THE BREATH OF LIFE COMING INTO THE DRY BONES TO ACCOMPLISH GOD’S PURPOSE
These bones needed a further prophecy so that the breath of life could come into them. Ezekiel prophesied again, “And the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (37:10). The bones first became a body. Then the breath came into the bones and they lived. When they stood up, they became an exceeding great army to fight the battle for God. The bones become the army fighting the battle, and eventually they become the habitation for God’s dwelling to express God. The army is for the dominion to deal with God’s enemy, and the dwelling place is for the expression, the image, of God. Through the breathing of the Spirit, God is expressed and His enemy is dealt with.
Ezekiel prophesies twice in chapter thirty-seven. The first time he prophesied to the bones and the second time to the wind. First he prophesied to the dead ones and second he prophesied to the Spirit. The Lord charged Ezekiel to prophesy a second time and say, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (v. 9). Then the bones that were formed into a body received the breath of life. They stood up upon their feet and were formed into an army to fight the battle for God. This also gave God the ground to build them together as His habitation. The army and the house fulfill God’s twofold purpose to deal with His enemy and to express Him in His image. Image and dominion are brought in by the breathing of the Spirit.
THE BREATH OF LIFE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
In the New Testament, the Gospel of John tells us that the Lord Jesus came back on the evening of His resurrection to the disciples (20:19). He breathed into them and told them to receive the Holy Pneuma (v. 22). Again, the word pneuma may be translated into Spirit or breath. The Lord breathed into the disciples and told them to receive the Holy Breath. Today the Lord in His resurrection is the breath of life, the Spirit of life. In John 3 the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus that the Spirit is like the wind, which blows where it wills and cannot be seen but can be realized by its sound (John 3:8). On the day of Pentecost, “there came a noise out of heaven like a rushing violent wind” (Acts 2:2). This rushing, violent wind was the blowing of the Spirit, the blowing of the heavenly ruach or pneuma.
Revelation 11:11 tells us that the two witnesses, after being dead for three and a half days, were resurrected by the spirit of life out of God entering into them. The breath of life will come into the two witnesses and resurrect them during the time of the great tribulation. Second Thessalonians 2:8 tells us that when the Lord Jesus comes back, He will slay the Antichrist by the breath of His mouth, the Spirit. The breath of life gives life to us, but kills the lawless one.
Second Timothy 3:16 tells us that all Scripture is God- breathed. This indicates that the Scripture, the Word of God, is the breath of God. God’s speaking is God’s breathing. God is breath to us. In this breath is the water, and in this water is the food. If we are going to enjoy God as food, we have to drink Him as the water. To drink Him as the water, we have to breathe Him as our breath. By breathing in the Lord, we drink Him and we eat Him. We can drink Him anywhere and eat Him anywhere because we can breathe Him in anywhere. Our spiritual food and drink are available to us at any time and in any place. Physically speaking, we can breathe everywhere, but we cannot drink and eat everywhere. But spiritually speaking, we can eat and drink everywhere because our spiritual eating is in our drinking, and the drinking is in the breathing. When we receive the Lord as the divine air, we enjoy Him as the living water and the heavenly food.
(The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
