Breathe 1

Intro

boys vs girls- paper boat races

What is a Spirit?

an English word that has a hard time grasping the depth of the original language

Ruakh appears 378 times

over 100 times it is translated as wind

another 100 ish to speak of something innate within humanity

30 times it is breath

70 times it is something coming from God

pneuma appears 379 times- only breath 3 times

Greek words with a Hebrew mindset- mostly Jews writing the NT still

the invisible personal energy of God that created and sustains all things- Tim Mackey

Breath

Let go of your modern understanding of what makes up the particles of the air we breathe

sometimes a little ignorance leads to a more solid understanding

bow hunting requires a closeness and creates a heightened sense of the world around you

I have to be close enough to see the deer breathing- I have to be conscious and in control of my own breath as well

the same force is sustaining both of us and you can hear of how that same thing has been sustaining life long before you and I existed and will keep sustaining existence long after I die

Isaiah 40- flesh is grass and grass fades

the breath of the Lord- Ruakh- the word- which requires breath- is forever

the idea of the word is close to our understanding of gravity in so many words

we can see it working and understand it as real and enduring but what it is exactly is just a little beyond us

Reality

Genesis 1- God’s personal presence

Genesis 8- God’s working in and through creation

Job 27:3- breath in me

put your thinking caps and your smarty pants on

a part of God, God’s personal presence

as well as something that God has made and given to sustain everything else that God has made

an important part of us understanding what makes him God

I take in breath and understand that as a part of God but I am not God because I must still be sustained by him

I can’t have life without his breath

it is on purpose that the divine name simply means, “the one who is” and sounds like taking a breath

your breath is both distinct from God as he has made you independent and capable of taking it

and completely from God because without him you don’t have a breath to take in

its a paradoxical idea but I seem to find God in those more often than anywhere else

Application

what do we do, armed with this knowledge?

everyone take a sticky note

write Psalm 150:6- write the whole thing on there

every time you catch yourself consciously breathing

every time you sigh, gasp, yawn, burp, sneeze

whenever you pause, whenever your mind drifts off to boredom

take this out or if you’re in a place where you can’t, put your hand in your pocket and feel it

and be reminded that you have the gift of life in you

that God has chosen to sustain you in this moment

and then when your friends ask you why you’re doing that you tell them that you’re thankful to God for the Ruakh he gives and let the conversation go from there