Steve Simms's Blog, page 32

Feasting on the Presence of “The Top Three!”

Daily writing promptWhat are your family’s top 3 favorite meals?View all responses

My wife and I feast on the presence and reality of “The Top Three”– God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit–the Three in One! “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” God has “given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” (Bible quotes are from the New King James Version.)

Jesus said: “I am the bread of life.” Routine church services are quickly forgotten but getting out of religious ruts and feasting on the presence of the living God, make lasting memories.

People need demonstrations of God’s presence, power, and sacrificial love more than they need religious information about Him. When people personally and consistently experience God’s presence, power, and sacrificial love, they will persistently pursue more information about Him. However, when they are only given information about God, they will have little or no desire to actively, personally, and passionately pursue His presence, power, and sacrificial love.

Jesus leaves
The ninety-nine
For the one
Who’s gone astray.
Who’s there
Pursuing you?
It’s Jesus.
He’s everywhere.
No matter
Who you are
Or where you run
You can find
Jesus, God’s Son.
To repent
Is to stop
Trying to avoid
His presence
And reality.

Engaging in behaviors that produce guilt is not the way to find freedom from guilt. Human anger is not the fruit of the Spirit. It has another source. Learn to continually feast on “The Top Three.”

I’m a Disciple of This Historical Figure

The process of shifting from self-focus to Christ-focus–from a self-centered life to a Christ-centered life is called discipleship. Discipleship is to come out of hiding and to learn to fully open your heart and life to the presence, power, and direct authority of the living Jesus. Discipleship looks “not at the things that are seen but at the things that are unseen.” It beholds and obeys Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Just before Jesus ascended, He told us to “Go and make disciples . . .” To make disciples is to train people to continually hear and obey the risen Jesus instead of their own feelings, desires, and opinions. A disciple is someone who continually surrenders the control of their life to the direct Headship and Lordship of the Jesus. Discipleless Christianity is unbiblical.

I don’t think that lining people up in rows and lecturing them is the best way to make disciples. The Bible gives a better alternative in 1 Corinthians 14:26.

I’m a content creator crying out in the wilderness of social media: “Make room for the risen Jesus to be the absolute Lord and Master of your daily life. Move beyond complacent and comfortable religion into a dynamic, obedient, never-ending, lively heart-to-heart relationship with Christ. Learn to decrease so that Jesus can increase in you and the devil and His temptations to sin will flee from you.” See James 4:6-8.

Discipleship isn’t a weekly Bible lecture. It’s an everyday lifestyle of listening to and obeying the risen Jesus. It isn’t boring. It’s joy-restoring!

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My Instincts Sometimes Stink

My instincts, feelings, desires, and opinions sometimes stink. I often have to refute them, deny them, and forcefully turn away from them. Christianity helps me do that. Christianity isn’t about justifying or excusing my faulty instincts, feelings, desires, and opinions. It’s about humbly laying them down and submitting them to the will of the risen Lord Jesus.

Christianity isn’t about counting down till Heaven. It’s about building up the kingdom of God in human hearts.

Christianity isn’t about religious information. It’s about inner transformation.

Christianity isn’t about passive church attendance. It’s about active divine assistance.

Christianity isn’t about a lot of rules. It’s about Spirit-empowered tools (the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit).

Christianity isn’t about a daily quiet time. It’s about all the time of your life.

Christianity isn’t about what you do without. It about what you let the risen Jesus do within your heart.

Christianity isn’t about a church building. It’s about people letting God build them together in Spirit-led relationships.

Christianity isn’t about compliance with a religious organization. It’s about real reliance and daily dependence on Jesus.

Christianity isn’t about religious favors that you earn by being good or learn about by studying. It’s about letting your heart continually yearn for an ever-closer relationship with the living Jesus.

Christianity isn’t about religious clicks, human politics, or calling people heretics. It’s about showing everyone (even your enemies) that the living Jesus causes you to care about them.

If Christians hadn’t listened to criticism about church the Protestant Reformation would have never happened. Let’s look beyond our instincts, feelings, desires, and opinions and put Jesus first!

I look forward to the day that Christians won’t be talking about what they heard in a Sunday sermon but that church services will be asking Christians to openly share what they heard directly from the living Lord during the week. Learn to listen to and rely on Jesus. He said: “My sheep hear My voice.”

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All Year Long

When is the best time? What is the best month to receive hope, encouragement, inner healing, contentment, and peace of mind? Anytime, anyplace, all year long!

When you’re awash in a flood of mighty waters, listen for the still, small voice of the Lord! When you are week find strength in the powerful voice of the Lord speaking within your heart. When you feel hopeless, focus on the majestic voice of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” When you’re chilled to the bone the voice of the Lord can break through the shade of the strongest trees to warm your heart. When you are confused and distracted let the voice of the Lord awaken your awareness of His presence with His lightning flashes of divine revelation.

When inner dryness surrounds and shrivels your soul let the voice of the Lord shake your inner desert and release His rivers of living water to flow from out of your innermost being. When you’re lost in one of life’s dark forests, be still and notice the sound of God’s voice so He can show you the way He has cleared for you. If you are a born again Christ-follower, you are God’s temple. Be led by the Spirit. Let all that is within you align with His voice.

Jesus said: “My sheep hear My voice.” There is no ceiling for those who follow and obey the voice of the risen Lord Jesus. “They shall mount up with wings as eagles,” and continually soar to new heights.

There is no floor for those who ignore or reject the hope-filled voice of Jesus Christ the Lord. They will live on the edge of the void of bottomless desperation one misstep away from despair.

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My Favorite Place to Go

Daily writing promptWhat is your favorite place to go in your city?View all responses

My favorite place to go is anywhere Christ is in control. I’m not particularly fond of paces, meetings, or events that are run by human control. However, I love it when individuals and groups of people let the living Jesus take and maintain control of the wheel. (For two practical guidebooks about how to experience Jesus taking the wheel, search for: The Joy of Early Christianity and Beyond Church Ekklesia.)

It’s time to let the risen Jesus be the literal Head (the One who personally directs and controls the body of Christ). Jesus said: “Do this in remembrance of Me.” What do we need to remember about Jesus?

* “Jesus Christ is Lord.” (He is supposed to be the one in direct control of His people both in their individual lives and when they meet together as His body.)
* “He is risen.”
* “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
* “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”
* “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
* “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
* “I am with you always.”
* “My sheep hear My voice.”
* He is calling you to “Repent,” and “Follow Me.”
* “In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
* “And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.”

Experience the Jesus thrill. Let Jesus step into and take and keep full control of your heart.

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The First Impression I Want to Make on People Is “That Guy Really Loves Jesus!”

People need to see people who love Jesus with all of their heart. Those people live and radiate Christ’s presence all around the world. Physically they look like ordinary people, but if you closely look into their heart, you notice a glorious mystery. Those people have the gift and art of beholding the Lamb of God (the risen Jesus) and demonstrating His presence in and through how they live their life. They are Jesus first people!

Jesus first people don’t use religious words for their own benefit. They embrace humility by leaving behind the boxes of religious boasting and self-righteous pride. Their lives are adorned with the fruit of the Spirit, the beauty of the Beatitudes, and the gifts of the Spirit. People recognize the character and presence of Christ in their behavior, their attitude, and their words.

One day Jesus stepped out of religion and into my heart. Now throughout each day He prompts me and leads me by His Spirit and shows me how real He is. I’m continually in awe as the eyes of my heart feast on His glorious presence! I want people’s first impression of me to be “I see Christ in you.”

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The Book of God’s Presence

I woke up this morning with this question in my mind: “What percentage of your life is lived without conscious contact with God?” Then these thoughts began to flow from me:

Life without constant contact with the living God is an empty shell. Let that thought jell until it rings a bell.Religious words without heart contact with God are little more than a hollow thud. Without intimate, personal, ongoing, heart-to-heart interaction with the living God, routine religion is just ceremony and formality.Ongoing heart contact with God keeps me passionate about staying continually aware of His presence. It keeps me full of joy, wonder, and awe.Far too many Christians have Jesus as their emergency contact, but not as their best friend and closest companion.In the Bible Christianity is about staying in constant contact with Christ, not about hearing a weekly talk about Him. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” That’s why Jesus said “Abide in Me.”Without constant contact with God, we become obsessed with, controlled by, and identified by our own desires.Sermons that don’t lead to ongoing heart connection with God are promptly deleted from conscious awareness.Guilt causes people to avoid heart contact with God by hiding behind religion or avoiding Him altogether. Humbly and continually receiving His forgiveness opens the door to constant companionship with Him.To stay in constant contact with God continually focus on and obey the “still small voice” of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”Heart-to-heart intimacy with the risen Jesus is the most exciting part of being alive!

Religion tends
To talk about
God as distant
And live without
Constant contact
With His presence.
(Matthew 15:18.)

God’s desire is to “dwell among” (and within) His people, not occasionally, not weekly, but continually. Until we allow the blood of Jesus to continually consecrate us and keep us pure in heart, we won’t be able to concentrate on Christ’s continual presence but instead we’ll settle instead for occasional glimpses of His glory and live our daily life without Christ beaming continually in our consciousness.

It Doesn’t Matter Where I Live in the World

It doesn’t matter where I live in the world because my hope and my inner peace are not built on geography, economics, politics, government, culture, religion, ethnicity, nationality, climate, or scenery. My hope and inner peace are built on nothing less than the living Jesus and His presence within me. As one of His “living stones” I’m blessed to be wherever He sends me.

When Jesus died, the curtain in the Hebrew Temple came down and humans are now invited to “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” When Jesus Christ died, the temple curtain (veil) that separated humans from the presence of God was torn from top to bottom.

About 30 years later the Temple (and all Jerusalem) was leveled to the ground by the Roman army. It has never been rebuilt because God no longer needs to reside in a temple made by hands (Acts 17:24 & Acts 7:48) or be hidden behind curtains (in a specific location in the world).

Now Christ-bearers everywhere are His holy temple (1 Corinthians 3:16) and “like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5.) In reality, all Christ-bearers, wherever they may be, are now God’s priests (not just the ones ordained by religious organizations).

Hebrews 10:19 describes it this way:

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

The purpose of Christ-bearers meeting together is “to spur one another on toward love and good deeds,” and to encourage one another. When Christians adopted the habit of passively sitting under the teaching of a religious expert instead of continually meeting together to actively love, serve, and teach one another as led by “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” the glory of living stones ministering to one another in the Spirit was replaced by the curtain of routine religion.

It’s important that Christ-bearers humbly and kindly help each other see beyond temptation, deception, and pride. If we don’t see clearly where we are, we won’t see clearly anywhere else. Here’s why:

Temptation is a scam that tries to steal your inner peace. Deception doesn’t describe, delineate, or display the details of a situation. It distorts or denies them. Pride prevents pure and precise perception, but radical honesty and humility receive it.

The reception
Of temptation
And deception
Twists perception,
Like curved mirrors.

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The Best Thing I’ve Ever Found and Kept

The best thing that I’ve ever found and kept is a heart-to-heart relationship with the risen Jesus Christ. Jesus thrills me day and night! I love to continually converse with Him!

Jesus has taught me that He frequently puts promptings into human hearts. He nudges us into action. He calls us into obedience. To disobey a prompting from God is the sin of quenching the Spirit.

Many people confuse God’s promptings with random thoughts, so they ignore them and dismiss them. That’s sad because the still small voice of God’s inner promptings is one of the main ways that the Holy Spirit leads us and as the Bible says, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”

I’ve heard many sermons in my life, but I don’t think I have ever heard a sermon teaching people to hear and obey the Spirit’s promptings. Here’s the key: When you sense an inner prompting to do good and to align your life to the Bible, that’s the voice of the living God speaking directly to you. Will you obey Him or ignore Him?

The Pruning and the Fertilizing Produce Wonderful Fruit

My daily routine includes cultivating my character. I try to nurture these qualities in my daily life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It’s not easy being like a fruit tree and traying to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in my life.

The fruit of God’s Spirit is always in season, but it grows best out on a limb that has been pruned many times, not in our comfort zone. It requires God’s pruning and cutting away many of our desires, feelings, and opinions. It requires standing still and not running as He allows stinky fertilizer to be piled around our roots. But I know it is all for our good. God is seeking to change our heart little-by-little so that we can reflect His image and His presence.

Discipleship that cultivates the fruit of the Spirit is heart-to-heart, not brain-to-brain. It is inner transformation, not religious information. There’s a huge difference between learning details about a language and learning to communicate in the language. There’s also a huge difference between learning details about Jesus and learning to communicate heart-to-heart with Jesus and letting Him produce His fruit in you.

Without an ongoing abundance of the fruit of God’s Spirit, Christianity becomes lifeless like a bowl of plastic fruit. When it comes to the fruit of the Spirit, too many Christians have empty fruit bowls. Continually cultivate your heart so that it can flourish as the orchard of God’s Spirit and fill your life with His beautiful spiritual fruit. Let God keep your fruit bowl fresh and filled with the fruit of the Spirit and it will lighten your emotional load. O taste and see!

The fruit of the Spirit can’t grow in a heart that shuts out God’s light. “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” –1 John 1:5-7.

Where there’s no fruit of God’s Spirit, there’s no spiritual life. Jesus said: “By their fruit you shall know them.” Let God make your life a beautiful fruit of the Spirit salad that feeds all who meet you with the essence of His presence.

Protect your heart from bad fruit. Don’t let it spoil what God is trying to do in and through you. The fruit of God’s Spirit never rots. Any rotting fruit in your heart isn’t from God. Quickly throw it out. Never let it stay. If you let rotten fruit stay in your heart, your life will always be in a bad jam.

God’s thoughts are the healthy trees that produce the fruit of the Spirit in your heart. Your thoughts are the birds and insects that devour it. Bring “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” See 2 Corinthians 10:5. You can reach the low hanging fruit of discouragement and frustration all by yourself, but only God can develop the fruit of His Spirit within you.

Honesty and humility bear the good fruit of God’s Spirit. Pride bears bad fruit of deception.

The tree of life produces the fruit of God’s Spirit. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil produces human analysis.

If Christians want strong, straight forward speech, perhaps we should direct it toward ourselves and our churches instead of toward the politicians we disagree with. The things that Christians are saying and doing aren’t working to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, and to change hearts and empower multitudes to daily follow and obey the risen Jesus. Let’s drain the swamp of being stuck in routine religion and make Christianity great again and overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit.

Let’s begin to actively and radically obey 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Without the shed blood of Jesus, I could never have a relationship with God or taste and see that He is good. I would never be able experience the fruit of the Spirit.

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