Life” in Scripture, is more than physical existence. In the beginning, the first man came alive when God breathed His Spirit into the model He had fashioned out of the ground.  

“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.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

When Adam chose to live apart from God…making himself the standard of right and wrong, God withdrew His Spirit, leaving the man with physical existence but without the God’s “life” in him. He was “dead”…without connection to the “life” of God in the sense of communication, communion, and the provision of God’s resources in himself or in the generations that followed him. He chose to “go it alone”, and he was, left therefore, solely responsible for his own life and destiny. 

However, the Holy Spirit was still in the world…active in it mostly on the outside of humans…doing His work of convincing people of sin… but the Holy Spirit’s work had become futile. 

God decided to obliterate the human race by a flood because of its utter corruption, leaving only one family to begin again. 

“Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend (rule, judge, or strive) with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭6‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭6‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The result of the Holy Spirit’s departure from within man was catastrophic. 

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…dead in transgressions and sins…

…gratifying the cravings of the flesh…

…deserving of wrath…

Without the life of God, man is a boundary-less creature…no God-given standards…made of dust…returning to dust…and eternally destined for the trash heap, the fire prepared for the devil and those who follow him, those who fail to fulfil God’s purpose for them. 

When God intervened to reset His purpose for man by fixing the problem of human rebellion, independence, and self-rule…He first removed the obstacle of sin through the death of Jesus. Sin’s debt paid, He, second, restored His life to into lifeless humans. 

What is the source of God’s life In humans? What is it that He put inside us to connect us with Himself? What is the conduit through which He provides His life?

Jesus answers these questions for us. 

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭6‬:‭63‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus explaine that, though human words themselves can do nothing, His words, channeled to us through the Holy Spirit, are the source of spiritual life. 

The Spirit and the Word are so closely interconnected that they work together inseparably…the Spirit, through the Word…bringing life to a dead spirit.  Just as the Father, through the Son, spoke life, by the Spirit, into a dead planet, and into a clay model… so God breathes life into a dead spirit by His Spirit through His Word. 

It’s a mystery! God has chosen to work this way…the Word, which we believe…which we take into our own human spirit, through faith…becomes the conduit through which the Holy Spirit works to connect us to the life of Jesus. Like sap flowing from the stock to the branches of a vine, so the life of Jesus flows into and through us, connecting us to the source of eternal life. 

This life, which the Bible calls “eternal life”, is the life that operates in God’s realm, the life that is present in God’s heaven, His unseen realm where He is present and rules.  This is “the life of the age” that is to come but is also present in us now because we have already been connected to “ the life of the age” by the Spirit in us through His word. 

Prayer becomes the means of communication between us and our “headquarters” in the unseen realm, the Spirit… through the Word…connecting us to the Father. His life, through us, is administered to the world by His spoken word. 

Again, it’s a mystery but…it’s God at work His way…to bring back to life creation and to restore all that is in the world.