“I will put my Spirit in you and you will live…”
August 3, 2014
This posting is a continuation of my previous post. My heart for this series of posts regarding
the Holy Spirit is to stir our attention, to cause us to revisit our current
perspectives, beliefs, even attitudes about the person of the Holy Spirit. Ministering in a small rural church is challenging
my perspectives about the Holy Spirit.
Though we are small, our sin is complex and runs deep in the various
layers of our community. I am learning
quickly, the needs of the people far exceed my current capacities, spiritually
and intellectually. I am being “pushed”
by the words of Jesus telling His disciples it was necessary for him to leave;
the Father would send the promise of His Spirit. I am passionately involved in wanting to
discover so much more about this mysterious person, the Holy Spirit. I am finding it necessary to put down a
number of previous beliefs. This is
good. Scripture is calling me to read
with fresh eyes the things recorded about the Holy Spirit. It is exciting! I find myself being nudged to ask questions
from a contemporary perspective of people's lives today. So I invite you to join me as I share my
discoveries. I extend this invitation
humbly, I am not trying to redefine the Holy Spirit, I just want to understand
Him in light of my life in the area of ministry He has called me to serve.
Let me invite us to continue our simple examination of the
Holy Spirit from the perspective of Ezekiel.
My writing is not intended to be exhaustive. Rather, I just want to share “snapshots” of
what I am learning.
Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he
brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley;
it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great
many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me,
"Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know."
4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say
to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign
Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to
life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you
with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will
know that I am the Lord.'"
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was
prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together,
bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered
them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath;
prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may
live.'" 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them;
they came to life and stood up on their feet — a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the
whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone;
we are cut off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you
up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my
people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up
from them. 14 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.'"
NIV
A Vision for Today
I remember reading this passage as a child and it sent
shivers up and down my spine. From that
moment, I knew there was a power greater than my understanding. It was not a sophisticated understanding; it
was very simple; the Spirit of the Lord was something to awe. Yet I did not understand the significance of
this vision. Over the past weeks, the
Holy Spirit has been revealing to me that this is vision is a reality for this
time. Let me explain it this way, there
have been great upheavals in the world, seasons of great evil and
destruction. Literally, the bodies of
the dead are strewn across the valleys, hillsides and mountaintops. Even today, people are being destroyed, their
bodies left to rot in the sun, scavengers stripping the flesh and sinews,
leaving the bones drying in the sun. It
is the ravages of sin. We attempt to
equate something political to it all, but the reality of it is sin! When we consider all the atrocities committed
across of human history it overwhelming.
It is very possible the iniquity of humanity exceeds all the good works
of the human spirit! I sometime
visualize small pockets of goodness being “swallowed up” by the breath and
weight of our iniquity! It appears so
hopeless! Yet in these passages, God
declares His vision of the future! It is
a vision transcending the iniquity of humanity, and the death which is so much
a part of the history of our inhumanity.
It is God at work among the dead!
The Bones, Dry Bones
A careful reading of these verses reveals God is at work
creating life from dry, brittle bones.
Let us take a walk through these verses.
These verses give us a vision of the dead, the very dead. This death scene is not recent; the dead are
not recently deceased. These dead have
been reduced to bones, dry bones. The
bones have been scattered across this great valley. Ezekiel gives us a personal insight to this
vision:
Ezekiel 37:2 He made me walk all around among them. I
realized there were a great many bones in the valley and they were very dry.
Here is the first “snapshot” that captured my
attention. Ezekiel is personally engaged
in this vision. Ezekiel is made to walk
“around and among” these bones. God
gives Ezekiel time to observe this valley of bones. He sees a valley of dead individuals…people
who died in this valley, their clothing, their possessions, wealth stripped
from them; their flesh ripped from their bones by scavengers, a people reduced
to bones. Even these bones tell a
continuing story, they are bones bleached by the sun, brittle and scattered
across the valley by the winds and torrid rains. These are God’s people, individuals; each
bone giving testimony of a person who once lived…individuals reduced to bones
by their own sin.
Individual Judgment
Here is the second “snapshot” revealed to me. I was intrigued with this idea of people, the
plurality found in the word “people.”
Does God judge whole nations? I was
lead to Ezekiel 18. In chapter 18 of
Ezekiel, there is a powerful response by God to the question of generational
curses! At the conclusion of this
chapter, at verse 32 the phrase “I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways…” really
answered the question. I encourage all
to carefully read this chapter. It will
shake you! God judges individuals. Yet, despite the weighty pronouncement of
this chapter, it also reveals the grace and mercy of God’s heart.
Ezekiel 18:30-32 "Therefore I will judge you, O house
of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord God.
"Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not
be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have
committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you
die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of one who
dies," says the Lord God. "Therefore turn and live!" NKJV
Shoulder-to-Shoulder
Here is the third “snapshot” that captured my heart. Returning to main point, I find it very
interesting there is a cooperative
effort reaching out to bring life back into these bones. God is not working alone; He has His prophet,
Ezekiel is shoulder to shoulder with God and the Holy Spirit! God prophesies, Ezekiel as “the son of man”
declares what he has heard from God and the Holy Spirit accomplishes. This reminds me of Jesus who only did what he
saw the Father doing, only declared what he heard the Father saying. God call Ezekiel the “son of Man” and Jesus
calls himself the Son of Man. In the
flesh, both Jesus and Ezekiel are completely dependent on the Spirit of the
Lord!
This union of hearts between God and Ezekiel humbles
me. God prophesies and Ezekiel
declares. Equally fascinating is the
structure of the prophecy:
- · Infusion of the spirit and life
- · Tendons and muscles
- · Skin
- · Breath
And as it is prophesied, so it is declared by Ezekiel! Then
there is the witness of the working of the Holy Spirit:
- · There is a great noise, the rattling of dry bones being called to take their right positions in the skeletal frame of the body.
- · The tendons are connecting the bones to one another!
- · Muscle is regenerated and covers the bones and tendons.
- · Skin forms over these bodies
But they remain dead, corpses lying across the valley
without life, without breath!
God the prophet commands the son of man to prophesy:
Ezekiel 37:9-10 9 He said to me, "Prophesy to the
breath, - prophesy, son of man - and say to the breath: 'This is what the
sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these
corpses so that they may live.'" 10 So I prophesied as I was commanded,
and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely
great army.
Efficacy of the Holy Spirit
Here is the fourth “snapshot” revealing the activity of the
Holy Spirit. The words of the son of man
where efficacious because he declared what he had heard from God:
- · They lived
- · They stood to their feet
- · They were a great army
The confession of this great army is very disturbing! There is a great lesson for all of us in
verse 14. We error if we think there is
life without the Spirit of God. His Holy
Spirit and only the Holy Spirit gives life, life as intended by God. The confess of these people resurrected from
the dead, are still with life. God hears their plea:
- · Our bones are dry Life without vitality
- · Our hope has perished Their future vanquished
- · We are cut off A people isolated from God
God’s response to this heartfelt plea in Ezekiel 37:14 really
captured my heart. Herein is the dynamic
that necessitated the departure of Jesus.
This is the promise of the Father, to be fulfilled after the departure
of Jesus. Hearing the words of God,
Ezekiel declares, “I will place my breath in you and you will live; I will give
you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord - I have
spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.”
Through the Holy Spirit, God restores what was intended for
us, not what we gained by our own arm.
No matter what God does, it is only complete in and through His Spirit,
the Holy Spirit. This is my opportunity
to humble myself, to make my own confession, I am man of dry bones, all my hope
has perished, and I am “cut off” from you God.
Fill me with your Spirit, your Holy Spirit that I might live…
by Grace Alone!
www.hcfcc.org
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