Holy Breath: The Biblical Power of Breathing & Meditation
Transcript of a King’s Council podcast episode (hosts include Rylee Meek) that argues meditation and intentional breathwork are biblical practices. Speakers trace meditation references from Genesis and the Psalms, connect Hebrew/Greek terms (ruach/pneuma) to breath and Spirit, offer practical guidance for breath-centered stillness, and announce short Christian breathwork videos with scripture-based declarations.
Chapters
All right.
All right, everybody. Welcome back to the King's Council podcast where we talk about kingdom living, man. We're going to talk about identity, purpose. We always talk about living a. Having. Having a bold faith.
Yeah.
And taking action on that. And today we got a fun topic. Today we're going to be diving into something that I think has been considered a little taboo amongst the, you know, Christian space. And. And that's meditation.
Right.
Right. For, I think for quite some time, maybe too long, believers have really avoided this. And they. They've. They've even thought of meditation being just something more of like, Eastern religion or new agy.
Yeah.
But we're going to back this up today with a lot of scripture on, you know, the how. God, I really believe, has given us proof scripturally that meditation is not something of the devil. Right. It's not something that's new age, but it's actually the biblical. And I think this is something that we. We say a lot. We didn't come up with this. We got to give Mark Driscoll his credit where. Where it's due. But whatever God creates, Satan counterfeits.
Oh, he's the one who said that.
That's the first. First person I ever heard that said that.
Yeah. Probably somebody said that before him.
Could have been, I guess. Yeah. But I'm going to give credit to him because that's where I first heard it. Whatever God creates, Satan counterfeits, he does.
Right.
Whether that's the rainbow.
Right.
Or even what we're going to talk about today, which is meditation and breath work, which we've been big fans of over the past few years, and just the power of actually implementing that into your daily regimen. Right. I, you know, I don't do it daily. Yeah. Even though I should. And this, even preparing for this has just been convicting of, like, man, if I was more intentional with doing this, I think it would set my life up much better.
Yeah. Tell me every time you don't do breath work, you're not like, man, why. Why don't I do this every day?
Yeah, every day, man. It's. It's crazy. And the, the wild thing is the Bible actually speaks of meditation over, like, over 50 times.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah. So it's not a new age concept. It's not an old ancient tradition or anything like that. And meditation, when you take the approach from mysticism or like Hinduism, something like that, it's just as emptying of yourself.
Right.
Which the idea is good. Like, we get a lot.
We're.
We're cluttered with a lot of junk within us empty ourselves to kind of be at peace. Well, what we do when we meditate biblically is there. It's more being absorbed in thought on things like scripture. Of those 50 references in Scripture, we're. We're told to meditate on God's wondrous works, to meditate on the law, meaning scripture, his word. We're told to meditate on these things as, as Paul said to, to Timothy. Right. That's the last time meditate's mentioned in the Bible. And what are these, these things? It's the word of faith. It's scripture itself. It's that sound, sound doctrine that strengthens your inner man. Right, right.
But it says it's mentioned as early as in Genesis.
Yeah, Genesis 24 is the first time. And what's very interesting about that reference is there's typically three Hebrew words that are used for meditation. And to meditate is to ponder, to muse, which is like be absorbed in thought. It could be to, to utter. Right. So if you're sitting and you're meditating and you, you're meditating on a scripture, you're just kind of uttering or repeating that scripture, you know, you, before we started, you mentioned like the, those mantras of like.
It should be like more in like yoga.
Right.
It's like transcendental meditation. Yeah, that gets that. That's where again, what Satan counter. Or what God creates, Satan counterfeits. Yeah, right. In, in those, you know. Oh, and those weird. Right, Weird things like I ain't trying to call upon the demons.
Right.
I'm trying to be filled with Holy Spirit, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, and meditation is taboo, considered taboo by a lot of Christians because that's the affiliation. Yep. Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age enlightenment, where we're going to become one with the universe, something like that. But it's biblical and it does go back all the way to Genesis 24. And as I mentioned, there's three Hebrew words typically now, now in the Psalms, that's where meditation, you'll find. Find meditation a lot throughout the Psalms. And if you don't know what to read in the Bible, don't know what to meditate on. Meditate or. Ready? Yeah. I'm making up words. That's what we do here, baby. We make up words. Read something in psalms that talks about meditating and start meditating on it. Right. It's very. Throughout the book of Psalms, they're, they're not just psalms and psalms, but they're prayers. And if you don't know what to pray. Simply go through a psalm and you find yourself praying and communing with God.
But you're saying there's three words, three.
Like Hebrew words throughout the Old Testament.
Come to the conclusion of the word meditate.
Yeah, Right.
Which is. So, again, I think it's. It's amazing to read your Bible, but it's so important that we. We start to study the Bible and study the actual word of God. Because the Hebrew, I mean, there's multiple words for what The. The simplistic language of English that most of us, you know, are reading and writing and speaking throughout the day. But oftentimes, like the word love. Right. There's multiple definitions of what love is. Right. And meditation is another one of those words.
Yeah. Right.
So there's three meanings for this.
Yeah. The. The two that are most commonly used, haga and siak, they, for the most part, they all kind of mean the same thing. There's some. Some differences amongst them. But for the most part, to ponder, to muse, to. To murmur, to read quietly, that sort of thing. But this first instance in Genesis 24 is very interesting to me because this is when Abraham sends his servant out to find a wife for Isaac. So he sends a servant out to Mesopotamia, and the servant, he's tasked with bringing back a wife for Isaac, which he did. Right.
Thank God. It's not like that anymore, man.
I don't. Well, I think some people might be better off if they were like that. Right?
I don't know. I'd be like, all right, dad, here's what I want.
Right? Right. But as you read Genesis 24, you could almost, like, see it as a movie playing in your head as you read it. And the servant, he shows up to Mesopotamia, sees this woman, she's filling her pitcher for camels, and like, that's the one. And it's like, okay, if the woman comes back with you, that's the way. If she doesn't, that ain't the one. Pretty simple, right? So as the servant is off doing this, and he's coming back with Rebecca, it says that evening Isaac went out to the field to meditate. And when I first read that, I'm like, okay, what's he meditating on? Because I know we meditate on Scripture, but what. What do you even have there? Like, he had stories from his dad, which are some phenomenal stories, which obviously are in Scripture.
Right.
But what is he actually meditating on? And the word used here, it's the only time in the Bible that this word is Used, it's suak, right? And when I think of Isaac going out to the field to meditate as a servant, is off going to find him his bride, I'm like, I, I get a little jealous because I'm like, how simple was it to meditate back then? There wasn't a lot going on, right? And you're just sitting there waiting. You're not checking your social media, you're not checking your email, you're not getting phone call walls. And it like provokes a little or evokes a little jealousy in me. It's like, man, it's so easy to, to meditate back then, but it's just as easy now. We just have to train ourselves to actually, yes, do it.
I think what, what we have now, we can envy time like that. But also, I prefer to go to the grocery store to get my food. Right?
Yeah. You know, actually you prefer to get your groceries delivered.
Delivered from door dash.
Yeah. Right, right. Yeah, absolutely.
But what you're saying is so true because we're so busy, the phones are always on, we're interrupted, we make ourselves interruptible.
Right.
Even in prayer, even when I'm reading, it's like, my phone's over here and it's like, yeah, right. And it's like that, that, that takes your focus off of just soaking, like in the presence of God. Yeah, right.
That's why I never read the Bible on my phone. There's too many distractions. Yeah, too many. Even now with YouTube and shorts and subscribe to our YouTube channel if you're, if you haven't already. But even with shorts, as soon as you open YouTube, a short pops up and it's just something that is of your interest. You're like, oh, okay. And then you just start scrolling. You're like, oh, wait a second. I wanted to listen to the Rob McCoy's message last week. You know, it's like an hour into it, you don't remember why you open YouTube. So it gets you just like Instagram and Facebook does. But this word, shoe walk, and this was the, the form of meditation. It was really like for Isaac to just be in, be absorbed in thought. And when you think about that, some of the most beautiful times we have with the Lord is when we're simply sitting in stillness, in quietness, and just practicing being in the presence of the Lord. Now there's. Obviously it's great to open the Bible, read scripture, to have something to meditate on. But you know, I spent a month at rehab, which I got there the day After I got saved, I got delivered from that drug addiction, still went to rehab, and it was a month of just kind of being absorbed in thought on the Lord and that encounter that I had and his power presence.
Really for you?
Oh, it was. Yeah, it was. It was 100. Like, I. I'm like, thank you, God, for planning it out that way. Yeah, yeah. Because I didn't actually need the rehab, but it just gave me an opportunity to be away with the Lord. And of course you do the different things, the classes and therapies and all that sort of thing, but there's so much free time, especially in the morning and evening, where I would just sit under the stars and just be in the presence of God. And looking back, it's now 14 years that I've been saved. That. That's some of the more precious moments or memories that I have with the Lord just sitting there, being still. And sometimes you got to force yourself to be still. I was forced to be still in that environment, but it didn't matter where I was because I was just in the presence of God. So if I were to that word shuak, there, there's. You know, even in Hebrew, it's like, it's not clear as to what this really means as far as the form of meditation. But I. I think he was just simply, like, pondering the infinities of God, like His majesty, his goodness. He was just in awe and reverence of God. And to have that type of communion, that's exactly what God wants. God wants that oneness with us. Even Jesus, when he prayed to the Father that for us, his disciples, that we would be one with him and one with one another, going back to, you know, love God and love your neighbor, love people, that. That's it. That we would have this oneness, this fellowship. And there's nothing greater in the sight of the Lord than to have this oneness with his people. Yep.
Yeah, dude, that's good. Obviously, when. When we started to dive into this, the first thing that I kind of thought of was what hit me. It's been, you know, six years ago now when it's like, when I was like, coming back, you know, for the first time, crying back out to God again of like, what can I be successful? Can I pursue business? You know, making money, things like that. And. And, you know, Joshua 1:8 is. Was clear on. On how to do that. Like, how do you. How are you?
How are you?
How can we be prosperous and successful? In Joshua 1:8 says, Meditate on this book of the Law do not let it depart from your mouth so that you may do what it says. Right. And so meditation isn't about not doing, but I think it's like it's preparing yourself to go do. Right. It's. It's absolutely. And so. And if, you know, we are to think about those things that are. That are lovely and true and noble and. Versus that.
Philippians. Yeah, yeah.
But to set our mind on things above. Right. And that's just such a perfect time to. You know, I know we've talked about this in the past too, just about the importance of just meditating on the Word. So when you do have those times, I mean, certainly you can have a Bible with you. And like, I think Psalms is a great one. We've worked on that here as a family of just like making these declarations and, you know, reading these psalms together of like, this is what we're declaring here. So that's great, man.
Yeah. Well, think about this. Psalm 1. I mean, this is just an awesome promise of God. It's verses one through three says, blessed is the man or woman. Right. We. We know scripture is written in the. The masculine. So you could say, bless is the man or woman who walks that in the counsel of the ungod, nor stands in the path of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. Basically, you're not hanging out with sinful folks, Right? We know bad character, bad company, corrupts. Good. Good character. Character. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. But his delight, his or her delight is in the law of the Lord. So in the word of God and in his law, God's law, He, this person meditates day and night.
Day and night. Night, night.
Never fails. Who. Who sings?
That kid Cudi.
There you go. Yeah. How do you have know some people like that? But, like, I don't know. Yeah, you have a very vast range. Eclectic. Yeah. But anyway, in God's law, he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. What happens? Have you ever seen a. A tree wither up that's planted by a river of water? No. No. That brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. That's an awesome promise. Right. So. So to not hang around with sinful folks, not partake in a sinful lifestyle, meditate on God's Word and everything I do will prosper.
Everything.
Sign me up for that.
Yeah. What gets me on this, man, is just we've said this in past trainings or some of our events. It's like a tree, you know, job essentially is to bear fruit.
Right.
Apple tree is just like a good example. And an apple tree never bears more or less fruit by grinding or hustling. It's the only thing that, that bears more fruit is the matter of where it's planted. Right. By. By streams of living water. And I think that's just so important for us as if you are a business owner or a, you know, a go getter. We're constantly trying to do things on our. In our effort, right. Like on our timeframe. Like, if it's to be, it's up to me. And it's like, no, that, like, yes, those are good attributes that, that God's given us to. To, you know, you know, strive for excellence in everything that we do. But first and foremost, we have to check ourselves, like, where are we planted?
Yeah.
Am I operating from. From a position of. Of strength and authority because I'm planted within, you know, the word of God and. And he is my identity? Or am I operating in, you know, striving in. In the grind and the hustle? Because that'll get you so, you know, what the world would call successful, but you will still end up spiritually bankrupt.
Oh, yeah, right. Oh, yeah.
And. And that's. We're not trying to be successful according to the world's standards in any of this. We are, are. We are in training to be successful in what God calls success. And the only thing that matters is, was I. Was I obedient? Was I faithful to what his purposes were for me?
Yeah.
So, yeah, this is just a great reminder of just checking yourself on that and, you know, taking that time. I think morning is the best time to just set the tone for the day.
Oh, yeah, right. Absolutely. Absolutely. So the question is, how do we find this stillness, this quiet place, this. This alone time with the Lord when there are so many distractions? There's so much busyness in life, especially in the year 2025 in America. There's busyness, there's distractions, there's responsibilities. Right. How do. How do we find the stillness? And I think one of, for me personally, I think for you, one of the ways to find that stillness is simply by breathing.
Yes, right.
Simply by breathing. And it's intentional breath work. But when we talk about breath and just how remarkable. I mean, in the Old Testament, the word for breath, same word for wind, same word for spirit, The Hebrew word ruach, and it's the same in the Greek Numa. Right. It's where we get pneumonia from that P N E U M A and it's, it's wind, it's breath, it's, it's spirit. So that the Holy Spirit is a hagias numa, the, the Holy Spirit. So think about that when going back to Genesis. How did first man come about? He was formed from dust. And what did God do? He breath his, he breathed his ruach, his breath into, into Adam's nostrils, into his lungs. Right. Yeah. And that, that same breath of God to give Adam spirit, which we are. We, we are spirit beings and we're always going to be spirit beings. We're, we're either going to be a spirit in heaven or we're going to be spirit in hell or ultimately I choose heaven.
Yes.
Between. Yes, please, quite Frankly. But Genesis 2:7 says then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. So the, the moment God breathed, Adam came alive. Right?
Yeah.
And that same breath that was breathed into Adam is the, the breath that we can't breathe. Like we can't. I, I, I know like within vitro and stuff like that. Like people say you're playing God, but only God could breathe life into.
Yep.
And make that life a being. Right. It's only God. So y, so science could, could try to do it, but ultimately it only God could breathe breath into the nostrils or, or whatever. That little embryo has to start breathing in the mother's womb.
Yeah, yeah. That's so cool to even, just think about that. It's God who, not only do we breath isn't just about oxygen.
Right.
It's not like, yes, he has given us again, Creator of all things. I was just having this conversation with Ellie on the way to school today. Her question was like, dad, what would happen if all the trees were cut down? Like literally every tree on Earth? Would we not have oxygen to breathe? I'm like, oh, it's an interesting question from a 13 year old.
Right.
But it just, it brings us back into, I love our conversations in the morning. It's just like such a special time. And because it just brought us back to just like how God in Genesis 1 just created everything right. For our existence because he had a plan for us. And so it's not that, you know, the oxygen sustains us here on in life, but it's, it's him who actually, you know, breathed life into us to create life itself.
Yeah. Right.
So it's, it's him that restores us and that, that fills us continually with his spirit. Yeah. And, and why wouldn't we just focus on our breath and being able to do that? Like, I mean, I think there's plenty of science you remember, like breathing in the bag, like hyper.
Yeah.
You know, things that kind of try to mimic this, but it's just like, man, if we can slow our breathing, it calms our heart rate. It does, you know, all sorts of things that it just is like, it brings us back to this, this state of okay, God.
Right.
It's just like that. Okay, God.
Yeah. Right.
And, and yeah.
The physiological response of our body when we breathe or do breath work slows our heart rate. It increases the oxygen, makes our body bodies alkaline. Right. It boosts our immune system. Like just the physiological effects of it are through the roof. But ultimately what I'm most interested in is am I going to be in a place now where it is somewhat of that emptying. Right. Being in a place of stillness. Not so I could just be still. But what does Psalm 46:10 say? Be still and know that I am God. Yeah. Right. So we're, we're called to be still. So, and, and kind of clean out all that clutter that's within us so we could be filled by, by the Holy Spirit. Right. And I don't want anybody watching or listening to, to confuse what I said before God breathed life into Adam. He breathed the spirit into Adam. It doesn't mean every time we take a breath we're filled with the Holy Spirit. Right. And I'll get into that from when the, when Jesus breathed on the disciples and John 20, verse 22. But it, it's funny you mentioned question by a 13 year old.
Yeah.
That's one of the reasons why I'm very grateful for the technology we have.
Because I know, right?
Ezzy, he will ask me some questions. Just the other day he's like, daddy, where do pangolins live? I'm like, pangolins? I said, nobody. It's penguins. He said, pangolins. I said, penguins. They, they live in Arctic, you know, they, you know, the cold areas. He goes, no, Daddy, pangolins. Like, like, if I was I, I'm jealous of Isaac for that. That stillness in that time be like, hell, I don't know.
Right?
What's.
Help.
Help. What's a pangolin? I didn't, I never even heard the word pangolin mammal that looks like a reptile. And I don't even remember. He's had me look up because now with chat GPT while we're driving, I just ask him questions. I say, hey, I have my 5 year old Ezra, he's got some questions for you. And he'll have a conversation and it's pretty fascinating, a little freaky as well, but I mean I, I almost called Ezzy Isaac as he'll ask me questions about animals. I've never even heard of these animals. He's fascinated with animals. Wow. I hope it's just a phase because like I, I'm not a huge lover of animals.
You love my dogs, don't you?
From a distance. From a distance.
Same, same.
Yeah, yeah. But anyhow, you talked about that, that breath that, that brings life and it's not just new life, but revival as well. In Ezekiel 37, the, the story of the, the valley of dry bones. And yeah, Ezekiel is taken by God to this valley full of lifeless bones and asks, can those bones live? And God asks, can those bones live? And Ezekiel replies, lord, you know, and God tells him to prophesy to the breath, say to the breath that says to the Lord, God, come from the four winds, oh, breath and breathe on the slain that they may live. And what that tells us is that revival, like these were dead bones, right? So something that was once dead could be revived, can be restored, could be regenerated through, through new breath. Yeah, new life. And that's somewhat foreshadowing of ultimately of the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit being poured out on humanity. But you can have structure, systems, religion, but if you don't have Holy Spirit, if you don't have Ruach, right Then, then you're just going through the motions. What this is about is all those things that we do, all those boxes we check off of how we live a great little Christian life, that that's all, that's all going to be there. If we're truly filled and walking in the Spirit, all those boxes are going to get checked off. And we're not going to be striving to do them. We're going to want to do them. We're going to want to go to church fellowship with people. We're going to want to be in our. Going to want to commune and meditate on the word of God. But ultimately, man, it's this breath. And fast forward to John 20, when Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples and this is when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now this is pre Acts 2, Acts 2, the day of Pentecost where the disciples were, were filled that huge outpouring of the Spirit. But those disciples, they had a special moment with Jesus where they were filled with the Holy Spirit and sealed with the Holy Spirit ultimately, as is spoken about in Ephesians 1. But it's. It's that word pneuma, right? When he breathed on them, it's the word pneuma and that. That Holy Spirit filled them. So whether it's all the way in Genesis 2 with Adam or even today, that the air we breathe is really the breath of God, but once we say yes to the Lord, when we put our faith in him, we get that. That filling of the Holy Spirit, right? So we breathe this air sustains us. God is gracious enough to give us air that he breathes into us, to sustain us now, to give us everlasting life is when he fills us with that Holy Spirit.
Yeah, man, that's good. It's just a reminder, I think, again, for us that are working our butts off or just seem like we're striving for those things, it's like, just a reminder that it's not about working harder, it's not about striving for more, but it's more about just breathing deeper. Yeah, right. Like taking a moment, pause, and just breathe in. Right. Because it's the same breath that. That. That breathed into Adam to give him life. The same breath that. That Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, receive the Holy Spirit. It's like. It's the same breath that fills us and gives us life.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's great. It's really good.
We've talked about this. I remember when we were out in Las Vegas with Brad Lee, you mentioned how. And that was when he was more curious about Jesus. And now it seems like he's sealed the deal. Loving it for sure. But he talked about breathing, and even when you breathe, what's God's name? It's Yahweh. That. That was told to us in Exodus chapter 3 and Yahweh and to. For those four consonants to. To come together, the only sound that. That it creates is our natural breathing. Like, we breathe in, like, way. Yeah. Hey.
So cool.
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, is there something to. That we may find out in heaven? It's like.
Like. Nah, that's not what I mean.
That's not what I meant by that at all.
But it seems cool.
Yeah. And it seems like it. It fits. If breath and wind and spirit are all tied together, then why not?
Yeah. Because even if you think of him breathing life into Adam, it's.
It.
It wasn't a first breath out. It was. Right, yeah. So cool.
Yeah. Never thought about that. Obviously, the first breath of Adam was in inhale.
It was inhale.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't way. Yah.
Right.
Right, right. If you have. If you're in part of any yoga or meditation or breathing classes where they're saying way. Yeah, probably run. That's probably.
Yeah.
Satan trying to counterfeit something.
Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. So, yeah, we went over Genesis in Acts 17, in verses 25, and then 28, says, God gives to all life, breath and all things, for in him we live and move and have our being. So God gives to us. And like I said, you know, like, science could try to create a baby or clone something, but ultimately it's God that gives to all life breath in all things. And. And in him is how we live and move and have our being. So again, like, our being is associated with that. That breath that we take. And it's that when you. I mean, you could spend a hundred years, probably a thousand years studying scripture, and the more you dive into the word of God, the more like, every puzzle piece starts to fall into place and you connect the. The dots and it's just remarkable. And I don't think we'll ever fully connect all the dots until we're in heaven with them. Right. That's when, you know, it says that we. We see through, like a foggy mirror now on Earth. And then ultimately when we're in his presence, everything, it's like, wait a second. I thought I was seeing through a foggy mirror before I got saved. And now I got revelation of who he is and His Word. And it's like, oh, the clouds parted and that. That fuzziness and that uncertainty ceased. And now it's like. It's like I could see. It's like, wow, this is still pales in comparison to ultimately the knowledge we'll have in heaven. Yeah. One of the many reasons that that's where you want to be, as opposed to contrary. Yes. Yeah.
It's what it makes you think about, even just the biologically he's created us to breathe. Right. And science will call that, well, biology, but it's. It's. It's just as much as theology as it is biology.
Yeah.
Right. When we are breathing that it's like that. That Yahweh. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in.
Pearl Jam.
Is that Pearl Jam? Yeah, I was gonna say.
No, Bush.
Bush, yes. That's not who I was gonna say either, but it definitely is Bush.
Yeah.
Remember that?
Yeah.
Remember that album?
Yeah. Yeah. Is it Orange?
That's the name of the song?
No, that, like, the album cover.
Oh, no. I thought it was, like, white with black and, like, red.
Like, red lettering, maybe.
I don't know.
I don't know. Did you buy your CD or did you steal it?
Bought it.
Okay.
Why is that even a question? Did you steal it?
No. Everybody I knew stole CDs. I never did.
Stole or, like, burnt them?
No. Stole. No, no. I grew up at a time before the burning of CDs. The whole four years.
Right.
PR to you. Big separation. Yeah.
Where do you steal CDs from?
Music stores at the mall.
Oh, dude, ours were, like. Had, like, sensors on them and stuff.
Well, in that little wrapping, you know, where you open the case and it's got that little crevice right there. You just slide your nail through it, cuts it open, you take it off, and you walk out with the cd. I never did it. Even as a young little heathen, not fearing the Lord, I still had some sort of moral code written on my heart.
It is written on the heart.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't want to, you know, try to. I hope you're not offended by us. And if you stole it, I'm not offended. Yeah, well, you probably didn't even have stores that we had one, man.
On cue. It's called on cue.
Did you get your groceries? Your music? It was. It was just everything.
It was in our. Our mall that we had right next to Kmart.
Was it a mall or like a strip?
I mean, this town, again, was 40 miles away. Oh, so we had to drive there. Yeah, but it was before we even had a Walmart.
We had a Kmart.
I don't even know if that's still a thing anymore.
I don't think so. Kmart. I don't think so. Yeah, we used to make fun of kids who wore Kmart clothes. Yeah, bro, I'd have been that moral code didn't do me so well there.
Right.
Yeah. Anyhow, anyways, moving on. Moving on. So, I. I mentioned that Psalm 46, 10, that. That being still and even throughout the. The Psalms. You'll see a lot of psalms end with the word selah. Right. And that's really just to. To pause, breathe, reflect on what was just written or just stated. Right. So all throughout the Psalms, you see that. This moment, to just pause. And even when you read it, pause and I think maybe reread it.
Yeah, usually I have to a few times.
Yeah. I. And I would say, even no matter what you're reading scripture. If you're just reading a page a day, a chapter a day, whatever it is at the end of it, take a moment to pause, to allow your, your brain and your spirit to like take it all in. And then we've talked about this. You know, God calls us his sheep and we're to be like sheep when we graze on the word of God in the morning. You know, it gets in our system. Yeah. Ruminate. And then, and then. I could probably learn more about that from Ezzy.
Right.
About ruminant.
How many stuff, animals does a cow have?
I think last time you asked me, I got it wrong. Is it three, five?
I think it's four.
Three. I don't know.
How many stomachs in the chat.
How many stomachs does a ruminant animal have? Like a cow or a sheep?
Does a sheep have more than one stomach?
Yeah, they're ruminant animals. I think they all have the same amount. It's really chambers of the stomach.
I didn't even realize, like that was an adjective.
For now.
They're ruminant animals.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. And then we, we take it in like, like a sheep or a cow will graze in the morning, then throughout the day, regurgitate it, chew the cud, swallow it again, and that's when it's actually digested. Yep. We do that with the word of God. I mean, that's great. Like when you're driving to work or just have some downtime, just start to think, like regurgitate it. Think about what you just read and God will give you like revelation. That applies to you. Absolutely. It's remarkable how you could be reading something that has nothing to do with what's on your mind, what you're praying about, your circumstances. But God speaks to you through that verse just because you're, you're communing with them. He speaks to us through the word of God.
It's alive. It's, it's, it's active and alive.
Yeah.
So yeah, it's. And that's where I think too. You know, there's a lot of like one year Bible reading plans which I think is, you know, good. But if you're not actually absorbing it and understanding it, you're just going through the motions.
Right.
And reading the Word isn't just to check a box is to actually have it be embedded on your heart and, and really understand. And that's why I've just become so adamant about whatever book I'm in. I want to Study this. Right. I'm looking at. I'm looking up Skip Heitzig, I'm looking up Gary Hamrick, some of my favorite, like, Bible teachers, and they do verse by verse teachings. Because I'm going to spend days, if not weeks on one chapter.
Right.
Because I want that to be. I want it to be known and I want to. I just want to know Scripture. But it's like sometimes it's like I feel like I know a lot, but I'm like, I don't. Don't know where it's at, but I know it's in there. Right, right, right. So that's my second phase is like actually remembering. But what you know, I think is cool is that, you know, these verses, these, you know, like Second Corinthians, chapter two, verse, whatever, that was all after God.
What do you mean, after God?
Like after, like the Word. There's the word of God. And then when we came in to make it more easily recognizable, to remember where to go, the verses in the chapters, that's secondary to me. I just want to know it. Just don't ask me where it's at.
Right. The Bible says in the Bible. Yeah, yeah. All right. All right. So. And the way that this breath work and stillness, how it really paves the way for biblical meditation is when you do this breath work. And we're going to post a video of Christian breath, breath work. And there should be a link wherever you're watching this or listening to this for that video, which is phenomenal because if you try to look up anything Christian meditation, Christian breath work, it. It's like either nothing or something that's very pansy, like, you know, beta. Right, right. So we created one ourselves because I think it's important, and quite frankly, if I'm the only viewer of it, I'm gonna watch that thing daily.
Absolutely.
Because it's nice. Like Wim Hof. Wim Hof breathing method. Right. And the guy's name is Wim Hof. What's his actual name?
Dude, I have no clue.
Yeah. Wim Hof.
Let it. Let it go.
Yeah, yeah. Let it go. Yeah. Because even if you're. You're listening to that and he's guiding you through breath work, you want to be focused on. On the Lord.
Absolutely.
Because all that breath work does is it's preparing your vessel, which that breath work, it does, it does relax your body, but it sharpens your focus, the focus of your mind, which is a perfect state to be in to now commune with the Lord. But when you Have Wim Hof saying, in with the peace, out with the. It's like, wait, what?
Yeah, right? Like what.
What did he say? Yeah, yeah, it's like, hold on. Yeah. The Lord is my shepherd, you know, and then. Then you hear that, it's not so good. So we came up with our Christian version of it. We're going to call it. Why don't we call it Rymek Rye Breathing?
Definitely not.
No, definitely not. Chris Rye. Right. Right. Chris.
No, let's give glory to God in that. Not tied their view.
Yeah, we'll call it like Yahweh.
Figure it out. But. But it is so the. The intent of. Of that, guys. So hopefully we'll. Jace will link that to this episode to be able to give you guys a place to find that. And these aren't long. This isn't. This isn't like taking a ton of time. I mean, these can be done in 10 minutes. Yeah, right. And our intent is to, you know, maybe have a couple other even versions of these with. With scriptures, right. In. In declarations that are just aligning our. Our body. Right.
Our.
Our spirit with His Word.
Right.
Because when the. The power of agreement when. When we start to speak those words, declare those words, we're thinking of those things that are above it, it changes our entire state.
Yep. Right.
And. And it's just a. It's a thinking even. You know, psychologically, this would be considered like priming, right? Where it's like you're. You're putting your body into a state. Tony Robbins talks about this a lot. Right. And he can. I mean, he. The guy is extremely good at what he does. He can take stadiums of people like thousand. 14, 15,000 people have been a part of this where he. He takes them into a state. It's like mass hypnosis essentially. And you know, that can be used for good or evil. Right. And so we want to use it for good.
Yeah.
Right. And that's. That ultimately, I think is. Is our heart and our intention with this for you guys to use. Again, a lot of what we talk about is we want to make this. We want to talk about kingdom living, right? How do we walk this life out here and, you know, live well. Right. And position ourselves for God to use.
Right.
For his actual glory here. And I think it's just a perfect way for you to start your day, prime that pump, get ready to go change some lives.
Yeah. Amen. Amen. So this breathing, one of the verses you're going to hear on this Christian breath. Work is job 30, 33, 4. The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Right. Even if you just repeat that, right? Just that affirmation over yourself when you're feeling worthless, where you feel like your life isn't valuable, where you feel less than you're inadequate, just keep repeating that over yourself. The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. So what better verse to meditate on when you're actually breathing and focusing your mind on him, where your mind is in a sharper focus state? And it's, it's remarkable when I'm usually in that second round of breathing is when I literally feel like somebody puts earplugs in my ears and I could, you could almost hear the quietness. Right. If that makes sense. Even if I'm in a quiet room, it's like I now hear the quietness. And now, I mean, I could hear like a mosquito fart if one flew by. Right. It's like you're just, you're. The focus of your mind is, is sharpened and heightened. But, but then what the breathing does is really just preparing our vessel and then asking and inviting the Holy Spirit to come in. Yeah, right. Because it, Luke 11:13, you know, it simply says how much more. And the context here is if you as evil dads, essentially being having hearts that are wicked, not being like devil worshippers, but even if you're saved, like, you're still human. You, you're, you have faults, you're not a perfect dad. So even you not being perfect, you know, you love your kids so much that if your son asks for, for an egg, you're not going to give them a scorpion. Right? Right. Like things like that. Like you, you're gonna, you're gonna give your son what he asked for when he's asking with, with a good heart about it. Right. It's something that's beneficial for him. And then it says, how much more will your Heavenly Father, who is perfect, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him, Right. So if you're a believer, ultimately you, once you said yes, you got filled and sealed with the Holy Spirit. It doesn't stop there. You could walk your way through life and maybe coast your way into heaven. Although if you coast too much, you'll probably veer off path and maybe walk away from that salvation. That's another episode we could get into that losing that, it's not losing or relinquishing your salvation, perhaps. Or you could be like the disciples all throughout the book of Acts where even though they. When the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and they. They were baptized in the Holy Spirit, they start speaking in different tongues. You know, just a couple chapters later, they're filled with the Holy Spirit again. Yep. And Paul tells us in Ephesians, he says to always be filled with the Holy Spirit. So if you feel like you're lacking. I had a. I don't think I shared this on the podcast. I think it was on Bible study. Last time I left here, I got. Flight was delayed and I got. Got in late, so I just caught an Uber home as this lady, she was driving a Tesla. And as we're like 10 minutes from my house, she says, and it's like 2:30 in the morning, she says, are there any charging stations near you after I drop you off? I have only 15 miles left, and I live 30 miles away from your house. I was like, I'm not sure, but I could look it up for you. And I told her, but I spent the rest of that. That drive just thinking about, man, like, if I'm a Tesla and I need to be charged, right? And that charge on last 500 miles. I don't know if Tesla is a thousand miles. I don't know how long they last, right? But say it lasts 500 miles. I don't want to be at 15 miles to go before I find a charging station. Yeah. Well, if I have. If my Battery could withhold 500 miles of driving when I'm at like 490, I want to charge. I want to charge. I want to charge, right? I want to always be full y. And, and of course, regarding the Holy Spirit, I don't want to wait. And a lot of us do, we, we. We have this encounter with the Lord or a moment with the Lord, a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. And it's like, yeah, I'm going to ride this wave all the way to the point where I just kind of coast away from him. And now he's not at the forefront of every action, word and deed, and you just kind of start clicking because life is grand, right? This fresh filling of the Holy Spirit and ultimately the Holy Spirit isn't just for us to feel good. You're on this earth. What does it do? Go back to Acts 1:8. It's the power that we receive to go and be witnesses. And we're supposed to be filled to the point of overflow. And somebody said this. Leslie, give her a shout out. She said this. And she always, she never takes credit for any of the nuggets she has, she always gives. Gives honor to somebody else. So she said one of her pastors of the past said that you want to be drenched to drip. It's like you're drenched with the Holy Spirit. But if, like, if it's just you, not to the point where it's dripping. Like, if you, if you like a douse with water and you walk into a store, you're going to leave footprints of water, the water's going to be dripping off of you. That's what affects everybody else that, that drip. And if it's an overflow, it's not. You're not feeling less, you know, you're still, you're still full of the Holy Spirit. And they're getting the overflow. Yeah, that drip. And if we could walk in that state all day, every day, I mean, what would the world look like if that was what the church did? If every single day we denied ourselves, took up our cross, we followed Jesus, we asked God for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, which typically when things are good, we don't ask for a fresh filling because it's like, oh, things are good. I can manage this. Or, you know, it's not until we're absolutely broken down, beaten up and battered, things aren't going right, can't pay bills. Maybe a tragedy in your life, something like that. You get on your knees, you cry out and then, boom, he does it. But I wait, why wait? Why be like my Uber driver? It's either 15 miles to empty, it's like, no, I'm at 490, I'm going back to that charging station.
You're never going to get anywhere else, though, right? So I don't own a Tesla, man.
Right.
Yeah, that's, that's really good. But I just even made me think of, like I mentioned doing this in the morning is. Is a great time to do it, but also, you know, for those that are out in the workforce or you've got a big call coming up.
Or.
Even after work, like, what if you took 10 minutes in your vehicle before you go, not just give your family what's left over, but you took 10 minutes to reset to, to provide them that overflow. Yeah, right.
Yeah.
Because sometimes long days, we come home, our family gets the. Gets what's left, and that's not fair to them. Yeah, right. And life isn't fair. But I'm speaking to men specifically. Like, that's your duty. That's your, your God given number one most important calling is to Be, you know, certainly provider but protector in a safe haven for your family. And, and if you're coming in and operating on fumes with them, that's not what God has for you. Yeah, right. Or what he desires for you. And so just that idea of using this as like a reset. Right. Because spiritually. But even if, even if you're like, yeah, that sounds good. Let me give you some more reasons of why. Just if, if it's not the spiritual component, which, like, that's good enough for me, man. Like that's, that's, that's prime primary focus for me. But from the, from the, our, the major systems affected in our body, your nervous system, it helps to restore balance and resilience. Immune system, it. There's great anti inflammatory benefits. We're talking about the doing this type of breath work, specifically the endocrine system. It helps to balance our hormones, the cardiovascular system with circulation. Oxygenation we mentioned too. It helps to regulate blood pressure, slow down our heart rate. I mean it is amazing. It, you know, you mentioned going on like round three. It's like you, you have this euphoric sense just coming out of it, which I think again is just that. Prime, prime. We've primed our state to receive so much better. And that's why we want to use this for good and incorporate scripture in these declarations over our lives.
Yeah. Amen. That's good.
That's good.
Talking about morning disciplines with Ezzy. He's got to do the three P's. It's P, pray and play. And he does it. But we got to tell him the pee because he'll just like get up, pray, start playing and then he'll be like squeezing his little weenus. It's like, dude, little weenus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Pee that way. And I'm like that too. I'll get up. I'll pee first.
Dude, you've peed like two, three times already. In the middle of the night though.
Yeah. Drink a lot of water. Small bladder. Yeah. Actually, I think, I think it started when I had the back surgery where they fused my spine. They went in through my stomach like. Because I don't remember peeing a lot after that. I think they did something. It makes me. Because I got to move everything out of the way to get to your spine. Yeah, they touch my bladder.
I think they like capped it off. Yeah, it's full. Fully loaded right here. Yeah.
Yeah.
I pee a couple times a night too. I think we're just getting old.
You drink a ton of water and electrolytes all sorts of stuff. And you chug them right before you go to bed. Yeah, if I did that, I wouldn't even fall asleep. I just never not have to pee.
Well, I'm. I'm planning. I'm going into like eight hours of dehydration, bro.
Right.
So I just chug it.
Yeah.
Also it just makes me feel better in the morning.
Yeah.
When I'm hydrated. Right. Because you wake up and that's that. You know, one of the habits ends still is just like this. Feed at the ground, water a pound.
Right.
I want to be well hydrated. Yeah. That affects a lot of things too, so.
And look how good it does for you. You barely work out and.
Barely work out and 10 minutes a day once, that's all I need.
Hey, you look good for 52.
Yeah, thank you.
Just kidding. He turned a big four zero few weeks ago. Couple months ago, actually. Yeah.
Back in August.
But yeah. Want to tie a bow on this bad boy?
On it. Yeah.
Yeah.
So I would say plenty of scriptures here, but visiting those, you know, we'll for sure have one up and you know, depending upon response, we can do some other ones as well.
Yeah.
About, you know, just the type of declarations and, and I think this first one here, I think is just great. Just understanding like identity and, and who we are in Christ. Because if we operate from that standpoint, like there's. That's it, like that's number one. Right. A lot, a lot of us maybe forget our identity and we're trying to like we're bull. Rushing things and again striving for those things. But if we come back to like, oh no, this is who God says I am. I operate from victory, you know, not from, you know, lack by any means.
Yeah. Yeah. So this breathing, when practiced with spiritual intent, holy spiritual intent, it'll open the body to stillness, which is what God wants of us for that time of meditation. It centers our heart on a dependency for him when we do literally think about every breath we take. It's him breathing into us. And then it prepares our soul to. To commune with the Lord. Right. Our Spirit to commune with the Holy Spirit, to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit. And it's. It's remarkable. I. The first video is going to be more like beginner, Right. And then we'll have.
We'll.
We'll drop more that are a little more entailed because it's remarkable what you could only do a couple days and all of a sudden you're able to hold your breath. Three minutes, three and a half minutes. Yeah. It's like, where did that come from?
Right?
Yeah.
Yes. Back to even. Just consistency.
Right.
But it doesn't take long with this, so.
No.
So go have yourselves a holy encounter by tuning into one of these breath work videos. Christian breath work videos. Yeah. We'd love to get you guys feedback on it as well. Or even. Even if you have some suggestions or ideas of types of scriptures or declarations that you want us to. To create some new videos with.
Yep.
Yep.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
That being said, guys, go have an incredible rest of the weekend. And again, Friday. Friday?
What does that even mean?
I don't know. Friday?
Yeah, dude.
Yeah. Yay. It's just your attitude towards it. Yay.
Oh, okay.
You never got that.
What does it mean? Nobody knows what it means.
It's impossible to know that, dude. I don't know why I've always. Every time I wake up. Ellie, it's. It's Friday.
Okay.
It's like, we're gonna have a great day.
Yeah.
Right?
About moneys. Yeah. Then you just sound slow.
Yahweh.
Yahweh. There you go.
All right, we're gonna end it with that. I love you guys. We'll see you next week.
Peace.
All right.
That was good.
Yeah.
