What happens when the Great I am sighs? What happens when the One Who knows us so intimately, who holds time itself within His grasp—takes a moment, looks up, and sighs?

By the time Jesus was called upon to heal a man who couldn’t hear and had a speech impediment (NRSV), he had already healed many, fed thousands, cast out demons, went head to head with Pharisees. So, what about this encounter made Him sigh?

Mark 7 details how Jesus touched the man’s ears and tongue. He looked up to heaven, and for a fleeting moment…there was a pause.

“Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him,”Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” Mark 7:34.

And I wonder what transpired in that sigh. The lens doesn’t tighten around those types of details often. We get to see our Savior’s face up close. Jesus. Eyes upward. Breathing. Chest rising. Breath falling….Sighing.

What did Jesus receive when He looked up to heaven? What did His Abba Father do? How did it happen? In the space of a few seconds, Jesus went from looking upward to one word. One. Word.

And that word worked. There was no fancy begging God to heal this man. One. Word. After a critical sigh. And the man’s ears did what Jesus commanded them to do. They opened.

And we have that same power in us, right? What if we acted like it when we prayed?

I wonder if some prayer doesn’t get prayed because we don’t take a moment to sigh. If we look up to heaven, and then just charge forward with fancy words and our predetermined agenda. I don’t know about you, but I want to hear with the deep ears of my heart. When I pray, I want people to get healed, comforted, encouraged, delivered. And especially, I don’t want “me” to get in the way of the power flowing in prayer.

I agree with all the pleas circling, calling God’s people to keep our eyes fixed on Christ. Do that. With every shred of resolve you have left. But, also. I think we need to add a moment of stillness where we practice holy listening. A sigh. A calming. An opening of our ears first to Heaven.

Maybe we would get right to the point in our prayers, and pray with a deliberate confidence. From a place of assurance.

V. 37 shows the effect this encounter with Christ had on the man. He and his friends could not be quiet. Not even when Jesus told them to keep a lid on it.

It released amazement. And declaration. “He has done everything well; He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” Jesus is who He says He is. Who the prophets said He would be. Messiah. Savior.

What if a million people or more listened like Christ. Sighed. Like Christ. Heard the word which releases faith and healing that is already ours as children of God’s promises. What if a million one word prayers given to us from Heaven were shot like arrows?

What if we sighed?

God, help us to be still. To sigh. Allow You to open our ears. To speak over us. To release healing first, then a torrent of declaration of Your doing all things well. We don’t house a power that is mediocre at best. That sort of gets the job done. That only shows up when we writhe and beg.

When we sigh. When we listen. When we tap into power that throws mountains into the sea, raises valleys, creates streams in the desert, and opens up ears, it also releases the tongue to declare Christ as LORD!