Jesus started a movement, not an organization.

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Steve Simms

Jesus created a movement not an institution. When a religious organization replaced the first century Jesus Movement, much was lost in Christianity.

What did Jesus do? He initiated a spiritual movement in human hearts. He didn’t start a formalized religious organization. God’s Spirit doesn’t follow human programming. The risen Jesus causes the status quo to go and that tends to greatly disturb those whose livelihood depends on organizational stability.

A pulpit, podium, or platform doesn’t make a preachers words align with God. Test them all with the Bible. (Acts 17:11.) Religious leaders often see bold proclamation of the resurrection and of the active, present-moment presence and power of Jesus as a threat to their religious authority and to their idol-like prestige.

Good news/bad news: Religious leaders sometimes see the good news of the present-day reality of Christ’s resurrection as bad news.

Christianity is relational, not institutional. It’s experiential, not theoretical. It seems to be much more powerful when Christians meet relationally rather than organizationally — sharing heart-to-heart instead of looking at the back of people’s heads. Unleash yourself from anything that’s holding you back from Jesus before it drags you away.

Christians
Are called to
Be Spirit-led
Not spirit-dead.

A preacher’s words
Soon fade awaym
But words from God
Enter your heart
To stay.

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com
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Seeing people being aware of Jesus

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What brings a tear of joy to your eye?
View all responses

When I see people becoming aware of the actual presence and power of the living Jesus and I behold the awe in their eyes and the radiance of their countenance, I’m deeply moved to joyous tears. That’s why I love to be with people who will humbly and honestly open their heart to Jesus and to one another and let Him take control of our interaction. In such an environment, Jesus literally lights people up and makes faces shine.

If you would like to experience such an environment, here’s an opportunity to do so. The four Tuesday nights in September I will be hosting a Jesus-led gathering on Zoom. It’s free and it’s not a requirement to attend all four. The dates are September 5, 12, 19, and 26 and it lasts from 6:00 pm. to 7:30 pm. Central time. To sign up go to okmtraining.org and click on “Join a Class.” Then scroll down to “Beyond Church,” click and register. The night before each session you will receive a Zoom link from “Omega Kingdom Ministry.” (You can sign up any time before September 26.)

Come and go beyond church with us and behold the beauty of Jesus.

Here’s a link that will give you a short cut: Go to it, click on Beyond Church, then scroll down to the bottom and click on Register.

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I’m thrilled, therefore I blog.

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Why do you blog?
View all responses

René Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” I say, “I’m thrilled, therefore I blog.”

The thrill within me cries out for expression. I want to share my joy with other people so that they too can experience it.

That joy broke out in my heart many years ago and has continued to overflow ever since then. It’s indescribable, but I can’t stop trying to describe it. I want to share it with everyone. However, few people seem to believe me. They mostly seem to think that I’ve gone overboard.

Indeed, I am overwhelmed and ever in awe at the presence of the risen Jesus Christ in my day-to-day life. I’m so thrilled about Jesus that I’m always all in for Him and going all out to follow and obey Him. Yet, I feel like I’m not very effective at conveying the awareness of His presence and reality to other people. Still, I can’t stop trying. So, I blog and blog and blog, and post and post and post on social media, and talk and talk and talk about His glory that never ceases to amaze me.

Ongoing surrender to the risen Jesus is such a thrilling thing! If you will notice your conscience throughout the day God’s thoughts will begin to flow from within you and help you to surrender to His overflowing well of wellness — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Religion that doesn’t wake up the human heart is just words without worship. It leaves people with an absence of ongoing awe. Unless you let God continually form you from within, learning more information about Him will do you little good.

When God asks for access into your heart you can accept or deny. A tightly closed heart can’t perceive the presence of God, but an open, humble heart encounters Him everywhere. When you listen to God and let Him talk to you, miracles happen within you. Let Jesus be your inside guide.

If you will notice
The thoughts from God
They’ll make you better
On the inside.

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Can we interview God?

Posted on September 2, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Interview someone — a friend, another blogger, your mother, the mailman — and write a post based on their responses.
View all responses

When I wake up in the mornings I stay quietly in bed and interview God. I ask Him to speak to me and ideas start to form deep in my heart. I lay there patiently, and those ideas begin to develop into sentences. Eventually I have several sentences going through my mind, so I get up and share them on social media and on my blog.

Here are some thoughts from this morning’s interview with God:

A primary reason that Christians stifle the Holy Spirit and hide the light that God has shined in our hearts is that we have had a lifetime of training to do so. In our Western culture Christians are typically trained on a weekly basis to sit passively in a meeting and to cover up the light that is shining in our heart while we hear one person speak. We’ve been trained to ignore the 50+ “one another” exhortations in the New Testament and instead of learning to minister to each other as led by the Spirit, we’ve mostly just learned to listen to a Sunday morning lesson.

A gathering of Christians should be a demonstration of God’s light shining through each person present. (1 Cor. 14:26.) If God has shinned in your heart, don’t hide His light. Let it be clearly seen. (2 Cor. 4:6.) The Holy Spirit needs to be allowed breathing room or His light dims and fades.

All Christ-followers in a gathering of the body of Christ should feel free to openly share the light that God has shined in their heart. However, our institutional religion tends to train Christ-followers to hide the light that God has shined in their heart — to sit back and stifle God’s Spirit. It’s time to boldly testify what God’s great and mighty Light is doing in your heart!

Jesus said: “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.” In Revelation chapter one, gatherings of the body of Christ are portrayed as lampstands. God didn’t shine in your heart so you can hide His light and be a passive audience member in a Christian gathering. He has called you to testify to His Light! It’s time to show and tell what God has done!

Testify about God's light!

If you don't open your heart
And share God's light,
What He does in you
Will be kept from sight.
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The awareness that fills me with joyful feelings!

Posted on September 1, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
How 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.

Photo by Kourosh Qaffari on Pexels.com
Posted in inner joy, joy unspeakable, Joyous | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The habit of an open heart

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What 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

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What 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.)

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

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We need more than bottled Christianity.

Posted on August 29, 2023 by Steve Simms

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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Posted in Christian living, lifestyle Christianity, living water | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Steve Simms

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.

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My favorite time is Jesus central time!

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What’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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Posted in the right time, the time of your life, time | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments