TEXT: EZEKIEL 37:1-14
INTRODUCTION
In this discourse, we shall consider the experience of Prophet Ezekiel, who by the Spirit of God was brought down into the valley and made to survey the rather miserable sight of dry, lifeless bones. Until the Lord reveals the true state of things to a man, he will continue to think that he is ‘rich and wealthy, having need of nothing’, without realizing that he is ‘wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked’ (Rev 3:17). May God open our eyes to see and admit that first, there is dryness/wretchedness, move us a step further to cry for an unprecedented outpouring of His Spirit for our personal/collective revival, and that the unadulterated Word of God will grow so mightily and prevail, that out of the valley of dry bones will arise a great army for the Lord.
The study is divided into three sections:
- 1. The valley and the dry bones
- 2. The need for a Spirit-filled man on whom is the hand of the Lord.
- 3. The role of preaching the inspired word of God.
May the Lord grant us illumination as we study.
THE VALLEY AND THE DRY BONES
Our text renders the account of a vision given to Prophet Ezekiel, describing the spiritual state of the Israelites. It is important to note that the words and expressions used are allegories, having very specific spiritual connotations and as such must not be trivialised even as we seek to have the eyes of our understanding open by the Holy Spirit as regards the accurate interpretation of them.
Now, for a valley to exist, you must have at least two mountains surrounding it; this would account for its definition as a level plain or depression between hills or mountains. The present day valley experience in Christianity was preceded by a mountaintop (revival) experience and will be followed by a mighty revival in preparation for the second coming of our Lord. Now a man who happened to find himself down in the valley could have been on the mountain top ab initio and later descended into the valley which is the condition being portrayed in our text. Also, a man can belong to the valley without ever having any mountain top experience. The condition in a valley actually makes anybody who has fallen thus, to always long for a deliverance to the mountain. And it will take someone who is himself on the mountain to rescue someone in the valley.
The valley here represented was described as a graveyard where only dead people were allowed to abide. Looking for life or hope in the valley is tantamount to seeking for the living among the dead-it is a misnomer. A graveyard is a place of gloom, decay/rot, filthiness, destruction and putrefaction. It is a place where no life thrives. If you have been to the graveyard before, you will discover a lot of deception in that there are many whitewashed sepulchers that are full of bones and rottenness. They are well decorated outside but what is the use of such a marble plaited sepulcher to the dead man. No wonder the Scriptures say “there is no remembrance of Thee in death: in the grave who shall give Thee thanks.”(Ps 6:5) This means that no service that is rendered to the Lord in the valley is acceptable.
Also in a graveyard a man loses his identity to the decay that has eaten his flesh, he now becomes a faceless person. And this is how iniquity destroys every Christ-like identity in any man who resides in the valley.
Many so called Christians are like these sepulchers (whitewashed) who attend marble plaited churches and are well dressed externally but they are vey rotten deep within their soul. Sin which doth eat like a canker (cancer) has eaten deep into the fiber of their being. In fact, if God has to expose what they are covering up to other believers, they will actually be baffled. Many Pastors/Church leaders who live in hypocrisy and immorality but preach well with psychological and oratorical prowess are like these white-washed sepulchers, they are full of dead bones. Should God open your eyes to the condition of our Churches, like the Prophet, you will exclaim to Him that indeed these bones are very dry. Even the sins that are mentioned amongst us are such that cannot be mentioned among some gentiles. These are not assumptions nor are they exaggerations but the actual state of our churches today.
Now this present decay has sold us into the slavery/bondage of the devil and he is afflicting many happily. Is it not in this our generation that the priesthood gave a right hand of fellowship to the gay movement? Are we not aware of Pastors who now embrace divorce as an alternative for a marriage that is not working as they planned? We use all means to milk money out of our flocks as if the life of a man consists in the abundance of what he possesses. All these and many more show the decay that characterize the life of a man who is in the valley (graveyard). Is the Church (the Israel of God) not indeed a people called out of the world? What fellowship has light/life with darkness/decay?
Brethren, there is a ‘woe’ hanging over your head (as Christ himself had proclaimed upon the hypocrites-the pretenders; Matt 23) if you choose to remain in the quagmire of sinfulness that you seem to be enjoying in that valley of sin. The only remedy for you now is to respond to the word of God to you and come to the mount of God-the mountain of deliverance.
Maybe you are a preacher of the gospel, and there was a time when your life produced eternal results anytime you mounted the pulpit but now you have launched into the valley of compromise/sinfulness, taking a downward spiral and you are as dry, in fact, very dry as the dry bones described here. Please, I beseech you, repent and remember from whence thou art fallen, that place where you lost the axe head and began to struggle in the valley. Remember, it is him that overcomes that will receive the crown of life. Heaven is for overcomers and not for defeated men or compromisers who are hanging their heads down in the decay of sinfulness.
Now we shall consider the place of a man on whom the hand of the Lord is and in whom is the Spirit of the Lord in the restoration of the dry bones.
THE NEED FOR A SPIRIT-FILLED MAN ON WHOM IS THE HAND OF THE LORD
The intention of the Lord when He took Ezekiel to the valley of these very dry bones was to raise a mighty army that will confront the evil in their generation. And I also want you to know that even in this end-time, the Lord is looking for who will be useful in raising an end-time army for Him even in His barracks.
Though the situation might look hopeless or gloomy, I can see God saying, ‘if I can just find a man in whom is my Spirit and on whom is my hand i.e who has received my approval, then I can turn this hopeless situation around.’
Now let us read from the scriptures about what was written of such men:
Joseph:- And Pharaoh said unto his servants, can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? Gen 41:38.
Ezra:- This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. (Ezra 7:6).
In the preceding verses (Ezra 7:1-5), Ezra’s genealogy had to be traced not just to make the chapter long but in order to show that he is not a hijacker but a proper descendant of Aaron who has the right to function as a priest. So, the hand of God’s approval cannot be upon a man, who is a stranger to the grace of God that brings salvation. You cannot be claiming to be doing anything for God if you are not a proper descendant of Jesus Christ. So before the Holy Spirit can dwell in you and before any approval can come from God, you have to be born-again. So, are you born-again? Have you renounced the life of sin?
Let us consider the life of Ezekiel too:
“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.”(Eze 37:1)
Now, woe betide any man who happens to be carried into the valley of dry bones and does not have the approval of God with the fullness of the Holy Ghost, he will only end up as a casualty. It is like a military officer who is going for battle without the necessary armour. Now these men did not just drop from the sky but they were raised by God in the furnace of sufferings/trials/persecution before they now had God’s approval. There was that period of rigorous sowing and cultivation when God sat upon their lives before they were eventually approved of God. In fact, they had to be ‘handed over’ to the devil in order to be tempted of him. Even our Lord Jesus Christ was not spared of these disciplines.
“And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, thou art my beloved son; in thee I am well pleased.”Luke 3:22
“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Being forty days tempted of the devil.”Luke 4:1,2.
“While He yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, this is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” Matt 17:5
Now before Christ received the approval of God, there was a period of testing and close watching after which God had to ask the disciples to listen to Him. So before every approval of God in the life of a man, he ought to have been tested in the furnace of trials and temptation. Some men of God have made a mess of kingdom resources because they went out without the approval of God in that area and they are raising disciples who also live reckless lives. You cannot of a mango tree reap apple fruits. You can only raise your look-alike/prototype/semblance.
Hear what the Holy Spirit says in Malachi 3:2-4;
“2But who may abide the day of His coming?
And who shall stand when He appeareth?
For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’(launderer’s) soap:
3And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:
And He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
4Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord,
As in the days of old and as in former years.”
This sitting of God upon the ‘Levites’ who are willing to yield their vessels to the furnace of God’s making is indispensable, if we must minister effectively to bring men out of the valley of sinfulness. You are the one actually in a hurry, but God is saying He wants to take His time to refine you if the offering you will offer Him will be in righteousness.
If it is just ten men that are available for Him to effectively sit upon, then God can back them up in order to wreck havoc on the kingdom of darkness. Hear what Jesus said in Luke 14:31,32:
31Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
32Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
God is never involved in such a sham/phony venture. It is my prayer that God will find in you a disciple that is ready to forsake all in order to be made by Him.
THE ROLE OF PREACHING THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD
The preaching of the inspired word of God is a pre-requisite in the raising of such a mighty army for the Lord of Hosts. In fact, God’s word faithfully preached is His comprehensive equipment for changing lives.
For the word of God is quick(active), and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It was this word of God that was declared by Ezekiel that brought about the raising of a mighty army for the Lord from a group of very dry bones in the midst of a valley.
It is the Spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.
The inspired word of God when faithfully declared will definitely cause the needed change because they are Spirit and they are life.
But ‘How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher… so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’
Therefore, ‘Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort in all longsuffering and doctrine.’
But always remember that, ‘unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit then, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.’
Now this word of God has the sanctifying power, it can heal and at the same time deliver from the valley of the very dry bones. See what was written about this powerful word of God:
‘In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.’ ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;’
A man who has not experienced the word of God first hand cannot actually adequately transfer the life that is in it to others.
Therefore Beloved of God, ‘Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual song, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.’
CONCLUSION
The very dry bones in the Valley of sin, worldliness and satanic affliction will definitely rise again as a mighty end-time army of the Lord when the inspired word of God is faithfully preached by Spirit filled men who have received the approval of the Lord.
This is very urgent as we expect the second coming of our Lord Jesus.
Rise up, O Men of God! Let us play the Men for our God and for our people.
Let us pray!
