This is Vision for Christ World, Toledo, Ohio, USA. My name is Tim Taylor. What happens when you hold your breath? According to WebMD, the first thing that happens when you hold your breath is oxygen levels decrease. Then carbon dioxide levels increase because your body gets rid of that gas by breathing out. This state is called hypoxia. After just a minute or two, your cells start to behave differently than they normally would. This can affect all of your organs. If you hold your breath for too long, it can cause your heart to start beating irregularly. It can damage your kidneys and liver. Genesis 2.7 explains how all this breathing got started. Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and so the man became a living being. We all know when someone around us has bad breath, a foul odor coming from their mouth when they exhale or speak. John 20.19-22 tells us something different. That Sunday evening, Resurrection Sunday, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them. Peace be with you, he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and in his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord. Again he said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. Then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. So this was very good breath. Jesus exhaled, and miraculously, the disciples received the Holy Spirit as true believers. One day, though, when Jesus exhales his breath, he will do away with the key satanic worker. Listen to this from 2 Thessalonians 2, 7-8. For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed. But the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth, and destroy him by the splendor of his coming. Father God, let me show everyone who you really are, and reveal your only Son, Jesus Christ, to those who are listening. Praying in the name of Jesus, Amen. The key Bible verse of this ministry is from Matthew 24 14. This gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Find more about us at visionforchristworld.com You can last a few weeks without food and a few days without water, but you cannot live more than a few minutes without air, without breath in your lungs. It is God who supplies everything we need to live. Even if you are not a Christian believer, it is still God who is keeping you alive. All of us live at the will of God who is sovereign over everything in the universe. Even if you do not believe in the sun and the sky, the sun still shines, warms the air and our bodies, makes the crops grow in the ground, and God provides the air for breathing, courtesy of a most loving and generous God. James 1.17 affirms that every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. Job 33.4 says, the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Psalm 150, verse 6 states, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Colossians 1, 16-17, For it was in Jesus Christ that all things were created in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities. All things were created and exist through him, by his service, intervention, and in and for him. and he himself existed before all things, and in him all things consist, or cohere, and are held together. In Isaiah 42, 5-8, we read these holy words, thus says the God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it. I am Yahweh, I have called you in righteousness. I will also take hold of you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who inhabit darkness from the prison. I am Yahweh, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven images. Genesis 2.7 contains three significant facts about the creation of mankind. The first is that God and God alone created man. Man did not evolve under the influence of blind, meaningless forces. Accidental physics and chemistry did not form men. All the cells, DNA, atoms, molecules, hydrogen, protons, neutrons, or electrons did not create man. These are only the substances that make up our physical bodies. The Lord God formed man. The Lord God created the substances, and then he used those substances to create man. The word formed is a translation of the Hebrew word yatzar, which means to mold, shape, or form. It gives an image of a clay potter who has the intelligence and the power to form his creation. Second, God breathed his own breath of life into man. Man is more than dust or physical substance. Man has a spirit. We can picture it this way. The body of Adam had just been formed by God from the dust of the earth. A lifeless human body lying on the ground. Then God leaned over and breathed his own breath of life into the nostrils of the first man. God is the source of life, and he directly placed life within man. This breath of life is seen again in John 20, 22, as Jesus imparts new life to his disciples. Third, Genesis 2, 7 tells us that man became a living soul. The word soul in Hebrew is nephesh, meaning an animated, breathing, conscious, living being. Man did not become a living soul until God breathed life into him. As a physical, rational, and spiritual being, man is unique among all living things upon the earth. So what is the breath of God? It is the life and power of God given to man to animate him, to make him alive. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach, which means wind, breath, air, spirit. The life of God lives on and on. The immaterial part of man was designed to live eternally. The only question is, where will we live? In 2 Timothy 3.16, Paul states, This is the only use in the Bible of the Greek word theopneustos, which means God-breathed, inspired by God. due to the inspiration of God. But other scriptural passages support the basic premise of Scripture being inspired by God. God is sovereign over all life. Job 34, 14-15 reveals, if God were to take back his spirit and withdraw his breath, all life would cease and humanity would turn again to dust. The length of our existence between birth and death defines the physical life of a person. God gives life and takes away life. Job 33.4, Genesis 7.22, James 4.14. He determines the length of life and can even restore life to the dead. Job 14.5, Ezekiel 37.9, and John 11. Because of the fall of mankind into sin, which is rebellion and disobedience to God, life in this physical body is subject to suffering, sickness, hardship, labor, decay, temptation, sin, and death. But Jesus came to give his followers life to the full. John 10.10. He was talking about spiritual life, that is, communion with God. Apart from a relationship with God, physical existence is empty and meaningless. Luke 12.15, 22-23, Romans 14.17 Understanding the definition of life from a spiritual perspective is essential. I will repeat Job 34 14 to 15 just for emphasis. If God were to take back his spirit and withdraw his breath, all life would cease and humanity would turn again to dust. Isaiah 40 verse 7, the grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. So if you are tired of breathing stale air from all the foulness of our worldly system, I invite you today to surrender your life, your mind, and your body to the control of God, and to allow the Spirit of God to fill you with the born-again life from Jesus Christ. In John chapter three, verses five to eight, we read this. Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So do not be surprised when I say you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants, just as you can hear the wind but cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So you cannot explain how people are born of the Spirit. Now let me pray for you. Father God, in the name of your one and only unique Son, Jesus Christ, I ask you to send your Holy Spirit to touch the heart and mind of every person listening to me right now. Cause them to desire to have their sins taken away, to pray and ask to be granted repentance that leads to life by God, and to repent of their sins. truly turning away from sin, to have that penalty for sin removed, so that through the faith you give them, they may believe in you, Jesus, and have eternal, never-ending life, starting today, by having personal, saving faith in you, Lord Jesus. Amen. Listen to us online at vision4christworld.com. Our Vision for Christ broadcast began as a shortwave broadcast from a Florida radio facility to Sub-Saharan Africa. This is still our primary audience. We have since expanded to Asia on AM medium wave radio, to Albania, North Macedonia, and Greece on FM local area radio. also to Australia and Northern Europe on shortwave. We have just added a radio outreach to the Middle East nations on shortwave from Florida. Our friends there can listen to us on Saturday nights in Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran. on 15 770 kilohertz at 1900 UTC which is 9 p.m. in Israel. Anyone may listen to us online at vision4christworld.com Until the next broadcast, this is Tim Taylor praying the great blessings of God with joy and peace upon your life as you embrace Jesus Christ in personal saving faith. And so I will leave you today with this text from Acts 17, 22 to 26. So Paul, standing before the council, addresses them as follows. Men of Athens, I noticed that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines, and one of your altars had this inscription on it, to an unknown god. This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I am telling you about. He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since He is the Lord of heaven and earth, He does not live in man-made temples, and human hands cannot serve His needs, for He has no needs. He Himself gives life and breath. to everything, and he satisfies every need from one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth.