Dead and Done!

Some situations appear to be beyond hope, don’t they? It’s over. Vitality is gone. Any spark quenched. Churches appear dead! Relationships turn cold. Love for God evaporates in the heat of temptation and trials. Can these things live again? According to the Bible, yes! Are you familiar with that weird vision of the valley of dry bones that God gave to Ezekiel? Yes, it’s the one that inspired the spiritual – “Dem Dry Bones.”

In the 37th chapter of the book, the prophet tells of being set in the middle of a valley that was full of bones, bleached and dried by the sun. The flesh that clothed the bones is gone. The sinews that connected the bones - gone. Any semblance of life- gone. As he sees this vision of desolation, God asks Ezekiel, "Can these bones live again?" What a question. How do would you respond to it? With natural understanding, one would have to say, "The day for life in these bones is long since past! No, Lord, they won't live again." Ezekiel chooses a different response. "Lord God, only you can answer that." (37:3) It's not exactly a statement full of faith, but at least it allows for the possibility of life, however remote. Sometimes that is all the faith we have, just enough to allow for a possibility. Jesus says that is more than enough.

Now comes the test. God said “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life." (Ezekiel 37:4-5, NIV) The man of God was commanded to do something that would have looked very foolish to any observer. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, Ezekiel spoke the improbable, into a situation of the impossible. And as he spoke, those bones rattled and moved! They assembled into skeletons, began to be connected, then covered with flesh. As he continued to preach, the Spirit of God swept over the corpses and "breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army." (37:10)

It's quite a vision, isn't it? I am captivated by the promise in it! It was God's message to His people who thought all hope was gone. These bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they're saying: “Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there's nothing left of us.” (37:11) The man of God needed obedience, courage, boldness, and vision to draw life back to that 'dead' nation. It was a work beyond anyone's natural ability. Who can make bones live again? Only God can raise the dead! "You, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'" Ezekiel 37:13-14

What seems dead, beyond hope, to you?
Is your marriage, which once was filled with life and love, just a barren, dead thing now?
Are your dreams for the future, hopes to make a real difference, rattling around in your mind, dried up and dead?
Is your church, once alive with the Spirit, a place of skeletons and ghosts of things past?
Is your spiritual life nothing but bones seeming dead to the Spirit of God?

God is putting the question to you - "Can these bones live?" In asking the question, He is stirring faith, be it ever so slight. As His Spirit stirs in us, let us become bold like the prophet,
speaking the Words of life to a dead situation. "Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!" Nothing is so thrilling as seeing God bring life back, breathing His life into a person, situation, relationship, or church that is in the natural realm, beyond hope. So, hear the Word of the Lord!

Here is a word from the Word to ponder today. May it bring life to the dry places!
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:9-11, NIV)
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These are the days of Ezekiel,
The dry bones becoming as flesh;
And these are the days
Of Your servant David,
Rebuilding the temple of praise.
These are the days of the harvest,
The fields are as white in the world,
And we are the laborers
In the vineyard,
Declaring the word of the Lord.

Behold He comes
Riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun
At the trumpet call;
Lift your voice,
It's the year of jubilee,
Out of Zion's hill
Salvation comes.

Days Of Elijah-
Mark, Robin- Integrity Music, Inc.© 1997 Daybreak Music, Ltd. (Admin. by Integrity Music, Inc.) CCLI License No. 810055