I'm Catching My Breath | Genesis 2:7

We move from raw praise to a living word about breath—how God’s wind turns atmosphere into life, restores voice and movement, and sends us with purpose. From Genesis to Ezekiel to John 20, we trace how receiving the Breath changes fight, focus, and future.

• worship as the first part of purpose
• gratitude and memory as keys to receive breath
• Genesis 2:7 and the intimacy of God’s breath
• atmosphere versus breath, air versus wind
• bedside story of last breaths and glory
• Ezekiel 37: speaking to wind, not just bones
• why you can’t fight if you can’t breathe
• loss of breath steals speech, movement, focus, zeal
• the Risen Christ breathes and says receive
• don’t just pour out—inhale and walk it out

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Intro and outro created by Joe Anderson Jr. of Truflava Productions

Transcript

Call to Praise and Worship

SPEAKER_04 0:18

I wish we would make some nose in here like here.

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This does too much for you to be still. This does too much for you to get that started.

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Come on, praise the black kids in it. Come on, praise the black kids pray. Come on, praise the black kids holy. Hallelujah. Come on, come on, you can do better than that. You can do better than that. Hallelujah. Alright, righteous Savior, open your mouth and give God some praise. I just caught a glimpse of what I did deserve. I just caught a glimpse of what I did deserve. I don't know how some of y'all do it. To know that God loves us beyond our faults. That God

Gratitude Beyond Deserving

SPEAKER_04 2:43

loves us beyond our shortcomings. That God loves us beyond our spirit. I don't know how some of you can do it in his presence, God. I owe you my own. Lord, I bless your name. Lord, I bless your name. Just worship. Worship like nobody else is here. Worship like nobody else's opinion matters. Come on, get us attention with your worship. Even if you don't know what to say, just say, Lord, I thank you. That it could have gone another way. God, I thank you. That it should have gone another way. God, I thank you. That I don't deserve to be here today. God, I thank you. This is beyond emotionalism, it's beyond our intellectualism. It's it's it's coming to grips with the fact that as a flawed and flailed flesh and blood human being, that it is God that gives us life. And in this life, He's designed us to give back unto Him what He designed us for. Many of you struggle with what your purpose is. I got news for you, the first part of your purpose is just to worship. I said the first part of your purpose is just to worship. I'ma say it again for

Purpose Begins With Worship

SPEAKER_04 4:25

those in the back. The first part of your purpose is to worship. So we're gonna take a few minutes because some of y'all still wait. And he's already here. He's already here. I'm just gonna take a few minutes just to let the worshipers do what they've been purposed to do. Just give God some worship. Hallelujah. Come on, there's a sound. Come on, there's a sound. Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_07 4:57

Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Y'all raised it right there. Hallelujah, everybody.

SPEAKER_07 5:09

Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Everybody, hallelujah, hallelujah.

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Sweet presence, Hall.

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You are worthy, hallelujah.

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Hallelujah. For those of you that still may not resonate in this moment, here's my challenge for you. I want for you to get in your mind.

SPEAKER_04 6:59

I don't care when it was, but get in your mind that one time that when you look back on it right now, there's no way you should have made it out alive or in your right mind. Get it in your mind right now. That time that you shouldn't have made it out alive or in your right mind. The elders used to say, when I think of the goodness of Jesus, and oh he's done for me.

Memory, Mercy, and Survival

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The reason that's real for me is because I think back to a point in my life. I was literally on the bird. Not only taking my life, but taking the life of my children and my thin ex wife. With an aspect of the goodness. God is trying to take your mess and turn it into a message. But you are so locked in and what other folk don't think about what you've been through that God's trying to not only set you free, but some other folk that's struggling with some stuff that's worse than what you've gone through.

From Mess to Message

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When we think about all that God has done, we owe him. We owe him our very best praise. So at the count of three musicians, at the count of three, I want y'all to break, and we're gonna set a worship off in here like never before. One, two, y'all too quiet, three, send your worship up, give God a prize. To give this disclaimer that there's no no no row that's safe today. I don't care what row you're sitting on if you came in in the back to try to tip in and tip out. No road, no row is safe today. Hallelujah. Praise is likely to erupt from anywhere, worship is likely

No Row Is Safe: Release Praise

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to erupt from anywhere. No row is safe today. Hallelujah. We're gonna let praise and worship precede us. That the king of glory shall come in. Hallelujah. Everyone standing if you can, everyone standing if you can. The word of the Lord today will come from the book of Genesis, the second chapter, and I won't be before you long. God is already working. Genesis, the

Scripture Read: Genesis 2:7

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second chapter. Before you're reading and hearing, we will lift just one verse. As it is our custom for us to stand and read the word of the Lord together here. Come on, let us read. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person. That's it. On your way to your seat, look at three for three three or four people and tell them, I'm catching my breath. I'm catching my breath. I'm catching my breath. There's been a lot that happened to me in my life, but I'm catching my breath. I've gone through some situations, some ups and some downs, but I'm catching my breath. I've been hanging on for dear life at moments and times

Theme: Catching My Breath

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I couldn't even tell anybody. But now, Lord, thank you for helping me catch my breath. Catching, catching, catching my breath. I'm catching. I'm catching my breath. I pray that you don't allow your familiarity with the text of the beginning of all creation. Don't allow the familiarity

What Is Breath? Air Personalized

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of the words of this text to cause you to miss what it is that God is saying right here, right now, in this moment. The writer declared, then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. The second clause says, He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person. I'm gonna say that again. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person. He breathed the breath of life into the man. He breathed the breath of life. He who God breathed the breath of life into. I pray that about at least 75 of y'all will catch this in your spirit. God breathed the breath of life into the man. As I was studying this, I had to do a little bit more digging because I like for my understanding to be as simplistic as if I'm teaching my 11-year-old daughter. When I realized it said that he breathed, he, God breathed, God breathed. I wanted to understand what is what is a breath. What is it that God gave from Himself into this man? Mother, I had to research, and I when I look to the definition of the word breath, it simply meant uh the air that is both expelled and inhaled through the lung. Some of y'all nodding your head like you've already known. Allow me to catch up. I was in remedial, a couple of remedial classes, but it said the air that is both inhaled into and expelled out of the lungs. When I then went and broke it down a little further to understand what is air, the scientists simply said that it's a mixture of gases that make up an atmosphere. When I realized that in all that God had done between Genesis 1 and now in Genesis 2, he had created an atmosphere that consisted of air. But that air did not get personalized until God chose to breathe it into man. I need for you to understand that there are some situations that God has allowed you to exist in the air that is around you, but he's waiting for you to take a breath. He's waiting

Atmosphere vs. Receiving Breath

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on you to take a breath. What I realized was that God's air in this atmosphere is available to everyone. This air of this atmosphere is available chosen city to everyone. But it becomes intentionally just for me as long as I take it in. The air doesn't become a breath until I take it in. The air doesn't become a breath until I take it in. That we find ourselves waking up and we just exist and we float through God's atmosphere, not even realizing the whole time that he made this mechanism inside of us to take in his air. It didn't dawn on me how important this was until in this particular week, pop in this in this week on Monday, I was called to rush to Columbia because I had an uncle that wasn't doing well. In

At the Bedside: Last Breaths

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fact, they were calling the family in because they said he wasn't going to make it. As I rushed down 77 to get to the hospital, got through the checkout line, got up to the floor, made it to his bedside. The nurses were hanging their heads at the family member that was there and said, It won't be long. Now they asked most of the family if they wanted to stay in the room because he was on a ventilator. And after they made the decision to take him off the ventilator, they said it probably wouldn't be very long. They said, You're welcome to stay in, but those that chose that were there chose to exit out to go into the waiting area. I said, if you don't mind, I'd like to sit in with him. As I sat at his bedside. The nurses then began to take the apparatus out of his mouth. Pressed a few buttons. And then she looked at me as he as she exited the room. She said, I'll give you a moment. But it won't be very long. I turned back to look at my uncle. I saw him taking shallow breath with each breath the instruments were moving slower. I looked at his face and he had this gaze in his eyes. I told you I went through remedial classes. I wasn't sure. So I had to go to my Google machine. Lord, wait, when? How long do they stay with us? Sure enough, the machine said that it varies. Nobody has an exact science on when the spirit leaves the body. Nobody knows for sure. And while that may seem ambiguous for some, it may seem confusing for others, I took it as a sign that God, while breath is still in his body, he's still here with me. But even the more encouraged I got, the more shallow his breath became. Allow him to enter in. And also, God, because I didn't spend a lot of time with an arm, I wasn't sure if if he had made the decision or not, but by faith I'm declaring that it is so and that he's not just

Glory Over Trivial Things

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your creation, but he's one of your children. So I I thank you now for the salvation that covers him as he now transitions into your arm. Chosen City, I'm not lying to you. As I began to speak these words, I saw a tear run down his eye. That let me know that it not only heard me, but with his last few breaths, he was rejoicing in the Lord. A few more seconds went by.

Ezekiel 37: Speak to the Wind

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Watch this. Not just for how we do church on Sunday morning, not just how we come in and fake smile with one another, and we really can't stand April. It ain't just the stuff that we go through that we think we understand because I what I realized Pastor Walt was in that moment. He wasn't thinking about Bills, he wasn't thinking about all the folk that met that he was mad with or that made him mad. He wasn't thinking about all of the trivial things. His mind and his spirit were then focused on glory. So with this very last breath, he released it. I found it an honor to be with him during his transition. It was in that moment that the Lord did. Gave me this message. He said, Pastor Walt preached a message a few weeks ago that is in the word. He reminded me and said, I want you to go back to that scripture one more time. There was something, Chris Laues, that you missed. I went back, the media team, if you could pull that up to Ezekiel, the 37th chapter, and I I want to see if about 25 of y'all will see what I saw and get excited the way I did when I realized this. Chapter 70 said, 37, verse 70 says, So I spoke this message just as he told me. Suddenly I spoke. Most of us would have gotten happy and turned up right now. It says the bones of each body came together, attached themselves as complete skeletons. Verse 8 says, then as I watch the muscles and flesh form over the bone. The skin formed to cover their body. Watch this.

Air is Stagnant, Wind Is Shift

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That's just what we do. We rush. But they still they still had no breath in them. Verse nine. Then he God said to me, Speak a prophetic message to the wind. The reason I missed it is because too often we prophesy over stuff. And we're not speaking to the wind. The stuff can't save your life. But the wind will revive you. He told the man of God, while you see the flesh and bone, it still doesn't have breath. What I realize is that many of us are no different than the walking dead. We walk around with the breath of life that he gave to Adam, but we're still not breathing God's air yet. But I went a little bit further to understand what's the difference between the air and the wind. What I found was very interesting. It said that the air is stagnant. But the wind is a shift. The wind, the the the scientists say is a result of a phenomenon. I need for some of you in here to understand that if it wasn't for the breath of God that he breathed into your circumstance, if it wasn't for the breath of God that he breathed into your life when everybody counted you out, if it wasn't for the breath of God that he breathed into your lungs, that he gave life to that situation, we'd still be lost. Found in this word that this flesh and bone existence. One of my favorite boxers. A boxer by the name of Bernard Hopkins Jr. We call him Bha. He was doing an interview

You Can’t Fight If You Can’t Breathe

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with another amazing boxer by the name of Andre Warden. They were recapping his boxing match that he had with Oscar De La Jolla. And Andre asked him, how did you know when you hit him with the body with a shot? How did you know that the fight was over? He said these words, Mark, he said, because I hit him in the lever. He said, You can't breathe without your leather. He said, I hit him in the leather. Andre looked at him and said, What do you mean by that? Joseph City, the rest of you catch it when he said this. He said, You can't fight if you can't breathe. Joseph City, you can't fight if you can't breathe. You can't fight if you can't breathe. You can't Make it if you can't breathe. The enemy has been trying to give you body blows this whole time because he knows. But nowadays you can't fight. If you can't breathe. What I found was the number one thing that we struggle with when we have a loss of breath. Is brother, brother John, you as a boxer, you know this. If you can't breathe, you also can't speak. Ain't nothing like getting hit and somebody asking you, what's wrong? Ain't nothing like getting hit and you can't quite get the words out because you don't have the breath to articulate it. God is saying that the reason some of you have been struggling so much is because the air that's gotten knocked out of you is now keeping you from speaking

When Breath Is Knocked Out

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well over your life. You can't prophesy without the breath. You can't speak well of the word without the breath. You can't speak to what God is doing without the breath. Not only did I find that a loss of breath keeps us from the ability to speak. And they told me in my neighborhood that I could get some some cred. I grew up in the hood. We used to call it street cred. We can get some credit I was too young, so they didn't initiate me into all the fighting stuff yet. They just had us doing crazy dumb stuff. This particular time they said you'll get some cred. If see that ditch over there. If you can run and jump over the water and land to the other side. And I guess I probably should add this one piece in there. My mama had this thing about me going outside. Not only during the school day, but in my school clothes. Y'all mama's like that too. We get off the bus and they said, no, don't go home. We're gonna double dog dare you. I made my first of all, I decided to do something that I probably know I shouldn't have done, but we're here now. I ran as fast as I could. I'm feeling good about this one. And I jumped. I'm feeling real wait, wait a minute. Going down a little faster than I expected. I didn't quite anticipate a time I jump the way I should have been. I landed smack down in the middle of the ditch water. The impact was so hard that not only did I lose my breath, but

Stagnation, Focus, and Zeal Lost

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the loss of breath I also couldn't move. If you can imagine, Linda, I'm stuck in this ditch with my head back in the water. And I didn't realize what was happening until I got up. And one of my partners came and he said, Man, what happened? I said, Man, I got I felt good about the jump, but when I landed, it it went bad. They said, Well, we know because when we came down to sea and we jumped over, we looked down and we saw you crying under the water. I said, Yeah, I was crying because I realized I still have my school clothes on and I couldn't get up. The damage was already done. But that loss of breath happened even more so when my mama got home and realized what I had done, and that was a moment where I wish I could have stayed in the ditch. My mama hit me so hard and made my teeth click. My loss of breath caused temporary paralysis in my lower extremities. Not only could I not move, I begin to lose focus. When I realize that even today, many of us have had such life blows to happen in a life that has not only knocked the wind out of you, but it's caused you to now remain stagnant. It's caused you a state of paralysis where you can't move forward simply because you can't breathe right. And not only are you not progressing, and not only do you not have the momentum, but you've also now begun to lose focus. Your mind can't set right. You you can't even remember what you were doing and what you were intending to do because you're now at a loss of breath. I'm finding, I'm finding that even as I went back and examined this past week, that not only does the loss of breath prevent us from being able to speak clearly, not only does it prevent us from being able to move and our mobility and our ability to focus, but as I witnessed with my uncle, the loss of breath can sometimes result in the ending of life. But even as we're sitting here today amongst the living, that loss of breath can also cause us to lose the zeal for life. Many of you wake up each and every morning now just because it's something that your eyes do, but you don't have the zeal, and therefore you

From First Adam to Second Adam

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just drift from moment to moment. You drift from your job and back to the house. Many of you can't even remember how you got from the house to the job, and you can't remember how you got from the job back to the house. One moment runs into the next moment, and the next moment runs into the next moment, and all because you can't breathe, you don't have a zeal, you have no expectation. When you open your eyes, you have nothing that you're looking forward to. All because it's hard to breathe. But as I get ready to take my seat, I found that there's some revelation here because what we see that was done in the first Adam was now revealed in the second Adam. You see, there was a transition that happened between when God created Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed air into his body to exist. He also, making a way for Jesus to come, was about to do something that would change and shift all of our lives for the rest of our lives. You see, it was the shift that God allowed to take place between the air and the wind that happened in the book of Ezekiel. We find here that as Jesus is now been crucified, as he has now been put in the tomb, and early that Sunday morning when they rolled the tomb away, that he's no longer there, we find that he then

John 20: Jesus Breathes, Receive

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appears to his disciples. Media team, can you put up that last scripture for me in the book of John? We're getting ready to go home. It says that in John, the 20th chapter, see if you can catch this. It said that Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the church folk. Stop right there for a minute. Let me read that again. That Sunday evening, the disciples who were with Jesus were meeting behind locked doors. Why? Because they were afraid of the church folk. I want to encourage about four or five of y'all. If at some point the devil has convinced you that it's better for you to stay home because you don't want to come out there and have to deal with the church folk. I'm releasing you now in the name of Jesus under the power of the Holy Spirit, that you no longer have to be concerned with the church folk. God has given you now a different power, He's now giving you a different destiny than to be worried about the church folk. It says, suddenly Jesus was standing there among them. Peace be with you, he said. Verse 20. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds of his hand and his side. Watch this. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord. Hold it there, media, before you move it. I need for most of us, if not all of us, to understand that if it were just about you being happy in the Lord, the story would have ended a long time ago. But there's some more that's being written into the script of your life that has nothing or very little to do with just you being happy, just you having joy. There's some fulfillment that God has an expectation from your life. Look at verse 21. It says that again he said, Peace be with you. As the father has sent me, so I'm sending. So I am sending you.

SPEAKER_05 42:18

Then he breathed.

Don’t Just Pour Out—Receive

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Just like his father did to the first Adam when he created him from the dust of the ground. And now the second Adam is looking at creation all over again and saying it's something that I'm about to do. But before you can go, I need to breathe. I'm about to breathe into your life. But here's where we miss it. Because the B clause of that is where I find that most of us, all of us, even including myself, Brother True, where we miss it because it says, Receive the Holy Spirit. I believe that there are times in our life when God can breathe. We can know that He's breathing, but we don't receive. Many of us come up to this altar week after week in the atmosphere. But as we come to this altar, we never receive. We spend so much time pouring out, telling God what's wrong. But the whole time He's existing in the space of this atmosphere, trying to send the wind into your body to allow you to breathe. Breathe. Breathe. I believe that's what I saw my uncle doing on the last minutes of his life. Breathing the Spirit of God. He was breathing his next chance. He was breathing his transition just for each and every one of us today. God is expecting for you not just to let it all out, but for you to stand in a place where you can receive the breath that He's blowing into your body. No longer will we take for granted the inhales and the exhales that we have each and every day of our

Breath, Movement, and Walking It Out

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life. No longer will we take for granted that when our chest rises with the air of the Lord, that we now have been filled with his spirit. No longer will we take for granted that when our feet hit the ground and we begin to move with the sensation of the breath that He's put in our body, that God is working some things out. The reason it's taken so long for some of us to receive it is because with the breath that you've been given, you've yet to walk it out. You gotta walk it out. I just said that with the loss of breath comes a loss of movement, and the enemy wants to keep you still, he wants to keep you speechless. But with the breath that's in your body, not only do you have to prophesy the word, but you gotta walk it out. You gotta walk it out and knowing that God is meeting you right at the point of your need. You gotta walk it out and know that God is meeting you at the point of your despair. Walk it out. And I realize as I'm taking my seat, that there are many of us that we've experienced such impacts in life, that we're literally gasping for our next breath. And I heard our pastor say literally just this morning while we were here, that we come in on Sunday after Sunday and we say, God, do it again. Can we believe it? We come and we lay, we cry before the Lord, but we go back the same way that we came up simply because we didn't expect or realize that with every breath that enters your body is a sign of God's victory that He's already put in the earth. Every breath that enters your body is a sign of the deliverance that God has already done. You waiting on him to deliver, he's already delivered. With every breath that's in your body, you waiting on him to set it free, but he's already set it free with every breath that's in your body. You waiting on him to move, but he's already moved. With the breath that's in your body. I need for you to understand this as I get ready to take my seat. I believe it was Bobby Brown. Bobby, if I can rewrite your song, here's what I would tell the folk every little step you take, God says I'll be there. Every little breath you take, we'll be together.

Every Breath Is Already Victory

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Every little step you take, hallelujah! Every little breath you we're gonna be together. Come on, somebody clap your hands and give God some praise. Hallelujah!