Day #247 - Dry Bones Live

The Presence - A Devotional for living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder

“Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.”

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭37‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Photo by Portuguese Gravity on Unsplash

Is there anything more refreshing than getting outside early in the morning in God’s creation to get a deep breath of fresh air?

The last several years I’ve learned more about the importance of breath. I learned that when I would get in tense situations I would not breath like I am supposed to. Taking good breaths is essential to stay calm, pump blood throughout your body and have a clear mind when you need to think most. Breath is even more important than water, food and any other essential need. If you don’t breath, you don’t live for very long. God’s breath being breathed into us is what caused humankind to become living beings.

The breath of God is miraculous. The breath of God is from the Spirit of God or from “the Presence.” Ezekiel is brought into an encounter with God where God takes him to a valley full of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. The Lord asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” The Lord tells him to prophesy, “Dry bones hear the word of the Lord!” Then the Lord makes His breath enter these dry bones and they begin to rattle standing up bone to bone until an entire army of dry bones is assembled with flesh and sinew. Then Ezekiel is told to prophesy to the breath again and the Spirit of God comes upon the bones once again and causes them to be a living army.

This is a prophetic experience that is about the nation of Israel who were like dry bones scattered in judgement. God was saying through this that He would resemble them once again in their land and make them a nation. Although they were dead as a nation, He was going to bring them back together and cause them to be alive.

This is the power of “the Presence.” As Pete Grieg who started 24-7prayer.com used to say, “You see bones, I see and army.” What if we saw the dead places in our lives, our cities and our society as an opportunity for the breath of God to come and make dry bones live? What if we saw dire circumstances as an opportunity for God to come and move?

We encounter “the Presence” through the Word of the Lord and the breath of the Spirit of the Lord. When we hear God’s Word in our lives and let Him breathe upon us we come alive in His presence. He can take any dead thing in our lives, resurrect it and use it for His purpose and glory in us.

Lord, I want to see with Your eyes. Come to the dead and dry places in my life and command them to live. Let dry bones live and become a mighty army. When a people are lost and separate from You, let Your wind blow and bring new life. Let the dead come alive. In Jesus name, amen.