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BREATHING TOGETHER PART 4 Breathing Together: Part 4 Let us take a look at THE GIFT OF GRACE: Herein called the spiritual gift, which can be imparted (Rom. 1:11); Which impartation is by our breath[1] (1Thes. 2:  : The spiritual gifting pneumatikos (pnyoo-mat-i-OS'), Strong’s Gk. # 4152: The breath from one person to another person by one who is governed by the Spirit of God. One capable of imparting the things of the nature of God, which he has been filled with. Now those who have had the divine power given unto them, can have all the things of God’s divine nature communicated into them (2Pet. 1:3-4); AND THIS through the ministering unto them of the entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ (1:11); Wherein we can be established in these things, which are the present truth, which we should not be ignorant of (1:12); In the power of our Lord Jesus Christ it is no cunningly devised fable that He can come upon us, so that we can be the eyewitnesses of His majesty (1:16); For the Father honored Him, so that He could have this glory (1:17); This is why we have been called by the gospel to obtain this glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2Thes. 2:14); Wherein the day star can arise in our hearts, so that we can see the light (2Pet. 1:19); This is the way of truth that is spoken of as evil (2:2 cf. Jn. 14:6-1); Paul saying the same thing as Peter, when he tells us that we are to be established through being comforted together with those who can impart this spiritual gift (Rom. 1:11-12); The purpose of Paul was that we would not be ignorant of this declaration of the of God with the power, so that we could be in spirit in holiness (1:13 & 4); Wherein we can receive grace for the obedience to have the mutual faith (1:5 & 12); Also known as the comfy faith (1:12). ________________________________________ [1] Tertullian: Demons can breathe into the soul, and rouse up corruptions within furious passions and vile excesses; speaking of lusts accompanied by various errors, of which the worst is that by which these deities are commended to the favor of deceived and deluded human beings, that they may get their proper food of flesh-fumes and blood when that is offered up to false . Wherefore it behooves the young not to be satisfied with those corrupting lessons, and those who are in their prime should carefully avoid listening to the mythologies of the Greeks. For lessons about their gods are much worse than ignorance, as we have shown from the case of those dwelling in the country, who sin less through their not having been instructed by Greeks. Truly, such fables of theirs, and spectacles, and books, ought to be shunned, and if it were possible, even their cities. For those who are full of evil learning, and even WITH THEIR BREATH INFECT as with madness those who associate with them, with their own passions. (Augustine). Canon XCV (95): (This Canon is like that of Laodicea, and the First Council of Constantinople). Now concerning the Paulianists it has been determined by the [Universal] Catholic Church that they shall by all means be rebaptized. The Eunomeans also, who baptize with one immersion; and the Montanists, who here are called Phrygians; and the Sabellians, who consider the to be the same as the Father, and are guilty in heretics here, especially those who come from the region of the Galatians--all of their number who are desirous of coming to the Orthodox faith, we receive as Gentiles. And on the first day we make them into believers; and on the second day we make them Catechumens [one receiving instruction]; and then on the third day WE EXORCISE them, at the same time also breathing thrice upon their faces and ears; and thus we initiate them; then we make them spend time in church to hear the Scriptures; and only then do we baptize them. Fathers, we are bold to speak. Having but one mind by the inbreathing of the most Holy Spirit, and being all knit together in one, and understanding the harmonious tradition of the Catholic/Universal Church, we are in perfect harmony with the symphonies set forth by the six, holy and ecumenical councils; and accordingly we have anathematized the madness of Arius, the frenzy of Macedonius, the senseless understanding of Appolinarius, the man-worship of Nestorius, the irreverent mingling of the natures devised by Eutyches, [Chuck Smith], and Dioscorus, and the many-headed hydra which is their companion. We have also anathematized the idle tales of Origen [story telling], Didymus, and Evagrius; and the doctrine of one will held by Sergius, Honorius, Cyrus, [Chuck Smith], and Pyrrhus, or rather, we have anathematized their own evil will. Finally, taught by the Spirit, from whom we have drawn pure water, we have with one accord and one soul, altogether wiped out with the sponge of the divine dogmas the newly devised heresy, well-worthy to be classed with those just mentioned, which springing up after them, uttered such empty nonsense about the sacred icons [the Calvary Chapel Dove]. And the contrivers of this vain, but revolutionary babbling [the reading of the Bible as a book] we have cast forth far from the Church’s precincts (The Seven Ecumenical Councils). For the nature of the soul is not inaptly compared to a very fine feather or very light wing, which, if it has not been damaged or affected by being spoilt by any moisture falling on it from without, is borne aloft almost naturally to the heights of heaven by the lightness of its nature, and the aid of the slightest breath: but if it is weighted by any moisture falling upon it and penetrating into it, it will not only not be carried away by its natural lightness into any aerial flights but will actually be borne down to the depths of earth by the weight of the moisture it has received. So also our soul, if it is not weighted with faults that touch it, and the cares of this world, or damaged by the moisture of injurious lusts, will be raised as it were by the natural blessing of its own purity and borne aloft to the heights by the light breath of spiritual meditation; and leaving things low and earthly will be transported to those that are heavenly and invisible. Wherefore we are well warned by the Lord’s command: “Take heed that your hearts be not weighed down by surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this world.” And therefore if we want our prayers to reach not only the sky, but what is beyond the sky, let us be careful to reduce our soul, purged from all earthly faults and purified from every stain, to its natural lightness, that so our prayer may rise to God unchecked by the weight of any sin. AND What constitutes our end and perfect bliss. For then will be perfectly fulfilled in our case that prayer of our Saviour in which He prayed for His disciples to the Father saying “that the love wherewith Thou love Me may be in them and they in us;” and again: “that they all may be one as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us,” [John xvii. 26, 21] when that perfect love of God, wherewith ‘He first loved us” [1 John iv. 16] has passed into the feelings of our heart as well, by the fulfillment of this prayer of the Lord which we believe cannot possibly be ineffectual. And this will come to pass when God shall be all our love, and every desire and wish and effort, every thought of ours, and all our life and words and breath, and that unity which already exists between the Father and the , and the and the Father, has been shed abroad in our hearts and minds, so that as He loves us with a pure and unfeigned and indissoluble love, so we also may be joined to Him by a lasting and inseparable affection, since we are so united to Him that whatever we breathe or think, or speak is God, since, as I say, we attain to that end of which we spoke before, which the same Lord in His prayer hopes may be fulfilled in us: “that they all may be one as we are one, I in them and Thou in Me, that they also may be made perfect in one;” and again: “Father, those whom Thou hast given Me, I will that where I am, they may also be with Me.” [John xvii. 22-24] This then ought to be the destination of the solitary, this should be all his aim that it may be vouchsafed to him to possess even in the body an image of future bliss, and that he may begin in this world to have a foretaste of a sort of earnest of that celestial life and glory. This, I say, is the end of all perfection, that the mind purged from all carnal desires may daily be lifted towards spiritual things, until the whole life and all the thoughts of the heart become one continuous prayer (Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian). John iii. 8. The same word in Greek at least, serves to denote “wind” and “spirit”--the invisible and yet sensible and real air, wind, or breath being taken as the best emblem of the spirit, which is known and its presence realized only by its effects. Spiritus, “spirit,” primarily means “breath.” (Ambrose: Select Works and Letters). face book z i a n n a e m m a n u e l l e |
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