Exhaling the life and breath of God
Spiritual exhaling releases what God breathes into you, for the building of his kingdom and the honor of his name. Exhaling the Breath of God, you release life.
Spiritual exhaling releases what God breathes into you, for the building of his kingdom and the honor of his name. Exhaling the Breath of God, you release life.
As you inhale, you’re filled with breath. As you inhale spiritually, you’re filled with the Breath of God. Spirit-to-spirit, you receive his life.
In Scripture, God makes a direct connection between breath and spirit, and so, between the act of breathing and the act of relating to him. He shows us: As breath is to the body, being filled with the Spirit and living in the power of the Spirit are vital to life in Christ.
It’s agonizing to be bullied. And in the church? The agony multiplies exponentially when victims have believed deceptive abusers to be godly Christians.
"How long will you try to go both ways?" Elijah cried. Where people identified with God cling to deep double-mindedness, they empower a two-headed snake.
Fifteen years ago, I began a journey of awakening. The end of that journey exposed the beginning of my life. At long last, I saw the hard-to-face realities and easy-to-embrace fantasies in my childhood that led to everything else.
Most likely, none of us would choose brown and gray all year long. But if we don’t stop to appreciate what God has made beautiful in this time, we may get all our presents and miss all our moments.
In English Bible translations, phrases beginning "God who" often tell us what he has done or is doing. They show us God's works. But more, these phrases can give us insight into the heart of the One who does the works. They can teach us God's ways.
Even in suffering, even in exile, may you find growing within you: A life energetic and blazing with holiness, conceived by God himself. Life healed and whole. Laughter and singing. Genuine faith proved genuine. Living hope. One-anothering love. A future that starts now.
Learning to dance with God means being vulnerable, flexible, brave, as he frees us from the paralysis of the religious and teaches us to move in sync with him.