Breathes God (1 Corinthians 2:4-5,14; 2 Timothy 3:16; Titus 1:3; Mark 11:20-24; 16:20; Romans 4:17; Luke 8:1; James 5:15-16; Hebrews 2:3-4)

Natural Man

There is the common proverbial expression that, "People are Down On what they're not Up On".

The scriptures say that, "the natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know (them), because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14).

Natural Mind

Basically, our natural mind does not understand spiritual reality, and when confronted with the things of God, we reject them, not because they aren't true, but because we simply don't understand them, or can't fit them into a "box" that we can relate to or give some type of credence to, so we try to interpret them in a more acceptable, natural way, that we can understand, or that makes sense to us, often distorting what is truth to settle for what is perhaps intellectually acceptable.

Offensive to Our Mind

Unfortunately, this type of rational is sometimes seen in the interpretation of scripture, where truth is offensive to our mind; we can't reason it out or explain how it "fits" into our religious conception, so we use a lesser, more palatable standard of interpretation that we can accept, discarding basic standards of language in favor of what is preferable to our religious tradition.

2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God...".

Religious Sensibilities

This is a very "famous" scripture text that fits into the category of mistranslation and largely misinterpretation, because the basic truth is offensive to our natural mind, and doesn't seem to logically, 'make sense', so an acceptable alternative has been widely disseminated to appease our religious sensibilities, at the expense of spiritual reality:

1) An initial observation is that the article, 'is', 'is not' [slight pun intended]. It does not exist in the original text, which would render the reading, "All scripture...given by inspiration of God..."

2) The phrase, "given by inspiration of God" is one word in the Greek, and not 5 separate words.

3) The Greek word is (theopneustos), 2315, and this is the only place in all of scripture where the word, (though not the concept), is found.

4) This compound word contains two primary words; (theos), 2316, 'God', or 'deity', and (pneo), 4154, 'breathe'. The common interpretation is that all scripture (is) 'God-breathed', or 'inspired' by God, which is what most English texts support. However, the convenience of that translation seems to break down given even a peripheral investigation.

5) a](ekpneo) means 'to breathe out' (ek), being 'out' or 'from', and (pneo), 'to breathe'.

    b](empneo) means 'to breathe in' [also, to inspire], from (em), 'in', and (pneo), 'to breathe', rendering the meaning, 'to breathe in', or 'to breathe into' something.

6) What is noticeable, and standard practice, unlike our Western reading, is that, as with all Greek rendering, the articulation of the compound word is from right to left, not, as in English, from left to right.

7) In other words, (theopneustos), should never be rendered, "All scripture (is) 'God-breathed'...", but rather, correctly, [with the omission of 'is'], "All scripture breathes God".

 As Bengel stated, "...while it is being read, God breathing through the Scripture, and the Scripture breathing Him" (Bengel, NT Word Studies, Vol.2).

9) Further, "The grammar... allows giving (theopneustos) an active sense: the scripture breathes God..." (Theological Lexicon of NT, Vol.2, p.194, Note 5, Spicq).

The significance of these observations is that in the word construction, grammatically, the scriptures actually read, "All scripture breathes God". What is more important, rather than just the simple translation, is what the phrase, 'All scripture breathes God' actually means.

Jewish Tradition

In Jewish tradition there was no conception of 'silently' reading the scriptures, but rather, the scriptures were meant to be read 'out loud', because the belief was that, when the scriptures were uttered; read out loud, or 'announced', God showed up.

Announcing

This is not just a fanciful thought, but a basic principle and instruction of scripture. Titus 1:3 states that God has, "...in due times manifested His word through preaching...", where the word 'manifested is (phaneroo), 5319, which means, 'to make visible what is invisible', which is accomplished through 'preaching', or, literally, the 'announcing of the good news'. This is actually stating that by the verbal declaration of the Word of God, spiritual realities come into physical manifestation.

Declaring

Mark 11:20-24 gives the bold instruction of Jesus that if you had all faith to remove mountains (1 Cor. 13:2), this would be accomplished by speaking God's Word and 11:23 states that what you speak 'shall come to pass', which is the word (ginomai), 1096, meaning, 'come into existence', or 'come into being', at the declaration of God's Word.

Calling

Romans 4:17 instructs us to be like God, our Father, and 'call those things which are not, as though they were', which refers to those things which do not exist in the natural realm, but do exist in the spiritual realm, and the means of making them manifest is the declaration or 'announcing' of God's Word, concerning them.

Again, in Jesus' earthly ministry, "He went throughout every city and village, preaching [announcing the good news] and showing the good news of the kingdom of God..." (Lk.8:1). The manifestation of the 'good news' [i.e., healing, deliverance, etc.] followed the verbal declaration, or 'announcing the good news'.

Prayer

95% of the time 'prayer' or 'praying', is a translation of the word group [of which (proseuchomai), 4336, (used 87 times in the NT), is one of the words in the word group, and is used in Mark 11:24, translated, 'when you pray'], from the root (euche), 2171, 'vow', which is something spoken out loud, or a loud verbal assertion, as in James 5:15, stating that "...the prayer [vow] of faith shall save the sick,...", where the verb (euchomai), 2172, [James 5:16, '...pray one for another...'], literally is 'to speak out, to utter aloud, to affirm out loud, to make a solemn declaration'. In fact, (euchomai) means, 'to affirm boldly and proudly; to make known; to boast', or, 'to make confident statements about oneself; to boast; brag; or, assert'.

Boldly... Out Loud

Though offensive to our religious mind, this is the most common translation of 'prayer', 'pray', or, 'to pray', in the NT. Therefore, "prayer" is actually announcing, declaring boldly, uttering out loud, the Word of God.

Again, the declaration of God's Word, causes God to show up because the scriptures, declared out loud, 'breathe God', or, basically, spiritual reality comes into physical manifestation. [As a side note, the reason many people's prayers are not answered is because they are not praying at all, but simply uttering some emotional feeling of need, but not declaring the scriptures so that God will show up in their situation].

Great Commission

Again, Mark 16:20 says, referring to the disciples, "...they went forth, and preached [announced/declared the good news], everywhere, the Lord working with (them), and confirming the Word [what they were declaring] with signs following". The spiritual manifestation, or God 'showing up', with signs following, occurred after the announcing of the Word of God.

Supernatural Manifestations

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 says, "...my speech and my preaching [announcing the good news] (were) not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God", simply stating, that when Paul announced the good news, or declared the Word of God, God did show up and there were supernatural manifestations of His power, in this natural world, as a direct result of his preaching.

God Shows Up

Hebrews 2:3-4 speaks of the "...great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard (Him), God also bearing (them) witness, both with signs and wonders, and with different miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit..." In other words, to paraphrase, if it's God's Word, when it's announced, God shows up, and the evidence is the manifestation of the supernatural that takes place; which begs the question, if there are not spiritual manifestations of the Holy Spirit of God, are we really preaching and announcing God's Word?

You are God's Best and God's Best is Yours