Vol 3: 17 Missional Living: Ministry as “Exhaling” the Spirit

Last weekend I spoke at an Illinois Mennonite Conference sister congregation in central Illinois and a metaphor emerged as I was preaching that I want to explore deeper.

The text was John 20:19-23.  I focused upon the re-creative act of Jesus in which Jesus breathed upon his disciples and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  I call this act of Jesus’ re-creative, because just as John 1 parallels Genesis 1 (In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God . . . – John 1; In the beginning God . . . – Genesis 1), so John 20:22 parallels Genesis 2. 

In Genesis 2 God breathes into the man that God formed, breathing into his nostrils the breath of life so that the man became a living being (cf. Genesis 2:7).  In Jesus breathing the Spirit upon his disciples, this is an act of re-creation, the re-creation of a new humanity of becoming living beings who are not only filled with the breath of life, but also the breath of the Spirit.  We participate in the life that is God’s by inhaling the Spirit that is breathed upon us by Jesus.

In extending this metaphor of “inhaling” the Spirit, I realized in the middle of my message while I was preaching that we can’t hold our breath forever, at some point we have to exhale if we are to remain alive.  Just as breathing involves a rhythm of inhaling and exhaling, so perhaps also living in the Spirit involves such a rhythm. 

Inhaling the Spirit: opening ourselves to God, to the Spirit’s leading, being guided by the Spirit, aware of the Spirit shaping us, transforming us, walking alongside with us, opening us to the ways of God and noticing what and whom God is noticing. 

What then would entail “exhaling the Spirit?”  I like to think of exhaling the Spirit in a similar fashion to Jesus breathing on his disciples – as we go about living our lives, in the ordinariness of our days (how I think the “Go” of Matthew 28:9 ought to be translated since it is a participle rather than an imperative), as we encounter people in many different situations, as we walk in and by the Spirit among those whom the Spirit has led us alongside, we exhale the living presence of the Spirit in their midst – i.e., the Spirit engages us with them in relational contact.  And what is this relational contact as we participate with God in God’s mission but ministry – Exhaling the Spirit is a metaphor for me of ministry.

As we go about inhaling the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, in our exhaling, we are involved in Spirit-led ministry among those to whom the Spirit has connected us and us to them.  Ministry is not about what we do, but what the Spirit of God is accomplishing through us – through gifts, through the fruit of the Spirit – we are vessels through whom the Spirit is active in the world.  As we live in the rhythm of inhaling and exhaling, we inhale the presence of God, and we exhale the ministering presence of the Spirit into the lives of others, so that in their inhaling they might be transformed, healed and brought into relationship with God and with others.

In realizing that ministry is not merely my exertion, but a sharing of the Spirit of God who is alive in me, I can be set free and empowered to minister freely as the Spirit leads – even in situations that are far beyond my capability.

So, I encourage you to inhale and exhale the Spirit in a breathing rhythm so that in our living we are making visible the living presence of God, of Christ Jesus, through the Spirit in the world.