Are You Ready to Learn How to Breathe Spiritually?

Are You Ready to Learn How to Breathe Spiritually?

 

Good Morning Friends,

 

Take a deep breath. Hold it. Now exhale. You just took some air into your lungs. Your lungs removed the oxygen from the air for your continued existence. You then exhaled carbon dioxide mixed with air. What you took in sustains your body’s life. What you breathed out is of no use to you unless you are trying to save the life of a person who has stopped breathing. In fact if you kept it in your lungs too long it would actually be harmful. Breathing is so natural that you do not even need to think about doing it. But saving another’s life takes some thought and practice. So too spiritual breathing is not so natural. We sin without much effort and find repentance difficult. Most of us, have learned to mentally breathe in a worship experience but have forgotten how to morally exhale. We tend the trellis but need to understand how to nurture the vine. Are You Ready to Learn How to Breathe Spiritually?

 

Scripture: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

 

John 20:19-23 (NRSV)

 

Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

 

Psalm 150:1-6 (NRSV)

 

If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

 

Galatians 5:25 (NRSV)

 

You have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight. Surely everyone stands as a mere breath. Selah

 

Psalm 39:5 (NRSV)

 

“You chastise mortals in punishment for sin, consuming like a moth what is dear to them; surely everyone is a mere breath. Selah

 

Psalm 39:11 (NRSV)

 

Message: Some have used the breathing process as an illustration of the ongoing exchange between believers and God. Even the name Yahweh can be a breath of Yah in and weh out. The general thought is that every moment we inhale his love, forgiveness, and mercy. And on a moment by moment basis we exhale our confession of sins, our sorrow over them, and our desire to change our lives. This “spiritual breathing” is hopefully working in us through God’s Word and Spirit. You see, Jesus wants us to prepare for just how wonderful and mighty a response He can breathe into our lives so we might breathe well. And that is why He wants us to live moment by moment, so that living in the Spirit becomes as natural as breathing itself. Here the hope is that we experience a satisfaction in our physical bodies that reminds us of what it is to be satisfied with God spiritually. And it should be our goal in life to find this satisfaction. Imagine we are underwater and our lungs are crying out in pain asking us to surface into the Spirit. Imagine having a passion for life itself. Friends, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied with Him. Only when we breathe in our memory of God and exhale our sins do we experience satisfaction with a passion that glorifies God.
Christian ministry is really not very complicated. It is simply the making and nurturing of genuine followers of the Lord Jesus Christ through prayerful, Spirit-backed proclamation of the Word of God. It’s disciple-making. This is not hard to understand, nor even hard to do – unless you happen to be a sinful person living in a sinful world. Friends, until we learn to breathe spiritually the work of the church will never get done. The singing with praise will never get sung. Breathing is one of those things our bodies do naturally, but if we are to sing we need to have reminders of when to breathe. So too in the spiritual sense we need reminders to breath. God’s Word and Spirit must lead us to exhale our sorrow and repentance over our sins. Then God’s Word must also lead us to inhale God’s mercy and forgiveness. Breathe the Psalms friends. Breathe like a believer moment by moment.

 

Pray that we would long so much for God that we could feel it in our flesh. Pray that we would crave for God and desire our next breath and the satisfaction it brings. Pray that we realize that there is no satisfaction, no glorification apart from God being in our very breathe. Pray we exhale our sorrow and repentance over our sins. Pray we inhale God’s mercy and forgiveness through faith. Pray we breathe in the Father’s love and breathe out our desire to control every outcome. Pray we breathe in our trust of Jesus and breathe out our lust for the things of the world. Pray we breathe in to cultivate devotion to God and breathe out those things that compete with Jesus acting in and through us as love for others. Pray we breathe in slowly and deeply through our nose seeking the aroma of God and the Word of God made flesh and we breathe out through our mouth in submission into the arms of love. Pray in time though God’s sanctification we learn to breathe in God’s peace and exhale it as well.

 

 

Blessings,

 

John Lawson