Christ became the Spirit to Breathe Himself into us: Receive the Holy Breath!

John 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

One of the most crucial points of the major items of the Lord’s recovery today is the consummated Spirit, what the Bible calls, “the Spirit” (John 7:39; Rev. 22:17). The matter of the consummated Spirit is also one of the most neglected and misused matters in today’s Christianity.

God dwells in unapproachable light, and no man has ever seen God physically and live; in Christ, however, God has become manifest, since all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily, and He expressed God wherever He went and whatever He did and spoke.

Christ, however, was a Man in flesh and bones; how can such a man come into us to live in us? Through the process of death and resurrection, Christ became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45); now the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), and we have a human spirit (2 Thes. 5:23), therefore we can receive God, contact God, experience God, and know God in our spirit.

The Spirit – the consummated Spirit – is the key to our experiencing Christ and enjoying Christ; if we miss the consummated Spirit, we do not have a practical way to enjoy God in Christ. The Spirit is so important that, the first thing the Lord Jesus did after He resurrected and returned to His disciples was to breathe into them and say, Receive the Holy Spirit (the holy breath) – see John 20:22.

The Lord Jesus passed through the process of incarnation (He put on humanity), human living (He lived a perfect human life on earth), crucifixion (He died an all-inclusive death on the cross), and resurrection (He was raised from the dead) to become a life-giving Spirit, the consummated Spirit as the holy breath which we can receive into us by breathing Him in.

Hallelujah, today the Lord is the holy breath, and in this breath we have everything of God, man, Christ’s human living, His divine attributes and human virtues, the effectiveness of His death, and the power of His resurrection!

When we open to the Lord and call on His name from deep within, Oh Lord Jesus! we breathe Him in and receive an all-inclusive dose of the consummated Spirit to be our life, our life-supply, and our everything for our Christian life! Praise the Lord!

Christ became Flesh and in Resurrection He Became the Spirit to Breathe Himself into us

The Gospel of John reveals that Christ became flesh to be the Lamb of God and that in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit; thus, in His resurrection Christ breathed Himself as the consummated Spirit into the disciples (John 1:29; 20:22). ITERO 2015 fall, outline 4In the Gospel of John we see that Christ as the eternal Word of God (John 1:1) became flesh (1:14) to be the Lamb of God to accomplish redemption for us (1:29), to declare God to man (1:18), and to manifest the Father to His believers (14:9-11).

Then, Christ took another step through death and resurrection to become a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to impart Himself into those who believe into Him to be their life and their everything, so that they may become the many sons of God and brothers of Christ for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ for Him to have a habitation on earth and expression for eternity.

After becoming a man and toward the end of His ministry on earth, the Lord Jesus promised that He will send another Comforter, which is Himself not leaving His disciples but coming back to them as another Comforter (see John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; and 16:7-8, 13); this Comforter is the Holy Spirit which Christ became through resurrection and breathed into the disciples when He returned to them (see John 20:22).

In His resurrection Christ was transfigured into the Spirit – He still has a human body, but this body is also spiritual, and He became the Spirit who now is being dispensed into all those who believe into Him.

As falling into the ground to die and growing out of the ground transform the grain of wheat into another form, one that is new and living, so the death and resurrection of the Lord transfigured Him from the flesh into the Spirit. As the last Adam in the flesh, through the process of death and resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As He is the embodiment of the Father, so the Spirit is the realization, the reality, of Him. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into the disciples. It is as the Spirit that He is received into His believers and flows out of them as rivers of living water (John 7:38-39). It is as the Spirit that through His death and resurrection He came back to the disciples, entered into them as their Comforter, and began to abide in them (14:16-17). (John 20:22, footnote 1 paragraph 2)

The Lord is the Spirit who gives life, and this Spirit is our breath; the Word, who was God, became flesh to be the Lamb of God, and in resurrection He became the holy breath for us to breathe in. ITERO 2015 fall, outline 4The Christ who breathed Himself into the disciples is the life-giving Spirit, and by breathing the Spirit in such a way into them, the Lord Jesus imparted Himself into them as life and everything.

Now all that the Triune God has and is, all that Christ has accomplished, all His attributes and virtues, and everything that He is as the Spirit is being imparted into us as life and everything; everything is in the Spirit as the holy breath, and everything is the Spirit!

As such a One, Christ came to His disciples to breathe Himself as the Spirit into them; the Holy Spirit in John 20:22 is actually the resurrected Christ Himself, because the Spirit is His breath. Wow, this is quite mysterious and wonderful: the consummated Spirit is the breath of the Son, and the Son is the embodiment of the Father.

Now the Lord is the Spirit who gives life, and this Spirit is our breath; the Word (who was God) became flesh to be the Lamb of God, and in resurrection He became the holy breath for us to breathe in (2 Cor. 3:6, 17; John 1:29; 20:22).

Thank You Lord for becoming the flesh to be the Lamb of God for our redemption, declare God to man, and manifest the Father to us. Thank You Lord for going through death and resurrection to become a life-giving Spirit to impart Yourself into us and make us the many believers in Christ, sons of God, and brothers of Christ. Lord Jesus, thank You for becoming the life-giving holy breath which we can now breathe in to enjoy the Triune God and all that You have accomplished for our life and everything! Oh Lord Jesus, we open to You to breathe You in!

Breathing in Christ as the Consummated Spirit by Calling on His Name to Receive Him!

The truth concerning the consummated Spirit is profound, but the way to enjoy the Spirit is simple: we can open to the Lord, exercise our spirit, call on His name, and breathe Him in as we breath ourselves out! We can Inhale God and Exhale Ourselves out! Oh Lord Jesus!The Lord Jesus promised His disciples that He will come as another Comforter, and in resurrection He came and breathed Himself as the Spirit into them saying, Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22). Later, the same Spirit was poured out upon the disciples economically for their work as the fulfillment of the Father’s promise on the day of Pentecost, but in the gospel of John what we see is that the Spirit was imparted into the disciples by breathing.

Today we can breathe in Christ as the Spirit by simply exercising our spirit to receive Him into us. It’s all a matter of receiving: whoever believes into Him receives Him and has the authority to be called a child of God (John 1:12-13), of His fulness we all have received and grace upon grace (1:17), and the rivers of living water are flowing as the Spirit as we receive Him (7:37-39).

How can we reign in life? It is by receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:17). How can we receive the Spirit? It is by the hearing of faith (see Gal. 3). When we look deeper into the matter of the consummated Spirit we realize that the truth is so deep and profound, but the way of enjoying Him is so simple: we simply need to breathe Him in!

The Lord in us will eventually bring us to a point where we live Him breath by breath. Our Triune God has been processed and consummated to become the holy breath, and we can receive Him into us simply by breathing Him in. We have the right and the opportunity to breathe out any negative thing of death, darkness, and deception, and inhale the Spirit as the holy breath.

When we breathe the Spirit in by calling on the name of the Lord, the Spirit knows what’s in us, exposes things, and we agree with His light; this light brought in by the breath removes any negative thing in us. Hallelujah, there is no negative thing in our being that can stand in the way of the consummated Spirit as the holy breath!

We shouldn’t believe our condition or the lies of the enemy but be enlightened to see the revelation of the consummated Spirit and simply breathe Him in! Little by little, day by day, in small amounts, we need to breathe in the consummated Spirit until we are being inwardly reconstituted with everything that God is, and all the negative and natural things will be slowly eliminated.

The I AM has become the breath; He remains unchanged in His Godhead, but in His economy He became a Man to redeem us and He became the Spirit to pour Himself into our being to become our very constitution.

We need to breathe in the holy breath and breathe out our failures, sicknesses, problems, situations, and anything negative; this holy breath in us will deal with everything that the enemy has done to us until we will become blameless and spotless before Him, the glorious church without any spot or wrinkle but fully matching Him!

Lord Jesus, we open to You and exercise our spirit to call on Your name so that we may breathe You in! Oh Lord Jesus! We exhale everything that we are and we breathe You in! Oh Lord, we just open to receive You as the consummated Spirit, the holy breath. Pour Yourself into us to inwardly reconstitute us with Yourself. Lord, we don’t want to be different or change ourselves: we simply want to breathe You in until You become our inward constitution!

References and Hymns on this Topic
  • Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and The Spirit, ch. 2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today (ITERO 2015 fall), week 4 / msg 4, The Consummated Spirit.
  • All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
  • Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
    # The Spirit today is the air that we breathe; / Our spirits rejoice in this living inflow. / For just as our body the breath does receive, / So also in spirit to live it is so. (Hymns #1114)
    # Jesus, my life, Thyself apply; / Thy Holy Spirit breathe; / My vile affections crucify; / Conform me to Thy death. (Hymns #364)
    # O Lord, breathe Thy Spirit on me, / Teach me how to breathe Thee in; / Help me pour into Thy bosom / All my life of self and sin. / I am breathing out my sorrow, / Breathing out my sin; / I am breathing, breathing, breathing, / All Thy fulness in. (Hymns #255)
About aGodMan

A God-man is a normal believer in Christ; the author of this article is one who is learning to be a normal Christian, a daily enjoyer of Christ, a living and functioning member in the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, make us such ones for the building up of the Body of Christ!

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Brother L.
Brother L.
8 years ago

The Spirit was breathed into the believers by the Son in resurrection. “He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). The Holy Spirit here is actually the resurrected Christ Himself because this Spirit is His breath. The Holy Spirit is thus the breath of the Son. The Greek word for Spirit in this verse is pneuma, a word that is used for breath, spirit, and wind. Therefore, this verse can be interpreted, “Receive the holy breath.” On the day of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus breathed Himself into His disciples as the holy breath. The essential, infilling Spirit is our breath for our breathing. (The Spirit, p. 70, by Witness Lee)