[2023.4.6] The Basin: I Breathe You In Holy Spirit

Today I just want to share a prayer that I've been praying, and it's been helping me. I really started praying it last week, so I don't have six months here. I'm not ready to write the prayer of Jabez around this prayer yet. And I can't find the exact prayer in the Bible, although the imagery is rich and it's scriptural, and I think it's very practical. So I have moments, like I'm sure you do, where I feel overwhelmed with a lot of little things. Sometimes it's just today I need to make this travel decision. We're starting tour in less than two weeks. Which message has God called me to preach for the tour? I've got Good Friday sermon. I've got Sunday sermon. Good Friday's just a devoid. But the Sunday sermon. Wait, which one's which now is tonight date night? Yes, but my haircut. I gotta get the haircut before Friday. So wait a minute. And all of this while I'm kind of interacting with people and trying to get my workout done. And I tell you what, man, my. My head, my. My brain sometimes feels like a neighborhood that needs. That needs some. I don't know, like. Like some. Eviction notices. I was going to say population control, but I know that's a loaded phrase. It's just not only too many thoughts, but sometimes the thoughts are just. They're taking up space, you know, Taking up space. I heard a motivational teacher say that only 8% of the stuff that we think about actually is a concern that we can control or have influence over even 8%. That was his number. I mean, who knows if that's exactly the percentage, but I thought about it, man, and I put myself a little note. Stay in the eight. Stay in the eight. The number eight has a lot of significance for me. New beginnings coming up on Easter. So that's one meaning of staying the eight, you know, always be doing something new. The Ecclesiastes verse I love says, invest in seven ventures. Yes, in eight. Even eight. For you don't know what disaster will fall on the land. So just always be creating something new. Even the word create has eight in it. Eight can look like an infinity loop. It's just a great number. Catch it, dig it. But yeah, when I heard that 8% of the things are things that we can actually do something about felt about right to me, you know, they either already have happened, can't change them, only can learn from them, go forward, never going to happen, can't do anything about them. Even though they are going to happen. But when I find myself getting to that place, there's a prayer and an action that I started taking. And it starts like this. I breathe you in, Holy Spirit. The Hebrew word for spirit, ruach. The Greek word pneuma. The words mean breath. So I like to get back to that baseline. I'm breathing. Okay? I'm no Wim Hof here. Isn't that the guy's name that does all the breathing stuff and the cold water stuff, but, oh, man, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. As long as I'm breathing, I got a reason. I breathe you in, Holy Spirit. I like saying that. I like saying it out loud. I like doing it while I'm saying it. That's the first part. I breathe you in, Holy Spirit. And then this is the next part of what I started praying. And strength comes suddenly, and peace fills me completely. Or sometimes I'll say, I breathe you in, Holy Spirit. Wait, hold on. Let me breathe. I breathe you in, Holy Spirit. And your strength comes suddenly. And your peace fills me completely. Again, I breathe you in, Holy Spirit. And strength comes suddenly. And your peace fills me completely. Now, you could play around with that. You might say it differently. You might feel like it's a little bit off to say strength comes suddenly because you're like, well, technically, they that wait on the Lord will renew their strength. But notice now the Isaiah passage that I just mocked you quoting that passage. It says, they will renew their strength. They that wait on the Lord will renew their strength. So it's active, right? So that's the part that was life changing for me, is kind of taking charge of my own soul, taking control of my own soul. God is in control. Yes, that's true of all of the affairs that are sovereignly being worked out by him. But he has given me stewardship over my soul. Write that down. I am the steward of my soul. What goes in, what comes out. Now, part of this whole thing is if I'm constantly breathing in the contaminants of anxiety, which could be all the different things that I follow on my phone. All the different, you know, you know, the list, the culprits, all the people that I kind of get in these conversations with, and I let them spiral to a negative place. I was thinking the other day, it's not always the people we're around. It's just where we let the conversation drift to or where we even steer it right. That's a big one we should come back to later. Is it really them? You know, Are they a negative person, or do you just pull on the pessimism when you're with them? Try that out sometime. And so, you know, if I'm saying, I breathe you in, Holy Spirit, strength comes suddenly, peace fills me completely. But I'm contradicting that with everything else that I'm breathing in. That's a problem. That's a problem. So I can't have this unregulated thought life that I cancel out with a prayer any more than I can have an unregulated physical eating life that I cancel out with exercise. Like, the eating is going to catch up if you eat. Eat, like way too many calories. You know, there's no amount of exercise in the world that's going to help you to lose fat. And that's the phrase that my trainer used to say, you can't out train a bad diet. Well, you can't out pray a bad thought life. You can't. But I tell you what, none of us is perfect. And even if we've allowed all this negative stuff to get in our heads, or we've watched movies that are about, you know, children being kidnapped, and then we're like, God, give me peace. Well, I mean, maybe don't watch the movie about the kid getting kidnapped tomorrow night. Maybe watch the Chosen. I don't know. I don't always watch Christian TV either. So I'm not trying to regulate you. I'm just giving you the front end of this so that when you do what I'm telling you to do, you won't go. Well, that didn't work. Okay, well, pay attention to your words before you say it didn't work. Pay attention to what you welcome in your life. Pay attention to these things as well. Pay attention to the weeds in your garden before you complain that the seeds were ineffective. But this idea of getting overwhelmed with big things, little things. Hey, not everything we get overwhelmed with is just stupid or by choice. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed because this is a lot. God, you said you wouldn't put more on me than I can bear, but right now I feel no hold on you. Renew your strength, and this is one tool. Now, you may want to modify it, but this one's working pretty good for me. I breathe you in, Holy Spirit, and your strength comes suddenly. Why suddenly? Okay, I love the picture of the day of Pentecost. And suddenly there came upon them a mighty rushing wind. I'll give you a little Old Testament background to go with that New Testament image. When the spirit of the Lord came on Gideon Saul and David. There's this cool phrase in Hebrew that in 1st Samuel 10, I believe it's around verse 6. It says that. Let me look. Yeah, verse 6, where the NIV says, the Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you. ESV says the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you. The word is rush. The spirit ruach breath will rush upon you. So that image helps me, right? Because sometimes you don't have three days for God to strengthen you. Sometimes in adult life, you don't have three weeks to collect yourself. You know, the boss calls on you, hey, you got that thing, and you're like, holy Spirit. Strength comes suddenly. You need that sudden strength, that sudden strength. You don't always get to choose who walks in the room and when. Sometimes you need that sudden strength. I prophesy sudden strength over your life today. The Bible says that the spirit came suddenly on Saul and he prophesied. It says it again in chapter 11. It came suddenly. It rushed. The word is rushed. Rushed. The spirit rushed suddenly, like a rush through his system, like it rushes through your veins. You ever felt something rush through your veins? Well, the spirit of God will rush suddenly. When you magnify God, okay? He's sovereign, he's great. He's amazing. I have experienced this before so many times in preaching where the spirit rushes suddenly. I've been sick before. I remember being in Sydney, Australia, and I was about to preach the opening session of a conference with a few thousand people. And I went to lay down because we flew in that morning, went to breakfast. I started feeling unwell. I said to Buck, I'm going to go up to my room. I'll see you in a little while. And about five o', clock, he came to get me. I'd been up there for five hours and I was in a dark room in another continent. Holly wasn't with me. I'm just in the bed and I can't move and I'm aching. And I put my clothes on and he walked me to the elevator. And I barely remember anything until I was on that stage. You know, I remember. I kind of remember seeing Phil, the pastor, who had invited me in the elevator. And I had some Bose headphones on, and I remember him making fun of my Bose headphones. He was like, you need beats. You look like an accountant. I remember that. And then it was almost like the next thing I remember, I was on the stage. And for 45 minutes, they said I preached great. I can't explain to you how I preached what they called great, but the spirit rushed suddenly for something that I needed to do. I couldn't call in sick to that. You know, I came across the world to do this. I needed that sudden strength from Almighty God. When I am weak, my heart and flesh fail, but God is the strength of my life. That sudden strength will come upon you. But also, you know, there are times where I just need sudden strength because, well, honestly, I don't feel like doing anything that day. I'm just, like, in a funk. I'm not sick. I'm not, you know, about to preach to thousands of people. I just need to get up, do my study, do my stuff, get grateful, go in through the call, push through the annoying meeting. Look at that stupid email. Breathing in Holy Spirit strength comes suddenly. I can do this. I got this suddenly. And then there are other times where just something as small as breathing reminds me, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, God is in me. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I'm here. Oh, yeah. It's not gonna be that bad. And then I do the next thing, and that gives me a sense of peace, which is the second part. Peace fills me completely. We actually wrote a song yesterday where it talks about being flooded by the living water, and it talks about the spirit rushing through me and breathing him in. We wrote it off of this prayer. And maybe I'll get to share that song with you in the future soon, too. But for now, just think about that beautiful, beautiful tag team that God has given us access to by his spirit. Not only did Jesus say before he left, what an appropriate thought. On Maundy Thursday, right before he left his disciples, he said, I'm going to send you my spirit. I breathe you in, Holy Spirit. When Jesus breathed his last on the cross, when he breathed his last, he breathed into us. And the Holy Spirit was sent after that he had ascended. And when the Spirit comes on you, he said, you will receive power suddenly, a mighty rushing wind. But he also said, not only when he left the earth and he did a tag team with the Holy Spirit and said, tag. You're it, Holy Spirit. I think about all the tag teams from professional wrestling. They call it professional wrestling with WWE and Sting and Lex Luger and the Ultimate Warrior and the Road Warriors. Oh, the Road warriors are my favorite tag team. Boom. Get to the corner. Tag your partner. Here comes the Holy Spirit. Now, Jesus didn't tag out because he was tired. He tagged out because he was done with his earthly ministry. It is finished. Then the Holy Spirit came. And the Holy Spirit brings us not only strength, power, but peace. Peace, your Strength comes suddenly, and your peace fills me completely. And those two go hand in hand. It's not like strength is hard and peace is soft. No, since I'm filled with peace, I've got power because I'm resting in the promise of God. Try that out this week. When you're like in the middle of 13 things. I know. You don't have time to stop and pray. 30 minutes. That's why God's going to give you a sudden strength. I know you don't have everything all figured out yet. And there's still seven people who need an answer from you, and you don't have one for any of them. That's why he's going to give you peace that passes understanding. But it starts with you breathing in. God breathed into man the breath of life. Jesus breathed his last. And now that breath is alive in you through the Holy Spirit. Tag, you're it. Your turn. I've taught you this prayer. It's something I'm praying. It's something I may teach our church to pray soon. But how about you? You need that today. You got to wait and see what the doctor says. Tuesday. Don't wait till Tuesday to do this. Don't wait till Tuesday to tag up with God and go, okay, well, now that I know. No, you need him now. I need the every hour. Breathe you in, Holy Spirit. Breathe you in. Wait, I thought the Holy Spirit came upon me. No, that's Old Testament. The Holy Spirit is within you. This is a pneumatology, they say theologically, I had to read three books on the Holy Spirit during March Madness when I was in seminary, when I was 25 or 26 years old. And I got obsessed with one of them because it helped me see that the Holy Spirit is not going to just come on me from somewhere else. Rivers of living water, the breath of God in me. I breathe you in, Holy Spirit. Rivers of gladness flood my soul. Breathe you in, Holy Spirit. Rushing wind, my all in all my comforter. I breathe you in, Holy Spirit. So you could do that a couple times, three times. When your strength comes suddenly, try it even more. Strength rushes suddenly and your peace fills me completely. Now go pick the kids up. Now go make the phone call. Now go do the thing. Knowing that God is in you for you, with you, in Jesus name. Breathe it in. Hey. Thank you for watching. Make sure you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a single video or live stream and subscribe. Share this video with a friend and don't forget you can join me live every Sunday. Thanks again for watching.