"He breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"
John 20:22 NKJV
This is a verse that is not often quoted and consequently, it is missed. However, it is extremely important as we will see. The apostle John noted a deliberate connection between Jesus breathing on the disciples and God breathing on Adam when He created the earth and all that is in it. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being' Genesis 2:7. Then, of course, there was the valley of the dry bones. God said, 'Thus says the Lord God to these bones; "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live"' Ezekiel 37:5. When Jesus breathed on the disciples, they were raw, young people of God who were confused by it all at times. They performed great things, but, with Jesus' coming crucifixion, resurrection and then ascension, they needed more. He breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Many believe that they were born again at this time and this thought, fits well. They received the Spirit as we all do at salvation but, there was more to come, they would be baptised with dynamite - dunamus, and they would be a force to be reckoned with. So are we when we are baptised in His Spirit as discussed in Acts 2.
God told Ezekiel to preach to dead bones. Now, Ezekiel may have felt rather silly doing this, as you can well imagine. Many ministers have preached in similar ways to empty churches, myself included. This is when we see the power of God at work. However, God was telling Ezekiel something very important that we need to understand. He was saying that the preaching of God's word carries power. William Barclay comments, 'The coming of the Holy Spirit is like the wakening of life from the dead.' When God breathed life into creation, it came alive; when God breathed life into His disciples, they came to life and were born again and when He breathed life into us, the same thing happened, we were initially born and then saved - born again.
Therefore, when He comes upon the church, we are re-created for the task He has for us. Without breath, we know that we are dead. We need breath to live and function as we were designed to do. God breathed on the human race, on us all and that was just the beginning of an exciting future. He now offers this life to all who will accept it.
If you have asked Jesus into your life, you are born again. The next thing to pursue, is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as mentioned yesterday. We need the fire of the Spirit to perform all He wants us to perform. It is available to all that ask but it is never forced upon anyone. But it makes sense to live with the fire of God in our bones.
Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard
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