Spiritual Breathing – A Daily Practice for Believers

How is your spiritual breathing?

Such spiritual breathing is a basic practice for a vibrant, healthy Christian life.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, the Apostle Paul exhorted the believers to “unceasingly pray.”  Such unceasing prayer is a kind of spiritual breathing.

Although, we can’t pray lengthy prayers continually, we can and should maintain a constant fellowship or contact with the Lord Jesus through prayer.

Christ breathed the Spirit into His believers in His resurrection.

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In His resurrection, Christ became a life-giving Spirit for us to receive (1 Cor. 15:45b).

On the day of His resurrection it says,  “[Jesus] breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22)

Now He only asked us to receive. Are you daily receiving this breathed-out Spirit?

In His resurrection, Christ indwells His believers to be their life.  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.”

But, we must realize that anything of life is dependent. (For example, we will never graduate from our physical eating, drinking or breathing.)

Whether we’ve just received the Lord Jesus or have been a Christian for many years, we still need to breathe Him to be living.

How can you practice spiritual breathing?

Use your spirit, your deepest part

The right organ for spiritual breathing is our human spirit.  We can contact and breathe His Spirit with our spirit.

John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.”

So how can we contact and receive His Spirit with our spirit. That is, how can we practice spiritual breathing?

Call on the name of the Lord

Start by calling on His name, “Lord Jesus! O Lord!” from the depth of your being. Loudly, or softly—just get your mouth open.

In Romans 10:12, Paul said, “the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him.” And in 1 Corinthians 12:3 he said,

No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.

Even the weeping prophet Jeremiah said in Lamentations 3:55-56,

I called upon Your name, O Jehovah, / From the lowest pit. You have heard my voice; do not hide / Your ear at my breathing, at my cry.

Confess your sins

Also, if you are feeling weighed down by sins, just confess them to Jesus. This is also an excellent spiritual breathing.

It is a deep exhaling, that brings in a deeper inhaling.

In 1 John 1:9, John said, ” If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Just tell the Lord your sorrows, sins, sicknesses and longings. Give them to Him. He will give you more of Himself.

Keep continually contacting Him in our spirit

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 (John 20:22)

A  Wonderful Hymn on Breathing

Albert B. Simpson, (1843-1919) a minister of Christ and a prolific hymn writer, wrote a wonderful hymn on spiritual breathing 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.

My Daily Practice

I daily endeavor to practice this, especially upon rising in the morning.  Coming to the Lord in my spirit by calling on His name, praying short prayers and even singing hymns like the one above gives me a good start.

Confessing helps me to breathe out—to exhale, all my sorrow, sin, self, and sickness and so that I can breathe in more of His Spirit as my life divine, cleansing, fullness, joy, and comfort.

I pray that you also will 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). By such spiritual breathing, He will grow in you and make you a vital member of His Body for His continuation on this earth.

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.