WORDS FOR THIS GENERATION: LOOKING AT THIS VALLEY OF DRY BONES
Recently, I was brought back to a familiar passage of Scripture; one that I have read many times. I love the story in Ezekiel about the army which was raised out of a valley of dry bones. But this time, as I was reading it, something deep began to stir in my heart for this generation at this point in our lives and in our world. I began to read this story, not as a mere miracle, but as a proclamation over our country, over each man and each woman on this planet, and over the dry bones in each of our personal valleys. Today, I declare these words over you, over the valley of dry bones you are facing. Be it a business lost, finances in ruin, health that refuses to heal, or simply a loneliness creeping to overwhelm you, I speak to that valley today in the words of Ezekiel 37. To you I declare:
“The hand of the Lord is on you, and he has brought you out by the Spirit of the Lord and set you in the middle of a valley, a valley full of dry bones. He has led you back and forth among them, and you have seen a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He has turned to you in this season and has asked you, ‘My child, can these bones live?’.
You answer Him with, ‘Sovereign Lord, you alone know’. Then He helped you turn to that valley of dry bones and prophesy over them saying, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!’ This is what the Sovereign LORD says to you, these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you WILL come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.’
This is how you know that HE is indeed LORD. You, Son and Daughter of the Most High God, have prophesied over your valley, over the dry bones there, just as He has taught you. I declare and decree that as you have prophesied, a noise, a great rattling sound will begin to rise up in your ears and all around you. The bones will come together, bone to bone, and tendons and flesh will appear on them with skin covering them. And you will again, prophesy to these bones saying, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘Come, breath, from the flour winds and breathe into what has been slain, that these bones may live.’
And just as you have prophesied, I decree and declare that out of this valley of dry bones, breath will enter that they will come to life and stand to their feet – A VERY VAST ARMY. That just as in Ezekiels day, when the LORD said to him that the bones were the ruins of the Israeli people, that there is a promise of our God to resurrect our ruins. He will say to you, “My People, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land which I have promised you. Then you will know that I am the LORD, I have put my Spirit in you, and you will live. And I will settle you in your own land. I will do all that I have spoken.”
He will do all that He has spoken. The God who promised to raise your valley of dry bones will do what He has said. Command them to come alive, through the power of the word of God which was given to you in Ezekiel. Amen