March 12, 2021: Can the Lifeless Parts of Our Lives Live Again? Can God Bring Them Back to Life?

In the Book of Ezekiel, God had given the prophet a vision of the "Valley of Dry Bones". God's purpose in this was to let Ezekiel know that God's preeminence, authority, His glory, and character is in control of all things and that He has the power to bring back the people of Israel after the great devastation of Jerusalem. In Chapter 37, God had taken Ezekiel by the Spirit of the Lord, into the Valley of Dry Bones. Read the following:

Ezekiel 37: 1-3

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”. I said, "Sovereign Lord, You alone know."

Later in the chapter, the bones started coming together and the tendons and flesh began to form on the bones, but there was no breath in them.

Ezekiel 37: 7-8

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Imagine this, you are standing in the middle of a desert where there are thousands of dry bones around you and suddenly, the bones begin coming together and start forming bodies all around you. But there is a problem, there is no life in them. But read on to see what God does.

Ezekiel 37: 9-10

Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”10 So I prophesied as He command me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

We too are dead in Christ, before we come to our "salvation in Christ Jesus". As we receive Jesus into our hearts, immediately the Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts. Imagine, the power of God living in us through the Holy Spirit. But the problem with most of us as Christians, we refuse to let go of the "lifeless parts" of our lives and want to remain in control. We must be willing to "die-to-self" completely, be "absolutely surrendered" to God, to become wholly alive in Christ Jesus.

Ezekiel 37: 14

I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

PERSONNAL COMMENT:

Just as the dry bones came to life in the Valley of Dry Bones, we too can begin to fully live again in the full power of the Holy Spirit if we would only be willing to die first to ourselves and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to take full control of our lives. May we begin to live in the full power of the Holy Spirit.