My Ears Are Open
Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD!’
Ezekiel 37:4
I am challenging you to speak and prophecy over your dry bones right now! Listen to the Word of The Lord! The Word of the Lord speaks life! The Word of the Lord speaks wholeness and freedom! The Word of the Lord soothes even the deepest hurts! The Word of the Lord gets inside of us, cuts through every obstacle, every layer of confusion, to show truth.
Then he added, “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given —and you will receive even more.”
Mark 4:24
Why is that? Because, as Romans 10:17 teaches, faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. The more you listen to understand, the more you grow, the more your faith increases, and the more you actually understand. You become closer in your relationship with the Holy Spirit. He, your teacher and counselor, reveals deeper and deeper truth to you. You can never read your Bible so many times that you don’t need to read it any more. The Word is always profitable and powerful! You can never spend too much time in prayer, or too much time communing with the Holy Spirit. The Word of God is your very sustenance, the bread of your spiritual life!
Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.
John 8:47
It is not simply your profession of Christianity that shows you belong to God. It is your actions. There were crowds that followed Jesus, watching for the next miracle, just as there are crowds who go to church because it is expected in their social group. The Word of God calls you to action! It calls you to listen, and then it calls you to do!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for speaking words of power over my life! Let me truly be like the sheep who are able to actively follow their master’s last command, attentive to the business at hand, and respond instantly to a new command. Open my ears, sharpen my focus so that I will not miss even the slightest whisper of Your voice. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
Further Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Speak the Word of The Lord!
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:15
The spoken word has creative power. The heavens and the earth were created through the power of the spoken Word of God. As the angel said to Mary in Luke 1:37, nothing, or “no utterance,” will be impossible with God. Every bit of matter, every circumstance that we know, can be impacted and forever altered by the power of the spoken Word of God.
The brilliant thing is, Jesus said that His sheep will know His voice. You are to know the voice of God, to recognize that He is speaking! The only sheep who has an excuse to not know the shepherd’s voice, to not understand his words, is a new-born lamb. That is it! The rest of the sheep don’t just follow the flock. They know their Master’s voice.
You, with knowledge of that voice, have the privilege of teaching other “sheep,” like a mother teaches her lamb, to know and follow the voice of the shepherd. You must listen to the voice of the Lord, and you must speak the Word of the Lord! His Word will bring life to dry bones! His Word will sustain you! Speak the powerful Word of the Lord over your life! Over your children! Over your home!
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
Hebrews 4:12
When you speak the Word, it is powerful!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for Your powerful Word! Thank You for letting me share in that part of Your nature! Your Word has power on its own, and You have given power to my words, as well. Let my heart be guided by Your Holy Spirit so that, as my tongue speaks, it is Your Spirit that pours forth in abundance. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
Further Reading: Acts 10:42, Proverbs 18:21, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Ezekiel 37:1-14
I’m Coming Home
I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the LORD has spoken!
Ezekiel 37:14
Just like Jacob and his family returned to Bethel, you too must return home! The Lord calls to you over and over throughout your life, if you wander from Him. He is not willing to let you go! He is not willing for you to live on the edge, to “kind of” have a relationship with Him. He is your Creator, but He wants to be your Dad. Is your relationship with your Father in less than good repair? Now is the time to hit your knees and come home! He is quick to forgive! Quick to love!
I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.
Isaiah 44:22
God is not surprised by human nature. He knows that our tendency is to wander. Jesus addressed this directly in the parable of the prodigal son. (Luke 15:11-24) This young man saw the riches of his father and was impatient to have his share. His sense of entitlement outstripped his love for his father and his loyalty to the family household. He acted out the baseness of human nature.
His father gave him what would be his portion of the family’s estate, and he headed off to live it up. This young man not only lacked common decency in taking his father’s possessions while the man yet lived, he lacked wisdom in managing his newly acquired fortune. When his situation became so desperate that he was not only working tending to a sty full of pigs, he was competing with them for slop, he realized that even his father’s servants lived better.
This young man, who had failed by all worldly standards, headed home. I can imagine that his head was hanging low, and his heart was lower. You know that to the same degree he had been haughty and full of pride, full of self-confidence, that he was now humble. He was humble, anticipating being humiliated. Instead, the father, as our Father does for us, “ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.”
If spiritual distance has come between you and the Father, come home! Run home! He will see you coming with the first step you take, and He will run to you! He still covers the prodigal with His love!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I cannot stand to be far from You! Keep me close by Your side, I need to be close enough to hold Your hand and follow each step as You lead. If I ever start to wander, don’t let me take even one false step before You bring me back! In Jesus’ Name, amen.
Further Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Breath of God
Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.
Ezekiel 37:9-10
This text is speaking of Israel being brought back to life. We’re seeing God fulfilling this prophecy in our present day. On May 14 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the statehood of Israel and, God has been bringing His people home from their exile in foreign lands, from their valley of dry bones. On May 14 of 2018, exactly 70 years later, the United States recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The vision also calls us to recognize that though our situation may look as desolate as a valley of dry bones, God, in His mighty power, speaks life!
This text calls us out of dryness and death, into the abundant life God alone can bring. Start today, start every day, with a fresh reminder that your body is an abiding place for the Holy Ghost. God wants to pour out His Spirit and fill you to overflowing. He wants to put the burning fire of the Holy Ghost in your heart and soul!
If you’re living in a valley of dry bones today, let me ask you a question. Do you want to live? Do you want God to breathe the breath of life into you? Open your ears and hear what God has to say. He said that in the last days He would pour out His spirit upon all flesh. He wants to do a work in your life! How will you respond? Lord, please fill us with your breath!
Let the Lord breathe His life back into you! The Lord wants you to listen to His voice, He wants you to know His voice! He wants you to speak His Word by faith! He wants you to receive the Spirit! Receive the creative force that only comes from the breath of God! Take time at the altar! Tarry and wait until He comes!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for the cleansing, refreshing wind of Your breath; for the life-giving, life-restoring power in Your breath. You truly are the source of all life. Bring Your life back into my dry bones, into the dry areas of my life, into the damaged places of my soul. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
Further Reading: John 20:22, Joel 2:28-29, I Corinthians 6:19, Jeremiah 31:33, Jeremiah 33:14, Ezekiel 37:1-14