DRY BONES SHALL RISE AGAIN

Text: Ezekiel 37: 1-14 

 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. ² 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. ³ He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath^[a] enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ 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.’”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘this is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ 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.’”

·         The passage we just read was a vision, not a literal event, which God showed to Ezekiel. It speaks of the plan of God for the Israelites who at the time were in hopeless captivity. Their condition was symbolized by dead and dry bones lying in the open valley. What could be more hopeless than that?

·         Let me describe it this way so you can understand. When a man is sick, what do you do? You take him to hospital? Why? Because there is hope. You will not fall sick! But when a sick man dies, what do you say? Hope is loss, or it is finish? But you know, if you have faith, we can pray and he will come back to life. Of course, there examples in the bible. The widow whose son was dead, Jesus met them and said weep not. He touched the coffin and the dead boy came to life. God will put an end to your weeping tonight.

·         So, hope is not loss even after a man has died. But when a dead man is buried, what do you say? All hope is lost. But with God, even Lazarus was raised back to life. I have heard testimonies how people who were dead and in mortuary came back to life. Whatever is hopeless in your life will receive new life

·         But what do you say, a dead man, buried, rotten, and dry bone, is there hope again? So you now understand Ezekiel when God ask him, can these bone live? And he answered; only you know! I decree, the kind of miracle that has not happened before will happen to somebody before the end of this year. Who is that person?

·         So from this vision God showed Ezekiel that no matter how hopeless a situation is, it can be fixed. Dry bones can live again! So, the first point you note tonight, there is no hopeless situation. All things are impossible with God and with him that believes.

·         Ezekiel said to God, I know you raise the dead. But O Lord, can a dry bone live? I don’t doubt your power, but only you know! Can make a first class? Only you know! Can I be hot for God after messing up in sin? Only you know! Can I end rich and wealthy considering my poor background and the opportunities I had missed in life? Only you know!

·         Is there any situation you are hopeless about, let me announce to believers here, dry bones will live again.

·         God said to Ezekiel, I know you think the situation is hopeless. These are real situations, dead, dried and lying open in the valley. However, God was going to use the instrumentality of the two of the most powerful force of the universe; the same force he used in creating the world that we now. ‘For in the beginning God made heaven and earth…and the earth was without form  but…spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep, then God said…’

·         The two forces I am speaking are the power of the spoken word and the power of the Holy Ghost! With these two forces, all things are changeable. By it, all things possible. So write it down, through the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, dry bones will rise again

·         Let’s talk the power of God’s spoken word. The Lord to Ezekiel, Prophesy son of man! Let somebody say, I prophesy. Look at your situation and say I prophesy! Look at your neighbor and say, I prophecy.

·         I need you to sink in your spirit man, consider your confession in the time of confusion for it determines the conclusion of your condition

·         It is time to stop describing your situation and start declaring your expectation

·         It is time to stop speaking or talking about your mountain and start speaking to your mountain. Jesus said in Mark 11: 23, if you say to this mountain, be removed and be cast into sea… he didn’t say, speak about the mountain; tells us how big it is; how permanent it is; how unmovable it is; how insurmountable it seems; he says, speak to it… let somebody holla, you mountain, be removed in the name of Jesus.

·         Don’t tell God how big your mountain is; tell your mountain how big your God is. Let me tell you something, there is miracle in your mouth; life is your mouth; power is your mouth; healing in your mouth.

·         Proverbs 10:11 "The mouth of the righteous is a well of life. . ." say life

·         Proverbs 12:6 ". . . the mouth of the upright will deliver them."  Say deliverance

·         Proverbs 12:14 "A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth . . ." say satisfaction and prosperity

·         Proverbs 12:18 ". . . the tongue of the wise promotes health." Say health

·         Proverbs 14:3 “. . . the lips of the wise will preserve them." Say preservation

·         I speak life to you, I speak deliverance, satisfaction, healing and health, preservation; abundance to you in Jesus name

·         You see, God will not do for you what you should do yourself. But then, I heard Ezekiel said, O lord, do something about this situation. But God responded, O son, prophesy. You see, God will not do for you what you should do yourself. They went about preaching the word and the lord himself confirms it with signs. Mark 16: 20. To preach means to prophesy, to announce, to publicize. You are prophesy, God’s part is to confirm it with signs following

·         I see us Christians think we can bribe God with fasting or praises when he is waiting for us to prophesy. We wait endlessly on him to come down to do what he has empowered us to do here on earth.

·         Romans 10: 6-11, "But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' “(that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “‘who will descend into the abyss?' " (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

·         When you says O God, come down, God will say, O son, why are you there? Son of Man, prophesy. Job 22: 28 you will declare or decree a thing and it shall be established. You need to start declaring your expectation.

·         ⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones:

·         You must declare what God says not what or how you feel. When you declare what God has said, it becomes a decree for angels and demons to obey. Psalm 103: 20 Bless the LORD, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word!

·         That means you must know the bible. Study it, store it and say it. This book of the law must not depart from where? Your mouth!

·         So when you add your voice to his word, it becomes a commandment for angels to obey. KJV says… that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

·         Then be careful what you say to a situation, for the power of death and life is in the tongue. If it cross your mind don’t say it with your mouth for the moment you verbalize your fear, you empower it and dominates your life. On the contrary, counter the negative thoughts that cross your mind.

·         When you prophesy and you kept prophesying, bones will locate bone; joint will locates joints; things that a jointed will be coming into place; all things will begin to work together for your good. Loss times will be regained; beneficiary relationship will come back; opportunities will be restored.

·         How many of you have something you want to prophesy about right now?

·         The second force is the power of the Holy Ghost. Please note that you must keep prophesying until your joy is full. Keep saying it until you see it. God said to Ezekiel, prophesy again, Son of man, to the wind.

·         The wind is a symbol of the Holy Ghost. Act 2: 2 there came a rushing mighty wind and fills the place where they were gathered.

·         He is also breath of life according to Genesis 2. He is the life giving, power infusing person of the Godhead. He is called ruach, life giving spirit.  For ‘it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh profiteth nothing, the words I speak to you they are spirit and they life’. Someone is getting a new life right now!

·         Then God said… I will make breath^[a] enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ 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.’”

·         Why is this important? When you prophesy, God deals with your situation. But when he breathes into you, he empowers your person.

·         It is the plan of God, not to only deal with your tough situation but to make you tough for any situation. God want to empower you. Jesus said to the disciples, wait until you are endowed with power. Act 1: 8 you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon. The Holy Ghost will come upon somebody tonight.

·         One mighty thing that happens when the Holy Ghost come upon a man is someone who is naturally ordinarily will suddenly become supernaturally extra ordinary.

·         If you look at that passage, in vs. 10 it reads ‘So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army’. By the time the Holy Ghost fell upon them, dry bones became a vast army.

·         Before they died and their hope was lost, they were ordinarily but by the time God restored them, they came back stronger. You are coming back better and stronger than you used to be in Jesus name.

·         When the breath of the Almighty came upon Peter, an ordinary fisherman became a wonder to the world; though uneducated, he dazzled the professors. As we pray tonight, though you are wanderer, you will become a wonder.

·         When the Holy Ghost comes upon, your weakness will be supernaturally turned to superlative strength. You operate with a supersonic ability. The first evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost is that you begin to speak with new tongues; you longer talk failure, defeat, and disappointment. You begin to…and prophesy. You will be announcing great future that God has in stock for you.

·         How many of you want God to breathe on you?