Breathing

Good Morning!

This week, like a sharp poke in the side, I remembered a little lesson somebody taught several years ago. It was the principle of "spiritual breathing."

We need to breath in, but we can't only breath in or eventually it will be like we never breathed in, and we will turn blue. We need to breath out so that we can breath in again. Over and over.

Spiritually, breathing in is taking in, learning, receiving. Clearly, we need to breath in and be nourished.

Breathing out corresponds to giving, doing, passing on to others some of what we just got. We also need to breath out because it is part of the cycle.

If we only breath in, we become like a little pond that gets rainwater and then sits stagnantly, rotting. The water would not go bad if there were circulation - water coming in and going out.

We can't grow in a healthy way by taking in, taking in, taking in. We get fat that way. We get puffed up with all of our knowledge, but we don't learn how to use it if we don't actually go out and use it. We need to eat the word and then go and let it get burned up with exercise. Then we need to come back to get full again so we can repeat the cycle.

For me, I need to do a lot more breathing out. I'm learning so much these days, but I need to share that and use it. So one of my goals is to blog more so I can pass on the things that are benefiting me.

Proverbs 11:24

One gives freely,

yet grows all the richer;

another withholds what he should give,

and only suffers want.

Seeds

I am SO thankful for the Body of Christ.  What would we have without each other?  It would be hard to stick close to Christ on our own.  Let's do our part not to be isolated.  I'm half talking to myself - I have a tendency to be a recluse and I'm still really lacking local girlfriends.

I've been mildly obsessed with Joyce Meyer's materials recently.  At the gym the other day, I listened to her podcast, and it got me excited.  I thought I should share!

She was talking about how we wallow around in our struggles like pigs in mud sometimes, but that we don't have to because God and Jesus Christ have given us absolutely everything we need already.  If you read through any of the new testament and reflect on that, you'll see the truth in it.  Once we decide to make Jesus our Lord, we get his spirit and his mind in us.  We get holy spirit, which empowers us.  See Acts chapter 2.  But remember how you can possess something and not use it?  Like that ugly shirt you got from your aunt, or the lotion you haven't opened yet that's just sitting there.  Why would the principles not be the same with holy spirit?  It's like having muscles that we don't work out - our holy spirit can and does atrophy.

We have to activate what we got, people!  And it can be hard work, but it pays off... and it's not THAT hard.

Anyway, she was saying that we have the seed of God planted in us if we are born again.  Seeds don't just spring out of the ground into full grown plants with fruit all over them, though.  And babies (which start with a baby making seed) don't burst out of you the moment after you get pregnant.  You can't even SEE that you're pregnant for a long time, and plants take forever to grow to the point of producing anything, it seems.

 In the same teaching, Joyce suggested not fellowshipping with your sin.  Don't focus on the stuff you do wrong all the time! You are forgiven!  Fellowship with God and get your brain thinking what He wants you thinking!

So let's not be acting like we aren't powerful people who have what it takes to live the way God would have us live.  All we have to do is truly and firmly believe what God says to us and about us.  The fact is, we are more than conquerers.  We are lights in this world.  We are free.  We are loved.  We are beautiful.  We are strong.  We ARE blessed, already.  We CAN take captive our thoughts to make them obedient to Christ.  We are able to be disciplined (that's one of many I'm working on).  We all have an important ministry and purpose on this earth.  Each one of us are unique and we should be different than everyone else.

Joyce's point was to stop asking God for what you already have and just USE it already!  Just believe it and decide that you are going to live in victory.

How awesome is that?

What is Fruit?

¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Matthew 7:15-17

Last night I was talking to my husband about the fruit of the spirit and he said something that I had never realized!

I had always thought "fruit" was something tangible that we as believers produce.  For example, fruit might be starting a ministry, whatever growth takes place for that ministry, or having a kid and training them up in Christ.  Last night my man mentioned the fruit of the spirit....

 ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Which made me ask "Well, is the 'fruit of the spirit' fruit?" 

And he said something like "You mean is the fruit of the spirit fruit even though it's not an accolade?"
Me: "What's an accolade again?"
Him: "An accomplishment that is considered as a separate entity from the person who accomplished it, like a degree or a trophy."
Me: "Yeah, that's what I mean.  I thought fruit was something we PRODUCE that's pretty easy to see."
Him: "No, the fruit of the spirit is fruit, too."


Wow!  


It makes sense now!  Character is a product, and having all of those things within us is powerful.  I want to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful and self controlled.  I have a long way to go, but I'll get there!  God is the one who does the hard work in stuff like this, really.  All I have to do is keep trying my best and know He is a miracle worker.