Staring at my own life I see the disappointments, the
failures and shortcomings. I know who I’ve been and I don’t see how I could
become more. When faced with obstacles I run and cower. I have felt the
hope zapped out of me. I know that I’ve got nothing going for me. I have
confidence in the fact that I will mess up; it’s been proven. I’ve been dragged
out to the desert on more than one occasion.
My life is the valley of dry bones withered away with no
hope of revival. I can see there is nothing left to salvage. It is a lost cause
and sometimes its better to know when to quit. Not only are the bones dead but
they are so far gone that they have been bleached by the sun.
Just like God’s vision to Ezekiel, He sees something
completely different. Where its obvious that we are in the land of the dead,
God sees potential. When God and Ezekiel were standing over the valley they saw
two completely different things. God saw restoration and an army ready to stand
again, where Ezekiel saw the ruminants of death; their current state.
God longs to bring the dead to life. He looks deep into my
soul and into yours too and He sees everything we are to become. He sees the
life He wants to breathe into us. Where we only have shambles left, God sees a
beautiful house full of glory.
In a quiet moment I was questioning everything that had
transpired in my life. I was asking God tough questions, questions I wasn’t
sure I was going to get the answer to. Why?
Why God? Why even create me? Why would you place me here and why did I have to
face trials I didn’t think I could bear? Wouldn’t it have been easier to not
even create me in the first place? Didn’t you know the life I’d lead and
decided that it just wasn’t worth it? Didn’t You know that my heart couldn’t
take it?
I wish I could say that God gave me the answers I was looking
for. That would have been easy. Instead I cried it all out. I continued to pour
my frustrations and anger out. I wept until there wasn’t anything left, and
then I wept some more. In fact I cried so hard that it physically hurt. My
chest ached and my lungs were on fire. My eyes were burning and my head felt
like it was going to explode from all the pressure of bawling. When all was
said and done, I had nothing left. I laid it all down before God. He could see
all the pieces of me, exposed. He already knew my heart, He knew my hurt but He
waited for me to willingly give it to Him. God wants us to trust Him with our
pain. Sometimes it’s easier to keep the pain to ourselves. We want to hold on
to it because it can be scary to give it up. God was always standing there
waiting to take it from me but I had to relinquish it to Him.
I then had to pick myself up and take the next step forward.
I couldn’t stay there in the pain, I needed to believe that He would provide
the answers I needed. And if I wasn’t going to get those answers I needed to be
ok with it. That was one of the hardest parts, not knowing what was coming next
but moving forward knowing that there was a next. It was that complete
surrender to God’s timing that released my heart. I knew everything wasn’t
going to be magically better but I knew as long as I was following God’s lead,
He would get me there.
Shortly thereafter I got enjoy one of the best experiences
of life. It’s a moment that I’ve only had a few times but they have always been
oh so precious. While listening to a worship song the next day I felt the
weight of God’s presence. It was palpable in the room and I never wanted the
moment to end. I whispered out “This
is a Holy moment.” I could feel the
breath of God surrounding me. He was so tangible, as if I could physically see
Him in that room. He surrounded me and poured into me. I could feel His breath
filling my lungs. Breathing new life into me. I was in awe of His personal
contact with me. He chose to be with me in that moment, to surround me with all
of Him.
He spoke to my heart with such tenderness. Those bones are coming to life. That valley
is coming to life. You may not see what I see but trust me. Trust in the one
who knit you together. There will be life. It is so beautiful, you just need to
believe that it will be done. Know that I won’t leave those bones in a state of
death. I have intended life for them. They will rise from the ashes; they will
be complete again. I am raising an army and they shall not be defeated. I am
for you, I am with you, I will never leave you to fight alone. You must call
out to those dry bones. Speak my Words and it will be. Breathe life.
I immediately went to Ezekiel 37 and poured over the verses.
I read it and reread it until it was practically memorized. You see God could
have called those bones to life at any moment. He has the power to do so and
only He knows the life that can become of them. But he spoke to Ezekiel, He
asked him to prophecy over the bones. He gave Him the words to say but He
worked through Ezekiel. As Ezekiel spoke the words of God, He could hear the
bones rattling and saw them come together. But God wasn’t finished. He then
told Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath, to have it breathe on the slain so that
they may live. Not only did he need to speak to the death but he also had to
speak to the life. You can command the death to be no more but for life to be
reinstated the breath of God must also be spoken over the death. You cannot
have new life without God. It was His words that brought the bones together and
it’s His words that brought life back to them.
God has big plans for the death in our lives, for the things
we thought could be no more but we need to speak His words over our lives. He
is going to restore to me the life He always intended for me and He will do the
same for you.
It’s not going to happen over night. It’s a process. Ezekiel
prophesied over the bones and breath and we must also speak to the dry bones in
our lives. We must immerse ourselves in Scripture and be prepared to speak
God’s Word. It’s the most powerful thing we have at our disposal. God wants to
use us for greater things, for miracles to unfold, but we must ready ourselves
and be willing to let God work in us and through us.
I might only see a valley of dry bones. I can see my
disappointments, failures and shortcomings but God sees victory. He sees what
is to come in the midst of what is. In my hopelessness and despair He sees an
army ready to rise up and take what’s rightfully theirs. It is in Him where I
will find my restoration and my strength. My dry bones are coming to life and
so can yours.
