An unsaved person is spiritually dead. He is a lost soul,
as he has not been redeemed from the sin by the Blood of Jesus. He is to be born
again in the Spirit of God. There are millions of souls in the world awaiting
revival from their spiritual death, which came through Adam. On the contrary, a saved soul is spiritually alive. Nevertheless, he may be spiritually weak, dormant, dull, unconscious or oblivious. He has a name that he lives but is dead (Rev.3: 1). There
are thousands of saved souls or born-again Christians in our midst, falling under this category. Though they are born again, yet they are spiritually dumb, deaf, and blind.
They are dumb because they do not tell others about what Jesus has done for them or about the need for salvation through
Jesus; they are shy of witnessing for Christ. They are deaf because they hardly
discern the voice of Jesus through the word of God; they are hard of hearing either the footsteps of the coming Messiah from
above or the heart-rending cries of lost souls down from the bottomless pit. They
are blind because they do not perceive the suffering Christ in the garb of afflicted strangers who visit their houses for
help or who remain sick or in prison (Matt.25: 35-40).
There are many saved Christians who slumber spiritually. They have lost their first love for God. Once they were zealous
for God actively engaged in soul-winning or helping the mission fields. The spirit
of deep sleep has now come upon them (Is.29:10).
There are many believers who have fallen unconscious spiritually and
lost their senses. They have become indifferent to lost souls and the work in
the Lord’s vineyard. They do not have the agonizing mind of Christ. Neither do they feel the agonies of the other members of the Body of Christ. “…Whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it…”
(I Cor.12: 26). They have no concern for the suffering missionaries on the mission
fields or the poor saints in the House of God.
There is yet another category of Christians who are oblivious of their
duties and responsibilities in the vineyard of God in this darkest hour as they give preference to the mundane things.
All these kinds of the children of God are likened to the children of Israel who have become “the
dry bones” in the prophetic book of Ezekiel (Ch.1). Their lives are not different from the lives of the unsaved persons. They are like the dry bones in the churches of God, whereas the unsaved persons are
like the dry bones in the world. Prophetically speaking, all these children of God represent the last or the end-time Church
of the Laodiceans who were lukewarm and were neither cold nor hot. They are spiritually
complacent and say, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”. However, the Holy Spirit points to them, “thou art wretched, and miserably, and poor, and blind,
and naked”. The Holy Spirit who has been constantly grieved by the lives
of such children of God is still standing at the door and knocking at their hearts, unwilling to desert them because of His
long-suffering. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear
my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev.3: 14-22). The bride of the Song of Solomon sleeps but her heart wakes and hears the voice of her Beloved “that
knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with
the drops of the night” (Song 5:2).
Since all these children of God are the individual members of the invisible Body of Christ, the Church,
they are to be revived first. God will send a might revival to this world only
through the revived members of the Body of Christ.
NEED
FOR REVIVAL
The greatest need of
the hour is revival without which souls would be doomed forever. If revival does
not break out in a country, it will be plunged into turmoil and violence. God
has to pour out His Spirit upon us. The devil is very active and awake. Hell
is opening its wide mouth. Remember that while time is flying, souls are being
lost; sinners are being thrown into the bottomless pit. Does not this thought
move your hearts? Moreover, some of those, whom you might seek to save, are your
own sons and daughters, your own flesh and blood. If revival does not break out,
your own offspring will be lost in eternity.
VISION
Let us now meditate on the words
of prophecy in the 37th Chapter of the Book of Ezekiel. Let us now
look at a revived and glorified Church through the prophetic eyes of Ezekiel. Dear servant of God, the hand of the
Lord is now upon you as you read this message and is carrying you out in His Spirit and setting you down “in the midst
of the valley, which was full of bones” (Vs.1).
First, you must have
a vision of the deep valley, which is full of the bones of the chosen people of God. They have a name that they live
and are actually dead (Rev.3: 2). They are spiritually deaf and dumb or blind
or dormant or unconscious as earlier seen. Through the prophetic eyes, you must
“behold” the open valley full of the dry bones (Vs.2). See the many
dry bones in your church, town or nation. Nowadays, the pastors do not see this vision because they are quite
complacent with the spiritual state of the sheep under their care so long as they get tithes and offerings from their congregations
or so long as the members attend the church-services regularly or worship God with a loud voice. On seeing the numerical strength on Sunday services, they presume that their sheep are spiritually well. They hardly realize that their sheep are “wretched, and miserable, and poor,
and blind, and naked”(Rev.3: 17). In the eyes of God, these lifeless sheep
are like the dry bones. The word of God calls them as such. Do not rate them, according to your own standards.
Dear evangelist, you
should have the vision of the multitudes of such dry bones in many towns and villages in your nation and the whole world. You have not yet gone to preach the glorious gospel to these dead souls languishing
in darkness. These multitudes would believe on Jesus only through your word and
would become the sons and daughters of God or join the flock of Jesus (John 1:12
& 17:20). In other words, these unsaved and dead souls will never become
the children of God so long as you do not obey the great commission of Jesus. Only
through your word, the precious souls who were predestinated by God to be His children will be restored to the Church. “How shall they believe on Him of whom they have not heard?” (Rom.10:
14). As per Eze.37: 11, “these bones are the whole house of Israel”
– the whole house of the chosen people of God under the New Covenant including those who would hear the gospel and would
be saved.
FAITH
The second aspect is faith. The Holy Spirit asks you, “Son of man, can these bones live”? (Vs.3). Logically speaking, the dried bones cannot be restored to life and there is no hope
of reviving these bones by any human effort. In the past, you might have organized
and conducted many retreats and revival meetings with the hope of reviving such dried bones but in vain. Though our hope is lost, yet the Lord is posing this question to
test your faith. Let us confess through our mouth that God is able to revive them; they will live.
PROPHECY
Dear servant of God,
the Holy Spirit commands you to “prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, “O ye dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord”. These days, we attach little importance to the gift of prophecy or the
ministry of prophets. Less emphasis is laid on the gift of prophecy, whereas
undue emphasis is laid on the gift of tongues as in the days of the Corinthian Church.
Please note prophecy is as important as prayer. Prophecy can be distinguished
from prayer. A prayer proceeds from man to God, whereas a prophecy proceeds from
a holy man of God to another man or a people or a kingdom or a nation including animate and inanimate things as he is moved
by the Holy Ghost (II Pet.1: 21).
An inanimate thing has the ear to
hear the word of the Lord. For instance, the wind hears His Word and obeys Him
(Mark 4:39). When you utter the word of God and command in Jesus’ Name, the inanimate things or the natural forces as moved by the Holy Ghost, will
obey you. Please read Matt.21: 19-22. Jesus
said, “If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall
say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done”. A prayer conveys man’s words, whereas a prophecy conveys God’s
words. Prophecy is more important than any other human effort in reviving either
lifeless children of God or dead souls.
Prophecy can change the course of history of a
church or a nation. Prophecy can also bring about divine judgment and can cause
the rise or the fall of a kingdom. Jesus spoke the words of prophecy to Jerusalem in Matt.23: 37-39 and accordingly the judgment
of God devoured Jerusalem in A.D.70 through Roman destruction. A word of mouth
from a holy prophet can either create or destroy a thing.
Be discreet in prophesying unto the
people. Do not openly or directly address them as dry bones as this would lead
to misunderstanding amongst the hearers. Be careful. Prophesying unto the dry-bones means conveying the right truth of the word to the right people
who are spiritually dead. In the churches of the West, there are thousands who have divorced their spouses and remarried
other persons during the life time of their spouses. They thus live openly in the sin of adultery. The truth of the word prohibits such unscriptural marriages. If revival has to break out in these churches, this "accursed thing" should be cast out. We should prophesy this truth to
the dry bones in these churches so that they may be revived.
IMPORTANCE OF PROPHECY
The people of Israel in the wilderness were not satisfied with the manna given by God but asked
Moses to give them meat to eat. The Lord asked Moses to choose 70 men of the elders of Israel and to bring them to the tabernacle
of the congregation. The Lord would "take of the spirit that is upon thee and would put it upon them" so that they should
bear the burden of the people along with Moses. (Num.11:16-17). The Lord then promised to give them flesh to eat for a whole
month until they were fully satisfied. It is seen in this passage that the seventy people prophesied when the Spirit rested
on them. Moses said in verse 29, "all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them".
As
the people prophesied, the miracle took place. There went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea. The
people gathered the quails standing up all that day, and all that night and all the next day. The Lord did punish His people
afterwards for their lust for flesh in the wilderness. However, what I want to stress here is the truth that the people of
God prophesied for the miracle to take place. The people did not pray but prophesied.
Paul in his epistle to Corinthians
exhorted, "ye may all prophesy one by one….." (I Cor.14:31). During my ministry in Malaysia during June 2004, I exhorted
all the people in a church to receive the gift of prophecy by faith. They did receive it.
The biblical principle of
prophecy remains the same under the Old and New Testaments. If we want to usher in a revival in our midst, we should prophesy
in Jesus' Name. If we want to move the hand of God for a great miracle in our midst, let us open our mouth and say, "I prophesy
that this miracle be performed in Jesus' Name". Let us lay our hands on the sick and prophesy, "I command this sickness to
leave this body in Jesus' Name". If a sick person has lost all the hope of healing, you can prophesy unto him saying, "I prophesy
of healing of your body in Jesus' Name".
You can prophesy unto the inanimate things like wind, rain, etc, in Jesus'
Name. If a tornado has to hit your town in accordance with a weather forecast, you can command the tornado to disappear in
Jesus' Name. You can prophesy for rain to fall on your parched land. Please note carefully that all your prophecies should
be in accordance with the Word of God.
Dearly beloved in Christ Jesus, I exhort you to receive the gift of prophecy
by faith today by agreeing with me. Say "Amen" with me, touching your computer screen.
Verses 5 and six contain the prophetic message of God
to the dry bones:
“Behold, I will cause breath
to enter into you, and ye shall live; and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with
skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord”.
It is none but the Lord who causes His breath to enter into the
dry bones, and to create a new body with life, in response to your prophecy.
Ezekiel prophesied as he was commanded
by the Lord (Vs. 7). A prophet must prophesy as he is commanded by the Lord. Every prophecy must be in accordance with the will of God. Today, there are many self appointed prophets who prophesy according to their own imaginations. They prophesy lies in His Name (Jer. 23:25). They steal God’s
words and use their tongues and say, “He saith”. God has neither
sent them nor commanded them. They cause the people of God to err by their lies
(Jer. 23:30-32). There are some people in some churches who steal the Bible verses
and say, “God saith” visualizing some particular person or situation in mind.
The word of God should
not be stolen from the Bible and handled so as to offend somebody whom you hate or to flatter somebody whom you like. The word of God is the word of truth, which should be rightly divided (II Tim. 2:15). Since the word of God is also the sword of the Spirit, it should be used only after
much prayer.
When Ezekiel prophesied, there was
a noise and a shaking and the bones came together, bone to his bone (Vs. 7). As
you prophesy in Jesus’ Name, a noise will be heard, accompanied by a shaking.
There may be an over-loud or disturbing sound, indicative of repentance and confession of sins by the individual members. There will be a noise, as you will hear penitent people weeping or mourning for their
sins. God will shake the individual lives of the sheep under your care and they
will repent of their sins and iniquities. There will be a shaking of the entire
church, and repentant persons will weep or mourn for their sins and will make restitution of the wrongful gains. Such a shaking will be evidenced by a noise as you hear through the ear their weeping and living testimonies.
The scattered bones come together
and the skeleton is restored. The skeleton formed symbolizes the structure of
a Christian life being restored by the Blood of Jesus. The collapsed structure
is being restored by the Blood of Jesus. In other words, upon one’s repentance
of his backslidings, the basic structure of the spiritual life is being restored. Dear
minister of God, is there any believer in your flock whose life has been overcome and destroyed or shattered by any deadly
sin or any sin “which doth so easily beset us” (Heb. 12:1)? As you
prophesy upon his dry bones in Jesus’ Name, a restoration is caused in his life by the Blood of Jesus.
Then the sinews and the flesh come
up upon them, and the skins cover them above (Vs. 8). Formation of a new spiritual
body takes place, which will be again filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. This
body will have all the senses restored. This new body will hear and see Jesus
through their spiritual senses and will have the agonizing mind of Jesus. It
will feel the agonies suffered by the members of the Body of Christ.
The second part of the prophecy
is mentioned in verse 9. You have now to prophesy unto the wind:
“Thus saith the Lord God; come
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live”.
The first part of the prophecy creates
a new spiritual man out of the dry bones, and the second part of the prophecy enables the life-giving Spirit to breathe upon
the newly created man.
The wind symbolizes the
Holy Spirit as per John 3:8. The life-giving breath comes from the four winds,
which symbolize the quadruple Cross of our Lord Jesus that is lifted up towards the heaven. The Holy Spirit comes to us only
because of the redemptive work of the Father through the Cross of His Son. We
have the greatest privilege of possessing the Holy Spirit in our earthen vessels only because of the shedding of the Blood
of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. The Holy Spirit and the Blood of the Cross
are inseparable, because the Christian life is of the Blood of Jesus (Lev. 17:14). As you prophesy unto the wind
in Jesus’ Name, a new anointing of the Holy Spirit comes upon the newly created spiritual man. Prophesying unto the wind means imploring the
Holy Spirit in Jesus’ Name to anoint the man concerned afresh. This latter anointing will be greater than the former anointing.
Let us prophesy unto
the dry bones and unto the wind in Jesus’ Name. Then we will see the re-generation
of the thousands of lifeless believers who will “stand up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (Vs. 10). This great army will stand on their own feet and accomplish great things for God. You need not goad them into evangelical work or prayer meetings. They will be zealous for God, filled with His Spirit and fire. Through
this army, God will shake the nations and send a revival upon them.
Are you an evangelist intent upon doing the perfect will of God
by reaching out the dry bones in the obscure valleys of your nation? If so, as
you prophesy upon these dry bones and unto the wind in Jesus’ Name, during your Gospel out-reach campaigns, you will
indeed hear a voice and will perceive a shaking in a similar manner. The scattered
bones of the would-be children of God will turn into an exceeding great army of the soldiers of Christ. This great army will shake the whole world. This is a revival
of the dry bones during evangelism by virtue of prophecy.
The third part of the prophecy, which
is distinct from the previous ones, is mentioned in verses 11 to 14. The Lord
finally commanded Ezekiel to prophesy unto the House of Israel who said “Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost:
we are cut off for our parts”. This part of the prophecy is an open and
direct one, and you can prophesy unto the children of God and to the hearing of their physical ears.
The God of Israel is the Hope of the hopeless.
In your personal life, there may be dried bones, which made you lose your hope forever.
You might have missed some blessing from God; you might have faced some defeat after defeat; you might have been in
the grave dug by the cunning devil for a long time with no hope of redemption. Moreover,
your hopes lie buried with no sign of resurrection. Dear child of God, you may
now hear the prophecy. “Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I
will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, and shall put My Spirit in you, and
ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land; then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it,
saith the Lord.”
Dearly beloved, you will come out of your grave
and step into the Promised Land. This is your own land, which has been hidden
from your view by the Devil. There will be resurrection of the buried bones on
this land. God will restore you twice the things lost by you or the years wasted
in your life. You have to believe that God will place you in your land. A life of victory over sin and of power over all the powers of the enemy is available
to you in this very world once God causes you to come out of the spiritual grave. You
have to simply believe Him. The third part of the prophecy is promised only for
those who trust in Him
(By Job Anbalagan)
