New Life on Old Battlegrounds

The testimony in Ezekiel 37 of the dry bones coming to life is a familiar one for many of us. Last Sunday, the Lord highlighted this text to me in a fresh way that I believe is a very timely encouragement. 

In the first few verses of Ezekiel 37, it’s the Holy Spirit that brings him to a valley of exposed bones. The foundation of this miracle is not the will or idea of Ezekiel but of the Lord. There are times in our journey where the Lord brings us to a place for the purpose of His supernatural plans. It’s often not initially our choice or our idea. It may be a washed-up or forgotten dream. It may be something we’ve never even come across before. As the stage for God’s great plans, it often looks like a wilderness at first. God didn’t bring Ezekiel to a flourishing garden or an oasis. He brought him to a low and lifeless place- NOT for the purpose of wanting Ezekiel to experience hardship but for the purpose of wanting the whole area - Ezekiel included- to witness the miraculous. 

The NKJV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible footnote explains that for that large amount of bones to be left exposed to the elements lends evidence to it being the “scene of a major catastrophe”. Because none of the bones had had a proper burial, it was likely a battle scene. This had been the sight of a battle- most likely a defeat. To have one’s bones left exposed to the elements was a curse one would wish on an enemy in that day and culture. 

The Lord is taking some of us back to a place that was a defeat. Maybe for you personally or maybe for others before you. A battleground that was forgotten. Even a “cursed” place that hasn’t felt full of life in a long time. And He’s doing it to turn that place of defeat into a miraculous place of new life. 

This process begins with a good look. The Lord has Ezekiel “pass by them all around and behold” how many were there (how much was lost) and how dry they were (how hopeless it is from a human perspective). In my own journey, the Lord has begun His most beautiful works by letting me get to the end of my solutions. To see just how impossible it would be by my power. This isn’t to sow hopelessness or fear- neither of these are from the Lord- it’s to prepare us for surrender to Him in our answer to a question. 

For Ezekiel, it was “Can these bones live?”. For us, the Lord may be asking a different, more specific question about the “dry” that we are facing. The Lord never asks, “Can YOU make this happen?” though that is often what we insert ourselves when facing a similarly impossible situation. He asks, “Can this happen?”. With hearts prepared for surrender to Him, we know the answer is yes, but that it would have to be in a way that “only He (the Lord) knows” (verse 3). 

Next comes a word. It’s a word first given by the Lord, but then meant to be acted upon and perpetuated by the hearer. What word has God given you over your “dry place”? What does it look like to speak or to act in accordance with that word? 

What happens next is interesting. Movement happens for Ezekiel the second he partners with the word. Creative miracles happen. Bones begin rattling and coming together with flesh, sinews, and skin. The bodies, however, are still dead. The word Ezekiel had just been given was that they would LIVE, so it looks like an almost-victory. Things started looking better, but it didn’t happen. The word didn’t come to pass. At least not in its fullness. Maybe that's the place you're in. The almost-victory. If so, this Biblical testimony tells us we can't stop there. 

God then gives him a solution in the form of another word. The first time He tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. This time He tells him to “Prophesy to the breath” (verse 9). God first has him speak to the bones… the natural physical thing… the dead thing, in this case. In our dry places, what does God want us to prophesy to the earthly or the “dead” thing we are facing? What does He speak over what we see?

The second piece- the piece that causes the fullness of the Word to be fulfilled is when the Lord gives Ezekiel words to prophesy to the breath, otherwise translated as “Spirit”. The same Spirit word (ruach) used for God’s creative Spirit hovering over the waters in Genesis or the Spirit of the Lord prophesied to rest on Jesus in Isaiah 11:2. He asks Ezekiel to speak to the spiritual… to speak to what he doesn’t yet see. To speak to what is alive and moving. What does God want us to speak to the spiritual, unseen, life-giving things His Spirit is doing behind the scenes? What can we say in agreement with His Spirit or breath?

The whole experience Ezekiel has is a picture of what the Lord wants to do for the greater group of Israel. The dry bones the Lord is reviving through your life are a picture and a testimony to the greater world around you about His heart and what He wants to do. Our prophetic Words have much more power than just for us- they are life-giving to a community as we walk them out in obedience. 

So let the Lord take you to a dry place. To an old battleground. Then ask Him, what do you speak to these “dry bones”? And what do you declare to the Spirit? Then watch what He would do.