Incredible Men,
A fish doesn’t try to swim. A bird doesn’t work at flying. They just do what they were made to do, because there’s no confusion about what they are.
I think a lot of the striving in a man’s life comes from not knowing what he is. If you don’t know what you are, you’ll spend years trying harder at things that were never going to give you life.
So let’s go back to the beginning and look at how God made a man.
In Genesis 1, God speaks and things happen. He says “let there be light,” and there’s light. He speaks the oceans, the stars, the animals, the trees. Six days of God talking and creation answering.
Then He comes to man, and He does something different.
“Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:7)
He didn’t speak Adam into being. He formed him. The Hebrew word is yatsar, and it’s the same word used for a potter working clay. When God tells Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house and watch him work, that’s the word.
God spoke the universe. He shaped you with His hands.
And He didn’t stop with Adam. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” (Jeremiah 1:5) “We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8) You weren’t an afterthought, and you aren’t finished. The Potter still has His hands on you.
I’ve felt that this past month. Laid up on my back with nothing to do but pray, I could feel God working on places in me I’d have been happy to leave alone. It wasn’t comfortable. But I never once wondered whose hands I was in.
There’s a detail in Genesis 2:7 I don’t want you to skip. After God formed Adam, Adam wasn’t alive yet. He was a perfectly shaped man lying in the dirt with no breath in him. Formed, but not living.
Then God breathed into him. The Hebrew word is neshamah, the breath of life. Job put it this way: “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4)
Formed by God’s hand, and filled with God’s breath. That’s the first man.
Thousands of years later, on the night Jesus rose from the dead, His disciples were hiding behind a locked door, scared out of their minds. Jesus walked in, and John says “he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20:22)
That word “breathed” only shows up once in the whole New Testament. It’s the same word the Greek Old Testament uses for God breathing into Adam. John wants you to see Eden in that room. The same God doing the same thing, making men alive. Fifty days later at Pentecost, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:4)
That’s what a man is. Formed by God and filled with His Spirit. Shaped by His Word, because “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). And led by His Spirit, because “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14).
When a man loses track of that, he goes looking for breath somewhere else. His job. His reputation. A drink at the end of the day. His wife’s approval. His phone at midnight. I’ve counseled a lot of men who had everything together on the outside and were running on empty inside. Disciplined, successful, respected, and still lying in the dirt waiting for somebody to breathe on them.
Nothing on that list can do it. Only God can.
So this week, let Him keep shaping you, even where it’s uncomfortable. Get in His Word before you get in your inbox. And ask Him to breathe on you again. Not once in your life. Every morning.
A fish swims. A bird flies. A man of God lives formed and filled.
With you in the fight,
Pastor D
- Want to go deeper? The Incredible Man resources and the full Tuesday email archive are on IncredibleMan.org
You’re receiving this email because you matter to God — and you matter to me. Whether we’ve met or not, I’m for you, I believe in you, and I’m praying that you step fully into who God created you to be. I consider you an Incredible Man — not because you’re perfect, but because you’re called. Called to live with conviction, lead with integrity, and stand firm when life gets hard. The word incredible comes from the Latin incredibilis, meaning “not believable.” It describes a man who lives differently — set apart, grounded, and unwavering.
I’m grateful you’re here.
