Steve Simms's Blog, page 54

I disagree with almost all public figures.

Daily writing promptWhat public figure do you disagree with the most?View all responses

We live in an age in the Western world where public figures encourage us to pursue pleasure, desires, comfort, and government support for our desires. I believe that is a deceptive and dangerous focus, so I disagree with almost all public figures.

A focus on the satisfaction of personal desires reveals the insight that our human desires are never fully satisfied. Pursuing their fulfilment is a lifelong treadmill. True fulfillment comes when we get off of the treadmill and search for inner peace instead of desire-fulfillment.

Human beings are made in the image of God, but rebellion, pleasure-seeking, and domination by self-focused desire has separated us from the presence and character of God to the point that we have become a faded, cracked, and contorted copy of a photograph of God. We have abandoned the continual cultivation of heart-connection with God for lesser pursuits that entangle and entrap us in self-deceptive pleasures and in tormenting thoughts.

In your finer and nobler moments, notice the remnants of God’s image (His still small voice) stirring in your heart and calling you to return to, surrender to, and daily live in obedience to His presence. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, God has made a way for you to leave your prison of guilt and shame behind and be reconciled to ongoing loving intimacy with Him.

The burnt embers of the image of God in you can become “Christ in you, the hope of glory,”–God’s eternal flame in your heart. Shift your pursuit of pleasure to the pursuit of Christ’s presence. Exchange your domination by desires (the dominion of darkness) for the kingdom of God, the full and complete dominion of the risen Jesus within and through your heart. Be reconciled to God and demonstrate that reconciliation in what you say, think, and do. Be a living demonstration to other people that they, too, can be joyously reconciled to God.

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My career plan is write away (to where the words go).

Daily writing promptWhat is your career plan?View all responses

My career plan is to write away every day and see where the words take me. I try to take off my hard hat, loosen up my stiff neck, set aside my analysis, and listen to the still small voice within me. So, let’s see where the words go today.

Uplifting words
Begin to flow
And within me grow
But I don’t know
Where they are
About to go
Until they show
The truth they tow.
They seem to blow
Into my heart
And then they start
To assemble
Themselves together.
So, I lie low
And listen
Through God’s window
In my soul.

Christ gives me
New desires.
He inspires
Me to do
As God requires.
Christ takes His plyers
And He rewires
My identity
So my heart
Never tires
Of the warmth
Of His fire’s
Pure glowing
Within me.

Let your heart be a sail
That always flows
With the wind
Of God’s Spirit
And always goes
Where He leads.

It’s easy to
Stare at your phone
And scroll on and on
As if you were
A mindless drone.

It’s easy to
Sit in a church
With your hard hat on
And listen to words
That can seem to drone
On and on.

It’s never easy
To make the choice
To crash the drone,
Get off the phone,
And listen to God’s voice
Until you discover
That your heart was made
To always rejoice
In the Spirit
Of the Lord.

I like people
Who are
Different than me.
They give me
Another perspective
To see.
Love doesn’t
Have to stop
When we disagree.

Two weeks ago, on a trip to southern Italy, I saw a woman from Sierra Leone selling trinkets on the street. She was mostly being ignored so I approached her. She didn’t speak English, so I asked if she spoke Spanish. She responded that she did, and we had a delightful conversation and connected heart-to-heart. Afterwards she gave me a tiny bracelet as narrow as a string and I put it in my wallet. Just now as I looked down, I noticed the outline of a cross on the back of my wallet, I realized that it was the string bracelet she gave me. I picked up my wallet and the way the light hit it the cross turned into the number 8 (which stands for new beginning) and then into a butterfly (which represents new life). God speaks through the humblest people and the simplest things.

Sometimes we search so hard for miracles that we overlook the simple supernatural of God’s still small voice. Look and see! Open your heart and mind to SI (Supernatural Intelligence) — direct personal revelation from God.

If you compare your custom-made life to other people’s life it will make it look like a hand-me-down. Your life is beyond compare!

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I See Beautiful Performances Every Day

Daily writing promptWhat was the last live performance you saw?View all responses

I see beautiful live performances every day! I see the sun, clouds, lightening, rain, stars and the moon performing in the sky as the tree branches wave them on.

I see Spirit-led performances when I observe acts of kindness, humility, generosity, compassion, and forgiveness. I see heart-touching performances when I see and hear people tenderly pray out loud for one another.

Throughout each day I see live performances in my heart when I focus my inner attention on the risen Jesus and notice how He is living and working within me and guiding me step-by-step.

Let the risen Jesus fulfill His promise to live in and through you throughout each and every day. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27.

When people accept Christ’s promise to lead them by His Spirit and begin to courageously, moment-by-moment, follow and obey His inner promptings, glorious spiritual awakening will sweep through their heart and their land.

The best performance on earth is to gaze at the living resurrected Jesus. Don’t let anything distract you from Him. Let His Spirit ever perform live in your heart!

Read the following promises. Memorize them. Receive them. Let Jesus perform them in your heart and dazzle you with His presence.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17.

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:17.

“When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you” John 16:13-14.

“As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in Him.” 1 John 2:27.

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” Romans 8:14.

The best view on earth is to look with your heart at the living resurrected Jesus. “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Hm he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 1:2

Christianity is
A daily Spirit-led walk,
Not a weekly
Religious talk.

Love Leads to Community Involvement

Daily writing promptWhat do you do to be involved in the community?View all responses

Instead of asking Christians where they go to church, ask them how they are demonstrating the reality of the living Jesus in society. Don’t just hear a sermon–be one! Speak and demonstrate God’s word yourself. “Christ in you” is limited only by your unwillingness to believe and obey Him. “Quench not the Spirit.”

When people who read the Bible and listen to the Holy Spirit throughout the week go to church, they don’t need a sermon. They need an open mic so they can share what God has been showing them. See 1 Corinthians 14:26.

There are three things Christ-followers can rely on: 1) Faith–moment-by-moment dependence on the risen Jesus; 2) Hope–positive expectations as we allow God’s Spirit to move and prompt us from within; and 3) Agape–God’s never-failing caring and compassion for us and His desire to always connect heart-to-heart with us. Faith and hope spring from the direct revelation and experience of God’s agape in a human heart–a revelation far beyond flesh and blood and human understanding. The body of Christ is called to gather and demonstrate God’s agape supernaturally flowing in their midst as they obey the 50+ New Testament “one another commands” and “value others above yourselves.”

Just because some Legos are in the same box doesn’t mean that they are assembled together. Just because Christians are attending the same church service doesn’t mean that they have assembled themselves together. “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.” Hebrews 10:24-25. Truly “assembling together” requires that Christians consider one another, provoke one another to love and good works, and exhort one another.

Since Christians are in every country, the idea of Christian nationalism makes no sense. The body of Christ is worldwide, not on any nation’s side. The rainbow in the sky is God’s promise that reminds us of our true identity in the One who created us male and female. It reminds us that we are called to follow Him, not our own desires, feelings, or opinions.

My Job for a Never-Ending Day

Daily writing promptWhat’s a job you would like to do for just one day?View all responses

My job for the never-ending day that’s on its way will be to bask in, reflect, and radiate the love of God. I will celebrate His love, His mercy, and His presence forever.

Let Love Blaze With God’s Spirit

Hearing what
A sermon says
Without checking
What the Bible says
Is dangerous.
Hearing what
The Spirit says
As you read
What the Bible says
Will set your heart
On fire with blazes
Of God’s love,
But hearing
What the Spirit says
Without doing
What He says
Is self-deception.
The Bible is
A hearing aid
To help you hear
And inspire you
To obey
What the Spirit says.
It’s not a textbook
To be taught.
Its words are
A heart-warming fire
To be caught,
Carried and spread
Throughout each day.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t follow an exact pattern. The Holy Spirit leads as He wills if a congregation is willing and courageous enough to obey Him.

It’s very frustrating for me to attend a church where the Holy Spirit isn’t allowed to take direct control of the meeting. It takes more than a lifetime of sermon-hearing to make someone a Christian. “He who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying.”

Just because some Legos are in the same box doesn’t mean that they are assembled together. Just because Christians are attending the same church service doesn’t mean that they have assembled themselves together. “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.” Hebrews 10:24-25. Truly assembling together requires that we consider one another, provoke one another to love and good works, and exhort one another.

When people who read the Bible and listen to the Holy Spirit throughout the week go to church, they don’t need a sermon. They need an open mic so they can share what God has been showing them. See 1 Corinthians 14:26.

Since Christians are in every country, the idea of Christian nationalism makes no sense. The body of Christ is worldwide, not on any nation’s side.

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The Rare “Brand” of True Love

Daily writing promptWhat are your favorite brands and why?View all responses

Love never fails, but every unkind word is a failure of people to love one another. Love has never failed, but when it is set aside and replaced with pride and self-focus, human ego fails and paints human lives with emotional and mental misery.

Generic human love fails. The original brand of love is always reliable.

There’s only one unfailing source of faith and hope and that’s the failproof love of God which is being poured out into human hearts that are willing to humbly receive, surrender to, and be continually led by the Holy Spirit. Love (and all the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit) always flourishes in hearts and lives that are fully surrendered to living Jesus. Love is not an academic style study or Bible lesson of the Greek word “agape.” It’s the ongoing supernatural overflow of the unfailing “Christ in you,” and His inner rivers of living water.

To applaud, approve of, or accept wrong behavior is unloving. Instead of helping people it further entraps them in their wrongdoing. Love speaks the truth with kindness. God so loved the world that instead of approving of people’s self-focused desires and behaviors He made a way through Jesus for people to be set free and restored to a heart-to-heart relationship with Him.

God’s love defines our identity, but our self-focused desires don’t. They distort it. It’s time for people who passionately love Jesus to come out of the closet and begin to openly and kindly talk about Him and the beautiful identity He has for all people who are willing to receive it and walk in it. (The more I get my mind off of myself, the more I experience mental health and heart-felt happiness.)

True Christianity is a Spirit-led lifestyle that overflows with love. It’s not a human-programmed church style.

Courageously dare
To say and do
What God’s Spirit
Tells you to.

I Admire Open-Hearted People

Daily writing promptList the people you admire and look to for advice…View all responses

I admire people who courageously open their heart to others and live with compassion, honesty, and humility. My heroes are people who radiate love, manifest joy, spread peace, show patience, display kindness, seek goodness, live with faithfulness, and communicate with gentleness, by continually surrendering to the control of the Spirit of Christ.

People who keep their heart open to the risen Jesus and allow their life to be led by the Spirit moment-by-moment, reflect the glory of God. I love to be around people like that. I’m fortunate to know and spend time with some people like that and to be married to someone like that.

I also love to read the writings of people like that who lived in the past. Many of those people are called “saints.” Some of my favorites are: Gregory Palamas, Ignatius Brianchaninov, John Wesley, George Fox, Catherine Booth, Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avilia, John of the Cross, Leonard Ravenhill, Nicolaus Zinzendorf, and the writers in the Philokalia. I love their advice!

Faith is a roaring fire in the heart. It’s not a religious routine. Motion is like lotion and emotion inspires motion. Get fired up and start moving for Jesus and let His lotion sooth your soul.

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I want to vote for love not anger

Daily writing promptDo you vote in political elections?View all responses

My words and my lifestyle are much more important than my vote. I want to live in love and vote for kindness and humility. I vote for love by refusing to vote for hostility. I don’t want my vote to put hostility in the White House. Therefore, I vote third party in presidential elections and avoid voting for angry people in other elections.

“Love doesn’t dishonor.”
In this world
Of dishonor
I want to run
Like a marathoner
To get away
From the put downs.

“Love isn’t self-seeking.”
With all the dedication
To self-glorification
There’s little joy.

“Love is not easily angered.”
The audibility
Of hostility
Is silencing love.

“Love keeps no record of wrongs.”
Our long list of wrongs
Has people singing
Many hateful songs.

Love that’s tiny
When cultivated
And Spirit-led
Will grow mighty.

Spiritual maturity comes from being led by God’s Spirit, not by our thoughts, feelings, or desires. See Romans 8:14 and 1 Corinthians 13:5.

Love recognizes that people have a right to choose their behavior. At the same time, love doesn’t demand that people applaud, approve, or accept behavior that goes against their conscience.

My Direction Is Christ Connection

Daily writing promptWhat gives you direction in life?View all responses

My direction comes from Christ-connection. An inner heart-connection with Christ must be continually cultivated. Because our human nature isn’t comfortable with that kind of intimacy with the living Jesus, it tries to cut off (quench) the flow of the flow of the Spirit’s living water from within us. Our human nature doesn’t want to be constantly challenged by the call of Christ. It prefers comfort and complacency.

To live in union with Christ and flourish with the fruit and the gifts of God’s Spirit, His followers must do what He said: “Deny themselves, take up their Cross, and follow Me.” Unfortunately, that radical call to daily follow and obey the risen Jesus has been turned into a Sunday morning religious ceremony.

If Christians will take the religious lid off of the Holy Spirit, all Heaven will break loose! Instead of trying to force fit Jesus into a sermon, a liturgy, or a church service, perhaps we should try listening directly to Him and then do what He says.

God created human emotions. Christ-followers should be the most enthusiastic people on earth, overflowing with positive emotions. ignited by the presence of “Christ in you the hope of glory.” “Quench not the Spirit.” “Stir up the gift that is in you.” “Rejoice in the Lord always.”

“Love never fails.”

Daily writing promptDo you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?View all responses

I have 36 journal books full of quotes that I have collected over the years. One of my favorites is: “Love never fails.”

Love constantly looks unto Jesus. It beholds the Lamb of God throughout each day. Experience love at Christ’s sight. Let Him ever write His love letters deeply on your heart and flood you with His patience and kindness, Let the Spirit of Christ lead you away from envy, pride, self-seeking, and anger so that you can enjoy mercy and forgiveness. Rejoice in the truth that if you will continually surrender your life to the risen Jesus, you can trust Him to protect you, direct you, and always be the hope of glory living in and through you. Rely and depend on Him every moment of every day. Jesus never fails!

People can’t see Christ in you if you hide His presence. Walk in His light. Day by day cultivate your heart so that Christ’s life can grow and flourish within you. Pull out the weeds that choke His presence and quench His Spirit. Plow up the hard ground in your heart so it can become Christ’s fertile soil. Let the Master Gardener prune your distractions, addictions, and rebellions so that you can bear even more fruit.

Let Jesus out of
The religious box
So He can detox
You from life’s hard knocks
And heal your hearting heart.

The pearl of great price
Is the Spirit leading
The body of Christ
And demonstrating
The presence of God.
Be still and know,
Then get up and go
Do what the Spirit
Tells you to do.

If you know Him,
Let your life
Be Christ’s poem
Revealing the beauty
Of His presence
So people can see
The Pearl of Great Price,
God eternal gem,
Shining through you
And reflecting Him
Everywhere you go.