Lessons From Somedry Bones Series

Although I’m certainly far from perfecting this principle in my own life, I’m really grateful for the opportunity to have participated on two different occasions in a small group that completed the “Experiencing God” Bible study developed by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. That study is built around this principle. The words that Blackaby writes in Unit 9 are particularly relevant for us this morning:

To experience Him at work in and through you, you must obey Him. When you obey Him, He will accomplish His work through you, and you will come to know Him by experience.

Sounds exactly like what Ezekiel did here, doesn’t it?

3. Spiritual growth is a slow process

The dry bones didn’t come back to life instantaneously. Although we have no idea how long it took, it is clear from the passage that there was a process involved here. First the bones came together. Then they were connected by sinews. Then flesh came upon them and finally they were covered by skin. But there was still no life in the bones. So God instructed Ezekiel to prophesy a second time and God gives breath to the bodies so that they might live. There are certainly some parallels here to the creation account in Genesis where man doesn’t become a living being until God breathes the breath of life into him.

In this world where we have instant everything – even Starbucks now makes instant coffee – we want spiritual growth to come quickly so that we can be done with it and get on to the next item on our to do list. But from cover to cover, the Bible consistently demonstrates that spiritual growth is a long, methodical process that will never end, even beyond the grave.

If there is anyone in history who could have claimed to have finished this process of spiritual growth, it would have to have been Paul. But sometimes when we read the accounts of his life and ministry we don’t see just how long his process of spiritual growth was. From the time he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, it was 12-14 years before he embarked on his first missionary journey. And nearly 20 years later, near the end of his ministry, Paul writes these familiar words from his jail cell.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

Philippians 3:12-15 (ESV)

Even after nearly 30 years of studying, preaching, planting churches and writing letters that would become a significant portion of our New Testament, Paul understood that he still hadn’t arrived. And if that is true of Paul’s life, then just think of how far we all still have to go in our spiritual journey.