What is the Difference between Living and Breathing? #21

Through the story What is the Difference Between a Want and a Need, we have understood that a want is something that brings a plus to our life, while a need is something that allows us to live. In this one, let’s see together what it means to “live”.

The difference between living and breathing

Have you ever heard anyone say “that man has no life” when the man we’re talking about is breathing? This expression is sometimes used to mean that someone is engaged in an activity that consumes so much of the time, that they do not engage in any other activity outside of it. That such an expression exists is a sign that we recognize that a human being can breathe but not live. Now, let’s see what “living” means.

Living is being connected to your source

Each time we say that a being (something or someone) is dead, we can say that this being has been separated from its source. The fish was created to live in water because water is its source. That is why, if you take a fish out of the water, it dies. Plants were created to be rooted in the earth because the earth is their source. That’s why, if you uproot a tree, it dies. Birds were created to fly in the skies because the skies are their source. That’s why we find it abnormal that a bird doesn’t fly. When this happens, it is often a sign that the bird has died, or is near death. It is the same with stars: they were created to be in the heavens (a level of the heavens deeper than that of the birds), and that is why seeing a comet or an asteroid close to the earth is not frequent for us because they were created to live in the heavens, which are their source. I can still give you several examples, but let’s stop there for now.

This brief presentation allows us to understand that death is just another way of saying that we have been separated from our source. Reading the book of Genesis in the Bible, we find the same concept. By the way, this book explains to us a very important principle of creation: It explains to us that the Creator first created the source, and then He asked the source to produce the resources. It says that God first created the sky (1) and then He spoke to the sky to produce the stars (2) and the birds (3).

(1) And God called the firmament Heaven. So, the evening and the morning were the second day.

(2) Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,

(3) Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living [a]creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.”

That is why birds and stars die if they are taken out of the sky, as we saw in the previous paragraph. It also says, that God first created the earth (source) (4), and then He asked the earth to produce the trees (resource) (5).

(4) Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

(5) Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so.

That is why trees die if they are uprooted (or separated from the earth). Likewise, He created the seas (6), then He commanded the seas to produce fish (7).

(6) And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

(7) Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living [a]creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the [b]firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

This is why fish die if they are separated from the water.

The same goes for man

This principle of creation also applies to man, as it does to all other creatures. Indeed, as for all other creatures, God spoke to the source, so that it would produce the resource. In the 26th verse of the 1st chapter of this book of Genesis, we are told that the Creator spoke to Himself, so that He Himself could produce man (8).

(8) Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [a]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

This is to tell us that God Himself is the source of man, who is his resource. And just as a resource dies if it is separated from its source, man also dies if he is separated from his source. The body of a man can therefore be breathing, but if he is separated from its source (God), he is dead. I say man’s body, because as we saw in the story Who Am I, man is a spirit that lives in a body, and has a soul. So saying that a man is dead is the same as saying the spirit of man is dead (not the body, nor the soul). In other words, a man’s body may be breathing, but if his spirit (the real him) is separated from his source (God), that man is actually dead.

One day I was talking with a friend, and he asked me why God had told Adam that, the day he would eat from the fruit of the forbidden tree he would die, yet we all know that after eating from that fruit, Adam was still alive. You may also have already asked yourself this question, and the answer lies in what we have just said above. God knew that, by disobeying Him, Adam’s spirit would be separated from Him (his source), which is the definition of a human’s death. And this is what a sin always does in the life of a human: it kills him, or in other words, it separates him from his Source. The day we will see together what a sin is, you will understand it more deeply. Even when you study what Eden means, you will understand that, the fact that God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden after their disobedience, is only a sign to show that they had been driven out of His presence, because the word Eden actually means presence of God. We examine this concept of Eden in greater depth in the story I am an Ambassador so please read it too, for a deeper understanding.

So, you can be humanly (or physically) alive and accomplish great things, but if you are separated from your source, I guarantee you are living below your true potential. The enemy is so cunning, that he may let us do things that are so striking to the human eye, just so that we think we are doing great things, while in reality we can do more. God is often ashamed of what makes us proud, for He knows that He created us with the ability to do more.

“What you are proud of, God is ashamed of.” Dr. Myles Munroe.

Question of the week: Are you alive?

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May the Grace of God help us to obey His Law.

Thank you for reading me😊

Resources

(1) Genesis 1:8

(2) Genesis 1:16

(3) Genesis 1:20

(4) Genesis 1:9–10

(5) Genesis 1:11

(6) Genesis 1:10

(7) Genesis 1:20–21

(8) Genesis 1:26