Steve Simms's Blog, page 30

I Dream of Unprogrammed, Unscripted Moments in Church

Perhaps it’s not enough to gather to only hear the word of God. Perhaps Christians also need to gather to say and do the word of God as the Spirit prompts them. (James 1:22 & Romans 8:14)

Is there a church service anywhere that will allow even one unprogrammed moment? Can Christians get off the Sunday morning script for at least a quick breath of the experiential reality of Holy Spirit’s presence? When I was a teenager attending a Presbyterian church, they did allow a spontaneous moment. It was a tiny period of silent prayer. We were permitted (for thirty seconds or so) to mentally pray our own prayers (and think our own thoughts) instead of just being trapped in the rigidity of routine religion.

A church service that allows unscripted moments is very hard to find. I love to gather with Christians to all “draw near to God” (James 4:8) without a program. A beautiful thing begins to happen. Together we begin to see, hear, and experience the Holy Spirit directly taking the lead and we realize that “This is that spoken of,” in the Bible.” (Acts 2:16)

When Peter preached in the Bible he made the declaration, “This is that spoken by the prophet Joel,” as he explained the unprogrammed energy, power, and excitement that was overflowing from the gathered Christ-followers. Nowadays preachers act like that was that, and that now Christians are supposed to gather not to make Spirit-led biblical declarations, but merely to listen to their sermon.

Is this that? (See Acts 2:16.) I don’t believe that this that we call church attendance is the same thing as that relationship with the risen Jesus that the first Christians had. What JD described is much closer to biblical experience than just passively hearing the Word.

God gives us fresh fruit but by the time people get through with it we’ve often turned it into a can of fruit cocktail. God gives us His Spirit, but we too often replace the Spirit with programmed religion.

The Best Leader

The greatest nation on earth is the kingdom of God. It always has been and always will be great. Everyone is invited to become a citizen of this eternally great nation by fully surrendering their heart and life to the direct authority, Lordship, and Headship of King Jesus. Its patriots love their enemies, do good to those who hate them, bless those who curse them, and pray for those who mistreat them. (Luke 6:27-28)

The nation whose God is the Lord is called the kingdom of God. Its citizens are “from every nation, tribe, people and language.” (Revelation 7:9) God has rescued them from the dominion of darkness and brought “into the kingdom of the Son He loves.” (Colossians 1:13) They are empowered by the Holy Spirit to “say Jesus is Lord,” (1 Corinthians 12:3) and to demonstrate His power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4) They “worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3 NKJ) They rely on the Lord as they “wait in hope,” for Him. (Psalm 33:20) They rejoice with “inexpressible and glorious joy.” (1 Peter 1:8)

When people gather to let Christ be the literal Head, Jesus takes the wheel and begins to steer the meeting by nudging and prompting people. That’s the setting where people can learn to hear and obey the risen King of Kings and to actually be the Spirit-led body of Christ.

Human nations rise and fall but the kingdom of God never needs to be made great again. It’s always great! “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.” (Psalm 145:3)

Jesus consistently proclaimed the kingdom of God. He once used the ancient Greek’s name for their town hall meeting (where any citizen present could speak up) to describe what He was building — “ekklesia.” However, over time the kingdom (direct government) of God was replaced by institutionalized church, formalized traditions, and religious programs.

If the kingdom of God isn’t the only ruler of your heart you’re trusting in the wrong nation. Jesus first! Refuse to live a life distracted by human kingdoms and earthly concerns. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Matthew 6:33)

“If you have not chosen the kingdom of God, it will make in the end no difference what you have chosen instead.” –William Law

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Let’s Uninvent Distractions

Prompt me, Jesus,
Nudge me, Lord.
Help me obey
So I can live
In one accord
With Your will.

A nudge from God
Is a lightning rod.
It's His wake-up call
To change your behavior
And follow the Savior.

Let God's nudges
Direct your choices.
Reject the voices
That try to silence them.
Let God nudge you
Here and there
And lead you
Everywhere
He wants you to go.

God has a way of nudging you when He wants you to do something. Obey what His inner guidance is nudging you to do or say. A nudge from God is an invitation for you to experience a demonstration of His presence and reality. Step out of the comfort and false security of your own desires, feelings, and opinions let the current of His Spirit lead and direct you from deep within.

God nudges toward truth (“I am the way, the truth, and the life,”), toward humility (“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble,”), toward love (“Love your enemies,”), toward peace (My peace I give unto you,”), and toward hope (“Christ in you the hope of glory,).

People pay less attention to God than they think they do. It pays to notice and obey His inner nudges.

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Christian Self-Help Makes Me Feel Loved

There’s so much self-help for a Christian to do:

“Repent.”
“Fight the good fight of faith.”
“Resist the devil.”
“Draw near to God.”
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
“Press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling God in Christ Jesus.”
Bring “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
“Think on these things.”
“Put off” the old man and “put on” the new.
“Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you.”
“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.”

Discipleship is Spirit-led self-help. It is empowered by and obedient to the risen Jesus — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Let what you do and say be prompted and guided by what Christ does and says inside of you and thus engage in Spirit-led self-help. To work as God intends for us to, we must make every effort to be led by His Spirit, not by our desires, by our emotions, or by our logic. Spirit-led self-help is supernaturally powerful!

Just because you believe Christ is safely tucked away in your heart doesn’t mean He’s actually in there. Seek to be absolutely certain that He is. If the 9 qualities of “the fruit of the Spirit” (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) aren’t steadily growing and increasing inside of you, then there’s a strong possibility that Jesus is on the outside of your heart looking in. (If you’ve kept Jesus out of your heart, then He’s not in you.)

Throughout each day prepare the way of the Lord so He can have His way with you. Continually cultivate your heart and make more and more room for the risen Jesus to plant and produce an ongoing harvest of His fruit within you. Wholeheartedly welcome Christ to make His home in you and strive to get out of His way so that He can take full control of your thoughts, feelings, desires, words, and behaviors.

Always break up any hardened ground in your heart. Throw out all the stones. Pull out all the weeds. Make the Lord’s path’s straight. Then you’ll know for certain that Christ is in you brightly shinning His majestic hope of glory on your lampstand for all to see.

Christ in you is not a religious belief, a parable, or a teaching. He’s the ultimate reality — the living hope of glory. If there’s nothing amazing happening in your heart, then Christ probably isn’t living and working in there. If Christ is living in you, you really don’t what to ignore and miss out on what He’s saying and doing in your heart. Make every effort to cultivate your awareness of His presence. (You can’t consciously interact with Jesus if you’re unaware of His presence.)

Christ doesn’t sneak into your heart when you’re not paying attention. He patiently knocks and waits for you to open the door. Work to keep all the doors in your heart wide open to the living Jesus.

If Christ is in you
And you find yourself bored,
It’s because you’ve ignored
The resurrected Lord.
If you lock your heart down,
You probably won’t even notice
When Christ is around.
Prepare the way for Jesus
Through Spirit-led self-help.

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I Unclutter My Rudder

I unclutter
My rudder
So I don’t sputter
Through my life
And fall in
A gutter.

I have fought
To be taught
By Jesus
So my every thought
Can be brought
To align
With His will.
I have sought
To let His words
Burn in my heart
So I can live caught
By His presence,
Power and love.
(2 Corinthians 10:5)

A cluttered rudder is a terrible router and a dangerous guide. Cut the clutter around your rudder. Let God form and shape and mold and make your heart to be like Jesus.

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The Dove is a Symbol of Hope and Peace

Daily writing promptWhat is your favorite animal?View all responses

The dove is a symbol of hope, purity, and the tenderness of God’s love. A dove with an olive branch represents peace. When the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, He came in the form of a dove. To quench the Holy Spirit is to chase away the dove of God, to disrupt His peace, and to abandon the awareness of His presence.

Every person you will ever see was made by God — a masterpiece of art created in His image. (You are, too). Look beyond the flaws of fallen human nature. Search for and appreciate the beauty and splendor in everyone (including you). It can be hard to find, but it’s always there somewhere, oftentimes buried deep within and crusted over with sin.

Jesus came (lived, was crucified, died and rose again) to restore God’s perfect art in every human heart so that His Spirit can live within and be the hope of godly glory. Christ says, “Come unto Me all you who are weary.” Let Him restore you to what God created you to be.

Quench not the Spirit.
Let the Dove
Of Christ’s light
Shine ever bright
Within your heart
And give you
Constant insight
And revelation
Of what you’re called
To be in Him.

When the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus, He came in the form of a dove. The dove is a symbol of hope, purity, and the tenderness of God’s love. A dove with an olive branch represents peace.

To quench the Holy Spirit is to chase away the dove of God, to disrupt His peace, and to ignore His presence that restores His image in you. Continually welcome and cultivate the awareness that you all the people you will ever encounter are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Make your life
A real adventure.
Refuse to be
A Spirit-quencher.
Dare to venture
Wherever God leads.

Let the risen Jesus be the author and editor of your life. He’s much better at it than you are.

Bearing My Heart to Communicate Online

Bare your heart to the risen Jesus (not barely, but wholeheartedly) so He can abundantly bear the fruit of His Spirit in and thru your life. Let Him continually remind you, “If you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” Die to your own desires so that you can overflow with beautiful fruit for Christ’s glory and thus demonstrate that you are His disciple.

To get going
With the fruit
Of the Spirit
Get rooted,
And grounded
And growing
In Jesus.

Ever entwine
Your life in
Christ the vine
So Jesus can
Produce the fruit
Of the Spirit
Inside of you
And you can dine
In His presence
As you savor
His new wine.

Let God plant you by Christ’s inner rivers of living water and make you His spiritual fruit tree that produces abundance and never withers. The first step to being “led by the Spirit” (Romans 8:14) is to “hear what the Spirit is saying.” (Revelation 2:7) Jesus, God’s beloved Son, is speaking to you. Hear Him.

Christ living in you,
The hope of glory,
Hear His voice
And tell His story.

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My Road to Hope

Let go and let
Hope in Christ
Live in you,
But more than just hope,
Let Christ, Himself,
Live inside
To direct and guide
All you think,
Say and do.
Let your hope be built
On nothing less
Than the rock
Of revelation
Directly from
God the Father.
Let Jesus be
Your living Lord
And always lead you
By His Spirit.

Jesus said, “It is I, don’t be afraid.” Let His “perfect love” cast out your fear of being led by His Spirit. Humbly keep your heart wide open to Him and faithfully obey His inner promptings.

There is a big difference between being led by the Spirit and led by human feelings and desires. One produces the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, …) as well as humility and repentance. The other produces pride, control, and manipulation. (Too many Christians are afraid to be Spirit-led. It’s more comfortable to be led by a preacher, a teacher, a program, or a tradition.)

God loves you no matter what but rejecting Him and rebelling against Him hardens your heart and destroys your relationship with Him. “Quench not the Spirit.” Let God show up and show out in your heart, so He can show you His presence, power, and love!

The same ole same ole is not the goal of Christianity. Jesus strongly rebuked the Pharisees for their rigidly recycled religious tradition. He said that the new wine of God’s Spirit requires new wineskins. Jesus didn’t come to lock us into traditions. He came to directly and personally lead each of His followers by His Spirit. (Romans 8:14) God’s mercies “are new every morning.” (Lamentations 3:22-23) Jesus said: “I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5) He wants to start with you: “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Jesus wants His followers to “live a new life.” (Romans 6:4) He wants to give them “a new heart and a new spirit.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

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Your Guilt Can Be Gone–Snack on That!

Guilt be gone! Jesus died to break the gravity of guilt’s hold on your life.

Receiving God’s forgiveness is the pathway to mental health. Because his (or her) guilt is gone, a forgiven person is free from the desire to hide from God. He can walk in the light of honesty and truth because he no longer feels a need to deceive himself or others. The ongoing experience of God’s mercy frees him from striving and conniving for self-justification. His heavy burden of shame and blame is washed away and replaced by humility and inner peace. He overflows with ongoing love for and gratitude to God.

God’s forgiveness is conditional. It’s not earned. It must be received as a gift. God’s forgiveness is received by what the Bible calls repentance. To repent is to be genuinely sorry for your sins, to confess them to God, and to receive His grace to daily resist temptation, so that sin can no longer control your life.

Because we humans can easily step out of sync with God, true repentance is ongoing. It is to keep aligning and realigning your thoughts, feelings, desires, and behaviors with the kingdom (the inner government) of God – “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” That alignment involves surrendering to and being “led by the Spirit” throughout each day. It fills your heart and life with the nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit that include: love, joy, and peace. (See Galatians 5:22-23.)

Jesus put it this way: “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” How do you get started? Notice any guilt that you’re secretly carrying inside of you. It may be deeply hidden and suppressed in your memory. Ask God to show it to you. As guilt comes to your consciousness, humbly own it and admit it with “godly sorrow.” Express your sorrow to God and ask Him to forgive you. From that point on, make every sin that temps you your enemy. Anytime a sin overtakes you and you begin to act on it or think about it, hurl it aside and ask God to forgive you for that specific sin.

If you are sincere, God will forgive you and cleanse you (whether you feel anything or not.) Look up the Bible verse 1 John 1:9 and embrace its incredible assurance. Memorize it until it continually burns in your heart. Quote it any time guilt tries to sneak back into you. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

It’s alive! It’s alive! The Bible overflows with the living word of God. It’s alive and will ignite God’s life in all who will humbly open their heart to read and obey it as a love letter from the risen Lord Jesus. Let God tattoo His word all over your heart so that you will be empowered to obey Him with your body, mind, and spirit.

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I Don’t Trust My Own Ideas, Feelings, or Desires

Shift from trusting in your own understanding and begin to trust in and rely on the Lord’s revelation both in Scripture and in His direct communication to your heart. Devour and savor the Bible and cultivate deep intimacy with the risen Jesus.

Make Jesus your best friend. Pour over His love letter to you–the Bible. Listen directly to and obey His inner voice. You don’t want to just listen to and/or read what other people say about your best friend. You want to directly interact with Him heart-to-heart. Spend your time in two-way communication with the living Jesus. It’s not enough just to hear religious talks about Him. Continually open up your heart to Him and chat with Him!

These two teachings from the Protestant Reformation can help you do that. “Sola Scriptura” (Latin for “By Scripture alone,”) is the belief that the Bible alone is the only written authority for Christian faith and practice. “Solus Christus” (Latin for “In Christ alone,”) is the belief that salvation is through Christ alone–that “Christ in you,” (the Holy Spirit actually living inside of and directly leading all true believers) is the only Lord, Head, and Savior of His followers.

Sticking with the Bible’s own words is much more powerful than any curriculum or devotional that people might write about it. When the Bible itself is read, shared, heard, and absorbed with the heart, the Holy Spirit Himself makes it burn in people’s heart, gives them amazing spontaneous insights, and trains them to be Spirit-led.

Jesus never said, “Come and take a seat.” He said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16;15)

There is only one body of Christ in this world, and it isn’t any of the human organizations that call themselves a church. The true body of Christ is supernaturally united in the Spirit by Christ living in each one of His true followers (Colossians 1:27) who are being actively and directly “led by the Spirit.” (Romans 8:14) It contains people from “from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9)

None of the tens of thousands of Christian denominations worldwide are the body of Christ. There is only one body, and it is united by God’s Spirit. If you are not experiencing and maintaining that unity, you are disobeying Scripture. (Ephesians 4:3-4) Continually absorbing the Bible, listening to and obeying “Christ in you,” and giving no place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27) will launch you into a glorious relationship with the risen Jesus.

The devil works
Behind your back.
He’s got a knack
For getting you
Off of Christ’s track.
He likes to hack
Into your thoughts
And to attack
Your peace of mind.
When his thoughts come
Don’t let them stay.
Be sure to smack
All of them down.
And to drive them
Far, far away.

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