Author: Christine Wyrtzen

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.  Genesis 2:7  ESV

God breathes and life is birthed.  Adam was made from the dust of the earth and while he had physical qualities, he was not a spiritual being until he came to life through a God-breath.  God breathes, even today, and we may not be aware of it.  Oh, but sometimes we are.

• Job recognized it.  He said, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”  Job 33:4
• Ezekiel anticipated it. “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”  Ezekiel 37:9  In a vision, barely revived corpses came to life, stood on their feet, and became a great army.
• The world at the end of the tribulation will know the power of God’s breath when the two witnesses, the prophets Satan kills, come back to life with a breath.  “But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.”  Revelation 11:11
• The disciples were surprised by it.  Jesus appeared to them after His resurrection, told them to be at peace, and then breathed on them.  “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  John 20:22   They left their places of hiding to burn brightly for the kingdom.
• And we experienced it at the time of salvation.  God breathed over us and our spiritual blindness was cured.  We looked up and saw a Savior; we looked inward and saw our sin.  “Unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  John 3:5

Our spiritual fathers focused on the breath of God, too.  They made breathing prayer a way of life during times of meditation and prayer.  As they inhaled, they prayed ~ “O Lord Jesus,” and as they exhaled, “Have mercy on me.”  In 2008, I made this breathing prayer a part of my life and I was different.  It is still a part of my life.

I think of the phrase ‘the living dead.’  It refers to a person who is physically alive but soulfully dead.  That should never characterize any child of God.  The Spirit of God, the breath of God, is within each of us.  In Him, we are promised peace and the surpassing power of His greatness.  Many are waiting for heaven to experience abundant life but it’s a breath away.

 Have mercy and breathe over me, I pray.  Amen

If you had only paid attention to my commands, Your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the rollers of the sea.  Isaiah 48:18 

There are two kinds of peace; peace with God and peace in our hearts.  The tragedy is that we have the first and are meant to have the second as well.  Sometimes, God’s children have neither.

From God’s perspective, because Christ came and finished His mission, I am at peace with Him.  His wrath was spent on Jesus, not on me.  When He thinks of me, it is with deep affection.  All is well.  I am forgiven, loved and secure.  How sad is it when God thinks of me this way, but I live as though I’m not loved, forgiven, and secure?  My belief that all is well with God dangles like a thread. The liar suggests that I have failed God or God has failed me.  The Gospel satisfies both misgivings.

There is also circumstantial peace.  My peace with God may be intact but I still lack peace in my heart because of the times in which I’m living.  God spoke through Isaiah to reveal that there is a peace that flows like a river.  It emerges from my inner world as a rippling stream, coursing through the ever-changing scenes of life.  In a storm, the river is raging.  On a lazy summer day, it trickles and calms.  There may be green meadows at one bend, children playing at another, dangerous rapids around the next curve, but the river continues nonetheless.  Today, I may be thriving; tomorrow, in want.  Today I may feel healthy and strong; tomorrow, sick in bed and wracked with pain.  Today, I may be praised and encouraged by others; tomorrow, the target of ridicule.  Peace is not threatened by any of these changes.

My river of peace can be clogged and polluted by unbelief.  The Gospel is about believing God.  I believe him for my salvation, but I also believe, and then act on, every promise He has made to me.  The liar is a promise stealer.  As soon as I listen to his voice, the one that undermines God’s credibility, my river of peace dries up.  If I don’t feel peaceful today, what promises have I stopped believing?  What ones will I re-affirm and then walk them out to give evidence of my faith? God brings the sound of water to the deserts of desperate mankind.

I embrace your commandments all over again and walk in Your promises.  Amen

For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  1 Corinthians 13:12

It is instinctive to overcorrect. If I was raised in an overly strict home and was hurt by an iron hand, I will create a home with few boundaries. If I was raised in an atmosphere of permissiveness and saw the fallout of rebellion, I will parent with aheavy hand. Unprocessed pain causes me to swing the pendulum to the oppositeextreme. 

This same principle holds true if God was misrepresented to me in my formative years. If I was told that He was harsh, angry, and unreasonable, I will grow up to dismiss Him as Judge and Ruler, in favor of a God who is loving and accepting of all people and all behaviors. Overcompensating always gives me a vision of God that is skewed. As a child in His kingdom, I can’t afford even one distortion. 

Defining my past as God defines it is so important. Allowing Him to diagnose it drops a plumbline of truth into my perspective. I am the child of a God who is perfectly balanced. I don’t need to be skittish as He re-fathers me. I’ll experience Him as loving. Just. Disciplinary. Gentle. Fair. Safely intimate with Him,distortions in my own parenting style will come into view, and I will make corrections. 

An imperfect upbringing isn’t the only catalyst that weaves distortions. Satan devises schemes that build deception upon deception. If he can get me to believe a lie about God, he knows that trust will erode. I’ll accuse God of being too ‘one-way.’ This will wreak havoc on my parenting and in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Every day, the Truth-teller wants to expose lies. Why? Lies hurt the children that He loves. And distortions that cause us to overcompensate in our parenting hurt the children that we love.  

Show me where I don’t yet know You. Amen

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground Isaiah 44:3

Children grew up faster in the first century.  Jesus knew, prior to school age, what living under the boot of the Roman Empire meant for his neighbors and the people of Nazareth.  Evidence of oppression was everywhere. During the time of His childhood, Caesar Augustus, just for the pure pleasure of flexing his power, sent a mounted army into the temple to slaughter 3,000 Jews at the time of the Passover.  (An event recorded by historians.)  The Jewish people also had to pass crucifixion scenes lining the road in and out of Jerusalem.  Parents taught their children early about God and eternal life.  Evil was prevalent so faith was necessary.  

In my generation, it was possible to raise children in an overly protective bubble.  Small communities were usually church going communities. Civility ruled and trust in mankind was possible. There was no urgency to provide spiritual instruction.  Need for God was numbed out by peace and contentment.  

But “Leave It To Beaver” has long passed.  Our world has deteriorated into chaos and evil.  While we grieve for our children’s loss of innocence, we are also presented with an opportunity to show them what hope in Jesus looks like.  When scripture is life-saving for adults, children will embrace it as life-saving.  Prayer will no longer be perfunctory at mealtimes.  It will be a way of life as families look to the heavens together for the grace to live and the hope to endure. 

I remember that Josiah, a righteous King, was raised in violent times.  His father was the wicked King Amnon. Horrific scenes of child sacrifice were commonplace and Baal worship was prevailed. Amnon made Josiah and his other sons pass through fire, practice magic, learn divination skills, and thought nothing of shedding innocent blood in great quantity in front of his children. In spite of this, when Josiah inherited the throne, he turned to the God of his fathers and walked righteously.  He was not scarred for life.  He did not embrace wickedness though it was modeled exclusively for him as a young boy.  

God has chosen these times in which to raise our children and grandchildren. He who calls a people unto Himself makes a way for them to hear His voice.  He cups His hands around their spirits and preserves their ability to understand and treasure righteousness instead of evil.  Hope is alive and God can be trusted with our little ones.

Though your children walk through the fire, we will not be consumed.  Amen

“What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” Mark 4:30-32

How very powerful kingdom seeds are when they are planted.  Jesus spoke about the tiniest of seeds, the mustard seed. He told us how something so small grows into a 10-foot plant.  Great things always start small.  

How much do you believe in the seeds of scripture?  When a need is so great, whether in someone else or in me, it can seem hopeless to personalize a few verses in prayer.  What difference will it make when I fail to see immediate results?  Does speaking a few kingdom words over an ocean of need even impact the void?  

My greatest mistake would be to be misled by Earth’s odds.  If I look at the probability of change as I look at filling up a beach ~ one grain of sand at a time ~ of course, I’ll give up.  But that is not what happens when I consistently sow the seeds of heaven.  These agents of the kingdom are energetic and highly effective.  When prompted by the Spirit and then spoken, they begin the change process.  How do I know?  Jesus said, “If you plant it, it will bear fruit.”  Whether I can see the changes is immaterial.  God works in the deep, in the unseen and invisible, and does soul surgery in masterful ways long before human beings can see the fruit.  

What kind of seeds do you need to plant today?  Belief.  Joy.  Peace.  Unity.  Sobriety.  Purity.  Speak God’s Word.  Don’t just read it silently.  When declared, faith is ignited, and spiritual forces are put on notice.  It is the legal equivalent of serving the enemy legal papers.  Oh, the cumulative effect of God’s spoken Word over time. 

I believe, and I have seen my own transformation with my own eyes.  Amen

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: the one who exhorts, in his exhortation.  Romans 12:6,8

Encouragers are hard to find.  Discouragers are everywhere.  One word of criticism can cause someone, already fragile, to want to throw up their hands and quit.  I can tend to think of an encourager as a person who hands out compliments and gives positive feedback but that is a weak translation of what Paul meant.   To encourage means ‘to give courage, console, counsel, and advocate.’  

I have to know someone well to give them comfort.  I must know their life, their work, and enough about their family to understand where sources of pain exist.  I have to be intuitive, knowing with just a look that they are not ‘themselves’ on a given day.  If they put on a good face, I’ll notice it.  The biblical bar is so high for how an encourager is defined.  If I’m drowning in my own challenges and don’t know how to live and abide in Christ, then I’ll have no courage to give away.  I will be nothing more than a parrot of clichés.

I know some real encouragers!  And because I have experienced the power of Jesus in their gifts to me, I love to encourage others.  I can’t wait to meet someone, hear their story, ask them where they struggle, and leave them with the strong words of Christ for where they faint.  The promises of God, strategically spoken from one who lives prayerfully, are the lifelines others need.  

Our of your vast resources, let my speech pour out your love, counsel, and courage.  Amen

You were ransomed from the futile ways of your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish.  I Peter 1:18-19

Suppose your small child is out playing in the back yard, a place that has always been safe, a neighborhood protected by Crime Watch.  When your back is turned, your child is snatched.  Hours of anguish pass.  The police and FBI are called and they set up your home with every kind of technology available, assuming that the kidnapper will contact you.  A day passes.  There is a phone call with a demand for ransom.  You expect to discuss ransom money but, instead, you’re told that they require the life of your other child in exchange for the life of your first.  How willing would you be to hand over him?  It would be excruciating to weigh the options.

After Adam and Eve sinned, God’s heart was broken.  He looked upon His precious creation and saw them in the enemy’s clutches.  They were captives.  Their cries could be heard across the great span that separated them from His presence.  Cries for love, for justice, for mercy, and for a new day.  The ransom required was the ‘giving of God’s only Son.’  No dollar amount would win their freedom.  Only innocent blood.  The miracle is, God gave what was most precious to Him in exchange for us!  And we weren’t even His children yet, only enemies.

As I enjoy God’s tender mercies this morning, I am closing my eyes for a moment to remember at what great cost I have been bought and redeemed.  When Jesus died, God looked upon Him as He bled —- and He saw my face.  Through the great pain of watching His Son suffer, He saw into the future and saw me come limping home.  He was writing my future adoption papers with red ink. I was bought with a price I would never be willing to pay if the tables were turned.

Oh, how great a love You showed to me.  Wake me up and don’t let me take it for granted.  My salvation trembles in my spirit.  Amen

The prayer of a righteous person is effective as it is working.  James 5:16

‘Effective’ ~ working in a situation, bringing it from one stage to the next.

I praise You for Your promise that the prayers of the righteous will be effective as they do their work.  These prayers will go out and continue to work far beyond the time I spend speaking them.  Thank you, Lord.

• I pray in advance for my children, and grandchildren, who feel the pressure of their peers.  Help us raise up Daniels!  Infuse each child now with the strength to stand boldly, to be filled with your Holy Spirit so that your voice will be heard in a godless place. Use me to teach them to be kingdom warriors; tough enough to stand and tender enough to bring the broken to Your embrace.  I pray this scripture over each one of them today ~ “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”  I John 4:4

• Lord, I pray that You will remove the demonic glitter from drugs and alcohol.  Let their eyes perceive things as You see them.  As they are faced with temptation, in Jesus’ name, I restrict the enemy from deceiving them.  May they see the evil and run to You.

• I’m not the only one praying for this school.  I pray that You would make all your intercessors divine strategists, ‘wise as serpents while harmless as doves.’ Cause us to see the spiritual carnage of the school as Ezekiel saw the carnage in the valley of dry bones.  May we rise up to say, “Prepare to hear the Word of the LORD.”  

• I pray that You will touch the hardened hearts of students who don’t know you, the ones who have only seen evil in their homes and in their world.  Awaken them to righteousness and hope in the face of Jesus Christ.

• I pray for each student who lives, privately, in a war zone.  Cup Your hands around their spirits, return their innocence and protect it so that they can trust You and believe Your promise of salvation.

• I pray for each student who is a church-going Christian and is half-asleep.  I say to them, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  Ephesians 5:14   “Be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom we shine as lights in the world.”  Philippians 2:15

• I pray for their Principal ~ that he/she will be influenced by Your Spirit to rule wisely and justly. Clothe them with power and peace; with faith, courage, and savvy to know how to advance the kingdom of heaven within their sphere of influence.

• I pray today what Jesus prayed, over each child and each faculty member.  “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

• I pray for revival in our school.  “Deliver us from the power of darkness and convey us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”  Col. 1:13 I pray for eyes to be opened to see Your glory, Your signs and wonders, and Your power.  Let them see the forces of darkness tremble and flee.

• Finally Lord, I pray that Satan and all his angels will be prevented from acting out all they are plotting.  Bring the execution of his plans into a state of confusion.  You rule by Your might forever.  You keep watch over the nations.  Let not the rebellious exalt themselves.  Psalm 66:7  In Jesus’ name, Amen