Demonstrating The Gospel: Part 3
Breath
by Bethany Allen & Gavin Bennett
Begin with prayer (5 minutes)
Gather together as a Community in a comfortable setting. Have somebody lead a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your time together.
Read this overview (5 minutes)
At creation we see God placing within all of humankind his ruach (Hebrew for spirit or breath), setting us apart from every other created thing. From Genesis to Jesus we see God’s Spirit symbolized as divine breath. And we see that the breath of the Spirit not only creates new life, but fills and refills all that is lifeless.
The Holy Spirit is meant to be the vehicle through which we experience God’s love. As God, he fills our hearts with the experience and emotion of God’s presence. The Scriptures teach us that God is Father, but the Spirit makes that real to us. The Holy Spirit drives Jesus’ teachings from our heads into our hearts and emotions, so that we might live from a redeemed story. He fills our ordinary lungs with his creative ruach (breath, spirit) so that the words we speak can be the carriers of his healing power, which often comes in the form of encouragement, blessing, and prophecy.
Work through these discussion questions together as a Community & pray (30 minutes)
What is helpful to you when you think about the Spirit as God’s breath?
What makes it difficult for us to follow through with what we sense the Spirit inviting us to share over someone?
Pause as a Community, and invite the Spirit to reveal to you if there is someone in your life he would like to have you speak over, pray for, or bless.
Where are you being invited to partner with the Spirit to speak life to others?
What are some tangible ways you can carry the healing power of the Spirit to others this week? Has the Spirit brought to mind anyone you need to encourage? Bless? Prophesy over?
If you have extra time, invite people to process this question out loud, pausing to pray for each as they answer it:
Where do you need the Spirit to breathe life? To fill or refill you?
Discuss the coming week’s Practice (5 minutes)
The practice this week is all about giving God the first word in your day — to rewrite our habits so that the first instinctive move when we get up is to turn our attention to the Spirit and not our phones. The objective is to clear the first part of our morning of any distractions and invite the Holy Spirit to come speak. By doing this, we invite the Spirit to shape our day, as we learn what his voice sounds like.
The practice for the week ahead is to simply give God the first 2 minutes of your day.
If you’re willing to commit to this, before you close tonight, go around the room and share about how you want to tangibly make this happen in your life.