Prophesy To The Bones

prayer over the Word and what we'll receive.

So, lord, we, just we honor you right now.

We thank you for the Word of God that you've poured out for us and, father, we receive it tonight.

We get our receivers ready.

We thank you, lord.

We are going to hear the Word of the Lord.

It's going to come alive to us and then we're going to do and act on it.

Lord, in ways, holy Spirit, that you're going to show us as you move upon it, and in Jesus name, lord, we hear exactly what we need to hear.

We rightly divide it Amen and amen.

Well, that's great.

I want everybody to turn with me, if you would.

My dad always says teach what you take for granted, and so this is a familiar verse to many of you, mature believers.

But we're going to read out of Ezekiel, chapter 37.

Ezekiel 37 · chapter mention

When you saw my title, many of you may have known it, but I want to encourage you from the word.

Tonight there's power in this chapter, it's a prophetic chapter and so let's just dissect it.

It's so relevant to today and that's why there are so many literally there's so many songs, worship songs and sayings, and we hear even in pop culture there are references to this passage and I think it just goes right over our heads.

So I thought it would be great tonight to just go through it verse by verse, and it will mean something to you.

I know that God is showing you.

There are so many ways to apply it, so let's just go through it right now.

It's chapter 37, verse 1.

The hand of the Lord came upon me.

Who is me?

Ezekiel the prophet?

He was also a priest and this was during a time when his people, the people of Israel, were being taken captive by Babylon and they were watching their whole system of life crumble and decay around them and they must have felt so hopeless.

And that's why God had prophets like Ezekiel.

Jeremiah kind of overlapped him a little bit, and they were there to prophesy hope back into the people of Israel.

How many of you relate?

It might relate to how some of us feel about our nation today.

So he said the people of Israel.

How many of you relate?

It might relate to how some of us feel about our nation today.

So he said, the spirit of the Lord brought me out and set me down in the midst of the valley and it was full of bones, and then he caused me to pass by them all around and behold, there were very many in the open valley and indeed they were very dry, the bones were dry.

And so there, when you think about a valley of bones, we learn later that is actually an entire army that has perished in this valley.

So the measure of the destruction that Ezekiel is witnessing here in this vision is catastrophic.

This was once a great army, and now it's not only kind of dead, it's really dead and the bones are dried up and everything looks completely lost and hopeless.

Here was this army.

It was full of young men, full of promise, in the prime of their lives.

An entire army of such men, and each and every one of them were cut down, completely annihilated, defeated, and they weren't even buried properly.

That was the ultimate dishonor in the Jewish community to never to be that your bones would just sit out in the elements for birds to come eat your flesh and for the wind and the sun to beat down.

That was such a humiliation.

It was such a such a crush.

I want you to feel the crushing defeat here that Israel had.

They were feeling that.

And so here he is in this valley of bones.

There were many, and the bones were dry.

And then God speaks.

When you are in the valley of bones, you better have God speaking to you.

And this is what God said son of man, can these bones live?

And sometimes we need to look at our situation and say can these bones live?

And so I answered Ezekiel answers the Lord.

Oh, lord, god.

You know there's humility there.

He didn't say God, look at the bones.

No way, he did not try to answer God, look at the bones.

No way, he did not try to answer.

He knew he had a reverence for God, he knew that it was an all powerful God and he knew better than to limit the Holy One of Israel.

And so he couldn't answer.

He didn't know the answer.

But he said God, you know the answer.

And again God said to him prophesy to these bones and say to them oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord, prophesy to them, hear the word of the Lord.

When we prophesy over our situation, when we speak the word of God over something that is dead, then God can work with it.

When Ezekiel prophesied over the bones, you can see that his eye of faith begins to activate, that no longer is he seeing this destruction, but he is starting to feel hope.

He's starting to see and speak the hope that's so important, to speak the hope out of his mouth.

So again, god said prophesy to the bones.

Say to them oh dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus said the Lord God to these bones surely I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live.

I will put sinews on you, I will bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

It reminds me of the verse that says with man is impossible, with God all things are possible.

And another time Jesus said all things are possible to him who believes.

And so verse seven.

So I prophesied, as I was commanded.

And as I prophesied, there was a noise and suddenly a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone.

Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them over, but there was no breath in them.

So already God is responding to his word being spoken over this dead situation, over this dead army, over men.

Nothing is happening in this valley until the word of the Lord is spoken, until God's vision comes to pass, and then there is a sound.

There's a sound.

I'm looking at my comments right here.

I'm seeing if anybody else can think of a time when there was a sound, when the Holy Spirit came in and he revived some people who were down.

Maybe that happened in the upper room in Acts 2, when there came a sound like a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were seated.

The disciples were in that condition.

They were discouraged, they were sad.

They had watched Jesus be crucified, but then he did rise from the dead, but then he left them.

He arose back into heaven, he ascended and they were left here on earth with what looked like a mess.

But then the Holy Spirit brought a sound.

The Holy Spirit came in like a rushing mighty wind, and so that same spirit here in Ezekiel's vision comes in and it rattles the bones.

There's a song about that.

Are y'all singing the song in your mind?

It's rattling the bones.

There's a song about that.

Are y'all singing the song in your mind?

It's rattling the bones.

And so the bones came together, bone to bone.

Have any of y'all ever worked a jigsaw puzzle?

I like to work those.

I only do it when I'm on vacation because I turn into a weird addict and I can't get anything else done.

But when I'm on vacation I always bring a new puzzle with me, and my kids used to do it with me when they were little and now they're tired of it.

But if ever I go on vacation, I look for a large table somewhere where I can lay out my puzzle, and so I like to.

So this was a puzzle.

There were bones everywhere, and which body went to what you know?

God knows.

God knows how to put all the broken pieces back together.

If he formed man out of the dust of the earth, how much more will he be able to put your broken situation back together in one piece, and in fact many pieces.

He knows where they all go and how they fit Someday, someday in the resurrection.

Everybody who's ever died in faith, believing they are going to be resurrected, and I don't know where their atoms are going to come from, all over the earth.

If they died at sea, if they died and they've already been they passed away and their bones are dry.

But God's going to reassemble those.

He's going to take the atomic particles from all over the world and he's going to put us all back together.

God can do anything and he is amazing and he's awesome.

And so these bones came back together, bone to bone, and indeed I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them over, but there was no breath.

So, again, just as the word of the Lord said, step by step by step, god restored it, and so there was already this miracle.

It was a partial miracle, but it wasn't done yet.

Can y'all relate?

Have y'all, or some of you, are walking in the middle of a situation and you've seen God move, you've seen God do some amazing things.

It's amazing for there to be a whole army of people.

It was bones, and then we saw some connective tissue on there, and then we saw some guts come on there, and then the skin.

Wow, okay, now we've got some dead bodies.

That's getting somewhere, but they're not alive yet.

So there, there needed to be.

What happened, what had to happen?

Now, again, more word, more prophecy, more speaking, the word over the situation, more of that.

And so he said to me prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, o, breath and breathe on these slain that they may live.

And so I prophesied, as he commanded me, and breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet, and exceedingly great army.

And so they responded to the word of God that was spoken.

These bones responded Now they're not bones anymore, they're not dead bodies anymore, they are.

They're not just barely alive.

You know, jesus wasn't just barely raised from the dead.

Lazarus wasn't just barely raised from the dead.

This army wasn't just barely you weren't just barely saved, you weren't just barely redeemed.

They came up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

They were strong, they were full of fighting force.

They had been cut down in the prime of their lives and now they are reassembled together in the prime of their lives, ready to fight again.

And that is what God is doing in these last days.

And so verse 11, then he said to me son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

Now we know what it all means.

Hi, miss Elaine, I see that you're watching.

Hi, pastor Joseph Davis, I see that you're watching.

He said to me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

They indeed say our bones are dry, our hope is lost and we ourselves are cut off.

So, in other words, the situation looks so bad, it looks so hopeless.

And they had been agreeing, their mouths had been agreeing with the situation, and they looked at their state and they felt sorry for themselves.

No one can blame them.

It was a dire situation.

They had been as a people because of idolatry in the land.

In fact, the whole book of Ezekiel.

It starts out pronouncing some judgment on the people of Israel and the whole nation because they had forsaken God for idols, and then it proclaims judgment over the other nations around Israel.

And so then, after all of this judgment, judgment, judgment, now there's hope.

Now God said it's not going to be like that forever.

My mercy is real and I'm going to come and I'm going to bring you back together.

And so they thought it was hopeless.

Therefore, prophesy and say to them verse 12, thus says the Lord God behold, oh my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel, and then you shall know that I am the Lord.

When I have opened your graves, oh my people, and brought you up from your graves, I will put my spirit in you.

Everybody say that's me.

I want more of the spirit of God.

I will put my spirit in you and you shall live and I will place you in your own land.

Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and performed.

It says the Lord.

What he speaks, he does what God speaks, he does.

So when we agree with what he says, by listen to what the prophet did.

So, when we agree with what he says, by listen to what the prophet did, every time God told him, say my word, the prophet said his word.

And when God tells us, speak the word, we need to speak the word.

We do not need to speak the situation, however bad it is, whatever it looks like on the outside.

And it looks, and it's true, it's real.

You're experiencing your pain.

It is real to you.

And it looks, and it's true, it's real.

Your experience, your pain, it is real to you.

And yet you know what's more real.

What's more real is God's word.

What's more real is what he wants to do in you.

What's real is the potential.

You can see the acorn.

The acorn is just a little round seed.

There's nothing special about it, but when God looks at an acorn, he sees the tree and he sees all of the trees going back in history, that the genetic path that produced that one seed, and he sees the genetic path of that tree going forward.

He sees the entirety of the situation and when he looks at you, that's what he sees the genetic path of that tree going forward.

He sees the entirety of the situation and when he looks at you, that's what he sees.

And so we need to learn how to see what God sees.

We need to learn how to speak his word and not just the little thing that we can see on the outside.

And why.

So let me just do a little study here about Israel, because this was written to Israel.

This was written to encourage them that hey, you're right now, you're being banished from your land because of your sin.

It said that actually in Ezekiel 36, you can read that when you verse 16, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds.

To me, their way was like the uncleanness.

It was bad.

Okay, it was bad.

And so God said no, you can't stay in the land, you're defiling it, you're messing it up.

So we've got to have a detour here.

But why was it so important that the people of Israel be in their land.

And so, when you think about it, god's entire plan of redemption he has a plan of redemption for you.

He has already inactivated.

He's activated it in you.

If you're a born again believer, you've already been redeemed, but maybe he's in the process of redeeming some bad situations in your life.

He's a redeemer, he's a restorer.

But when I'm talking about all of mankind, though, the plan of redemption, you know, adam's fall made a wall of separation between God and man, and God knew there was only one way to heal it.

It was going to be Jesus.

It was going to be the birth of his own son into the world.

But and he prophesied the birth of this son to his servant, abraham, abraham being the father of all the Jewish nation and he told Abraham I'm going to bless you, I'm going to make you, I'm going to make you a father of many nations.

So I'm going to bless you.

I'm going to make you a father of many nations, so I'm going to give you a big family and I'm going to give you a land.

You're going to dwell in that land that I give you and through that family and in that land, I'm going to have a great blessing for all mankind.

That was Abraham's threefold promise.

You're going to have a lot of kids like the stars in the sky.

You're going to have a big family, there are going to be many nations and you have land.

And then there's a blessing.

And so Jesus couldn't be born until the nation of Israel, the people, were preserved as a nation and that that nation dwelt in that land and then the Redeemer could be born.

And so everything about the entire Old Testament if you understand that everything God does in the entire Old Testament is to preserve his nation, to preserve the people, to preserve the children of Abraham and to get them in their land living a holy life somehow, some way, so that his son could be born into the world and we could have redemption through Jesus Christ Amen.

So that's the whole of the entire Old Testament, have redemption through Jesus Christ, amen.

So that's the whole of the entire Old Testament.

So it was really important and you know what it's really important that you dwell in your land that God is giving you.

You know we are.

Jesus came.

He came the first time so that he could come the second time, and we are the last day people.

We are the latter day church and we get to usher in the presence of God, we get to usher in the second coming.

The Jews got to usher in the first coming of Jesus and we get to usher in the second coming.

So it's very important that we learn how to possess our land, how to prophesy over things that are dead, how to see things like God sees them, and so this applies on so many levels, and I noticed that number one okay, israel, we're going to apply it just to Israel.

Then we're going to apply it to us.

Now we're going to apply it to the body of Christ.

So in Israel, she in this situation in Ezekiel, she is dead, she's divided.

You've got the two kingdoms of Israel in the south, and Samaria is their capital.

You've got Judah in the north, and Jerusalem is their capital, and they hate each other, but they're all children of Abraham and God says I need you to get along.

In fact, later in this chapter, he tells us how they can be restored as one land.

And, uh, but they were not in this situation.

They were completely, uh, divided and they have been conquered by Babylon.

Um, and they were cut down and they felt like that army of bones and then, but yet God's saying I'm going to restore you in stages, first the sinews, then the flesh, then the skin on the flesh and then the breath, the breath.

In John, chapter 20, remember the disciples?

John 20 · chapter mention

They're so discouraged Jesus has.

They're confused.

They've watched the crucifixion.

It was so awful, it was so horrific.

And now Jesus is arisen from the dead and he's appearing to them and they can't believe their eyes.

And he says to them in John 20, verse 21,.

John 20:21

Jesus said to them peace to you.

As the father has sent me, I also send you.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit, the breath of life.

The breath of life is what that army needed.

It's what the early church needed in the book of Acts, it's what the latter day church needs.

We need the breath of life.

We have been inactive, at best.

You know some would look at the church in, especially in America, the American church, and we got a little bit soft, we got complacent, we did not recognize what time it was in history and we did not see the attack of the enemy that came against us and has made tremendous inroads into our nation.

We inherited a wonderful nation that served God in many of its policies and laws and was a force for good in the world.

And if we don't act, if we don't rise up, that is not the nation that we are passing to our own kids, and so that I believe that the people of God are key to that.

Right now, in this time, we have got to revive, we have got to begin to take authority in our own land again and we need to possess and occupy until Jesus comes.

You know, back then Jesus couldn't come until the Jews were in their land.

And now Jesus can't come until we are a strong church that's preaching the gospel to every people group on earth and we are without spot and wrinkle.

And he's coming for a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle.

We've got to be that glorious bride that's holy, that's so passionate and excited.

We can't be laying here like dry bones.

We've got to be passionate and excited and have the breath of life on us and excited about the Lord.

And so then, and in stages you know, I don't know where we are on this timeline, but I just know Ezekiel 37, 38, 39, 36, 37, 38, 39.

Those are very prophetic timing.

That's a very prophetic time because right after Ezekiel 37, then you have the reunification of Israel, then you have Gog and Magog, and I'm not going to get real deep in this, but you know you have Russia and China that now that joined forces and attack the mountains of Israel, and then God defends her, and then, when God defends her, their great army that comes against Israel.

This is pertinent because there's another great army that is defeated, only this time it's not God's people that are defeated, it's the devil's people that are defeated.

And if you keep reading in Ezekiel 37, 38, 39, that army, the evil army, comes into a valley and they are defeated, and it takes the Israel, the people of God.

It takes them seven months to bury all of the bones.

And so what I see is that we're in a time where God wants to turn things around.

What was dead is coming to life again, what was a defeat and a crushing, just a misery for the people of God.

God is turning our captivity, and so I want you to turn with me to Psalm 126.

This has been such a.

If you feel captive tonight, if you feel like the devil has played some cards on you and you didn't have the right answer at the time and maybe you feel, you know, tempted to be hopeless.

I hope this encourages you.

Tonight, when the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream, and then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongues with singing, and they said, among the nations the Lord has done great things for them.

The Lord has done great things for us and we are glad.

Bring back our captivity, o Lord, as streams in the south, those who sow in tears shall reap in joy, and he who continually goes.

There is a turning of our captivity, there is a reversal, and what the devil meant for evil, god is turning it for your good.

He is redeeming those things he is causing Romans 8, 28,.

All things that are working together.

He's causing those for them to work for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

But there are just a few things that I see there back in Ezekiel 37.

Just recapping, when you look at your situation and you think, can it live?

Can the dry bones live, the thing I see is humility.

Oh God, lord, god, you know we need to recognize that we don't have the answer in ourselves.

There is nothing, there is no power that we have in our own mental capabilities, in our own strength, whatever great plan we thought we had, is not enough to raise an army from the dead.

There is no political power, there is no force of man, there is no great idea from the spark of man that will raise the army.

It has to be the Lord's idea, it has to be God.

We've got to seek him.

And no, god, I don't have the answer, but you do.

James had a great message on that on Sunday night.

You can go back and listen to it.

But he talked about the alternate wisdom you know we can have.

Man's wisdom is the default wisdom.

That we don't, that we all.

We all get man's wisdom if we don't bother to ask for God's wisdom.

And how many of you want the higher, greater thoughts of God than the low, dumb, stupid thoughts that come into our own mind?

Amen, I do not want to live on those, even if they're kind of good thoughts because, oh, we're educated or we're really smart We've been, we have a lot of experience.

No, they're still just stupid.

They will not ever get the will of God accomplished in our lives.

So we've got to have the thoughts of God, we've got to have the wisdom of God.

So James talked about that on Sunday night.

But so, just, we've got to have humility, we've got to actually speak the word, and then we've got to do those very similar.

It's simple, but we've got to.

We've got to do the word.

You know, after Ezekiel prophesied that the bones would live and there would be this great army, you know, it turned out that it came to pass because in Israel they did go back in their land.

King Cyrus gave them money from Persia, gave them money to go back into their land and rebuild their temple, and so God did complete all of those things that were spoken by Ezekiel.

But the people of God had to work.

They had to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, they had to rebuild the temple with their muscles and with their tools, and they were sometimes fighting enemies with one hand and building with the other hand.

They had a hammer on this side and they had a sword in this side, and so they had to work.

And so we've got to do the work.

When I think about dead things, I think about a dead army, I think about dead.

I think about dead faith.

What is dead faith?

Dead army I think about dead.

I think about dead faith.

What is dead faith?

Faith without works is dead, being alone.

The book of James says so we've got to do something with what we know.

We've got to prophesy.

So I love it.

I love it too.

He didn't say pray over the bones.

He didn't say beg God to heal the army.

He didn't.

There's no begging.

There is a power when we rise up and realize that we have authority from God to speak his word and then to declare things, to prophesy things.

I just this week.

This week is the Republican State Convention in San Antonio.

It's an important time because God is not a Democrat or a Republican and we're not trying to make anybody a Republican, but we're just working within that party because we saw an opportunity to bring Jesus in there and to have some kind of you know godly purpose in that party that would bring our country back to the Lord.

So James is there now and he is leading a caucus and his purpose there is to bring Jesus.

He wants everybody in that caucus to feel like they have been to church.

Yes, they got some business done, they have elected some people.

But the other day I was.

I know I was praying.

I was heavy about some, some contention in the party, some people that some with some wrong headed ideas that were attacking the people with the good ideas.

And there was, you know, it's politics, okay there's contention all the time in there.

And so, rather than begging God, and you know, I just began to declare some things.

And it was just such a wonderful, you know, and maybe we'll do that as we close tonight.

We'll pray over that situation because a lot of us really do care.

There's a narrow way to save our nation right now and God's helping us.

He is the God factor.

He can make the bones live, but anyway, we are just doing what he calls us to do and we want to stay on that path.

So we might pray for that.

But anyway, you can declare.

My point is, you can declare things in the Spirit.

And what did he declare?

God told him exactly what to say.

You know, it's so encouraging to know.

God told us exactly what to say.

He gives us his word.

If you do not know what to pray, pray the word, read just start in Romans 8 then and begin praying those things over your life, over the situation.

Start in Ephesians 1, ephesians 3, Colossians 1, philippians 1.

Begin to take the word and literally just pray it over your life and declare it prophesy over it, and you'll see that your dry bones are going to be living again.

Amen, amen, amen.

Well, I believe in the last days, the body of Christ is rising up.

We are the great army, not just ourselves personally, but the wide body of Christ.

People who were inactive, people who were a tool even of the devil.

They weren't even, they weren't living for God.

Maybe they got saved a long time ago, but they're waking up.

I believe the head of the church, christ Jesus, the head of the church, I believe he is beginning to activate his entire body again and they're waking up and revival is gonna fill our land one last time before Jesus comes back.

Amen, amen.

He's turning our captivity and our dry bones are living in Jesus' name.