Genesis 2:7 (NLT) 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.
Mankind belongs not only to the physical but also the spiritual world. Our environment is not just earth now and heaven later. We live in the overlapping of the two realms. In this respect we are different from the animals and also from the angels. To really live we must draw our life from both environments. God has given us everything we need for physical life in this earth. But we must draw our spiritual life from Him (Matt. 4:4). If we fail to draw from either source, we become cut off from that part of our environment and that part of us dies. Most people are only half alive. Jesus came to put us in the right relationship with God so that we might “have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). When God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, He imparted His own life to the organism He had created, and Adam received a spiritual nature. This dual nature (spiritual and physical) made worship and communion with God possible. We need the breath of God every day. Breathe on us, oh Lord.