God's breath: how powerful?

A few days ago, I was chatting with some buddies about the Bible and we came upon the topic of the breath of God. I walked away from that conversation with a deeper appreciation of the sheer power of God's breath. God is omnipotent. We are not. I can't do much with my breath than spread a few dandelion seeds around my lawn.

The effects of my breath: nothing to write home (or blog) about.

God can do much more with His breath. Let's look at a few examples from the Bible:

1. With His breath, God created man.

Gen. 2:7 - "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Adam was formed out of the dust of the ground, but he was just a lifeless piece of earth until God breathed into him. When God breathed into him, Adam became a living soul. Adam became a human, the most complicated and sophisticated of all God's creatures.

2. With His breath, God wrote the Bible.

2 Timothy 3:16 - "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,"

Physically, it seems that Bible was written by more than 40 different authors over a period of more than 1,500 years. But in reality, the Bible was written by God exhaling. Because God breathed out the Bible, there are deeper spiritual realities behind the physical words on its pages.

3. With His breath, God destroys His enemies.

The Bible contains numerous cases of God defeating His enemies simply by breathing on them. For example, Job 4:9 speaks of the consequences for those who plow iniquity: "By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed."

The most poignant example of victory by breath, however, is still to come. 2 Thessalonians 2:8 describes the fate of the man of lawlessness (Antichrist): "Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth..." Antichrist will fight with all his might and all his armies, but he will be slain by nothing more than a gentle puff from the the Lord's mouth. Kind of anticlimactic.

4. With His breath, God gave us the Holy Spirit.

John 20:22 - "And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit."

Of all the things that God has done and will do with His breath, this is my favorite. After the resurrection, when the Lord breathed on His disciples, they didn't just smell the fish He was preparing for them. Through the Lord's breath, the disciples actually received the Holy Spirit. Today, it is the same. The Lord desires to breathe the Holy Spirit into people. All we have to do is open up and receive.

The Earth Controls Heaven

It's been a while since I last posted last. Sorry about that. Now that the semester is over, it's time to post again.

During this winter break, I am reading a book called The Prayer Ministry of the Church by Watchman Nee. This was the title of the first section in the first chapter of the book:

The Earth Controls Heaven

Those four words piqued my curiosity immensely. According to my thought, God created the earth and God dwells in heaven, so therefore, heaven controls the earth.

But that thought misses the principle of prayer, which is that God does not act if man does not pray. The move on the earth (men praying) precedes the move in the heaven (God acting). God has limited Himself to man's prayer. Of course, men cannot make God do what He does not want, but men can prevent God from doing what He wants by failing to pray.

Can you believe this guy controls heaven? Well, actually, the people who live on this guy.

That may sound kind of crazy, so I want to present three verses that show the principle that the earth controls heaven:

1. Exodus 17:11 - "Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed." Here, God in heaven is causing the Israelites to defeat the Amalekites, but only when Moses, who is earthbound, lifts his hands.

2. Ezekiel 36:37 - "Thus says the Lord God: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock." Surely God wanted to increase His chosen people, but He would not do it unless the house of Israel asked for it in prayer.

3. Isaiah 45:11 - "Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: Ask me of things to come; and concerning my children and the work of my hands, command me." Have you ever thought of praying as commanding the Lord? This is the earth controlling the heaven.

Realizing that the earth controls the heaven is key to understanding the importance of prayer, but it also raises a deeper question: 

Why did God limit Himself to man's prayer?

Your Life in Three Words

Imagine an older version of yourself, looking back the many years that have passed. You're trying to sum up your life in three words. You have two options:

1. Vanity of vanities

This was the phrase used by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:2 to sum up his existence apart from God. It's important to note that Solomon's life would be considered quite full by anyone's standards. Most people on the earth today are seeking some combination of wealth, pleasure, fame, and wisdom. Solomon had it all.

Wealth? Solomon had it. This article compares Solomon's wealth to that of Bill Gates. Solomon's yearly salary in gold would be worth close to a billion dollars today.

Pleasure? Solomon had it. First Kings 7 tells us all about his lavish house, which he took thirteen years to build in comparison to seven for the temple. Solomon also had a thousand wives (First Kings 11:3).

Fame? Solomon had it. News didn't travel as fast back then, but Solomon's fame spread all the way to Ethiopia, where the Queen of Sheba decided to make a special trip just to see the man for herself (First Kings 10).

Wisdom? Solomon had it. God promised to give him a wise and understanding heart like no one in the history of mankind, before and after him (First Kings 3:12). Most of the wise statements in the book of Proverbs came from Solomon.

However, Solomon's conclusion at the end of his life was that it was all pointless: there was nothing new under the sun; everything was vanity and chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 1:9, 14). Solomon realized that God had put eternity in his heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Nothing temporal could fill that void; only the eternal One, God Himself, could satisfy him.

It takes most people longer than this kid to realize there's nothing new under the sun.

Once Solomon found the eternal One, his life became the...

2. Song of songs

This is the title of the book directly following Ecclesiastes, also written by Solomon. This book is about a loving, personal, affectionate relationship between a king and his bride, which represents the loving, personal, affectionate relationship between God and man.

This relationship stems from man's enjoyment of God. Just like a woman enjoys her husband's presence, God intended that man would enjoy His presence. Psalm 16:11 says that in the presence of God is fullness of joy. Not temporary joy. Not limited joy. Fullness of joy.

In fact, as believers, we can enjoy not only God's presence but even God Himself, like the psalmist who wrote, "God my exceeding joy." (Psalm 43:4). This psalmist may have had other joys, but only God was his exceeding joy.

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I sincerely hope that at the end of our lives, we won't have to say, "My life was vanity of vanities because I never found the eternal God." I hope we can say, "My life was song of songs because I enjoyed the eternal God."