The revelation of a vision and prophecy is a great thing.  It stimulates our faith to believe God for things thought impossible.  Many have received a specific vision and heard the Word of the Lord come to you. 

 

When the vision of the Lord came to you it was filled with the “Power of the Promise!”  Even though God revealed something to you that is not so great looking now, you knew that there was something good coming.  God had opened your eyes to see something that captured your heart.

 

You viewed with the Eye of the Spirit the “Terrain of God’s prophetic voice.”

 

What you saw in the Spirit that greatly impacted you.  Your course has just been altered and life will never be the same again.

 

“A vision” has a way of taking you prisoner to the cause God just laid out to you.

 

You know that you will never be free to pursue life the way you used to.

 

• Once God gives a vision, you are changed day by day and year by year to hold fast to what God has said.
• You are to play a part in God’s acquirement of what He desires to use you for.

Your vision also has the potential to take others far out of their comfortable dead zones and place them in the center of God’s plan with you.

 

The Lord took me to Ezekiel 37 to the story of the prophet of God and the valley of dry bones.  I am sure many messages have been preached from this passage of scripture and all of them filled with promise as they preached hope into a lifeless situation. I pray that what God has given me will be used to greatly encourage you as well to believe to its fulfillment the vision that God has given you.

 

Ezek 37:1

1          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,

 

This is the starting place of visions – a time when the hand of the LORD carries you to a place outside of yourself - a place that often looks and feels desolate and hopeless.

 

God will place us by the Spirit in such a place and set us right down in the midst of such a valley.  He will give us eyes to see the devastation and ruin of a people, a family, a ministry, a church, a city, a state, a nation and show us the death that lays there.

 

This vision is necessary or we will live in our bubble and not know that, even though we live, others are dead.

 

When you had “your vision/revelation” the hand of the LORD was upon you and carried you by the Spirit of the LORD and showed you what God already knew and saw.  He opened your eyes to view what He was preparing you for. You were no doubt shown an area that was in great need of restoration.

 

• You saw the remains of what once was beautiful and full of life.
• You saw the remains of a “once great army of believers.”
• You saw the graveyard of a “one powerful move of God.”
• You saw the grown over, “weedy place that once yielded fruit.”
• You saw the “capped wells” – ones that once refreshed the weary with living waters.
• You saw the “dry river beds” of revival.

You no doubt saw the ruin of something that needed a “Thus saith the LORD,” - a fresh word of hope and “Prophetic infusion.”

 

There is nothing pretty about a valley of dry bones, but we must see them in order to prophesy. 

 

Ezek 37:2

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.

 

God always will tell us the truth.

 

He does not paint a pretty picture to deceive us, but reveals the truth about the valley of dry bones. 

 

• The truth was that the task was large, depicted by the statement, “there were very many.”
• God knows that what He has called us to prophesy over is large.
• This is the landscape upon which God will get the glory for it is too big for us.
• These had been dead for a long time for they were “very dry.”
• He caused the prophet to look from every angle as he cause him to pass by them round about.
• He circled and looked from angles he had not seen before.

He no doubt was “aware” of the problem, but he had never “seen” the problem the way God was now showing it to him. 

 

God entrusts us with impossible situations – very large and very dry ones.

 

• God has shown you some things as he has circled you all the way around a situation and you know, from His view, what the needs are.
• This vision takes you beyond your earthly senses and moves you into heavenly revelation.
• “The bones are very dry.

Ezek 37:3

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.

 

I believe that this is a question that we too have to answer when we see the thing that God has asked us to believe Him for.  Our human tendency is to be overwhelmed by such a sight as lays before us.  Some of you have been praying for years and are wondering if “life can come” to what you have seen.

 

Ezekiel’s answer to God’s question is, “O Lord GOD, you know.”  God says, “Can good come of what I am showing you in this vision?”  We should be wise enough to not have all the answers right on the tip of our tongue, but to seek God for a deeper understanding. 

 

We are obviously not in charge of the beginning or the end of a matter, but God will use us “in the center of His will.”

 

Prophecy is like that, so it is not wise to run with answers when we have not heard the answer to God’s own question yet - from God.

 

Proverbs 18:12-13

12        Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility.

13        He that answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame unto him.

 

An instant answer when faced with a lack of knowledge is foolish.  God is willing to ask a question and then answer it, if we will wait on Him. 

 

The size of your vision and the tasks of seeing life come to it deserve a “God-sized-answer,” not a “Man-sized-answer.”

 

The vision of death reveals that we, in and of ourselves, do not have an answer for what lays before us.

 

What is God’s answer?  Prophesy!

 

Ezek 37:4

4          Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

 

This is the first “Key,” – Prophesy!*

 

This is just about as hard as it gets …

 

God says, “Stand over dry bones and after you have looked at them from every angle and determined that they are not only dead but totally disconnected, very many and very dry, speak to them. 

 

Here’s what I want you to say…”

 

Ezek 37:5-6

5          Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; “Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

6          And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”

 

Knowing and speaking the Word of the LORD is a very big key to the vision being fulfilled and if we miss it, we miss the fulfillment of the vision.  It is not enough to see, evaluate what we see and know the condition of what we have been shown and even pray about what we have seen.

 

We may pray, plead, march and shout, and try ever so hard to get bones to live – but until there’s prophecy - the Word of the Lord, infused with the Spirit of God – death remains.

 

“The vision” AND “The prophetic Word of the LORD”, holds within itself, “The will of God” for bones lying scattered in the valley.  God chose a man – Ezekiel – to prophesy the Living Word to these bones. 

 

Remember, when you are faced with a graveyard of bones, God has also chosen you to speak a “Wind Word” from heaven into “bones.”

 

Ezek 37:7a

So I prophesied as I was commanded…

 

This is where obedience comes in. Once the Word of the Lord comes to you, just do it.  While the timing of the LORD may come into play (even timing is Spirit-led), a command is a command.  Ezekiel understood the timeliness of the Word of the LORD and acted.

 

Our own human thought, left to over-evaluate a thing, will stall for more time when a “Now-Word” has been spoken by the LORD.

 

This is because the things the LORD has asked us to do seem foolish and non-productive. 

 

• “Who wants to talk to bones?”
• “Shouldn’t we just sort out the issues before we make a move?”
• “Don’t you think we should develop a strategy of approach?”
• “Wouldn’t it be better if I spent more time in prayer to ‘get the mind of the LORD?’” 

This is like saying…

 

• “Wouldn’t it be better if I got my super glue and began to glue the bones together, to get a head start?”

What God has asked us to do is like walking us to a 1000 piece puzzle laying scattered on the ground and having God allow us to only speak to them to come together.  

 

We are so good at “the arm of flesh,” that we can attempt to “do it ourselves,” when in fact all we need to do is “prophesy as we are commanded.”  While I do not advocate foolish and careless approaches to the things of God, I also believe that we know when God has told us a thing and the timing of the thing He has asked.”

 

• The bones WILL NOT move until the prophesy is given to them. 
• This is the beginning stage of movement – the release of the Word of the LORD.

Anything that comes from “Prophetic Vision must be carried to term by Prophetic Voice.”

 

Ezek 37:7b

…and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

 

I don’t believe that anything could have prepared Ezekiel for what happened when he began to prophecy – Noise and Shaking. The sounds must have been incredible as all around him the rattling of dry bones began to fill the air. 

 

Picture with me the sights and sounds of this event as bones begin to move their fleshless way to restoration. Imagine with me the sound of millions of bones, from the tiniest to the largest, moving against each other as they began to move from place to place, finding the right attachments and placements, according to the “Spoken Word of the LORD.” 

 

There is a spiritual correlation to this event as we prophesy to “our dry places.”

 

The moment we prophesy the Word of the LORD, something moves.

This kind of prophesying sorts out a lot of things.  It moves the bones – shakes the bones – unsettle the bones – bones that have laid for years and years. 

 

• This rattling time in the spirit realm can be very unnerving to us if we aren’t prepare for the kind of movement that is going to take place when we speak the Word of the LORD. 
• It can be an agitating time – a challenging time – a uncomfortable time. 
• The sight of bones flying around in a graveyard can be a little scary, especially if we only have the Word of God to that point. 

He hasn’t said His next thing – yet.

 

Though the Word doesn’t say, I believe that there was a strong sense of loss as the spirit of death that lounged in that valley – feeling that everything was all wrapped up for these dead people - heard the sounds of movement. 

 

When death loses its grip, hell gets nervous as the things the enemy thought he had conquered are moving again.

 

The noisy shaking that was occurring was a sound in the ears of the enemy that ruined his day.  Those bones had been lying like that for a long time.  What lay there bore no resemblance to the former state of the former days as death had taken its toll, but now the noise was of bone connecting to bone – and not just any old bone. The connection was with purpose and intent. 

 

“Bone to his bone”, means that everything that was broken, lost or stolen from the original plan was going back into place.

 

Not one bone got connected to the wrong body.  Not one thing that was disconnected remained unconnected when the noisy shaking was finished.  A silence must have fell over the God project at that moment. This part of the plan was completed.

 

And for all the movement that just took place, all you have is a skeleton, well put together it is, but it is still just a skeletal framework of what used to be.

 

We may wonder at this moment, after we have witnessed the shaking and rattling of bones, is this all there is to it?  You say you’ve seen very little happening for all the praying and believing that you have done for the past several years?  But then, wait, the work is still going on! 

 

There is a work that comes before the “fleshing out of the plan of God.”

 

The skeleton of any good work is foundational to the stability in the framework of God’s plans.  Take another look!

 

Ezek 37:8a

And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above:

 

After the shaking, the form of the thing prophesied over begins to take shape.  The shaking released a lot of dust in the air along with the noise.  The sinews are the tendons of the prophesied thing. 

 

• Without the muscles in place to move the thing coming to pass, there could be no further movement. 
• Without the skin to cover the sinews, infection would quickly find a toe-hold in the body.

God is a God of order.

 

What He speaks forth over and into a situation will come with Divine Order – not helter-skelter – like the bones that lay in the valley.  He calls for the prophecy to call the bones to order, then in order comes the sinew and then the skin. 

 

But, this is also a time when after the thing is prophesied, after the bones have moved, after the muscles have come upon the bones and the skin upon the muscles, you still have a dead body, laying there in the dirt of the past.

 

Ezek 37:8b

…But there was no breath in them.

 

You can prophesy the bones together; you can watch the flesh come and the skin cover and have a body that looks a bit like its old self, but you cannot truly have it without breath.  Don’t settle for the “appearance of life.”  Some people believe that Holy Spirit is optional, like a multiple choice, but for someone who wants to live – breath is not optional. 

 

This is the second key to revival of anything that is dead – BREATH!

 

You may have tried to “put the puzzle together” by self-help methods or other human endeavors and have got a semblance of something worked out. You can have form – you can have religion – you can have church – you can have things improve – but there is no revival of the dead without the breath. 

 

The appearance of life is not enough.

 

This is where we may misunderstand the ways of God. 

 

• Why didn’t God just complete the whole plan in one clean sweep?  
• Why must we keep prophesying? 
• Why must this be done in increments? 
• Why the delay? 

You may say, “All we have in place for all our vision and prophecy and praying is the sight of lifeless bodies.”  

 

Sometimes it is silent before the next round of prophecy – before the next Word is uttered – before the plan is completed.

 

I believe that there are people who have a sense of wondering as God has seemed to have been silent for a while now.  You hear of others getting “prophecies in abundance” and wonder why the heavens are so silent concerning the vision God has given you. 

 

• I cannot answer the questions of silent periods of time, but I can say that silence is not a sign of abandonment by God. 
• It could be a sign of God’s pleasure in your faith to keep going without a sound from Him. 
• Tenacity in a quiet time is a good thing. 
• It builds faith in what God has said like nothing else can do. 
• It is a time to hold onto faith in what God has already told you. 

Sometimes the “silence is golden period” is followed by “rich, golden faith,” a deep vein that God will mine His further purposes from.

 

This vessel of faith will be entrusted with the next level of what God is getting ready to do.

 

A fresh word is on its way – a timely word for a unique group of warriors that stand oftentimes in a lonely place – a valley place filled with dead men – with only plans for resurrection that are barely recognizable as of yet.

 

The answer to the breakthrough from death to life is always the same – Breath!  It is not enough to get the skeleton in place – to get the sinew of the vision in place and the skin on the vision – you must have the revelation of, “but there was no breath in them.” This has got to be received in your spirit or we will keep trying to fulfill the vision with our own works.

 

Ezek 37:9a

Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man…

 

Notice – the breath was NOT in the graveyard – it was not in the skeleton – it was not in the body that was forming – it was to come from outside of itself!

 

The body was not able to produce breath in and from itself.  Also, notice the emphasis on the emphatic, double use of the word, “prophesy” in regards to the message that is being given by the LORD to Ezekiel. This is the most important moment of the whole event that is taking place.  The flow of life is about to be released! 

 

Ezek 37:9b

 “…and say to the wind, “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”

 

If there was ever a prophecy that needs to be uttered, it is this – an invitation to the Spirit of God to invade the dead places of life.  We only think nothing has happened because they are still dead but all that is missing is the breath. 

 

There’s nothing more painful than carrying a baby to term only to discover that it isn’t breathing when it’s born, yet that may be how you are viewing the vision that God has given you - the thing you have stood over, prophesied over, and believed God for.

 

The sounds that one waits to hear, that first gasp and cry of life are a welcome sound when it comes. 

 

If you can just get the baby to take a breath, it will live.  If there’s breath, there’s hope for life.

 

It is not time to complain at the lack of breath – it is time to prophesy!

 

Ezek 37:10a

So I prophesied as he commanded me…

 

Do we have any idea what it is like to witness the resurrection of the dead – the moment life comes in and chases away the last traces of death that captured someone, something or some place?

 

• Do we have any idea what it is like to witness the first gasp of breath as the chest begins to rise and fall as the lungs fill with air, now pushing life into the whole body?
• Do we have any idea what it is like to see the eyes flutter and then open with sight and ears hear the voice of God – the blood begin to flow and the water begin to invade the once parched body to rehydrate it? 

You’ve carried something for a long time now. 

 

It is time for the Breath of God, that powerful movement of God’s Spirit that comes from outside of our own human efforts, to invade the situation and bring to life the form that is beginning to take shape

 

The Breath will come by prophecy – so prophesy.

 

Ezek 37:10b

And the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet…

 

This is something to behold!  If you think bones flying around and reconnecting were something to behold, if you think sinew forming on bones is something to witness, if you think skin is great –wait until you see the Breath of God enter the situation, the nation, the church, the family, the ministry, the city, the person! 

 

That which has been down shall rise up and live!

 

You’ve waited for this movement.  Any movement would be nice, as you once thought, but this invasion of breath has done something that you would have never thought possible.  Before, you would have been satisfied with a twitch of a finger, anything, BUT GOD’S plans are for resurrection. 

 

His plans are not for small movement but a power encounter with the Spirit of God.

 

It’s not enough to be alive and keep lying – there has to be a standing up – a position that will be taken to walk out of the valley of death. 

 

• Reclined people do no march.
• Standing people are prepared to go forth. 

This is the ultimate plan of God – to bring about an army of radically changed people who know they have been delivered from death.

 

His desire is to see cities, as lighthouses, set on a hill, shining forth as a light across whole regions.  His desire is to get people, situations, churches, families, cities, nations, on their feet, in great number, as a direct result of the Spirit of God that has been prophesied into their once lifeless bodies.

 

• When the breath of God comes, all complacency and apathy leaves and all the grave clothes of idleness and inactivity breaks off.
• When the breath of God comes, impotence ends and death flees.
• When the breath of God comes, the last part of death is shaken off and the dust of the valley is left behind as the living march forth.

Ezek 37:10c

…An exceeding great army.

 

When resurrection takes place in the graveyards of the victims of the enemy – only one kind of people can rise up – those who rise to fight! 

 

These are warriors who will never forget the enemy that brought death to them.

 

We have all wondered what it would be like to stand by the side of a person who died prematurely and to call forth life and see a resurrection.  Well, God has given us an opportunity to do that – to prophesy over families, churches, cities, states and nations and see them rise up and live – to see them released in truth to in turn go forth in life to others.

 

• They will be an “army of life,” filled with the Breath of God, prophesying wherever death holds others captive.
• They will never forget the feeling of hope and freedom when it came to them in their place of captivity.

God does explain the vision He gives you.  You know what you have been shown, but a deeper understanding by God is sometimes necessary.  The explanation is many times a part of the vision as God wraps up the intent of why He has shown you such a thing. 

 

What is God telling Ezekiel – what is he hearing?

 

Ezek 37:11

Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: Behold, they say, “Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.”

·        God tells him - it is his nation that is dead.

·        Ezekiel was not just shown a tribe of Israel, but the whole nation. 

 

This revelation releases the truth – God is entrusting something of great magnitude – something of overwhelming size.

If God would have just given you a vision of “something you could handle,” then you wouldn’t need God.  But God gives us something that is so much bigger than ourselves – impossible things - that we know we must have God. 

 

He is also revealing that dry bones have a voice.

 

·       Notice, they cry out, “We are dry, we have lost hope, and we are cut off from our parts.”

·       Eventually, lost people do know they are in need.

·       They know they are addicted, rebellious, angry, lonesome, hopeless and helpless to help themselves.

 

This is a picture of the world that surrounds you – your area of concern or burden – dry, hopeless and cut off.  You could see the need even before God gave the vision. 

 

• Maybe you had passed by that valley of dry bones before but did not approach because it was hopeless.

The vision comes first and then the reality that these are real lives that are involved in this comes on home to us.  This valley is not make-believe, but the most real thing I have ever seen.  This is a place where the vision of the valley of dry bones comes to life in our time. 

 

It is not enough to have a vision and to prophesy the vision – we have to come face to face with the “Who and What” of the vision.

 

It is one thing to prophesy to a valley of nameless and faceless bones, but it is another thing to prophesy to real people who have been cut off from their destiny and lost hope.

 

It is at this time that God names “names” and expands your vision to include the prophetic destiny of these bones.

 

• Maybe He has told you that your family that is in need can be saved. 
• It may be He’s given you a vision for your church for revival and has called you to view it from all sides and then prophesy life and destiny and breathe into it. 
• It may be He has shown you the nations or the city you live in and shown you that your part in being faithful to what He has asked you to do is the difference between life and death for the people that live there. 
• It may be He’s shown you the government of your state or nation and has shown you that your intercession can shift a government by praying for judges, presidents, kings and princes. 

Prophetic intercessors are an army that have seen and heard the purposes of God for that thing that lies before them. They are true to the vision that God has given them.

 

They are faithful in their prayers, but they also know how to prophesy the Word of the LORD into a situation and do so, actively.

 

Ezek 37:12-14

12        Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13        And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

14        And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

 

Everyone, regardless of what has brought them to a dead-end place; need to know that there is an escape from the grave – that death is not their destiny. 

 

This kind of power encounter with the Breath of God restores the lost to their rightful inheritance.

 

Notice that those who came forth out of the grave would know that God had spoken it and performed it, even though it was Ezekiel that was prophesying.  Our part is to speak forth the Word of the LORD and in doing so in obedience, become a mouth through which the Living Word comes – but it is God who performs the deeds.  This servant prophet was humble before God and simply obeyed.

 

We can pray and pray for revival, for God to move in any situation or place that is currently dead, and can see the bones come together, and even see muscle and skin take its place spiritually, and still see that thing laying there, dead.  When this is the case, as it is with most of you who have had a vision and carried it for some time now, it is time to prophesy the breath into them so that you will see them rise up and shake off the last traces of death. 

 

I believe that, even as Jesus challenged death in the tomb of Lazareth, and He challenged death in His own tomb, that this prophetic vision is that of death being challenged by a Word of Prophecy.

 

Think about it - the “Living Word” – the Rhema, Spirit-filled word of the LORD, moving as “a living, pulsating sound” over the bones in the valley.

 

• This voice resounds with the thunder and lightning of God, yet comes from our mouth.
• This voice penetrates into the very marrow of the bone, yet proceeds as a sword from our lips. 

Know the power of those words impacting the dead places lying before you because they are “living words,” words of life and hope and restoration – words of prophesy about what is to come to pass

 

We can speak a million words over death and have none of them impact death or restore vitality and life. It takes a Word, breathed of the Holy Spirit’s own self, to enter into the dead places and bring life.

 

It is time for a Holy Ghost invasion, for without the Spirit of God, we still have a dead body – dead churches, dead families, dead cities, dead nations…

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