(A)Natural Breath
Ezekiel 37:8
“I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.”
Here are some facts and other thoughts, some proof of just how fare fully and wonderfully made we are, this:
“To help adjust your breathing to changing needs, your body has sensors that send signals to the breathing centres in the brain.
Sensors in the airways?detect lung irritants. The sensors can trigger sneezing or?coughing. In people who have?asthma, the sensors may cause the muscles around the airways in the lungs to contract. This makes the airways smaller.
Sensors in the brain and near blood vessels?detect carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in your blood.
Sensors in your joints and muscles?detect the movement of your arms or legs. These sensors may play a role in increasing your breathing rate when you are physically active.” (https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/lungs/body-controls-breathing)
It is God’s design that our breath carries in oxygen and out carbon dioxide. On a wider view plants that he has created do the opposite, taking in our carbon dioxide and giving us oxygen. All part of his amazing creation.
The breath of God is in us we are alive.
The breath of God is pivotal to our existence as individuals and as an Army. As an Army we are united in our aim. But an Army needs to be sustained. In a battle situation a smaller Army that is better supplied, better resourced is likely to win out over a larger force with few supplies and resources. This has happened many times in the history of warfare.
Like the battle resource, breath is sustaining, life giving.
Let’s have a look at the breath of life, the resource that as part of the Worldwide Church and our part in it as The Salvation Army we are aware of. Without oxygen in our bodies we cannot sustain life, the we need to get rid of carbon dioxide as waste. Our breathing is vitally important.
God gave the breath of life to all living creatures.
Genesis 2:7
"Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."
Acts 17:25
"nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things."
Take a deep breath and hold it.
This from Job 27:3-4
"as long as I have life within me,
the breath of God in my nostrils,
my lips will not say anything wicked,
and my tongue will not utter lies."
Breath out! Expelling the waste from your bodies.
So we get this depiction of ourselves, an understanding of God holding us, giving us all life in his provision of breath. This certainly gives a deeper meaning to the song, “This is the air I breathe, your Holy presence living in me, by Michael W Smith.”
Sandra Thurman Caporale from the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston wrote this (slightly abridged).
“There was a moment when Moses had the nerve to ask God what his name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name he gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH.
Over time we’ve added an “a” and an “e” in there to get YaHWeH,
But scholars and Rabi’s have noted that the letters YHWH represent breathing sounds. When pronounced without intervening vowels, it actually sounds like breathing.
YH (inhale): WH (exhale).
So a baby’s first cry, his first breath, speaks the name of God.
A deep sigh calls His name – or a groan or gasp that is too heavy for mere words.
Even an atheist would speak His name, unaware that their very breath is giving constant acknowledgment to God.
Likewise, a person leaves this earth with their last breath, when God’s name is no longer filing their lungs.
So when I can’t utter anything else, is my cry calling out His name?
Being alive means I speak His name constantly.
So, is it heard the loudest when I’m the quietest?
In sadness, we breathe heavy sighs.
In joy, our lungs feel almost like they will burst.
In fear we hold our breath and have to be told to breathe slowly to help us calm down.
When we’re about to do something hard, we take a deep breath to find our courage.
When I think about it, breathing is giving him praise. Even in the hardest moments!
This is so beautiful and fills me with emotion every time I grasp the thought. God chose to give himself a name that we can’t help but speak every moment we’re alive.
All of us, always, everywhere.
Waking, sleeping, breathing, with the name of God on our lips.”
(B) Why an army
Ezekiel 37:10
“So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet-a vast army.”
The concept of spirit and breath takes a different turn in Daniel’s vision of one who looks like a man, read Daniel 10. In this reading we see that Daniel describes one who appears like a man. Matthew Henry and other commentators write that it is their thinking that this is an Old Testament depiction of Jesus, I can’t help but this of John’s vision of Jesus in Revelation. From reading it we gain an understanding of powers opposed to the things of God in the spiritual realm. As Paul tells us, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12.
As an Army who are we fighting? Where is our foe, who are our enemies, are they in other physical beings, in legislation, political forces, societal ideals, or forces of evil influence? Something to think on. We know that our battle is not against flesh and blood.
Jesus tells us, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10. We are an army that brings life!
As individuals we come with relative strength in our own beings but joined in unity, we are stronger.
Read:
Matthew 18:19-20
Ecclesiastes 4:12
Hebrews 10:25
AS a group, as an army, The Salvation Army, we can move forward in unison working together as part of the body of Christ that is the Church, effecting change for good. When Jesus taught us to pray and used the words, “your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” I don’t believe that these were throw away sentiments but his desire for the earth, for all people, for the people of our planet, for all of creation. Creation that groans under the weight of the fall of humanity, I don’t believe that Jesus would have asked us to pray that God’s will be done here on Earth as it is in heaven if it is not possible. As an Army our part is to continue to pray that his will be done, to act towards that goal, to serve suffering humanity and to improve life and the planet where we are able. He came so that we can have hope and a future. We live with an advantage over many in that we know this and as individuals, called to service in God’s Army we are united in the cause of his kingdom coming. Where we are able to meet a need, we do, where we see theft of potential and lack of concern we are able to do our best united to meet those things. In doing so, together we can achieve far more than we could individually.
Life change/transformation.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
- Paul. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Engaging in Kingdom Culture that brings life change, as we work together as an Army.
It works on this fundamental principle. Hope is the spark that ignites the confident belief, faith and in addition relationships with God and people that lead to Life Change, lives, families, and communities are transformed, for good and for God. His will is done and his kingdom comes.
Hope + confident belief (Faith) + relationship (Love) = Life Change
Moffatt’s Law of Life Change. https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/100096/life-change-comes-about-moffatt-s-law-of-life-change-by-andrew-moffatt
The precious lost are found, people are included the “whosoever will may come.” These people flourish within Kingdom Culture, which brings change to families and communities. His kingdom comes, his will is done. Together we can achieve, storming the forts of darkness and bringing them down, as we engage in these things here on Earth, God’s kingdom comes, this better, that is why an army.
Play “Storm the Forts of Darkness.”
(C) Spiritual Breath
I see an army that is alive! Alive we can only be fully alive in Christ and fulfil our purpose if we are spiritually alive, empowered by The Holy Spirit. No matter how good our paperwork is, how good we look, how many food parcels we give out, unless we are filled with God’s Spirit, claiming the promises of scripture we will never fully achieve what God has in place for us.
Ezekiel 37:14
“I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.” The is fulfilled in Christ, this is for God’s glory and his kingdom and names sake.
From John 4:15-27 Jesus says this.
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
To those present: Tell of a time when you knew the peace of God’s Spirit with you, A time when you were troubled, then not troubled. Tell of a time when his ‘still small voice’ reassured you.
We know that The Holy Spirit is our advocate and while Pentecost is the time initially that the wider body of Christ initially received the Holy Spirit. This from John 20, the gathering of the disciples and Jesus appearing.
John 20:19-23 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Our third doctrine: “We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead – the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.”
In the passage about the valley of dry ones in Ezekiel 37 we have this depiction of the vast army. We see prior to that God wanting to restore the people of Israel people who were in exile, for at that time the people were living under the curse because of their sinfulness, they needed the breath of God, like all people trapped in sin, like we were before our salvation, to restore them to spiritual health and well-being, to bring us to righteousness with God, through Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
As Christians, soldiers called we know, we understand in our time, God’s Holy Spirit with us. We are sealed with The Holy Spirit. Ezekiel prophesied to Israel “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and carefully keep my laws.” Ezekiel 36:27.
We live in the knowledge of life in the Holy Spirit, of the fruit of the Spirit evident in our lives, of living fruit evidenced in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The question is this part of our story, are our relationship in Corps, in community exhibiting these things? These all depend on our being deeply rooted into the soil that is Jesus.
As we grow deeper in Christ the more the fruit of the Holy Spirit is evidenced in us, the deeper our witness of the supernatural breath of The Holy Spirit active in us.
Play Michael W Smith’s, “This is the air I breathe.”
