Can prayer be Spirit-led and Bible-based?

Posted on September 8, 2023 by Steve Simms

Too often today our prayers are more based on our own desires and sentimentalism than they are aligned with Scripture and burning with the passionate fire of the Holy Spirit. Because we aren’t continually opening our heart to Scripture and surrendering to the moment-by-moment promptings of the Holy Spirit, we are easily led into false concepts of who God (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) really is — the eternal and uncreated Creator of all that exists.

The first Christ-followers prayed to the God who (and identified God as the One who) “made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.” They poured out their heart to the God who is the Creator of all that is. They wouldn’t settle for a lesser god, a god that was just one of multitudes of gods. The definition of who God is (and who Jesus is) mattered greatly to them. They stayed boldly consistent with and aligned with the teachings of the Scriptures and with the presence and reality of the Holy Spirit’s conviction and leadership.

God didn’t respond to their prayers with sentimentalism and religious entertainment. Instead, He poured out earthshaking, life-transforming power that is documented throughout the book of Acts and in the rest of the of the New Testament.

Heart-flows from God’s Spirit are much more powerful than mental rows of religious information. Grow with the flow of God’s Spirit. It’s not wise for Christians to make idols out of Christian leaders (or political leaders).

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Giving up the harmful word

Posted on September 8, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?
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I’ve spent my life giving up harmful, tormenting, and unkind words — the bossy kind of words that regularly barge uninvited into the psyche and try to bully and destroy our inner peace. From my earliest memories those intrusive words have tried to welcome themselves into my thoughts, but I forcefully resisted them because I didn’t like what they were telling me and how they made me feel. Sometimes I would fight hostile thoughts all day long. I continue to resist them to this day. My mind belongs to me and I’m never going to surrender it to tormenting thoughts.

A tool that helps me keep out the troubling thoughts is to fill my mind with hope-filled words. I consume positive books (especially the Bible) and they saturate my mental state with joy and encouragement as long as I will stick with them and apply what they say in my daily life.

Protecting your mind from damaging thoughts isn’t easy. It takes much courage to persistently fight them and to make them flee. from your cranium, However, if you allow destructive thoughts to direct your daily life, they will work diligently to destroy you.

Some words are best resisted and rejected. Give ’em up! Drive ’em out! Replace ’em with hope-filled words.

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Happiness is being grudge-free!

Posted on September 7, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Are you holding a grudge? About?
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I’ve learned that a grudge can nudge people into anger, hatred, and despair. Still, some folks savor a grudge like a chocolate lover eating fudge. No matter how much pain their grudge causes them, they won’t budge an inch away from it.

Like most people, I could find many reasons to refuse to forgive but I don’t want to have to trudge through the sludge and drudge of holding a grudge. A grudge would put too big of a smudge on my heart and would cause me to harshly judge those who have wounded me.

For more insightful (and entertaining) thoughts about forgiving, click here.

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Revival requires night vision

Posted on September 7, 2023 by Steve Simms

It’s time for churches to train and release everyone in the congregation to actively listen to and obey, “the presence of Jesus in the people of God for the sake of the world.” This is what it will take to make church a “house of prayer” again.

Before the institutional church pushed aside Christ’s Spirit-led town hall meeting (known as “ekklesia” in Greek) and with the help of Roman Emperor Constantine became the official religious establishment of the empire, gatherings of the body of Christ frequently assembled according to 1 Corinthians 14:26. Those meetings were interactive and allowed anyone present to speak. Overseers in the ekklesia prayerfully watched over the gathering to keep the assembly under the direct control, active Headship, and Divine intervention of the risen Jesus in their midst.

A key to restoring Christ’s ekklesia is for God’s people to raise “their voices together in prayer.” Corporate prayer where everyone present is free to pray out loud as led by the Spirit, is essential. We must move beyond merely repeating memorized words or reading words from a program or listening to a professional pray and speak. It’s time to train and release all the people in a congregation to individually pray out loud as prompted by God’s Spirit and to openly pour out their heart to Him!

Christ doesn’t enter a Christian’s heart so he can be locked down in there. He enters so He can pour out His presence from there. Hearts that are closed down and hiding never know the warmth of staying connected heart-to-heart with the risen Jesus and His followers.

The greatest problem in churches and in present-day Christianity is shut down hearts that hide behind programmed religion. If you are a Christian, the people you know and the people you go to church with need to see Christ alive in you, but if you won’t open wide your heart, they won’t. Christ isn’t in Christians so He can hide behind our shut down hearts. Humbly open your heart to people and let Jesus shine!

The body of Christ should meet together to demonstrate the presence of Jesus, not just to hear a talk about Him. If Christians would open their hearts to one another and let Christ in them come flowing out, they’d experience awe and amazement.

We have enough descriptions and depictions of Jesus but we’re greatly lacking in actual demonstrations of His presence and power. Without the night vision that comes from God’s gift of discernment, Christians will surrender to the darkness of demons and abandon spiritual warfare.

Jesus depictions
Or descriptions
Can’t compare with
Jesus demonstrations!

Inspired by Matthew 24:
During these dark days
We need night vision,
Discernment from God
So that we can see
Beyond deception.
“Watch out that no one
Deceives you.” –Jesus

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An American germophobic in India

Posted on September 6, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Share a story about the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home.
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India scared me. Everywhere I looked I saw germs. (Well, I didn’t actually see them, but I knew they were there, lurking about and ready to pounce on me in a moment of carelessness.) For 3 months I was living in a church guest room, teaching in a Bible school, and having my meals with amazing people — the pastor and his family. But, oh the germs!

On one hand it’s customary in India to use your fingers and a bit of water from a tiny bowl instead of toilet paper. On the other hand, they use their other hand like a fork and give new meaning to the phrase, “finger licking good.” I never knew which hand to shake when I met new people.

The streets in the big city where I was, were often populated with cows and pigs wandering about and doing their business on the roads and dusty walking lanes. Once I walked into the church kitchen and the cook was chopping vegetables on the kitchen floor that would soon be served to me. At meals my hosts would frequently pick up some food with their hands and put it on my plate. Hands down, that was scary to a germophobe like me.

My stomach was messed up for the entire three months, so I know that at least a few germs found a way to my gut. (I was losing weight the entire time and literally thought that I might die there.) But that experience changed my life.

The young adults in the Bible school were some of the most passionate and committed Christ-followers I have ever met. They all prayed three times every day for an hour each time. Those three hours always filled me with awe and amazement as people cried out to Jesus to bring a Christ-centered awakening to their families, their cities, and their country.

After graduation the students were sent to a town or village in India that had never had a Christian church. There they would start a church and a school and demonstrate the love of Jesus to the community. Often, they were rejected, even violently. One of my students was stoned to death by hostile residents at the well in his new community. He laid down his life in love. His story put my fear of germs in perspective.

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I choose to beware of the Chosen series . . .

Posted on September 5, 2023 by Steve Simms

The Bible begins with creation and the Creator is the eternal, almighty God. However, there is a religion that disguises itself as Christian but hides the fact that it doesn’t believe that God is the Creator. That religion, Mormonism, is strongly involved in the production of the Chosen. Dallas Jenkins openly states that Mormons and Christians believe in the same Jesus, but that’s not factual.

Mormonism believes that their god did not create the heavens and the earth. Their god, the god of planet earth only, is an ordinary man who was promoted to the status of being the god of earth. They believe that the billions of planets around the universe either have their own god or will one day get a god. The god of each planet is (or will be) an ordinary man who has been promoted to godship.

Mormons believe that their Jesus is the physical son of the god of planet earth — that he was conceived sexually. They clearly don’t believe that Jesus is the Creator of all that exists and who was conceived by the Holy Spirit to become a human being. Thus, they believe in a radically different Jesus than Christians do.

The fact that there are several videos of Dallas Jenkins, the producer of the Chosen, making the deceptive statement that Mormons and Christians believe in the same Jesus is troublesome. It should be a major warning about the Chosen’s inaccuracy (false stories being told about Jesus) and mistaken theology (a false definition of who Jesus is).

We need to heed the warning of the true Jesus — Immanuel, “God with us,” the Creator in human flesh — and like He said: “Beware of false prophets.” When “another Jesus,” is being promoted, we need to avoid that trap no matter how entertaining and inspirational it may be.

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Home should look (and be) safe and secure.

Posted on September 5, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What does your ideal home look like?
View all responses

To me the ideal home is a place that’s:

  • Free from anger, hostility, unforgiveness, hatred, and bitterness.
  • Full of kindness, humility, compassion, and caring.
  • Overflowing with peace, joy, hope, and understanding.
  • A man and a woman bound together by never-ending love in a marriage of radical faithfulness and commitment to each other.
  • Children who are lovingly treasured, guided, listened to, and disciplined by their parents.
  • Warm, friendly, and welcoming to all who come by.
  • Never heard the word “divorce.”

The ideal home is supernatural. It is beyond mere human ability and is never fully achieved, but it’s a vision that burns deep in my heart.

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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.

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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?
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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?
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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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