Absorbing God by Breathing Prayer

In this post I will continue my fellowship regarding the daily exercise of the Christian to breathe in the Lord. Such a wonderful experience of spiritual breathing can be considered the “unceasingly pray” the Apostle Paul mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. For although, we cannot be on our knees continually, nor can we make intercessions continually, we can and should maintain a constant fellowship with our dear Lord Jesus.

Since this resurrected Christ now indwells us to be our life we must realize that life is dependent. (For example, we will never graduate from our physical eating, drinking or breathing.)

Romans 8:10 says, “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.”

Whether we just received the Lord Jesus yesterday or have been a Christian for many decades, we are equally dependent when it comes to matters related to life because life is ever dependent.

A genuine Christian, one who has received Christ (John 1:12) now has the resurrected, pneumatic Christ living in his spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). Such a Christ is life to us.

1 John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has the life;  he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”

Such a Christ is our breath, drink and our food and we must live in moment by moment dependence on Him. This means that we must continually contact Him in our spirit. Even a simple, soft, “O Lord” may be adequate to breathe Christ while working.

However, it is good to do some daily deep breathing, especially in the morning so as to bring in fresh supplies for your health. A doctor will tell you, that you need deep breathing for your physical body—at least mine did. Well doctor Jesus (Matt. 9:12) also prescribed spiritual breathing to his disciples.

“And when He has said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22

Albert B. Simpson, (1843-1919) a minister of Christ and a prolific hymn writer, wrote a profound hymn that still has much benefit for us today. (You can listen to it on Hymnal.net by looking up “O Lord, breathe Thy Spirit on me.)  In his first stanza he says,

O Lord, breathe Thy Spirit on me,
Teach me how to breathe Thee in;
Help me pour into Thy bosom
All my life of self and sin.

And the chorus says,

I am breathing out my sorrow,
Breathing out my sin;
I am breathing, breathing, breathing,
All Thy fulness in.

I daily endeavor to practice this, especially upon rising in the morning. I like to breathe out, that is, to exhale, all my sorrow, sin, self, and sickness and thereby open my spiritual lungs to breathe in the pneumatic Christ as my life divine, cleansing fullness, joy, and comfort.

Dear seeker of Christ, let us be brought back to the simplicity of a daily dependence on the wonderful One who has come to live inside of us. May we ever realize that Christ, as the life-giving Spirit is present, available, rich and real—and “breathable.”

Call on Him, pray to Him—not mainly for things—but simply to live because of Him (John 6:57). In such a way, He will increase within you and make you a living member of His Body for His continuation on this earth.

I have never forgotten the wonderful significance of prayer found in the following statement by Witness Lee:

“The real significance of prayer is to contact God in our spirit and to absorb God Himself. Prayer is the contact of the human spirit with the Spirit of God, during which man inhales God into himself. Therefore, the emphasis of prayer lies not in asking God for things but in contacting and absorbing God. (Witness Lee, Life Lessons, Lesson Four, Prayer).

May we all give ourselves to spending daily times with this wonderful One simply to breathe Him, inhale Him and absorb Him into our being.