THE RUAKH (BREATH) OF GOD

Charmaine Kofler

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BREATH OF GOD

BREATH ON ME BREATH OF GOD FILL ME WITH LIFE ANEW -

Breathing. It’s something we’ve been doing since we came into this world; but oh, how we take it for granted.

The average person takes around 20,000 breaths a day. We sigh. We hold our breath. We gasp. We blow bubbles, We blow up balloons and blow out candles

Breath is mentioned many times in scripture. We first see ruach—Spirit, wind, breath—in the second verse of Genesis, where we read that God’s Spirit hovered over the waters of the formless earth. In the second chapter of the book, we find God blowing life into Adam. The Message translation says that God “blew into his nostrils the breath of life.” Many refer to this as the “Creator breath.” We came to life when God breathed into us!

THIS HYMN THAT WAS WRITTEN IN 1878 BY EDWIN HATCH (b. Derby, England, 1835; d. Oxford, England, 1889). WAS INTENDED AS A HYMN FOR ORDINATION.

IT WAS PRIVATELY PRINTED IN 1878 and then published in Henry Allon's The Congregational Psalmist Hymnal in 1886. Intended as a hymn for ordination.

Hatch grew up in a Non-conformist home, was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, England, and ordained in the Church of England in 1859. A teacher of classics and church history, he taught at Trinity College, Toronto, Canada (1859-1862), and at a high school in Quebec City (1862-1867). In 1867 he returned to Oxford, where he served the academic world with great distinction, particularly as a specialist on early Christian history. His few hymn texts were published posthumously in Towards Fields of Light (1890).

THAT SAID HYMN GOES LIKE THIS:

1 Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love the way you love, and do what you would do.

2 Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure, until my will is one with yours, to do and to endure.

3 Breathe on me, Breath of God, so shall I never die, but live with you the perfect life for all eternity.

In both Hebrew and Greek the Word for "spirit" is the same as "wind/air/breath"; thus in this text the Spirit of God is referred to as "Breath of God."

The text is a prayer for renewal by God's Spirit.

Psalm 51:10–12 NLT

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

Hatch evidently had a simple and childlike faith; that description fits this text as well.

a renewal that is to be expressed in a:

1. LIFE OF LOVE

JOYCE MEYER - REDUCE ME TO LOVE

IN THIS BOOK SHE CHALLENGES YOU TO REALLY LOOK AT HOW YOU LOVE?

WE THINK LOVE IS ONE DIMENTIONAL BUT IT IS THE VERY ESSENCE OF WHO GOD IS

SCRIPTURE REMINDS US THAT WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US.

1 John 4:19 ESV

19 We love because he first loved us.

AND WHEN WE LOOK AT THE LOVE CHAPTER IN THE BIBLE

1 COR 13 - THAT MOST PEOPLE HEAR AT WEDDINGS AND POSSIBLY NEAR VALENTINES DAY - BUT WE CHOOSE TO MOST OF THE TIME NOT REALLY GIVE IT OUR FULL ATTENTION.

AS THE HYMNIST SAYS “TO LOVE THE WAY GOD DOES” AND TO “DO WHAT GOD DOES”

1 Corinthians 13:1–12 NLT

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

I KNOW THAT THIS IS A WHOLE TOPIC ON ITS OWN AND WE CAN TRULY BREAK IT DOWN PIECE BY PIECE.

THATS WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THE TITLE OF JOYCES BOOK AND HOW SHE BROKE LOVE DOWN - IT IS ABOUT REDUCING OURSELVES IN ORDER TO ENABLE US TO LOVE THE WAY GOD LOVES.

1 Breathe on me, Breath of God,

fill me with life anew,

that I may love the way you love,

and do what you would do.

2. In purity of heart and will

2 Breathe on me, Breath of God,

until my heart is pure,

until my will is one with yours,

to do and to endure.

Psalm 51:10–12 NLT

THE PROPHET EZEKIEL

HE WAS AMONG THE FIRST EXILES TAKEN FROM JUDAH - AWAY FROM JERUSALEM

HE WAS SITTING BESIDES THE RIVER IN HIS 30TH YEAR - THE YEAR HE WOULD HAVE BEEN MADE A PRIEST ACORDING TO THE LEVITICAL PRACTICES OF THAT DAY.

HE SEES THIS VISION OF THESE FOUR STRANGE WINGED CREATURES WITH FOUR FACES AND THERE ARE WHEELS UNDER THEM AND THERE IS THIS THRONE ON TOP THAT IS DEPICTING A MAN LIKE IMAGE THAT IS GLOWING - THIS IS A VISION OF THE GLORY OF GOD.

EZEKIEL IS THEN CALLED INTO SERVICE FOR GOD TO WARN THE NATION OF ISRAEL OF THEIR DISOBEDIENCE.

EZEKIEL SEES THE PRESENCE OF GOD LEAVING THE TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM AND GOD USES EZEKIEL TO PERFORM “STREET THEATER” BY GIVING THE PEOPLE A PICTURE OF WHAT THEY ARE DOING WRONG.

DESTROY

CUT HAIR

DEPICT SCAPEGOAT

GOD ALSO TELLS EZEKIEL THAT THE PEOPLES HEARTS ARE HARDENED AND THEY WILL NOT LISTEN.

EZEKIEL SEES THE PRESENCE OF GOD LEAVING JERUSALEM

NOW I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT ALTHOUGH THE PRESENCE OF GOD HAS LEFT THE TEMPLE BECAUSE OF ALL THE IDOL WORSHIP GOING ON THERE, HE DOES NOT ABONDON THEM HE ENTERS INTO BAYBYLON WITH THE ISREALITES.

HE HAD NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO BRING THEM INTO EXILE

THEN WE SEE HOW THIS UNFOLDS

GODS JUDGMENT IS THEN PRONOUNCED ON ISRAEL THEMSELVES AND THEN ON THE NATIONS AROUND THEM.

CHAPTER 36

GOD GIVES ISRAEL THE MESSAGE OF HOPE IN THAT HE PROMISES TO GIVE THEM A NEW KING TO RAISE UP A NEW DAVID, A FUTURE MESSIANIC KING.

THIS KING WILL BE THE KIND OF LEADER THAT ISRAEL NEEDED BUT DID NOT GET

GOD SAYS HE WILL RAISE UP A NEW ISREAL

THEY WILL HAVE HEARTS SOFTENED TOWARDS GOD

HE SAID HE WILL PUT HIS SPIRIT WITHIN THEM.

Ezekiel 36:25–28 NLT

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. 28 “And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

EZEKIEL GETS ANOTHER VISION - ONE I AM SURE YOU HAVE HEARD OF MANY TIMES

THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES

GOD TELLS EZEKIEL THIS IS A METAPHORIAL VISION OF THE STATE OF ISRAELS SPIRTUAL STATE.

THE VALLEY DEPICTS A LOT OF WHAT HAPPENED MANY PEOPLE DID DIE IN EXILE BUT HE IS SHOWING THEM HOW THEY HAVE BROKEN COVENANT WITH GOD.

GOD TELLS EZEKIEL THAT HIS SPIRIT IS COMING TO BRING THE PEOPLE BACK TO LIFE.

SO THIS WIND COMES - RUAKH AND CAUSES ALL THE BONES TO STAND UP AND BREATHES LIFE INTO THEM AND CAUSES SKIN TO GROW AND EZEKIEL SEES ALL THESE NEW HUMANS IN FRONT OF HIM.

THIS IS A RECOLLECTION OF THE STORY OF THE CREATION OF HUMANS IN CHPTER 2 OF GENESIS WHERE GOD USED DIRT AND DIVINE BREATH TO CREATE HUMANS.

WE SEE HERE THE REBELLION OF ISREAL AND HUMANITY WHICH RESULTS IN DEATH

THE ONLY WAY AROUND THIS IS FOR GOD TO BRING ABOUT A NEW CREATION IN OTHER WORDS TO BRING THEM BACK TO LIFE.

THIS IS WHERE WE FIND OURSELVES AT THIS CHAPTER OF EZEKIEL WHEN GOD IS TELLING HIM THAT HE IS GOING TO TAKE THEIR HEARTS OF STONE AND GIVE THEM HEARTS OF FLESH.

A CLEAN HEART IS POWERLESS IF IT LACKS THE RIGHT SPIRIT

WE HAVE A WRONG SPIRIT TOWARD GOD AND HOW HE PROVIDES

WE ARE ALSO GUILTY OF A JEALOUS, UNFORGIVING, CRITICAL, THOUGHTLESS , HARD SPIRITS TOWARD THOSE AROUND US.

LET ME JUST CLARIFY, THIS WORD RIGHT, IS NOT IN CONTRAST TO THE WORD WRONG IT IMPLIES BEING UPRIGHT, HONEST AND TRANSPARENT IN EVERY DETAIL OF OUR CHRISTIAN LIVES.

DAVID IN COMITTING ADULTERY WITH BATHSHEBA HAD BEEN GUILTY OF DECEPTION

AS SOLDIERS OF CHRIST THERE ARE NO EASY PARADE DAYS FOR US - WE NEED TO BE ON THE READY, FIRM UPRIGHT AND READY, ALERT WAITING FOR THE NEXT COMMAND OF OBEDIENCE.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN RENEW A RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN US.

THE HUMAN SPIRIT CAN ONLY BE SANCTIFIED, HALLOWED BY THE DIVINE SPIRIT

AS WE YEILD TO HIS CONTROL, HE KEEPS OUR SPIRITS RIGHT, STEADFAST AND PURE READY TO SERVE WHEREVER HE APPOINTS.

Matthew 12:34 NLT

34 You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.

Luke 6:45 NLT

45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

JESUS SAYS THE PROBLEM IS NOT OUR MOUTHS BUT OUR HEART!!

THE MESSAGE BIBLE:

5 Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life. Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home. Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise.

TEACH ME TO LOVE

CLEAN ME UP

AND THEN:

WE THEN ENTER INTO AN INTIMACY WITH GOD

INTO ME YOU SEE

3. Intimacy with God

Breathe on me, Breath of God,

so shall I never die,

but live with you the perfect life

for all eternity.

THIS LAST STANZA SPEAKS OF LIVING A LIFE OF INTIMACY WITH GOD.

YOU SEE WHEN WE LIVE A LIFE OF LOVE AND INVITE GOD TO CLEANSE US, TO RENEW A RIGHT SPIRIT IN US.

THIS REMINDS ME OF:

THE STORY OF THE MAN WHO WAS VISITED BY THE PRIEST AND HE TOOK A COAL OUT OF THE FIRE AND SEPERATED IT FROM THE REST AND THEN THEY WATCHED IT SLOWLY DIE.

BUT WHEN HE PLACED IT BACK AND BLEW ON IT, IT CAUGHT FIRE AGAIN AND WAS ABLE TO WARM THE ROOM AND LIGHT UP THE ROOM WITH THE REST OF THE BURNING EMBERS.

IF THAT FIRE WAS ALLOWED TO RUN RIOT - IT WOULD LIGHT UP THE WORLD.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke writes that God “gives everyone life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25, NIV).

God breathed His Holy Spirit into us, the One who moves us to love and to serve. That same Spirit descended on the disciples in the upper room and later, on the small band of brothers and sisters in Herrnhut as they prayed around the clock in August of 1727. The Spirit breath moved within and among the Brethren in what we now know as the Moravian Pentecost.

THIS SONG WRITTEN SO LONG AGO WAS BASED ON THESE THREE SCRIPTURES

Joel 2:28 NLT

28 “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.

John 20:20–23 NLT

20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Ezekiel 36:25–28 NLT

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO HAVE THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN YOU - CLEANSING YOU, TEACHING YOU AND ABIDING WITH YOU.?

I WANT TO SHARE SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL WITH YOU - IT HAS CHANGED MY LIFE - I ENTERED INTO A MENTORING GROUP WITH CHURCH RENEWAL AND IT IS A PHENOMINAL GROUP THAT MENTORS PASTORS AND LEADERS ON HOW TO DISCIPLE FIRST THEMSELVES AND THEN THE LEADERS AND THE PEOPLE THAT CHOOSE TO BE A PART OF THE BODY OF CHRIST WITH THEM.

ONE OF THE THINGS THEY TEACH IS LISTENING PRAYER AND IT IS FROM A PLACE OF SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS, PRAYER IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME AND I BELEIVE IT IS WHAT CONNECTS US TO GOD, IT NOT JUST ABOUT HAVING A GROCERY LIST BUT ABOUT BEING IN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. BEING INTIMATE WITH GOD - HE SEES INTO ME, BUT DO I WANT TO SEE WHAT GOD SEES.

WE ARE ENCOURAGED TO HEAR WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY - ONE OF MY QUESTIONS TO GOD WAS, HOW DO I KNOW THAT WHAT I AM HEARING IS FROM YOU? - YES IT WOULD BE BASED ON SCRIPTURE AND NOT AGAINST THE NATURE OF WHO GOD IS, BUT TO BORROW THE WORDS OF A SONG CALLED KYRIE ELIESON “WHO IS THIS GOD THAT PARDONS ALL OUR SINS, SO READY TO FORGIVE AND TO SHOW ME MERCY”

I HAD TO LEARN TO STOP AND BREATH AND TAKE TIME TO ENJOY THE PRESENCE OF GOD, IT WAS IN SEARCHING THIS VERY TOPIC THAT,

I came across this teaching when I was doing some research on breath prayer.

THERE WAS A TEACHER THAT WAS ADDRESSING A CLASS OF STUDENTS:

I QUOTE TO YOU NOW FROM HIS TEACHING

“He said and probably a lot of you know this but when you write Hebrew you actually just write the consonants and what it means to be an educated Jew is to have memorized the appropriate vowels and to know how to fill in the appropriate vowels in the appropriate places, but this part is what I most want to leave with you, he said did you know that the consonants used in the spelling of the sacred name Yahweh are in fact the only consonants that if correctly pronounced do not allow you to use your tongue or close your lips,

in fact we know that the pronouncing of the sacred name was an attempt to imitate and replicate breath that it was inhalation and exhalation.

SHOW HOW IT IS DONE HERE: BREATH IN AND OUT SEVERAL TIMES DEMONSTRATING

Just like the teacher I heard it from I now share this with you, because it can change your life,

if you hold onto this and begin to live it and to experience it and to practice it, your prayer life will dramatically change.

but notice it has nothing to do with thinking, in fact it moves the entire experience to the cellular body corporeal breath level and it means, that the first word you ever spoke when you came out of your mother's womb was the name of God and the last word you will ever speak you don't have to try to remember “do I want to say a prayer before I die” you're going to anyway that last breath you take on your deathbed will be the name of God and it's the one thing you've done constantly in your life – you are doing it now.

you're breathing and you know what there's not a Catholic way of breathing and an Anglican way of breathing there's not a Protestant way of breathing there's not an American way of breathing there's not an English way of breathing there's not a Buddhist way of breathing there's not a Hindu way of breathing there's not a Muslim way of breathing we're all doing this together and this wonderful God, has made the God self that available, that democratic that accessible,

the gift is given the only problem is the gift is not being received we label religion into a series of moral achievements, make religion into a bunch of hoops that you got to jump through and about a bunch of forms that you got to bow down to, instead of leading people to know something to be true for themselves.

1 Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love the way you love, and do what you would do.

2 Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure, until my will is one with yours, to do and to endure.

3 Breathe on me, Breath of God, so shall I never die, but live with you the perfect life for all eternity.

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