My Pet Plea!

Posted on November 10, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What is good about having a pet?
View all responses

Here it is. This is my pet plea — the desire of my heart.


Christians don’t be
An audience.
Make church about
Active heart-felt
Obedience
To God’s Spirit
And reliance
On Christ’s presence.
That’s the essence
Of true worship.
(John 4:23)

I don’t want to be
A Sunday morning
Hearer-only.
I want to be
A doer
Of the word.
(James 1:22)

Hearers-only
Go to church
To only hear
But not to do
Anything about
What they’ve heard.
The Bible says
Not to do that.
How much more
Hearing only
But not doing
Do churches need?
Enough is enough.
(James 1:22)

Do nothing
Christianity
Invites people
To sit and hear
A sermon
But gives them
No time at all
In the meeting
To do something
About what
They have heard.

Christ My Desire

I want my eyes
To see Jesus,
Not to see
One preacher
Monopolize
A church service.
Spirit arise
And take control.
Only You can
Make people whole.
Where’s a God size
Spiritual fire?

Sunday morning church gets to me. It’s so far away from what I see in the Bible and how I relate to Jesus that it breaks my heart. Contemporary church is an audience maker not a disciple maker.

What is a pastor? Here’s a definition: A pastor is a person who thinks he is the only one who has a right to speak in front of a congregation of Christians. He is someone who turns Christians into a passive audience.

I think Catholics may be closer to what God wants church to be than Protestants, evangelicals, and charismatics. Catholics at least get people actively involved in doing a few things — kneeing, praying silently from the heart, repeating prayers together out loud, participating in rituals, coming to the altar, and confessing their sins. Most of the rest of the churches merely let people sing a few songs and then make them sit and passively listen to the same man week after week monopolize the meeting. Why can’t God’s people in a congregation be free to listen to and obey God the Holy Spirit?

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It Costs to Stop the Shutdown

Posted on November 9, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Name the most expensive personal item you’ve ever purchased (not your home or car).
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It will cost you your pride to stop shutting down the Holy Spirit. (James 4:6) It’s worth the price. Humble yourself and pay it. (James 4:10)

Too many Christians have shut down their faith. (Hebrews 11:6) They have shut their heart down and rejected the invisible inner government of God the Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19) They have been unwilling to hear and obey what the Spirit is saying. (Revelation 2:17) They have neglected and refused to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23) They have set aside and ignored the gifts of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)

Instead of humbly repenting (Acts 3:19) of their sins, shutdown Christians have blamed and accused other people. Instead of seeking first the invisible inner government of God (Matthew 6:33) and His right living they have put their country first. Instead of denying themselves (Mark 8:34), they’ve focused on their own desires, feelings, and opinions. They have relied on their own power and ability instead of surrendering to and depending on the presence and power of God the Holy Spirit. (Zechariah 4:6)

Shutdown Christians have an outward form of godliness, but they don’t give it any power to change how they live their daily lives. (2 Timothy 3:5) They are merely hearers of the word, but they refuse to actually and humbly do what it says. (James 1:22) Instead of blessing those who curse them and loving their enemies (Luke 6:27-29) they insult and despise them. Have you shut down the inner flow of God the Holy Spirit? (John 7:38-39)

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The Godman Podcast

Posted on November 8, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What podcasts are you listening to?
View all responses

According to the Bible Jesus is the Godman — God in human flesh. He laid down His life on the Cross so human beings can be restored to heart-to-heart intimacy with God the Father. Christ rose from the dead and lives forever so that He can now live inside of (Colossians 1:27) and through His true followers as God the Holy Spirit. He speaks and His followers hear His inner podcast. (John 10:27) I listen to the risen Jesus.

From the beginning the Word was with God and the Word was God. (John 1:1) Then the Word became flesh and gathered people around Him. His name is Jesus. He taught them. He trained them. He loved them. He led them. (John 1:14) Those people beheld His glory and spread His story, not just in words but in how they lived their lives.

Jesus the Godman is the true light that gives light to everyone. (John 1:9) He invites whosoever will to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him (Luke 9:23) yet multitudes reject His light. Many others just honor Him with their lips but keep their heart far away from Him. (Matthew 15:8-9) However all who truly receive Him, surrender their heart to Him, and rely on Him as their living Lord and their God (John 20:28) become children of God supernaturally born again. (John 1:12-13 & 3:3-7)

If you will let Jesus, the Godman, continually align your will with His will you will know Him as your Lord and Master. Then you will experience His glorious presence like never before!

Followers of the Godman should want the people they disagree with to be healed, encouraged, and transformed by Christ’s joyous presence and peace. (Luke 6:28) They should radiate His light. (Matthew 5:14) They shouldn’t use power or politics to try to defeat or humiliate people. (Zechariah 4:6) They should win them over by God’s love. (Matthew 5:44)

Through all that’s going on around us, we Christ-followers need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. (Hebrews 12:2) Our hearts need to be constantly aflame with passionate love for and obedience to the Godman. (2 Timothy 1:6) We need to always demonstrate (1 Corinthians 2:4) the reality of Christ’s presence and love in all we say and do.

Nations are discipled by the power and presence of the risen Jesus being demonstrated in and through followers of the Godman — Christians who love not their lives unto death (Revelation 12:11) and demonstrate compassionate love for their enemies. Disciples aren’t made by politics.

In the final hours before His crucifixion, Jesus, the Godman, chose tenderness at a supper table not triumph from a conquering throne. He chose foot washing not enemy squashing. He calls us to do the same.

Followers of the Godman are supposed to be a supernaturally functioning family led by God the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, contemporary church is much closer to being a formal restaurant than it is to being a family. It serves up a meal of words, (called a sermon) collects money, and then sends everybody out into this lonely, mental health crisis world and hopes that they make it on their own until next Sunday morning.

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My Favorite Subject is Practical Life Skills

Posted on November 7, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What was your favorite subject in school?
View all responses

Hope isn’t magic. There are many practical ways to fill your life with hope!

My favorite subject is practical life skills. I am always searching for ways to improve my mind, my heart, and my behavior and to fill my life with hope. Throughout my life I’ve read many hundreds of extremely helpful books about personal and spiritual growth. The one that has helped me the most is the Bible. It has helped (and continues to help) me to experience and surrender to the living Jesus in more and more powerful ways.

Walking Life’s Emmaus Roads

To get to know and grow
Closer to Jesus.
Begin to listen to
Christ inside of you
And do what He tells you.
Go walk along and flow
With the inner leading
Of God the Spirit.
Live at God’s tempo.
It’s time to overflow
With the hope of glory
And with holy gusto.

You need to receive
The illumination
Of revelation
Directly from God.
The enumeration
Of religious ideas
And information
Is just not enough!
You need to become
A habitation
Of the risen Jesus.
Go experience what
Christ in you can do!
(Colossians 1:27)

Jesus promised His followers inner rivers of living water. (John 7:38-39) Yet far too many of us are content to let our heart be a dusty dried-up riverbed. It’s easy to walk through life unaware of the actual presence of the risen Jesus.

I’ve left what I don’t think is right. It seems to me that both the left and the right have abandoned true humility, overlooked the real presence of the risen Jesus, and given up on His supernatural insight. Now that’s a fright!

I choose to center on Christ living in and walking with me. I seek first to keep my focus on His mercy and grace and on His call for us all to humbly repent and to “Go and sin no more.”

Posted in discipleship, hope, hope in Christ, life skills, training | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I Keep the King of Hearts on My Screen

Posted on November 6, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
How do you manage screen time for yourself?
View all responses

Who’s the King of Your Heart?

God is beyond
Your intellect.
Learn to connect
To His presence
With your whole heart.
Experience
His pure effect.
Let Him inject
You with His love.
Let Him direct
The things you say
And what you do
By His Spirit
(Christ in you)
Throughout each day.
Then you’ll project
And you’ll reflect
The King of Hearts’
Amazing grace
Every place
You go.

Get your eyes off of human personalities and fix your focus steadfastly on Jesus. Christianity isn’t about human personalities whether you call them pastors or any other fancy title.

A Christian’s focus should never be on a popular leader. It should always be on the living, resurrected Jesus Christ! Behold Jesus the Lamb of God. (John 1:29) Follow Him, not mere people. Look unto Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) not to your favorite preachers!

The greatest freedom ìs freedom from the thoughts, feelings, desires, and behaviors that separate you from the conscious awareness of the presence of God. That’s the freedom that matters most to me!

Experience true freedom. Google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

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Take the Time to Find Hope

Posted on November 5, 2025 by Steve Simms

Take the time to take up weapons that can fill your life with peace and joy. Weapons unused are useless. Regularly, persistently, and consistently take up and use these three weapons that powerfully and effectively overcome the mental and emotional things that are holding you back and pulling you down. (Revelation 12:11)

1) Continually rely and depend only on the blood of Jesus for your access to the power and presence of God, not on self-effort or self-righteousness. (1 John 1:7)
2) Frequently, publicly, and humbly share your testimony about how Jesus has worked and is working in and through your life. (Acts 1:8)
3) Quit focusing on yourself. Deny yourself, embrace the things that crucify your self-focused desires, and faithfully follow and obey the risen Jesus throughout each day. (Luke 9:23)

Rooftop Faith + a Spirit-Directed Lifestyle = Genuine Spiritual Awakening

God wants to make known the glorious mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27) If Jesus is living inside of you and His Spirit is flowing from your inner most being (John 7:38-39) don’t hide Him. (Matthew 5:15) Shout your testimony (Revelation 12:11) from the housetops (Matthew 10:27) and live your life in such a way that all can see the presence and power of Jesus (Matthew 28:20) and the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) clearly demonstrated in the way you live your daily life. (1 Corinthians 2:4)

“Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Jesus Christ said that to His disciples. (Luke 22:46) Perhaps He’s still saying it to those of us who claim to be Christians.

Systematized
Christianity
Has hypnotized
People into
Passivity
And done away with
Spirit-prompted
Spontaneity.
It has ritualized,
Institutionalized,
And depersonalized
Spirituality.
It has disguised
Unbelief
And called it faith.
(Matthew 23:27-28)
(2 Chronicles 7:14)
Lord, have mercy on us.

Perhaps it’s time to withdraw from routine religion (Luke 22:39-46) and to seek first the kingdom of God (the actual presence and the will of God instead of your own will) and His righteousness (not your own). (Matthew 6:33)

Christians, be Spirit-prompted not pride-propelled. Routine rots relationships. Go beyond rote routine and revitalize your relationship with the risen Jesus.

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The Secret of Breakthrough?

Posted on November 4, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What will your life be like in three years?
View all responses

Almost everybody would like to have a breakthrough in their life. We hope for, long for, and strive for a breakthrough. Unfortunately, after various periods of time, many of us give up on the idea of a breakthrough and settle into a life of drudgery, routine, and hopelessness. Perhaps it’s time to get your hopes us!

Here’s the secret to breakthrough. Surrender to God’s inner wind. Let His Spirit freely flow from within you day and night.

God’s Interior Wind

Many Christians
Don’t even know
That God’s Spirit
Desires to flow
From inside them.
(John 7:38-39

To truly grow
Release the flow
Of the Spirit
From within you.
(Ephesians 4:30)

Boldly say no
To anything
That blocks God’s flow.
Now go and grow!
(1 Thessalonians 5:19)

Those born again
Can let God’s wind
Constantly blow
From deep within.
(John 3:6-8)

Ever enjoy
God’s rushing wind
(Acts 2:2)
That’ll lift you up
On eagles’ wings
(Isaiah 40:31)
Till your heart sings
Unceasingly.
(Ephesians 5:18-20)

God’s inner flow
Is way beyond
The things you know.
It’s a heart that’s
Open to grow
(Matthew 15:8)
And be led by
God the Spirit.
(Romans 8:14)

Organized religion hasn’t produced the unity in the body of Christ that Jesus so passionately prayed for. (John 17:21-23) Instead, it has hacked Christianity up into tens of thousands of independent churches and denominations that disagree with and work against each other in many ways.

True Christian unity only comes by the wind of God the Holy Spirit not through institutional churches. It’s time to give spontaneous, heart-to-heart, Spirit-led Christianity a chance. It’s time to go beyond letting the control and opinions of one man dominate church services week after week. It’s time to let God the Holy Spirit take control so that He can speak and testify (Revelation 12:11) in and through as many people as He wants to during a worship gathering. (1 Corinthians 14:26)

Photo by Furdi De Rivera on Pexels.com
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The True Holiday Spirit

Posted on November 3, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.
View all responses

“The Fruit of the Vineyard” will release the true holiday spirit! Celebrate “The Fruit of the Vineyard Day” every single day of the year!

Jesus wants His followers to surrender to and be continually led by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:14) He wants Christians to give Him the fruit of the Spirit (the fruit of the vineyard, Luke 20:10) overflowing from their heart to Him, to one another, and to everyone they encounter. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Jesus Christ wants people to have the glorious inner freedom (Romans 8:21) to unceasingly follow and obey God the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:1) He wants to set us free from bondage to religious laws (Galatians 5:4-6) and legalistic traditions (Mark 713) so that we can be led by the Spirit instead of being ruled by religious expectations and regulations. (Galatians 5:18) Jesus wants us to not quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) so that God’s rivers of living water can continually overflow from deep within us (John 7:38-39) and produce the wonderful fruit of the Spirit that is free from the religious law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Christians need to be trained to “live by the Spirit” and to “keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25) It’s not effective for them to merely be taught more and more religious information every Sunday. (2 Timothy 3:5-7) Christ-followers need more than sermons. They need interactive, hands-on, Spirit-led discipleship. (Matthew 28:19) Then they can live a lifestyle free from bondage to Spirit-quenching pride, spiritual envy, and church conflict. (Galatians 5:26)

Being led by the Spirit is God’s way. Anything that hinders Christians from being led by the Spirit is bondage. Politics and human control are the ways of the world. To revitalize Sunday morning church let people testify (Rev 12:11) and share Scriptures (Joshua 1:8) not simply sit and listen. (1 Cor 14:26)

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I’ll Do More Than Hear a Sermon

Posted on November 2, 2025 by Steve Simms

The heart of a worship service shouldn’t be a sermon. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” (Psalm 107:2) Release the overcoming power of people’s testimonies. (Revelation 12:11)

I’ll do more than hear a sermon
For a sermon in itself
Is not what God has required.
He looks much deeper within
To the way things are.
He’s looking into my heart.
I’m coming back to
Direct revelation
From the risen Jesus.
I’m sorry Lord for settling for a talk
When faith’s all about You.
It’s all about You.
Help me hear directly from You, Jesus.

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My Favorite “Inner-net” Site Is Joy.Jesus!

Posted on November 2, 2025 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite websites?
View all responses

Find joy in low places! Luke 19:6 tells us that Zacchaeus came down from his tree and gladly welcomed Jesus. Perhaps we should do likewise.

If you want to be strong in the Lord, humble yourself, (James 4:10) come down from your high places, and gladly welcome the living Jesus into your heart, your home, and your life. Open up your heart to surrender to and to overflow with God’s joy.

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) God wants to flood you with His indescribable and glorious joy. (1 Peter 1:8) Jesus says that He wants His joy to be in you and for your joy to be full. (John 15:11) Do you want Christ’s joyfulness?

The Bible says that the kingdom of God is not about religious rules or rituals. It’s about right living, inner peace, and Holy Spirit produced joy. (Romans 14:17) If you aren’t experiencing ongoing joy, you are quenching the Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

Begin to allow God the Holy Spirit to continually produce the fruit of His joy (Galatians 5:22-23) within and through you. Then you will “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4)) You’ll discover that a cheerful heart is good medicine. (Proverbs 17:22)

Be glad and rejoice in the Lord. (Psalm 9:2) Let His written words be the joy of your heart. (Psalm 119:111-112) Even when you are persecuted for your faith, rejoice and be glad! (Matthew 5:12) Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. (Luke 6:23)

God keeps me glad by what He has done and is doing within and around me. (Psalm 92:4) Day by day gladness and everlasting joy overtake me and sorrow and sighing flee away. (Isaiah 51:11)

Go beyond routine religion to pure joy. Sermons are too often attempts to explain the unexplainable (Philippians 4:7) and to describe the indescribably glorious, (1 Peter 1:8) but the Bible teaches that the “enticing words of men’s wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:4) are not fully able to communicate the reality of risen Jesus. (1 Corinthians 4:20)

People need to see actual demonstrations of Christ’s presence, of His power, and of the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) like Zacchaeus did. People need to continually experience the reality of divine revelation imparted directly to their heart, (Matthew 16:17) not just hear a mentally prepared classroom-style lesson once a week. (2 Corinthians 4:6) People need Christ’s words to burn like fire within them, (Luke 24:32) not merely to be explained to their mind.

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