Breath of God

Breath of God

A few months ago, I was impacted by a quote from The Chronicles of Narnia: “You have listened to fears, child,” said Aslan. “Come, let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?” This was the starting point for me to learn more about the breath of God.

Several scriptures refer to the Holy Spirit as the breath of God. Today we’re focusing on John 20:19-22 TPT:

That evening, the disciples gathered together, and because they were afraid of reprisals from the Jewish leaders, they had locked the doors. But suddenly Jesus appeared among them and said, “Peace to you!” Then He showed them the wounds of his hands and his side—they were overjoyed to see the Lord with their own eyes! Jesus repeated his greeting, “Peace to you!” And he told them, “Just as the Father has sent me, I’m now sending you.” Then, taking a deep breath, he blew on them [other versions say he breathed on them] and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

So, Jesus transferred the Holy Spirit to the disciples through His breath. He breathed on them, and they breathed in the Spirit.

Here are a few things I’ve learned about breathing:

Fear

Fear deprives us of oxygen. When we’re afraid, our breathing becomes shallow, and we forget to breathe. When someone is having a panic attack, we tell them to breathe, right?

The very act of breathing deeply and circulating oxygen throughout the body helps to restore calm and readjust our focus.

The disciples were huddled in a locked room, fearing for their lives. The first thing Jesus said to them was “Peace to you!” That was a common Jewish greeting of the time, but doesn’t it also make you take a deep breath and calm down? They were afraid and He addressed their fear, repeating the greeting twice (verses 19 and 21).

Choice

Continuing with verse 22: “Then, taking a deep breath, he blew on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

He told them to receive the Holy Spirit. As with every gift from God, He allows us to choose. We choose to let Him breathe life into us. It’s like a water faucet. All the water is available to come rushing through that faucet, but the amount that actually flows out depends on how much we open up that faucet.

We have a choice. He doesn’t put us on a ventilator and force us to breathe. All of the power, all of the life of the breath of God is available to us. But we have to choose to open up that faucet and receive His breath and let it flow through us.

How do we receive His breath?

2 Timothy 3:16 TPT tells us, “God has transmitted his very substance into every Scripture, for it is God-breathed…”

Scripture is not simply a book that tells about God, it actually contains God. His breath is embedded in His word.

So we receive His breath by receiving His written word, by meditating on His word. Not just a cursory reading, but meditating on His word, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal His word to us.

We also receive His breath by staying in constant communication with the Holy Spirit throughout each day.

So many things in the physical realm demonstrate something in the spiritual realm. Our bodies need oxygen to survive. We need to continually breathe to live. We don’t take one breath and expect that to last us the rest of the day, right? No, we breathe in and we breathe out. We inhale and exhale. Over and over and over again, several times in every minute.

And that’s how it should be with the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. To stay spiritually alive, we have to continually “receive the Holy Spirit.”

In and Out

But let’s not stop there. Let’s follow Jesus’ example.

The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead was the breath of God (Romans 8:11). The Holy Spirit breathed life back into Jesus, and He was raised from the dead. He inhaled life from the Holy Spirit. And then He exhaled and breathed life into His disciples.

Breathing is not a one-way process. We breathe in, and we breathe out.

In everything we do, let us always remember to invite the Holy Spirit to breathe on us and breathe through us, so that we can breathe out His life onto those we come into contact with—whether it’s physical contact or contact through written words—let it always be that we have first breathed in the breath of God. And then we breathe out His breath onto those we come into contact with.

Blessing

I bless you to receive the breath of God, to inhale the breath of the Holy Spirit, the life of the Holy Spirit, and to let that life flow through you as you exhale the breath of God through everything you do. Amen! So be it!

Mollybeth Corr

Mollybeth Corr is a retired legal secretary and a prayer warrior who writes for the person looking for compelling examples of answered prayer. She believes words are the most powerful weapon God has given us—more powerful even than faith—and all weapons require regular training to be wielded effectively. Her enthusiasm for learning knows no bounds. She has been known to procrastinate doing the thing she’s learning to do (like writing a novel), in favor of more learning. Mollybeth and her husband of 50 years live in Houston, Texas, in an empty nest that is frequently filled again with grandchildren on “no rules Saturdays” and where the love language is mushrooms, expressed often by stealthily sliding those repulsive mushrooms from her plate onto the favored person’s plate.

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