Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:7; John 20:22; 2 Tim. 3:14-17; Ezek. 37:1-14
Ⅰ
God's ultimate intention is to gain a corporate God-man for His corporate mani-festation; God does not desire a good man but a God-man, a man of God with the breath of God—John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; 2 Tim. 3:16-17:
A
"Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul"—Gen. 2:7:
１
The breath of life breathed into man's body became the spirit of man, the human spirit—Prov. 20:27; Job 32:8.
２
The breath of life breathed into man's body was not the eternal life of God or the Spirit of God; but because the human spirit came out of God's breath of life, it is very close to the Spirit of God—cf. Gen. 2:8-9.
３
Thus, there can be a transmission between God the Spirit and man's spirit, and the human spirit is able to contact God and be one with God—Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17.
B
"He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Pneuma"—John 20:22 (lit.):
１
The Holy Pneuma is the Holy Spirit, or Holy Breath.
２
In the Gospel of John there are three wonderful words: Word, flesh, and breath; the Word was God, the flesh is man, and the breath is the Spirit—1:1, 14; 20:22.
３
The Word became flesh to accomplish judicial redemption and then resurrected to become the Holy Breath indwelling us and supplying us for our organic salvation— 1:14, 29; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 5:10; 10:12-13; cf. Lam. 3:55-56.
C
"All Scripture is God-breathed"—2 Tim. 3:16a:
１
The Scripture, the word of God, is the breathing out of God.
２
God's speaking is God's breathing out; hence, His word is spirit, or breath—John 6:63.
３
Thus, the Scripture is the embodiment of God as the Spirit; the Spirit is therefore the very essence, the substance, of the Scripture, just as phosphorus is the essential sub-stance in matches; we must strike the Spirit of the Scripture with our spirit to catch the divine fire.
D
This all reveals that being a man of God with the breath of God requires the exercise of our spirit, the continual receiving of the Spirit, and the breathing in of God's word—1 Tim. 4:7; Gal. 3:2; Eph. 6:17-18a.
Ⅱ
The antidote of the divine inoculation against the decline of the church is the God-breathed Scripture, which is profitable for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work—2 Tim. 3:14-17:
A
The Bible is God's breath, this breath is the Spirit, and the Spirit gives life—John 6:63:
１
Our reading of the Bible should be our inhaling of God to receive life, and our teach-ing of the Bible should be our exhaling of God to impart life—Acts 6:4.
２
We need to read the Bible by means of all prayer and petition in the spirit to inhale God and minister the word as the Spirit to exhale God into others—Eph. 6:17-18a; Acts 6:10; 2 Cor. 3:6; cf. Psa. 119:130, 133, 140.
B
On God's side, the Bible is God's breathing; on our side, the Bible is for us to receive the breath of God as our profit in four matters: teaching, conviction, correction, and instruc-tion in righteousness:
１
Teaching equals revelation; to teach is to roll away the veil so that others may see something of the Triune God and His economy—Eph. 1:17; 3:9; cf. Job 10:13.
２
Conviction comes from the revelation we have seen; whenever we see something of God, we realize our mistakes, wrongdoings, shortcomings, and sins, and the result is that we are convicted and reproved; the more we see God, know God, and love God, the more we abhor and deny ourselves—Isa. 6:1-8; Job 42:5-6; Matt. 16:24.
３
Correction follows conviction and is a matter of setting right what is wrong, turning someone to the right way, and restoring to an upright state—7:13-14.
４
Instruction in righteousness is be divinely instructed to enjoy Christ as our lived-out righteousness and to be divinely disciplined in being right with God and with man—Phil. 3:9.
C
The issue of God's breathing out of Himself through the Scripture for teaching, convic-tion, correction, and instruction in righteousness is that the man of God becomes complete, fully equipped for every good work—2 Tim. 3:17:
１
A man of God is a God-man, one who partakes of God's life and nature (John 1:13; 2 Pet. 1:4), thus being one with God in His life and nature (1 Cor. 6:17) and thereby expressing Him.
２
God's breathing produces God-men; we need to continually inhale the Triune God by reading the Scripture with prayer to receive revelation, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
Ⅲ
To receive the word of God as the breath of God in order to be constituted with God is also to receive the word of God as the sword of the Spirit in order to slay God's adversary—Eph. 6:17-18a:
A
Satan is not only the enemy outside of us but also the adversary inside of us; to deal with this inward adversary, we need to experience the killing power of the word, praying over the constant word of the Bible so that it becomes the instant word of the Spirit for the preparation of the bride of Christ—John 6:63; Eph. 5:26-27; Rev. 2:7.
B
The sword, the Spirit, and the word are one; when the constant word in the Bible becomes the instant word (the applied word spoken at the moment by the Spirit in any situation), that word is the Spirit as the sword that kills the adversary—Heb. 4:12.
C
The more we take the word of God by means of all prayer in spirit, the more the negative elements in our being are slain; eventually, the self, the worst foe of all, the enemy of the Body, will be put to death—cf. Rev. 1:16; 2:16.
D
Whenever we are troubled by something negative within us, we should take the word of God by means of all prayer in spirit; when the negative things in us are killed through pray-reading, the Lord is victorious.
E
We are preserved in the church life and in the ministry by receiving the word as the Spirit to be the killing sword, which is a spiritual antibiotic to kill the "germs" within us so that we can live a healthy Body life, a healthy church life.
F
The overcomers keep the Lord's word by always coming to the Lord to contact Him as the living Word in the written Word so that He can become the applied word as the dispens-ing Spirit in them—3:8; John 1:1; 5:39-40; 6:63.
G
The overcomers are fully constituted with the Spirit as the word of God to be the bride of Christ and the new man, the corporate man of God with the breath of God as the killing sword for the destruction of the enemies of God and the manifestation of the sons of God—Rev. 2:7; 22:17a; 19:13-15; 2 Thes. 2:8.
Ⅳ
Ezekiel 37:1-14 reveals how God's Spirit as the breath comes into us in order to enliven us so that we may become a corporate body, formed into an army:
A
The vision of the dry bones shows that before God came in to renew and regenerate us, we were not only sinful and filthy (36:25) but also dead and buried in "graves" of various sinful, worldly, and religious things (37:12-13).
B
We were like dead and dry bones, disjointed and scattered, having no oneness:
１
Whether we were an unsaved sinner or a backslidden believer, this was our situation; not only unbelieving sinners need to be delivered from their graves, but even many brothers and sisters need to be revived and delivered from death and from their graves.
２
Today many Christians are buried in the graves of denominations, sects, divisions, independent groups, and different movements.
３
Formerly, we were in such graves, dead, dry, scattered, disjointed, and not connected to anyone, but the Lord is the Savior of the dead; God's word here is to cause a dead person to become a living person—John 5:25; Eph. 2:1-8.
C
Ezekiel's prophesying in Ezekiel 37 was not a matter of predicting but a matter of speak-ing forth, declaring, something for the Lord—vv. 4-5:
１
When Ezekiel spoke forth, God gave people the Spirit—vv. 10, 14.
２
The main meaning of prophesying in the Bible is not to predict but to speak forth the Lord, to minister the Lord to people:
ａ
"He who prophesies builds up the church"—1 Cor. 14:4b.
ｂ
"You can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged"— v. 31.
ｃ
Prophesying, speaking for God and speaking forth God with God as the content, ministers God to the hearers and brings them to God; the church meeting should be filled with God, and all its activities should convey and transmit God to people that they may be infused with God—vv. 24-25.
ｄ
Prophesying makes you an overcomer; prophesying is the function of the over-comers—vv. 3, 4b; cf. Matt. 16:18.
３
As Ezekiel was prophesying, God was blowing upon the dry bones, sending the wind, the breath, and the Spirit—Ezek. 37:4-10, 14:
ａ
The Hebrew word ruach is variously translated "wind," "breath," and "spirit" in verses 5 through 10 and 14.
ｂ
In spiritual experience, when God blows on us, His breath is the wind; when we breathe the wind, it is the breath; and when the breath is within us, it is the Spirit.
ｃ
When Ezekiel prophesied, God blew the wind, the people received the breath, and the breath became the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6.
D
Prophesying in the meetings of the church fulfills the greatest prophecy in the Bible, which is to build up the church (in oneness as an exceedingly great army)—Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 14:4b; Ezek. 37:4-10.