I See Dead People
© 2009 Dale Freeman
"The
hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and
set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. And caused me
to pass by them round about and, behold, there were very many in the open
valley; and, lo, they were very dry."
---Ezekiel 37: 1,2
Not “fresh death”
like road kill. No sickening stench, or
wriggling maggots, or prowling scavengers and circling birds of prey. Death, up close and personal, causing him to
try and imagine a time when the disassembled bodies had possessed lips that
spoke, hands that grasped, and legs that ran. They crunched beneath his feet. Piles of bleached, whitened, brittle, long
dead bones.
“And
He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?”
The question wasn’t asked to gain information.
God
inevitably asks for man’s sake, always seeking
something deeper. In the Garden of Eden He had asked Adam and Eve; “Where are you.”? He questioned Cain after he had killed Abel;
“What have you done with your brother?” Centuries later Jesus would query His
disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”
What God really meant was…
“Is
there any hope?”
Ezekiel paused for a moment, and then
gave the only response that any man can give in the face of something beyond
his own power and means.
“O Lord God, thou knowest”.
Then God issued a command.
“Preach upon these bones, and say unto
them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD."
“Preach to them?” Ezekiel thought. “I’ve preached to masses
of people who had ears, and they couldn’t or wouldn’t hear. Commission me preach to the trees, or the
flowers of the meadow, or blades of grass.
They make good listeners, moving and swaying from moment to moment. At least they’re living things!”
God reiterated.
“Preach
to these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter
into you, and ye shall live.”
Ezekiel relented and obeyed.
"So I preached as I was
commanded and as I preached, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the
bones came together bone to his bone."
The foot bone
connected to the ankle bone
The ankle bone connected to the leg bone
The leg bone connected
to the knee bone…
No longer
separated, but now unified by life force.
The knee bone
connected to the thigh bone
The thigh bone
connected to the hip bone
The hip bone connected to the back bone…
That which only God could do….
The shoulder bone connected to the neck bone
The neck bone connected to the head bone
A miracle!
Now hear the word of the Lord!
The Gospel is based on the premise
that there are some things that only God can do. Man is dead and separated from
his Creator by sin, and there is precious nothing that he can do to make it
right. He may study the teachings of the
greatest philosophers, join a church, be baptized in every lake and stream,
make resolutions, try to pull himself up by the bootstraps, and turn over a
thousand new leafs.
Still, he’s alive to the physical
world and dead to all things spiritual.
Soon as we draw our
infant breath,
The seeds of sin grow up for death;
Thy law demands a perfect heart,
But we’re defiled in every part.
--- Isaac Watts
Only through God’s intervention and
grace is it possible for man to be restored to that most precious of
relationships for which he was created. It
took God Himself to lovingly step across the void, sacrificing His own Son, to make
it possible for the sweet breath of eternity to blow into man’s soul.
Blows on the sons of flesh;
Creates a new - a heavenly mind,
And forms the man afresh.
---Isaac Watts
How then, can spiritual renewal come
to the Church of God? When individual hearts once inflamed have
grown cold, and the church is drained of its supernatural power, what would be
the text He would have us preach? What admonition
would offer a recipe for renewal?
Like salvation, spiritual revival is
impossible for man. All of the
preaching, teaching, singing, and organizing won’t bring a fresh breath of spiritual
life. We can write books, attend seminars,
listen to tapes, and manufacture a stack of programs to little avail.
“Can
revival come to the lukewarm, floundering, virtually powerless church?”
“Lord,
Thou knowest.”
“Preach
to My people, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord God unto My Church; Behold, I will cause breath to enter
into you, and ye shall live.”
“What
is our text?”
“There
is only one. If my people who are called
by my Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from
their wicked ways…”
"O, Wind of God, come bend us, break
us,
Till humbly we confess our need;
Then in thy tenderness remake us,
Revive, restore, for this we plead."
Humility allows a moment of clarity
when we can call out like David, "Search
me, 0 God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be
any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Then, as the Holy Spirit reveals sin in our
lives, we can confess it, abandon it, and join the heart-cry that breeds
revival.
"Against thee, and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy
sight" (Psalms 51:4).
"The dearest idol I
have known-
Whate'er that idol be-
Help me to tear it from thy throne
And worship only Thee."
Dwarfed dreams become God-sized,
mountains long thought to be too high are now scalable, and new realms of
possibility are not only seen but attempted by faith.
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
---Sir
Francis Drake
“Now hear the Word
of the Lord!”
Hi.
I found your Web Site by Google,
and I wish you the best you can get,
the peace of God through Jesus Christ.
Welcome to visit my Site.
Allan Svensson, Sweden
www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/INDEX.HTM
Why does the revival tarry? It is because God's
people tarry to obey the powerful command of
the Lord in Rev. 18:4. This is the most powerful
revival message of the Lord to his people in our time.
As in the days of Lot, it is now. Lot was not interested
to leave Sodom. God sent two angels to rescue him,
and they must persuade him to leave Sodom. When
he yet lingered, one of the angels said to him:
"Flee for your life sake ..."
Just like as Lot, God's people are not interested to
leave the great Babylon, but finally they must flee
for their life from there.
www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PAGE88.HTM
Why are the Christians divided in many churches and
denominations? It is because the truth of the Assembly
of God has never been preached in the churches. The
members of churches and denominations are not
permitted to know the truth of the Assembly of God.
If the truth of Assembly of God would be well known
among the people, then all God's people would leave
the churches, according to Rev. 18:4.
I left the great Babylon 43 years ago.
God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge
because their preachers have rejected knowledge.
Hosea 4:6-11. Instead to preaching the truth of the
Assembly of God, they have preached lies about the
Assembly of God. The Pentecostalists have abused
the expression "Assembly of God" and used it as a
name of their church.
Evil spirits in the churches
www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/SPIRITS.HTM
A catastrophic course
www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/COURSE.HTM
Why did the Pentecostal Revival take an end?
www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/CRISIS.HTM
What does hinder the Antichrist to appear?
What is the Restrainer?
www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/MESSAGE.HTM#Antichrist
Posted by: Allan Svensson | March 01, 2009 at 09:52 AM