Dry Bones - Breathing Life Into Dead Situations

I want to tell you about my friend, Pastor Jeremy. He and his wife have been

married for 28 years, and they've been pastoring for 28 years. Amen.

They pastor a church, a thriving, healthy church in Virginia.

I had the opportunity to meet this man and woman of God, Stacey and I,

about three years ago at a small pastor's conference.

It was an intimate time, maybe about 20 pastors there or so.

And we had a chance to connect and we ended up just going out to eat and having

a blast and then we did it again.

We met the next year, did the same thing and I just got a chance to hear their

heart, know their heart and as we were deciding who should come bring the word,

Stacey said, Pastor Jeremy and so I reached out to him and I want to thank him

for leaving his church this morning,

driving down the five-hour drive, amen, to come be a part of our church celebration today.

Will you help me welcome, by putting your hands together, Pastor Jeremy to this platform.

Wow.

You can be seen in the presence of the Lord.

You guys are a gift. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity and the honor

of being able to be with your precious people right here at True Life.

You know, Ephesians 4.11 says, He himself gave apostles, prophets,

evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.

A pastor and his family is a gift. Amen.

And what you've done today by honoring your pastor and his family,

because it's not just the pastor,

but it's the first lady, it's the family, because everyone holds that responsibility,

feels the weight of what it is to be a pastor.

And so I just want to say once again, thank you so much.

You know, I get around pastor and every time I get around him or we're always

talking on the phone, it's always encouraging.

He's always speaking words into my life.

Or even sometimes, you know, have you ever thought about this in Scripture?

And at first I'm like, I don't know about that.

And then I get by myself and the Holy Spirit gets to work with me.

And I go, oh, okay, I do get with that.

And so once again, now listen, I would have driven five hours just to have that

meal we had yesterday, last night, that Stacy made.

She's a phenomenal cook. Believe it or not, Virginia is where we live,

but actually the Hyde family is from Belmont, North Carolina.

And so I have family in Mount Holly, Belmont, Gastonia. And so my dad was the youngest of 13.

He was born in Bryson City, North Carolina.

And we used to live in Michigan. My dad went up there to work at General Motors.

And so every Christmas, we would head south on 77 until we came to Belmont, North Carolina.

And so I remember as a little kid, my family was so much with the whole South

Point Red Raiders, if you're familiar with the high school there.

Actually, my cousin is the athletic director there as of right now.

And so I remember getting all of the sweatshirts and all of that.

But one thing I always loved coming to North Carolina was a couple things. It's red clay.

Warm weather and sun drop.

Sun drop and cheer wine was something that Michigan did not have. Amen.

And so when we would come to North Carolina every year, I would load up on sun drop.

And so, but it's good to be here. And once again, Pastor, we love you today.

We love you guys. Thank you so much. You are a gift to the kingdom, to the body of Christ.

And man, what an honor it is to have me today.

Thank you. Thank you. And my lovely wife, 28 years, she's with me this morning,

so praise God for that. And love her.

And then back home, our son Josiah, he is our youth director and all that.

He's ministering the word this morning.

And so, as you know, every time you leave, you know, I called him this morning, hey, how's it going?

Everything is dead. The enemy's hitting us left and right.

And I'm like, well, that's just part of it. But I said, you know what?

That means God's getting ready to do something incredible this morning.

I truly believe when God gave me this opportunity to come speak to you,

I really believe this morning I have a word for you.

Whether you're in a valley, going into a valley, or coming out of a valley,

all of us will experience a valley.

In Ezekiel 37 the Lord gives a,

story to us of an encounter that he had with the prophet Ezekiel and if you

have your Bibles turn with me if you will to Ezekiel chapter 37 Ezekiel 37,

Ezekiel 37 · chapter mention

and if you would just stand one more time for the reading of God's word this

morning if it's okay I'm going to act just like I'm back at home is that okay with you this morning,

and so I'm just going to be me this morning amen and if you don't like me he's

going to be here next week pastor will be back,

hallelujah.

Ezekiel 37, verse number one. The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought

me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley and it was full of bones.

Then he caused me to pass by them all around and behold, there were very many

in the open valley. Indeed, they were very dry.

And he said to me, son of man, can these bones live?

So I answered, oh Lord God, you know.

And again, he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them,

O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says 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 and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put

breath into you and you shall live.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

So I prophesied as I was commanded, 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.

Also 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.

So I prophesied as he commanded me And breath came into them And they lived

and stood upon their feet An exceeding great army Father God,

we just praise you And we thank you, Lord, for today Father,

what an incredible opportunity You have given me Lord, to be with these precious

people right here Father,

we thank you Thank you for the gift that you have given this house And Lord,

we bless them today, O God Father, I pray for the next few moments that everything

that I'm about to say would be of you and not of me.

Anoint every heart and mind to receive the word of the living God today.

For your word is going to change us today.

Your word, Father God, is going to take us into a whole nother level.

And Lord, we give you praise and we give you glory.

And God, as I always say, Father, every Sunday, Father, we truly believe that the best is yet to come.

So Father, we give you the praise and the glory. In your name we pray.

Amen. And amen. You can be seeing the presence of the Lord this morning.

You know, the prophet Ezekiel seemed to enjoy a much wider spectrum than any

other prophet in the Old Testament, including signs, visions, direct prophecies,

show and tells, parable, poems, proverbs, conditional promises,

and yes, third place experiences.

In all probability, Ezekiel heard Jeremiah's prophecies while growing up.

In chapters 3, 18, and 33, Ezekiel is solemnly charged with the responsibility

of serving as a watchman.

For the king of Judah, the kingdom of Judah. That responsibility included warning

the righteous not to fall into sin and warning the wicked to repent of their

sins or face God's pending judgment.

Like Jeremiah, Daniel, and a couple later prophets, Ezekiel carefully dates

the prophecies given to him by the Lord.

For Ezekiel tells us that he mostly

prophesied from the Lord's favorite phrase, know that I am the Lord.

Appears dozens of times throughout Ezekiel's book. As an introduction of his

prophecies, Ezekiel recounts seeing the Lord's glory in Ezekiel chapter 1.

Ezekiel 1 · chapter mention

And receiving God's call to be a prophet, not a priest, chapters 2-3.

Ezekiel then warns the kingdom of Judah of coming judgment in chapters 4-7.

Sees the visions of the Lord's glory departing from the temple, chapters 8-11.

Continues to exhort the people of Judah to repent, chapters 12-24.

And prophesies against other nations, chapters 25 through 32.

And after Jerusalem's fall, Ezekiel speaks of the nation's travails and future

restoration, chapters 33 through 39.

The most unusual chapter about the nation's restoration, of course,

is the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones.

Now listen to this, church. The Valley of Dry Bones describes the restoration of God's people.

But I believe that it reminds us of his promise to raise all who die in Christ.

If you'll allow me just for a moment, let's walk through this valley together.

Because this valley represents the season that you and I will walk into.

As I said earlier, either we'll be walking into a valley, you may be in a valley,

or you're walking out of a valley.

But I believe that we can look back from this story this morning and we can

grab a couple principles that will help us come out of the valley victorious.

How many of the Bible says greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world?

And we know that we are more than conquerors. So even though it doesn't matter

how we may be feeling today, it does not dictate the outcome when all the dust

is settled, we'll be standing because the greater one lives on the inside of us. Amen.

The first thing I love about this, the Bible says in Ezekiel 37,

1, and says the hand of the Lord was upon you.

I want you to think about that for a moment because the hand of the Lord is

upon us because there is moments and seasons of our life when we're going through

trials and tribulations that if we're not careful,

we can listen to the voice of our enemy and our enemy will speak to us that God has forsaken you,

that you're by yourself, that no one cares.

Just go ahead and throw in the towel. Just go ahead and give up.

But I want to remind you this morning that the hand of God is on every one of us this morning.

That no matter what may be happening in your life, no matter what all the stuff

you had to get through this morning just to get here today, the hand of the Lord is upon us.

You know, when someone lays their hand on you, it can bring comfort.

It can also bring fear. Notice this, a mother's hand of compassion provides

solace. but also a mother's hand in correction brings discipline.

My mother was only five foot tall and yet she was able to reach back while she

was driving and the hand of the mother was upon me. Come on somebody.

That was before we had car seats and seat belts.

We rode our bikes without helmets and knee pads, drank water out of a hose,

and we're still living today. Amen.

A father's hand of protection provides confidence.

A teacher's hand of guidance provides instruction. A policeman raises his hand, provides direction.

A lover's hand can communicate love.

But unfortunately, a hand laid upon you can also cause you to wince or fear.

You've been beaten as a child or abused.

That touch of that hand brings back memories that begins to stir something up

in you that you don't want to be stirred up.

A hand is a very powerful, silent communicator. In our text,

Ezekiel experienced the hand of the Lord.

That no matter what we may be going through, the hand of God is upon us.

And I want you to get that in your spirit this morning because no matter what

you may be going through, the hand of God. He holds you.

He's holding you in the palm of his hand that no matter what you may be experiencing,

the hand of God is still on your life.

It doesn't matter what we may be experiencing. The hand of God is upon us.

It was the Lord's hand that brought him to

the valley of dry bones see i

i'm reminded the great painting by michael angelo

in the sistine chapel of god's hand touching adam's hand signifying god import

imparting life to humanity we must never forget the hand of the lord listen

to this what does it mean to have the hand of the lord upon you it means that

you have god's divine approval.

And His authority in your life. When the hand of God is upon you,

you have divine power and authority to do what God's called you to do.

You don't need anyone to agree. All you need is agreement with God.

And when the hand of God is on you, He gives you favor and He gives you authority

to do great and mighty things in this last day hour.

See, I believe that God's looking for great men and women that are willing to say, Oh Lord, use me.

That no matter what I may have to walk through, no matter what valley I may

have to go through, see, we want to celebrate on our mountaintop.

We want to celebrate as we ascend to the summit.

But may I say to you this morning that the valley is a transitional point from summit to summit.

And if we're going to go from glory to glory and from faith to faith,

that we're going to experience some moments of valleys.

We're going to experience some times where it doesn't seem like things are adding

up and it seems like God is not answering And it seems that we're having to

wait, but I've come to tell you, they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint.

The hand of the Lord is upon you. Look at your neighbor and say, the hand of God is on me.

Listen to this, when the hand of the Lord is upon you, God will provide for you.

The affection you need to be a whole person. John 10, 27, 29.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal

life and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.

My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to

snatch them out of my father's hand.

The direction you need to achieve great things.

Acts 11, 21. And the hand of the

Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

The protection you need to thrive through struggles.

Psalms 37, 24.

Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

The correction you need to live a life and live it well.

Isaiah 41, 13. For I am the Lord your God.

Will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not, for I will help you.

Isaiah 41 and 10, So do not fear, for I am with you.

Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you,

I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Psalms 136 and 12 says, With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,

His love endures forever.

Ecclesiastes 2.24, a person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and

find satisfaction in their own toil.

This too, I see, is from the hand of God.

Psalms 104.28, when you give it to them, they gather it up.

When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.

Things. Isaiah 64 and 8, yet you, Lord, are our father. We are the clay.

You are the potter. We are all the work of your hand.

Job 12 and 10, in this, in his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

Psalms 145, 16, you open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

1 Peter 5 and 6, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God and

he will lift you up in due time.

Psalms 95 and 5, the sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the dry land.

1 Chronicles 29 and 12, wealth and honor come from you.

You are the ruler of all things in your hands are strength and power to exalt

and give strength to all.

Psalms 10 and 12 Arise Lord, lift up your hand, O God do not forget the helpless

and then may I remind you of Psalms 18,

15 Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous.

The Lord's right hand has done mighty things. I say to you this morning that

the hand of the Lord is upon you.

Don't give up. Don't back down.

God's bringing us through. And I love what your pastor said.

The best is yet to come.

When the hand of God is on you, you can run through a troop and leap over a wall.

When the hand of God is on you when the supernatural gets on your natural and

gets on my natural, great things can happen in the mighty name of Jesus.

That with man it's impossible, but with God all things are possible.

I've come to tell someone this morning that the hand of the Lord is on your life, child of God.

The hand of God is on you.

So pastor, you don't have to worry about what God's.

Your next place of meeting, the hand of the Lord is on it.

The hand of the Lord. It's not for us to figure out. This is up to us to trust and obey.

It's not for you to figure it out. Trust and obey.

Because the hand of God, it is the hand of God that started it.

It's the hand of God that's working it and the hand of God that will finish it in the name of Jesus.

And anything God put His hand to, it's going to prosper in the mighty name of Jesus.

Come on, somebody. Say, the hand of God's on me.

Now notice this. It says, the hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out

in the Spirit and set me down in the midst of the valley.

And it was full of bones. See, it's not part of my sermon.

I'm flowing right here, but you've got to understand. The hand of God will take

you places maybe you don't want to go.

But his hands own you over 10 years ago we were in Virginia Beach,

Virginia our church just paid off 1.4 million dollars I sat my children down

and said listen we're not going anywhere we're buying a home,

we're tired of moving because we've been at two other churches in Michigan and

the way the Lord was bringing us around I said we're not going to move God just

paid off 1.4 million this is where we're going to stay a year later we get a phone call,

hey Hey, there's a church that's opening up in Fredericksburg.

Where is Fredericksburg? I didn't know. I'm from Michigan.

They said, it's Northern Virginia. You're about 40 minutes from Washington, D.C. They lied.

You can't drive anywhere to Washington, D.C. in 45 minutes.

They said, we think you guys would be a great candidate. And I said,

all right. And then I asked the question. I said, are they in debt? Yes.

I said, we're comfortable. We're good. The moment I said comfortable,

the Holy Spirit said, you're comfortable? I thought, oh, Lord.

I said, we're moving now. So I'll be honest with you. I'm going to be transparent

with you. I was like, Lord, let my kids buck.

Let them give some pushback on this so we can stay.

And I knew, like, my daughter, because my daughter doesn't, like, change.

She just got married a month ago. Talk about, I don't like change.

I don't like change. She got married a month ago.

Married a great guy, a Marine. Everything's going well. But I set them down.

They both said this. Dad, let's do it.

I believe God's in this. I'm like, oh, Lord, we're moving. I did not want to go.

I knew the hand of the Lord was on me, but I knew that we just got done erasing.

The Lord erased $1.4 million in debt.

Then we were going into debt.

And I'm like, Lord, what is? And we went from zero debt to over $3 million debt

and now paying the mortgage again.

And I'm like, God, what are you doing? The hand of the Lord's on us.

In 10 years, God has brought it from 3 million down to 800,000.

Come on, somebody. Amen. The hand of the Lord.

I wanted to stay. But when God's hand's in it, you got to go.

You got to go. Listen to this. I love this. Ezekiel 37, 2.

Then he calls me to pass by them all, all around.

And behold, there were very many in the open valley. Indeed,

they were very dry. The phrase very dry bones is unique within the Hebrew language.

These aren't newly or recently dead. These are long, long dead. Years of decay.

Do you know that the word bones occurs more often in Ezekiel 37,

1 through 11 than any other Old Testament book except Job and Psalms?

What Ezekiel saw was a valley full of dry bones. God's hands on Ezekiel.

God brings him around the valley. He doesn't show him just one portion of the valley.

The Bible said that he took him all around the valley to survey the valley,

and all he saw was nothing but dry, dead bones.

Now think about this for a moment, because remember, either we're going into

the valley, or we're in a valley, or we're coming out of the valley only to return back to a valley.

Because the valley is where we get forged. The valley is where our faith gets stretched.

Our valley is where we grow so we can get to a summit.

But how many of you know the summit experience is short compared to a valley experience?

But it's the valley, and that's why James says, count it all joy when you fall

into diverse temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith,

work is patience, but let patience have its perfect work that you may be complete, lacking nothing.

And yet God brings him, the hand of the Lord brings him around and shows him

the entire valley of dry bones.

You know what I think what God was trying to do?

God was trying to show him the potential of the valley.

See, what we see is the circumstance and the situation of the valley. We see the now.

You got to write this down. Now, what you and I need in the valley,

we need a God perspective.

When you are in your valley, you need a God perspective, not your own perspective.

See, Ezekiel's perspective was, man, this is filled with nothing but dead, dried bones.

And yet God was trying to show him there's an exceeding army under here that's

just waiting for you to prophesy to it.

But if you don't start prophesying to it, they're going to still be dead.

So God's showing him. See, when we're faced with the valley of dry bones,

we must have a God perspective, not a flesh perspective.

We must be driven by our spirit, not our emotions.

Can I get an amen? Have faith to believe that this valley is not always going to be dead.

Faith will move nothing until it first moves you.

And only your mountain knows your voice.

Jesus said, if you'll speak to your mountain, your mountain can be moved.

We can pray that God would give you boldness and courage to believe and to speak,

but ultimately, you've got to speak to your mountain.

You've got to speak to the dead things in your life to come to life.

In the midst of your valley, you've got to declare, not with an emotional perspective.

There's nothing wrong with finding out, okay, what am I having to work with here?

It may look and it may sound and it may be happening, but what does his word say?

So I find out what I'm seeing, but then before I do anything, I get a God perspective.

So could it be that what God was trying to do, God was bringing around the entire

valley to show Ezekiel, I'm showing you really what the potential of this valley is.

Every struggle you've been through, it's not to destroy you,

but it's to bring potential out of you. Do you follow me? Amen.

So notice this, Jeremiah 32 and 27, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.

Is there anything too hard for me?

Ephesians 3.20, now to him who's able to do exceedingly and abundantly above

all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.

Matthew 19.26, but Jesus looked at them and said to them, with men this is impossible,

with God all things are possible.

We gotta start looking, church, with a God perspective.

That though it may look dead, what does it look like through the eyes of God?

What does it look like through the lens of faith? For we walk by faith and not by faith.

For without faith is impossible. Please God, for he that comes to God must believe that he is.

And that he's a rewarder of those who what?

Diligently seek him. So it may look dead, but I'm not looking at how it looks.

I'm looking at what his word says.

And I'm standing on his word. And I'm speaking to my valley.

Am I declaring in the name of Jesus? I don't want to see what Jeremy sees.

I want to see what all my God sees. and that what God sees, I'm going to speak

it and declare it in the name of Jesus.

I love this story in 2 Kings 6, 15-17. Elisha prayed for his servant's eyes to be opened.

When the servant of the man of God arose early and went out,

and there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots,

and his servant said to him, I lost my master, what shall we do?

So he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes.

Open his eyes that he may see. In other words, Elisha is saying,

Lord, let him get a God perspective.

He sees nothing but the Syrian army all around him, but he said,

You know what? Lord, open up the man's eyes and the Bible.

I love this says when he opened his eyes, he saw and behold,

the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

He says, God, open his eyes because what he's seen is the now.

But open his eyes to see that there's more for

us than there is against us

and when his eyes were open he saw

nothing but the angels of God surrounding them

can I tell you this morning oh God open our eyes in the midst of our valley

and let us see with a God perspective that God is able in every situation in

our life we're not going to be discouraged. We're not going to be dismayed.

But we're going to do what God's called us to do and take back everything that

the enemy has stolen from us because we're walking with a God perspective.

I'm not walking in my own power and my own authority.

I'm walking in the power of God, understanding that with God all things are possible.

Amen? So walk with a God perspective. Say, walk with a God perspective.

And I want you to write this down, number three. This is so important.

Sound proceeds manifestation.

So not only is the hand of God on us, not only do we have to walk with a God

perspective, but notice what the Bible says.

The Bible says, And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live?

So I answered, O Lord God, you know.

And he said to them, Prophesy to these bones and say to them,

O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

See, sound proceeds manifestation.

Do you know that thunder can be heard from 10 miles?

That the roar of a lion can be heard from 5 miles?

That we always hear a train before we see the train?

Living in Virginia Beach with the military there and the jet fighters and all

that would fly overhead. you would always hear the jet before you saw the jet. Why?

Sound proceeds manifestation.

In order for your valley to come to life, you've got to make a sound to bring

about God's manifestation.

When we begin to praise the Lord this morning and the presence of God begin

to move, He inhabits the praises of His people.

And when we begin to worship and magnify God and begin to lift up the name of

Jesus, a sound precedes manifestation.

So in the midst of the deadness of our valley, if we'll lift up a voice and

we'll lift up a song unto the Lord, for the Bible tells us in Proverbs 18,

21, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

What sound are you making when you're in your valley of dry bones?

Because your sound will precede the manifestation.

So if we start complaining about the mess

we're going to get the manifestation of the mess but if

we start lifting up the name of Jesus and start

declaring that what the devil meant to harm God's turning

it around for my good in the mighty name

of Jesus there's something when we begin to

magnify and glorify God when we begin

to lift up the praise under the Lord when we

lift up hands without wrath and without doubting something

begins to happen in the atmosphere that can't

happen by ourself but we begin to brag upon

God begin to talk about the goodness of God talk about he's great talk about

he's the rose of Sharon the lily of the valley the bright and the morning star

when we start to declare that he's a bridge over troubled water when we start

to declare that God is good and greatly to be praised.

When we declare it all, it precedes manifestation. Amen?

See, it's so important because when we start declaring the situation,

what happens is fear starts coming in.

Doubt starts coming in.

Child of God, you've got to stop declaring the situation and start declaring the revelation of God.

When you begin to declare the revelation of God, things begin to change because

sound precedes manifestation.

If you don't like the manifestation what's been

the sound because whatever sound you give is

the manifestation you give so it doesn't matter how

dry it may look he said i want you to start prophesying to the dryness i want

you to start prophesying i want you ezekiel to start making a sound that this

valley hasn't heard in a long time and when you begin to declare the sound something's

going to happen and the bible said that when he began to speak to the dry situation,

there's a noise beginning to take place and a rattling beginning to take place. Why?

Because sound proceeds manifestation.

Hallelujah. I love this. Joshua 6, 3 and 5. You know the story.

You shall march around the city. All you men of war, you shall go around the city once.

This you shall do for six days. He said, whatever you do, be quiet. Can I tell you?

I don't know if it's an issue here, but I can tell you it could be an issue in Virginia.

One of the greatest miracles here was not that the walls came down,

but the greatest miracle here was that church people were quiet and walked around the city.

They walked around. He said, whatever you do, don't say anything.

Don't mess it up because if you start talking about it, someone over here is

going to start saying, I don't think we need to be doing it this way.

And someone over here needs to be saying, I think we need to do it this way.

And someone over here needs to say, no, no, what y'all need to do is just be

quiet because God's already given the man of God the Word of God and if you're old.

God and so God gives a word to the

man of God and he said get ready because on the seventh day when you hear the

sound when you hear the sound of the trumpet I then want you to make a shout

and when you shout the walls are going to come down why because sound precedes manifestation,

hallelujah.

When you and I make a sound the walls of Jericho will come down see the world's making sounds,

and the church is being quiet but I believe in this last day hour that the men

and women of God filled with the Holy Spirit is starting to rise up and starting

to declare the goodness of God that despite what the world looks like,

because I'm here to tell you, it doesn't matter who's in the White House or the outhouse.

We serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

We serve a God that is able. And He said, if you'll lift me up above the circumstance,

if you'll magnify me, If you'll glorify me, I'll make a way where there seems

to be no way. I am the Lord God.

Is there anything too hard for me? I am more than able.

If you'll trust me, if you'll lean on me, I'll do what I've called you to do. My hand is on you.

Do you not believe that I'm able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all

that we ask or think? our God is able.

Hallelujah.

Now listen to this. I got to land this. I got to hurry here.

Listen to this. Listen to this. Ah, I'm feeling it right now.

We're having wings here in a minute. Just hang on. Just hang on. Hallelujah.

Notice the Bible said the Bible said when he began to make a noise all of a

sudden And bones connected the bones and ligaments and all. There was a great

rattling beginning to take place.

It was nothing but deadness, but now something's happening. This is what happened.

Manifestation brings structure and order.

It's important for us to understand that because in essence,

only God can bring what's dead back to life.

God has Ezekiel's prophecy or prophesy over the dry bones, commanding them to attach to one another.

They do so skin tendons and muscle cover the bones. But notice this, they still have no life.

See, sound precedes manifestation. When manifestation shows up,

structure starts to take place.

See, the enemy, if we're not careful, he wants to mess with the structure.

Because without the structure, there can be no spirit.

Because we serve a God of order, not confusion. So he says, I've got to get

the dead things to line up in order.

Because I'm getting ready to do something that needs to be done.

See, manifestation will bring structure in our life. When the Holy Spirit begins

to move in our life, He cleans us up.

Quit trying to clean people up. Let the Holy Spirit clean them up.

Come on now, amen. That's a good word right there. If we're not careful as church

folk, Jesus said it's our job to be fishers of men.

But it's not our job to be at the fish shack trying to tell them how we need to clean the fish.

Come on, somebody. Amen. Let the Holy Ghost clean them. Amen.

And we set that example. There's nothing wrong with that. But what happens is

manifestation will bring structure and order in our life.

Without structure, there's no order.

Let me help you. Being a pastor.

The message never changes, but I'm sure sometimes the methods do.

Never question the structure and order if your pastor is saying this is what

I truly believe God has for us because life is about to be given to the structure and order,

because the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3 and 5 having a form of godliness but denying

its power and from such people turn away,

I believe with all my heart in the day and hour we're living in today there's

a lot of church structure but no power.

There's buildings filled with

people but not enough convicting power to convict a gnat in the house.

It's not about the gathering as it is the power.

Because pastor we're not careful we think that our success is based upon the

gathering not the manifestation.

And then what happens in our walk with God, we can be in the midst of the valley and we're prophesying.

And there's a season like, OK, pastor, that pastor from Virginia,

he said to go ahead and prophesy. I'm prophesying. But you know what?

Nothing's happening. It's still just dead.

Guess what? You keep prophesying. You keep declaring. You keep speaking.

But what happens then? God begins to speak to us.

Us. A couple weeks ago, I started something on a Tuesday night for our church.

And I did this next seven weeks. We're teaching on some doctrine,

what we believe in and all that.

And then our Wednesday nights, we have our children, our youth, and our mom's group.

And the mom's director came to me and said, Pastor, we have a need for some

dads, and they want to do a dad's Bible study. And I said, okay,

that's great, but no, we're not doing it.

And I wrestled. And the Lord started speaking to me and said,

no, you will do it. And I'm like, no, I'm already teaching Tuesday.

I'm just going to be transparent with you so I took an hour walk and I'm trying to talk God out of it.

How many of you know you can't talk God out of it amen and he said no he said

time is short you're going to disciple them so I went from,

Tuesday, now I'm Wednesday and then of course Sunday never say never,

but structure brings order Where there's order Then God can put his spirit And

that which has structure In order God's not going to take his spirit And put it in disorder.

So we serve a God that's a God that's able to do extraordinary things in our life.

But the process of them coming together, it was always a mighty army. Just no one spoke to it.

You got to get that. That's why God said, I'm going to take you around the whole

valley because I want to show you.

You see nothing but dead, dried up bones. I've been here for a long time.

But I'm wanting to show you, Ezekiel, I want to show you the potential of this valley.

Pastor, look at that building. You may see it. Wait a minute.

You need to go back and say, what's the potential of this building?

What's the potential of what God's showing me? What's the potential of this ministry?

So what God's doing now, God's bringing manifestation, then he's bringing structure,

but notice this, there's structure, there's order, but there's no what?

There's no spirit. There's no life. Listen to this.

Then God has Ezekiel command breath into the hole and they spring the life,

standing on their feet, enough people for an entire army.

The word for breath in this verse is the same one used in Genesis when God breathed life into Adam.

God reached into the ground, formed man, and then the Bible breathed into his

nostrils the breath of what? Life.

Notice what he says. He says, so

I prophesied that I was commanded and I prophesied there was a rattling.

Indeed, I looked. But then notice verse 10. And 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 why you can't live without his spirit.

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived.

Someone say lived.

I believe today God wants to blow a fresh breath of his spirit in our lives.

In Acts 2, 1 and 4, when the day of Pentecost had fully come,

they were all together in one mind, in one accord.

And suddenly from heaven there came a sound of a rushing mighty wind,

and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

And notice this it was there that the Holy

Spirit was given to the church 120 now the

Holy Spirit is living on the inside they're baptized

they're speaking with tongues they're going about

and doing what God called them to do to where they would line the

sick folk up in the streets and just the shadow of

them would walk by and they would be made whole why because there's something

about the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit can I tell you church in

this day and hour We need the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our

life to do what God has called us to do.

We can't do church without His presence. We can't witness without His presence.

We can't do family without His presence.

We can't do business without His presence. We need a fresh touch of the power

of the Holy Spirit to do something great and mighty in our life because without

the presence of God, there's no life inside of us.

Zechariah 4 and 6 says, So he answered and said to me, This is the word of the

Lord, Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.

See, the fact is this. Either we're walking in or we're in the mist or we're

coming out of our valley.

And when you find yourself going into a valley, understand that that valley is there to stretch you.

That valley's there to help us surrender to Jesus.

That valley's there, those circumstances and situations that we can't allow

it to dictate our emotions.

But we've got to go to his word. And we've got to first realize,

because the trick of the enemy is this, that you are by yourself and no one cares.

I've tried to call the church, the church won't answer. I tried to call a pastor and he won't answer.

Called my dog, and my dog won't even come and sit with me on the couch anymore.

Have you ever been there before? Come on, somebody. Amen.

You call 911, and they put you on hold.

Come on, somebody.

I had one of those moments a couple months ago. We had lightning hit our church.

Our LED sign we just paid for a year ago, it blew up.

The sanctuary lights blew up. Fire alarm blew up.

Security alarm blew up. And I had a conversation with God. I said,

God, what else? Come around the corner, I hear water.

It wasn't living water. A pipe had busted and was filling up the atrium with water.

I dare not say, Lord, anything else.

It's that season, amen, that everything, it seems to be going wrong.

You're like, and the enemy's trick is to believe and to get you to believe that

the Lord is no longer there and that you're a failure and that you did something

and that He's turned His back on you, but I've come to tell you that He is holding

you in the palm of His hand.

But just because the teacher is silent.

Doesn't mean that the teacher has left the room.

No one speaks when a test is given, but the test will reveal what's on the inside

of every one of us. And what a valley will reveal is what is on the inside of every believer.

And I knew that during that time, God began to show me the things that I wasn't

believing him for and the things that I needed to change and the things that I need to surrender.

And at that moment, when I came up out of that valley, I was better than when

I went into that valley because I didn't let the deadness of that valley dictate who I was going to be.

I was not going to be bitter. I was going to be better.

I was not going to be forsaken. I was going to be forgiven.

I knew that at that moment that God was bringing me through,

but as a choice that I had to make, and I knew that that.

But then, not only do I recognize the hand of God is upon me,

but then I also have to understand that as I'm walking into this valley,

I've got to get my God perspective.

I've got to put my faith goggles on.

Come on, somebody. I'll never forget, as I'm getting younger,

I have this thing called progressive lenses.

It's amazing. Because what I found out was, distance-wise, things were blurry.

And I'll never forget when you go there and you sit in that little chair and

they tell you, one, two, one, two, what's better? Come on, you don't know.

I thought two was better, but now you have me one. I don't know what is better.

I'm confused. All I know is I need to get glasses.

And I'll never forget when I got glasses, I came out and said,

oh, my Lord, I can read the stop sign. She looked at me. She said,

you couldn't read the stop sign before?

I said, I could. I just had to get a little bit closer to it before I learned to stop.

Then I learned as I started getting younger, I realized that my Bible that I

used to preach out of, it had regular print.

And I had to do this. I had to.

And that regular print, I swear to you, that print, something happened on those

pages. It's like it shrunk.

And then I got these progressives and I learned okay now I can see but I have

to learn to adjust myself,

and the other day we were watching some things and I said Josiah what is wrong

with our online streaming it is blurry as all get out,

he said daddy he said it looks good on my computer I said come over here on

my computer I said it looks horrible he's feeling all down like I don't know

I said look at the heat he said daddy it's good I said.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's good, it's good, it's good. Because you've got to adjust your head.

You've got to find that point where you've got one, two, or three layers.

You've got to find the layer, amen. So you've got to get a God perspective.

You've got to put on the faith goggles, not your doubt goggles.

You've got to quit looking at how dead it may be. Start looking at the potential.

The potential. It's an exciting moment right here in this church.

It's an exciting moment that we're leaving something, going to something new.

It's an exciting moment that the potential is great

and mighty that God's hand is on it that God's got something great for you because

of your faithfulness and because of the sacrifice you have made God said I'm

bringing you out for the purpose to bring you into something greater in the

mighty name of Jesus but you gotta have a God perspective,

gotta have a God perspective get a God perspective,

and then sound precedes manifestation Sound precedes manifestation.

What I say is what I'll get.

We are at a church up in Michigan, and I had one of those moments,

those seasons, where I was just complaining about everything.

Complaining about the church, complaining about the people, complaining about

this and that. And really what God was trying to do was change me.

So I'm in my kitchen speaking to my lovely wife, and I'll never forget the moment

she's making spaghetti, and she's breaking the noodles, and she's very quiet,

and yet I'm stressing to her how I feel and how discouraged I am and what I'm going through.

And then she gets and she puts the spaghetti in the pot and she turns around

and she says, you know what, I've got a word for you.

I said, what's that, baby? She said, you need to start doing what you've been preaching.

I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't see angels appear in that room that day.

I'm going to be honest with you.

I didn't hear the harp being played and say, this is the word of the Lord for you today.

No, you know what I did? You don't understand.

I walked down the hallway, Pastor. I'm being real open this morning.

I walked down the hallway and the Holy Spirit says, she's right.

I fell on my face, asked the Lord for forgiveness, came back,

told her about what the Lord had just done.

She smiles like she always smiles. And I'm like, don't, just stop.

Just stop. I'm working through my own. Work out your own salvation with fear and tremor.

We don't need that right now. Amen. I'm working myself out right now.

But I started, I had to start making a sound. And then things begin to change

when I made the right sound.

The right sound. Look at your neighbor and say, you've got to make the right sound.

And then notice this. Manifestation brings structure and order.

Once you make the sound, once structure starts happening, order starts coming.

It's for the purpose of you speaking to the wind.

The Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is what gives us life.

I don't know what you're going through this morning. I don't know what you're experiencing.

But the fact is this, every one of us in this house is either going in or in or coming out.

And it's not preaching doom and gloom. It's just reality of the things we're going through.

And I don't know about you, but in my own life, those summit experiences,

those mountaintop winds, we're like, yes, God's come through.

It seems like sometimes those seasons are a lot shorter.

Than the valley seasons.

It seems like those moments where like, okay, God, I'm asking for this and I

want this, but he's got to bring you through.

And if you're willing to be brought through, you can go to another level with

God. I don't know what tomorrow holds.

I don't know what you're going to have to face when you walk up out of this house today.

But I do know one thing, that if you could just get in your spirit that God's hand's on me.

And now it's His hand on me, but I've got to get a God perspective of this.

I've got to start speaking to my own mountain.

I've got to start declaring the goodness and what God's Word says over my life.

And then I've got to make that sound because I'm going to get the manifestation of that sound.

Because whatever I'm making, I'm going to get, and then God's bringing order to me.