Monday Musings… and Satisfaction Guarenteed Part III

As I contemplate my previous posts on the Holy Spirit (check out my “series” category over on the side –>), I being to think about breathing more and more.

Breath.

It is the title of my blog. The art of breath.

And there is indeed an art to the way we live our lives and breathe, if you will, through them. Because breath is the sign of life. If we cease to breathe, we die.

In the same way, when we cease being filled with His Holy Spirit, we die spiritually.

Last time we met, I wrote about Spiritual Breathing as being a powerful picture that helps us experience moment-by-moment dependence upon God’s Holy Spirit.

Exhale: Confessing sins in the moment you become aware of it, agreeing with God concerning it, and thanking Him for His forgiveness. John 1:9 and Hebrews 10:1-25 explain that confession requires repentance, or a change in attitude and action, so this is a very real and yet symbolic way that we can acknowledge our own need for grace.

Inhale: Surrender control of your life to Christ, and rely upon the Holy Spirit to fill you with His presence and power. Allow God to put His plan for you above your own plan for yourself. Let your faith be bigger than any earthly desire you might have.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit is not like filling a glass with water. When we’re dry, our need is not to just “get more” of the Holy Spirit. It is not like a physical substance where we can just gather larger amounts of it if we want to.

No. To be filled with the Spirit is more like a sail boat’s sail being filled with wind. There is either wind, or no wind, and the goal is not to get more wind, it is to catch the wind. And likewise, when our own sails are filled with the Spirit, we also are able to move. Without the Spirit we are like that same sail boat floating in the ocean without any wind to propel it forward.

The Holy Spirit moves us to action. Not to our own plans and to-do lists, but to God’s plans for us. We must not attempt to fill up our lives with “things” to make us more “holy”. Instead, we must catch the Holy Spirit, breath Him in and allow Him to move within the depths of our “sailboat hearts”.

Exhale. Inhale. Breathe. Move.

… and that, ladies and gentlemen, is my Monday Musing of the week.