Respiration
(Reflection - October 2001)
"Breathing; single inspiration and expiration, a breath." So the Oxford Dictionary defines "respiration".
As with so many natural functions, we suspect there is with respiration a lesson God means us to learn. It is a process so "natural" to us, that we don’t think about it unless we have problems which make us think about it. Ask anyone with bad emphysema or asthma about breathing, and their perspective is quite different from those of us who don’t give it a second thought! And yet God made us function in this way, when there were other methods He could perhaps have chosen, and so there should be lessons that we can learn from respiration.
Inspiration is the breath that is drawn into the lungs, full of life-sustaining oxygen; expiration is the air that is expelled, getting rid of waste gases. The cycle has to be repeated in order for the organism to keep alive – if respiration ends with expiration, so, too, does the organism; it "expires" or dies. The process, if the organism is healthy, is automatic, and requires no active thought to cause it to happen. It is obviously also important as to what gases are breathed in. If there is no oxygen, or even if there is oxygen but in the wrong proportions or mixed with toxic gases, death may result.
The God-breathed word
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" says Paul in II
Timothy 3:16. The Greek word translated "inspiration" in the AV actually
means "God-breathed." From this we see that in the case of God, it is
actually the idea of expiration which is life-giving to man - what goes forth
from God gives life both physically, to sustain life, and spiritually, by His word. So the
prophets of old were inspired by what God breathed out; what came from them,
therefore, in written and verbal forms, was His word, His voice, His spoken thoughts and
purpose.
We think of the practice of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, where someone is breathing into a person who is on the point of death, in order to try and revive him. It takes us back to the beginning, to Adam, who was dead until "God…breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7 NIV as all quotes). The same picture is used in Ezekiel’s prophecy of the dry bones in chapter 37. In a more wonderful sense, very early on the first day of the week, God "breathed" on the dead body of His Son and raised him to life. We can join him by baptism when the old man expires and the new man is given life (Rom. 6). God made us alive in Christ (Eph. 2:4,5).
Breathing the word
So we have to keep taking in the "breath of God," His word, on a very
frequent basis if we are to live as the new man. His word is a life-giving force. Just as
oxygen is vital to the continuation of physical life, and has to be frequently inspired,
so we have to frequently inspire the breath/word of God that spiritually gives us life. Man
does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Deut.
8:3). If we do this now, the breath/spirit of God will sustain us eternally in the future
– the reversal of death in which God’s spirit is withdrawn from us.
Breathing out
Expiration causes voice production, and this relies on inspiration as the source of a
good volume of air to make the vocal chords work. (They will work in inspiration as well,
but not in as useful a way). If one thinks of the voice, it is something which can be
heard even if the person speaking is not seen, and is unique in character to that
individual, and witnesses to his/her existence. So it is with God – He speaks to us
by creation/nature (Psa. 19:1-4), by His Son (Jn. 1:14; 14:24), and through the scriptures
(Psa. 19:7,8; II Tim. 3:16).
Singing requires good management of breathing, both inspiration and expiration, to create a good sound. A requirement of ours as sons and daughters of God is to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name (Heb. 13:15). If we inspire the right kind of life-giving breath, the word of God, then what we expire in song will naturally be in His praise. If our "inspiration" comes from other sources, the fruit of our lips will not be to God’s praise and glory – by their fruit you will recognise them (Matt. 7:16).
What we have to learn, therefore, is that the things of God have to be as vital to our existence spiritually as breathing is to our continued physical existence. We may often have to consciously check that it is oxygen, the life source, that we are inspiring, and not other gases that would lead to death. We have to truly understand how vital it is to our spiritual life now and to our future life in the kingdom, to breathe in what God has breathed out. Just as in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, it doesn’t matter how much the resuscitator (God) breathes into the person who’s on the point of death (us), it will have no effect unless that moribund person starts to actively breathe himself. We have a choice.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psa. 19:14).
Wendy Johnsen