BREATHING IS BIBLICAL (Just Saying)
Imagination
DRAPER’S PAPER ROUTE
BREATHING IS BIBLICAL (Just Saying)
by Adam Carroll Draper
Do you remember the York Peppermint Patty commercials? This certainly dates me, but I guess the cat’s been out of that bag for a while. I am thinking of the one where a harried looking woman says that when she eats a York Peppermint Patty, she gets the sensation of being at the top of a mountain. Then she says, “And the only thing I hear, honey, is the dew droppin’ off the cool, green leaves, haahaa!”
I guess you had to be there. I looked for it on youtube. Sorry.
It brings an image to your mind doesn’t it? Or how about Prince singing When Doves Cry : “Dream if you will a courtyard, an ocean of violets in bloom.” Can you picture this? Well, duh, of course! Art relies on imagery. We use our imagination all the time, and it is particularly useful in meditation to help us relax and encounter God.
I have to say something here reflexively because every time I discuss visualization during meditation, someone starts yelling, “Witch!” I mean, not literally – more like the Monty Python scene: “If she weighs the same as a duck, she’s made of wood; and, therefore, she’s a witch.” Seriously, I can hear someone right now saying that using your imagination during prayer is not biblical, or something like that. How about, “Do this in memory of me”? Can you figure out how to remember the last supper and the crucifixion without visualization? It’s the same with “put on the full armor of God.” Just saying! This is not eastern mysticism. Buddhists also breathe. Should we eschew that?
By the way, the word for breath in Hebrew is ruach, which is also translated as “spirit” – as in Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). OK, moving right along.
Speaking of breathing, taking deep, cleansing breaths to begin a time of meditation is relaxing (as I mentioned in the previous missive). This time, I am going to offer a more specific meditation that might be helpful to those who are trying to start taking the time to do so. Get in a comfortable, quiet place where you won’t be distracted for ten minutes or so. Once you are there, close your eyes and relax.
Before I do anything else, I talk to Abba (our Dad). Yeshua said he only did what he saw Dad do, and he only said what he heard Dad say, so I want to make sure that I put my focus on Dad, too. I am often alone when I meditate, so I pray out loud when I am. It’s not always the same, but I will generally start with something like this: “Dad, you are God and I am not, but I am your son because Yeshua saved me. It totally believe that. Yeshua, our Messiah, you saved me as you saved us all; and you call those who believe that your bride - one body, seated with you now in heaven. We are also still here on earth, and you want us to shine your heavenly glory here, so please give us everything we need today to do that. Please forgive us (your bride) when we forget that’s why we are here and violate your way, in the same way that we (your bride) forgive everybody else when they forget and violate us and what we want. Lead us away from those things that distract us from why we are here. We end up doing evil when we get distracted, so please deliver us from evil when wander off the Way. Because your Kingdom is why we are here and all the Kingdom and the might (gevurah) and the glory (kavod) are yours forever (la’olam).” I do that because Yeshua taught us to pray that way. Once I pray that, I will do some things to deliberately relax more deeply, and the following is one such way.
Take a deep, cleansing breath and while you are doing that count to eight, visualizing each successive number as you do. Hold that breath while counting to five, visualizing each successive number as you do. Breathe out while counting to six, visualizing each successive number as you do. Then, with your lungs empty, count to four, visualizing each successive number as you do. Repeat this deep breathing process three times.
Visualizing the numbers while you are breathing in this way accomplishes several things. The deep breaths bring in a lot of oxygen, which naturally relaxes you. Visualizing the numbers as you count tends to take your mind off of whatever you were doing earlier. It helps let the things of the day go. While I am breathing and visualizing the numbers, I am still praying. Some people have a hard time doing this at first, but I like teaching about this now because it gives a sense of where the process is headed. When I breathe in for the eight count, I pray (thinking) “Abba” or “Avee” (I am calling out to Dad). As I hold my breath for the five count, I pray: “We breathe you in heaven, where we are seated in Messiah.” As I breathe out for the six count, I pray: “We breathe you out on earth as it is in heaven.” Then while I am out of breath for the four count, I pray: “Be magnified in Yeshua.” This is a lot to do simultaneously while visualizing the numbers. Once you learn to do this, though, it is amazingly calming, and that calm comes on pretty quickly.
This is a way I often start a meditation. After this, I might imagine being on a beach or someplace I would really like to be (as I described last week) because this deliberately focuses me on God’s nature. That is, I focus on feeling love and peace and joy. Once I have deliberately focused myself on the Lord in this way, I can then move on to talking to him and enjoying his presence. I have been praying like this for as long as I can remember, so I can quite often soak in him for hours and not realize it. That is for another time, as John Paul Jackson would say, however.
I have felt lead to discuss meditation for the last several of these missives because I believe that the Lord is preparing us for a great tide of his love and presence that is going to flow out over the whole earth. We get to be in that number and I am strongly moved to encourage us to prepare for it together. Learning to pray together is part of the awakening of the Bride. There is a great harvest coming and few workers.
If you got anything out of this missive, please give it a thumbs up, comment and/or share it. It helps. I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to read it.