Speak an Army into Existence

    The prophetic is vital to a healthy community of followers of Jesus. We as the body of Christ have the privilege of tapping into the lifeline of heaven, His voice. We have to have the prophetic operating from a correct perspective and in accurate power so His Kingdom can be established in unshakable ways. Ezekiel 37 reveals an amazingly clear picture of how to speak life and health to people, and it also reveals some beautiful new covenant revelation.

    Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. (NASB) The hand of the Lord isn’t just upon you now, you are the hand of the Lord. Heaven loves revealing itself through us. 
    If we ask "Here I am. Send Me," we shouldn't be surprised if we are set down in the middle of a valley of dry bones. The depth of this Good News is that the Jesus in you is the feast for the starving, but you can’t be His light and food for the lost and hungry until you mix and mingle with them. You are the Light for those lost in the dark, but you can’t be that Light until you post up in the darkness amongst them so the Lord can draw them to Himself through your life.

    2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. (NKJV) “Then He caused me to pass by them” You want to be used by the Lord? Then expect to be put in the midst of hell itself, so you can plunder hell to populate Heaven.
    On the cross Christ became what we looked like, so we could become what He looks like now. 1 John 4:17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. (ESV) “As He is so also are we in this world,” in this world now, we are as He is. Don’t be shocked when you are in the middle of a bunch of people that look like Christ did, spiritually speaking, on the cross. That is what you once looked like before you said yes to the King of Glory and His free gift of salvation. He puts us there so people can see what it is they are supposed to look like, Jesus. Just be the new you that you are while speaking His words, and they will see Him and hear Him and His irresistible goodness.

    3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” (NASB) When Jesus came one of His names was, "Son of Man." The Son of Man came to an earth full of dry bones and spoke and paid for life so the sons of men could become sons of God. God is asking a rhetorical question here. He is getting you to realize that your life and thought process is already in agreement with heaven, just walk it out your true identity and you will see the revealing of on earth as it is in heaven through your life. Knowing God is knowing His will, and His will is ‘on earth as it is in heaven’, and dry bones coming to life is 'on earth as it is in heaven'. God was showing Ezekiel that he was the one that was the mouthpiece of heaven to release heavens agenda of life and life more abundantly to the world. And in the new covenant every single one of us is the mouthpiece of heaven to a valley of dry bones.

    4 Then he said to me, "Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, 'Dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD! (NLT) When we speak what heaven is saying our words become His weaponry. The word for ‘listen’ in the Hebrew is –shama- to comprehend. God desires that the world comprehends His goodness. His goodness is not for you, and to get you to fall in line with His army and get to work. His goodness is the fuel we run on, it is the very nature of everything He is. His goodness cannot be exaggerated. His goodness is Him living and moving and having His being in your life. His goodness is you living in peace, joy, grace, love, and power with such an ease that it baffles the world into His never ending goodness. Declare His goodness to the ‘dry bones’ of this world so they ‘comprehend’ His amazingness and they join the joyous army of God.

    5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. (ESV) Notice… Ezekiel is the Lord’s mouth piece, ‘as He is so also are we in this world’. God has chosen to reveal Who He is in us and then through us, Galatians 1: 15 But when it pleased God, Who separated me from my mothers womb and called me through His grace, 16  to reveal His Son in me... (NKJV) 
    All God has to do is breath on the dead and His breath brings resurrection. So it was with Jesus giving the Holy Spirit in John 20:21-22. Notice the imagery, God breaths what is inside of Him into us and we become, “For we are parts of his body—of his flesh and of his bones,” Ephesians 5:30. You speaking His words releases His life into people so they can wake up and partake of the life they were created for, so speak to the dry bones of the lost and hurting so they too can live in the goodness of God.

    6 I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD. (NLT) We speak His will into and upon people., and His will is life and life more abundantly. He desires to give you His life, Colossians 2:2-3. You are a brush stroke of His eternal masterpiece, you are a vibrant color on the canvas of His eternal display of never-ending grace. You are a piece of His glorious body on this earth which finds its fullness in the mystical body of Christ Jesus. You are living and moving and having your being in the blissful goodness of His reality.
   God didn't tell Ezekiel to prophetically point out all the problems he saw, God told Him to speak their true identity to life. When a person comes to Jesus the sin nature that dwells within is cast out and the new substance that fills them is Christ. So if God sees us as filled with Him and having amazing potential and life for us, why would God have us prophecy and focus on the sin nature that He paid so much to get rid of? God always sees us through the lens of Jesus, which is an ever increasing measure of His life and a destiny that is always increasing in intimacy with love.  

    7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. (NASB) As He spoke what God was saying what God said would happen happened, it is simple. Now understand something here, the prophetic can make things messy. Know this though His message doesn’t create a mess, His message reveals the mess so it can be removed. His message is not what creates the mess, His message stirs up a “noise” and a “rattling” and our mess gets revealed in the midst of it so it can be removed so our life can sink into the goodness of His life. Our focus is never the problems, our focus is always the solution and seeing the true heavenly identity of everyone. When the solution is revealed it can rattle things, but the rattling is the revealing that the solution is surfacing.
    And the greater the prophetic word and the weight attached to it, the harder the enemy tries to thwart it. You can tell the strength of a prophetic word by the opposition that comes against it. If you receive and amazing word, and all the sudden it seems like all hell comes against it. That's hell trying to get you to shy away from it. Understanding that dynamic empowers us to know God and walk through attacks in order to step into our destiny of ever increasing glory to glory.

    8 Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. (NKJV) Observe the imagery here. Ezekiel just spoke what God was saying and then he watched God do it. Your job is simple my friends, just speak what God is saying in love and He will do it. All Ezekiel did in this verse was say what He heard God speak, and then stand and watch God be amazing. The lack of ‘breath’ is the Holy Spirit. The word for ‘Spirit’ in the Greek (New Covenant) – pneuma- wind, breath, spirit. The word for ‘Spirit’ in the Hebrew (Old Testament) – ruach- breath, wind, spirit. God was showing Ezekiel a New Covenant reality of what happens when the breath of God, is not just upon people, but is inside people. We get to partner with heaven and speak the full of health of life into people, when we comprehend this responsibility and privilege we begin to see how vital it is to speak life and solution at all times.  

    9 Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life."'" (NASB) Again God releases His life through our words. Does He need to? Is God limited in any way if we don’t prophesy or speak life? No. But know this, He has chosen to continually love the hell out of people through us. It is how He likes to do things. If we understood the authority we had we would speak more life, prophetic words, and encouragement. God unleashed His very life into an army when Ezekiel simply said what God was saying. God always speaks life, victory, love, encouragement, and life more abundantly.

    10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. (NASB) Co-laboring is a simple as just saying what He is saying, doing what He is doing. When you begin to grow in the understanding of what Jesus did on the cross you, you grow in learning how to do less and get more done. Because you learn and experience how easy it is to simply let Jesus be Himself through you. The Lord picked Ezekiel up and put Him in the dry valley and then told Him what to do and say. Ezekiel did and said what God was doing and saying, and an exceedingly great army “came to life and stood on their feet.” The Lord did it all, through one yielded vessel that was willing to let God have His way in him and through him.

     You are just the mouth piece that the victory of heaven funnels through. You are just the hands that His power flows through. You are the earthen vessel that carries the heavenly goodness. We get to be the new creation that He has made us to be while God draws the world to Himself through us. We just release what is in us and the world around us sinks into His love, grace, and power.