Steve Simms's Blog, page 96

Make today about the Man who was on the middle Cross.

The Rock that biblical Christianity is built upon isn’t church attendance. It’s the Man who was on the middle Cross coming to live inside of you and to daily direct you by His Spirit.

The Man on the middle Cross has risen. He’s now present and wants to speak to you today. Talk with Him now. Listen to His voice as He speaks within you. Read the Bible with an open heart and let the words move you deeply.

Like the young David humbly set aside King Saul’s religious armor and boldly step out in faith to be courageously led by God’s Spirit. If you’re not seeking the Lord now and drawing closer to Jesus in this present moment, when will you?

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Expressing moral values isn’t hatred

Ethics and moral standards are not judgements. They are wisdom. Society crumbles into chaos without them. Every human believes that certain behaviors are immoral and unethical but that doesn’t mean that we’re all “haters.”

To proclaim ethics and moral standards and not live by them is to boast in hypocrisy. My conscience may not agree with your conscience but we both have the right to express our moral views. The key to happiness isn’t self-medication. It’s self-control.

Desire-driven living isn’t freedom. It’s addiction to self-bondage. Freedom comes from Spirit-led living — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The focus of Christianity needs to be being Jesus-led in daily life, not a weekly religious meeting.

The characteristics of Jesus-led Christianity are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. faithfulness, gentleness,” and self under the control of God’s Spirit.

There’s no reason to confine your devotional life to a “guiet time.” You can live every moment of your life devoted to and connected heart-to-heart with the risen Jesus.

Knowing about salvation isn’t the same thing as knowing and fully surrendering control of your daily life to the risen present Savior and Lord. I can’t find in the Bible the concept of getting saved and then passively waiting to go to Heaven when we die, yet that seems like a popular idea in modern Christianity. Instead, I see a Bible full of exhortations to “ask,” “seek,” “knock,” “press toward,” “draw near,” “grow,” “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” “be changed from glory to glory,” etc.

Too often people sit isolated in church services far removed from genuine community. True connection is deeper than that. There’s no reason to confine your devotional life to a “guiet time.” You can live every moment of your life devoted to and connected heart-to-heart with the risen Jesus.

Desire-based thinking
Is deceptive.
Reality-based thinking
Is perceptive.

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5 parts of the Jesus Movement that the movie Jesus Revolution left out

The movie “Jesus Revolution” presented the Jesus Movement of the 1970s as California hippies getting on fire for Jesus and then being pulled into a small church that grew into a worldwide Christian denomination called Calvary Chapel. In reality it was much more than that. Many of the millions who encountered the living Jesus during the Jesus Movement didn’t immediately begin attending church. Here are 5 parts of the Jesus Movement that “Jesus Revolution” left out.

1) The nonchurch Jesus people: Multitudes of hippies, college students, and young adults all across America became passionate Christ-followers during the early 1970s. Many of them had no interest in church. They began to spontaneously meet together in homes, college buildings, parks, coffee houses, and other places to experience and hang out with Jesus together. On my campus in Tennessee, we met in the lobby of a dorm and in the student center building. Very few of us were hippies but we all loved Jesus and one another and came together free from any church or religious institution to be led by God’s Spirit, not by a program or preacher.

2) The Asbury Revival of 1970: An amazing spiritual awakening happened at Asbury University in February 1970 when a chapel service continued non-stop for about two weeks. Afterwards students who had become fired up for the risen Jesus were sent to college campuses all around America to share testimonies about the living Jesus. They stirred up spiritual fires on campuses everywhere, including my 5000-student college in West Tennessee.

3) The charismatic movement: During the same time period multitudes of Christians from many different denominations began to experience a powerful relationship with God’s Spirit that included the supernatural gift of the ability to speak in unknown languages (speaking in tongues). That gift presents people with a life-transforming awareness of the living Jesus and can be exercised over and over again. That gift spread throughout traditional churches creating intense excitement about the risen Jesus and caused many Christians to start to meet together in Spirit-led small groups where they prayed, cast out demons, worshipped, saw visions, gave prophetic words, and flowed in the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit.

4) Full Gospel Business Men meetings: Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship was a Pentecostal Christian organization founded in the 1950s. When the Jesus Movement began, their monthly meetings began to greatly expand in numbers and locations spreading passion for Jesus and the supernatural gift of praying in unknown languages far and wide. Their monthly meetings were Spirit-led and not controlled by church or religious protocol. They were held in hotels and other nonchurch buildings. Christians from many various churches and nonchurch Christians would come together to worship Jesus and hear passionate speakers (few of whom were famous or preachers). During worship the entire group would frequently sing in unknown languages together. Their voices would beautifully blend as the Spirit directed them. The room would be filled with the presence of the risen Jesus and the focus stayed on Him, not on the speaker. People would be invited forward for prayer and would minister to each other as the Spirit led. It was beautiful!

5) Lay Witness Missions: This powerful part of the Jesus Movement consisted of teams of nonpreachers who would be invited to a church for a weekend. Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, and Sunday morning team members would take turns sharing their salvation testimony with the congregation. The team members would stay in church members’ homes and share the love of Jesus with them. After the last testimony of the weekend, people would be invited to receive the risen Jesus into their heart. The altar and aisles would fill with church members crying out to the living Jesus leaving behind many passionate Jesus people.

I was fortunate to frequently participate in and be empowered by all of those expressions of the Jesus Movement except for the 1970 Asbury Revival. Then this year I got to be a part of the 2023 Asbury Revival and it was one of the most powerful, Spirit-led Christian meetings that I have ever seen. I believe God is ready to release new avenues for His Spirit to freely flow in and through ordinary people. Get ready!

Beyond unbelief

For me the risen Jesus is so real that He’s beyond unbelief! Unbelief can go to church and quote a creed but it’s unwilling to consistently obey and depend on the living Jesus in everyday life. Many people use unbelief in God as an excuse to justify living however they want to.

Hand-me-down creeds seldom produce passionate heart-felt faith full of love. To refuse to really rely on and depend on the living Jesus in day-to-day life is unbelief. A great illustration of unbelief among Christians is the refusal to believe that the risen Jesus can personally lead a church service without a pastor and/or a program holding on to control.

Faith is relying on Christ living and working in, thru, and around you every moment rather than relying on your own effort. Following Jesus isn’t about good behavior. It’s the gift of Spirit-led and Spirit-empowered behavior that comes from fully surrendering to “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It is believing that goes beyond a mere list of beliefs to a Jesus-led lifestyle.

The more we dare to depend on the risen Jesus instead of on self-effort, the more we will experience His power and presence. Jesus is my bublewrap. He surrounds me with His love and protects my heart from harm so that I can be led by His Spirit without fear.

Much modern Christianity is like hospice care. It’s goal is to keep people comfortable until they die.

When people in a church service aren’t allowed to openly express their love for Jesus someone or something is quenching the Holy Spirit.

Doubts that deny
And encourage you to defy
The power and presence
Of the risen Jesus
Don't want you
To daily rely
On HIm to rectify
And to beautify
Your hurting heart.
Courageously rely
On the living Jesus
Anyway.
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The most vivid dream I’ve had in years

I woke up this morning from the most vivid dream I’ve had in years. I was scheduled to speak in a church or auditorium and kept checking on the crowd. I felt I wasn’t physically ready, so I went into a side room to work on my tie which I haven’t worn in years. I struggled with it for a while and then felt like it was fixed, but when I looked closer, I realized that I had tied a knot in the wrong end and the tie was now upside down. My host helped me untie it and then he made it look right. Then I looked down and noticed that I had no pants on, just a long white dress shirt. I asked my host if he could stall the meeting while I went to my car to get my pants. I got to the car and saw my pants in the back sea. Then I woke up.

All my life, even as a child, I have struggled with formal, institutionalized religion. That struggle increased when I met and began to follow the risen Jesus as a freshman in college. I longed to see the instructional church approach Jesus as living and present. Since then, I’ve never been able to attend a church without trying to help people encounter and follow Jesus in fresh lively ways. I even went through years of boring, unbelieving seminary to become an ordained Cumberland Presbyterian minister always challenging my professors in their denial of clear biblical faith and doctrine (like the bodily resurrection of Jesus).

As a pastor I tried to help people encounter the risen Jesus and get on fire for Him. Some people did, but the congregations didn’t like that. Both as a pastor and as an attendee I would make congregations so uncomfortable that I would need to move on. Rather than feeling hurt or rejected, I would feel sad that congregations would miss out on the glorious, demonstrated reality of the living Jesus.

I roamed the country looking for a congregation that would break out of the religious mold and let the risen Jesus literally direct the church service according to 1 Corinthians 14:26. I never found one.

Then in 2008 The Salvation Army asked if my wife and I would like to start a “non-traditional” church in an empty chapel they owned. We jumped at the opportunity and for ten years oversaw sermon-free Sunday morning meetings where anyone could speak as prompted by the risen Jesus. It was a glorious and miraculous decade that I’ve described elsewhere! (Search for my book: “Beyond Church Ekklesia.”)

Finally, a Salvation Army leader came to town and demanded that we switch back to the traditional one-man sermon church service. As a matter of conscience, we couldn’t so we were forced to resign. We left with deep gratitude that a Christian denomination had allowed us the freedom to let the risen Jesus lead church services for 10 years.

Since then, we’ve discovered that following the living Jesus is really a heart-thing and not dependent on any religious affiliation. Every week we interact heart-to-heart with numerous Christians from various churches, with some who no longer go to church, and with nonbelievers. We often pray on the phone and in person with various people as prompted by the Spirit. We are intimately connected with more believers than we ever were by just attending church.

Several months ago, within a week’s time, three different people who don’t know each other prophesied over me that I will be preaching to large crowds of people around the country. I have no idea how that can happen, but I was blown away that three people would get the same message for me. One of the three also added that I would be speaking completely from the heart without following a script, notes, or plan (which is always how I would preach when I was a pastor).

I don’t want to quench the Holy Spirit by letting a religious spirit cause me to hold back. I don’t want to hold back what God wants me to say or do regardless of the consequences. Yet, like anyone, it’s hard not to be influenced by religious protocol.

Back to the dream: I want to speak freely as the Spirit leads. I don’t want to focus on getting a necktie (or anything else) to align with people’s religious expectations of me. I don’t want to hide the profound nakedness of my heart as I speak about the glories of the risen Jesus.

Please pray for me!

To experience Christ’s peace you must believe that it exists.

Everything that
I have ever achieved
Is like nothing
Compared to what
I’ve freely received
From the risen Jesus.

You can’t experience Christ’s inner peace if you refuse to believe that it exists. Until you humbly receive the grace to begin to experience and obey Christ in you, Christianity is just a religion. If you have no inner attachments to Jesus during the week, Sunday morning religion does little good.

Hearing words about Jesus that aren’t actively demonstrated in your heart will have little impact on you. True Christianity is when the living Jesus becomes a present reality and ongoing experience to you. The same Jesus who was experienced and followed by the first century Christians is now accessible to you heart-to-heart.

To ignore and stifle the inner longing of your spiritual nature is to cut yourself off from the source of purpose and meaning in life. The belief that life happen by accident and has no purpose isn’t good for your mental health. To vividly remember moments of great inspiration is to re-experience them in the present. That’s what King David did as he wrote the Psalms.

“Prepare the way of the Lord.” Make more room in your heart for the living Jesus. If going to church doesn’t make you aware that Jesus is alive and present during the week, it’s not doing its job! No religious system can connect your heart directly to God. Only the risen Savior can do that!

The living, present everyday Jesus who loves to connect heart-to-heart with ordinary people is often falsely presented as the:
Sunday morning Jesus,
Long ago Jesus,
Someday Jesus,
Ticket to Heaven Jesus,
Preacher-programmed Jesus,
Emergency rescue Jesus,
In the sky Jesus,
Formalized religious Jesus,
Riches and prosperity Jesus,
Patriotic Jesus,
Or storybook Jesus.
All those depictions are far removed from the biblical description of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Christianity is so much more
Than one man preaching
To passive people
As they sit
Under a steeple.

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Life’s amazing when I’m Jesus-aware

I never get tired of focusing on and interacting with the living Jesus. Jesus died on a cruel cross 2,000 years ago, but He’s not dead and He’s not stuck in the past. Are you aware that He’s alive, present, and active today?

Insight and awareness often come as a personal whisper from Jesus. The more we listen to Him, the freer we become. Self-based feelings and desires are not reality. To alter your life to fit them is to depart from truth.

Focusing on our feelings and desires limits our awareness and distorts our perspective of life. Focusing on the risen Jesus fills us with supernatural insight, hope, and compassion. If you see Jesus as only for religious services or desperate situations, you’re missing out on the glory of the everyday Jesus!

If you’re always rushing to the next moment, it’s easy to continually bypass the living Jesus and leave Him in your dust. Hope is real and embedded in the human heart, but it won’t inspire you as long as you’re unaware of it! The circumstances around us and the anxiety within us lose their power when we stay aware of the glory of Christ in us.

The Creator of the UniverseBecame a man named JesusTo rescue us from self-destructionAnd to free usTo follow Him.The moreI let Jesus inspireAnd empower meThe lessI'm drivenAnd controlledBy self-focused desire.Being self-ledBy feelings and desiresLeads to confusion,Torment and despair.Being Jesus-ledBy following His SpiritLeads to understanding,Peace and hope.Too many ChristiansWant to be spoon-fedBy a nice sermonBut it's much better insteadTo be Jesus-ledAnd to let HimBe your Head.Churches seem to be unawareThat ordinary Christ-followersHave God-given insightsAnd powerful testimoniesThat they could share.If you declareThat Christ is in youBut you're not awareOf His presence therePerhaps you're deceived.Look beyond temptation's glareAnd the burdens that you bear.Behold and be awareOf the risen Jesus!Running afterThe dollar bill Can easily becomeA lifetime treadmillThat make us unawareOf the inner joyOf "Christ in you."How are you?Don't settle for "fine"When Jesus wantsTo make your life divine,Overflowing withThe Spirit's new wine.If you don't have a desireTo be on fireFor JesusYou won't be.(Matthew 5:6.)

As human beings we’re spiritually dead until we’re born again and become Jesus-led. See John 3 and Romans 8 in the Bible.

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Jesus-led people experience ongoing revival

A Jesus-led person
Isn’t a fanatic
But someone who can
Help remove the static
From your relationship
With God.

I love to be around Jesus-led people who truly follow Him moment by moment! They help keep me focused on His presence. From the Jesus Revolution of the 1970s to the Asbury Revival this year, I’ve sought out and have gotten to know and interact heart to heart with many passionate Jesus-led people.

Jesus-led people radiate His presence wherever they go. They rely on Him, not on human effort. They continually wake me up spiritually and help keep me focused on the risen Jesus!

Jesus-led people live their lives in a state of ongoing revival. Spending just a few minutes interacting with Jesus-led people in His presence is more powerful than any sermon I’ve ever heard!

My favorite people are Jesus-led people. Their passion for Christ rubs off on me. I also love Jesus-led people from the past. I spend a lot of time with them thru their writings They inspire me to follow and love Jesus more and more. They are humble and embrace the Cross with joy.

Jesus-led people love to be high on Jesus, drunk with His glorious and unspeakable joy, and soaring in His Spirit. They passion for Jesus is contagious. When people allow themselves to be Jesus-led, spiritual awakening flows from deep within them.

The norms and traditions of formal religion often cause people to feel satisfied with their spiritual condition and thus keep revival far away from their heart. Don’t wait for a crowd. Be a Jesus-led revival of one and spread the reality of the risen Jesus everywhere you go.

Revival isn’t neat and tidy like a church service. It will disrupt your life.

A Christ-follower must be Spirit-led. You can’t be Jesus-led and self-led at the same time. Who’s making the decisions in your life?

Although you sing and shout with gusto if your heart isn’t continually hungry for more of Jesus, you’re not experiencing revival. If you want to experience revival the place it needs to start is in your own heart. Revival happens when you get hungry for more and more of Jesus. When there’s little hunger to know Jesus better, revival is far away.

When you are so hungry for more of Jesus that you pursue His presence throughout the day every day, revival has arrived. Don’t let it slip away. To keep your heart hungry for Jesus and revival, read the Bible and let it deeply touch your heart daily; frequently sing heart-felt worship songs directly to Jesus; continually listen to and obey God’s voice in your heart.

Jesus-led people are among us. Look for and spend time with them!

“All the way my Savior leads me.” –Fannie Crosby

“Someday life’s journey will be over,
And I shall reach that distant shore;
I’ll sing, while entering Heaven’s door,
‘Jesus led me all the way.’” –John W. Peterson
(How about you?)

Just because
It has a steeple
Doesn’t mean
A building’s full
Of Jesus-led people.

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Laying down the mic of self-righteousness

Let’s drop the mic of our opinions, feelings, desires, and self-righteousness and begin to be led by God’s Spirit in all that we think, say, and do. The redemption that came by Christ Jesus gives us supernatural inner power to do that. Miracles happen when Christians lay down the mic of self-righteousness.

Righteousness (both right standing with God and the power to demonstrate right/holy living) is given to people who continually rely on the living Jesus by courageously stepping out and walking in faith rather than exerting mere human effort. They become people who believe in the risen Jesus so much that they trust in and obey His inner guidance (instead of their own understanding, emotions, and desires) moment by moment. The Bible calls that lifestyle one that is “led by the Spirit” and declares that the people who live that way are “the children of God.” See Romans 8:14.

No matter where you go, you’re always mic’d up to God. He hears it all!

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No matter where life takes you be aware there.

I’m continually aware that many invisible things are happening within me that have nothing to do with my body or with physicality — spiritual things like consciousness, comprehension, thought, conscience, temptation, discouragement, fear, worry, guilt, torment, inner peace, joy, hope, love, wisdom, compassion, and on and on! Some of those things are deceptive and destructive and are prompted by forces of evil. Some are helpful and wise and are prompted by goodness. It’s vital that I learn to resist the destructive and to align with the helpful.

Awareness is not confined to our ordinary senses. There’s a deep inner awareness that people are often completely unaware of.

Your feelings, desires, and opinions don’t identify you. You are not them. You are the human being who observes them.

Pride makes us unaware of the lies we believe. Humility makes us aware of the truth.

Lies are invented but truth is discovered. Lies can be made to fit our desires and plans but truth disrupts them. We need the awareness to notice the difference.

Guilt crushes happiness! Become aware of your conscience and let it steer you to the joy of being guilt free.

Learn to be aware
That life is more
Than what you wear
Or the burdens you bear.

When you’re unaware
That Jesus is everywhere
You live your life
As if He’s only up there
In Heaven.

You’ll never follow
God’s inner voice
Until you’re aware
That it’s there
Inside you.

It’s hard to worship God if you’re unaware of His presence. Worship without conscious awareness of God’s presence is empty.

God’s Law is the great appetizer that makes us realize our spiritual bankruptcy and causes us to hunger and thirst for awareness of His righteousness and forgiveness. Trying to keep His Law makes us aware of our tremendous need to surrender to the living Jesus and to be continually led by His Spirit. When we ignore God’s Law we falsely believe that we are good people and have no need to repent. Thus we have little interest in or belief in Christ’s power and presence working daily within us.

Thinking or talking about Jesus isn’t the same thing as being aware of Him living and working in your heart. Gathering with Christians to hear a Sunday sermon has never done much for me, but connecting heart-to-heart with other believers throughout the day to pray and testify revolutionizes my life. Church too often uses nice words about God to make people comfortable instead of introducing them to the awareness of the presence of the living Jesus.

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