My mind changed

Posted on October 7, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?
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I believed that the Bible was a book written by people and full of religious myths (and perhaps a bit of ancient wisdom). I had never read it and never intended to. Then one day something amazing happened inside my heart. Although I was an agnostic who didn’t believe in Jesus, in an instant He became real to me and suddenly I had a strong desire to find a Bible and read it.

I read and read and read. I couldn’t put it down. It spoke powerfully to me and revealed the secrets of my heart. Bit by bit I began to believe that different parts of the Bible were truly holy and divinely inspired, simply because they impacted me so powerfully and filled me with insight and understanding that I never had before. After about two years of reading the Bible for hours each day, I realized that I was convinced that it is a supernatural book inspired by the living God.

Continually reading the Bible (as a love letter from God, not as a religious textbook) began to empower me to live Jesus day and night. O what lasting change! I’ve been reading God’s Book and living Jesus ever since then. I woke up this morning with these thoughts:

Lived experience changes lives. Lectures seldom do. Live Jesus. To go to church is one thing; to live Jesus is another. Live Jesus here, there, and everywhere.

Jesus lived fills your life with His life. Jesus lectured feeds you a few facts about Him. To truly live is to live Jesus.

Live Jesus. Connect heart-to-heart with Him and bend your will to His. Let Him stream in your mind, in your heart, and in your life, today, tomorrow, and forever.

Everything we do that brings us closer to Jesus pleases God. Everything we do that distances us from Jesus displeased God. Make it your life’s mission to live Jesus!

Live Jesus every day,
In what you do
And what you say.
Obey Him in every way.
Never let your heart stray.
Begin to live and breathe
Jesus today!

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Can Jesus take charge?

Posted on October 6, 2023 by Steve Simms

When being led by the Spirit is seen as optional for Christians, we abandon God’s guidance for our own opinions and desires. Institutionally directed eyes are often too institutionalized to focus on the risen Jesus. Focus your eyes on Him. To say that Jesus is the head of a church while confining Him to the role of a mere observer is a contradiction. We need a Jesus take-over.

If Christians promoted being led by God’s Spirit as much as we do church attendance, we’d be experiencing continuous revival! If we truly believed that Jesus is alive and present when we gather in His name, we’d let Him take charge of the meeting. I believe most churches contain at least a few people who are thrilled about Jesus, but they’re not allowed to freely express their excitement and are often shamed when they do.

Spirit-led Christianity doesn’t require a religious regimen. Awareness of and obedience to Jesus will do. I can’t think of anyone or anything more exciting than the living Jesus Christ.

Every Christian is given the manifestation of God’s Spirit so that we can all minister to each other. The responsibility to minister in the body of Christ belongs to every member, not to just one person. If you are a member of the body of Christ, it’s your responsibility to allow the Holy Spirit to manifest in you (and to not hold Him back or “quench” Him) so that other members of Christ’s body can be strengthened by what they see and hear the Holy Spirit do in and through you. See 1 Corinthians 12:7.

When the body of Christ is turned into little more than a passive audience for one person’s speech, people aren’t permitted to function as prompted by God’s Spirit. You don’t need a religious building or a Sunday talk or a well-planned program or a nice service in order to be led by God’s Spirit! Simply focus your awareness on the living Jesus and do what He says.

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When these words are misused, it makes me feel out of place.

Posted on October 6, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.
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Sometimes people assume that words spoken about one person also apply to them. That assumption can quickly lead to false presumption. For example, it makes me feel out of place to assume that the words “with Him I am well pleased” that that God the Father spoke over Jesus should be spoken over all Christians including me.

I sometimes disappoint God the Father. Sometimes I ignore His inner voice and choose to do my will instead of His. Sometimes I’m unloving or rude to people. Sometimes I’m like the priest and the Levite in the Good Samaritan parable and I rush by and intentionally overlook someone in need. Sometimes I let my pride entangle me in self-focus. There’s no way that God is pleased with me when I am ignoring His will.

The words that I need are the words of this ancient prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.” My “place” is at the foot of the Cross humbly receiving God’s unmerited mercy.

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With the inner ABCs a computer is optional

Posted on October 5, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
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Being led by God’s Spirit is as basic as the ABCs. No computer is needed. Just do what you do, say what you say, and think what you think in obedience to God’s Spirit.

  • A) Align yourself with the inner actions of God’s Spirit.
  • B) Build your life on the blessings of God’s Spirit.
  • C) Comply with the callings of God’s Spirit.
  • D) Dare to obey the drawings of God’s Spirit.
  • E) Enjoy the encouragements of God’s Spirit.
  • F) Flow with Spirit-given feelings.
  • G) Go with the gushings of God’s Spirit.
  • H) Hold tightly to the hopes of God’s Spirit.
  • I) Identify with the inclinations of God’s Spirit.
  • J) Jingle with the joys of God’s Spirit.
  • K) Keep in step with the Spirit.
  • L) Listen to the leadings of God’s Spirit.
  • M) Meditate on the mentionings of God’s Spirit.
  • N) Notice the nudgings of God’s Spirit.
  • O) Obey the orders of God’s Spirit.
  • P) Pay attention to the promptings of God’s Spirit.
  • Q) Quickly follow the quickenings of God’s Spirit.
  • R) Rely on the reasonings of God’s Spirit.
  • S) Sensitize yourself to the signals of God’s Spirit.
  • T) Trust in the timings of God’s Spirit.
  • U) Unite with the urgings of God’s Spirit.
  • V) Validate the verifications of God’s Spirit.
  • W) Walk according to the words of God’s Spirit.
  • X) ‘Xpose yourself to the X-rays of God’s Spirit.
  • Y) Yield to the yearnings of God’s Spirit.
  • Z) Zero in on the zeal of God’s Spirit.

To follow Jesus you need to be aware of His presence. The ABC’s of the Holy Spirit will make you very much aware of Him. It will also help if you begin to daily read the Bible like a love letter instead of like a textbook.

Christianity without radical discipleship misses the point. Ordinary Christians need to be trained, empowered, and released to continually follow the risen Jesus by listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit. See Romans 8:14.

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Still learning this skill

Posted on October 4, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What skill would you like to learn?
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There is a skill that I’ve been trying to learn for most of my life. It is the skill of quickly admitting when I am wrong, making amends where possible, and humbly changing my thoughts and behaviors to align with what is right.

The most underdeveloped skill among human beings it the skill of listening to and obeying our conscience. The best way to develop that skill is to train yourself to continually open your heart and be led by God’s Spirit.

As I lay sleeping,
I suddenly woke up
With this call to repentance
Forming in my mind.

When your choices
Knock you down
Choose to back up
And to get back up.
Don’t just lay around
And wallow in sin
Until you drown
With your heart
Not right with God.
Turn around,
Step up,
And stand firmly
With Christ
On solid ground
At the Cross.

Turn down
The temptation
To not step up
To God’s plate,
The Cross of Christ.

Your heart will be bright
When the risen Jesus
Is your sky light.

If Christ is in you, be an outlet. Let His glory freely flow to others. It’s not too late to wake up!

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Acute awareness of the most important detail

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What details of your life could you pay more attention to?
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After I encountered the risen Jesus and surrendered my heart to Him, my life was being continually transformed by His presence within me. I was devouring the Bible daily and it was feeding my soul and changing me from within.

About a year after my initial surrender to Jesus someone shared some Scriptures about “the baptism in the Holy Spirit” from the book of Acts in the Jesus town hall meeting that I was a regular part of. They invited anyone who wanted to receive this experience to come to a guy’s house trailer. I was hungry for more of Jesus (and what they shared was biblical) so I went.

Several people gathered around me, laid their hands on me, and started to pray for me to receive the Holy Spirit. They told me to raise my hands and to repeat, “Thank You, Jesus,” over and over. Then they began to pray in tongues.

After a few minutes there was an incredible release from deep within me and words that I didn’t know began to rush out of my mouth. I was overcome with an awe and an acute awareness of the living Jesus that has stayed with me ever since then. Whenever I feel that awareness start to wane, I pray in tongues and I’m suddenly back in that supernatural state.

Last night I was awakened with this original poem forming within me. It’s called: “How Hope and Awe Arise.”

As I walk along
The ancient road
That follows
A mighty river
Covered with
God’s glory cloud,
My fog clears
And I behold
A radiant light
Rising high.
It’s streaming rays
Flood my heart
With awe and hope.

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Priority #1: Grow confidence & harvest hope!

Posted on October 2, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What’s your #1 priority tomorrow?
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Every step I take in obedience to and reliance on the risen Jesus increases my confidence level in Him! Subjectivity seldom matches reality. Objectivity does. What Jesus says and does in me makes me marvel at His amazing objectivity. Frequently gathering to be Spirit-led enables Christians to be immersed in the culture, language, and objectivity of God’s kingdom.

Let the wall
Around your heart
Begin to fall.
It’s way too tall.
Then you’ll be
Able to hear
God’s call.

Casually socializing, just hanging out with people, lacks the power of openly connecting heart-to-heart. Cultivate purity in your heart so you can plant and harvest seeds of hope in yourself and others.

Christ’s ekklesia begins to function when His followers open their heart to Him and to one another. Let’s gather to encounter, rely on, and actively obey the living Jesus, not to be an audience. Let the living Jesus take active control of the mike, the pulpit, the podium, the program, the platform, and you’ll be amazed by what he does in and thru ordinary people!

Church needs to be more than a sermon dispenser. How about opening the mike for people to testify as prompted by God’s Spirit?

Why don’t Christians have more confidence in Jesus? Perhaps it’s because we have conformed to the world instead of to the culture of the kingdom of God.

Conformation
To a culture
Of corruption
Leads to consternation
And self-condemnation.

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The trait that keeps me on the straight and narrow

Posted on September 30, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What’s the trait you value most about yourself?
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As long as I can remember I’ve had the belief that God knows everything about me — everything I do, everything I think, feel, and desire, and everything I say. Because of that belief I realized that if God already knows everything about me there’s no reason to for me to hide things from anybody else.

That led me to radical openness and self-depreciating honesty. When I’m interacting with people, I tell all and almost never try to hide anything. As a small child I world go to my parents and tell them how I had disobeyed them. (God knew so why shouldn’t they?) My wife says she has never worried about me cheating on her because she knows that I would immediately come and tell her.

I don’t like to carry guilt when I’ve done wrong, so I confess it and get it out into the open. That way I don’t have to secretly carry the burden.

By opening my heart with honesty to people I feel a deep connection with them, and they usually offer me kindness and compassion. They often reciprocate and open their heart to me. This makes a deep connection.

I was a counselor/chaplain in a recovery treatment center for 5 1/2 years. Rather than approaching the men with reserved professionalism, I shared with them with openness and honesty about my own struggles with guilt, fear, and worry. Then they opened up to me, confessing and often weeping. It was an amazing thing to see this powerful healing pattern repeated over and over in hundreds of men’s lives.

It doesn’t matter to me whether I get likes on this post or not. Good comments, bad comments, or no comments, God knows my heart, so I am free from other people’s praise or criticism. I only hope that this post has encouraged you. God knows everything about you, even the things you’ve hidden from yourself, and He loves you so much that He longs to lead you to hope, healing, forgiveness, and righteousness. Here’s how He does that: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Why not open your heart to the risen Jesus Christ right now?

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My 3 jobs that had nothing to do with money!

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.
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No matter what my employment has been, my number one job has been to testify to the presence, power, and reality of the resurrected Jesus Christ. The three main ways I was employed as I pursued that path are:

  1. A motivational speaker and writer. (Check out my author page on Amazon.)
  2. A counselor and chaplain in a residential alcohol and drug treatment center for 86 men.
  3. An officer in The Salvation Army.
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Calling for Christian witnesses, not just Christian lawyers!

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Steve Simms

A lawyer argues his case by trying to persuade people with logic, reason, and sometimes emotion. A witness testifies by telling what he or she has personally seen and heard. Anyone can argue the case for Christ, but someone has to have personal experience with the risen Jesus in order to testify about Him.

Jesus isn’t searching for expert witnesses. He’s calling ordinary people to take His witness stand to everyday life so that they can show and tell what Christ has done in and through their lives. Every Sunday millions of formal presentations about Jesus are given around the world, but very few heart-felt testimonies about how He has saved, healed, and delivered ordinary people are heard. It’s time to: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,” by training them to share “the word of their testimony.”

It’s good to want the risen Jesus to be allowed to be the literal Head of His people when they gather in His name. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to be entombed again by religion. Let Him live in and direct you!

Relational Christianity, connecting heart-to-heart with Jesus and with His followers, is powerful! It’s impossible to go God’s way as long as we insist on going our way.

Jesus knocks
On your door.
Let Him thru
All the locks
That keep your heart
In a box.

Lifeless religion
Without Christ’s fire
Burning in human hearts
Is not God’s desire.

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