God's Presence and Heaven In the Present
Practicing Breathing Prayer in God's Presence 70 Days
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INTRODUCTION
Breathing in the presence of God is the entirety of everything. He made me aware of my breaths that were breaths of adoration seeking the Lord my God with all my life. In God’s presence I came to realize that the breaths were not empty and vain sighs of this world. In each breath I took, I was worshipping God. He caused me to proclaim this truth: My spirit is already one with the Spirit of God, so my soul simply needs to follow the Spirit in Christ and be in union with the true self that is the spirit already in union with God. In other words, this is the UNION WITH GOD, commonly spoken of in Christian spiritualities. This is the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls (1 Peter 1:9).
During the pandemic, God gave me and our church the opportunity to reset: Only by grace, only by faith, and only by the Word. Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura. Christ in us desired to receive our faith of obedience and to anoint us so that He Himself would accomplish this work. In response to Christ’s desire to bring us in union with Him, I did the Breathing Prayer in God’s Presence for 70 days at the church I serve during the fall of 2023. I have compiled the daily messages of the 70 days into this book.
Here is how to practice God's presence: First, read this book in its entirety. Then, commit 10 weeks/70 days to the Lord. Do the Breathing Prayer in God’s Presence twice a day for 70 days, 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening and read the daily message. In this prayer, you are consciously placing yourself in God’s presence as the way you are. In the present, in the presence of God.
In week one, there is a guide to the Breathing Prayer in God’s Presence. In week two, we practice recognizing all pain and discomfort as a messenger sent by Jesus to set us free. During the third week, we come to know by faith that God has given us an answer and we take hold of it. Then, we come to recognize during the fourth week that the flesh and a false self are obstacles to enjoying the answer already given. With this realization, in week five, we are ready to face any unresolved inner discomfort experienced throughout life, and to continuously experience 'repentance-forgiveness-restoration' while being conscious of Christ's presence. Only by faith we know that it was only by God’s grace that we have crossed the Jordan River where the subject changed from ‘I’ to the Lord Jesus Christ. During the sixth week, we learn that life in the Father's house is about thinking, feeling, speaking, and proclaiming according to the Word and living by the reality and evidence of our faith. By this time of the Breathing Prayer in God’s Presence, we will be able to ‘unconditionally’ feel the discomfort and pain that rise within us that are associated with repressed emotions. In week seven of practicing God’s presence, we learn that during our time of parchedness we also at the same time become more intimate with our Lord. Jericho is a place where those who have received God’s grace experience dryness. We declare during week eight that the fleshly thoughts, emotions, and anatomical body we experience due to the unknown discomfort within us are not the truth, reality, nor me. And as we cross the river, we move toward the shalom of the integrated order of God, that is, the inner sound that rises within us.
Finally in week nine, we acknowledge that we have become a new creation in Christ, and that our soul not only enjoys the consciousness of the Spirit of Christ, but now also enjoys the double portion of the resurrection power through our mind, emotions, and anatomical body. In week ten, we are able to confess that we are grateful for the way we are now, and we live in the presence of God in the life of the eschatological new creation that has already begun. Life in the new heaven and the new earth held by God’s children as the reality of faith, is connected to the life of God here and now, so we live by speaking and living only according to the Word only by faith and only through His grace.
Questions that might arise in practicing Breathing Prayer in God’s Presence are answered in a Q&A format on the seventh day of each week. The short-term goal of the Breathing Prayer in God’s Presence is to release pent-up emotions so that our mind and anatomical body are integrated by God and experiencing God through that body (mind-emotion-anatomical body). The long-term goal is for our soul to return to its rightful place and unite with God. The UNION WITH GOD. The Bible translation used is NIV. The word 'body' used in this book refers to 'mind, emotion, anatomical body' as one.
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About the Book
This book is about the TRUTH, the WAY and the LIFE for all who are weary and heavily burdened needing rest. It tells the truth about who we are in Jesus Christ regardless of what we are. This new discovery of who we are brings new light on our past, present and future.
We all seek the truth about who we are, the world, suffering and happiness. We all seek to find the best way to live our lives to the fullest. Regardless of what we are, we are all seekers of the same things. We think there are different ways and answers to what we seek because we are different.
Jesus Christ says there is One Truth, One Way, One Life: Jesus Christ Himself. The Truth in Jesus Christ is we are dead in Christ, and Christ lives in us. The Way in Jesus Christ is for our souls to go in every breath to Jesus who dwells in us. The Life in Jesus Christ is to live as a new creation.
Being a new creation is to experience a new mind, emotion, and body. Being a new creation is to have an undivided heart. Being a new creation is to live in the eternal time of God.
To live in the eternal time of God is to be free from our past, present and future. To live in the eternal time of God is for our soul and our spirit to be in union with Christ; no longer confined to the body and to the visible things of this world.
But it is to live in heaven where there is perfect rest, here and now.
And we enjoy to the fullest this perfect rest as God's holy, blameless and righteous children in the present in the presence of God.
About the Author
Woong R Whang is the founder and pastor of Korean Community of Philadelphia Church in Lansdale, Pennsylvania since 2003. He received his M.Div. and was ordained in Korea. He studied Spirituality and received STM at Boston University STH. His passion for Jesus Christ and vision for Christ’s church pleasing to Jesus became the foundation throughout his life and in his ministry. In the present, in the presence of God, his only desire is for one more soul to be redeemed into union with God: that is, to enjoy the forgiveness of sins and to find rest in the dwelling of the soul in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.