In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God made man in His own image, after His own likeness and God breathed into him and man became a living soul.

Then God blessed man (notice the first thing God did after creating him was to bless him) and gave him dominion over all the earth.

When God breathed into man He breathed His Spirit into man and man became spiritually alive. Adam and Eve were alive with the life of God Himself.

When man disobeyed God and bowed his knee to the devil by yielding his members to obey him instead of God, man died spiritually and the seed of this spiritual death was passed down through all mankind.

From the time of Adam until Jesus' death reigned, men were spiritually dead.

A Second Adam
Jesus was born as the second man-Adam. And in case you didn't know, Jesus was the first man since Adam to be born in the image of God with the life of God in Him.

In Him was life (Zoe) and the life was the light of men. Jesus came to live a pure and holy life so he could once again restore man into the image of God and impart this "Zoe" life back into mankind.

The first Adam lost this grace; the second Adam restored it. Praise God!

Jesus said, "I've come that you might have "Zoe"—the life of God—and have it more abundantly". After Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said to them "receive the Holy Spirit."

Many people misunderstand this scripture and believe they actually received the Holy Spirit at that moment…but they didn't.

The Holy Spirit
When Jesus said "receive the Holy Spirit" in the gospel of John, He was giving the disciples a command. We know this was the case because they didn't actually receive the Holy Spirit until the day of Pentecost.

As the Bible explains, Jesus had to ascend to the Father before the Holy Spirit could be sent to earth.

So what happened to His disciples when Jesus breathed on them? (I'm glad you asked.) Well, they were born again. They were born of the Spirit. They became spiritually alive just like Adam and Eve did in the beginning.

Who created Adam and Eve? John chapter 1 tells us:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:1,3,14)

So once again, in the beginning Jesus made man and breathed the life of God into him and man became spiritually alive.

When Jesus breathed on His disciples the literal Greek says He breathed into them. Jesus breathed the life of God into His disciples just like He did Adam and Eve in the beginning. Only now because of His supreme sacrifice, He redeemed mankind from the power of sin once and for all.

No longer does man have to be separated from God. Indeed His Spirit comes to abide in those standing in His grace by faith in the finished work of Christ.

Walk In The Power
When we believe and receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He breathes His Spirit into us and we become living souls. We are no longer dead souls but we are alive with the life of God, and that same Spirit that was in Christ Jesus comes into us and we are born again.

Once we have been born of the Spirit (just like Jesus' disciples did) we need to "receive the Holy Spirit." Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit on all flesh on the day of Pentecost for all believers to receive by faith so they could walk in the miracle working power of God and be witnesses of Christ in this lost and dying world.

So what are you waiting for?

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