Nostrils & Soul (The Genesis Series, Part 11)

It’s truly  beyond my comprehension, but day-by-day I understand “it” better.  The “it” in question is the love of God, and it’s so much more expansive—infinitely more expansive—than hugs and kisses.  God’s love in His children’s lives begins at judgment.  Matthew 12:20:

A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.

Judgment precedes all victories. 

When the sinner is BORN AGAIN, it must begin with judgment.  Under the Old Testament covenant which was a shadow of the Christ to come (Colossians 2:17), transgressions of various nature required an animal sacrifice in order for atonement to be achieved, and the one who brought the sacrifice had to put his hand upon the head of the animal that was to be sacrificed for his transgression.  The transgressor acknowledged that an innocent creature would be sacrificed as a result of his sin.  Leviticus 1:1-4:

1 And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.

3 If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.

4 And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

Self-judgment—confessing one’s guilt—and the victory of atonement followed.

John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The sinless and guiltless Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, gave His life so that all who call upon His name might be saved.  John 6:51:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.  

This Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  Revelation 13:8 records the following regarding the soon-to-come anti-Christ and Jesus Christ:

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The place Jesus Christ calls BORN AGAIN begins in judgment, even self-judgment.  Here, I acknowledge my sins.  Here, I place my hand on the head of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God who died for my sins.  I John 1:8-9:

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

BORN AGAIN begins in judgment, and that is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love.

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN?  You were born the first time as a son or daughter of Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So.  You were born of the flesh.  When you are BORN AGAIN—born a second time—you are born of the Spirit and become sons and daughters of God.  In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you follow from your heart, everything changes for you today—and I really mean everything. II Corinthians 5:17:

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Today, you will become a new creature.  Today, all your sin and shame will be washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.  You will be a sinless child of God.  Today, all of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken, no matter how formidable.  You will be free.  As a thinking person, this is an offer you cannot refuse.  Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

GOD SAID, Genesis 7:22:

All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

GOD SAID, Job 27:3:

All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

MAN SAID: If the Bible is the Word of God, why hasn’t He wowed us with the Words in Genesis, the very first book?  The Bible didn’t start with a big bang, and we aren’t impressed. 

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1231 that will once again contend for the faith.  All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as ammunition in the battle for the lost souls of the sons and daughters of Adam.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. 

Thank you for visiting. May God’s face shine upon you and your house with Light and Truth.

You have arrived at the GodSaidManSaid “Genesis Series;” this is Part 11.  Each of these features begins with the following information from the first feature:

According to a 2006 issue of Discover magazine concerning the deceased Carl Sagan: “Sagan approaches religion like any phenomenon.  He isn’t on a quest for life’s meaning, for a comforting philosophy, or even a guide to how we should treat the neighbors.  Sagan seeks truth of a demonstrable kind.  As a puckish example, he wonders why the book of Genesis didn’t include God-inspired truths…” [End of quote]

I recently reviewed an advertisement from a magazine called Free Inquiry that also has a problem with the God of Creation and the first book of the Bible, called Genesis.  Under the heading “Is God Big Enough for the Universe,” Free Inquiry writes:

The authors of Genesis proclaim that God made the heavens and earth in less than a week.  This feat must have amazed these Bronze Age authors, even though they thought the heavens extended only so far as the sky above them.  Of course, they did not know what stars, planets, or galaxies were.  We now know that the universe is so much bigger and so much more complex. [End of quote]

The BORN AGAIN scratch their heads in bewilderment.  Did these folks actually read the book of Genesis? I suppose they did, but God’s revelation is only revealed to the humbled hearts of the children of faith.  This GodSaidManSaid series will be called “The Genesis Series.”  It is our intention to travel through the entire book of Genesis and publish one major God-inspired truth after another.  We will be pulling from previous GodSaidManSaid features and adding the latest information as we go.

Strange sounding concepts and groupings of words cause the child of faith to stop to consider the magnitude, to wonder at the hallelujah of the beautiful Book, but only members of the family can hear and see it.  Where are all the God-inspired truths in Genesis?  This is the 11^th feature in the GodSaidManSaid “Genesis Series” and we are still in Chapter 2 of Genesis’s fifty chapters. In these first 11 features, we have established:

⬥ The true religion;
⬥ That the earth and it’s universe had a beginning;
⬥ That the earth is just over 6,000 years old;
⬥ That there was light before the sun;
⬥ That science knows that energy (photons from the sun) creates matter and now theorizes that “words of intent” create energy;
⬥ The truth of Genesis 1:3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light; 
⬥ That the earth’s poles were once tropical and that man lived an average of 912 years before the flood;
⬥ Where all the water from the flood went, if Noah’s story is true;
⬥ That all creatures are created “after their kind,” and the dinosaur did not become the hummingbird;
⬥ That Adam’s son Seth could write, and that there is no reason to believe that Adam could not also write;
⬥ That God is Light (I John 1:5), which means He travels at least 670,616,629 miles per hour;
⬥ That whales were always whales and never once the water buffalo, and no evolution has ever been found to have occurred;
⬥ All the world was once vegetarian—yes, even the lions;
⬥ Man was made in the image of God, which is why you can eat a hamburger and not a manburger;   
⬥ Adam and Eve were genius upon genius and not grunting cavemen;  
⬥ We have a Godlike brain between our ears, the most underdeveloped resource in the universe;
⬥ The absolute primacy of God’s number seven; and
⬥ Man is recycled mud.

Keep in mind, we are still just in Chapter 2 of the first book of the Bible, called Genesis. 

Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Nostrils and the Breath of Life:”

Why the nostrils? Why does the Bible say, "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul?” Was this statement that was written thousands of years ago written by mere men? What natural man could know the enormous depths of this statement and know them many centuries before medical science would begin to know the reasons why? The answer is that it was not written by a man; only the Designer-Creator Himself could know such truth.

The mysteries of the statement found in Genesis 2:7, are expansive, and in this feature we will deal with only the physical ramifications of it. The nostrils play a very central and important role in life—physically and spiritually—and the Word of God focuses on their importance.

Except in emergencies, when heavily congested, when exercising rigorously or yawning, we were designed to breathe through our nostrils. The nostrils prepare the air for the lungs by removing foreign particles of dust and other contaminants from it, and by warming and humidifying it. Breathing through the nostrils is also very important for the proper mix of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood and overall general health. The Scriptures record that life is in the blood and the nostrils play a critical part.

According to an article titled "Optimal Breathing," on the internet at www.breathing.com, nose breathing 24 hours per day is important if you desire a long and healthy life. The following excerpts are from that article:

The lungs are a primary control of our energy level. They extract oxygen from the air we breathe primarily on the exhale. Because the nostrils are smaller than the mouth, air exhaled through the nose creates back pressure when one exhales. It slows the air escape so the lungs have more time to extract oxygen from them. When there is proper oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange, the blood will maintain a balanced pH. If carbon dioxide is lost too quickly, as in mouth breathing, oxygen absorption is decreased.

And again, the article states:

Lessening of the common cold is another good reason for nose breathing. The mucous (white blood cells that kill germs) membrane lining the nose extends all the way from the inner linings of the nostrils down the trachea to the bronchi that directly enters the lungs. Germs get caught and die in the mucous. [End of quote]

Nose breathing is also known to reduce hypertension and stress for most people and also reduces loud snoring, sleep apnea, and heart conditions. The Creator certainly knew His business when He chose the nostrils as the conduits for the "breath of life." You basically breathe through one nostril at a time. The time one nostril dominates is between one and three hours. This nasal rhythm is known to increase the EEG (electroencephalogram) amplitude in the brain’s opposite hemisphere. Medical science is just beginning to get a grip on this principle. The following excerpt is from an article found on the internet titled, "Cerebral Breathing:"

The consistent and selective effect of forced uninostril breathing in normal subjects on the general pattern of EEG activity in the hemispheres suggests the possibility of therapeutic approaches to states where hemispheric dysfunction have been known to occur. Schizophrenia is associated with greater left cerebral hemisphere dysfunction and depression and other affective disorders are associated with greater right hemisphere dysfunction. Cases of acute personality shift were also accompanied by an immediate shift in nasal dominance. [End of quote]

The physical reasons God chose the nostrils as the conduit of life are becoming more and more apparent as medical science continues to discover their mysteries. [End of quotes]

The breath of life was already in the creatures God had made, but man (who was made in the image and likeness of God) required special face-to-face attention in order for man to become a living soul.  Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

There is a difference between human life and a living soul.  They are not easily separated, but they are separate.  Hebrews 4:12 speaks to the difficulty:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.   

It is the eternal soul that needs saving.  I Peter 1:9:

Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Jesus separates human life and the soul in Matthew 10:28:

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

The breath of life and the living soul leave the body upon one’s last breath when one gives up the ghost, and the separation is clearly laid out in Luke 16:22-31:

22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham''s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father''s house:

28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

The rich man’s body is decaying in the rich man’s tomb.  His eyes, his brain, and his tongue are in the rich man’s tomb returning to dust, yet in hell he sees, hears, and attempts to negotiate with Abraham.  The rich man has a full memory of his past, he requests water for his tongue because he can feel thirst, and he experiences torment, yet all of his physical body parts, including his lungs, are in the rich man’s tomb.  In Luke 16, we are looking at a clean separation of the breath of life and the soul.  It is the soul that needs saved—through a process Jesus calls BORN AGAIN—because it is the soul that was imparted unto man by the direct intervention of God when He breathed up Adam’s nostrils. 

God’s Word said nostrils, and we are only just beginning to understand the many reasons why.

Be of good cheer, child of God! Our Father’s Word is true and righteous altogether, a place to build a life that will last forever.

GOD SAID, Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

GOD SAID, Genesis 7:22:

All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

GOD SAID, Job 27:3:

All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

MAN SAID: If the Bible is the Word of God, why hasn’t He wowed us with the Words in Genesis, the very first book?  The Bible didn’t start with a big bang, and we aren’t impressed. 

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Blumner, R., Free Inquiry

GodSaidManSaid, “Nostrils and the Breath of Life”

• Go Further With Christ
• Email To a Friend
• Comments or Questions?