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This week’s passages
- Genesis 2:7
- Job 33:4
- John 20:19-23
Meeting aim
To highlight that the Spirit breathed life into creation and yet, because of our sin, that breath became stale and polluted. Jesus breathes the Spirit over his followers to renew them.
Background preparation
You will need: balloons of two different sizes, rubber gloves, a garlic clove, chocolate, coffee, curry powder and / or other strong smelling foods, breath mints, a flip chart, a copy of Matt Redman’s ‘Breathing the Breath’ song (from the album Facedown) and something to play it on.
Breathe test
Give each member of your group a normal-sized balloon, a massive balloon and a rubber glove. Hold a ‘who has the strongest breath’ competition by seeing who can blow up all three items in the fastest time. Then hold another breath test by blindfolding one member of your group and giving others different strong smelling foods to eat before seeing if the blindfolded person can guess what was eaten, and by whom, simply by smelling their breath. Finish by giving everyone a breath mint! Explain that sometimes our breath can be a bit stale or we can feel short of breath and so we need our breath to be refreshed.
The breath of God
Read Genesis 2:7 and Job 33:4 and then ask the group what these verses have to do with the Holy Spirit.
Say: as well as needing oxygen to live, we are also dependent on the breath of God for life. The Spirit of God is a translation of the Hebrew word ‘ruach’, and one of the ways we understand this word is as the ‘life breath of God’. In creation this ‘ruach’ is hovering over the waters. In Genesis 2:7, God breathes this life breath, his life, into humanity and it is at that point that humanity comes into being. God breathes his breath and fills us with his life. The life of God is in us and with us; the Spirit creates life in us and his breath sustains us. Yet our human nature means we turn away from breathing God’s breath and try to do life on our own. It’s a bit like someone who works in a chemical factory taking off their oxygen apparatus and deliberately breathing polluted air: without the fresh air they are slowly poisoned. Living separated from the Holy Spirit is like breathing toxic air, and we so often choose to do this when we do things we know we shouldn’t.
List the pollution
Using a flip chart get the group to create a list of the things that pollute the air we breathe. You could make a column for things that are general (impacting the whole world like wars, and famines) and a column for things specifically impacting the way they experience life (like the bad stuff they look at on the internet).
Discuss
Discuss the list you have created. How does the world pollute the air we breathe and how do we pollute our own air? Ask if they are aware of any areas of their lives where they live separated from God. Are there times when they are aware of not breathing God’s breath? How easy do they find it to breathe God’s breath: at school, at home, at church, with friends, by yourself? Do any of them feel like they are breathing slightly toxic air at the moment or really struggling to breathe fresh air?
Key point 1
The Holy Spirit breathes life into us but we so often resort to breathing polluted air.
PEACE
Read John 20:19-23 and then ask the group what they think Jesus is up to in these verses. Say: one of the first things that Jesus does after defeating sin and death on the cross is to approach his disciples and say ‘peace be with you’. This peace is more than the absence of worry. Peace is wholeness, completeness, and life in all its fullness. Peace is about living life free from sin and its effects. When we live in peace we are living in forgiveness. And so as Jesus breathes on his disciples he is giving them new life and filling them with his Spirit. He is reminding them that they were given life through the Spirit in creation, but that they have squashed and squandered that life; they’ve stopped breathing God’s breath and are slowly being poisoned. It’s like they’ve forgotten what life is about. And so Jesus breathes this life into his disciples as a way of saying: you are forgiven, you are restored, and you can be renewed as you receive and breathe my breath, and as you live full of my Spirit. He is filling them and encouraging them to live full of the life breath from the Spirit.
Key point 2
The Holy Spirit is given that we might find peace and live lives breathing him.
Listen
Create some space and invite people to close their eyes, relax, listen and invite God to meet with them. Ask God to restore them as they listen to Matt Redman’s ‘Breathing the Breath’.
Pray
Finish by reading this prayer and asking the young people to focus on their breathing as they breathe out some of the poison that has been filling their lungs, and breathe in the life breath of God. You may want to adapt it to connect with some of the things that you have written on your pollution lists.
Breathe out the pollution that is filling our lungs. Breathe in the fresh life giving breath of the Spirit. Breathe out the poison that has squashed life from you. Breathe in the breath that encourages and sustains. Breathe out the sin that has trapped and ensnared. Breathe in the breath that forgives and frees. Breathe out hate. Breathe in love. Breathe out fear. Breathe in courage. Breathe out anger. Breathe in self-control. Breathe out meanness. Breathe in kindness. Breathe out the thoughts that no one knows. Breathe in the Spirit that renews your mind. Breathe out the words that have hurt and harmed. Breathe in the Spirit that speaks life and truth. Breathe out the actions that have battered and bruised. Breathe in the Spirit who reveals love and goodness. Breathe in the peace and completeness Jesus gives to you and receive the Holy Spirit. Breathe the breath you were created to breathe. Wait on the Spirit to restore your life.
