From Dry Bones to Living Hope

In Ezekiel 37, God showed Ezekiel a valley of dry bones. Ezekiel passed among them. They lay there quietly. There was air around them but no breath IN them. God asked him. “Is there life in those bone? Ezekiel said “only you know.” God told Ezekiel to prophesy and He would cause breath and spirit to enter them and they would come to life. There came a noise and rattling and the bones came together just as God had said. After the bones came together, the tendons and muscles came together. Then the flesh came upon them and covered them. They looked much better but they were still a body without breath. It is a miracle of God that the bones, tendons, muscles and flesh could come together without the life or breath in them yet. Then the Lord said “Come from the four winds, o breath!” He breathed on them. “They came to life and stood up on their feet and became a vast army.” Dry bones need the Word of the Lord and the wind of the Holy Spirit.

Before I came to God, I was spiritually dry and dead. My bones were dead, dry and scattered. Salvation is for dead people-people who are in a spiritual grave. Fifty years ago this week, I was in my valley of dry bones. I was just laying here on earth. He came to me and spoke to my heart “Can these bones live?” My heart responded: Only you know, Lord. “Then He said to me ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord …. I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life …..Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” Ezekiel 37:4-5) I heard the Word of the Lord at Vacation Bible School and it spoke to my heart.

Suddenly, as I spoke, I heard a noise or a sound like rattling. The hardness of the bones caused a rattling sound as they snapped together- click, click, click, click. My bones were connecting and were solid and strong but I knew they wouldn’t last forever. My heart was hardened by sin and I had no purpose with my life strewn about in a valley of dryness. I was helpless, hopeless and had no purpose. The whispering of the Lord to my heart helped me want to connect and find life again. I wanted life in my dry bones. My bones started coming together as I heard the Word of God and a connectivity happened with my tendons and muscles. My body needed to respond to His Word before He would breathe the Spirit into me.

Those bones must have been covered in dust and dirt from the dry valley but God didn’t brush the bones off first. He just put them back together to begin the process of living. God works the same way with us. He doesn’t brush off the sin and dirt in our life first before He begins to work on us. He takes us as we are and begins to put us back together again.

Once the dry bones were put together, “tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.” (Ez. 37: 8) There’s still a problem at this point. I am alive but not really living life to the fullest. Even though the tendons connected my muscles and flesh and bones allowing me to move, I was not connected spiritually. There was no breath-no life. No wind-no Holy Spirit. Separately, the physical body and spirit and soul are useless even if they have order. Yes, they had order but they still had no life, hope and real purpose. What good is a connected body if it’s in a grave? Connection, alone, doesn’t make you alive. It takes more than connection. It takes the breath of life.

God said to Ezekiel, people are saying they are dried up and they have nothing left. They were hopeless and disconnected. Sometimes God lets us dry out so we can discover He alone is God and the one who gives us new life. God told Ezekiel to tell those people “I’ll bring them up from their graves and bring them out alive and they will know I am God.”

I went from a broken person without purpose and hope to finding new life. Before He breathed life into me, He took those dry bones of mine-bones of rejection, fear, misdirection, feeling unloved, unusable, lack of purpose, hopelessness and gave me tendons. He gave me the tendons of church, prayer, reading the Bible, love, acceptance, forgiveness….so many tendons and muscles that allowed me to move. He gave me the flesh of a relationship with Him to keep my joints connected and moving. Finally, he covered me with the skin of restoration, hope and purpose. He held me together as strongly as a vast army. NOW I just needed the breath of life in me! “I will put my Spirit within you, and you will come to life.” (Ezek. 37:14). “God blew into my nostrils the breath of life, and I became a living being.” (Gen. 2:7) He said “come from the four winds, O breathe!” The four winds blew away the dryness in my bones. Almost always in His Word, wind refers to the Holy spirit. It’s a movement of God. The Holy Spirit blew away the rejection, fear, misdirection, feeling of being unloved and hopelessness. He replaced it all with His breath-the breath of life, hope and purpose!

The Spirit of God made me what I am, used my dry bones, connected me and gave me breath and new life. He breathed new life into my soul. He breathed hope and purposes into me. “The breath of the God Almighty gave me life!” (Job 33:4)

Do you ever wonder why you are still in a dry valley? Maybe you’ve connected with God and the church but you haven’t had the breath of the Holy Spirit breathed into you. Many Christians are dead, dry, scattered, disjointed, without hope, without purpose. They appear to be life-like but they are not really alive. They don’t have the breath of the Holy Spirit in them. So, what is the solution to hopelessness and “dry bones?” How do we live not just a good life but a fulfilling, abundant life? It is by hearing the Word of the Lord and to let the Holy Spirit breath life into you and restore and revive you. If God transformed an entire valley of scattered, dead, dry bones into a living, breathing vast Army, think what He can do for you and I as an individual. He wants to put our bones back together, take us out of the valley, and give us His Spirit so we can become alive again. There is NO situation or person into which He cannot breathe life.

I accepted Christ 50 years ago this week. I have lived life but with each trial, it sometimes feels like I can’t breathe. It’s too hard and I struggle. My bones get tired. My tendons and muscles are sore. I am learning you can still exercise your faith even if you are in the valley and have trials. The way to grow stronger is to keep on exercising. When you exercise, you breathe harder. You take in more air, you feel the wind blowing on you and when you finish, you are stronger and more alive than when you began. The wind brings change even if I can’t see it. Don’t settle for a good life and good bones; go after an abundant life full of breath! “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.”