Can These Bones Live? When Dead Situations Come to Life

“The Lord put his strong hand on me. His Spirit brought me away from my home. He put me down in the middle of a valley. It was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them. I saw a huge number of bones in the valley. The bones were very dry. The Lord asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Lord and King, you are the only one who knows.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones. Tell them, ‘Dry bones, listen to the Lord’s message. The Lord and King speaks to you. He says, “I will put breath in you. Then you will come to life again. I will attach tendons to you. I will put flesh on you. I will cover you with skin. So I will put breath in you. And you will come to life again. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” ‘ ” So I prophesied just as the Lord commanded me to. As I was prophesying, I heard a noise. It was a rattling sound. The bones came together. One bone connected itself to another. I saw tendons and flesh appear on them. Skin covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then the Lord said to me, “Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell it, ‘The Lord and King says, “Breath, come from all four directions. Go into these dead bodies. Then they can live.” So I prophesied just as he commanded me to. And the breath entered them. Then they came to life again. They stood up on their feet. They were like a huge army.” – Ezekiel‬ 37:1-10‬ NIRV‬‬

Recently, I’ve been reading through the book of Ezekiel. I came across one of the most interesting pieces of prophecy and vision in the Bible, The Valley of Bones. Ezekiel was a prophet that lived during Israel’s deportation to Babylon. He saw the Spirit of God leave the temple. He prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and Israel. He pronounced the judgment of the Lord on His people and many more things. Ezekiel even knew the day and time of his wife’s death but was not allowed to grieve her. He also gave several prophecies about the coming of Christ as shepherd and Lord of all. There are many things that can be written and explored about Ezekiel, yet it is the valley of bones that has given me pause.

In the valley, we see Ezekiel’s spirit has been taken on another journey that reveals the supernatural to the natural. The Spirit of the Lord takes Ezekiel to a barren and dry place full of bones, dead things with no viable life or substance to them. Yet it was here that the Spirit asked a question, “Can these bones live?”. That question alone would confound a normal person. However, Ezekiel wasn’t a “normal” person. He was a person that had seen things of the heavens and spoken to the Spirit of the Lord. He had received instructions from God and followed those instructions. So when asked the question, instead of going with the obvious answer based on his observation and what he knew about dead things…bones…he replied, “Lord and King, you are the only one that knows.”

From that statement, we witness something Jesus also would reveal each time He resurrected the dead. We witness the collision of the Word of God with the Spirit of God. The Word of God can raise up dead things but it is the Spirit of God that brings those things to life. The Lord had Ezekiel speak life to dead things, but He also commanded Ezekiel to speak that the breath of life would fill these dead things. When he did, the dead things became an army.

Although this vision spoke to the restoration of Israel after the exile, it also tells us that even things and situations we see as dead can be restored by the Word and by the Spirit. There is death and life in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21), so what we speak to a situation matters. But when we speak the Word of God and pray for the Spirit of God to move, anything is possible. Even the resurrection of the dead.

Is there something in your life, right now, that is presenting itself as a dead situation that God wants to speak to you about? A dream of yours or even a relationship that needs to gain life after being dead.

If so, know that it matters how you speak to and about it. Ezekiel didn’t just speak anything that came to mind when addressing the bones. He spoke what He was instructed to speak, the Word of God, to the bones. Specific words. Life creating words. Next, he spoke so that the Breath and Spirit of the Lord, The Ruah, would move to give life. He spoke for God to move and breathe life into that which had been formed by the Word of God.

This week, may you speak the Word of God to every decaying and dead thing that God desires to restore. Then, may you pray and believe for God to restore it. Then, you too can testify that “dead things” can live again just as Ezekiel did.

Walk with Him,
Shaniqua & the Great Is Team