It Bothers Me When God The Holy Spirit is Quenched

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What bothers you and why?
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“For His name’s sake . . . “

Speaking about God the Holy Spirit, Jesus said: “He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from Me what He will make known to you.” (John 16:14:15)

The Holy Spirit has come and is present and active in the world to glorify Jesus. Christ-followers are called to be led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14) not by our own thoughts, feelings, desires, beliefs, and opinions. Unfortunately, many Christians have a Holy Spirit phobia and are afraid to fully and openly surrender to God the Holy Spirit. Thus, we (often unintentionally) “quench” and “grieve” the Spirit.

(The genuine fear of God doesn’t make a person afraid of the presence and power of Holy Spirit. It causes people to be overcome with awe, with adoration, and with surrender to God the Spirit.)

I believe that Holy Spirit phobia is the greatest problem of contemporary Christianity. It causes us to continually dodge the presence of God. Holy Spirit phobia can be called theophobia. It’s the fear that seeks to avoid the reality of God the Holy Spirit and it’s quite common, even among religious people.

To allow being afraid of God the Holy Spirit to cause you to ignore or resist Him (or to pretend like He isn’t actively and lovingly pursuing you) is to avoid Him who perfectly loves you, who wants to heal you, set you free, and fill you with “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

When people become aware that the Holy Spirit is present, they realize that He can shake up the status quo and disrupt their comfort zones. People with theophobia don’t trust God the Holy Spirit and dread what He might do. Thus, they (often unconsciously) do all they can to avoid the literal presence of the Spirit.

Holy Spirit phobia involves numerous things: The fear of being misled. The fear of the supernatural. Fear of the loss of personal control. The desire to protect our religious traditions and spiritual comfort zones. The fear of change. The fear of the controversial. The fear of intimacy with God. The fear of what God the Holy Spirit may tell us to do. Anxiety about what God the Spirit may show us about ourselves.

Holy Spirit phobia causes Christians to avoid the “righteousness, peace, and joy” that the Holy Spirit brings. (Romans 14:17) It keeps us away from ongoing intimate connection with the Source of all that is good.

There is a cure for Holy Spirit phobia. It is trust, reliance, and obedience. Refuse to allow fear and discomfort to cause you to quench God the Holy Spirit. Learn to trust the Spirit by courageously surrendering to His presence. Step out in faith. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)

Deeply and fully realize that if you ask God for the Spirit, He won’t give you something bad. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

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Be Encouraged. There is Hope.

Posted on July 14, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.
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* Life can be better.
* Choices matter. 
* Hurts can be healed.
* Attitude matters. 
* Guilt can be forgiven.
* Thoughts and words matter.
* People can change. 
* Encouragement is powerful.
* Hope can arise. 
* Jesus became real to me in an instant and I've been joyously passionate about following and obeying Him ever since.

To teach people information about Jesus without training them to daily listen to and obey Him misses the point of Christianity. We need to go beyond that.

Make a strait path for the Lord to work in your heart. Remove all of the obstacles out of His way. (Matthew 3:3)

How Long Will You Wait?

Enlist
In God’s army.
Untwist
The hardness
Of your heart.
Insist
That your every
Thought, feeling,
And desire
Align with Christ.
Resist
Any that don’t.
Persist.

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How I Seek Both Security and Adventure

Posted on July 13, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Are you seeking security or adventure?
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Can a person have both adventure and security? Yes. Here’s how I experience both throughout each day.

With no merit to proclaim, (Romans 3:10) with no righteousness to boast about, (Isaiah 64:6)) I cry out to God for mercy. “Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me.” (Psalm 57:1) Through the blood of Jesus He offers me refuge from my guilt and shame, forgiveness and deliverance from my sin and rebellion. He sent His Son to save me from the evil that pursues me like a roaring lion, both from within (Romans 7:18) and from without. (1 Peter 5:8)

Through all attacks I want to fight the good fight of faith. (1 Timothy 6:12) I seek to keep my heart steadfast on God and my soul awake to His presence. (Psalm 57:7-8) I desire to continually submit myself to God and to always resist the devil. (James 4:7) I long to abide in Christ and He in me. (John 15:4) I press toward the goal (Philippians 3:14) of ceaselessly worshiping God in the Spirit, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3) Ongoing surrender to Christ in me is my only hope. (Colossians 1:27)

Christians need regular encounters with the living Jesus much more than we need frequent Christian services and events. Strong passionate faith in Christ grows as a consequence of spending lots of time interacting with and surrendering to the risen Jesus. The temple that God wants most to be welcomed into and worshipped in is the temple of your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19)

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Use ChatDRG.

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Steve Simms

I love to use ChatDRG. I try to stay logged in to it throughout each day. It gives me wisdom and information that I can’t find other places. ChatDRG is Direct Revelation from God. The Bible says that God reveals things to Christ-followers that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived. (! Corinthians 2:9-10)

ChatDRG reveals Divine Intelligence (DI) through a humble surrendered heart-to-heart relationship with God. To receive Divine Intelligence spread your inner sails and catch the wisdom of God the Holy Spirit.

Look around at the beauty and intricate design of nature. Divine Intelligence (DI) is here. It has been here since the beginning.

God is continually inviting people to enter the era of Divine Intelligence. Begin to listen to and obey KJC. (King Jesus Christ) I continually work to build my life on DI not on AI. I want to be led by God the Holy Spirit, not by machines.

Most of the problems of humanity come from our unwillingness to embrace God’s Supernatural Intelligence. (GSI) ChatDRG is to have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and be directed by His thoughts. If Christians would work to align their thinking and their life with Divine Intelligence as hard as people are working to develop and use Artificial Intelligence, the future would be bright.

Artificial Intelligence reflects the human mind with all of its faults. Divine Intelligence is the perfect wisdom of God. AI is emotionless. DI overflows with love, compassion, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. DI requires a Spirit-led mindset.

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Self-Improvement Comes from Effective Effort Not from Aging

Posted on July 11, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What do you think gets better with age?
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Self-improvement requires both mental and physical effort. The mere passing of time seldom improves a human being. Personal, mental, and spiritual growth require persistent hard work.

The promised land that Christians are called to take, the walk we are called to walk, is the Spirit-led life. (Galatians 5:18) We are called to “walk by the Spirit,” (Galatians 5:16) “live in the Spirit,” (Galatians 5:25) and be “led by the Spirit.” (Romans 8:14) That requires that we “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12) and bring “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

All Christians are called to the promised land of self-denial, daily cross-bearing, and radical obedience to the risen Jesus. (Luke 9:23) Our first priority is supposed to be seeking to live a life ceaselessly surrendered to the direct authority and leadership of King Jesus. (Matthew 6:33) We are called to do God’s will on earth as it is done in Heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

To learn a lot of information about what it means to be a Christian without learning to consistently apply that knowledge in daily life is to be “hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22 NKJV) True spiritual growth isn’t about learning more and more information about Jesus. It’s about learning to listen to and obey Him more effectively. Christianity is a lifestyle, not a lecture series. If you know the Bible but don’t know how to be led by the Spirit, you’ve missed the point of Scripture.

All Christians are called to be priests, ministers, and preachers. Not one is called to be a spectator. (Revelation 1:5-6 and 1 Peter 2:9)

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Waking Up on Encouragement Time

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What time do you go to bed and wake up currently?
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Discouragement seems to be the central standard time of life in the 21st century. It’s so widespread that it has turned into a growing mental health crisis around the world. Can discouragement be replaced with hope-filled encouragement? Yes, but it’s hard to do it by yourself. It greatly helps to have other people take the time to personally share hope and encouragement with us.

Here’s a key to encouragement. The Bible directs Christians to meet together and encourage one another something like a support group — like an AA or NA meeting. Read it for yourself:

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.” (Hebrews 10:23-25)

Christians need to meet together to:
1) Wake up each other to hope,
2) Always refuse to mope,
3) Throw each other a rope,
4) Help each other to cope,
5) Together climb life’s slope.

That’s not just a rhyme.
It’s how we need to
Wisely spend our time.

For a group of Christ-followers to intentionally meet together with the objective of encouraging one another is extremely powerful. That’s because it is biblical. As Christians, we need each other. We need to gather together to both give and receive encouragement in small groups like an AA or NA meeting.

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Comfort’s Not What It’s Cracked Up to Be

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Steve Simms

Comfort isn’t as important as it seems. It’s often a trap commonly called a comfort zone. Comfort zones often lead us to look at life from a distorted point of view. They frequently cause us to cozy into a formal institutionalized approach to life.

Institutionalized eyes often have difficulty seeing beyond institutionalized Christianity. They tend to overlook looking directly into the eyes of Christ, (Hebrews 12:2) beholding the Lamb of God, (John 1:29) and seeing things from His perspective. (1 Samuel 16:17) Institutional eyes tend to take a rational approach to faith, relying on what makes sense to them instead of looking at the things that are unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18) and relying on and surrendering to the presence, power, and direct inner revelation of the invisible Jesus. (Colossians 1:27)

Meanwhile Jesus calls for us to deny self, to carry our cross, and to follow and obey Him. (Luke 9:23) Looking beyond institutional eyes to be led by the Spirit by setting your affections on things above and not on things on the earth, (Colossians 3:2) requires radical self-denial, persistent cross bearing, and Jesus-first obedience. (Matthew 6:33)

Begin to look beyond routine institutionalized religion. Open your heart-eyes to look unto Jesus and allow Him to continually be the author and finisher of your faith. (Hebrews 12:2)

Once a church (or a Christian organization) drifts (or turns away) from the direct, open, and personal leading of the Holy Spirit it is almost impossible to get it back on a Spirit-led track. I’ve seen this happen many times and it’s always very sad to me.

Church history is full of such examples. Many denominations, independent churches, and parachurch organizations started out as Spirit-led movements. Eventually they shifted to human leadership, wisdom, and control, and away from God the Holy Spirit. Today they function as human-led religious
organizations instead of freely flowing in obedience to the direct personal leadership of the Spirit. (John 7:37-39)

Frequently gather with other sold-out Christ-followers (Hebrews 10:25) to worship, to seek the Lord together, and to be directly led by the Spirit. Institutionalized Christianity shouldn’t limit your spontaneous expressions of faith and your willingness to obey the inner promptings of God the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:14) Step beyond mere institutionalism and learn to directly contemplate and obey the presence of the risen Jesus day and night. (Google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.)

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I’m Excited About Hope Beyond Humanity

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Steve Simms

I’ve lost my hope in humanity. Looking back through human history up to the present I see that people have produced crisis after crisis. Today because of our technology, communication, and travel many crises (the official plural of crisis) have become global. That doesn’t give me much hope for the future.

My hope comes from the supernatural — from a miraculous relationship with the living, resurrected Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “Christ in you the hope of glory,” (Colossians 1:27) and I experience His inner glory throughout each day as I seek to follow and obey His Spirit.

I’ve discovered that the way to grow in deep, long-lasting hope is to promptly go when God the Holy Spirit say go. (John 14:15-17) Christians don’t grow more because we don’t step out in bolder obedience. Thus, we are hardened by the deceitfulness (Hebrews 3:13) of the sin of quenching the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

Take the Holy Spirit plunge. Let go of your control and self-reliance (Matthew 16:24) and instead fully rely on His presence. (Proverbs 3:5-6) Tune up your ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. (Revelation 3:22) Then courageously follow His promptings and His leadings. (Romans 8:14) You’ll be amazed at the outcome when you notice what God has done in response to your obedience in faith. (Exodus 14:13) Step into God’s supernatural hope!

A token, a tad, or
A touch once a week
Isn’t what Jesus meant
When He said to seek
First the kingdom of God.

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The Joy of Inner Harmony

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What could you let go of, for the sake of harmony?
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The only way for Christians to live in harmony with the kingdom of God is to let go of anything that hinders them from listening to, following, and obeying the promptings of God the Holy Spirit throughout each day. King Jesus wants to set you free from the captivity of being controlled by your desires.

Contemporary culture crowns desires as Lord and tries to coerce and compel people to abandon self-control and conform to their cravings. However, the more people surrender to their desires the greater their craving grows and the more it controls them.

Your desires are not your identity. Your lusts don’t have to define your life. You’re not required to surrender to your cravings. Follow Jesus instead.

Your urgings are not urgent. You don’t have to say yes to your yearnings or to go along with your longings. Self-control is always an option. Always put Jesus first.

Just because you
Have a desire
That doesn’t mean
You need to try
To make that desire
Transpire.

Here’s the good news.
You get to choose
Whether you want
To obey a desire
Or resist it.

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Music That Overflows from the Heart

Posted on July 6, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite genre of music?
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I love music that overflows from the heart. When people passionately put their whole heart into a song it inspires and touches me deeply, especially when they are openly, freely, and spontaneously expressing deep love and adoration directly to the living God. That kind of music lifts me up and helps keep my heart intimately connected to the risen Jesus. It often brings me to tender tears and surges of joy. I search it out and listen to it often.

That kind of music is much more than religious lyrics and professionally played instruments arranged and produced in a recording studio. It flows from deep within the singer as God the Holy Spirit’s rivers of living water. (John 7:38-39) Some of the music that most powerfully flows that way is by Andre Crouch, The Maranatha Singers, Rick Pino, and Jesus Culture. It’s odd, but I don’t remember ever hearing any songs by those folks on Christian radio, so I listen to them on Alexa.

When I find a song anointed by the Holy Spirit it stirs my soul. I listen to it often and over and over again. It helps transport me into the glorious awareness of the presence of Jesus.

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