And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us… / The word of Jehovah came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of Jehovah was upon him there. (John 1:14a; Ezek. 1:3)
Life can’t be studied. Life needs to be lived.
Believers can read all day long, trying to figure out the Bible, seeking to find a better life. But without experience, the Lord will always remain abstract. In the beginning, God breathed Himself into man, making him a “living soul” (Gen. 2:7). This breathing grants us life—not in theory or knowledge, but in reality. 2 Timothy 3:16 also tells us that “All Scripture is God-breathed…” We become living from His Word in us. In the same way, in Ezekiel, the word as the wind (ruach) is also the breath, the Spirit of God coming to us. Thus, not only was God’s breath in Genesis life to Adam, but also every word from God since then has been His breath of life to us.
God does not intend to be far away from us but to come near and come into us. John 1:14 famously tells us that the Word became flesh. This faraway God who was from the beginning became a man: Jesus. And this man is not merely a historical figure but is now a Person who is indwelling and tabernacling among us today through our spirit. Moreover, God often comes like a storm wind to blow upon us, saturating us in a thick atmosphere, and burning brightly in our lives to produce something new and divine out of our mortal bodies (Ezek. 1:4). Again and again, this tabernacling, this word-becoming-flesh process becomes more real to us. So real and close, He is just like the very breath, the air, in our lungs right now. And, as we breathe Him in, we also breathe Him out; our speaking becomes His breath to others, making receiving the Word and speaking the Word one breathing.
My third year in graduate school, I found myself in a situation that tormented me day and night. During class, I was thinking of this problem. When I came home, I was dealing with this problem. I used all my smarts and strength to figure it out until one pivotal night, I called my parents, who said very little but led me to Romans 10:8-9:
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” … That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved…
As I read the section out loud, each word forming on my tongue was a lifeline to me. The word I spoke out became the Word, as the very breath breathing into me. This living Person whom I have believed all my life, whom I even loved and consecrated my life to, was powerfully present in the same room. The Lord was indeed near to me, so close to me He was even in my mouth and in my heart. The situation at hand was not just a random happenstance; it was to stir me up to turn to Him! Like a storm wind from the north, the Lord was blowing upon my life, covering me with Himself, burning all the self away and leaving something of Himself deposited in me, bright as electrum, so that shining One could become my all. Proclaiming the word with my mouth, with all my heart, I was saved. It was a refreshing and cleansing flow flooding through me. I repented for my little heart. I dropped my self-effort. Nothing was greater than Jesus as Lord and that He is my savior. That calling broke all my fetters in twain. That Word—so powerful and yet so near, so close—set me free in a glorious freedom.
What reality is there without this Word? What other truth can shatter all the mirage of the world? What doctrine or theological understanding can replace the experience of God’s hand upon our lives? There is no other word. There is no other reality.
Today, as we delve into the Bible and especially into the book of Ezekiel, I pray that the Lord, this living Word, continues His blowing on our lives, in the church, blowing a divine sense of Himself into us. Lord, blow more in us—the more the better, and the stronger the better! Lord, be real to us. Cause us to be stirred up to turn to You. Be that realization, the Word becoming flesh, that mingling together in our experience, so that we don’t know anything else but You.