“The hand of the Lord was on 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, “Sovereign Lord , you alone know.” Then he said to me, “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. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord .’ ” Ezekiel 37:1-6
Ezekiah was a prophet during the exhile of Israel who lived about 650 years before the birth of Jesus, following the reign of King David. One morning he had a vision, which is described here in Ezekiel 37. In his vision, God brought Ezekiel to a valley floor that was full of bleached-dry bones. The valley was obviously the sight of a major battle that had been lost by a people whose only remains where these deied up bones. Ezekiah makes it clear that these dry bones were well beyond anything that could be mistaken for alive! God asks Ezekiah an important question that Ezekiah had no human answer for: “Ezekiah, can these bones live?” Because the bones were so dry-humanly speaking, WAY beyond the possibility of sustaining life, Ezekial answered the only safe and right he knew: “God, only YOU know!” God then tells Ezekiel to talk to the bones! He was told to say, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord .’ ” God was going to make the IMPOSSIBLE, POSSIBLE!
In verse 7 of the same chapter, God begins to explain this vision to Ezekiel. He says the dry bones are Israel, well beyond life. He tells Israel, “Then 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. . .”
Our lives can be as these dry bones . . . a place in life where we’ve suffered a major defeat. A place that’s lifeless and hopeless of ever living again, but a place where GOD CAN MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE, POSSIBLE! As it was with Ezekiel, sometimes a victorious comeback in these dry places of life are as close as speaking God’s life into the situation and believing what God says is true, regardless of how bleak a situation looks. God tells us that the power of LIFE and DEATH is contained in what we SAY and BELIEVE! (Proverbs 18:21)
What are you and I speaking today? Is its God’s Word that life and freedom or are we content to live in the valley of defeat, constantly reminded of how impossible our situation appears. Remember, “with God, all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:26) What do you choose to believe and speak? Think about it!
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