I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
E. Stanley Jones said: “Jesus was crucified because He wouldn’t conform to a system.” (Jones was an American Methodist missionary to India in the mid-twentieth century.) True freedom in Christ is much more than a system, form, or formula.A conjectural idea about Jesus is nothing like a heart-to-heart relationship with Him.
Systems of self-protection Harden our heart And entangle us In self-bondage. Self-surrender To the living God Makes our heart tender And sets us free To joyfully hear And obey Jesus.
A heart of stone Is a heavy load To try to carry Along life’s road. Hiding behind Our heart’s hardness It’s easy to Block out God’s light And live in inner darkness. We need to continually Surrender our heart And let the risen Jesus Shine brightly inside So we can reflect His glory Like a broken geode That sparkles In God’s tender sunlight.
Hard hearts Look to systems, Forms and formulas. Tender hearts turn To “Christ in you, The hope of glory.”
You can’t prove your consciousness but you know it exists because you continually surrender to and experience it. I can’t prove God but I know He exists because I continually surrender to and experience Him.
To “live by the Spirit” And “not quench the Spirit” Is to fully yield yourself To be carried by the current As the Spirit flows Like inner rivers Alive with the power And presence of God And blows Like a mighty rushing wind From deep within Your surrendered heart.
The more you maintain control The less you’ll be able to roll With the flow of God’s Spirit.
Jesus is everywhere. If you’re unaware Of His presence You’re missing The essence Of Christianity.
You can’t see Jesus With your eye But when you rely On His help With an open heart Hope flows from Within you.
You can’t resist God’s Spirit and be led by the Spirit at the same time. Surrender.
Let go and experience the glorious ride of the Spirit’s inner flow. Step out of the short-lived pleasure of sin and into the ongoing thrill of the Spirit’s flow!
The only freedom From life’s dark caves Is self-surrender To God’s rescue.
If you ignore and/or silence the parts of you that are crying out for healing, you’ll stay stuck in a charade of denial.The One who set up the world’s eco system to flow together so beautifully will take care of you if you stop resisting Him.
A closed heart refuses to surrender to God. An open heart encounters God’s love, mercy, and glory and eagerly surrenders. A seed that is too hard to surrender to the soil will never grow.
Jesus offers you so much more than you’ve ever experienced from going to church and hearing a sermon. Surrender and receive it!Try not to be an unbendable puppet that refuses to surrender to the movements of the Great Puppeteer.
Self-surrender to the control of the Spirit opens the door to being led by the Spirit. My thoughts, feelings, and desires often create inner resistance to God. When that happens, I surrender to God and ask Him to overcome the rebellion within me.
It’s easy to resist and try to control God’s work inside of me; it’s difficult to surrender to it.True greatness only comes in one way — surrender to God. Other claims to greatness are mere reputation, not reality. Surrender to good. Never surrender to evil!
Surrender to God is not once and done. It must be done continually. Look around. Surrender to sin and evil is causing so much inward and outward pain. Yet millions have discovered that genuine surrender to the risen Jesus will begin to drain the pain.
Self-control is the last item listed in the fruit of the Spirit. Because it is a product of the Spirit that means that it isn’t self-produced. All the self does is surrender. The control is produced by the presence of God’s Spirit. It is self-surrender to the control of the Spirit. In Romans 8:14, The Amplified Bible puts it this way: “For all who are allowing themselves to be led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Many of the things in your life that you don’t like are allowed by God to prod you into the place where God can fully lead and guide you — self-surrender to the Spirit’s control.
God has given me so much more than I deserve. How can I not surrender my unmet desires to Him?
God’s tug In your soul Is the only thing That can make you whole. That’s why life’s greatest goal Is to roll With God’s lifeline.
Many people begin To argue within With sin, But then They give in And in the end Create a mess. /[0\/}{[]>…
Self-effort Can never earn God’s undeserved favor That’s called grace, But self-surrender Is essential to it.
Give in, Give up But not to sin, To God.
When my eyes See the Lord And I realize That Christ is in me I’m filled with hope.
Refuse to let Your heart Feel troubled With worry Or regret. Instead Keep it Always set On Jesus And His love.
Gratitude Is an attitude Of gratefulness But thanksgiving Is the act of actively Expressing gratitude. Directly to someone. Let your heart be So full of gratitude That it overflows Into thanksgiving. Thank you for Reading this. Thank You, God, For helping me Write it.
Phone-close: They never get very far away from their phone but keep it near them day and night.
Phone-focused: Phone-led people are continually attentive to their phone and try to be always aware of its presence. They’re very careful to make sure that they don’t lose their focus on it.
Phone-responsive: When their phone buzzes, vibrates, or sounds out phone-led people immediately respond to its prompting. They receive its messages and then jump into responsive action.
Phone-proclaiming: Phone-led people are not shy about their phone but instead are eager to share the texts, pictures, videos, and voices that come through their phone and to follow its instructions.
Spirit-led people are:
Spirit-close: They keep their heart tender, open, and close to the Holy Spirit.
Spirit-focused: Spirit-led people are continually attentive to God’s Spirit and try to be always aware of His presence. They’re very careful not to break their focus on Him.
Spirit-responsive: When the Holy Spirit prompts them with an inner nudging Spirit-led people immediately respond to His prompting. They receive the Spirit’s messages and then jump into responsive action to do what they are instructed.
Spirit-proclaiming: Spirit-led people are not shy about God’s Spirit but instead are eager to share what God has revealed to them and to do what He has told them.
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” Romans 8:14.
(Here’s a picture of a phoney person being phone-led. Get it? Being phoney and phone-led seems to have become the norm in our culture. Break the norm and become Spirit-led. You’ll be thrilled that you did!)
The first Christians didn’t call their gatherings “synagogue” like the Rabbi-led Jewish meeting, but “ekklesia” like the democratic Greek town hall meeting.Gradually the early Christian gatherings turned away from the democratic ekklesia model and embraced the hierarchical synagogue model.
Hierarchical religion wanted Jesus executed. It still prefers a ceremonial and distant Jesus instead of the living and present Jesus.
Jesus’ ekklesia can be demonstrated anywhere two or more Christ-followers gather in His name.When the New Teatament ekklesia gathers it enables every Christ-follower present to hear, obey, and speak about the risen Jesus.It’s beautiful to watch a group of people all obeying the inner promptings of God’s Spirit.
Jesus said His sheep hear His voice; He leads them; and they follow Him. When Christians gather to hear Jesus’ voice and follow His leading, His ekklesia happens.We don’t need to reform church. We need to let God make church ekklesia again.
Faith in Christ is more powerful when it’s presented spontaneously from the heart than from professionally crafted talks. Yet, it’s rare to hear preachers speak freely and spontaneously from their heart. Thus, they falsely train Christians that to speak about Christ requires lots of study and good notes. However, the early Christians said: “We cannot help but speak about the things that we have seen and heard.”
Spirit-led meetings require patience. They’re not songs, sermon, and shutdown. They follow the Spirit’s pacing and timing.
Patience? Praying for patience means committing to accepting and waiting out the processes and timing of God. When patience is hurried it disappears.
My flesh falsely declares that I deserve to have my desires fulfilled quickly. It feels like suffering to wait. Delayed desires are the weeds that choke out the fruit of patience. Laying down my desires to be crucified with Christ and saying with true surrender “Lord, have Your way — Your timing, Your purpose, Your choices,” prepares the way for the Lord to have His will both in and through me. The key to a harvest of patience is surrender. The key to surrender is to embrace the attitude of: “Not my will but Yours be done.”
“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” That verse from James is much easier read than done.
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.” Check yourself often to be sure that the fruit of the Spirit is growing and flowing in and through you.
In the Bible God says: “Open your mouth And I will fill it.” Yet too often Christians in church Are trained to “Close your mouth And seal it.”
An invitation to experience an ekklesia (1 Corinthians 14:26) meeting with me:
You and one or more people who are hungry for more of Jesus are invited to meet with me and one or more spiritually hungry people on Zoom or in person. We will then focus on the presence of the living Jesus. As we feel prompted by Him, we will say and/or do whatever He tells us to. Jesus will take control of the gathering and the meeting will amaze you.
If you’re interested, you can contact me by leaving a comment on this post and/or at stsimms@live.com and we will set up a time.
I have a filter on my kitchen sink to help make my water pure. I need one on my stream of consciousness to help make me pure.
Be the gatekeeper of your heart and mind. Let in the good; keep out the bad.Temptation says to ignore your inner filter. That’s because it wants to deceive you and mess you up.It does little good to filter the spam out of your email if you don’t filer it out of your heart and mind.
Turn on the filter of your conscience. Cast out the junk bonds in your heart that have bound you to negativity and rebellion.
To live well, filter well. No filter; no inner peace. To know how to live with inner peace you must know how to filter out the inner disturbers of your peace
God’s grace gives you the filter known as your conscience. It’s up to you to keep it turned on and to follow its instructions.Before you act on impulse, run it through your conscience. If it disapproves don’t do it.
To turn down the filter of your conscience opens you up to all sorts of mental and emotional pollution.Keep your conscience activated 24/7/365!
If you don’t know how to actively filter your thoughts, feelings, and desires, you’ll lack inner peace.“Blessed are the peacemakers.” Begin within. Be an inner peacemaker. Filter the disturbers of your inner peace out of your mind, will, and emotions.
Filter the conflict out of your heart. Then your words and actions will help lead others to peace.
“There is none righteous, no not one.” Everybody needs to let the voice of God in their conscience filter them.If you don’t continually filter and weed your heart and mind, the fruit of the Spirit won’t grow abundantly within you.
In order to obey the Bible and “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things,” you must filter.To obey the command to think on the good things of Philippians 4:8, it’s necessary to filter out bad thoughts, feelings and desires.
Filter everything out of your life that tries to make you disobey Jesus’ command to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” To repent is to filter the sins out of your life.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Filter the junk foods of unrighteousness out of your soul. Refuse to consume them.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Filter out false guilt. Repent of real guilt.
“Above all else, guard your heart.” –Proverbs 4:23. Filter, filter, filter! Peace comes from actively filtering out the influence of the flesh, the world, and the demons and joyfully surrendering to the loving presence and leadership of God’s Spirit.
“Humble yourself,” Filter pride out of your heart and mind.
Pray The Filter Prayer: Jesus, help me to filter my thoughts, feelings, and desires and keep out the one’s that aren’t in your will.
If you don’t Learn to filter Your heart and mind, Your life will be Out of kilter.
It’s important to filter Your inner being And keep every wilter, Everything that That dries up your peace, Far away.
Unfiltered media Is like buying A trip on Expedia. If you click on it, It will take you Wherever it goes.
Take a peek
At the Bible word
From the Greek
Translated as church
In English Bibles
And let it critique
The way we do church.
The word's unique.
"Ekklesia" was the name
Of the participatory
And interactive
Town hall meeting
In ancient Greek cities.
Today's church technique
Tends to keep
People silent
And in their seat.
Instead let's come together
So that we can meet
As Jesus' "ekklesia"
In a way
That all can speak
As led by God's Spirit
And step out in a leap
Of renewed faith.
Open the Bible
And sneak
A look at
1 Corinthians 14:26.
I follow an unseen leader, the perfect Shepherd. Although He’s invisible, He guides me from within.Grazing on the unseen glory of God flowing from within me I begin to gaze on His beauty and to taste and see that He is good.My faith finds solid footing by learning to daily experience and interact with the unseen risen Jesus.
Jesus will lead a worship gathering in unseen ways if we will remove the structures of our control that hinder Him.When Christians are uncomfortable trusting worship meetings to God’s unseen leadership, they’re uncomfortable with Jesus.
A church service run by a visible leader requires nothing supernatural, but for the leader to step aside and confusion not to conquer requires that the unseen Jesus step in and take over.When Christians rely on the perfect Shepherd — the unseen Jesus — to lead a worship gathering, there’s no need for a human leader to have control.Some rely on pastors, some on church programs, but no one or nothing can lead the body of Christ like the unseen Jesus can!
Let the living Jesus be the unseen Leader behind the scenes: An orderly meeting with no visible leader is hard to explain unless you see earbuds on the participants and realize they’re all listening to an unseen leader. That’s how Christ’s ekklesia works. The invisible Jesus wants to directly communicate with and direct each individual in the assembly.
I get it. “There’s no perfect church,” but there is a perfect Shepherd. Maybe Christians should meet under the direct leadership of the risen Jesus — the “Great Shepherd of the Sheep.” A group that welcomes the unseen Jesus experience amazing power and transformation.
Not seeing is deceiving. Refusing to honestly look at truth that we don’t want to hear causes many lies to appear.
Almost all of the world is unseen by you, but it still exists and carries on. The same with God.The harder your heart the more difficult it is to embrace and bask in God’s invisible love for you.God isn’t unseen because He’s not there. He’s unseen because we close the eyes of our heart.
Experience is a cruel teacher. It’s much easier to learn from the unseen experience and wisdom of others.
What’s seen is Fading from our sight. But what’s unseen Can carry us Thru the night.
I was protected by the unseen: Once I was running Across a wide street I thought was empty When something unseen Stopped me abruptly Just before a car Flew by within inches.
Compete joy? Commandment keeping Gradually refined And purified Through trials of many kinds Isn’t intended to annoy But to cultivate And employ A lifetime Of alignment to Christ’s glorious Rivers of joy. (Based on John 15:10-11 and James 1: 2-4.)
Insight-delight ignites joy. When you begin to rejoice in what God shows you, you’ll be happy. One moment of insight-delight is more powerful than many years of hearing sermons.
Too many Christians lack insight-delight. They haven’t personally received thrilling revelation from the living, resurrected Jesus.
Insight-delight will change your life! Open your heart in full surrender to the risen Jesus and you will discover insight-delight.
Totally unexpectedly I was filled with insight-delight. In an instant Jesus became real to me and He has thrilled me ever since.Insight-delight is the supernatural “aha” that ignites the human heart in continual celebration of the presence of Jesus.
E. Stanley Jones, a 20th century Methodist missionary to India, referred to: “the dimness, the faintness, the dullness, the uncertainty of modern churchmen.” As Christ-followers we need more than that! We need more than promises, potential, and possibilities presented as a Sunday morning menu — an “order of service” for us to be religiously walked and sung through. We need to dine together on the living Bread of Life — to taste and see that the Lord is good — to actively interact heart-to-heart with each other and with the risen Jesus Christ.
Ancient Greek cities had a town hall meeting called “the ekklesia” where anybody present could speak. Jesus said, “I will build My ekklesia.” (Matthew 16.) Jesus also said that His meat “is to do the will of the Father.” Let’s personally partake of God’s meat by meeting together to let the Spirit prompt each of us and show us what He wants us each to say and do while we are gathered. Then we can begin to experience His reality in and through each other as we live out 1 Corinthians 14:26.
Spirit-led God-gatherings are the most amazing Christian meetings I’ve ever experienced! I wish they weren’t so rare. Jesus wants His followers to meet together interactively with Him not just to passively sit through a religious service. Unfortunately, Christians have been trained to follow religious programs more than following the presence of the risen Jesus.
The words in the Bible are full of God’s Spirit. To receive them with an open heart is to experience their life-giving power. John 6:63. Many churches present the Bible as religious data to analyze and odd stories to learn about. For me it’s insight-delight! Let the Bible’s insight-delight excite you!
Jesus is the Light of the World. If the Light hasn’t come on inside you, you won’t have spiritual sight.Seekers of the Savior aren’t satisfied with Sunday services. They search out the Son of God.
Jesus is “the Bread of Life.” Bread needs to be partaken, not just talked about. Experience the risen Jesus every day.“Whoever belongs to God hears what God says.” John 8:47. Do you hear what God says?
Love can’t be programmed or systematized. It’s a heart matter. Same with worship. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Insight-delight matters!
Insight-delight Flows like inner rivers When your heart sees And perceives The presence of The living Jesus.
To refuse to rely On the living Jesus Is to trust Your own power And deny His.
If you go to church But aren’t “taught by God,” You’ve missed the point. John 6:45.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 