An Essential Life
Spirit of Life- Part 11 of 14
Chapter 10: Spirit of Life
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.
Ezekiel
There is an illustration in the book of Ezequiel that portrays an unawakened conscience as a valley of dry bones. It is an open tomb, a picture of a dismembered life that has been picked over and left to dry in the heat. Ezequiel is then asked by God, O son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest (37:3).
The first step in dealing with this situation is listening to a message that will put you back together. The body has disintegrated into a pile of bones, and then God said Prophesy, share a message that will reassemble these bones. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord (37:5-6).
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army (Ezk. 37:7-10).
In this illustration the body being put together is dead until breath, or the spirit of prophesy (the word of God) came into their bodies. This illustration presents the question: where do we look for the breath of life?
Anyone that lives for an extended period of time experiences moments where they feel divided, dry, and without protection. Bones give form to the body but the musculature, nervous system, and skin provide the strength, protection and mobility. But where is the motivation? Where is the purpose? It comes with the breath of life.
Speak the word of truth, embrace it, embody it, and then you have made yourself alive and ‘essential’.
If this experience of the valley of dry bones is an illustration of the human condition, then we all pass from death to life by embracing Truth. In John’s gospel we read of Jesus saying: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life (John 5:24). The spirit of Truth transforms us from a dead conscience to an awakened conscience.
The character of Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet when giving counsel to his daughter Ophelia encourages her by saying, This above all, to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Untruths divide our being, just like separating the bones of our skeleton.
Being true to oneself implies allowing Truth to guide your life. Lies and half truths divide our being. Living by lies, in this illustration, would be comparable to having our bones knit together, but never adding the flesh. Half truths would be comparable to having our being put together, the bones knit and the flesh in place, but without the spirit of life.
The plea of the Spirit of God was: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live (Ezekiel 37:9). The four winds meet in the center of the individual, and breathe that they might live.
Searching for the Spirit of Life
The breath of life is first mentioned in the story of creation as recorded in the book of Genesis. 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 soul (Gen. 2:7). The breath of life is the Spirit of God, the eternal element, the soul in each human.
The scriptures teach us that our soul has access to God because it is of God. Beginning with Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, we are introduced to the idea that God is a God that must be sought. A search for truth that looks inward, by searching for the soul we search for God. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 4:26).
Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, were people who lived in an environment where God was present. For Adam and Eve this began in the Garden of Eden. Preceding their expulsion from the Garden, Adam and Eve’s interactions with God appear as literal conversations.
The ensuing struggle of Cain and Abel which ultimately ended in Abel’s death by the hand of Cain, ushered in the next era where God removed himself from mankind, in such a way, that now God had to be sought after. It says of Seth and Enoch that through their generations men began to call upon the name of God. God had to be sought.
The search for God is the search for Truth and Meaning. To find God requires diligence, self denial and sacrifice. The difficulty of the process is what creates a value for Truth.
If we start with the image of dry bones then the first thing we need is something that puts us together. Next, we need something that protects us, we need something that mobilizes us and sensitizes us. Most importantly we need something which inspires, guides, and creates value in our life.
The bones have to be knit together and flesh added, but the plea of God and the plea of the individual must be the same: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live (Ezekiel 37:9). The plea for the breath of life is ‘essential’.
Born of the Spirit
There is a parallel metaphor in the New Testament which is presented in the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus explains that you must be ‘born again’ to enter in to the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus … said unto him (Nicodemus), Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit (Jn. 3:3-8). Just as in The Valley of Dry Bones, Jesus presents the idea that a man can be alive in one way and dead in another. There is a clear distinction made between the natural man and the spiritual man, or perhaps more clearly stated, the natural birth and the spiritual birth.
Being born of the Spirit introduces the imagery of the wind and our ability to identify its presence based on the evidence of its effect. As God spoke to Ezekiel of the four winds and the plea, Come, O Wind, Jesus also invoked the imagery of wind. You hear the wind, but you don’t know where it began nor where it’s going. The idea being, we know there is a Spirit because we’ve heard it, we’ve seen its effect, but until we are born of that Spirit we cannot know its origin nor its destination.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?(Jn. 3:9-11) How can it be? That is the question that we all face, how can it be that I must be born again of the Spirit? Nicodemus had seen the evidence of power in the life and actions of Jesus. Nicodemus began his conversation with Jesus by stating that as a fact, Rabbi, we know that thou are a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him (Jn. 3:2). Nicodemus acknowledged the power in Jesus’ life, and Jesus responded by telling Nicodemus, there is a method to this process. You must be born again. The Spirit must be born in you. This power is the embodiment of a belief system, and that belief system creates miraculous changes in human lives.
Adam and Jesus
The original man, Adam, represented the unity of a natural man and a spiritual man. Adam was made of flesh, the same material that we are made of, but he also lived in the presence of God in the Garden of Eden. The presence of God was not something that Adam had to seek out, rather Adam walked with God and visited with God (Gen. 3:8). Adam lived in Paradise. A place where every natural provision was supplied by God. Adam was the perfect man, formed by God, living in the perfect environment, and without debilitating relationships from his past that would have presented psychological or emotional weaknesses. In this “perfect” scenario, Adam disobeyed God and introduced sin into the world.
At the beginning of the New Testament we are introduced to Jesus, a man also created by God, engendered by the Holy Spirit in Mary. Jesus was born into a human world, not paradise as Adam had been. Jesus was raised by human parents, who although godly people were not perfect people. Jesus was raised with siblings. Jesus was raised in an environment that would have presented all the tests of youth which produce emotional and psychological damage. Given these conditions: an imperfect human form, and an imperfect world, and a imperfect home environment; Jesus’ sinless testimony is all the more miraculous.
Paul explained, in his letter to the Romans, the comparison between Adam and Jesus: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Romans 5:12-19)
Paul also wrote in his letter to the church in Corinth: And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit (I Cor. 15:45). In both of these scriptures Paul emphasizes the similarities between Adam and Jesus, while emphasizing the difference between the two was the Spirit of Truth. In his letter to the Romans, Paul’s explanation clarifies that just as sin was introduced into the world by one man, Adam, so also was the Spirit of life introduced by the one man who overcame sin by Truth.
The only way that Jesus’ testimony was made possible was through the Spirit. The first example that Jesus understood his responsibility to the Spirit of God, is encapsulated in what Jesus said at the age of twelve, wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? (Lk.2:49). Jesus’ parents did not understand what Jesus understood about individual responsibility being entwined with a call to service. And they understood not the saying which he spoke unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Lk.2:50-52). This episode in the life of Jesus demonstrates his understanding of the balance between individual responsibility and the call to service.
Later, we read of Jesus as an adult stating, I do always those things which please my Father (Jn.8:29). And, I and my Father are one (Jn.10:30). Jesus was born of the Spirit. Jesus’ experience proved from his youth he chose to seek his Father, to seek the Truth. As an adult he never deviated from that choice. Sacrifice and submission made Jesus able to surrender his life completely to God. The birth of the Spirit in Jesus demonstrated the power of the Spirit, as evidenced by the miracle of Jesus life and the miracles he performed in the lives of others.
The miracles performed by Jesus were the transmission of the Spirit of God within him to others. Jesus made clear on multiple occasions that the ‘miracle’ was performed by the Spirit. It is the operation of the Spirit, the operation of God in the earth, that has the ability to transcend impossible barriers. The search for Truth and the power of Truth in an individual life is the transformative act that is miraculous.
Conclusion
The unawakened spiritual conscience is a valley of dry bones. In this state the spiritual conscience is dead, dismembered by sin, dry and without hope. The plea: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live (Ezk. 37:9) The plea precedes the arrival of the Spirit of Life. But, with this plea, we can receive life, our life can receive structure, purpose and value, passing us from death to life. The Spirit of Life is ‘essential’.