Steve Simms's Blog, page 60

I Learned the Last Thing I Learned the First Thing This Morning

Daily writing promptWhat is the last thing you learned?View all responses

The last thing I learned I learned the first thing this morning before I got out of bed. I woke up with this paragraph developing in my heart. No matter what I dream I wake up in school.

“When I read Matthew chapter 16, I hear Jesus saying that He wants to build His followers into the body of Christ — Spirit-led community gatherings of Christ-hearers who are personally experiencing and sharing the rock of direct revelation from God the Father, with one another.”

The body of Christ is called to be community. Community is people who are connected heart to heart. A group of people that meets without heart interaction isn’t a community.

The more heart interaction you individually have with the risen Jesus the more you will be able to experience genuine community with other people. First cultivate an ever-growing relationship with the living Jesus, then beautiful relationships with other people will spontaneously flow from that.

An audience is a gathering of spectators. A community is openhearted people who interact with and care for one another. Without heart-to-heart Spirit-led community interaction, Christianity tends to become a religious lecture series. When individuals are prompted and led by God’s Spirit, community breaks out in their midst. Begin by showing Christ’s love to the people He puts in front of you.

God didn’t create you to be lost in the crowd. He made you a unique individual so that your life can brightly shine with His creativity. You’re not a clone or a faceless cog in the mass of humanity. There’s never been another person like you!

God wants you to be more than a spectator at religious events. He wants you to be a bright light who demonstrates His presence for all to see. My life has been hopping with supernatural inner joy and Spirit-led interactive community ever since I began to listen to and walk along with the risen Jesus!

Asked To Do Wrong

Daily writing promptWhat is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.View all responses

I don’t like to be asked to do wrong. It’s no fun to be tempted when I have set my heart to do what’s right no matter the cost.

I need to think
About my need
To be set free
From the things
That bind me.
I need to
Lift my eyes
So I can rise
To the Wise
And not disguise
With many lies
Whatever tries
To trap me
In what defies
My conscience.

Humans think
And stray
And run away
From God.
We don’t want
To let Him
Have His way.
We don’t want
To do what
He has to say.
We don’t want
To open wide
Our heart
To pray.
We resist God
Day by day.
We’re lost
In the fray
Of seeking
Our own way.
Yet Christ came
And died
And now lives
So we may
Be restored
To God.
Will we?

To think
And sink
And link
With sin
Is to be
Out of sync
With God.

“I think, therefore I am.”
No one can truly see
The thinking part of me
Who’s more than my body
And will always be
For eternity.
I’m intricately designed
But my thinking’s unaligned
With the perfect One
Who created me.
Thus He became a man
So I can understand
And be realigned.
Then my rebellious heart
Will no longer stay apart
From His Presence,
Love and mercy.
Think about these things.
Open wide your heart
To the King of Kings!

“I think, therefore, I am.” I truly repent, therefore, I’m forgiven. It’s easy to refuse to think about God and to refuse to repent.

True repentance leads to peace with God and with people. Self-justification leads to pride, rebellion, hostility, and even to violence.

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Failure shows my need for mental boundaries.

Daily writing promptHow has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?View all responses

Trying to resist and overcome the discouragement, depression, and defeat of failure has made me aware of my great need for mental boundaries. It has caused me to train myself to reign in my runaway mind when it panicky gallops in my skull.

Thought boundaries are borders to protect your mind from intruding thoughts. Fix your inner border! People who have open boundaries in their mind are overrun by chaotic thoughts. Without thought boundaries your brain will be bombarded by bullying beliefs, worries, fears, and obsessions. For peace of mind let your conscience help you set and enforce thought boundaries.

A lack of thought boundaries is terrible because it lets your mental health waste away day-by-day. Without thought boundaries people become controlled by dominating desires, whacky whims, freaky feelings, and obsessive opinions.

A mind with no boundaries will always be unhealthy. Without thought boundaries mental health is a myth. Thought boundaries tell your mind where you will and where you won’t allow it to go.

Our thought boundaries (or the lack thereof) determine what we will and won’t allow in our mind. Before you welcome and embrace a thought make it go through customs first. It may be bringing harmful ideas into your mind.

Let your conscience define your boundaries. Then keep guilt-producing thoughts and behaviors out of your life. Thought boundaries help protect your inner core and keep you from falsely identifying yourself by your desires, feelings, and opinions. It takes courage to set and maintain mental boundaries.

Enforcing thought boundaries in your mind is an effective way to protect yourself from mental torment. Hang this sign in your brain: “No Conscience Violating Thoughts Allowed!” Then actively patrol your mental borders to enforce it. Train your mind to respect and abide by the boundaries your conscience sets for it.

You’re not required to let every thought that comes your way into your mind. Wisdom and discernment empower you to pick and choose. Thought boundaries are obstacles to tormenting thoughts. For peace of mind keep your thought boundaries strong!

The thoughts that you allow into your mind will shape your life. Be wise in which ones you welcome and which ones you reject. Train your mind to say no to and to resist unwholesome, manipulating, and tormenting thoughts.

The best thought boundaries “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” They “set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.” Mind boundaries help you to guard your heart. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” –King Solomon

The risen Jesus is “the bread of life,” “the living bread” that “anyone may eat.” He has restored access to the tree of life. “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” I love to feast on His presence 24/7/365! Let Him set your thought boundaries.

The peace of mankind
Requires peace of mind.
Obeying Jesus
Is the way to find
Lasting peace of mind.[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." data-large-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." src="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." alt="" class="wp-image-39159" />Photo by Trinity Kubassek on Pexels.com

“It’s not about me.”

Daily writing promptYou’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?View all responses

“It’s not about me.” My autobiography isn’t about me because my life is amazing when my focus isn’t on me.

I’m just a spectator watching an invisible being working in and through me. His name is Jesus and I’m writing my autobiography that features what Christ is doing in and around me almost every time I blog. Here’s the latest edition of “It’s Not About Me.”

I felt prompted by Jesus to learn Spanish in January of 2023 and began everyday watching videos in Spanish, reading a Spanish New Testament, and using Duolingo. Around August a Spanish speaking couple (Deysi and Ivan) moved next door to my wife and me. They have been so patient to let me practice on them. We have connected heart-to-heart and above all, they deeply love Jesus. Gloria a Dios!

Yesterday, Deysi, who knows very few words in English, told me about her nephew William. He was raised in a Christian environment but in college he decided to be an atheist. Recently he had an encounter with Jesucristo and now he loves God with all his heart. He’s reading the Bible every day and telling everyone He knows about Jesus. He says that faith isn’t about religion but about loving Jesus and other people.

Routine religion
Needs an audience,
But God wants you
Filled with His Presence
And doing what He
Tells you to do.
Go beyond routine
Into things unseen.

If churches would present Christ in an exciting way that allows Him to manifest and demonstrate His presence, the living Jesus would be as followed and as talked about as the Chosen series. Routine religion doesn’t rigorously resonate in human hearts, but the resurrected Jesus does! It’s time for Christians to focus on the risen Jesus Himself, not on sermons or shows about Him.

The Three Objects of My Life Investigation

Daily writing promptWhat are three objects you couldn’t live without?View all responses

The common definition of the word object is “a material thing that can be seen or touched.” However, there is another definition of object as well: ‘a person or thing to which a specified action or feeling is directed, as in ‘the object of investigation.'” I’m using the second definition.

The object of my life’s investigation involves three mysterious and invisible people who I can’t live without. They are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of all the choices available to me I choose to seek to make those mysterious Three In One, The Creator Of The Universe, the source of my choices.

People have the choice of choices. Throughout each day we can choose what we want, or we can choose what God wants for us. However, most of the time most of our choices are based on choosing what we want.

Rather than choosing to be guided by the promptings of God’s Spirit within us (the leading of His still small voice in our conscience), we become dead to hearing from God. Instead of being led by His presence we choose to be led by our own desires, feelings, and opinions.

As human beings we become captivated to choosing the cravings of our human nature. Rather than choosing to always align with the life of God at work within us, we attempt self-justify our self-focused choices by our analysis and rationalizations of the knowledge of good and evil.

I can’t live without the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They literally keep me alive. When I choose to be separated from them, even for an instant, I walk away from the tree of life and flirt with death. I long for the day when I only choose to do the will of The Three In One no matter what the circumstances. My only hope for that day is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

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My Profoundest Experiences

Daily writing promptWhat experiences in life helped you grow the most?View all responses

(I woke up this morning with the paragraph that follows this paragraph forming in my heart. I posted it on my Facebook page before I saw today’s writing prompt. It answers today’s question, “What experiences in life helped you grow the most?” My answer begins with this: The many times that I have gathered with members of the body of Christ being assembled and led by God’s Spirit where the risen Jesus is the literal Head of His assembled body not just a figurehead, have helped me grow the most. When a group of people is led by the presence of the living Jesus, He supernaturally empowers them to go beyond routine religion and to surrender control to His Spirit without human organization or manipulation.)

“When Christ, the Son of the living God, is living inside you by His Spirit, He wants to build you together as living stones with other Christ-carriers on the foundational rock of personal, supernatural revelation (not on the shifting sand of human organization and control), so He can be the literal Head, King, and Lord and personally direct, prompt, and lead His followers, building them into Spirit-led gatherings of the members of His body who manifest and demonstrate His presence and reality. To learn how this can begin to happen in a small group (or church) you attend, google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.”

Christians are supposed to do the 50+ “one another commands” in the New Testament with each other. They’re never commanded to sit and expect a pastor to minister to them. Often going to a bar is a desperate attempt to find the heart-to-heart connection that people are often blocked and barred from by the rigid routine of religion.

You Control Your Own Destiny

Daily writing promptDo you believe in fate/destiny?View all responses

I believe that humans are destined for unimaginable greatness and yet have been given the freedom to control our own destiny. We can choose the inner peace that we are designed and destined for, or we can choose misery that violates our mental and emotional design. In other words, we have been given the control of our own destiny. We can choose joy or sadness, hope or discouragement, surrender to God or rebellion against Him. The following poems that express this truth came to me during the night, before I got up and I saw today’s writing prompt:

The deep yearning
That is burning
Within your heart
Is the longing
For returning
To God's image.
No amount of
Human learning,
Money earning,
Or partying
Satisfies it;
Only Jesus!
Be discerning!

The human destiny
Is to begin to be
What we were made to be,
Spirit-led humanity
Eating the tree of life,
God's image for all to see,
Living in His victory.
But our tendency
Is to choose to be
The controller of our life
And violate our destiny
By trusting in our knowledge
Of good and evil.

Surrender your whole heart
To God's inner motion.
Then you will discover
Beautiful devotion

Discernment or deception?
Discernment is reception
Of God's living perception
With the eyes of the heart.
It's so much more than
Mental conception.
It's the tree of life.

Then these two poems came to me shortly after I posted this post:

Listen to Christ's teaching,
To His parables in your heart,
As the risen Jesus utters
Hidden things from old,
That your conscience
Has heard and told.
Then pass them on
In word and song
As you go along
And live the way
God's Spirit leads you
By His still small voice
Speaking within you.
Tell of His power
And the wonders
That God's Son
Has said and done
In the Bible
In your heart,
And in your life!
(Inspired by Psalm 78.)

Pop star pastors
Frequently create
Spiritual disasters.
Worship the Lord
And serve Him only.
Christ is the only One
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I Really Enjoy My Volatile Vocation

Daily writing promptDo you enjoy your job?View all responses

Yes! I thoroughly enjoy my vocation, my job. My calling is to listen to and obey the inner promptings of God in my heart. Although doing so is often frightening, every time I do what God prompts, He shows up in a powerful way.

There are many reasons to ignore and disobey the presence and the promptings of the Lord. Gideon, in the Bible, had his reasons to do that. He asked: “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our ancestors told us about?” But the Lord prompted Gideon to do what was impossible for him to do–to go and save Israel by sending all of his 32,000 men army home except for 300. Then God prompted Gideon to have the 300 men light lanterns in the dark and to crack pots. Because Gideon went and obeyed God’s humanly crazy crackpot directions in what looked like a hopeless situation, a miracle of deliverance happened. When God prompts you to do something that makes no sense to you, will you do it? (Remember, God will never prompt you to do evil.)

God has often prompted me to do crazy things. After I had been a full-time motivational speaker for twelve years, God prompted me to burn and destroy all of my client and prospect contact information. It was very hard to obey that inner nudging, but I did. Shortly after that my wife, Ernie, sent her resume to a blind P.O. box to apply for a part-time counselor job. In return she received a call from The Salvation Army looking for a counselor for their 86-bed men’s recovery rehabilitation center in Nashville. She felt the Lord prompt her to put me on the phone and I was hired within a couple of days. That revolutionized our lives!

Two years later The Salvation Army hired Ernie to run a large inner-city resource center full of various services and organizations to help those in need. Then after three more years they asked us to start “a non-traditional church” in one of their church buildings and encouraged us to replace the Sunday sermon with open sharing and testimonies. We got to see people openly obey the Lord’s inner promptings for almost ten years and the results were spectacular. I even wrote a book about the experience called: “Beyond Church–An Invitation to Experience the Lost Word of the Bible–Ekklesia.”

I frequently sense God prompting me to write and post things that make people feel uncomfortable. Although I want people to like me, I feel compelled to obey what I believe God’s Spirit is saying. I get a good bit of negative feedback, but I also have people tell me that what I post gives them hope and changes their life.

Here are some of my most recent promptings:

Church attendance is not the only way to be a Christian. Following and obeying Jesus throughout each day is a very effective strategy for being a powerful Christ-follower.

When Christianity is seen as going to church, people who are put off by church feel like they are rejecting Christ. The risen Jesus, however, is not bound to or defined by any institution. He can directly reveal Himself to whoever ask Him to.

The reception
Of deception
Is dangerous.
Made up stories
About Jesus,
Though entertaining,
Will twist and distort
Your perception.
Stay focused on
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John!
Avoid all deflection
From the Spirit’s connection.

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I can’t say goodbye to my Jesus Freak phase

Daily writing promptDescribe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.View all responses

The phase in my life that I won’t say goodbye to is my Jesus Freak phase. One day I encountered the risen Jesus Christ and in a moment my life was marvelously and forever changed. Jesus was suddenly real to me and all I wanted to do was to get to know Him better and to follow and obey Him all the days of my life. Almost 54 years later, that’s still the burning desire of my heart.

Because I’m so excited about continually experiencing and obeying the literal and direct Headship and Lordship of the living Jesus, people sometimes think that I’m against traditional church. They sometimes even call me bitter. I’m not bitter with church. I just want it to be better. I want church to demonstrate and manifest the glorious reality of the risen Jesus.

Being a Christ-follower involves so much more than passively belonging to and attending a church. People can plant (or start) a Sunday morning Christian lecture group, but only Jesus can build an interactive, Spirit-directed gathering of the body of Christ.

Church attendance is not a sign or indication of spiritual growth. Many church attendees just sit in passive boredom waiting for the service to end. Jesus said that His disciples will be known by their fruit (by the quality of life they produce). He didn’t say they will be known by their church attendance.

The Bible says to submit to God, but too often Christians won’t even openly admit where they are rebelling against Him. The Bible says, “Resist the devil,” but too often Christians assist the devil and accept his deception. The Bible says, “Come near to God,” but too often Christians refuse to hear God speaking in their conscience. The Bible says, “Purify your heart,” but too often Christians deny and defy God’s call to purity. The Bible says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, but too often Christians grumble whenever their pride is hurt. Let’s become “doers of the word, not hearers only.” (Accept God’s call! Read and do what James 4: 1-10 says to do.

Christians are too often like a barrel of lobsters. If one tries to climb out of the religious system into the reality of the living Jesus, the others frequently try to pull him back. Step out of the religious barrel and into Christ’s glorious light!

Too many Jesus Freaks have been pulled back into the barrel. Today many people can’t see the risen Jesus because their religiosity has shut their eyes.

I’m the tall, white-haired guy in the back of this picture. To learn more about this group of people who seek to go beyond church as usual and to be active sowers and doers of the Word go to this link.

With an inner click I can be someone else.

Daily writing promptIf you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?View all responses

I can be someone else, not just for a day but for always! “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

When I woke up this morning this poem was forming in my heart. I call it “The Inner Click.”

Go to your settings.
Click on “Allow Christ,”
So Jesus can start
To notify your heart
What He’s wanting you
To say and to do.
 
My human concerns are a stumbling block to the concerns of God. My desires resist what God requires. They cause me to turn off Christ’s notifications in my heart.

Discipleship requires cross-bearing and self-denial. To be able to follow the living Jesus I have to be willing to be constantly aware of and focused on Christ’s inner notifications and to continually give up my control, my desires, and my plans to His Lordship and authority.

What I want and what God wants don’t align. Moment-by-moment, I have to choose whose will I will do. Will I be led by God’s Spirit? Will I give Him my heart and let Him steer it? Only as I die to self-will will I begin to live with the holy thrill of daily following and obeying the risen Jesus.

One click on the screen in your heart can change your life. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Every time Jesus knocks on your heart, click on “Give Access” so He can fully live in and through you. The more human control there is in your life, the less Holy Spirit control is there. A relationship with Christ isn’t humanly organized and programmed. It must flow from the heart.

If Christianity doesn’t involve more than going to church, it’s not enough! True faith develops into daily discipleship. Keep your focus on the living Jesus, not on human programming. If you hear or read something that inspires you, don’t namedrop the author’s name, copy and paste it, or quote it. In your own words, tell what it inspired in you.

Jesus didn’t come to organize a religion but to build His followers together in a Spirit-led, unorganized relationship with Him. The traditional church format of singing some songs and then having the congregation be an audience that passively listens to the same man lecture each week seems to produce more boredom than it does passion for and daily obedience to the risen Jesus. It doesn’t inspire people to click on “Allow Christ.”

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