Daily Delight
“And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22, NIV).
I feel like the Holy Spirit part of the Trinity doesn’t get the credit He deserves. I love this picture of the Holy Spirit being the very breath of Jesus. God is everywhere, even in the stillness of my kitchen, but when I gaze on the wonders of his creation—looking up at a giant Sequoia tree, or standing on the beach where the ocean seems to go on forever—and a slight breeze tickles my face, I imagine that it’s the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is breathing on me right at that moment.
John tells us that Jesus is the Word. (John 1:1-3) And we also know from Genesis that God spoke creation into existence. So, if Jesus is the Word that God spoke, then the Holy Spirit is his breath that enabled him to speak it. You can’t speak without breath, right?
The Holy Spirit also gives life. The Spirit “came upon” (Luke 1:35) or some versions say “hovered over” Mary to create Jesus in her womb. From the moment we are conceived we have that amazing connection to God. That’s what being made in His image means. Without the Spirit there is no life. And, although we deny it, our hearts long to be reunited with God. We have that “God-shaped” hole, that longing.
Put that together with: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2, NIV). Just hanging out, creating life, the power of God, the breath of Jesus. No biggie.
The Spirit is life.
It also brings eternal life. When we receive the Spirit our hearts are changed forever and we have eternal life. We were dead in our sin, our hearts blocks of stone, unable to grasp the truth of the Gospel. And then, miraculously, we are changed by the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is busy with the work of transforming us into the likeness of Christ.
Breathe on me, my Savior. Breathe on me.
{Pictured: @mrs_emilycrisp ; Photo: @michelleleahphotography}
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Stephanie Cardel
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Stephanie Cardel is a wife of thirty years, mother of three grown children, leader of Bible studies, and writer of a blog about Jesus in the Old Testament. She also writes YA and MG fiction and volunteers in her local public schools teaching abstinence.
If you need her, you can dig your way through the overflowing piles of books to her room, where she’ll be curled up with a cup of mocha coffee doing one of three things: studying her Bible, reading fiction, or writing. You can also visit her websites:
www.withopenedeyes.com, www.checkoutthesebooks.com, or follow her on twitter @StephanieCardel or @fixingmyeyes.
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