Heard a great sermon from a young preacher yesterday on the breath of God. Here are the three scriptures that he used in his message:
The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. [Genesis 2:7]
This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. [Ezekiel 37:5]
Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit". [John 20:22]
Love the imagery of how we inhale God's Spirit into our lives - that is the first half of the message. The second half was how we exhale God's breath in the things that we say and do. I think that the world is longing for the breath of God.. even if it comes from us. Reminds me of this great scripture in the seventh chapter of John's gospel:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Again we see the another symbiotic relationship - when we are thirsty we come to God for a drink that others might drink from that same living water as it flows from our innermost beings. Amazing!
Good thoughts.. we live in Him and He in us :)
ReplyDeleteThis reminded me of something I came across last weekend...a snippet on someone's facebook page.
ReplyDeleteThe thought that the name of God...Yahweh...is not so much a word but a breath sound. Inhale..."yah." Exhale..."weh." This made me think of the Psalm that declares "let everything that has breath praise the Lord." In spite of ourselves sometimes...just breathing, we are praising God. I thought about how the first thing we do when we come into this world is take a breath. The last thing we do before we leave this world...take a breath. God's name is on our lips always. I thought about how God breathed the breath of life into Adam (the verse you quoted in your post) and that Adam walked with God in the "cool" of the day...ruwach..wind, breath, mind, spirit.
It reminded me of one of my favorite all time "quotes" by Tennyson....
Speak to him thou for he hears and Spirit with spirit can meet. Closer is he than breathing, nearer than hands and feet.
There are so many layers to God...truly, truly, in him we live and move and have our being.
Blessings....Cindi....