Gasping for air, I frantically circled the business meeting room, trying to say, “I can’t breathe!” But no sound came out, and as hard as I tried to inhale, no air was coming in. It was terrifying and I didn’t know what to do. And then I woke up in my pitch-black bedroom and realized it wasn’t real. I’d never had a dream like that before and never hope to again.
The creation of the first man started with a breath from God. God breathed, then man breathed. When a baby is born, he or she suddenly has to make a major transition from getting oxygen through the mother’s bloodstream to breathing air with a new little set of lungs. Usually this remarkable adjustment to being on the outside is punctuated with some crying, but life will only continue through breath supplying the necessary oxygen from that moment forward.
Jesus breathed on the disciples after His resurrection, when (without opening any doors or windows) He entered the room in which they’d huddled in fear. It seems that this action was in anticipation of Pentecost, as He spoke, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Some suggest that it was at this moment that the disciples were born again, as they believed on the risen Christ.
This breath, reminiscent of that long-ago breath of the Father in creating Adam, was no accident. Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing, and in this act He marked a new creation. And connected with it we see the essentiality of the Holy Spirit to walk out this new existence. The Greek word for Spirit is pneuma, also translated as wind or breath, and perhaps as Jesus instructed them to receive the Spirit with that gentle breath, He was emphasizing our level of need.
In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 we read that all Scripture is God-breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. In His Word, we find God-breathed truth to show us how to live.
In my terrifying dream, I was in desperate need of oxygen, and I couldn’t get it. My life was at risk because I couldn’t breathe. We can all relate to that physical reality, whether it was coming up for air after being underwater, or some other experience of oxygen deprivation. A lack of spiritual vitality, however, can escape detection as we continue going through our day-to-day motions. Yet without the Word and the Spirit to sustain us, we languish and our souls gasp for the life of God to which we were called. We need these two as surely as we need to draw our next breath, but we may not realize it. Sometimes in a tired and deadened state, you don’t know you’re hungry until you take your first bite of food. Once we taste and see the Lord’s goodness, we won’t be able to get enough of Him (Psalm 34:8).
God, reveal to us how much we need Your Word and Your Spirit each day. Help our walk in the Spirit to become as natural as breathing!
