Breath from God

“Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Gen. 2:7 ESV) 

I had a cat scan, and I was looking over the images with the physician in his office. Then he said, “You are about to die! In fact, I do not know how you have continued to stay alive this long!” I thought he was joking! Who would genuinely say such a thing to a patient without first instructing them to sit down? But he was serious! And he went ahead to show me the “problem area” from multiple cat-scan angles, from the top and from all sides! My breathing passage is so narrow that the scan says I cannot breathe through it. Then he continued to explain all the negative effects of this condition, as though the prognosis of “death” was not awful enough. After the appointment, I told my wife what the doctor had said. As we began to process the information, I was in a bit of shock. However, I quickly recovered, and during the drive home, we decided to get into agreement with Scripture (Matt. 18:19) instead of accepting the doctor's "proclamation of death" over me. In fact, the scripture makes many promises about breath. Here are a few. 

God’s breath gives me life

“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4 ESV)

Say to the breath, “Thus says the Lord God!”

“Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God…” (Ez. 37:9a ESV)

“Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life.” (Ez. 37:5 NASB)

Choose life!

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” (Deut. 30:19 NLT) 

Therefore…

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 159:6 ESV)

“I will not die; instead, I will live to tell what the LORD has done.” (Psalm 118:17 NIV