The Prophet Joel prophesied these powerful words:
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.”
The Hebrew for the Spirt of the Lord is Ruach ha kodesh. Diane Butler Bass teaches us that the spirit of the Lord can be defined as “the sustaining force for all life, the breath of God at creation and through the words of the prophets.”
John O’Donohue expands this by stating that “air is an intimate element. It gets right into you through your breathing and your blood, into the heart of your life…God is breath and tenderness.”
The ruach is the creator spirit that imbues, suffuses, and sustains all of creation. The spirt invigorates all humanity, all creation, and connects everything into a divine relationship.
We are all bound together by this life giving breath, this divine spirit. Our own breath is bound up in the breath of others and, when others struggle for breath, we all struggle – for the pain of those who struggle is our pain and this pain is felt by God.
