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184. Dry Bones

 

Where are you, Ash? I heard the Lord speak. I got up, not knowing exactly why. I stood there in front of my mirror looking, not knowing what I was looking for. Listening and not hearing anything else. All of a sudden I felt the fire of God consume me, in a way that hasn’t happened to me in a very long time. I felt every part of my flesh burn in this all consuming fire. I felt my skeleton collapse onto a bed of ashes. I hit the floor in a thud like I was stuck inside my skull, every bone of my body beneath me in a disconnected pile. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything. I was just stuck there. It felt like time was standing still but I was stuck in a panic of trying to get my bones back together. Trying to think them together, trying to pray them together. Kind of hard to pray without a jaw and a tongue. It was like I was stuck frozen inside my head with only my thoughts. I was helpless. Helpless on top of a pile of ashes and bones. 

Can these bones live, Ash? “Of course they can Lord!!” I’m screaming in my mind. “Say the word Lord, please Say the word!” My mind going in a panic. “Don’t leave me here, my bones can live!” Not without me they can’t, Ash. I heard the Lord speak right to my spirit those swift, sweet words of conviction. With receiving those words I felt the ashes begin to blow in the wind. I felt the bones beneath me begin to rattle and shake under the power of the Lord. I felt myself standing up again as the dead, dry bones came back together. I stood there in the mirror, just bones, my feet in a pile of ashes feeling like sand swirling  beneath my feet. 

Prophecy to these bones, Ash. With those words, I froze. I looked straight in the mirror and froze. I don’t know how, Lord. I began to cry. I can prophecy to others, I can feel your spirit, I can read your word and it comes alive, I can heal the sick, I can cast out devils, but I can’t prophecy to myself Lord. I don’t know what to say. 

Then the Lord put on my heart that so many of us can help others, minister to others and preach the gospel, but do we preach to ourselves? Why is it that we can go to battle in prayer and intercession for everyone else but when it comes to our own issues, we freeze. We become stuck in our heads, unable to fight our own battles and we lay down like dead dogs,  praying someone else will come along and fight them with us, or for us. 

How many times do we cry out for help when the Lord is crying out for us to act on our own behalf. To prophecy to these dead dry bones and make them live! To read the word and prophecy the truth over your life. To walk believing in the very promises that you preach to those around you. 

It’s time to come out of the grave, Ash. Prophecy to these bones the word of the Lord. 

I looked into the mirror and I began to speak those words to myself. “It’s time to come out of the grave, Ash!” As I spoke those words over and over, I felt my body coming back together. I felt my flesh and muscle again. My voice became stronger and louder, and I continued to proclaim the words of the Lord. His spirit put me back together. His truth knit every cell of my body. The hairs on my head are numbered. He calls me by name. 

It’s time for the body of Christ to prophecy to the dead, dry bones in our lives. Get out of your head, use your voice! Look at yourself in the mirror and declare the Lords promises. His word is life. His word is Spirt. His word is Truth. Minister to yourself. Let the Lord burn away everything that’s not of Him! Let His truth replace the lies that you’ve believed about yourself. 

There’s an army rising up. The Lord is breathing life into this next season. It’s time to come alive in Christ! 

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The Valley of Dry Bones

37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had 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 the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

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