Commissioned

¹ 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.' "

Ezekiel 37:1-14

-------------------------

The Lord brought me back to this passage last night, and spoke to me two things. The first thing was actually before He brought me to this verse. He was saying that this campus if full of people who are walking but who have no life. Hey, that's verse 8. We have skin on our bones but no air in our lungs. The Lord LONGS for them to have life, to have breath. The interesting thing as that God didn't do it all by himself. He asked Ezekiel to do it, to do what the Lord asked him to do, to fulfill His desires and to speak to the bones in the valley. Ezekiel was obedient and in tune with what the Lord wanted, and he did the impossible with God's strength. He took a lifeless, long-dead valley of people and then they grew skin over their bones. He then was told by God to command life into them, to command breath into their lungs.

We are called form a place of KNOWING the Lord and KNOWING His will into a place of action. A place of speaking truth into the lives of the people walking around lifelessly. When Ezekiel spoke the things the Lord commanded him to speak, an army was raised with a rattling of bones and a breath of air. As His saints, we are not called to just sit and wait for Him to move, which He does do. He is always moving. The Lord is always moving. But He wants to partner with us and we are not called to sit back and watch. He has given us an active role in bringing LIFE to the dead areas around us. To awaken us as we sleep to the brokenness around us like the disciples were in Luke 22.

The Lord also took me to Psalm 47 and Psalm 42, which are very different from one another. Psalm 47: We need to pray for more fear of the Lord. There is wisdom in fearing the Lord, in recognizing Him for who He is, in having reverence for Him. We need to fear Him so we will lean on Him. We are not, however, motivated by fear. We are motivated by love for Him and the truth and freedom He brings into our lives. We have, as a generation, lost our fear that what the Lord says is true and that He is judging and that He is jealous. Show us our nakedness, Lord, and our depravity so You can clothe us and fill us.

Psalm 42: Lord, deep cries out to deep at the roar of Your waterfalls. I don't really know what this means, honestly, but this is what I was talking about to Him last night. There is evidence of Him all around us. We are crying out to Him and He is crying out to us while all around us is the deafening sound of His glory and majesty and grandeur. Open our BLIND EYES to see You all around us.

You didn't give us the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but the spirit of adoption that we may cry to You, "ABBA FATHER!" (romans 8:15). Speak truth to us, Lord, about who we are. We have been set free. You have ALREADY paid the price. You are calling us into Your heart and calling us to go out with the knowledge and understanding of who You are.

Abba Father, we want more. Give us hearts of obedience and discipline. Our feet will not be moved. We want to have deep roots and we want to be kept steady.

I want to live before Your eyes

I want to stay before Your gaze

Just keep me steady here.

-Natalie