THE BREATH OF GOD
Let us remember that God is still on the throne. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father ever interceding on our behalf.
We, the saints of God, are reliant on our Heavenly Father for His righteousness and His life for us.
If it were not for God, each of us would be lost in the Valley of Despair.
I have even known some who in spite of having Christ as their Savior find themselves living in a Valley of Despair and Discouragement.
Each of us needs to know that God has breathed His New Life into us.
Text: Ezekiel 37:1 thru 10 (NIV)
I want each of us to see this vision that Ezekiel saw. For Ezekiel, it was a vision of salvation for the Nation of Israel. But for you and I, it is a modern day vision for us to be filled with Life giving power of the Spirit of God.
For a moment let’s look at it for what it meant to the Nation of Israel.
Israel had been living in exile far away from their homeland. They were far away from where God would have had them to be. They were merely existing in Babylonian captivity.
Being this far away from God was taking it’s toll. Away from God always takes it toll on God’s people.
Physically and spiritually God’s people were being destroyed by –
• Not being in God’s presence
• Not living for Him.
What a dreadful place this must have been. Ezekiel had a vision of the spiritual condition of God’s people.
The fact is anyone living without God is like being in a desolate desert.
Can you imagine trying to survive in a desert like the Mojave, Sahara, or Death Valley (itself)?
But don’t miss the whole picture that God is giving to Ezekiel. This vision isn’t just about a Desert of Desolation.
It is also about how the BREATH OF GOD can come to you and breathe New Life into you. This is the result of the Awesome Power of the Holy Spirit.
This vision is for every person who has ever taken a breath from the air God has created. It is so we all will know how much we need God.
God is life. Without God there is no life. We know this to be true by the prophecies and promises of the Bible.
Here are a few of those -
Proverbs 8:35
“Whoever finds Me, finds Life.”
Jesus said in John 11:25
“I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.”
And He also said in John 14:6
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Jesus is the Giver of Life!
With all of this heat in the last few days, you may feel a little dry.
Like the Valley of Dry Bones.
The spring rains are now gone, and the summer heat is drying us up.
This morning, you may be the same way in your spirit. Like Dry Bones…
How did the dry bones (in our text) get there? That is, how does anyone (saint of God or sinner) find themselves in a Valley of Dry Bones?
• Some come deliberately with rebellion in their hearts.
• Others come as a result of bad decisions. Maybe they were misled by well meaning friends…
• Some come because of their circumstances (so they say) were out of their hands…
Regardless, notice that the text doesn’t tell us of any survivors. This Valley of Dry Bones can happen to anyone who is without God.
At one time we all were lost.
Romans 8:23
“For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God…”
Thank God today if He has saved you.
Without the Lord, there will not be any survivors. We are reliant upon God’s righteousness and His Life to save us.
Without Christ, we will become those dry bones we have read about.
You may think you are a pretty good person and everything is okay for you with or without God saving you.
Everywhere you look on television, or in the movies, everyone seems to be going to heaven. Whether they are right with God, or not.
Being saved by the precious blood of Christ doesn’t seem to matter to some folks anymore.
The world’s gospel is you are okay. Just as long as you are peace loving and you don’t hate anybody.
When it comes to the story of Christ dieing for our sins, the world seems to be saying, “Oh-h-h whatever…???”
Listen to what Isaiah 64:6 tells us,
“we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags,….our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
Did you know that your sins can take you away from the presence of the Lord?
It’s like a hot dry summer wind that can just blow you out from where you are to a place far away from God.
If the world has convinced you that you are a good person, you are relying only on your righteousness.
If that is you, you are going to eventually find yourself “taken away” to a very dry place away from God.
I think I can say this for everyone here. At one time or another, we all have been to that dry place without God. The Valley of Despair - Dry Bones.
You are lonely and without anyone to help you. You want to go back to the springs of living water to be refressed, but somehow you can’t seem to stand up, or help yourself.
You know you don’t belong there. You see others there just like you. Alone and without God.
Spiritually, your bones are being baked by the hot sun.
Perhaps what caused this was –
• Financial loss
• Physical pain
• Emotional loss, (or worse yet)
• Spiritual loss.
Spiritual losses are always the most devastating to us.
This world can take away our car, our home, furniture and we will always make it through somehow…???
But to get separated from the presence of God, will cause you to get desperate. You will soon see that there is no one else there to help you.
In the Valley of Dry Bones there wasn’t anyone to bury the bones.
Have you ever noticed –
• How far some people can get away from God?
• When someone is really down and out, that there is no one left who wants to help them?
What can we do for these people?
Is there anything that can be done?
There was once a man (in the Bible) that had died and was left in the grave to perish. There was nothing he could do for himself. His name was Lazarus. And he had some one who loved him named, Jesus of Nazareth.
Did you know that even “good people” sometimes find themselves in the Valley of Dry Bones?
Sometimes, “good people” try to do for themselves without God’s help. Some folks won’t allow God to do for them what He needs to do.
But it isn’t until you have lost everything, all of the muscle tissue you were created with, that God can then take over your soul and spirit.
Many times we fool ourselves into thinking we can take care of ourselves –
• Without God’s help
• Without prayer
• Without living our lives for God
• Without relying on Him
Ezekiel’s prophecy says –
1. There was a great regiment. A lot of people.
2. There was only one way out for these Dry Bones.
“Hear the Word of the Lord!”
Remember –
“Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God.”
Many of us need to hear the Word of the Lord more often than we do.
Some people go so long without hearing the Word of the Lord that they begin to look like skeletons. Walking dead men.
Are you drying out?
When you find yourself in the Valley of Despair, the Valley of Dry Bones, the plan of God to save you is simple.
1. Admit your situation is hopeless without God.
2. Admit you are not where God wants you to be.
3. Admit you are physically unable to do anything (on your own) about your condition.
4. Listen to God’s prophetic Word carefully and let it bring you back to life.
Verse 5 tells us what will happen next.
“Behold I will cause Breath to enter you and you shall live.”
This prophetic vision from Ezekiel is not just about Dry Bones. It is about being brought back to life by the power of the Breath and the Spirit of God.
This is how God restored His people on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
The early New Testament Church waited patiently for the Spirit of God to come that day.
After they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to listen again and again to the teachings and words of Christ.
Acts 2 says that the church waited and they heard the
“…sound from Heaven as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting…”
And to this day, that same church is alive and still listening carefully to the Word of God with great expectation of the Holy Spirit breathing His might and power of the Holy Spirit.
Folks – I am expecting the Lord to send it on down to us once again.
Listen carefully to the Word of God as the Holy Spirit breaths life into you.
CLOSE:
Genesis 2:7
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Job 12:10
10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
Job 33:4
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
2 Samuel 22:16
16 Then the channels of the sea were seen, the foundations of the world were uncovered, at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
Psalm 33:6
6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
Isaiah 11:4
he shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
Isa 30:28
28 His breath is like an overflowing stream,.
John 20:22
22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
CHURCH –
Rise up out of your desolation.
Hear His word.
Receive His Spirit.
Receive His Breath.
Let God come alive in you this morning.
Receive your New Life!
