The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. 2 He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. 3 Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”
“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”
4 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! 6 I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” – Ezekiel 37:1-6 (NLT)
Ezekiel gets a vision from God where he observes what is seemingly a vast, innumerable amount of bones piled high in a valley. These bones have been there for quite some time and have endured the scorching heat from the sun. This has dried them out, made them brittle, and burnt away any semblance of skin, muscle, or tissue. Can you imagine all of the thoughts and emotions running through Ezekiel in that moment? What is he feeling? What is his immediate interpretation of what God is showing him? One would have to imagine he was having thoughts and feelings of despair, sadness, grief, and the obvious weight of being surrounded by death.
Heavy. Depressing. Hopeless.
Some of you may be looking out onto the landscape of your own life and feeling like you’re in the valley of dry bones. You feel very distant from the Lord. Your spiritual life is dry and barren. For some, you may have family members, friends, co-workers, or neighbors who are spiritually dead and in desperate need for the miracle of revival in their lives. Is it possible for revival to take place? Is all hope lost?
Let’s come back to Ezekiel again. As he’s taking all of this in and trying to process it all, God asks him what seems to be a ridiculous question – can these dry bones live? I imagine the impossibility of the situation became even more real as Ezekiel hears this question from God. And yet, Ezekiel doesn’t get caught up in the circumstance that lies before him. He doesn’t look out on the harrowing landscape of bones and doubt. Why? Quite simply it’s because Ezekiel’s hope wasn’t in the bones – it was in the power of God! He may not have been confident that he knew the answer to the question, but he placed his confidence in the God who did know!
Here’s the good news in the text – even though the bones were dry, it meant that something was once alive (had nothing been alive in the first place, there would have been no bones left behind.) God was going to take something that was currently dead and make it live again. This is revival! It’s restoring life that has been dead – even if it’s been dead for a long time. When the powerful Word of God is proclaimed, when the life-giving breath of God is received, when the life-transforming presence of the Spirit of God is activated, dry bones begin to rattle! Dry bones stand up and walk again! Dry bones come to life to the glory and honor of the Almighty God! And there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind that it was only the hand of God himself who pulled off the impossible and brought the dead back to life!
Are you desperate for the miracle of revival in your life?
Are you desperate for the miracle of revival in our church?
Pray that God will breathe on you – on us – the breath of life. Pray that His Spirit will be poured out on you – on us – with a new, fresh power and anointing. Pray that you – that we – may live.