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Sunday, November 1,
2009
Holding Your Breath
I was thinking about yesterday’s topic on
cleansing and how we are cleansed from all unrighteousness and filthiness
by our Spiritual baptism into Christ.
What came to mind was this; when someone
gets dunked in water the first thing they will do is hold their breath so
that they don’t breathe the water into their lungs and drown. Now, think
about a child in the womb and how God made a way for a child to get oxygen through
the mother’s blood while their lungs were filled with fluid. Fascinating
isn’t it?
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life; and man became a living soul. (KJV)
Now, was this breath of life physical or
spiritual? It was the Spiritual breath of life that gave us life
physically, and it is only this Spiritual breath of life that can give us
life, and life more abundantly in Christ.
Now back to baptism. When one is immersed
into Christ they have to learn to breathe in a new way, Spiritually, to
remain living in the living waters. God created a fish to breathe under
water and God created us to be able to breathe freely in the living waters
once baptized into Christ. The old man is held under until it dies because
it can’t breathe in living waters, and the new man is resurrected, able to
breathe freely having been transformed into Christ, a Spiritual being. We
are like the child in the womb, only now we get our life supply from our
Father in heaven through the blood of Christ.
While immersed in water if you choose to
stop holding your breath you start to take in water into your lungs and if
you don’t get your head above water you will drown. The same holds true in
the Spirit. If you choose to stop holding your breath Spiritually you will
begin to drown in destruction.
So like a cucumber that is continually
immersed in a vinegar solution transforms into a pickle, we too as we
continue to be immersed in the living waters, learning to breathe in a new
and living way, will transform more and more into the image and likeness of
Christ.
Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (2)
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God. (KJV)
Like Matthew Henry’s commentary on Romans
12:2 shares: what is the great enemy to this renewing, which we must avoid;
and that is, conformity to this world.
Conformity to this world chokes the life
out of us and will drown us in destruction if we continue to fight to stay
in that life. So instead of holding to this life, let it die away, and continue
to learn to breathe freely in Christ.
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