I was part of a historical movement

Posted on October 21, 2024 by Steve Simms

I was an active part of a historical movement that involved millions of people as it occurred in America and around the world. There was a recent movie about it. It was a movement of light.

Time Magazine called the movement “The Jesus Revolution.” Now the world needs another one. “The deliverance we need now is from religion and into reality.” –JD Walt in Seedbed Wake-Up Call.

When you feel darkness in your heart, a sermon about light won’t help you much. You need this! “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6 NIV.)

Jesus called His followers “the light of the world.” When lights shine together their brightness intensifies. Christ-followers need to meet and train each other to shine together as they take turns testifying about Jesus and demonstrating His presence and spiritual gifts to one another.

Jesus said: “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.” Instead of Christians gathering and allowing the people present to all put their light on a stand, we have the tradition of meeting in a way that causes everyone in a congregation to shut down their light and to sit passively to watch a preacher give a talk about light.

Christians, if you don’t wake up to the never-ending presence of God’s light, you’re sleeping on the job. “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14 NIV.) Actively be God’s light day and night! Don’t just listen to a Sunday talk about it.

Darkness never shines. Light always does. Which are you?

Your body isn’t a religious institution. The body of Christ isn’t either. The body of Christ is all of the people worldwide who are connected heart-to-heart with the risen Jesus. A religious institution can’t carry and demonstrate the life, light, and love of Christ. It takes people to do that.

Christians who “walk in the light” have a deep spiritual connection with each other. Let’s stand up and begin to walk in the light by openly and honestly sharing our heart with one another. To walk in the light is much more powerful than to hear a talk about the light. Try it and see.

When light
Comes around
Darkness
Shuts down.
We need more
Than the sound
Of a sermon.
We need to see
And to be
God’s light.

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Posted in Jesus Movement, Jesus revolution, revival history, spiritual awakening | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Taking a Risk to Encourage You

Posted on October 20, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to?
View all responses

Our world,
Full of confusion,
Trapped in delusion,
Needs an infusion
Of hope.

I’d like to risk sharing more hope, but not just speaking from myself or in my name. I’d like to more directly speak what God puts on my heart, not as something I am saying but as words from Him.

The Bible calls that prophesying. I hesitate to do that because I don’t want to be presumptuous. I don’t want to speak my words in God’s name. What if it’s just me and my opinion and I only think it is God. So, I’ve tended to just say and write what God puts on my heart and let the people who read it and/or hear it decide where the words I communicate come from.

If I would take the risk to write what I sense that God is saying to the people who read this, I’d write to you:

God says: “I know everything about you. You can’t hide anything from Me. Yet, nothing I know about you makes me love you less. I am always reaching out to you, speaking in your heart, asking you to come to Me and to let Me heal your hurt, set you free from your confusion and rebellion, and bring you to a beautiful, never-ending heart-to-heart relationship with Me.”

I’ve been on a long journey of risk by walking with and seeking to daily obey the risen Jesus while getting to know Him better and better along the way. The more I’ve stepped out in obeying and trusting Him, the more He has shown His power, mercy, love, and presence to me. Here’s how my journey with Jesus began.

As a child my family didn’t attend church. However, when I was about 11, we started to attend a Presbyterian Church, and they sang these words every Sunday: “As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” Those words never made sense to me. I didn’t want the evil in the world to never end. I believed in God when we started attending that church, but God felt so far away from me there that I became an agnostic. Later as a freshman in college I encountered a group of people who talked and acted like Jesus is really alive and really at work among them. The risen Jesus who I saw living in and through them came into my heart and life and I’ve never again been the way I was in the beginning as a fallen human being without Christ and without hope. I’ve been a new creature in Christ ever since then!

The biggest risk is not taking the risk to surrender to and rely on the living God to lead and direct your life. Boldly risk opening your heart to the living Jesus now.

Before Christianity was tens of thousands of independent religious organizations doing their own thing, it was people connected heart-to-heart to Jesus and to one another. Experience pre-institutional Christianity by talking and walking with Jesus without going through a religious organization.

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Beyond Pride to Gratitude

Posted on October 19, 2024 by Steve Simms

The longer I live the more I realize that I have nothing to be proud about. My life overflows with blessings not accomplishments. Every good thing that I have done and every accomplishment that I have experienced has been because of the goodness of God.

Like Paul in the Bible, I can say. “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.” (Romans 7:18 NIV.) Jesus described my situation when He said: ” If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NIV.)

I am so thankful that Christ lives in me and is working in me to lead me by His Spirit away from my pride so I can embrace His offer: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28 NIV.)

Gifts of Grace

Jesus offers spiritual life
Beyond routine religion.
Religious rules
Are useless tools
For calming the whirlpools
Of anxiety
In human hearts.
But the gifts of the Spirit
Are supernatural power tools
That demonstrate the presence
Of the risen Jesus.
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters,
Be eager to prophesy,
And do not forbid
Speaking in tongues.”
1 Corinthians 14:39 NIV

Go beyond
The religious loop.
Gather with
Other believers
In a Spirit-led
Support group.

Christians, it’s time to take the spotlight off the same speaker week after week and focus it instead on the risen Jesus! It’s time to set aside pride and embrace humility.

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I’ve Been Working on Courageous Obedience

Posted on October 18, 2024 by Steve Simms

Throughout the centuries the institutional model of Christianity has tended to imply that people can collect enough religious sentiment and Bible information on Sunday morning to carry them through the week. However, the Bible says that God’s “mercies begin afresh each morning.” (Lamentations 3:23 NIV.) The mysterious manna in the wilderness that the Israelites called “What is it?” demonstrates that Christ-followers need to be trained to receive fresh activation from the Holy Spirit every morning and to let the Spirit lead and sustain them throughout each day.

Making disciples is much more than preaching to people once a week. It involves training them to be Holy Spirit activated and directed every day and night. That training focuses on helping people to recognize and listen to the Spirit and then to say and do as He individually directs them from within their heart.

Jesus told His disciples: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26 NIV.) To be Christ’s disciples Christians need to be taught and reminded by the Spirit, day and night.

But “What is it?” What is the teaching and reminding of the Spirit? Many Christians don’t know what it is. The teaching and reminding of the Holy Spirit is God’s still small inner voice. Jesus, the God-man, said, “My sheep hear My voice.” The Spirit of Christ speaks within His followers in various ways: with their conscience, with thoughts, with images, with impressions, with ideas, with insights, with Bible verses, and more.

Christ’s sheep recognize His inner voice and refuse to follow the deceptive voice of strangers (the devil and his associates) or trust in their own voice. When something comes to your mind or heart and you want to do it, it’s most likely the voice of your own desires. If you don’t want to do what an inner voice says that voice isn’t from you. (It’s either from God or from the devil.)

If an inner voice violates Scripture and is in any way morally wrong, it’s not God’s voice. (It’s either from you or the devil.) If it’s tempting or coercive, it’s from the devil.

When an inner voice aligns with goodness and the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit it is from God. A voice from God will not contradict Scripture or biblical morality.

Learn to recognize the still small voice of God’s Spirit. He’s speaking within you throughout each day. Be still and notice His voice. Train yourself to obey Him promptly whether you feel like it or not.

Begin to demonstrate courageous Spirit-led obedience in front of other people. Teach and train them to be Spirit-activated and Spirit-directed disciples. “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14 NIV.)

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Most People Don’t Know That My Freedom from Guilt Comes from Being Forgiven

Posted on October 17, 2024 by Steve Simms

If we would do as we are told by our conscience, the mental torment of guilt and shame wouldn’t be able to destabilize our mental health. If we would consistently obey God’s moral voice within us instead of rebellious inner voices, we could avoid the mental and heart pollution that produces the agony of inner confusion.

The best guide to mental health is to listen to and obey your conscience (the still small voice of God) and let it lead you to the freedom of being forgiven and empowered to live a wholesome life. A society that mocks and disrespects the conscience and trains people to disobey it, will be flooded with mental health issues.

Poor moral health produces poor mental health. Our society’s mental health crisis won’t be solved until we reverse the moral crisis that paved its way. Character, principles, honesty, and morality matter. Calling wrong right isn’t the way to get rid of guilt. Humbly and sincerely confessing the wrongs you’ve done and receiving God’s forgiveness is. For better mental health, stop violating your conscience.

When you do wrong
Your conscience sings
A guilty song
To warn you that
You are off track
And guide you back.

A key solution
For mental health issues
Is to stop moral pollution.

To alleviate
The mental health crisis
We need to do more than
Just medicate
Hurting people.
We need to liberate
Those in mental torment
By training them
To saturate
Their mind with wholesomeness
So they can eradicate
Moral pollution
From their mind and heart.

True wholesomeness comes from surrendering to the presence of the living Jesus Christ. To make disciples for Christ you have to train people to listen to and obey the risen Jesus as He speaks within them. (Otherwise, they are someone else’s disciples.)

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Lazy Passive Religion is Unproductive

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Steve Simms

Something about human nature causes people to not want to deal directly with God. We’d rather sit through a weekly talk about Him (or ignore Him completely). But God wants to move us beyond religious ceremonies (and/or spiritual denial) so that He can deal with us heart to heart and train us to continually live in right, direct, and personal relationship with Him and with one another.

To sit and hear a talk
About God’s Word
And then kick it to the curb
Isn’t Christianity.
We are called to read,
Hear, speak, and heed
What God has to say
And let Him disturb
Our complacency
Until we begin
To follow His Spirit
And do His Word
Throughout each day.

Disciples daily do
What the Bible says.
They don’t simply
Sit through
Sunday school
And a church service.

Christ’s focus was on
Disciple construction.
He went far beyond
Religious instruction.
Jesus trained people
To daily receive
The inner production
Of the fruit of the Spirit,
It’s not enough to hear
A Sunday sermon.
We need to draw near
And let Christ appear
With demonstrations
Of both the fruit
And the gifts
Of the Spirit
In our midst.

It’s time for a shift from religious lecture to hands-on training, from Sunday school and passive sermon-hearing to Sunday do. Let’s train Christians to listen to the living God. Let’s allow them to say and to do whatever He tells them to in the safe atmosphere of a gathered Christian community and Spirit-led worship. Then their confidence in the leading of the Spirit will grow and they will go and be led to do the Word in their daily life.

Church as usual is in decline, but people need God’s love and presence as much as ever in history. Let’s create an atmosphere where people can gather to experience Jesus and demonstrate His presence to one another. To make disciples for Christ you have to train people to listen to and obey the risen Jesus. (Otherwise, they are someone else’s disciples.)

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True Success is Inner Peace

Posted on October 15, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?
View all responses

When I think of the word “successful” the first person who comes to mind is someone who continually radiates inner peace, love, and joy. I’ve been fortunate to have numerous friends who do that. You, too, can be a person who radiates real success.

Begin partaking of the fruit of the tree of life. Live beyond human analysis and human desires. Continually surrender your heart and lifestyle to the presence of Christ in you and to the 9 aspects of spiritual transformation that His Spirit wants to produce in you–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Quit consuming and building your life on the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Lean not to your own understanding. Human analysis is a dead-end street. It can tell you how nature works, but it can’t tell you why nature exists.

Human analysis leads to self-righteousness. It falsely makes you think that you’re out of Egypt–that your life is free from the dominion of evil. “God, I thank You that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

God’s Spirit wants to remind you that you desperately and continually need the love, forgiveness, cleansing, and healing that comes from the blood of Jesus and the resurrection life of Christ in you, the hope of glory. “God have mercy on me a sinner.”

Halt your analysis. Let God replace your thoughts with His thoughts and your desires with His desires. Let Him lead and direct you moment by moment by His Spirit.

Not everything that’s called love is love. Listen to the voice of God in your heart. Obey your conscience. Stay in line with the revelation God gives in the Bible.

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Good Neighbors Don’t Grumble

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What makes a good neighbor?
View all responses

The way to experience ongoing inner peace and life beyond guilt is to turn away from following and grumbling according to your feelings, desires, and opinions. Instead begin to gratefully follow and obey the Spirit of God, the Bible (the ancient writings inspired by the Spirit), and your God-given conscience. Not everything that’s called love is love.

Gratitude and heart-to-heart alignment with God lead to great inner peace. Grumbling leads to grumpiness.

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” –Philippians 2:14-16. It’s hard to love your neighbors as yourself if you’re grumbling about them.

True Christianity isn’t about grumbling about human politics. It’s about training people to be inwardly governed by God.

The more you grumble
The more your hope will crumble
Until you stumble
And then tumble
Into anger and despair.

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Posted in community building, Creating Community, love your neighbor as yourself, the beloved community | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Don’t Just Try, Rely!

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What could you try for the first time?
View all responses

If you learn to rely
You can say goodbye
To all your guilt and shame.
You can try and try
To get rid of shame
But it’s better to rely
On Jesus the Lord
And let Him supply
The forgiveness you need.
If you will defy
Your pride and self-effort
Jesus will untie
Shame’s hard knots in your heart.
Don’t just barely scrape by.
Continually trust,
depend, and rely
On the living Jesus!
(Read Psalm 25)

Sermons and reasoning
Can’t explain Christ’s seasoning.
You have to taste and see.
Begin envisioning.
“Behold the Lamb of God”
And let Him set you free.

If easy
To just perch
On a seat
For an hour
In church
But not search
For Jesus
With your whole heart
And then depart
Still the same
As when you came.

Jesus doesn’t go to church. He doesn’t need to go because He’s already everywhere. Learn to hang out with Him wherever you are.

Most Christians don’t need more religious information. They need more spiritual formation until Christ is formed in them — in the way they walk and talk and live their daily lives. (See Galatians 4:19.)

I tried church for decades both as a preacher and as a sermon-hearer. Neither worked for me. When I would attend church, it always felt like I was putting Jesus in a religious box for an hour and then I got to let Him out again when it was over.

That was until The Salvation Army asked my wife Ernie and me to start and oversee a sermon-free church. We began with praise and worship and then let anyone present share as they felt prompted by God’s Spirit.

It was an awesome experience that lasted for ten years until we were forced by a Salvation Army leader to stop. Since then, we’ve been gathering with anybody who’s willing to meet like that and let the Spirit lead. We listen to God’s Spirit with people throughout the week and then say and do what He tells us to.

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I Try to Let “I AM” Define How I Live

Posted on October 12, 2024 by Steve Simms

A still small voice
In human hearts
Declares that
There is a Being
Whose existence
Doesn’t depend
On anyone
Or anything,
Who calls Himself
“I AM that I AM.”
Be still and listen
Attentively
And that voice
Will grow in you!

When I am
Listening
With my heart
I hear
“I AM” speaking.
I hear His peace
And purity
And His longing
For an eternal
Relationship
With me.

“I AM” says
“Come unto Me.
I am here
And you are dear
To Me.”

I am
Not defined
By my desires
Or my feelings.
I am
Who “I AM”
Says I am
And so are you.

Hear “I AM”
With your heart.
Let Him start
His cleansing
Fire in you.

Hearing a weekly sermon won’t train you to follow the God-man Jesus who said, “Before Abraham was I am.” You have to regularly hear and obey His voice to do that.

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