Steve Simms's Blog, page 92

Where are the Christ-sent feet?

If people don’t believe that Jesus is alive and willing to hear them and respond with mercy, forgiveness, and healing, they won’t be motivated to call on Him. If they’ve never heard and believed that people today are personally experiencing Christ’s life-changing mercy, forgiveness, and healing they won’t know that it’s available to them. If no one tells them about the supernatural experience of encountering and surrendering to the living Jesus, they won’t hear about it. If no one has a strong enough relationship with the risen Jesus to be sent out to radiate and proclaim His presence and reality, people will assume He’s just a religious myth. However, when people are sent out with their heart strangely warmed and the fire of the risen Jesus glowing within them, their feet carry and reflect the beautiful presence of the living Jesus everywhere they go. I’m so glad that some beautiful feet like that walked into my life and showed me the present-day reality of the risen Jesus! O that my feet will be sent to do the same! (See Romans 10:14-15.)

Feet that walk on the mountains of the glorious hope of “Christ in you” and proclaim the good news of His reign of inner peace and rescue from the dark shadows of the valley of despair and death have a beauty beyond description. (See Isaiah 52:7.)

Let your feet be sent by Christ to be continually led by the Spirit. When Christ-sent feet meet a hungry, humble heart there’s a release of revelation and spiritual life.

Jesus sends His followers as sheep among wolves not to rely on their own power and effort, but to humbly depend on the supernatural power He gives them to tread on serpents and over all the power of the enemy. Feet that walk in the Spirit stand on the mountains of the kingdom of God.

Christians are sent
To let our heart be bent
To the will of God
And to follow Jesus
Wherever He leads.[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-36450" />Photo by Vicky Tran on Pexels.com

Salvation comes by dependency on Jesus

Making a one-time decision to “accept Christ” isn’t Christianity. Daily surrendering your life to Christ’s direct Lordship and control is.

To truly believe in Jesus is to daily depend on Him instead of depending on your own effort, knowledge, desires, or opinions. Go beyond belief that Jesus is real. Begin to rely and depend on Him to take direct, day-to-day control of your life.

Christian discipleship is daily dependency on the risen Jesus. That’s why it’s so rare. Pride rejects dependency on God but embraces dependency on possessions, habits, relationships, drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.

Who is calling on the name of the Lord? Who is appealing to the living Jesus? Who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Who is drawing near to God? Who is tasting and seeing that the Lord is good? Who is being led by the Spirit? Who is invoking and surrendering to the presence and power of the resurrected Jesus? Who is making Jesus their daily Lord and Master by allowing Him to align their heart and lifestyle to conform to His will? Who is being transformed from glory to glory? Those are being saved! You will recognize those who are calling on the name of the Lord by their fruit — the fruit of the Holy Spirit flourishing within them and freely flowing from them.

Call on the name of the Lord. The ancient Jews feared that they would break the command not to take God’s name in vain, so they called Him Lord instead of using His Name. The first Christians boldly proclaimed that “Jesus is Lord,” and that His name is above every other name. In other words, Jesus is the God-man — the Creator of all that exists, who became a man and was “manifest in the flesh.” Anyone who proclaims Jesus as less than that is proclaiming “another Jesus” and has departed from the Jesus proclaimed by the early Christ-followers and the Scriptures. Continually call on, appeal to, and rely on the living Lord Jesus to work in and through you.

Forcing someone who doesn’t want to be around you to spend time with you isn’t love. Surely a loving God wouldn’t do that. You’re free to depend on Jesus or to ignore Him.

[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-36445" />Photo by Patricia McCarty on Pexels.com

What determines your concept of reality is your Lord

Let the living Jesus inhabit and rule your heart and define reality for you. Refuse to inhibit His presence and authority.

A culture that proclaims that people’s desires and feelings are Lord (determine reality) doesn’t want to hear that Jesus is Lord. It’s impossible to follow the Lordship of your desires and feelings and the Lordship of Jesus at the same time!

Seeking the depths of Romans 10:9. Live your life like Jesus is truly living! To “declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” is to openly and publicly proclaim (not just once, but regularly) that Jesus is your absolute Master — that you seek to live and be controlled by His presence and His will throughout the day. To “believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” is to take your belief beyond mental assent to the point that your heart continually burns with never ending passion to love and obey Jesus, and where you daily live your life like Jesus is truly living by fully surrendering to and continually relying on and depending on His moment-by-moment presence with, in and around you.

The Bible is infinitely more than religious information. It is the deep personal, Spirit-led accounts of people who were deeply touched and led by God and who opened their heart to receive His presence and the gifts of His Spirit. If we will read it with an open, humble heart it will lead us to the same experiences today. If you don’t want a relationship with the living God, He won’t force you to have one even though your avoiding Him breaks His heart.

The risen Jesus is a much more capable teacher than most Christians realize. Ekklesia, a Spirit-led gathering of the body of Christ, is very simple. It lets the risen Jesus be the teacher. Some people who are inhabited by the living Jesus assemble in His name to let Him be the literal Head as they pay close attention to and obey His inner promptings.

Forcing someone who doesn’t want to be around you to spend time with you isn’t love. Surely a loving God wouldn’t do that.

The best parts of life are beyond cash value! Refuse to sell out to rebellion and moral collapse.

The intrusion
Of moral delusion
Is destructive illusion
That releases the infusion
Of much ethical confusion
In the name of inclusion.

[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-36436" />Photo by Vanessa Loring on Pexels.com

Prideful knowledge is a dangerous tree to climb

Human knowledge leans against the wrong tree. Climbing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil requires much caution. When done with pride it’s extremely hazardous.

The most dangerous condition in the world is to think that you have life and God figured out. You don’t and you won’t! If you did you wouldn’t need Jesus. (Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is deeply deceptive because it makes us think that we are smart enough to control and manage our life with nothing more than our limited human brain and fallible information processing.)

However, the more relational, personal, interactive, intimate, and heart-piercing our direct knowledge of God, the more we rely on the living Jesus to work with, in and through us by the power and presence of God’s Spirit. We learn to daily rely on the risen Jesus to personally direct us and empower us from within instead of relying on our own plans, desires, programs, and effort. We have an inner zeal that is Spirit-prompted and real, not created and carried by human hype, pride, and insecurity.

Instead of striving to understand and program life according to your smorgasbord of desires, surrender all to Jesus. Holding on to what you think gives you control will never make you whole. Letting go and letting God will! The Holy Spirit is a much more capable teacher than most Christians realize.

There is a huge difference between second-hand Bible knowledge that we learn as information to be filed away in our brain and direct communication (revelation) from the living God that transforms our heart. There is value in both, but one is essential and too often neglected. Without direct revelation all we have is hearsay religion. If you don’t want a relationship with the living God, He won’t force you to have one even though your avoiding Him breaks His heart.

Revelation:
Whenever I do
The slightest good thing
I’m amazed how pride
Rises up inside
To congratulate me.
And how Jesus
Gently whispers:
“Step aside
From your pride
And follow Me
In humility.”

God’s love
Is never an excuse
To follow
Your own desires
And to ignore
What He requires.

Recipe for joy
Look beyond self-focus.
Fill your eyes with
Appreciation
For God’s creation.
Build an attitude
Of great gratitude.
Let joy always grow
By resisting thoughts
That hold back its flow.

[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-36424" />Photo by Yaroslav Shuraev on Pexels.com

Father thoughts to help your day

When we think about the man (who along with our mother) conceived us, we can find both positives and negatives in him. To varying degrees, all human fathers do some things well and some things not so well. If you have trouble finding a way to get your heart to honor your father, honor him for enabling you to have God’s gift of life. Forgive him for where you feel like he let you down. If your heart automatically honors your father, you are blessed indeed, both by a caring (although imperfect) human father and by the ability to be grateful for his positive contributions to your life.

I was fortunate to have a father who I greatly loved and admired and who greatly loved and cared for me. Everyone is not so fortunate. I was also fortunate to discover the perfect Father and when I did my heart instantly connected with Him crying out in amazing relief and joy unspeakable, “Abba, Father!” Prior to that, even though my parents were rather agnostic and didn’t encourage it, I believed in and talked to God, but He always seemed somewhat distant from me. Then one day (O the day!) I heard people enthusiastically talking about Jesus like He was alive and present with them and in a moment something that I can’t describe happened within me. It changed my life forever and instantly made the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit more real to me than my physical surroundings and filled me with deep ongoing adoration for God and caring concern for people.

If there’s ever a ranking of fathers from the best to the worst, yours will fall somewhere in between. No matter where your father would be on that list of billions, you can honor him for his role in giving you life.

You can also get to know and to have a wonderful relationship with the Father at the top of the list — God the Father. Open your heart to the living resurrected Jesus and let Him connect you with the perfect Father who is longing for you to come and receive His love, mercy, forgiveness, and healing.

Second-hand Bible knowledge is often lifeless, academic, and deceptive. Why settle for second-hand Bible knowledge that comes through a sermon, a book, a web search, or a commentary? Set aside your preconceived notions and read it for yourself. Open your heart and let the Bible directly communicate with you and show you how the risen Jesus can lead you into a glorious relationship with the heavenly Father.

Every day is the Heavenly Father’s day! Every day is a gift from Him!

[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-36415" />Photo by August de Richelieu on Pexels.com

Arrogance is too proud to be humble

Pride attempts to hide
The brokenness
That it feels inside.
Humility sets aside
All pretense
So it can side
With honesty
And truth.

Pride is a cover-up,
A mask to hide
What’s really
Going on inside
Hurting human hearts.

In order to heal
We need to be real
And humbly reveal
The pain that we feel.
When we show anger
And arrogance,
People resist.
When we let them
See our pain,
They want to assist
And help us gain
Healing and peace.

Pride isn’t good for mental health because although we may impress others, deep down we know that our boasting is just a sham. Arrogance makes accurate analysis difficult. Pride doesn’t like people to question or doubt its claims. Humility welcomes questions without clouding the air with defensiveness.

When we surrender to inner enemies that try to dominate and control us, we give up our free will and become a puppet to desires. Perhaps the hardest act of humility is to admit to being arrogant and to ask for forgiveness.

Honesty, modesty, and courtesy have become a rarity in a world that urgently needs to face reality with sanity. If you will speak or write from a place of tenderness in your heart, you’ll learn a lot about what’s really going on inside you.

Pride keep us from seeing our sinfulness. Humility allows us to see our great need for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

[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-36408" />Photo by Zachary DeBottis on Pexels.com

When Jesus questioned Saul of Tarsus (Will you let Him question you?)

The risen Jesus asked the aggressive and determined but road weary Saul of Tarsus a simple question: “Why do you persecute Me?” Rather than defending himself and his motives that he believed were righteous, Saul asked Jesus, “Who are You, Lord?” Then Jesus answered Saul’s question and told Saul His name, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.” Finally, Saul obeyed Jesus at that moment and wholeheartedly followed Him for the rest of His life.

What is Christ’s question for you on your road today? When Jesus interrups your journey and questions your goals and priorities, will you call Him “Lord” and obey Him, not just for a while, but for the rest of your life?

Forcing yourself to obey your own interpretation of the law is blind legalism and can lead you into persecuting Christ and His true followers the way the Pharisees and Saul did. Listening to and obeying the risen Jesus leads to being led by the Spirit and produces a lifestyle overflowing with the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit. If you are a believer, it’s time to go where Christ tells you and “be told what you must do.”

Jesus always asks the right questions. Listen with an open heart and let His questions bring you light! He has questions for you that are powerful and will change your life if you will listen to and answer them.

Too many people want to question the Lord, but they don’t want the Lord to question them. It takes courage to honestly answer God’s questions. The fear of the conscience and the fear of God’s questions are two of humanity’s greatest fears.

Our conscience wants to ask us God’s questions, but too often we’re unwilling to listen and to honestly answer. If you give dishonest answers to God’s questions you will harden your heart and live in deception. The fear of the conscience and the fear of God’s questions are two of humanity’s greatest fears.

God asked the first man and woman, “Where are you?” not because He lost track of them, but because they lost track of Him. Perhaps you’re struggling in life because you are avoiding or rejecting God’s questions. The questions God asks you are the most important questions in life. Try not to ignore them.

All questions that come to your mind aren’t equal. Some are from yourself, some from the devil, and some from God. Discern the source. Those that fill your heart with truth, light, and healing are from God.

Here’s God’s question that mysteriously entered my heart and changed my life: “If you were born a Hindu, what would you be today?” When I honestly answered, “A Hindu,” God asked me, “Why do you think you are a Christian?” and I realized that I only had second-hand faith. That led me to open my heart to truth and to encountering the risen Jesus about two years later. My life has never been the same!

[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-36392" />Photo by Luis Quintero on Pexels.com

Be part of the Jesus express!

The degree to which open-hearted love for and surrender to Jesus is being expressed through your words and your life is indictive of how much He is impacting you day by day. (“By their fruits you shall know them.”)

The neglect of Christ-followers to openly and publicly express and testify to the mighty workings of God in, through, and around them has led to the false belief among many Christians that God no longer (or rarely) does miracles. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” When people daily encounter the risen Jesus and then begin to freely, courageously, and boldly express what He’s doing in them, they spread spiritual fire.

A heart-to-heart encounter with the risen Jesus, a flash of direct revelation in your spirit, can do in an instant what a lifetime of religion can never accomplish! Ask Jesus to express and demonstrate His power, presence, and love in your heart. Then humbly receive what He does!

Faith unfelt
That doesn't melt
The human heart
With daily awareness
Of God's undeserved love
Is a religious sedative
That may settle the nerves
But leaves the soul
Unwhole.It's never been cool
To be a fool
For Christ
And to let Him rule
Your daily life,
But if you let Him
Bring peace
To your inner strife
He will make your
Inner lostness cease!What if God
Simply wants
Your heart
Fully surrendered
To His hands
So He can mold you
Like a potter
Molds his clay
And lead you
By His Spirit
Throughout each day?Let no tormenting thought
Be brought
To your mind
Without having sought
To keep it out
And courageously fought
Against it
Until you've been taught
To never surrender your mind
To any thought
That can bring you
Or others harm.

Christianity is about humbly embracing God’s mercy and forgiveness

There are no degrees of rebellion against God. If you’ve ever rebelled against Him in little ways, you’re no better off spiritually than someone who has rebelled against Him in big ways. We all need His mercy, forgiveness, and healing purchased by Jesus on the Cross.

Being a redeemed Christ-follower means that you no longer need to attempt the futile fight of trying to justify or prove yourself to yourself, to other people, or to God. It means that you’ve humbly agreed with God’s diagnosis that you have gone astray and are totally undeserving of HIs love and completely dependent on his mercy, forgiveness, and grace.

The more we believe that we deserve and/or have earned the good things in our life, the less we will be grateful to God for them. Honestly admitting our unworthiness and seeing all the good in and around us as undeserved gifts from God fills us with thanksgiving!

I haven’t earned and don’t deserve anything good. Everything good in my past, present, and future was, is, and will be a completely unmerited gift from God. How merciful He’s been to me!

It’s not wise to be stuck on hindsight when God wants to give you insight. Instead of just looking back look to the risen Jesus now! Unfortunately, Christians tend to focus more on trying to justify themselves through theology instead of learning to rely on and depend on the presence, reality, and mercy of the living Jesus in the present moment.

You can’t go back in time, but you can mend some of the damage you’ve caused in the past and humbly apologize for the rest. Jesus calls that “repentance.” It puts you in the position to receive and live in God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Let any remorse that comes from hindsight be a call to humbly ask for and receive present day forgiveness from God. That’s much more effective than attemping self-forgiveness. Often pray this ancient prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.”

If you'll open your heart
To God's innovation
And let Jesus give you
A complete renovation,
You'll want to give Him
A never-ending
Standing ovation![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-36377" />Photo by Brett Jordan on Pexels.com

The chromosomes song — a parody of “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

In The ChromosomesBy Bob Revealin'How many surgeriesMust a man go thruBefore you canCall him a woman?The answer, my friend,Is in the chromosomes.The answer is in the chromosomes!XY never equals XX.