Encouragement
DRY BONES SHALL RISE AGAIN!
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Ezekiel 37:1-10;
In Prophet Ezekiel’s vision of valley of dry bones, the limitless power of the Almighty God to bring about restoration in situations which are considered completely hopeless or irredeemable, was brought to the fore. The vision indeed was a reflection of the condition of the children of Israel at the time of their captivity and how God intended to bring about divine restoration to their nation. The situation in which the children of Israel found themselves at that moment was truly a pathetic one: the whole nation had been under severe attacks from enemies and nations roundabout; they had been forcefully driven out of their inheritance and had been dismembered and scattered all over the neighboring countries in bondage and servitude to the Syrians, Assyrians, Babylonians etc. It is a pity that the children of Israel who once possessed towering image of glory and honour among all nations of the earth, have now degenerated to what is now being described as ‘dry bones’!
From Prophet Ezekiel’s assessment of the heaps of dry bones in the valley, it is obvious that the situation was completely hopeless. Humanly speaking, no one can ever imagine or expect restoration or any good from the situation. If somebody is sick but he’s not dead yet, you can talk about healing or recovery; but how about if a person is not only dead but has stayed several years in the grave, the body having completely decomposed leaving only very dry skeleton which has been totally dismembered and scattered? No wonder Prophet Ezekiel, with all the great experiences he has previously had in the supernatural, still had no answer for God other than ‘O Lord GOD, thou knowest’, when asked if those bones could live. Indeed it takes only the Almighty God to conceive or imagine bringing back to vibrant life of totally dried and dismembered bones!
God has always demonstrated His supreme power to do the impossible through the ages. For instance when Christ received the news of Lazarus’ illness, He did not rush to pray for his recovery but rather showed up when Lazarus had been dead for four days! Mary and Martha the sisters of Lazarus would not comprehend the reason why Christ would not show up at once when their brother was sick and all he needed was healing, but came after he was dead and buried for four days. Truth is, if Christ had come to heal Lazarus the same hour He was invited by the family, that would not have made big news, but Christ coming to raise Lazarus after he had been dead and buried four days, indeed brought greater glory to God, and of course made great news! Many a times we wonder why God does not show up at our own time, when the situations, in our own assessment, are still redeemable. We seem to often forget that with the Almighty God, no situation, no matter how terrible, can be considered hopeless or irredeemable. It’s certain that your condition, no matter how horrible you think it is, can never be compared with that of Lazarus or the dry bones in the valley. If God was able to cause total restoration in those situations, I am sure your situation cannot be too difficult for Him to handle. With God nothing shall be impossible!
It is worthy of note that from the very beginning to the end of the process which culminated in raising of the dry bones back to life, Prophet Ezekiel was actively involved. Ezekiel’s involvement was simple: God commanded him to prophesy life, breath and restoration to the dry bones until a mighty army emerged, and he did exactly that! If the dry bones must rise again in your life, marriage, ministry, career and business, you must realize that you have a part to play. You must be ready to declare God’s word which is able to bring life and cause the birth of His beautiful purpose concerning the ugly situations you find yourself. Why did God need Ezekiel to prophesy before the dry bones could come back to life? God is simply making a statement that He needs man’s mouth to bring about his miracle! It is you that will declare, prophesy and confess God’s word to cause divine restoration and change in your situation.
Who could have ever imagined that the heap of life-less dry bones lying waste and dismembered in the valley were those of a mighty army? God already saw a great army in those dry bones, and that was why He was interested in causing divine restoration. God never sees your situation as hopeless and irredeemable; in fact His earnest desire is to cause divine restoration of all situations you have considered hopeless and fruitless. Never conclude it’s over for you, God will arise in your situation today. Never lose hope, arise and declare ‘DRY BONES SHALL RISE AGAIN’!
Ezekiel Olukolajo
(c) August 2012
contact: [email protected]
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