Steve Simms's Blog, page 6

Traditions Can Be Traps

Daily writing promptWhat traditions have you not kept that your parents had?View all responses

Exchange your self-focus and religion for a Spirit-led relationship with Christ. Powerful results come from ongoing obedient surrender to God the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:8 and Galatians 5:22-23) Weak results come from religious self-effort.

The Bible is God’s lens. It will focus your attention on the risen Jesus if you read it with an open humble heart, talk about it, and ponder it day and night. (Joshua 1:8) In the Bible Christianity is presented as a Spirit-led lifestyle. (Romans 8:14) Christians are called followers of the Way. (Acts 9:2)

Jesus is the Way. (John 14:6) To seek the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33) fight to make your every thought obey King Jesus. (2 Corinthians 10:5) Forcefully expel from your mind every thought that’s disobedient to Christ.

“Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Colossians 1:27) (God the Holy Spirit) can’t be trapped by religious tradition. He can’t be captured by, contained by, or controlled by any organization. For genuine spiritual growth, it’s essential that you quit trying to do things your way. (Luke 9:23) Instead learn to personally listen to and obey “Christ in you” and follow His Way throughout each day.

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A Typical Day in Western Culture

Daily writing promptWas today typical?View all responses

Western culture has been body slammed by an obsessive focus on the body while abandoning the whole concept of caring for the soul. Physical appearance is presented as more important than inner healing; an alcohol induced buzz as more relaxing than genuine peace of mind; bodily comfort as better than character; quick sexual relief as more fulfilling than life-long commitment; entertainment as greater than inspiration, church attendance as more important than true repentance; tattoos on the body as more descriptive of a person than what is written on the heart; earthly possessions and financial security as more essential than being led by Christ’s presence. (Does that sound like your typical day?)

The truth is, we won’t ever be whole until we experience the restoration of our soul. If we would focus on our soul instead of on physical appearance, our concept of success would be radically different. “Work out your salvation with fear (reverence and awe) and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:12-13)

Escape the riptide
Of the soul-hide ride
That wraps you with pride
Until you’re hog-tied
And wholly blind-eyed
To eternal hope.

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I Would Describe Myself by My Heart

The big picture of who you are isn’t the way you appear to people. It’s where you really are. Where is your heart?

Is your heart fully surrendered to God the Holy Spirit, partly surrendered to Him, or far from Him. (Matthew 15:8) How can you tell? The way you live your life shows what’s in your heart. (Proverbs 27:19) Whatever you treasure, whatever you allow yourself to be a fan of, has control over your heart. (Matthew 6:21) Is it God? Or is it other things or other people?

The big picture is, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) The promised land that Christians need to take isn’t a physical place or a particular country. It’s our own heart. We need to seek first to establish the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33) within our own heart by cultivating “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)

To take the inner promised land learn the Bible with your heart, not just with your mind. Notice what God the Holy Spirit is doing in your heart and fully surrender to His workings and promptings. (Romans 8:14)

Continually command your heart to listen to and submit to God. (Proverbs 4:23) Don’t let it deceive you. (Jeremiah 17:9) Train your heart to hear and obey God the Holy Spirit so it can gain wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

Refuse to let thoughts of pride, evil, fear, anger, hatred, bitterness, lust, envy, greed, or accusation poison your heart. Pride darkens and hardens the heart and makes it far from God. (Mt 15:8) Humility brings it God’s light and life. (James 4:6)

Download unending updates of divine love and faithfulness to God, on the tablet of your heart. Then you will live a blessed life. (Proverbs 3:3-4)

God wants to heal your broken heart and bind up your wounds. (Psalm 147:3) He wants you to seek Him with your whole heart, not with just a part of it. (Jeremiah 29:13) Ceaselessly surrender to God the Holy Spirit to allow Him to create a pure heart in you (Psalm 51:10) and give you a new heart. (Ezekiel 36:26) A pure heart will see God. (Matthew 5:8)

To be truly smart
It’s vital you start
To learn with your heart.
Life is much more than
Info on a chart.
Let your heart be part
Of the way you learn
So it won’t be hard
And shut down toward God.
Then you can discern
The path to wisdom.
(Matthew 22:37)

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I Want to Bring Back the Dinosaur of Early Christian Enemy-Love

Daily writing promptIf you could bring back one dinosaur, which one would it be?View all responses

The early Christians radically loved and forgave their enemies. That’s a dinosaur that needs to be brought back into our hate-filled world.

To love your enemies, as Jesus commands, (Matthew 5:44) you must embrace a deeper reality. To “bless those that curse you,” and “pray for those who mistreat you,” (Luke 6:28) you must rely on Christ and “lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5) To “do good to those who hate you,” (Luke 6:27) take a first step by praying for them.

Dare to demonstrate true discipleship by blessing an enemy at this very moment. Think of someone who has done or is doing you wrong. Now ask God to bless that person. You probably don’t feel like doing that but do it anyway as an act of obedience and discipleship. Then every time that person comes to your mind ask God to bless him or her. Say: “Lord, I ask You to bless (name the person). Bless his health. Bless his finances. Bless his family. (And on and on) Help him get to know You in a deep personal way. In Jesus, name. Amen.”

Consistently praying for an enemy will powerfully set you free from the pain, anger, and resentment that are attacking you. I do it every time I feel wronged or mistreated and it flushes my heart of the ugly bitterness that tries to take me over.

Yesterday I found a quote about praying for your enemies. When I woke up this morning that quotation was on my mind. Here it is:

“If you would retain prayer you must love those who offend against you and pray for them until your soul is reconciled with them, and then the Lord will give you prayer without ceasing, for He gives prayer to those who pray for their enemies. The man who loves his enemies soon comes to know the Lord in the Holy Spirit. But the man who does not love his enemies is to be pitied, for he is a torment to himself and to others and does not know the Lord.” –Father Silouan

Here’s more of the thoughts that have been coming to me this morning:

If you want a better world then help people live and behave better through your influence.

If you want to be whole
Let Jesus seize your soul.
Make it your lifelong goal
To always live and stroll
As led by His Spirit.

Create Inner Peace

To appreciate
The significance
Of magnificence
And sense its wonder
You need to ponder
The beauty that you
Too often don’t see
So that you can be
Emotionally
And mentally
Free
And tormenting thoughts
Will no longer reign
Inside of your brain.
The more you’re in awe
The more the hardness
Of your heart will thaw
As closer you draw
To true inner peace.
Beholding beauty
With an open heart
Will cause you to see
A much deeper
Reality.

I Want to Go Where I’m Amazed

Daily writing promptIf you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?View all responses

I want to go where Christ takes me. I depend on Him to daily lift me up and carry me forward. As I wait (Psalm 27:14) and rely (Proverbs 3:5-6) on Him, I enter into His rest (Hebrews 4:10) and His peace. (Philippians 4:7) My inner man begins to soar and mount up with wings like eagles. (Isaiah 40:31) Christ flies me to awe, wonder, and adoration. As I praise and thank Him with all of my heart (John 4:24) He leads me by His Spirit. (Romans 8:14)

Rely on Jesus and be amazed!

I am amazed,
My mind is dazed,
My spirit raised,
When I have gazed
At Jesus Christ.

If you know
Jesus
Then show
Jesus
In the way
That you go
Through your life.

When the early Christians gathered together there was a sense of awe among them. (Acts 2:43) The Bible tells Christians to worship God with awe (sometimes translated as “the fear of God”). (Hebrews 12:28) I believe that awe is the missing ingredient among Christians today.

Awe is amazed and overcome by the reality of the risen Jesus, but heartless Christianity stays stuck in statistics, analysis, and human understanding. Let the risen Jesus deeply touch your heart and fill you with awe, wonder, and amazement. Then you, will humbly cry out to Him like His disciple Thomas did, and say with all your being, “My Lord and My God!” (John 20:28) Where and when are you amazed and overcome by the awe of God?

An actual physical location that I would go if I won two free plane tickets is Mount Athos. It’s a mountain and peninsula off of Greece where Orthodox monks have gazed at Jesus and worshipped with awe for a thousand years.

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The Story Behind My New Name

Daily writing promptWhat’s the story behind your nickname?View all responses

I was once given a new name. I treasure it so much that I don’t use it. I just keep it close to my heart. A great leader once spoke to those who followed Him and said: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)

To my amazement Jesus calls me friend. Knowing that I am a friend of Christ has continually changed and improved my life. If you would like to hear Jesus call you friend, try this:

If Christ is in you (Colossians 1:27) but you’re unaware of His presence, you’re ignoring Him. (Hebrews 12:2) Don’t just occasionally analyze Jesus. Continually absorb His presence. (Matthew 28:20)

Don’t just study the Bible, savor it and soak it up. (Psalm 119:11) Bible study is good, but Bible savoring is much better. (Joshua 1:8)

Don’t just pay attention in church. Ponder Christ throughout each day. (John 1:29) Don’t just hear a sermon. Hear the heart of God. (John 10:27)

Don’t just go to church. Go all out all day to follow and obey the risen Jesus. (John 14:15) Don’t just sing a song about God. Pour out your heart and humbly (James 4:6) worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)

Don’t replace direct divine revelation (Matthew 16:17) with religion. Jesus came so that you can have an intimate ongoing personal relationship with Him. (Matthew 11:28)

Don’t just converse about Jesus. Continually connect with Him heart-to-heart. (Matthew 15:18)

Don’t just say an occasional prayer. Pour out your heart to God in penitence and in praise for His glorious mercy and forgiveness. (1 John 1:9)

Don’t just be religious. Be a light that radiantly reflects the glory of God. (Matthew 5:16 & 2 Corinthians 4:6) Don’t be satisfied with preaching about Jesus. Demonstrate His presence and power in your day-to-day life. (1 Cor 2:4-5)

Don’t just give some money. Personally encourage and serve somebody. Give your heart. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

This morning after writing this about Jesus I felt inwardly prompted to step outside. When I did, I saw the sunrise and the bright Morning Star. I didn’t allow my mind to analyze and explain the scene. Instead, I let my heart savor it. As I was pondering and absorbing the heart-moving sights a low-flying plane was taking off in front of me. That plane reminded me that the way to let Jesus, the Bright and Morning Star, rise within me isn’t to analyze, study, or explain Him. It’s to ponder, absorb, and surrender to His presence and will.

How closely is your heart connected to the living Jesus right now? (Isaiah 29:13) Get closer every day! For more keys to an intimate, ongoing, daily friendship with Jesus, google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

Focusing on studying religion is like focusing on studying a sunrise. The more someone studies a sunrise the less he allows himself to be deeply touched and transformed by its beauty. The same goes for studying theology. When studying the Bible replaces soaking it up and continually savoring the presence of Christ through its pages, that shifts people’s awareness away from inner absorption to mental analysis, away from the heart to the head, away from inspiration to information, away from Spirit-prompted wonder to prideful scrutiny.

When it comes to Christianity, experiential knowledge is much more important than mere intellectual knowledge. When there is a famine of direct, personal, awe-filled revelation of the presence and power of the risen Jesus, Christianity becomes just another religion. God wants churches to train people to connect heart-to-heart with and to obey the risen Jesus, not just to fill people’s minds with Bible analysis or motivational speeches. It’s time to focus on, seek, savor, surrender to, and obey the presence of Jesus.

No Apathy Is My Strategy

Daily writing promptWhat strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?View all responses

My strategy for mental health and well-being is to have no apathy. I strive to keep my heart filled with kindness, caring, and compassion so that I can help people by humbly speaking the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:14) It’s not easy. In fact, I have a daily fight to deny myself (Luke 9:23) and to make my thoughts, feelings, desires, and opinions obey the risen Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Hearts that know information about God but don’t know His ways will go astray. (Hebrews 3:10) Knowledge about God should never be a replacement for an intimate relationship with God the Holy Spirit — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

Refuse to harden your heart. Make it your lifestyle to continually listen to, hear, and obey God’s inner voice. (Hebrews 3:15) Daily encourage people to avoid the hardness of the world’s deception by ceaselessly sharing in, surrendering to, and obeying the inner leading of Christ’s Spirit. (Hebrews 3:13-14)

Christianity’s not
Information you know
Or a religious show.
It’s letting God’s Spirit
Directly lead and flow
So that you grow and grow
With the power to go
And demonstrate Jesus
To everyone you meet.
Nurture God’s inner flow.
(John 7:38-39, Acts 1:8, & Romans 8:14)

There is a handbook, a guidebook, to help you align with God the Holy Spirit. It’s the book that tells me who I am and why I am the way I am better than any book I’ve ever read. It is the Bible. Jesus uses it to open wide my eyes to His light and to help me hear His inner voice. That’s why I believe it. That’s why I read and savor it daily letting it shape and reform my heart. That’s why I do my best to not just be a hearer of the word, but to be an ongoing doer of the word. (James 1:22) Go beyond depressing apathy to uplifting joy.

I’m Traveling to Greater Inner Freedom

Daily writing promptWhat are your future travel plans?View all responses

I’m planning to continue my decades long trip that is taking me higher and higher to greater and greater inner freedom. It’s a long journey and a slow process, with every step along the way being a challenge, but the closer I get to the destination the higher my spirit soars. (Isaiah 40:31)

A massive circuit breaker (Romans 6:23) has turned off the current and stopped the flow of God’s Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) within human hearts causing an apocalyptic power outage. (2 Timothy 3:5) This has led to a worldwide spiritual blackout. (John 3:19) Now we humans live our lives in bondage (John 8:34) to distorted and corrupted feelings, desires, thoughts, opinions, habits, addictions, and other deceptions (Isaiah 53:6) and mostly ignore God’s offer of freedom.

The risen Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:3-8) is the truth (John 14:6) who has come to restore God’s inner power flow (Acts 1:8) and set people free (John 8:31-32) to be led by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:14) Through Christ, God the Father wants to shine in your heart and give you light, (2 Corinthians 4:6) so that your mind can be free from fear (1 John 4:18) and you can live in the never-ending inner flow (John 7:38) of His power and love. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Jesus is the light of the world. (John 8:12) No one who says they believe in Him should stay in darkness. (John 12:46) Cast off your stubborn hardheartedness (Acts 3:19) and humbly and courageously come and continually surrender to the Light of Jesus. (John 3:19-21) Begin to spend your every moment aware of and obedient to His presence (Matthew 28:20) by letting Christ freely live in you, (Colossians 1:27) lead you, and be your absolute Master — your Lord and your God. (John 28:20)

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I’d Like to Change the Way Christianity is Presented

Daily writing promptWhat would you change about modern society?View all responses

Modern society sees Christianity in a boring and legalistic way that focus on Sunday morning church attendance and puts a lot of people off. It also presents Christianity as political. I’d like to change that. Better laws and more church attendance, without better people, can never bring the kingdom of God. God’s government must begin in human hearts.

Christianity is so much better than most people think. If going to church isn’t producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) in people’s lives, it’s missing the point. It’s best not to attend a church where you’re being manipulated and controlled. (John 8:32)

It’s good not to attend a church that contradicts what the Bible says about Jesus. (1 Corinthians 11:3-4) It’s dangerous to attend church without searching the Bible to see if what’s taught there is true. (Acts 17:11) Jesus, Himself, said: “Beware of false prophets.” (Matthew 7:15)

When church attendance is a greater focus than an ongoing, heart-to-heart relationship with Jesus, it has become an idol. It’s not good to attend a church that makes you feel like it’s not good to be excited about Jesus. (Matthew 6:33)

There is so much more to Christianity than passively attending church. (James 1:22) Be a ceaseless radiator of Christ’s presence and love, not merely a weekly spectator at a religious service. (2 Timothy 1:6-9)

God doesn’t want people to do religious things with a hardened heart. (Matthew 15:8-9 & 22:37) Fully open up your heart to Jesus. (Revelation 3:20) Trust Him with your wounds and let Him give you “a new heart” (Ezekiel 36:26) — “a noble and good heart.” (Luke 8:15) Refuse to hinder what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your heart and through your life. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

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Music to My Ears

Daily writing promptWhat do you listen to while you work?View all responses

I listen to and nurture the best, most uplifting thoughts that come to my mind. They are music to my ears. Meanwhile I resist, refute, and reject the impure ones. I use discernment to recognize which are which. I find the thoughts in my mind to be more entertaining and challenging than anything else I can listen to. I especially focus on the thoughts and insights that come to me from God.

I’ve learned that things look different from God’s perspective. I allow God the Holy Spirit to train me to see the way He sees (1 Samuel 16:7) by continually devouring and savoring the writings of the ancient prophets and the earliest Christians and letting those Bible words unceasingly burn in my heart. (Luke 24:32) That gives me discernment to recognize which thoughts are from God, which are from me, and which are from the invisible enemies of God. (Philippians 4:8)

The invisible kingdom of God (Luke 17:20) has come close by. (Mark 1:15) This is how it is manifesting and growing. (Matthew 13:31-32) God is actively releasing His thoughts and insights. (Matthew 16:16-17) Hungry human hearts (Matthew 5:6) day by day are humbly seeking (Matthew 6:33) and receiving God’s direct, personal revelation. Then they align with, surrender to, and obey His supernatural revelation through their internal and external actions of eager repentance. (Acts 3:19) Repentance then leads to the ongoing discipleship of Spirit-led, (Romans 8:14) heart-to-heart relationship with the risen Jesus (Matthew 28:20) and with His faithful followers. (1 John 1:1-3)

God is wanting to work His kingdom through and transform every aspect of your being, the way that yeast works all the way through a big mass of dough. (Matthew 13:33) Will you let Him?

Isolation is not a spiritually healthy thing for Christ-followers to do. We need to listen to God together and help each other hear, heal, and grow. The New Testament tells us more than 50 times to minister to one another in various ways. It also says for us to not give up meeting together. (Hebrews 10:25) There are many ways Christ-followers can meet together besides gathering to passively hear a sermon. For example, we can assemble, listen to God the Holy Spirit together, and then allow people to say and do as they are led by the Spirit. (Romans 8:14) Unfortunately many Christians isolate in their seats on Sunday morning.

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