coping have mainly sown negative seeds. In a discouraging world it’s much easier to go with the flow of fickle feelings, cultural conformity, distorted desires, and tormenting thoughts than it is to (internally and externally) sow encouragement, kindness, and joy. Our society calls the disturbing and depressing harvest that many people around us are reaping a “mental health crisis.”
Life’s pain is designed, not to harm us, but to direct and motivate us to turn away from the behaviors, thoughts, and desires that are causing our pain and replace them with behaviors, thoughts, and desires that produce inner peace, joy, and contentment. With decades of experience of observing life, I’ve found the most effective way I can consistently sow positive seeds is to maintain consciousness awareness of God.
Cultivate God’s SEED in your heart through Surrender, Eternal Empowerment, and Demonstration:
* Surrender: Arouse yourself to ceaseless conscious awareness of the presence of Jesus.
* Eternal Empowerment: Always allow Him to freely live in and through you,
* Demonstration: Faithfully follow and obey the risen Christ as He shines on and daily directs you.
Surrender: The love of God is the addiction that delivers a lifetime of inner peace and joy. Open up and surrender your heart (moment-by-moment) to Him so you can experience and get hooked on His love.
There’s a happy high that comes from fully focusing your heart on Jesus, a buzz (oh that does) feel so good, a release of inner peace that doesn’t cease, a wealth of mental health. The missing link between you and great contentment is complete ongoing surrender to the risen Jesus Christ.
Knowing and growing in Christ requires more than religious analysis. It requires a surrendered, open, and humble heart.
Eternal Empowerment: Live your life by the internal leadership of God’s Spirit. (See Romans 8:14.) Don’t forget to regularly flush your heart. Always empty it of pride anger, resentment, and other ugly things so you can make greater room for the living Jesus.
Your state of mental health and alertness to God is determined by which thoughts you delete from your mind and which thoughts you download to it. Cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. Welcome thoughts from God. Resist the devil and his thoughts. Cast out the desires and works of the flesh.
Demonstration: The Holy Spirit’s new wine and rivers of living water aren’t just metaphors. Jesus said: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink.” “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Open up and partake. Ceaselessly savor and demonstrate God’s favor!
It’s truly amazing how focusing my attention on Jesus keeps me smiling and hopeful day by day (regardless of my circumstances). I think the same will happen for you. Try it and see.
Go beyond your head
Be Spirit-led!
Let your heart be fed
By “Christ in you.”
January 1, 2025
Playfully Enjoying the Wonder of Being Alive
View all responsesLike a little child, I love to playfully enjoy and appreciate the gift and wonder of being alive. I didn’t ask to be on planet earth, but I’m so grateful that I get to spend some time here in this marvelous place in the middle of the void of space. There are so many good and amazing things about being alive on earth that I’ve yet to ponder and celebrate. My pain and struggles don’t negate the fact that I’m alive and free to partake of the joy of taking time to contemplate and treasure the intricate complexities of creation that continually amaze me. Since nature is so astonishing, how majestic must its maker be! I’ve trained myself to focus on His glory through each day, and one day I’ll see Him forever face to face.
As the years
Grow in number
Awake from
Your slumber.
Remember that
Time is winding down
And you won’t
Always be around.
Open your heart
To contemplation
That fills you up
With inspiration.
Throughout each day
Take time to ponder
And embrace the joy
Of life’s wonder.
Then you’ll see
Life’s full of meaning
And your face
Will be gleaming.
Even when
Conscious awareness
Of your Creator seems
Nowhere to be found
He is still around.
Say a simple prayer
That He will make
You aware
That He is right there
Where He’s always been,
Still calling
And searching
For you.
Read and absorb
God’s Light in the Bible
With a hungry heart.
The beginning of a new year is a great time “to be made new in the attitude of your mind and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:23-24.)
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Prophetic Skipping is a Beautiful Challenge
View all responsesProphetic Skipping
I love to skip and dance through time with the joy of the Lord as my strength. I savor and bask in the inner peace that comes from “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The Scriptures are full of prophetic words that skip through time to bless, empower, and guide me. The risen Jesus speaks directly to my heart, where He has made His home. Many Christ-followers speak prophetically to me (when we encounter each other as Christ’s Spirit-led ekklesia). I love and continually rejoice with Christ-in-you Christianity.
Christ-in-you Christianity is all the time and every place. You-in-church Christianity is confined to a certain time and a particular place.
Begin to see
Prophetically
A Christian who
Only sees
Religious rules
Will act like
The Pharisees
And be trapped
By the prideful seas
Of self-righteousness.
It’s time to be
Someone who sees
The risen Jesus
And lets Him seize
Control of your heart
And flood it with
The cleansing seas
Of His pure love.
December 30, 2024
A Book Makes Me Feel Nostalgic
View all responsesThe fact that a book written over a period of about 1,500 years by dozens of citizens of a small ancient country made up of the descendants of Egyptian slaves (that was conquered and destroyed several times) is the world’s bestselling and most read book of all time is truly amazing. Reading the Bible with an open humble heart makes me nostalgic about what I see in its pages. I long to experience more and more of God’s reality and presence in the present.
As human beings we can train ourselves to be always sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing in our body, mind, soul, and spirit. Then we can move beyond nostalgia and be God’s wind chimes that announce His presence.
Don’t just go
With the times.
Be the wind chimes
Willing to move
With God’s Spirit
And to prove
And demonstrate
His presence.
Let go and
Let God’s Spirit
Freely flow
From within you.
Then you will know
The reality
Of “Christ in you,
the hope of glory.”
People who train themselves
To obey God’s Spirit
Spend their life flowing
The way the He’s going.
They let Christ be their guide.
Instead of rowing
Against His tide,
They’re always growing
Under His direction.
Romans 8:14.
Flow with Christ
Within you,
Not with the sin
You want to do.
Christ in you isn’t supposed to be an occasional drip or even a trickle. Let Jesus rise up within you (body, soul, and spirit) as rivers of living water. Let your heart perpetually overflow with the love of Jesus (no holding back) so you can unceasingly sense His presence and savor His peace. Train yourself to rely on the flow of the Holy Spirit throughout each day and to stir up and release His gifts from within you.
Keep your heart unblocked so Christ’s rivers can freely flow day and night. Make your life a river where the presence of Jesus is always flowing through you, not a dried-up gulley where Jesus rarely flows. Let Christ in you ceaselessly carry you along with His flow. “Quench not the Spirit.”
Christianity isn’t about human analysis. It’s about a supernatural spring of living water that never stops welling up from within.
If you won’t keep flowing with God’s Spirit your faith will stagnate. Nothing gets stale when the Holy Spirit is allowed to flow, however, if you ignore Christ’s inner flow, you’ll be swept along by your feelings and desires.
Get caught up in Christ’s current! Love Jesus, not money. Love Jesus, not your pride. Love Jesus, not stuff. Love Jesus, not your feelings and desires. Love Jesus, not entertainment. Love Jesus, not your opinions.
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Seeing More Clearly by Thinking Outside the Culture
View all responsesI love people who look beyond the natural, who think outside of their culture. They inspire me.
Lifestyle-Christianity requires ongoing Christ-focus–continually “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” It looks “not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen.” Christians don’t need more information about Jesus. We need to look up in order to behold and embrace a much greater level of awareness of and surrender to the presence and daily reality of the Lamb of God.
Lifestyle matters. Lifestyle-Christians live Spirit-led lives. They daily demonstrate the presence of the risen Jesus through what they say and do. Lifestyle-Christians always look to Jesus first!
Lifestyle-Christianity isn’t powered by human effort, but by “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It requires looking up with full surrender, not looking around with self-righteousness. Christ came to impact and to empower people so they can demonstrate His presence and reality. He didn’t come to make people religious. (The Pharisees were already doing a good job of that.)
Lifestyle-atheists say that they believe God exists but act like they don’t. They honor God with their lips but keep their heart far from Him. Many lifestyle-atheists regularly attend church. (Some lifestyle-Christans don’t.)
Intense Christ-focus produces a Christian lifestyle. Self-focus, even when coated with religious words, is an atheistic lifestyle. Refuse to let society’s pressure pry you away from persistently pursuing and nonstop gazing at the glorious presence of the risen Jesus.
Think about your daily lifestyle for a while. Does it say and demonstrate that Jesus is alive, or does it deny His reality? Your words may say that you are a Christian, but your lifestyle says what you really are. Your lifestyle speaks louder than a thousand words. If you love Jesus, incessantly act like you do. Lifestyle-Christians take on and daily demonstrate the presence, influence, character, and reality of Jesus Christ.
It’s easy to be a religious observer of religious observances yet neglect to daily listen to and obey the living Jesus. If you aren’t able to consistently maintain a Christian lifestyle you need a greater awareness of and deeper surrender to the presence and reality of the risen Jesus. Continually drinking Christ’s living water is essential to a Spirit-led lifestyle. Open up your heart and look up to taste and see that the Lord Jesus is real.
Leave behind the compromise of your comfort zone. Embrace the lifestyle and the courage of the Spirit-empowered commitment zone. Christ’s table-flips never flop! You can trust Him with your tables. Look up and let Him flip them.
A high percentage of church attendance and the Ten Commandments hanging in schools don’t make a nation Christian. An abundant harvest of the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit that organically permeates throughout the entire culture and produces multitudes of Spirit-led lifestyles, does.
Christianity is a lifestyle
That goes far beyond
Sitting in church for a while
With the passive rank and file.
December 28, 2024
Red for the Blood of Jesus and a Duvet for His Comfort
View all responsesGod’s a talker. He’s not silent. By speaking He created all that exists. From the beginning to the end, the Bible is about God communicating to people.
Hear now, this very moment. Listen to the Holy Spirit and be a Jesus sheep.
Jesus is the Word. He is the Creator who “became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus said: “My sheep hear My voice.” Be one of His sheep. Listen to, follow, and obey His voice throughout each day.
Always rely on the Good Shepherd. “Lean not to your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him,” and consistently depend on and obey His voice. Let Him “direct your path.” Keep your inner ears ever attentive to the risen Jesus so that you can “hear what the Spirit is saying.”
God is speaking to you. Put away your distractions. If you want to clearly hear His voice “prepare the way of the Lord” within your heart. Create inner space where you can continually focus on Him. Refuse to allow anything thing to distort or to turn you away from His voice.
Be like the young prophet, Samuel. Humbly say to God: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Then open wide your heart and mind and silently wait for His response–a picture, a thought, an impression, a prompting, a verse of Scripture, an awareness, or even a single word. Like the Bible says: “Be still and know that I am God.”
Always test what you hear with the Bible. God won’t contradict Himself. If what you hear is from God, it will align with the truth and moral principles that He has revealed in Scripture. If you don’t want to obey what you hear, then it isn’t from you. Thus, you can begin to discern God’s voice. Ponder what He says to you. Let it burn in your heart. Then step out in faith and obey Him.
If God created you, then He can speak to you. Hear now. Focus on Him and listen. God is talking to you, but if you don’t want to hear Him you won’t. (If you don’t believe that God is trying to speak directly to you, are you sure that you even believe that He exists?)
The most important thing a Christian can do is to listen to and obey God, yet it’s very rare to find a church that trains people to consistently do that. All church teachings are a mixture of Christianity and human opinion. That’s why they disagree with each other. For pure Christianity look beyond human opinion. Open your heart to taught by the Holy Spirit both through the Bible and directly in your heart. Let Jesus be your duvet.
Ruthie Osswald, a designer at Brooklinen said: “A duvet consists of two parts—a duvet cover, and a duvet insert. The insert is a comforter, and the cover is a removable, protective shell for your comforter.” Now is the time to remove the shell that you’ve put between you and Christ your Comforter. Let the Good Shepherd calm and console you, not in a physical duvet, but with His loving voice, 24/7/365.
The more you hear
And truly obey
What God has to say,
The more you’ll be
Able to hear Him
Throughout each day.
December 27, 2024
My Perspective is Always Changing
View all responsesWriting what Jesus shows me helps me see things from God’s perspective instead of from my own. It’s a great way to begin to experience the gifts of the Spirit, especially the gift of prophecy. Focus your attention intensely on the risen Jesus. Notice what He puts on your heart. Then check it out to make sure it aligns with the Bible, and if so, write it down. Persisting in this simple activity will set your heart alight with Spirit-given vision and insight.
Christ’s fire continually ignites me with love and adoration for Him. He gives me the intensity of boiling water. I eagerly desire to hear Him speak within me. I read the Bible every day because I long to hear Jesus talk to me through Scripture. I listen to His still small voice throughout each day because I treasure being led by His Spirit. I am thrilled to write what I sense Him saying to me because I want everybody to lift up their heart to the intimacy of Christ’s Presence. I’m a Jesus-writer.
Some people say my writing is repetitious. It is. No matter what I write about my focus is on Jesus. He has captured my heart, my soul, my all and turned me into a Jesus-writer.
I write about joy because Jesus is my joy. (Search for: The Joy of Early Christianity.) I write about hope because “Christ in you” is my hope of glory. (Search for: Elephants Inspiring the Room.) I write about race because Jesus loves everybody and wants me to love them too. (Google: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.)
I write about “ekklesia” because it is the original Christian assembly, and it allows Jesus to be the literal Head of His gathered body. (Search: Beyond Church Ekklesia.) Everything I write, I write because I feel prompted to do so by the risen Jesus, the Lord of All! (Google: Free Gas for Your Think Tank blog.)
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View all responsesWriting what Jesus shows me helps me see things from God’s perspective instead of from my own. It’s a great way to begin to experience the gifts of the Spirit, especially the gift of prophecy. Focus your attention intensely on the risen Jesus. Notice what He puts on your heart. Then check it out to make sure it aligns with the Bible, and if so, write it down. Persisting in this simple activity will set your heart alight with Spirit-given vision and insight.
Christ’s fire continually ignites me with love and adoration for Him. He gives me the intensity of boiling water. I eagerly desire to hear Him speak within me. I read the Bible every day because I long to hear Jesus talk to me through Scripture. I listen to His still small voice throughout each day because I treasure being led by His Spirit. I am thrilled to write what I sense Him saying to me because I want everybody to lift up their heart to the intimacy of Christ’s Presence. I’m a Jesus-writer.
Some people say my writing is repetitious. It is. No matter what I write about my focus is on Jesus. He has captured my heart, my soul, my all and turned me into a Jesus-writer.
I write about joy because Jesus is my joy. (Search for: The Joy of Early Christianity.) I write about hope because “Christ in you” is my hope of glory. (Search for: Elephants Inspiring the Room.) I write about race because Jesus loves everybody and wants me to love them too. (Google: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.)
I write about “ekklesia” because it is the original Christian assembly, and it allows Jesus to be the literal Head of His gathered body. (Search: Beyond Church Ekklesia.) Everything I write, I write because I feel prompted to do so by the risen Jesus, the Lord of All! (Google: Free Gas for Your Think Tank blog.)
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