Her chest convulsed as she strained to take each breath. In the course of eleven months bone cancer would take her life one insidious step at a time. I watched with tears streaming down my face, wondering if I was about to witness my mother’s last breath on earth. Her eyes looked deep into mine and with what little she had in her lungs to support speaking she cried, “Oh, Mary.” A sacred blanket of peace settled over the room, breath and life left her body. There was such a blessed relief in that final exhalation. In one final release of air, she let go of everything connecting her to this world. In an instant she would inhale with indescribable joy as she stood face to face with the God she loved so dearly.

I believe I witnessed the Holy Spirit filling my mother’s lungs so she could speak. I also know that this most intimate part of the Trinity came personally into the room to take Mom to the Lord. It was pure, peaceful and powerful. I also believe that we need not wait until our last breath to experience the joy of breathing the living God into our lives, hearts and minds.

The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace if give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. —John 14:26-27 (NKJV)

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
—Romans 8:26 (NRSV)

Have you been to a place in your life when you couldn’t pray or hardly breathe? In this moment of panic, when we cannot find the words, our hearts cry out, “How should I pray? What do I say?” All we hear is the echo of our heart's cry bounding off the walls of an empty room, returning to an empty heart, desperate for the touch of God’s hand. “Lord! Lord!” God hears the deep cries of our hearts and as we read in Romans, “intercedes through the power of the Holy Spirit with sighs too deep for words.” This description takes my mind to Jesus’ final hours on the cross. Struggling for breath, knowing He would die, He cried, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34 NKJV). We witness the sacred intercession of the Holy Spirit filling Jesus as he cries out on our behalf! He’s hanging on a blood soaked cross, yet He’s calling out to His Father in prayer for our forgiveness! Pure. Peaceful. Powerful.

The purity is seen in a complete surrender to God’s will. Peace is felt as self is exchanged for God’s heart. Power is palpable as the might of God fills us with the breath of life, the strength to speak, the words to say. Even at the moment of our own death, the Holy Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. This is potent prayer. It is heart to heart communication, our mind connected to the mind of God. It is our body and soul being touched and directed by His Holy hands, His mighty ways, His breath—which in a Word calmed the seas, stilled the wind and filled all hearts with peace.

So breathe deep. Inhale with confidence. Let the power of God, His Holy Spirit and the miracle of the risen Christ fill your lungs with the breath of God, your heart with the assurance of His presence, and your mind with the conscious guiding hand of Jesus Christ. Breathe. Live. Your Lord is as close as your next breath! In Jesus name, Amen.

Copyright © 2009 by Waters of Life^TM Ministry for Women, Inc., www.wolministry.com