Steve Simms's Blog, page 83

The awareness that fills me with joyful feelings!

Daily writing promptHow are you feeling right now?View all responses

I woke up this morning with the phrase “conscious awareness of Jesus” wandering through my heart. That has influenced how I am now feeling. Right now (and most of the time) I feel very joyful to be aware of the present moment presence and reality of the risen Jesus Christ.

The Christian Scriptures are a call to the conscious awareness of the ongoing presence and activity of the living Jesus. They call you to continually listen to and obey Christ so that you won’t be cut off from being enthralled and empowered by His glorious presence. God is calling you to let the living Jesus bless you by turning you away from your subtle self-deception and refined rebellion.

Make Christ your Head.
Rise from the dead.
Be Spirit-led!

Conscious awareness of Jesus is the missing ingredient in contemporary Christianity. Without consciousness awareness of the risen Jesus Christianity is an empty shell.

Busyness diverts your consciousness away from what Jesus is saying to you. Conscious awareness of Jesus occurs when an open heart freely surrenders all to Him.

Consciousness awareness of the living Jesus causes the things of earth to lose their hold on your heart. If you won’t welcome Jesus into your conscious awareness, you’ll be constantly diverted and detained by the darkness of self-deception.

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The habit of an open heart

Daily writing promptWhat daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?View all responses

I pray the Jesus Prayer through out the day and wholeheartedly adore the risen Jesus. The Jesus Prayer is a prayer that ancient Eastern Orthodox monks used to repeat throughout the day as a way to obey the biblical exhortation to “pray without ceasing.” It goes: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.” I first learned about it decades ago and it has greatly improved the quality of my life. Here’s why:

“My sin, not in part but the whole” nailed Christ to the Cross. All we human beings (like sheep) have gone astray from God, each one to his own way, and the iniquity of us each one of us has taken away the life of Jesus. In a contest to determine “the chief of sinners,” we are all equally tied with Paul of Tarsus as: “O wretched man that I am,” and “I know that within me, that is within my flesh, dwells no good thing.”

When Peter calls for repentance, He’s calling for us to accept the full responsibility for our individual sins and for their consequences. If our personal sins were the only sins in the world, they would have still required Jesus to go to the Cross. This is actually good news. When I deeply realize the grave depth of my sins, I begin to recognize the amazing depth of God’s great love for me. Then because I am aware that I have been forgiven incredibly much (as much as anyone else in the world), I overflow with much grateful love and astonishing awe and adoration for the risen Jesus.

If I’ve never fully accepted the responsibility for all of my sins (known and unknown) and their role in the execution of Jesus, and humbly repented, I’ve probably never experienced wholehearted adoration of the present and living Jesus Christ. However, true and deep repentance, that no longer self-justifies, but humbly cries out for mercy in total brokenness, receives and lives in never ending floods of God’s mercy which produce ongoing and unrestrained adoration for the risen Jesus. “O come let us adore Him!”

Nowadays Jesus
Is mostly ignored.
Very rarely is He
Wholeheartedly adored
As the present
Living Lord.

Christian proclamation
Without passionate
Wholehearted adoration
Of the risen Jesus,
Seldom rises beyond
An empty narration.

If you really want to grow
In a relationship with God,
You need more than a weekly
Sunday morning placebo.

Faithful church attendance
If you’re just an audience,
Misses out on the purpose
Of embracing God’s ambience.

Instead of watching the time
Waiting for church to be done
Open up to God’s Spirit
And let your soul be undone.

Open up to awe
And adoration
Of the living Jesus
And you will lose
Your frustration.

Frequently repent untangle your human nature from the gifts of God’s Spirit. Then they will flow through your life supernaturally.

The Jesus Prayer & The Philokalia

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Searching for reliance

Daily writing promptWhat was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?View all responses

This morning I searched online for “synonyms for reliance.” I was looking for them so I could use them in what I was writing. This is how it turned out.

Reaching for reliance is powerful. It will help you be Christ-connected and see with His compassion:

Choosing to courageously step out in daily dependence and reliance that the living Jesus will literally demonstrate His presence and power (instead of believing in our own effort, abilities, and resources) is an act of faith that shows that we trust Him to do what He said He will do. That act prepares the way for the Lord to show up and show out in, though, and around us. Reliance on the risen Jesus keeps us Christ-connected instead of self-directed and gives us Christ-directed eyes that see with His compassion. Then we are moved to “Do whatever He tells you.” (John 2:5.)

Cultivate continual Christ-connection and always be an intimate part of His family. A Jesus-directed assembly of open human hearts is amazingly beautiful, grand, and glorious. It releases revelation and miracles to those who enter in. (Hebrews 10:25.)

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We need more than bottled Christianity.

When Christianity
Is a programmed show
There’s no room for
God’s Spirit to flow.
Christ’s living water
Is too fantastic
To be bottled up
In Sunday plastic.
Let’s dare be drastic
And drink from God’s spring.

Jesus is no absentee. He’s always available to live in and through you and me.

When lame Christians begin to honestly and humbly look at each other heart-to-heart we will behold the physical reality of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Then we will dare to take each other by the hand and boldly say, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” We’ll be supernaturally empowered to begin walking, and leaping, and praising God every day in the Spirit. People will recognize us as the same folks who used to sit passively in beautiful church buildings and the world will be filled with wonder and amazement at what is happening to us.

It’s time to be led by both God’s Spirit and His Scriptures. It’s dangerous to elevate theology, religious traditions, and church programs above the Bible and/or the Holy Spirit.

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Experience ekklesia live on Zoom on Tuesdays Sept. 5-26

Join me on Tuesday nights in September for a powerful Zoom ekklesia experience. It’s free. Go to okmtraining.org and click on “Join a Class.” Then scroll down to “Beyond Church,” click and sign up. More details in the image below.

My favorite time is Jesus central time!

Daily writing promptWhat’s your favorite time of day?View all responses

Something is central when it is located in the center. When Jesus is the center of my life, I have the time of my life. All the time I spend centered on Him, I am filled with awe and delight. However, the time I focus on my own desires, opinions, and problems leaves me frustrated and disturbed.

My daily goal is to increase my Jesus central time and to decrease my self-focused time. The closer I get to that goal, the more the day is filled with the amazing fruit and gifts of His Spirit.

My favorite time is off the clock and in the light of Jesus. There’s no time frame for His shinning!

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Jesus institution or Jesus revolution?

Christianity began as a Jesus-led movement, a spontaneous revolution of people being led by the acts of Jesus and His life-giving revelation — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Over the years it shifted from being a Jesus revolution to a human managed organization and a tradition bound institution.

Today it’s time to turn away from our plans, programs, and presentations and for sincere and passionate believers to all align as the body of Christ and boldly step into what Jesus is saying and doing now. In the 21st century we desperately need first generation Christ-followers, born and led directly from above, who will allow the risen Jesus to be the literal and controlling Head of His body.

When Christ-followers begin to personally rely on and to daily depend on the presence and reality of the living Jesus instead of on human-effort, on religious organizations, and/or on human leaders, we will experience Jesus directly working in and through us. Then we will walk in “greater works” than we can imagine!

To get ongoing “ahas” (the rock of revelation) about the presence and power of the risen Jesus we don’t need to understand Him. We need to experience Him, to surrender obediently to Him, and to let Him be our living Head, Master, and Lord (both as individuals and when we gather as His body).

Peter and John had no money, no education, no religious institution, and no pastor, but notice what they did when they “looked straight” at a man born lame and had him look at them. That Jesus-directed, two-way look of deep heart compassion and their courageous command to rise and walk in Jesus’ name released the healing power and presence of the risen Jesus. In the name of Jesus it’s time for all of us “lame” believers to rise up and walk!

When Christians gather
To be Christ’s body
And come together
To be Spirit-led
With Jesus as Head,
To each one obey
What He has to say,
Jesus will work
In a greater way!

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A Night to Testify

Last night a group of people gathered around a little stage where Johnny Cash used to sing in the tiny town of Bon Aqua, Tennessee. As we surrendered to Christ’s Headship and began to come to the mic and testify or sing as Jesus prompted us, Christ began to speak through and work in each person present. I wrote this poem about it this morning.

Testify time (Revelation 12:10-ll.)

Person after person
Came to the microphone
To open their heart and share,
But they were not alone.
You could clearly see Christ
Brightly shining in them.
You could even feel Him.
A holy hush filled the air,
Real love was everywhere,
And we were all aware
That the presence of Jesus
Surrounded us there.

The recipe for joy

Daily writing promptWhat’s your favorite recipe?View all responses

Years ago, I discovered the recipe for joy in my favorite recipe book. I follow that recipe in my heart every day and it never fails to feed me with awe and delight.

It’s a simple recipe. Open your heart and mix the awareness and acceptance of real love with radical reliance and dependence on that love and receive a quality of life that is out of this world!

The recipe is called John 3:16. A famous football player used to wear it under His eyes during football games.

Here’s the recipe: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Do you want amazing joy? Open your heart to receive the love of God and believe in Jesus to the point of radically relying on His presence and power throughout each day.

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A lifetime of excitement about Jesus and His town meetings

Daily writing promptTell us about the last thing you got excited about.View all responses

Once upon a time people around America and around the world got excited about the living, resurrected Jesus. I was one of them. We were often called Jesus Freaks and collectively were known as the Jesus Movement or the Jesus Revolution. (There is a recent movie about us.)

One day as an agnostic I walked into a Jesus-directed town meeting where Christians were testifying about how they had encountered the risen Jesus. Something indescribable happened inside of me that day and I’ve been thrilled about Jesus every day since then.

Now I experience Jesus working in me and around me every day and I’m continually in awe at what He does! Throughout the day He prompts me to say and do various things. He never lets me get bored. I highly recommend opening your heart to Jesus and gathering with other people for Jesus-directed town meetings.

A Christian event center (church) and a Jesus-directed town meeting (ekklesia) aren’t the same thing. A Christian event center presents religious programs. A Jesus-directed town meeting demonstrates the presence of the risen Christ.

A Christian event center creates spectators. A Jesus-directed town meeting empowers participants. A Christian event center is headed up by a pastor, but Christ is the Head of a Jesus-directed town meeting.

A Christian event center presents a one-man-controlled, lecture-based, systematized program. A Jesus-directed town meeting surrenders control to the living Jesus.

A Christian event center proudly features a single speaker, but a Jesus-directed town meeting allows Christ to prompt various members of His body to humbly take turns sharing what He puts on their heart.

Jesus wants to build and personally direct His town meeting. He doesn’t like to be made a passive observer at Christian event centers.

The Protestant Reformers taught “the priesthood of the believer” but set up church to avoid that important biblical truth. That’s sad because humble, heart-felt testimonies from ordinary people ignite the “dunamis” (the explosive power) of the Holy Spirit!

Jesus said His disciples will be His witnesses. If you’ve experienced His presence, you’re summoned to testify about what you’ve seen Him do.

A Christian event center on every corner doesn’t make a city Christian. Where do you assemble with Christ-followers as a Jesus-directed town meeting? (Hebrews 10:25.)

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