As believers in Christ, we can never graduate from breathing the Lord; we need to breathe in the Spirit all the time by praying unceasingly and calling on the name of the Lord.
Just as we physically have to breathe in order to live, so we need to spiritually breathe in order to live.
We need to ask ourselves, what is our experience of Christ in eating Him, drinking Him, and breathing Him?
In the daily matters of our Christian life, do we breathe in the Lord?
Do we have a practice of eating the Lord and drinking Him day by day, regularly, and consistently?
The Lord Jesus came as the embodiment of God and went through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension, and He became a life-giving Spirit.
On His side, He has done everything in order to not only redeem us and bring us into the right position for us to enjoy Him, but also to become our life and life supply.
Merely knowing this, however, doesn’t mean that we practice eating the Lord, drinking Him, and breathing in the Spirit.
We need to learn to breathe in the Lord, eat Him in His word, and drink Him as the Spirit.
We need to pay attention to the basic matters of eating, drinking, and breathing spiritually in order for us to remain under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
If we do not take care of our eating and drinking and breathing, we will not grow in life, and we will not live a life for the fulfilment of God’s purpose.
Many times we feel that we’re not satisfied with our experience before the Lord, for we feel that we didn’t enter into the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity enough in our daily life.
The most practical way for us to enter into the enjoyment of the divine dispensing is for us to eat the Lord, drink Him, and breathe Him in.
It doesn’t get much simpler than that, and we can never graduate from these basic matters.
May the Lord save us from our religious concepts which may frustrate us from being simple and just enjoy the Lord in purity and simplicity.
And may we be saved from bringing others into mere outward practices, forms, and doctrines, not in the enjoyment of Christ by eating, drinking, and breathing Him in.
We have so many riches of Christ in His word, and among us in the church life we have so much speaking from the Lord.
But the way for us to go on with the Lord little by little and day by day is by our eating Him, drinking Him, and breathing Him in.
May we be those who continue to practice day by day eating the Lord, drinking Him, and breathing Him, so that we may remain under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and grow in life unto maturity, be built up as the Body of Christ, and consummate the New Jerusalem.
Christ as the Word became Flesh, the Lamb of God, the Tree of Life, and the Spirit to be the Holy Breath for us to Breathe in
![In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.. John 1:1, 14 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 ...I have come that they may have life and may have [it] abundantly. John 10:10 I am the true vine... John 15:1 ...He breathed into [them] and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:22](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/In-the-beginning-was-the-Word-and-the-Word-was-with-God-and-the-Word-was-God-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.. John 1:1, 14 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 ...I have come that they may have life and may have [it] abundantly. John 10:10 I am the true vine... John 15:1 ...He breathed into [them] and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:22")
Why is it so important for us to see that we need to breathe in the Lord day by day and even moment by moment?
It is because the New Testament reveals how God became flesh – the Word became flesh (John 1:1, 14), and then He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to come to us to breathe Himself into us.
We are not talking about mere physical, outward things but about spiritual matters.
The Word, who was with God and was God, became flesh to express God, manifest God, explain God, and make God known to us.
When the disciples saw Him, they saw God expressed, manifested, explained, and defined.
As the incarnated God, Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
He is not only God defined and expressed but also the Lamb of God who died for our sins to redeem us, bear all our sins in His body on the tree, and bring us back to God.
Then, He said that He is the tree, the vine tree (John 15:1, 4-5); He is life and the tree – He is the tree of life.
He came that we may have life and may have it abundantly (John 10:10).
How can He be our life? How can a man in the flesh be our life as men? The Lord went on in His process and was transfigured in His resurrection to be a life-giving Spirit.
Then, on the evening of the day of His resurrection, He came to His disciples and breathed into them saying, Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).
All that He is, all He has done, and all He has attained to and accomplished, is in this breath; we now simply breathe in the Lord as the holy breath to receive and enjoy all that He is.
The Spirit is the breath of the Son; whatever the Son is – the Word of God, the Lamb of God, the bread of life, the living bread, the resurrection, the life, the tree of life, the vine tree, the Healer and the healing, the Redeemer and the redemption, and so many things – is now received into our being for our life and life supply when we breathe in the Lord.
When we breathe the Lord in, we are refreshed and we enjoy all that He is. When we call on the name of the Lord, we breathe in God, the Word of God, the Lamb of God, the tree of life, and so much more.
![The Word, who was God, became flesh. Eventually, having passed through crucifixion and resurrection, He became the holy breath for us to breathe in. If we see the steps of this [divine] process, we shall have a proper and thorough understanding of the Gospel of John. According to John 1:1 and 14, the Word, who was in the beginning with God and who is God, became flesh. In verse 29 we see that this Word become flesh is the Lamb of God. On the one hand, He is the Lamb for accomplishing redemption; on the other hand, He is the tree for imparting life. Therefore, we may speak of Him as the Lamb-tree. According to John 15, the branches of the vine are the living of the vine. Ultimately, the Lamb-tree becomes the holy breath…In our experience we have Christ as the Word, the Lamb, the tree, and the breath. The Word is for expression, the Lamb is for redemption, the tree is for the impartation of life, and the breath is for our living. Life-study of Philippians, pp. 297-299, by Witness Lee](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/The-Word-who-was-God-became-flesh-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "The Word, who was God, became flesh. Eventually, having passed through crucifixion and resurrection, He became the holy breath for us to breathe in. If we see the steps of this [divine] process, we shall have a proper and thorough understanding of the Gospel of John. According to John 1:1 and 14, the Word, who was in the beginning with God and who is God, became flesh. In verse 29 we see that this Word become flesh is the Lamb of God. On the one hand, He is the Lamb for accomplishing redemption; on the other hand, He is the tree for imparting life. Therefore, we may speak of Him as the Lamb-tree. According to John 15, the branches of the vine are the living of the vine. Ultimately, the Lamb-tree becomes the holy breath…In our experience we have Christ as the Word, the Lamb, the tree, and the breath. The Word is for expression, the Lamb is for redemption, the tree is for the impartation of life, and the breath is for our living. Life-study of Philippians, pp. 297-299, by Witness Lee")
As we breathe the Lord in, we are bountifully supplied and we can live the Christian life.
In our ordinary days in our Christian life, we need to breathe the Lord in all the time by calling on His name and praying unceasingly so that all things may turn out to salvation (Phil. 1:19).
This is the only way we can be sustained and strengthened so that we may live Christ.
We need the bountiful supply of the Spirit, and we can receive this suppl by breathing the Lord in.
Our breathing in the Lord is for our living. For us to live the Christian life, we need to breathe in the Lord.
For us to fulfil God’s purpose, we need to never stop breathing in the Lord as the holy breath. As we breathe in the Lord as the Spirit, we are richly supplied, and we draw all our life from Him.
We live on the Lord breath by breath, moment by moment.
May we never graduate from this.
May we practice breathing in the Lord to enjoy Him as the Word of God, the Lamb of God, the tree of life, the living nourishment, and as everything to us.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming as the Word of God to express God and manifest God to us. Thank You for being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thank You for being the tree of life to give us life in abundance. Amen, Lord, we praise You for becoming a life-giving Spirit to breathe Yourself with all Your riches into our being. We open to You, dear Lord, and we come to You to just breathe You in. We call on Your name, Lord, and we practice praying unceasingly to just breathe the Lord in with all His riches. Hallelujah, the Lord is rich to all who call on His name! Amen, Lord, keep us breathing on You and living because of You as we breathe You in and breathe ourselves out!
Breathing in the Spirit by Calling on the Lord and Praying Unceasingly
A. B. Simpson has a wonderful hymn (Hymns 255) that speaks of his desire to breathe in the Lord and his experience of depending on the Lord as his very breath.
We need to learn to breathe out ourselves with all the things that are in us and breathe in the Lord with all His riches.
What we need is not more religion or religious practices; religion only gives us traditions, forms, rituals, and doctrines, and these never help us breathe.
Religion never helps us breathe in the Lord.
What helps us to breathe in the Lord is calling on the name of the Lord and praying unceasingly.
We all need to learn to breathe in the Spirit by calling on the Lord and by praying unceasingly.
No matter how many schools we graduate from, how much experience we have, and how high we attain in our human life, we can never graduate from breathing; when we stop breathing, our human life is over.
Similarly in our spiritual life, we can never graduate from breathing in the Lord as the Spirit, no matter how much we experience the Lord and how mature we are in Him.
This is why Paul charged us to pray unceasingly, that is, pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17).
What does it mean for us to pray unceasingly?
Praying is like breathing: it needs to go on all the time.
We may eat several meals and snacks during the day, and we may drink many times during the day, but we don’t eat and drink constantly.
However, breathing is something constant, without ceasing.
How can we breathe spiritually, that is, how can we pray unceasingly?
The way to do this is to call on the name of the Lord continually.
We may be at work, on the train, or taking a walk, and we can simply breathe in the Lord by calling on His name.
Just as we must breathe to live physically, we must breathe spiritually in order for us to live Christ, and the way to breathe is to call on the name of the Lord.
All day long we need to call on the Lord.
The same Lord is rich to all those who call on His name (Rom. 10:12), for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (v. 13).
We are saved not only initially from eternal perdition by calling on the name of the Lord but even more, we’re saved by receiving the riches of Christ by calling on His name.
May we realize that we can never outgrow the matter of calling on the name of the Lord.
Our calling is our breathing. If we just call on the name of the Lord, though we’re so busy, we breathe Him in.
As we breathe Him in, we drink Him and we eat Him, for there’s water and food in that breath.
We don’t know what we need, but we know that we need to call on the name of the Lord and pray unceasingly.
What an excellent way to begin our personal, private, affectionate, and spiritual time with the Lord – simply by calling on His name.
We don’t need to start by asking Him for things but simply by telling Him that we love Him and by calling on His name.
We can begin our ordinary day in the divine dispensing by calling on the name of the Lord, and we need to take time throughout the day to just call on the Lord to breathe Him in.
Sometimes we may even have to take a little break for five minutes and just call on the name of the Lord. This will fill us with the Lord’s riches in our spirit.
The more we call on the name of the Lord, the more we realize how much we love Him.
The more we breathe the Lord in, the more we are refreshed inwardly, we are supplied, and we’re filled with the Lord.
We may need to drive or walk the kids to work, and even as we do this, we can call on the name of the Lord.
However, many times we have a lot of things around us that distract us.
We may have all our notifications on the phone that draw our attention even as we have a time with the Lord.
There are a lot of news updates, social media updates, messages, and things that distract us from having time with the Lord. Oh, Lord Jesus!
We need to spend face-to-face time with the Lord, having a real facetime with our dear Lord Jesus.
We need to pay attention to our breathing, for everything around us distracts us from breathing in the Lord.
The Lord is in our spirit, waiting for us to turn to Him so that He may dispense more of Himself into our mind, emotion, and will, but we may be so busy with things, we may be so distracted with the notifications we receive, and our heart may be so divided. Oh, Lord Jesus!
May we tell the Lord even all these things, all the matters that distract us, catch our attention, and take us away from Him.
May we just open to Him again and again throughout the day to simply breathe the Spirit in by calling on the name of the Lord to unceasingly pray.
Oh, Lord Jesus! Oh, Lord Jesus! We love to call on Your name! Oh, Lord Jesus! We breathe You in! We breathe ourselves out and we breathe in all Your riches! We call on Your name to be infused with all that You are! Amen, Lord, keep us breathing You in throughout the day. May we unceasingly pray by calling on the name of the Lord throughout the day. Save us from not breathing You in. We want to live spiritually by calling on the name of the Lord at any time and in every place! Oh Lord, Jesus! We open to You to breathe You in as the holy breath. We put aside anything that distracts us and we simply focus on You. We want to have a face-to-face time with You to just breathe You in! Amen, keep us under the divine dispensing throughout the day as we practice calling on the Lord to pray unceasingly!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ted Williamson in the message, and portions from, Life-study of Philippians, 297-299, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the Divine Economy (2022 Thanksgiving Weekend Conference), week 3, entitled, Experiencing the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity by Breathing the Spirit, Drinking the Water of Life, and Eating the bread of God.
- Further reading on this topic:
– Is it Possible to Pray Without Ceasing? Article via, Bibles for America blog.
– The practical way to walk in the spirit, portion from, The Fulfillment of God’s Purpose by the Growth of Christ in Us, by Witness Lee.
– Calling on the Lord – the scriptural basis, the definition, the history, the purpose, and how to call on the name of the Lord, via CallingOnTheLord.org.
– Calling on the name of the Lord, portion via, Lesson Book, Level 4: Life—Knowing and Experiencing Life, by Witness Lee.
– What Does It Mean to Call on the Name of the Lord? Article via BFA blog. - Hymns on this topic:
– I am breathing out my longings / In Thy listening, loving ear; / I am breathing in Thy answers, / Stilling every doubt and fear. / I am breathing every moment, / Drawing all my life from Thee; / Breath by breath I live upon Thee, / Lord, Thy Spirit breathe in me. (Hymns #255 stanza 6 and 7).
– For God has been processed, as air now, He’s free; / This life-giving pneuma is all that we need. / He’s rich and abundant, so plentiful, He, / In spirit to walk is to breathe Him indeed. / O, say, aren’t you glad that the Spirit’s outpoured / And God, fully processed, is flowing in us? / So freely we’re breathing this life-giving Lord, / And breathing, receiving His life, glorious! (Hymns #1114 stanzas 3-4)
– I would inhale Thee, Lord, e’en as I breathe, / And eat and drink Thee as my life supply. / A deeper fellowship with Thee bequeath / That Thou express Thyself through me thereby. (Hymns #764 stanza 4)
About aGodMan
Paul charges us to pray without ceasing [1 Thes. 5:17]. What does it mean to pray unceasingly? Although we may eat several meals a day and although we may drink many times during the day, no one can eat and drink without ceasing. But we certainly breathe unceasingly. Paul’s command to pray without ceasing implies that unceasing prayer is like breathing. But how can our prayer become our spiritual breathing?…The way to do this is to call on the name of the Lord. We need to call on the Lord Jesus continually… Because we are not accustomed to this, we need to practice calling on the Lord’s name all the time. To live is to breathe. Spiritually speaking, to breathe is to call on the Lord’s name and to pray. By calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, we breathe the Spirit. Just as we must breathe in order to live physically, we must breathe spiritually in order to live Christ… All day long, no matter where we are or what we are doing, we need to call on the Lord. Whatever we are doing, we should call on the Lord Jesus. I can testify that even when I speak for the Lord I call on Him and breathe of Him deep within. Life-study of Philippians, pp. 297-299, by Witness Lee
Calling on the name of the Lord is the secret not only to our salvation but also to our enjoyment of the Lord’s riches. Beginning with Enosh, the third generation of mankind, and continuing all the way down to the New Testament believers, God’s chosen and redeemed ones enjoyed Christ’s redemption and salvation and all His riches by means of this secret (see note Acts 2:21, note 1). Rom. 10:13, footnote 1 on, “whoever”, Recovery Version Bible
To be saved here means to be brought into the enjoyment of the riches of the Lord. The Lord is rich to both Jews and Greeks. All who call on the Lord’s name enjoy this rich Lord; as a result, they are filled with Him and express Him. Rom. 10:13, footnote 2 on, “saved”, Recovery Version Bible
Dear brother, the Lord has become so available to us – He is the holy breath for us to breathe in.
May we never graduate from calling on the name of the Lord all throughout the day to breathe Him in.
Amen brother! Just as it is important for us to physically live by breathing, we also need to be those who are spiritually breathing.
The best for us to breath spiritually is to pray unceasingly and we can pray unceasingly by calling on the name of the Lord.
Aaamen!
“Praise the Lord,” Christ became the lamb who’s blood was shed for the sin of man and a dove to bring life to man. Christ as the lamb, redeem man back to God and the dove is the life giving anointing to man with what God is. Hallelujah we are the uniting believers in God and the Holy Spirit as our living the Christian life to participate with God the Father.
I also enjoy this morning revival – reminding us NOT to stop breathing !!!
Amen brother. We should not analyse the breath, but receive it by breathing.
Physically & spiritually, we have no alternative but to breathe.
We need to experience Christ as the Word, the Lamb, the tree and the breath of life.
For Christ to be our expression, our redemption, our life and our living, we must breathe Him in unceasingly by invoking His name and by prayer.
This needs to be our unceasing practice. We cannot graduate from breathing.
May we all see how crucial it is to breathe spiritually in order to live Christ.
Yes, Amen. To pray unceasingly is to call on the Lord Jesus no matter what we are doing.
O Lord Amen! Hallelujah!!!
https://youtu.be/-jvn_1h4kCk
Oh brother we should not analyse the breath, we should just breathe Him in!
https://youtu.be/0M5s0nIwYpg
Praise the Lord for His expression of word into flesh (incarnation), the lamb is for redemption (Crucifixion), the tree is for impartation of life (branches with vine tree) and the breath is for our living.
None is graduated from from breathing. This breathing is not also a one way traffic, but also two ways. The taking out of sin or the old mature (Adam) and the taking in of the new creature (Jesus as the life giving Spirit or the triune God).
What a wonderful revelation of the word it is!
On the one hand the Lord breathed out, on the other hand the disciples breathed in!!
Ameeen brother!
https://youtu.be/SN3qHifhUuw
We need to realise the process that the Lord went through to become the holy breath – the Spirit – for us to breathe and live.
Praise the Lord we have Christ, the Word, the Lamb-tree who as the Spirit can be enjoyed and experienced by us when we call on His name! O Lord Jesus!
Just as we need to breathe to live continually, so spiritually we must be those who practice calling on His name wherever we are throughout the day that we may live Him.
To call is to pray unceasingly and in this we receive the Spirit who gives life. Hallelujah!
Amen brother, yes Lord keep us calling on your name, we just love calling on the one we love,in your name is everything that we need, you are the breath for us to to live a Christian life.
Amen, Lord Jesus! Oh Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus!
Hallelujah, dear brother, we have Christ as the Word, the Lamb, the tree, and the breath: the Word is for expression, the Lamb is for redemption, the tree is for the impartation of life, and the breath is for our living.
Ameeen!!!
Hallelujah.!!We can breathe the Spirit all the time. Strengthen our breathing. LORD keep us breathing you in!! Enrich our calling, shouting, and crying out to you.