Spiritual Breathing

UV 2032/10000 Spiritual Breathing
All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
Job 27 v 3
The fundamental unit of life consists of each breath we take in and breathe out. After God formed man, He breathed into his nostrils and man began to live. The source of our lives is the breath of God. All other creatures like the animals and birds were created by the Lord speaking them into existence. They breathed, too but the breath was not that of the Lord. They had no living spirit and hence, are called beast. He reserved the best for the best of his creatures- man. Our breath and spirit are special and intermingled with that of the Lord. He breathed His very spirit into our nostrils. Hence, with every breath we need to acknowledge, focus and anchor on the Lord. We can use our breathing to be in touch with our souls. We can breathe to praise and worship the Lord. WE can breathe to invoke the spirit of God. We can breathe to cling to good in our lives and to let go of the evil. Without the breath and spirit of God in us, we would be no more than other beasts or inanimate things. The Lord animated or triggered our lives with His breath. Hence, we can animate or trigger good things in our lives by anchoring on our breathing.
To begin with we can offer sacrifices of breath-praise, breath-thanksgiving and breath-prayer. We can train ourselves so that with virtually every breathing in of oxygen, we thank the Lord for the good things He has endowed us with, the good experiences, the blessings. With every breathing out, we can ask the Lord to protect us, preserve us from all things evil in this world. I call this pattern of breathing “spiritual breathing”. Spiritual breathing is extremely powerful and effective. It combines the natural with the supernatural, the spiritual with the temporal. We will be able to draw on the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the grace, peace, joy and strength of the Lord with every breath.
When the resurrected Jesus breathed on His disciples, they received the Holy Spirit. They were transformed from being disciples or “learners” to apostles or the ones sent out to the world to teach, to heal, to deliver. Likewise, the Lord has breathed on us that we receive the Holy Spirit afresh. We can use our breaths to renew our faith, to regenerate our love, to enliven our souls, to refresh our inner being, to be one with the Lord and each other in spirit for the same spirit and same breath dwells in all mankind. This uni-verse teaches us a new a pattern of meditation – one where we fill our hearts and minds with the fruit of the spirit just as we inspire air, followed by breathing out the weeds of the evil one or the enemy of our souls. Breathe in the spirit of God and the love of God, breathe out selfish love, breathe in joy of the Lord, breathe out unwholesome sadness, breathe in peace, breathe out bitterness, hatred, anger. Spiritual breathing practiced over a lifetime will build a godly character in us, equip us to handle every challenge of life. We become a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Lord.
Prateep V Philip