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The Breath of God
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Deborah P. Brunt
A friend I haven't seen in years e-mailed me recently. More than a decade before, she had heard me teach on the topic, "A Matter of Life and Breath." Now, she asked if I still had the teaching notes. Hunting, I found them on a flash drive I hadn't used in years.
As I read back through notes written in 2001, I saw how foundational those insights are to everything I've learned and taught since. Physically, you can't do anything else if you're not breathing, and you can't do much at all if you're not breathing well. Similarly, you have to breathe spiritually to experience every aspect of abundant life.
Before e-mailing the notes to the woman who requested them, I reflected again on the insights God had first given me in a very different season of my life. As before, I felt refreshed, reinvigorated and propelled to action. As before, the Lord reminded me, "Breathe. Slowly ... deeply ... breathe."
Using the notes I'd uncovered as a foundation, I began a series of blog posts that took on a life of their own - especially interesting, since I call the series, "Life and Breath." Originally, I had thought each post would be brief, and I'd compile them all into this month's e-column. When each post became an article in its own right, I considered sending one a month to you for six months. Ah, but with the whole series already available, how could I ask you to hold your breath for so long?
Instead, this column distills the essence from all six blog posts. To breathe even more deeply, click the links and, at your leisure, read the whole series or the full posts of your choosing.
As I seek to pass along what God has used so powerfully in my own life, I pray the breath of God will fill you and the life of God, flow out through you. I welcome you to post your comments to the Life and Breath series on the keytruths blog, giving your feedback, personal experiences and insights.
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A matter of life and breath
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"The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life" (Job 33:4).
One night I lay in bed, trying to sleep. My husband, who sometimes suffers from sleep apnea, was snoring. Suddenly, I heard him take a sharp, startling, odd-sounding breath - and then, nothing. While long seconds ticked by, I heard no breathing at all.
I waited ... waited ... then cried his name sharply, asking, "Are you all right?"
He woke with a start. But he knew my speaking up wasn't thoughtless or mean. I cried out because he wasn't breathing - and breathing is vital to life.
Here's a key insight: What's true physically is also true spiritually.
- Breath is vital to life.
- Breath comes from God.
- Breathing requires inhaling and exhaling.
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Inhaling the breath of God
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Spiritual inhaling is receiving, Spirit-to-spirit, what the living, indwelling God breathes into you - his word, his grace, his riches, his character, his power, his joy, his mind, his heart - in short, his life.
You inhale physically as you're filled with breath. You inhale spiritually as you're filled with the Spirit. You cannot breathe in any aspect of God's life, including his word, when you're quenching, grieving or stiff-arming God the Spirit.
"Keep on being filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18 CJB).
Always, inhaling produces life. As you inhale deeply - regularly receiving the present God himself and all he is pouring into you, Spirit-to-spirit - you live vibrantly and abundantly:
- Your Lord gives you rest in your innermost being.
- More and more intimately, you know him who is breathing his life into you.
- More and more clearly, you see your own true, God-given identity.
- You grow up. You really live. More and more, you reflect Christ's character and his ways. More and more, you become who he has created you to be.
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Exhaling the breath of God
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Spiritual exhaling is releasing what the living, indwelling God breathes into you, for the building of his kingdom and the honor of his name.
You exhale physically as you release breath. You exhale spiritually as you release the Spirit-life you're continually receiving in your inmost being. Whether by word, act or presence, you breathe out what comes from God himself.
"Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit" (Gal. 5:16 MSG).
"Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day" (Gal. 5:25 CJB).
Always, this exhaling imparts life. As you exhale freely - regularly releasing what God is pouring into you, Spirit-to-spirit - the presence of God and the kingdom of God emanating from you touch other people and the world around you.
- More and more, you understand and walk in what is truly righteous, just and God-honoring. You walk in the truth. You walk in the light. You walk in love.
- More and more, you speak the truth in Spirit-taught words.
- More and more, you do what carries Spirit-authority and builds the kingdom of God.
- More and more, you shine. Even when you're not doing or saying anything, the life of God you're continually receiving is also continually flowing out.
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People identified with the living God may feel dry and lifeless - and think there's no help for it. Or they may believe they're perking along spiritually as well as anybody - when in fact they're critically short of breath.
The prophet Ezekiel and the apostle John had this in common: They saw things people around them could not. Deeply committed to God, first Ezekiel, then John saw dramatic visions of God. Having seen him, each man then began to see God's people from his perspective. Further, each saw a desperate situation in which people who belonged to God lacked life and breath.
How sobering! How stunning! Both Ezekiel and John saw people God had identified as his own - yet who lacked breath, hope, life. In each case, the breathlessness was rampant; the situation, dire.
Ezekiel walked with God the Spirit through a valley "full of bones," "a great many bones," "bones that were very dry." God himself identified the bones as "the whole house of Israel."
John saw the risen Lord - and promptly fell at Jesus' feet as if dead. Then, encouraged and pulled upright by his Lord, John wrote what Jesus spoke to each church. When you think "church," don't imagine a single congregation that meets, say, on the corner of First and Main. In Revelation 3:1-6, John addressed all the Christ-followers in the ancient city of Sardis. Apparently, the Sardis Christians were adept at saying and doing what appeared godly - yet utterly lacked the life and power of the Spirit.
Our Lord does not sit idly by when his people have breathing problems. He who created us and who gave himself for us knows how crucial it is to act quickly when breathing stops. Today, as in Ezekiel's day and in John's, the Lord rises up to speak out.
To awaken and revive, he shows us what we have not seen or, seeing, have felt powerless to change.
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God's call to the breath-filled
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When someone can't breathe, it's time to act. Often, however, the person with this problem cannot initiate action. Someone nearby who sees the need must act if the breathless is to breathe again.
In such a situation, what in the world do you do? In a sentence: You listen for God's instructions and do what he says.
In different eras, when God alerted Ezekiel and John to the dire need of breathless people nearby, he specified different methods, yet told each to do the same thing: Speak up. Cry out.
God the Son told John to write. Indeed, when the risen Christ appeared to John on the isle of Patmos, John heard these words trumpeted first: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches" (Rev. 1:11). After identifying himself as "the Living One," Jesus reiterated, "Write, therefore, what you have seen ..." (Rev. 1:19). When Jesus introduced his message to the breathless church, as to all the other six, he repeated the same command: "To the angel of the church in Sardis write" (Rev. 3:1).
God the Spirit told Ezekiel to speak aloud. After leading Ezekiel through a valley filled with dry bones and while Ezekiel still stood in the midst, God said, "Prophesy to these bones" (Ezek. 37:4). As soon as Ezekiel did so, the Lord told him, "Prophesy to the breath" (Ezek. 37:9).
God could have delivered his own messages to the Israelites of Ezekiel's day and the Sardis church of John's. Yet in both situations, our Lord counted it vital that his cry to the breathless be echoed and declared by a living, breathing person.
He still counts it vital today.
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God's cry to the breathless
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Any time, ever, that you recognize yourself lying scattered and broken like the dry bones in Ezekiel's vision, the Living One has a message for you. It's not a message of judgment. It's not a command to "snap out of it." Rather, it's his promise to revive and restore.
If ever you feel hopeless and lifeless, if you become spiritually dry, you cannot initiate your own rescue. But you do choose how you will respond when help arrives.
Ezekiel's prophecy to the bones and breath and John's call to the Sardis church both affirm: Our Lord's part is to give life. Our part is to receive it.
Receiving isn't passive. It's active. How many first responders have given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, yet the breathless person didn't revive? Breath was given - but it wasn't received. The breath being poured in did not successfully trigger the person to inhale and exhale again.
What God breathes into us always has the capacity to restore and revive us, for he himself is the Resurrection and the Life. You will come to life - your spiritual vitality will be restored - as you quit fighting against him, or shutting yourself off from him, and let the breath of God trigger again your life breath. As you begin again to inhale and exhale, as you deeply receive what he is pouring into you and freely release his life to those around, you come out of your coma. You embrace abundant life.
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Breathing blessing
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Moment by moment, be blessed to receive and release the breath of the living God. Moment by moment, be blessed to rise up in strength and wholeness. Be blessed to connect with others in miraculous, healthy, mighty ways. Be blessed to be a blessing. Cry out to those whose breath is failing. Make known the God you know.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scriptures quoted are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2001 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved. Also quoted: The Message (MSG); Complete Jewish Bible (CJB).
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