Breathe with God

"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God."

- Psalm42:1

We lose consciousness soon as we're deprived of oxygen beyond our human limit. Our brain cells begin dying, leading to brain damage, and survival becomes nearly impossible.

Breathing comes naturally, we do it without thinking about it. We breathe to live. We breathe to calm our nerves as we meditate. Every breath we take is a moment of grace. A gift given since birth.

"The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life."

- Job 33:4

We breathe in two different ways. "Physical breathing" where we breathe in oxygen to sustain life and "Spiritual Breathing" to sustain our spiritual life. Unfortunately, breathing spiritually requires awareness unlike physical breathing.

"Spiritual Breathing, like physical breathing, is a process of exhaling the impure and inhaling the pure, an exercise in faith that enables you to experience God's love and forgiveness and walk in the Spirit as a way of life."

- Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Just as our lungs breathe in oxygen, where our body processes and filters out carbon dioxide, we inhale the Holy Spirit with spiritual breathing. Breathing with God cannot be done unconsciously because to breathe with God, we need to do so through the words of the Gospels and communion, just as oxygen is accessible from the production of plants and water.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

- 2 Timothy 3:16

I would take a moment to breathe at times when I'm feeling stressed. I'd put on a spiritual song or pray. With each word, I would take deep breaths. Inhale God's words and exhale the anxiety. This always helps calm my nerves. It's what sustains me. God is breathing through me.

"He breathes the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person."

- Genesis 2:7

The words in the Bible are God's breath. Without it, our spirit is deprived of spiritual oxygen. The only way for it to breathe is when we breathe with God. "He breathes the breath of life into the man's nostrils." the moment we are baptized and the moment we take communion is the beginning of the spiritual life.

"Breath of God" in Hebrew is expressed as "the Spirit of God". "Ruach" is the Hebrew word used in the scripture, translated as Wind, Spirit and Life, and Genesis 6:17 as "the Breath of Life".

"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God."

- Psalm 42:1

The intense desire to know God intimately. Just as the deer pants - the desperation longing for something vital. Sometimes, we deprive ourselves of the spiritual oxygen. We forget to spiritually breathe, leading to spiritual Dyspnea. We'd start feeling distressed, anxiety, restlessness, etc. Just as physically, we'd take deeper breaths, trying to grasp air as we become aware and by recognizing our deep desire for God, a holy longing to breathe with God and for God's purpose, God's grace allows us to reconnect with Him and would breathe through us through His words and communion.

God's breath comforts us in a world filled with imperfections and toxins. Like plants, we filter these toxins through God's grace and gift of the Holy Spirit and purify our spiritual lungs, exhaling God's love and purity for the rest of the world to breathe.