Speaking in tongues is better than Starbucks (and any bar anywhere).

Posted on May 29, 2023 by Steve Simms

If it’s acceptable for people to talk about drinking coffee and beer it’s acceptable to talk about speaking in tongues! So here goes . . .

To neglect
Or reject
God’s gift
Of tongues
Is to miss out
On something
That’s infinitely better
Than coffee or tea
Or energy drinks
Or alcohol
Or drugs.
Utilize
Don’t analyze
God’s beautiful gift
Of praying in tongues.

God’s gift of speaking in tongues is an amazing gift that opens our awareness to the reality and presence of the living Jesus. We can daily utilize it to walk in the power of God’s Spirit.

Speaking in tongues–what a beautiful way to let the Holy Spirit flow through you! Praying in tongues throughout the day will ignite a spiritual fire in your heart and keep it burning!

Praying in tongues is humbling to the human mind, but God “gives grace to the humble.” When Christ-followers pray in tongues, we move our mouth but God’s Spirit gives us unknown words that flow like rivers of living water from our innermost being.

Speaking in tongues is a free gift from God. You don’t need to work it up. Simply receive it and then speak out in faith and let it flow! Only God can tame your tongue. Fear of speaking in tongues keeps many Christians from experiencing a powerful gift of God’s Spirit.

If speaking in tongues was a good gift at Pentecost, it’s still a good gift today. Open your heart and your mouth and let God’s Spirit flow from within you with His supernatural words! On Pentecost “they all spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance.” I believe that “all” Christ-followers can let Spirit-given utterance flow from within them today.

Daily praying in tongues brings the heart-moving gift of Pentecost out of the past and into the present moment! Praying in tongues releases amazing love, power, and joy in a human heart.

Receiving God’s gift of tongues opens the door to receive other gifts of the Spirit. When the devil tries to devour you don’t just sit back and let him. Resist him by praying in tongues!

Resist the devil and turn to the living Jesus with your whole heart. Praying in tongues can help you do that. Hearing a Pentecost Sunday (Acts chapter 2) sermon about tongues is nothing like actually praying in tongues yourself.

When I speak in tongues Jesus seems more real and present to me than the physical world and I bask in His presence.”Jesus loves me this I know . . .” I’m overcome by His love every time I pray in tongues. I’ve been speaking in tongues for more than 5 decades. It’s kept my heart on fire with love for Jesus!

Negative thoughts naw on your mental health and chew up your hope. Speaking in tongues can help you avoid them!

Photo by Abhinav Goswami on Pexels.com
Posted in gifts of the Spirit, praying in the Spirit, praying in tongues, speaking in tongues | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sincere criticism can help make church better

Posted on May 29, 2023 by Steve Simms

Pastors don’t have a right to demand that they not be criticized. Wise pastors welcome criticism because they realize that they need the accountability. A pastor who demands that people in the congregation not disagree with Him has a lot of insecurity.

Every Christian is called to be a priest and minister. Ministry isn’t about a job or a title or a salary or a pulpit. To outsource your Christianity to a pastor is to ignore Christ’s desire to personally direct you as your Shepherd.

To say that it’s bad to criticize church is to overlook Paul’s words, “having a form of godliness, but denying the power, from such turn away.” To tell people not to criticize church is to encourage them to blindly follow religious spirits.

To say that Christians shouldn’t point out the flaws in institutional church is to ignore the words of the Old Testament prophets. To say that the Protestant Reformation was good, but that Christians today shouldn’t criticize church is hypocritical.

God wants to speak to all Christians. We all need to listen to His Spirit and read the Bible, not just listen to sermons.

Jesus can’t be your Savior if there’s nothing you need to be saved from. It’s easy to say that Jesus lives in your heart, but your lifestyle lets people know whether He’s really in residence within you.

Fairh is revelatory. It’s a gift of the Spirit. “By faith Moses seeing Him who is invisible fled Egypt.” Without faith and revelation shinning in our heart we don’t truly understand the Gospel facts. Although the two men on the road to Emmaus knew the facts of the resurrection and had the presence of the living Jesus, they lacked revelation so Jesus felt like a stranger to them until revelation burst forth in their heart. Then they were filled with awareness of and excitement about the risen Jesus. Flesh and blood and facts alone can’t give us revelation and faith. They come from the Father. “God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our heart to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Posted in church programs, church reform, criticism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Google Jesus

Posted on May 26, 2023 by Steve Simms

If the presence of the risen Jesus isn’t continually surging from within you like rivers of living water, you’re missing out on “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” To present Jesus as stuck in history, in Heaven, or in a church is to deny the good news of His current presence everywhere. People who passionately love Jesus experience a supernatural connection when they open their heart to each other.

To do what you want is to seek the kingdom of self. To do what God wants is to seek the kingdom of God.

I want to let the Holy Spirit freely move me about the way leaves let the wind move them about. I want to be prompted by God’s Spirit not by my desires. If others want them, that’s their choice but I ban from my mind books and media that promote ungodliness.

Christianity isn’t about accumulating religious information week after week. It’s about opening your heart wider and wider to Jesus. Once you experience Spirit-led heart connection with other Christ-followers it’s hard to be satisfied with spectator religion.

“Looking unto Jesus.” Jesus is the Light. He should never, even for a moment, be a sight unseen.

If hearing
And obeying Jesus
Isn’t the way you go
You’ll live your days
Dazed by vertigo,
And the things
You think
That you know
Will throw
Your life off course.

When you allow your desire
To compel and require
That you follow its path
You’ll say stuck in the mire
Of striving to feed
The consuming inner fire
Of self-focus.

The living Jesus
Isn’t a topic to discuss
On a church “campus.”
He’s present with us
And wants to
Personally lead us.

When people’s input
Isn’t allowed
Church becomes
A silent crowd
Confined to listen
To only one man’s perspective.

Unseen light
Makes the brightest day
Seem like night.
Without physical sight
And spiritual insight,
Life is full of fright.
Have courage to see
How good life can be.

Google Jesus
All day long
Not on a device,
But in your heart.
He offers His glory
Like a song
To stream in your soul.
He paid the cost
To make you whole.
Let Him ever flow
From within you
And have full control
Of your daily life.

Photo by PhotoMIX Company on Pexels.com
Posted in experiencing Jesus, google, risen Jesus, searching, seeing Jesus | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Life surrounded by screaming screens

Posted on May 24, 2023 by Steve Simms

Humanity today
Is surrounded by
Constant distractions
And ungodly attractions.
Phones, TVs,
Music, movies
And sin-filled screens
That scream,
“Look at me!”
Sometimes that’s all
We can hear or see.
O, me!
How will we ever
“Behold the Lamb of God”?
How can we be
“Dead to sin,”
When we live in
Focused attention on it
And let it sift
Our heart and mind
And shift
Us away from
Focusing on Jesus
Day in and day out?

There’s no comfort in a closed heart, only alienation, loneliness, and despair. A society brainwashed by non-stop programming and stimulating substances sets aside heart-felt sensitivity and sincere spontaneity and settles into robotic conformity. Escape while you still can!

Open your heart
Walk in God’s light
And life will be
A true delight.

When Christianity abandoned interactive Spirit-led gatherings, it settled into formalism and religious programming.

Photo by SHVETS production on Pexels.com
Posted in brainwashing, flat screens, screenwriters, smartphones | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The beautiful soundtrack of heart-felt Christianity

Posted on May 23, 2023 by Steve Simms 
Let the living Jesus breathe
On the wind chimes
In your heart
And play beautiful music
That fills you with joy.

The soundtrack of biblical Christianity is the voice of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” continually prompting you to follow Him and His humility, not your own desires. No matter where you are in your life, God has more for you — more joy, more inner peace, more healing, more power, more love, more of Jesus than you’ve yet to experience.

If you won’t open your mouth you’re resisting your dentist’s help. If you won’t open your heart, you’re resisting God’s help. Decide to be Spirit-led, not spiritually dead.

“The meek inherit the earth” because they humbly obey God’s command to Joshua, “Fear not,” and they realize that stepping out in Spirit-led faith makes fear flee. It takes courage and faith to stop seeking self-love and to fully surrender your heart and life to God’s love. To truly love your neighbors as yourself you must put your attention on their needs instead of your own.

Trying to forgive yourself is like trying to give yourself money. It’s much more powerful to humbly receive God’s forgiveness. Dare to open your heart and let the risen Jesus live within you, surge through you, and continually direct you.

The fruit and gifts of the Spirit are the results of courageously opening your heart to be daily prompted and led by the Spirit. If people watch your daily steps, will they see Spirit-led faith or self-focused comfort? If your daily steps aren’t being directed by the Lord, you’re not being led by the Spirit. Until Jesus has captured your heart and adoring and obeying Him has become your greatest desire Christianity will be more of a duty than a delight.

I’m not a good person. I’m a forgiven person. That’s why I’m so grateful to and excited about the living Jesus! I’ve always wanted to be a good person and I’ve tried really hard to be one, but I’ve never been able to truly be a good person deep inside my heart. That’s why I need God’s mercy and grace.

If you will humbly open your heart to God you will experience His presence. If you won’t you won’t.

Pride and pretense defy common sense. The more I’m aware of the presence and glory of the risen Jesus the more that I realize that I have nothing to be proud about. 

Clear words that dart
Into your heart
And nudge you to hope
Are often God’s call
To a fresh new start.

Don't just occasionally
Glance at the Bible
And then toss it.
Read it until
It opens
A spiritual faucet
Of living water
In your heart.

Your pride
Will collide
With God.
Humility
Let's you receive
The ability
To embrace
His grace.

Freedom from sin
Is beyond mere belief.
It is actual inner relief
From the control
Of destructive desires
And their inner fires
That have burned
Deep within us
With rebellion and pride.
That freedom comes
When we finally decide
To humbly surrender our will
And let the risen Jesus
Be our constant inner Guide.
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com
Posted in biblical Christianity, contemporary Christian music, Gospel music | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Humanity’s greatest fear?

Posted on May 19, 2023 by Steve Simms

Fear is not final. It can always be resisted. When you’re feeling fear, fight it until it flees.

Fear is an opportunity to show courage. Without fear courage isn’t necessary.

The fear of letting people see what’s truly going on inside your heart may be humanity’s greatest fear. Dare to overcome it!

Every time you humbly let people see inside your heart you engage in an act of courage. It often takes more courage to resist tormenting thoughts, feelings, and desires than it does to resist physical dangers.

It takes courage to be led by the Spirit, especially when He leads you to do (or say) something you don’t want to do! The Holy Spirit wants to lead you outside of your comfort zone so that He can be your Comforter.

Courageous Christianity and comfortable Christianity aren’t the same thing. It takes courage to trust in Jesus — to rely on Him instead of on your own plans, study, and effort. Revival happens when Christians are more afraid of quenching God’s Spirit than they are of being embarrassed.

Photo by samer daboul on Pexels.com
Posted in conquer your fear, courage, fear, overcoming fear | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fear closing your heart to the risen Jesus and missing out on His mercy.

Posted on May 18, 2023 by Steve Simms

Words from the mind ramble on. Words from God’s Spirit roll with revelation like waves from Heaven. The inner release of Christ’s rushing rivers will cause your heart to runover with joy. Let God’s Spirit reveal to your heart the reality of the risen Jesus and radiate His glory within you.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter. If you will trust Him with your heart, He will handle it with mercy and compassion. The fruit of the Spirit is a collage of good qualities. Courageously open your heart and let the Comforter release them within you.

The presence of the risen Jesus isn’t a subjective feeling. He is revealed reality you can experience and interact with anytime and anywhere that you will courageously open your heart to Him.

God sends the risen Jesus as His gift to heal your hurting heart and rescue you from bandage to self-destruction. To ignore or reject such a gift is tragic. Don’t be afraid of surrendering to the living Jesus. Be afraid of closing your heart to Him and missing out on His mercy.

People with a closed heart can hide, ignore, or medicate their inner pain, but they won’t heal until they open up and let some light shine on it. Let your heart overflow with the presence of Christ in you and you will be overcome with glory.

Keeping your heart closed is like keeping your eyes closed. You shut out the light. It’s easy to get so focused on ideas about Jesus that we overlook the this-moment presence of Jesus.

Photo by Daniel Kondrashin on Pexels.com
Posted in Real Christianity, salvation, the Gospel | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Theology matters but the living present Jesus matters most!

Posted on May 17, 2023 by Steve Simms

Reality is
We don’t have a clue
Until we look at life
From God’s point of view
And let Him be the glue
That holds us together.

“Knowledge puffs up.” Studying theology without actively embracing the presence and humility of the living Jesus can easily cause pride to override our heart. Theology too often misses the experience of the glorious mystery of the present-day reality of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Theology that doesn’t open and overwhelm the heart with the presence and reality of the living Jesus is intellectualism disguised as faith. No matter how much you study electricity, until you turn on the light and experience its power, your knowledge is mere theory. The same is true for theology.

How much more! It’s easy to view Jesus as merely in the past (but we humans desperately need the living and present Jesus now). We need to focus on and surrender the control of both our individual lives and of our lives together (when we gather as the body of Christ) to the actual presence of the risen Jesus and let Him be our present and living Head and Lord. The book of Romans calls this being “led by the Spirit.” (See verse 8:14.) How much more there is to Christianity than just remembering and learning about Jesus in the past!

Modern Christianity too often focuses on theology while ignoring actually opening the heart to the living Jesus and to one another. Theology is like train tracks. It’s vitally important and without it Christianity can easily go off track. However, the best tracks in the world without a train to run on them are worthless. Without taking the time to train people to actually open up to the risen Jesus and to each other, theology is empty tracks. The Bible says that people who are Spirit-led (not theologically ahead) are the children of God.

If you focus on continually studying and learning the details of a friend’s life but don’t open your heart to personally interact with him, you will have a very shallow relationship. Jesus is my Friend and Lord! I don’t just want to study Him. I want to follow Him with my heart wide open to His presence and love! A mind full of theology, without a heart openly overflowing with the reality of the living and present Jesus, tends to produce a present-day Pharisee.

The more you know yourself the more you know that you need to say no to yourself. It takes courage to open your heart in a closed-hearted culture. Be courageous! When one person has the courage to open up his heart to be radically and continually led and changed by the living present Jesus, it creates a powerful chain reaction that influences many other people to do the same. Will you be that person?

It takes much more courage . . .

  • To fully surrender your life to the living Jesus than to study theology.
  • To open your heart than to keep it closed.
  • To do what’s right than to do what’s wrong.
  • To be kind than to be rude.
  • To control your thoughts than to let them control you.
  • To admit you’re wrong than to justify yourself.
  • To forgive than to hate.
  • To resist temptation than to give in to it.
  • To be honest than to lie.
  • To humble yourself than to exalt yourself.
  • To obey your conscience than to ignore it.
  • To discipline yourself than to let yourself run wild.
  • To argue with yourself than to argue with other people.
  • To fight your unruly feelings and desires than to fight people.
  • To obey the living Jesus throughout the day than to go to church.
Photo by ICSA on Pexels.com
Posted in academics, Christian conferences, religious academics, study of God, theology | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The ignored heart disease

Posted on May 16, 2023 by Steve Simms

There’s a terminal heart illness that medical science ignores. “The wages of sin is death.” The sickness of sin hardens the human heart and separates it from hope.

Guilt is a major symptom of the sickness of sin. If you’ve ever felt guilty, you test positive for sin, even if you and others believe you’re a good person.

Although sin includes harmful, selfish, and unethical behavior, its roots are deep within the human heart. Behavior modification without a renewed heart offers no lasting hope for healing from the sickness of sin.

There’s only one proven source for human heart transformation — ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Millions of people from various cultures and time periods around the world have testified to and demonstrated by their changed lives the power of the living Jesus to give human beings a new heart and break their inner bondage to the sickness of sin.

God demonstrates His love today in and through human hearts that open up to and fully surrender to the presence and Lordship of the resurrected Jesus Christ. Meeting people like that went far beyond mere words and clearly demonstrated God’s love to me. I’ve never been the same. I interact heart-to-heart with and read books by people like that every chance I get.

The Gospel is not just the account of Christ’s life. It’s also the good news of the presence and power of the risen Jesus today.

An hour praying in tongues might spiritually empower you more effectively than an hour in church. “O taste and see . . .”

Here’s something
That’s little known:
To live surrendered
To the presence
Of the risen Jesus
Is to be in the zone
Of thrilling joy
And to never feel alone.

Personal awareness
Of the presence of Jesus
Is the cure
To the allure
Of sin.

Praying in tongues makes me deeply aware of the presence of the risen Jesus. Last weekend in a Christian gathering in a home I experienced something I’ve never seen done before. We took turns speaking in tongues and let the others interpret. It was amazingly powerful!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Posted in heart care, heart monitor, heart of worship, wages of sin | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Biblical Christianity isn’t a theater. It’s a gym.

Posted on May 15, 2023 by Steve Simms

I was lying in bed from four this morning with a powerful thought running through my mind over and over. I was frustrated because I just wanted to go back to sleep. Suddenly these words came strongly into my mind. “It’s not you! It’s not the devil! It’s Me! Get up!” I jumped up and looked at the clock. It was 4:44. So, I’ve been up and writing thoughts that keep coming to me ever since 4:44. (Unintentionally, I see triple numbers on the clock numerous times every day and God has shown me that that’s something He is using to encourage me.)

To assume that you’re in good standing with God while you’re mostly ignoring Him is a dangerous assumption! The most dangerous spiritual condition a person can be in is to think he is a Christian when he isn’t. If you’re satisfied with where you are in your relationship with Jesus, you’re nowhere near where you think you are.

If we won’t get out of the religious box and actively do God’s Word, we may find ourselves merely sitting by and being complacent. Faith in Jesus should never be cold and ceramic, but always on fire and dynamic! Biblical Christianity isn’t a theater. It’s a gym. Same ole same ole same ole is not the way to follow the risen Jesus!

God’s gift of grace doesn’t produce religious complacency. It imparts a passionate hunger to follow and obey the living Jesus. Hunger and thirst for righteousness is the sign that you’ve received God’s grace.

Christianity isn’t a religious rut. It’s a rigorous race empowered by God’s glorious grace. True grace doesn’t mean that you don’t need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It activates and empowers you to do so!

God’s grace keeps me from being complacent. He continually gives me more and more passion for Jesus.

Let Jesus be unlimited. Set aside anything within you that’s hindering His power and presence by surrendering to His moment-by-moment Lordship and control. Spiritual complacency is a symptom of religious pride.

Jesus never said, “Come and hear a weekly sermon about Me.” He said: “Follow Me.” Be a Christ-follower, not a religious spectator. The constant repetition of the same religious format every Sunday morning tends to lull Christians into spiritual complacency.

To follow the risen Jesus, you have to go beyond spectator Christianity! If you will go with the flow of God’s Spirit, you’ll be carried into wonder and awe! Prayer isn’t passivity; it’s spiritual warfare.

Since the Bible says, “God resists the proud,” perhaps pride should be avoided. When things don’t go your way, pride takes offense but gratitude searches for hidden blessings.

To settle into comfortable Christianity is to become spiritually complacent and proudly satisfied with religious mediocrity. When you feel like you have nothing to be proud about you are “poor in spirit.” Then Jesus says that you are blessed with access to God’s kingdom. (See Matthew 5:3.)

Jesus doesn’t call us to complacency. He calls us to actively place our trust completely in His presence. When the voice of self is louder than the voice of the living Jesus Christianity easily becomes a passive Sunday program.

Religious complacency
Is spiritual vagrancy.

Self is so loud
When I’m feeling proud
That I can’t hear
God’s humble whispers
Speaking in my heart.

A proud attitude
Is the opposite
Of gratitude.
Pride says,
“Look what I did!”
Gratitude says,
It was all God’s grace.

Photo by Mike Gonzu00e1lez on Pexels.com
Posted in cheap grace, discipleship, grace, spiritual formation, spiritual growth | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment