The Breath Of Life

Speak a prophetic message to the winds.   Ezekiel 37:9

In the very beginning, when God made Adam from the dust of the ground, he formed a corpse made of bones, tendons, flesh, and skin. Then God “breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Genesis 2:7). God was about to do the same thing again in the valley of dry bones.

The prophet saw human structure and form in the bones strewn before him, but there was no life there. So God told Ezekiel to call on the wind of God’s Spirit: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again” (Ezekiel 37:9).

Ezekiel began to preach, and as he did this, the breath of God entered the corpses. Ezekiel saw them coming to life, and then standing up, until right there, in what had been a valley of dry bones, there stood a vast army, ready for action (see Ezekiel 37:10).

Never, never, never underestimate what God can do when his Word is preached and his people pray. If the breath of the Spirit of God blows into a situation that is completely dead, a remarkable transformation will take place.

As Ezekiel looked at the vast army in the valley, he knew this was the work of God. But he also knew that God had done this miracle as Ezekiel preached and as he prayed. He must have wondered, What if I had not spoken? What if I had not prayed?

Where the wind of the Spirit blows is up to the sovereignty of God; it’s not under our control. But God commands us to speak the truth and call on the Spirit of God in prayer.

What if our children’s eyes glaze over as we present the truth, or if a colleague seems unresponsive as we share our testimony? We can try to introduce them to (or keep them in) an environment where they’ll hear God’s truth, and we can surround them with a ministry of prayer. God is telling us that amazing things can happen in the most unpromising places when his Word is preached and his people pray.

For further reading, see Ephesians 3