Exploring the Transformative Power of Breath in Our Spiritual Journey | Ep 6

Tiffany & Mary explore the concept of breath in our spiritual lives, a potent metaphor for the Holy Spirit being the breath of life, and the life-altering moments where we experience the shared breath of divine connection. Ever wondered about the profound influence of prayer songs in our spiritual journey? Prepare to be enlightened as we dive into a heartwarming conversation with Mary, revealing her friend's extraordinary journey of creating 500 meaningful prayer songs and the transformational impact these songs have.

In this candid discussion, we delve into faith, the challenges life throws at us, and the tiny steps of obedience that bring us closer to God. We shed light on the ACTS of prayer - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication, emphasizing their significance in our spiritual growth. Moreover, we share our personal strategies to overcome fear, invite God's partnership, and replace old habits with healthier ones. By the end of this episode, you will find encouragement to magnify God in your life, transforming your problems into faith and realizing that you're not alone in your struggles. Listen in and immerse yourself in a thought-provoking conversation about faith, growth, and the power of prayerful songs.

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Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to In His Hands podcast from Women for Women. We're here to help you find peace in knowing you are in God's hands. Our goal is sharing the Word of God in simple conversations. We're here to help you thrive every day. And now, here are your hosts.

Tiffany: 0:18

Good morning. I'm Tiffany Windsor and I'm Mary. And Mary, what's on your mind today?

Mary: 0:24

What's on my mind today? It's a really interesting combination of having a friend text me who started singing songs to the Lord and she has over 500 recorded songs. Her husband is in the industry and this is just for her, just between her and the Lord, and she just posted some of her prayer songs and sent one to me. She's been sharing with me for probably a year now. It's been neat to watch the process, but she just shared online so I asked her if we could share too. We can play it.

Tiffany: 0:58

We can play it. Oh my gosh, let's take a moment and listen to it.

Other: 1:02

Okay, in the name of Jesus, you guide our hearts to our God. In the name of Jesus, psalm 343. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us lift his name together. Your joy is my year, don't you forget it. Your joy is my year. You lead our hearts. Who are loving God.

Mary: 1:39

So interesting her titles. The first one she shared with me was your joy is my year and we give a shout out to Joyce Meyer. I know everyone you know might not be a fan, but she has been through a lot, joyce Myers, and she's used that pain to bring others to Jesus and I think that at the end of the day, she's done that for one person. That is worthwhile. Another one she shared with me is Lord, these tears and God, god, we need you. I just feel it's so interesting. It ties in with our message at church today, which is about our breath, how the Holy Spirit is considered the breath of life and God gives us breath and here this dear friend is using this breath to praise him and bring powerful worship through her songs.

Tiffany: 2:22

It's so interesting to me to see how breath comes up in so many different ways, because it is the breath of singing, and I was laughing today because I cannot carry a tune when I am singing in church. I love it because it's so loud. No one can hear that I am very off key. It's just a joyous moment for me. What was interesting to me, Mary, is when we were walking into church today we were talking about a block, an issue that had the perception of blocking stepping forward, and you made a statement and immediately I could feel breath. I could feel a deep breath. Sometimes I get words. Today it was. I was able to breathe with you. Then walking into church and listening to these beautiful ideas about breath, Starting, of course, with Genesis and I also want to share this from Job 33.4,. The Spirit of God has made me, the breath of the Almighty, gives me life, and how often do we stop breathing and stop accepting life? So I wanted to share that with you.

Mary: 3:37

That is really timely, especially for me.

Mary: 3:40

I have spent a lot of time in the church and had a closer relationship with Jesus and then went through a lot of hard things and I've talked about this before deconstructed my faith, and a lot of that ended up with me walking away from I want to say, religion and organized churches, because a lot of the painful things I went through that was the source of it.

Mary: 4:02

God has brought me around to those small steps of obedience, and those small steps of obedience created a room to take that breath. And those small steps of obedience were returning back to church, trusting that the Lord had the right place and time for that. And then I've done little baby tithing and I know there's lots of different opinions about tithing, but for me it's a posture of. It's all God's money anyway, and if he wants me to use some of it to donate to church, then that's his choice. And if I am lacking and have a perception of lacking in that area, then I need to turn it over to him too. And so those two things, those tiny steps of obedience, made room for that breath this morning that you're talking about Really cool.

Tiffany: 4:50

It's really profound. I'm trying to go back into the feeling at the moment of what that moment felt like, and you can even hear me take a deep breath before I start speaking. It is important for us to fill our lungs and to fill our hearts and to fill our minds and to fill our souls with the Lord's word, and breath is something that we can take for granted. I just realized today how strongly that came to me, not to take it for granted. I definitely want to bring that more into my prayerfulness. One of the other things that I learned today you may have heard of I had not which was acts, which is talking about the steps in prayer, and I found that very helpful. And you know we talked about journaling recently and what did I do? I brought my journal today and I was so busy writing I hope it didn't distract you, but I was busy writing all the notes and it gave me a lot more depth to projects that I'm working on right now because as we were praying I was writing other notes that popped up that I needed to get out of my head so I could get back to listening.

Tiffany: 5:58

But I love this because the A so it's letters A-C-T-S. The A stands for adoration and that's the moment in starting our prayer, that we magnify God. Sometimes that's done with worship music. The C is confession this cleanses you. The T is Thanksgiving that produces peace. And S is the supplication, and I loved this because this is what brings the miracles and invites God to partner with you. We can forget that part a lot.

Mary: 6:34

I can forget all those parts quite a lot. I wrote that down too. I love the magnifying God because when he's magnified, my problems are diminished. That really struck me is I make my problems bigger than my God, and I need to stop that already.

Tiffany: 6:52

And why do we do that? What happens in that moment that that thought becomes so strong? It's fear. It has to be fear, the fear and anxiety that just swirls around in our head, that we need to stop that thought. We've talked about this before. How do you stop that thought? For me, it's cancel clear, bless the fear, choose again, choose God. What I've added to that is a prayerful moment, and I'm going to probably add these four steps is to ask God for specific help in that moment to help me release those thoughts and release that anxiety and release the thought of that fear, because that goes into partnering with God.

Mary: 7:34

And that's a powerful partnership. And that's a really good question about why do I do that? Why do I make my problems bigger than God when I know I know better? All I can think of is that it's another season, there's layers, and I'm going through a season of unlearning some unhealthy things and replacing or filling up those spaces with the better, healthier thing, and so my old habits aren't serving me and so I need to evaluate and get rid of.

Tiffany: 8:03

And I do want to point out this is not just you. I have talked to other friends this week who are experiencing those same challenges. This is why this community means so much to me, because as soon as we start talking, it starts to change the thought where, when you are by yourself, you can just go deeper and deeper and deeper. I'm still working on trying to hear what God is telling me as to how to help more people, because these one-on-one conversations are awesome, but we want to communicate with more people. I'm working on that, but I'm learning so much through these one-on-one conversations with, again, really strong women who are really struggling right now, and so it seems to be more universal. The enemy wants you to feel like you're the only one going through this and there's no way out. It's so important for us to talk.

Mary: 9:01

I'd agree with that wholeheartedly, and when I was thinking about those baby steps that I was doing, going back to church, that's being vulnerable. Church was a place of pain pain at the hands of well-meaning religious folks and it was hard for me to go back in. I was really skeptical. But what it does is it helps find the community and be vulnerable, and that's what we're missing. We have our own conversations with each other, but a lot of times we're isolated, just like you said, and it doesn't help us grow and we're meant to be in community.

Tiffany: 9:37

I know you heard this conversation when we were walking out of church today and there were two women who were walking down the aisle with us and the one woman asked another oh, is this your first time?

Tiffany: 9:46

And she said no, this is my second time at church. And then the first woman said that her first time was during the 21 days of prayer. So church is calling, the Lord is calling us to get into a space to commit and dedicate time. Of course, we should be doing this every single morning when you can set a time on your calendar. Sunday mornings are good for a lot of people. If you're not in church yet, I really encourage you to look in your community. The first one you go to may not be the right match, and that's okay. Go ahead until you find one that really speaks to you.

Tiffany: 10:22

It's time for all of us to take that time to reconnect with the Lord. We need to listen. We need to take the space to get all of the clutter out of our head and listen to the messages that are there all the time. We just have to clear all of the clutter out of our minds and listen. What I think I want to do to close today, mary is talking about breath. We started about breath. We went into mind. I want to end with Psalms 156. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord and Mary. I just want to thank you for being part of this community and I thank you, dear friend.

Announcer: 11:08

And thank you. Dear friend, thank you for joining us for today's podcast. For more information, go to inhishandscommunitycom. Sign up for our newsletter and social media. We love your feedback. Please leave reviews, comments and subscribe to this podcast to help us get the word out about In His Hands. Thank you and dear friends, have a blessed day.