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 being.
Genesis 2:7
In the beginning, God breathed life into man. Without the breath of God, there is no life. I find it interesting that when God determined to bring man into a new dispensation of His grace, he once again chose breath (or wind) as a sign of that new dispensation on the day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:2) One breath gave life and another breath gave empowered life. Paul taught that we are ambassadors for Christ and that our ministry is reconciling man to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). I say, if we are representing God to man, then we, too, must breathe life.
John 10:10 tells us that “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. [Jesus has] come that [we] may have life and that [we] may have it more abundantly.” The enemy of our souls comes to steal, kill, and destroy by any means necessary. Look at Job. Satan took his family, his livelihood, his health, and his reputation in an attempt to destroy the man. Then Job’s friends came and began to further tear him down with their breath (words). In his greatest despair, they came with words of death and not of life. Then, the youngest of them, Elihu, in chapter thirty-two spoke up. He also accused Job, but he accused Job with words of life which brought Job around to a repentant state before God thereby reconciling him to a more righteous life before God than he had known before. In the end, Job was given life abundant. God restored all that he lost in greater abundance than he’d had before.
We must see that Job’s first three friends spoke words that made them feel better. They attacked what they thought was Job’s sins, but they did it with an air of pleasure, disdain, and judgment. They were not breathing life into Job, but sucking the oxygen out of his lifeline! On the other hand, Elihu spoke for truth and for righteousness, breathing life into Job’s weary bones. Even though he was confronting Job, he was confronting him in truth and humility.
God breathes life into His creation. Jesus breathes life more abundant. The Holy Spirit came with a rushing mighty wind on the day of Pentecost. It seems that the breath of life is important to God and it should be to us as well. We must use the breath we have been given to breathe (speak) life into the lives of others. Anything else steals, kills, and destroys. “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!… I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:13-16; 22-26).
When we walk in the Spirit we breathe life into our fellow human beings. When we do not walk in the Spirit we partner with the enemy of our souls to steal, kill, and destroy. Sadly when we allow our fleshly nature to rise up and use the breath God breathed into us to partner with death, we also kill, steal, and destroy ourselves. When we breathe life, we gain life; when we breathe death, we reap death.
Unfortunately, in our best intentions, we can become someone, like Job’s friends, who breathes the wrong kind of air into the atmosphere of those we are trying to help. We can become so fixated on getting people where we think they should be in their walk with Christ that we forget to breathe life into their very souls. Having a desire to see people walk in more maturity and more liberty in Christ, we can focus on fixing the outward parts of them without ever ministering to their souls. We put a bandage on the wound and pretend that there is nothing wrong underneath because we can no longer see it. When we cannot see it, we stop ministering to the wound, and infection sets in. Pretty soon the wound is apparent throughout the body as fever sets in and death begins to try to claim one more victim.
Paul in the fourth chapter of Ephesians gives us a key for how we are to breathe life into the body of Christ. We can do more damage as Christians to one another than anyone else can do to us. We expect to be confronted with unkindness outside of the church, but it is wholly unexpected within the body of Christ. We are supposed to be able to trust one another in the church. We are supposed to feel safe with one another. We cannot feel safe with one who is constantly policing our Christianity. The Bible says to work out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12). It does not teach us to police others’ walks.
There is a way to walk in the Spirit and breathe life into our fellow Christians. Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” The leadership of the church is given to build up the body of Christ. One cannot build up a body and deprive it of oxygen at the same time. What does that look like?
We are very much aware in these post-modern times that in raising children how we speak to them will affect who they will become. If we treat them with love and kindness coupled with good boundaries, they will become loving and kind. If we praise them and value them they will grow to be self-confident adults. However, if we tell them they are always doing the wrong thing and that they will amount to nothing, they will believe us and continue to do wrong and most likely amount to nothing.
When church leaders especially, but also anyone in the body of Christ, constantly focus on what the congregation is doing wrong. When they only speak up or speak to someone when they are displeased and never make an effort to treat them with respect, dignity, and appreciation, they are killing the spiritual life of the individual. They are partnering with death. Yet, I know so often that they do it with the best of intentions. However, at the end of time, we are not going to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant. Although many of those you ministered to went the other way, your intentions were admirable. Come and enter My rest.” Scripture actually says, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea” (Mark 9:42).
Ephesians goes on to tell us to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). If we are confronting sin in another with disdain, we have missed the purpose. We are no longer ambassadors of Christ and we are not walking in the Spirit. We have actually pushed Jesus off of the throne and taken His seat! We are not breathing life into someone when we are speaking to them with that air of disgust over what they have done. Do you need someone to tell you to feel bad when they are confronting you about a sin issue? I highly doubt it. Unless you are a sociopath, you will feel bad when you do bad things. When we confront someone with disdain on our breath, the message we send is death and not life. Speaking the truth in love breathes life. It says to the hearer that they are valuable, that they are better than that and they are able to change with Jesus’ help.
Finally, Ephesians 4:16 tells us that the church is to edify itself in love. Use the breath of God in you to build those up around you. Strengthen the brethren. Believe in one another. Give opportunity to those who seek to serve Jesus. Make room for failure; it is the best teacher.
Why does Paul speak so much about edification in the church? Clearly, God knows that He built us to thrive on encouragement. The flesh tends toward the negative and the competitive. The Spirit is full of life and light. So let us walk in the Spirit so we will not satisfy the lust of the flesh! Let us be true ambassadors of Christ and breathe the breath of God into the lives of others! Let’s build up the Church!
“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:29-32).
When you go about your day, seek how you might encourage someone today. You know, it isn’t just those who are feeling down who need encouragement. We all need encouragement. Show someone some gratitude today. Find someone else and breathe life into them by acknowledging a gift or a call in them. Ask the Lord at every turn who you might encourage and how you might encourage them. Pray even now and ask Him that same question, then do what comes to mind.