Dry Bones Live
Posted by Jeffrey Smith January 8th, 2016 2,612 Views 0 Comments
Ezekiel 37:1-3: The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, Son of man, can these bones live? I said, O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.
We all have a call on our lives from the Lord. We can find ourselves on the mountain top filled with the Spirit of the Lord, full of His love and mercy. Full and complete, content and with an abundance that overflows. When we focus on the cross of Christ and are in a deep relationship with Jesus, all of our needs are met, all is right with life because it comes only from Jesus.
Out of that abundance, the flow of love pours into others around us. If you walk into any location in the world that has a lot of people, you cannot help look around at the faces in the crowds and see the depth of pain and hurt in this world. The need for Jesus is palpable.
The denominational church as a whole is regressing, and I have witnessed first-hand as I walk into a once vibrant congregation, the loss of numbers that used to fill the seats. What is more, the ones still there seem to be broken, beat down, coughing, hunched over, and in lack.
I recently went to a church service that my family and I once attended as members, and as I left, I felt sad and while all of my needs are met in Jesus, I could not help but witness the longing for more on the faces of others.
This church is not an exception to the rule, but the norm.
We are in the valley of dry bones in our churches, and I see the Lord leading me to witness this time that we are in. He is leading me to see that a revival is coming for His children, and He is going to renew the body of Christ.
Each one of us cannot be the mouth in the body of Christ. There are some of us who must be ligaments that attach the bone to the muscles. Some of us must be the outer layer that covers the muscles, that cover the bones, and the bones must be full of life. Each church congregation is a full body, and only the Lord can bring back the dead, dry bones that the world has all but buried and left for dead.
All of us can prophesy a revival, and watch the Lord bring back the body to life. He will do it. What can we do?
We can pray, and speak life over every congregation that we are a part of. We can speak life into the valley that we are in, and as we prophesy over our church, the body will be reformed into a vibrant army like we see in Ezekiel. Like Ezekiel prophesied and saw the body reformed, he still notes to the Lord, " There is no breath in them" (Ezekiel 37:8). The Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy and say: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live." The Father brings breath into them and they live, and they have hope where hope was lost. Out of death the Spirit of the Lord is once again in them. You see, there is a hope that can only come from God through Jesus. Each of us are a part of a ministry, a church, a small group, and whatever it is that you belong to will live and not die. I encourage you to speak life, to prophesy over each and every congregation that you go to, that you support, that you are ministered by. By speaking life over them, the Lord will do the heavy lifting and you will see a rebirth, a body, healthy and full of life, a vast army of the Lord, with the breath of the Spirit flowing. If you are unsure of what to do, just simply say, " Father in the name of Jesus, and speak life over ________ church/ministry. I thank You for bringing the breath of life into this body. I thank You for bringing these dry bones into a healthy body in Jesus name. You don't have to be Ezekiel to speak life, to prophesy what is in the will of the Lord. It is the will of the Lord for The body of Christ to be vibrant and full of life in the form of His church. Set aside the politics and denominational differences and bring hope to the hopeless. There are so many people in the world who need the overflow of the truth of Jesus outside the walls of the church. We can never lose hope within the wall of the church if we want to bring the truth to those outside them.
Editing comment: