First of all let me say to you tonight: I didn’t come here just to preach, I came to prophesy (I came with the word of the Lord in my mouth) and I came to decree and declare that tonight is a night of resurrection and restoration.
It doesn’t matter what it looks like, or sounds like or feels like, I came to prophesy transformation.
There is nothing too hard for the God we serve.
I don’t know what your situation or your problem or dilemma is tonight but I can tell you this (God is bigger than that).
He can turn a red sea into a super highway.
He can cause water to flow out of a rock like a river.
He can open blind eyes, unstop deaf ears, make the lame to walk, restore missing body parts.
He can burn cancer out of your body.
He can raise the dead, walk on water, calm the storm, feed the multitude with a sack lunch.
He can save the drug addict deliver them and set them free, and fill them with the Holy Ghost in one step.
He can heal broken hearts, restore marriages and put families back together again.
I just want to remind you that God can do anything:
Our text begins by saying (He set me down in a valley full of bones):
Notice the scriptures are very clear that this valley is filled with bones, it does not say bodies it says bones.
That’s not a very encouraging picture
It is speaking of brokenness, separation, confusion, disorder, and of course pain.
This scene tells us that there has been a very violent encounter that has created great chaos and destruction, misery and pain.
I’m talking to someone right now who knows exactly what I’m talking about, you have personally experienced something in your own life that has caused a brokenness, and separation and has brought disorder and pain into your life and it has left you hurt and confused.
And the bible says: And these bones were very dry
In other words what it is saying is that the Joy of living was gone.
In the bible Moisture and water speaks of life.
Pro 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Broken here means (wounded) (smitten) (afflicted)
So these bones speak to us of lives that have been wounded, hearts that have been broken, smitten, afflicted.
I know most of us walked in here tonight looking good, smelling good, most of us had a smile on our faces, but the truth is (somebody here tonight is hurting, somebody here listening to this message is smiling on the outside but you are crying on the inside).
Somebody here is suffering from a broken heart, somebody has lost the moisture of life, the joy of living is gone and you are just going through the motions.
Somebody listening to this message, has been wounded: That’s just part of life, it’s going to happen sooner or later.
The bible says: Lu 17:1 It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
The problem is that many who have suffered and been offended and been wounded, have never gotten healed, and if a wound does not heal it will become infected and poison will begin to enter the body and get in the blood stream and if it is not caught soon enough it will kill you.
Oh I’m not criticizing anybody, I’m not putting you down, and I’m not making fun of you. (It happens to everyone) It happens to Pastors, It happens to Evangelists, It happens to Prophets, because we’re all people and if you live long enough somebody is going to hurt you.
Somebody is going to break your heart, (somebody is going to lie on you, steal from you, cheat on you, abuse you, take advantage of you, somebody is going to say something to you that is going to wound you.
That’s called life: And if you don’t get healed, your heart will become dry and calloused and hard, and you will become dull and insensitive and indifferent, and you’ll find yourself just going through the motions, playing a roll.
God supernaturally, divinely, and sovereignly deposits his prophet into the middle of this tremendous misery and chaos.
I think I need to say right here, that when you surrender your life to God and commit yourself to serve him) you are not in charge of where he sends you.
God is like the military in this respect: He will put you where you are needed.
God put his prophet where he needed him and he told him to prophesy
Vs 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied there was a noise and a shaking.
As I prophesied: not as I preached, or sang, or even prayed, but (prophesied)
To prophesy in this context means to boldly declare audibly what was been revealed to be the divine will and purpose of God in a particular situation or circumstance.
As the divine revealed will and purpose of God was declared over these bones (there was a noise), It doesn’t say what kind of noise it was but I believe it was the noise of bones hitting other bones, because it says (there was a shaking) in other words there was a work that was taking place deep on the inside, of those bones and they were shaking under the anointing of the Power of God that was being released in the realm of the prophetic.
That word got into those bones (Somebody said, can the word get in your bones?)
Jeremiah said it could: He said your word was like fire shut up in my bones.
As these bones were shaking they began to move around and they begin to knock up against each other.
In other words: there began to be some fellowship, and communication.
Where there had been complete isolation separation and division, now there was contact and communication.
I’m going to stop right here and say something: Just because you are in the same place at the same time, doesn’t mean that there is fellowship and communion.
Just because you are singing from the same song book, and listening to the same sermon doesn’t mean you love each other.
There are families that live under the same roof that seldom ever speak to each other, they never sit down to dinner together, and not because they’re so busy (it’s because they don’t want to).
There are husbands and wives that sleep in the same bed, but resent being touched by each other, and there are churches in the same shape.
There are people sitting in our churches today that can’t stand each other, they sit on opposite sides of the church and cut their eyes back and forth, and criticize everything they see each other say and do.
There are people sitting in our churches that have unforgiveness, and resentment, and bitterness in their hearts.
There are people sitting in our churches today that resist and resent anything fresh and new, and they rebel against anything different.
These bones represent a church that is in a mess, lives that are in a mess there is strife, and envy and confusion, there is competition and pride and resentment there’s rebellion and selfishness.
And the result is: The spirit is gone
The life is gone, the joy is gone, the anointing is gone
(They were very dry)
But while Ezekiel Prophesied The Spirit of God began doing a work from the inside out: You see I have discovered that we have learned how to hide our stuff.
We have learned how to have pride and unforgiveness and resentment and still shout: We have learned how to dress up rebellion in religion and tradition and oppose anything God tries to do.
I don’t know what your reason for being dry is tonight:
I don’t know if somebody hurt you, somebody took advantage of you, I don’t know if you just decided you were going to be resentful and selfish and rebellious.
I don’t know if somebody broke your heart and now you’re calloused and indifferent and dry.
But I know that the same God that brought these bones back to life is here right now.
As Ezekiel Prophesied something began to happen not just to those bones, but in those bones.
(You’ve heard the old timers use the phrase, I can feel it in my bones)
Something started happening in those bones:
We get all excited about what we see happen to those bones, but I’m just as excited about what you couldn’t see happening in those bones.
You see before sinew, and the flesh, and the skin, there was an (inner healing) that took place, While the prophet was prophesying something was happening in the realm of the spirit, in the hidden place.
While Ezekiel was prophesying : Confusion was leaving, anger was leaving, brokenness and hurt and disappointment was leaving. Criticism and jealousy, selfishness and pride and competition was leaving.
What I’m telling you tonight is that God doesn’t do a half way job.
(It’s not just about looking good.)
It’s not about knowing how to have church, knowing when to shout, when to cry, when to lift your hands, when to dance.
It’s about being healed, and restored, it’s about the Joy of the Lord that is our strength, it’s about having the Spirit of God on the inside flowing through me like a river.
It’s about a life that glorifies God.
I choose to be healed
I choose to forgive, I choose to be merciful, I choose to be understanding and kind. I choose to believe the best about everybody.
I can’t see your heart, the people sitting around you can’t see your heart, but God sees our hearts, and (what we don’t see, is just as important or more important than what we do see.)
Before these bones could be brought together as this mighty army of God; these bones had to be healed.
Every broken, hurt, angry, resentful, critical, spirit had to go, Unforgiveness had to go, jealousy had to go, strife had to go, rebellion had to go.
Before these bones could come together they had to healed internally, and it’s still true today, there are many churches that from appearances they have got it all together, they look good from the outside, they have the form and the structure, but inside they’re all messed up, because they have let malice and strife and resentment and unforgiveness get in and now they’re just going through the motions.
How many marriages today are just going through the motions?
How many of Gods people today have lost their first love, lost their hunger and lost their passion for God, and now they’re just going through the motions.
I didn’t come to criticize you, I didn’t come to accuse you or put you down, I came to prophesy to you.
I came to prophesy to the dry bones tonight, I came to prophesy life, I came to prophesy restoration and healing.
I came to prophesy new beginnings.
Tonight is a night of new beginnings, tonight is a night of restoration, tonight is a night of resurrection.
Marriages are going to be resurrected tonight
Ministries are going to be resurrected tonight
Friendships are going to be resurrected tonight
Dreams are going to be resurrected tonight
Can these bones live again?
Yes they can
Yes they will
There is a healing anointing in this house right now: The power of God is beginning to flow through this place.
Tonight is a night of resurrection and restoration.
The Spirit of God is moving in the secret places, the healing oil of God is saturating the bones tonight.
Rejection is being healed, anger and unforgiveness is being healed, bitterness and hatred is being healed, fear and confusion and disorder is being healed.
The wind of God is blowing through this place right now
(I prophesy to the wind, come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live)
The wind is blowing tonight: The wind of God is blowing through this place and it’s blowing out discouragement, it’s blowing out fear and anxiety, stress and worry, it’s blowing out hopelessness and confusion, it’s blowing out sickness and depression.
Somebody lift your hands and tell God you need the wind
Tell God to blow on you:
Invite the breath of God to blow through your lives right now
There’s resurrection in the house (there’s restoration in the house) there’s transformation in the house.
God is building his army and he’s not putting together a bunch of broken, wounded, angry, hurt, frustrated, hateful, stubborn, selfish, old bones.
This army is made up of lives that have been healed, restored, transformed, made whole, complete in Christ.
I came to this house like Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones:
I came to prophesy to the bones that have lost their joy.
Bones that have been hurt
Bones that have been mistreated, bones that have been lied on, bones that have been betrayed.
Bones that have become discouraged and frustrated.
Bones that have forgotten how to dream.
Bones that have settled, bones that have adjusted to a life of mediocrity and low living.
I came to prophesy to you and declare to you with prophetic authority:
It ain’t over
*You will love again
*You will dream again
*You will sing again
*You will laugh again
*You will preach again
You’re going to get your joy back, you’re going to get your peace back, and you’re going to get your dance back.
I know I’m talking to some people that took a good hit, the devil hit you hard and it knocked the breath out of you, but God said he’s breathing new life into you tonight.
Can these bones live?
Can they ever be what they were intended be?
Will they ever be the mighty army of God?
Yes they can, Yes they will, Yes they are
