HEBREW WORD STUDY  – SOUL – NESHAMA – נשמה  Nun Shin Mem Hei

Psalms 150:6: “Let everything that has a soul praise God – Hallujah.”

The Talmud teaches that the word soul (neshama) and breath (neshima) are related.  The soul fills the entire body, and when a person sleeps, it rises to draw down life from above.   Over each and every breath that a person takes, he should praise God.  For the breath leaves him from below to above, and returns to him from above to below. God renews one’s breath every minute, not just during sleep.”  Bereishis 14:9

I Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.”

The word for pray here is proseuchomai in the Greek.  It is used 87 times in the New Testament for prayer and yet we don’t get too much insight into what this prayer is.  There are many types of prayer to be found in the Hebrew and Aramaic.  There is Harim which is to extol, you have berek which means to bless, gil which is often rendered as rejoice, hagah which is to meditate, histahawah which means to adore or to lay prostrate, ’anah which is to sigh or express deep feelings and of course there is Halah which is to praise.  There is one other word palal in the Hebrew which is often translated as prayer but means to offer supplication to God or a humble praise to God.  The Septuagint uses the Greek word proseunchomai for palal.   

Thus when Paul said we should pray without ceasing he was saying we should offer a humble praise to God without ceasing.  Now Paul didn’t throw this verse in here to just take up space or to sound pious and make people buy his books.  This was a  command from God, this is His Word.  How is it that we can praise God without ceasing even when we are asleep? Is it really possible to praise God every moment of the day?  I mean we have to stop to take a breath once in a while, don’t we?  Ah, therein lies the secret.

Perhaps the Talmud was on to something here.  In Exodus 4:10 we learn that Moses confessed to a speech problem. In the Hebrew he was saying that he was thick of tongue.   The Talmud teaches that this problem with his tongue made it impossible to correctly speak the name of God, for all the names of God required the use of the tongue.  So God gave him a name that did not require the use of the tongue but only his breath, YHWH (Yahwha).  You speak this name with your Neshima (breath) or neshama (soul).

Perhaps that is what Paul was speaking of.  With every breath you take and release you speak the name of God.  Even in your sleep, you speak the name of God.  

Every breath is a prayer it is just that we are no conscious of speaking to God. Every moment of each day, every time we take a breath it is a time to pray. Sometimes people ask me: “Would you pray for me for…”  Now we can stop and hold hands with that person and pray a nice little prayer.  This really helps the individual, relaxes them, and helps them to focus on God.  But did God hear all your pretty words or did He hear the cry of your heart: “God come help my friend.”  Your prayer from your lips to your friend was for your friend, to bring comfort and encouragement and the assurance that God is with him. But what God was hearing was the cry of your heart which is instantaneous. 

It can get very frustrating to live through your day and see many prayer opportunities but you just don’t have the time.  This past week as I was driving my disability bus through the Lawndale and Austin area, areas that are very low income, high crime, and gang-infested.  I would see young and old on the street corners and I would wonder: “What is going through their mind? Are they lonely, are they fearful, are they facing life-threatening situations?”  Each person I would observe has a story, they have a prayer request, they have a need. It would be impossible to keep my mind on my driving and pray a verbal prayer for each. However, as I see a person and think of their need, my heart cries out to God. That is just as much a prayer for that person as if I stopped my bus, pulling over to the side of the road and reciting a few nice words: “God you know this person’s need, help them, heal them, speak to them, etc., etc.” 

You see, I don’t need to speak many words.  If my mind stays on God then every breath I take I am saying: “YHWH” and the prayer from my heart begins and ends in an instant.  It’s like taking that three-minute prayer, recording it, and playing it back at high speed so that instead of three minutes to hear the prayer it is heard in a fraction of a second.  God hears and understands.

The moment someone comes to my mind, I am praying for them if my mind stays on God.  Throughout my day God brings names of people I have not thought about in weeks, months, sometimes years. The moment their name flashes in my mind, boom, a prayer went out of my spirit for that person. I  have no idea what their need is, but my spirit knew and passed it on to God.  You see we have a spiritual connection with other believers.  We may never have met in the physical realm but we meet all the time in the spirit.  There are some people that come to my mind each day and boom, a prayer goes out. 

Our lives are a prayer.  I don’t pray before a meal, I pray during the meal, with my mind stayed on Him, I am constantly thanking God for each bite I take and the blessings of a job to pay for that food and the provision of that food. If I am with others and they wish for a blessing for a meal, I will give it, our loud, word for word for their sake. My prayer to God, however, is ongoing. 

That is what Paul means for us to pray in the spirit and to pray without ceasing. Someone got on my disability bus the other day and shared a personal concern. A prayer went up instantly for that person from my spirit. Then I clearly felt God saying to me: “Uh, that person needs to know you are praying for the need.” So I said; “I’m will be praying for you.”  What I meant was that every time that person’s name comes to my mind, a prayer from my spirit will go up.

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