Breath of Heaven
Ruach is the Hebrew word for what is invisible but is still real.
The wind that glides through the trees.
The breath that we inhale and exhale every day.
God, the Spirit who authored all that exists.
Wind, Breath, and Spirit. All are invisible to the naked eye, yet we can know that they are real by the evidence of their impact on our world.
Ruach is the word that the Israelites used to describe all three concepts.
Shamayim is the word for the heavens. In other words, the abode of God (blue letter bible). The place where God dwells.
This blog is a collection of stories and poems that document what the Spirit of Heaven has made evident in my life. I initially wrote them as an act of remembrance for myself, like the remembrance stones of Israel (Joshua 4), for my soul has chronic forgetfulness. But God has moved my heart to share these with others, believing that He might use them to encourage even one person in their walk with Him.
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I remember it well – when the Invisible One first evidenced Himself in my life in a way that I could not deny.
Gasping for breath, each inhalation failed to satisfy the emptiness in my lungs. Heart beating wildly and eyes clouding over, I gripped the counter and tried to stop myself from fainting.
An hour later, a nurse in the ER was telling me that it had been a panic attack.
Having a debilitating anxiety disorder opened my eyes to my desperate need of oxygen that I had unconsciously taken for granted for eighteen years. It also taught me of my desperate need of the One who grants breath to each of us in the first place.
When I cried out to Him, this Invisible One that I thought I knew, I found a peace that quieted my soul and a power that sustained it – something I never could have conjured up myself.
He taught me how to trust Him for oxygen. And as He restored my breath, He also restored my life.
Living without the Creator is like trying to fill our lungs with something other than oxygen – it will never satisfy our desperate need and will only lead to a dead life. Our souls are empty and we search for the substance that we think will satisfy us – intimacy, happiness, success, acceptance…but we only find what we are looking for when we find it in Him.
This Invisible Being created us humans with a God-shaped hole in our hearts, so that it would lead us to Him. And when we do, we find the substance that satisfies our souls beyond what we could ever have imagined. We find satisfaction, completeness, all that we ever searched for - in Him. And we become who He created us to be.
May Jesus evidence Himself in these words to you, dear reader, so that you may know the abundant life that He gives.
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