The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” Again he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 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.” So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 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 upon these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host. (Ezekiel 37:1-10 RSVA)
Our brother Hosea Fwangmun from Nigeria wrote recently,
“I come to the conclusion that ONLY the Father can reveal the Son in me and vice-versa. And since then I resist the temptation of trying to create what I call ‘mechanical fellowship.’ Yes, we need the gifts in others to come to the full measure and the statue of the son of God, but not in a mechanical way. We have to learn to discern His Body. I remember one of the favorite quotes of our brother Watchman Nee. ‘…you don’t organize for fellowship, rather, fellowship is spontaneous.’ May God give us true discernment in other to be truly build up into Christ. Amen.”
In the American church mindset, which has defiled the Church (the true body of Christ) throughout the world, there is a “can do” mentality that has not been to the cross. We think in terms of “by my might and by my power we can get this done! We can build God’s kingdom. We can make body life happen! Spirit? What Spirit?” To quote my brother Philip in Vermont, who stepped down from being a pastor for this very reason, “What a crock!”
In Chapter 37 of Ezekiel there is a very important lesson that needs to be learned if we are to be used of God. The prophet had a vision of a valley of dry, dismembered bones that had once been a mighty army. Thus we have the state of the Church today! The individual members of the body of Christ have been torn apart by ravenous wolves who have come in and not spared the flock of Christ, and false shepherds have risen up over them who teach perverse things to keep them divided (See Acts 20:29-31).
So today we are trying to have fellowship with a valley of dry bones. What a desperate state of affairs. It will take a miracle of God if these bones will ever become the functioning body of Christ again.
Notice in our opening passage that the bones were “very dry.” There are bones, dry to the touch, that still have the marrow in them rotting away and stinking, and then there are very dry bones that have been brought to such a death that not even Satan can find a niche in them to work his defilement! Many of us have been in this drying-out process. God has taken us outside the various camps of man-made religion, but has He dried us out to the point that we have no life left in us to try to do anything for God or make anything happen by our strength and will? All too many of us have come out of Egypt, but only far enough so that we can still look back. We design our new house church systems using the great Pyramid of Giza as our blueprint. Thus we are building another top down system, men lording over other men and pushing our will on them as “our vision” for the restoration of the Church.
Before God can assemble the true Church by His design, all our individual lives and good ideas have to totally die and become very dry. As Jesus put it, “Unless God builds the house, they who build it labor in vain.”
The next thing the Spirit showed me in this passage was this, “And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord GOD, thou knowest.’” Notice that Ezekiel was clueless when faced with the wisdom and will of the Lord. How many of those who call themselves visionaries or church leaders today recognize that they are totally clueless as to what God is doing? They all seem to have a plan as to how to build the church or get numbers of people into their buildings, under their authority, and filling their coffers with money “for the work of the Lord.” What God is looking for today in true leadership is men who have been “undone,” because they have seen the Lord as high and lifted up with His train filling His temple! Again, the wilderness has not yet killed the last vestiges of Egypt in them. Unlike Moses, they have not figured out that what they learned in the house of Pharaoh is useless to God.
Next we read, “Again he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.’” True prophetic voices for God have no preconceived idea of what God wants to say through them. A true prophetic voice for God waits until He hears what God is saying to the churches and does not speak until he is told to! He does not add his own flavor (or stench) to what is being said, either, because he is very dry. Then he will have God’s word to speak to these other very dry bones!
Then we read in our passage, “Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 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.”
You see, everything that has any eternal value is done by Him!
“I will cause breather to enter you and you shall live.”
“I will lay sinews upon you.”
“I will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin.”
“[I will] put breath in you and you shall live.”
“And then “you shall know that I AM THE LORD.”
(Compare Hebrews 8:8-11).
Everything that happens in this universe of God’s that is done for any eternal purpose is done by HIM. This whole exercise we are seeing is so we will know Jesus as Lord and that He is building His Church. That Church is the one that the gates of hell will not stand a chance against! What a far cry from this pathetic thing we see today that has lost its saltiness and is being trodden under the feet of men.
“So I prophesied as I was commanded….” In Acts we read about Peter and the apostles being locked up in prison. “But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, ‘Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.’” (Acts 5:19-20 RSVA). Today many of us feel like we are in prison, waiting for the Lord to release us. Our self-wills are being broken and we wait for God to make the next move. Jesus told Peter, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go.” (John 21:18 RSVA). Jesus is our “Another” who has bound us and carries us where we would not go. In this state alone can He trust us to speak as He commands instead dressing ourselves in religious garments and titles of authority and walking where we would, “in Jesus’ name.”
Bone to His Bone
Ezekiel went on to report, “…as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.” There was not just some willy-nilly assembling of these bones. Every bone had to first find the body it belonged to and then find its place in that body. The body of Christ has been so dismembered and dysfunctional for so long, we don’t have a clue what body we belong to, where we fit or what our function really is! Many of us have experienced other bones trying to plug themselves into our bones and they just don’t fit! Believe me, when God puts two of us together according to His will, we will know it! It will be an instant fit and the anointing that goes with that joining will soon be manifest. Paul wrote,
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body being fitly joined together and knit together by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16 KJ2000)
“Christ: From whom the whole body being fitly joined together and knit together by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part.” It is Christ who fitly joins us together as HE wills. Imagine how it would feel for your forearm to be attached below your knee or your lower leg to be attached to your shoulder. Nothing would line up! The sockets would not fit, the blood vessels would not connect and the nerves would not be joined. In this situation, every joint would not be able to supply the nourishment from the Head to the lower parts and there would be no effectual working in the God given measure of each part. Brothers and sisters, we need to be very careful to listen to God as to who HE desires us to be connected to and how (See Acts 5:13).
The only thing that will make this happen is for each of us individual dry bones to yield to the wind of the Spirit and let CHRIST build HIS Church. He must show each of us what body we belong in and where our place is in that body. All to many of us have preconceived idea of who we are in Christ and what “our ministry” is. Only very dry bones will be worthy to be assembled in the Church He is building in this final hour.
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 upon these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host.
“Prophesy to the Breath.” What breath? Did you know that the word in the Greek translated “spirit” is “breath”? Strong’s dictionary defines it thus,
pneuma
pnyoo’-mah
From G4154; a current of air, that is, breath (blast) or a breeze; by analogy or figuratively a spirit,
Without the breath of God blowing upon us and assembling us, we will remain individual dry bones bleaching in the sun. Jesus told Nicode’mus, “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit (the Breath of God).” (John 3:8 RSVA). So, dear saints, don’t get in a big fleshly hurry to make these dry bones come together or assemble yourselves to anyone who claims Christ as His Lord. Nothing is going to happen in God’s kingdom without HIS breath blowing on it and IN it. But be assured, that it is they who wait upon the Lord that will mount up as HIS exceeding great host, the body of Christ.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.” Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence they have come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. (Revelation 7:9-15 RSVA)
A Wilderness Voice 
I hadn’t thought about this dried-bones scripture passage for years and years….till just yesterday, when it came to mind for some reason, and then I find this article by you, this morning. This is thrilling to me because this means that God is about to act; God is about to assemble that ‘exceedingly’ vast army. These dry bones are rejoicing this morning, brother. Oh, oh, is that life I fell coming back into these bones???? Hallelujah!!!
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Susan! Wow! What a blessing to read your comment. You have made me very happy that God used me to be a “second witness” to His voice in your. I can’t say what a blessing this is when He does that. Yes! Hallelujah! Blow upon and in us, oh Spirit of God! Your bones await!
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All of which reminds me of a time, many many years ago (c. 1978, when a group of believers in our town met at a restaurant for fellowship. As we walked to our cars, someone suggested we pray before we parted ways. While we prayed, a brother had a dream in which he saw from afar an atomic cloud rise out of the landscape. God gave him the interpretation: Our generation would one day rise like an atomic blast . . . to alter the course of history. I’ve always known this – that God is definitely going to make this happen with our generation. So many people [my age] are looking to kick back and spend the next 20 years quietly retired, but I don’t THINK so. Not for this chickie, at any rate……
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Susan, That was an interesting vision and interpretation. The enemy of our souls seems to be coming in like a flood all over the world, but as God did with that valley of dry bones vision, He is raising up HIS Standard for all of us to look upon and yield to, Jesus Christ. “It does not appear yet what we shall be, but when He appears well will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.” It is in the beholding as we wait before the Lord that is causing our transformation, not in our doing and running out and getting ahead of Him.
God bless you my sister, Michael
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Thank you for the post “Can These Bones Live?’
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You are welcome, Pat. I hope it spoke to you as well.
Holy hugs, my sister.
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The only cure for this–can do mentality–is for us humans to go to the cross and then we will realize that everything that happens in our life is to be done by Him for his purposes and thus for his glory.Otherwise its just Christian religion.
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Yes, Kenneth, for sure.. It seems that God’s ways are “to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” I rejoice that He has been making us each “very dry” so that we can drink up His latter rain when it falls upon us and bring forth HIS fruit and not our own.
Love you, my brother!
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I’ve had several dreams/visions on this subject.
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Thanks, Tony. I will check them out.
Love you, my brother!
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“Believe me, when God puts two of us together according to His will, we will know it! It will be an instant fit and the anointing that goes with that joining will soon be manifest.”
Yup!
“Imagine how it would feel for your forearm to be attached below your knee or your lower leg to be attached to your shoulder. Nothing would line up! The sockets would not fit, the blood vessels would not connect and the nerves would not be joined.”
Hahahaha! The picture of it in my mind only…..GREAT!!! Michael, you really made my day! XD
“The only thing that will make this happen is for each of us individual dry bones to yield to the wind of the Spirit and let CHRIST build HIS Church. He must show each of us what body we belong in and where our place is in that body. All to many of us have preconceived idea of who we are in Christ and what “our ministry” is.”
Wonderful, my brother! ❤ That says is all. And that also implies, as you pointed out afterwards by mentioning the necessity to wait on the Lord that we need the patience to not run/do anything before the Spirit nudges us. Boy, that is NOT easy! 😛 Or in other words,
I just copied and pasted Ella’s quote above in order to show that not every inspiration we might feel must have come from God’s “nudging”. If there is no love involved and we feel angry or think we MUST say or do something while feeling no love for the other, the author of that inspiration was not God as He showed me recently. So, we need to wait on Him and His love to nudge us…..and then we can freely do whatever we might want (paraphrasing Augustine here).
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Susanne, thanks for the great comment. It was a blessing to me. You bring up an interesting point about God first forming His Son in us and filling us with His love, then what we do is what HE is doing, “then we can freely do whatever we want.” Paul dared to write, “You have the mind of Christ.” When I first read that I thought, Wow! What a risky statement to say to the church! But look at the context…
The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:15-16 RSVA)
He is writing to those who are of the select group, “the spiritual man.” As we abide IN Christ and not in ourselves, we have the mind of Christ and THEN we can freely do whatever we want because it is what HE wants. How do we get there? Paul also spoke of Christ’s mind in us here…
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:”
(Philippians 2:5-7 KJ2000)
God bless you richly as you abide in Him, my dear loving sister!
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If I may relate this with the current situation in my country and how things are being done in the so called “church” or “fellowship”. The first thing that comes to my heart as I read this is one of my favourite quotes “Jesus said, ‘go into the world and make disciples, and I will build my Ekklesia” but instead the reply has always been “Jesus, go into the world and make disciples and we will build your Ekklesia for you”. It’s like anemometer trying to control the winds. How futile!!!
I’ve been part of both organised and dis-organised (House Church) religion and I’ve seen a great deal of controls and all manners of Nicolaitan. But, the unfortunate thing is, many that left the organised religion are also the ring-leaders in the so called home cell or meeting.
So, fellowship becomes the driven force by which things are done. It seems like believers’ lives here in my country revolves around “Doing Fellowship”, “having meetings”, “doing stuffs”. In fact, among the so called “called out”, the ways of Egypt and babylon are carried over to their new found “house-church” in town, which I like to call “House Prison” or “small-business-enterprise” because the only difference is in “not having a name”. We are trying to have fellowship all by means.
Like you have said Mike, “unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that try to build it”.
Religion has no color barrier, as it is in your country so also it is here in Nigeria.
I do trust God to breathe on these very dry-bones in my Nation and in the world at large.
Thy Kingdom Come, Lord.
Thank you for sharing this and thanks to every brother and sister that contributed and will yet contribute.
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Well said
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John David, Thanks for your reply. You wrote, ” instead the reply has always been “Jesus, go into the world and make disciples and we will build your Ekklesia for you”. It’s like anemometer trying to control the winds. How futile!!!” Yes, for sure. I am reminded of the words of the prophet,
“Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:11-13 RSVA)
You wrote, “I’ve been part of both organised and dis-organised (House Church) religion and I’ve seen a great deal of controls and all manners of Nicolaitan.” Again, it has been the same thing here in America. the Greek word Nico – to conquer and rule over, Laitan – laity, the people. “To conquer and rule over the people of God. Of this Jesus said to the church,
“So have you also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto you quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”
(Revelation 2:15-16 KJ2000)
Well, His words against these over-lords that have stunted the growth of the people of God with their heretical teachings of “covering” (Christ is our Head and Lucifer is the covering cherub) and “accountability” to false teachers and false shepherds is being heard and God is using the internet to get the word out to a decimated people who have not known what it means to be free in Christ and to follow the wind of the Spirit without being accused of rebellion.
“That we from now on be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body being fitly joined together and knit together by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” (Ephesians 4:14-16 KJ2000)
Yes, Lord Jesus, make it so! Amen
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Reblogged this on fwangmunhosea and commented:
This is a piece written by a dear brother, Michael Clark on the need to ALLOW JESUS CHRIST do what He knows best to do I.e. Building His Church that the gates of hell will not prevail…I believe that this is a PRESENT TRUTH! Agape 🙂
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Thanks for this, my dear brother, Hosea! I will check out and follow you new blog.
I love you.
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You are welcome sir…you are indeed a blessing…agape
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You are a blessing to, Hosea! Thanks for posting this article to your new blog “The Wind.”
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Michael, I am deeply humbled reading your article today, honestly when I was expressing my thoughts and experiences on this pilgrim journey, little did I know that some of the comments made by this empty vessel like me will form a part of your deep and highly needed truth in the Body of Christ today. The dry bones analogy is an eye opener for me and for the church at this crucial period of looking forward to the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ for the marriage supper of the Lam. Its quite unfortunate that a lot of so-called Christians now worships the church more instead of the Lord of the Church. This can be seen in many people who cherish Christianity instead of Christ Himself. What a Babylon! (Babylon here is another word for confusion). No wonder Mahatma Gandhi of India was once quoted saying “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi”. Just as God using the donkey to speak to Balaam, I here God speaking to this 21st century church that whenever we stopp holding the Head and begin to be full of our methods and traditions and centre around the Body only, what you end up getting is a “headless body of Christ”. God forbid!
A very good and lovely brother has these to say in his Blog titled: MY LABOR TO REST that: “The problem is that you never know when good is good enough. You never know if you fully measure up. You certainly can’t rest because you can’t afford to slow down. You must keep up the pace. You can’t fall behind. You can’t show spiritual weakness. You have to catch up to the pastor or to the apostle that just preached at your church. You have to be on the same level as your Sunday School teacher that knows the Bible better than anyone.
It’s exhausting.
When we labor under the heavy yoke of rules and regulations we will become exhausted and burned out. We . . . need . . . rest!
Jesus calls out, “Come unto me if you are tired. Come rest!”
Can you hear Him calling out to you?
I’m in season right now where I feel that God has put me on a shelf so to speak. I’ve been in full-time vocational ministry all my adult life. For the last four years I’ve been working a job outside of the church. My “long story short” is that I’ve been through a lot of trials and struggles that have left me saying, on more than one occasion, “I am so tired.” Yet, I felt that I had to keep pressing through. I felt that I had to continue to work for whatever it was that I was supposed to be doing.
All the while, I have felt God just saying to my spirit, “Son, just rest.” But to rest would mean, in my mind, that I am spiritually weak. I can handle all this. I feel that I must be doing something. Anything. I must be working because that’s what I’ve been taught to do. I’ll be alright. Just tell me what to do, where to go, who to see, what to say. I’ve got this. I don’t need to rest. I am okay.
Really?
Why do we, especially us men, think that resting is for the weak?
Why are we so performance driven?
Why can’t we just receive this beautiful promise of coming to Jesus and finding rest for our souls?”
You see Michael, one characteristics of a machine is you have to keep maintaining it by by servicing its parts in other to make it work and still, at a long run it will eventually breakdown. I can relate this to man’s effort of “trying” to build the House of God. But if we allow the Master Builder Himself to do what He knows best (I.e. Build us into a Spiritual House), I can guarantee you that amazing things will happen here on earth…for the entire creation, according to Paul, is waiting for the manifestation and not manufacturing of the sons of God.
What is the end of the matter? This is well captured in this article as thus: “The only thing that will make this happen is for each of us individual dry bones to yield to the wind of the Spirit and let CHRIST build HIS Church. He must show each of us what body we belong in and where our place is in that body. All to many of us have preconceived idea of who we are in Christ and what “our ministry” is. Only very dry bones will be worthy to be assembled in the Church He is building in this final hour.” AGAPE to all my fellow pilgrims 🙂
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Hosea, I and I assume many others can echo what you so wonderfully expressed in your comment above. Thanks so much for sharing a part of your journey on here! 🙂
Indeed, I was reminded of having written at least two articles recently on that very issue of how to enter into God’s rest with our weary and exhausted souls since He wants us to live in His peace continually. I asked Michael whether he would mind me linking those articles in my response here and he gave me the following encouraging answer,
“You can post as many links to your articles on my blog as He puts on your heart to do.”
So, if you have time and are interested, see below, dear fellow pilgrim. 😉
In His Love,
Susanne
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YES, Hosea, a great part of His preparation of our hearts is to bring us to the end of ourselves and all our striving and enter into His rest and be found doing ONLY those works HE has foreordained us to walk in from the foundation of the world. Be blessed my brother!
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My dear brother, Hosea, thanks for you great comments on here. You wrote, “Its quite unfortunate that a lot of so-called Christians now worships the church more instead of the Lord of the Church. This can be seen in many people who cherish Christianity instead of Christ Himself.” Yes, we have a narcissistic church today. Everything is “church this” and “church that.” The church has become an end unto itself. Yet we read something different in John’s Revelation.
“The twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing, “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:10-11 RSVA)
First we see that true leadership in the church is quick to hit its face and use their crowns for frisbees. The cast their crowns away at the sight of the Lamb. Only HE is worthy of ALL power, honor and glory, for HE is the One who created all things! Men who are church builders and planters get the glory for what THEY build, but only Christ gets the glory in HIS church. Amen.
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Thank you my brother, Michael for your beautiful comments. You wrote, “They cast their crowns away at the sight of the Lamb. Only HE is worthy of ALL power, honor and glory, for HE is the One who created all things!” So true my brother, the picture that comes to mind is instead of casting their crowns BEFORE THE LAMB, they cast their crowns AWAY AT THE SIDE OF THE LAMB so that they can later take it back…and for this very reason Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of his day and foubd them guilty of HYPOCRISY…may God give the grace to be humble and to truly give HIM the glory due Him. Amen!
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Once again, I agree wholeheartedly w/ your post and the insightful comments here.
Though it was originally addressed to Israel, this passage from Ezekiel has great personal significance to me. At a time when I felt like the dry bones — dead beyond hope of restoration — it was the mercy of God raining down on me.
Whenever I write about brokenness on one of my blogs, I receive responses from those who have been hurt by the church and its members. I could say the same for myself.
I have become convinced that many of those holding themselves out as Christian — assuming themselves to be Christian — have little or no understanding of the Gospel at all. They wear a garb of self-righteousness and thunder from the pulpit against lesser mortals (many times the most vulnerable among us). They build crystal cathedrals or political factions, but fail to see the face of Christ in the poor.
We must love God and our neighbor. We must live out those two greatest commandments every day of our lives. We must be tender toward the brokenhearted, as Christ is. The earthly structure of the church — the titles, the robes, the palaces, and the artwork — is as nothing compared with that.
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Dear Anna, how I hear your great heart! Yes, most of my suffering since coming to Christ as been by rejection and accusations from Christians in the Church systems of men.
And if one asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your back?’ he will say, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.'”(Zechariah 13:6 RSVA)
In all this seemingly wrong and hateful treatment, Father has been in it. Like my friend George so wisely put it, “God has rubbed my nose in everything He wanted me to never do in HIS household.” Except for the grace of God, I would be one of them.
You wrote, “They wear a garb of self-righteousness and thunder from the pulpit against lesser mortals (many times the most vulnerable among us). They build crystal cathedrals or political factions, but fail to see the face of Christ in the poor.” Oh what memories you just dredged up! A few years back I spent three weeks in the Baja of Mexico working on an orphanage as a handy man. While there I saw such poverty. There were houses in the local village that had dirt floors and tin walls and roofs. The children were way too many for the area that the government allotted for the facility and so the sewer drain field was perking up into their play yard and the American workers there put down pallets on the ground to keep the kids from walking in the effluent. It was heart-breaking to see. Yet, these little faces looked to us with such love on them! It brings me to tears as I think about it.
Anyway, I got a ride back to L.A. airport to fly home with this church Christian and as we were driving by Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral on the freeway, the man said, “Oh look! It is the Crystal Cathedral. Would you like to go see it?” I about exploded! I told him, “I just spent three weeks immersed in the poverty of Mexico and you want me to go and stand in the shrine of American opulence and self-centered Christianity and be blessed by it? NO! Get me out of here!” Like a dear brother and friend of mine said, “There are two Jesus’ There is the REAL Jesus and then there it the “Orange County Jesus.”
Thank you Anna for bringing our focus back to where it belongs.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was hungry, and you gave me food: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we you hungry, and fed you? or thirsty, and gave you drink? When saw we you a stranger, and took you in? or naked, and clothed you? Or when saw we you sick, or in prison, and came unto you? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Since you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:34-40 KJ2000)
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For the record, I came back here to read many encouraging comments. Then, this verse dropped in my heart.
“He must increase, and I (we) must decrease”.
It is worth noting that what’s majorly increasing this day is “valley of the dry bones” or better still “the so called church”. “It” increases in numbers, programs, activities, and controls. It seems there is no end to “it” increase. Whereas what God seeks to increase is not the institutions and empires men are building, in fact, he has no blessing for that.
God wants to Increase Christ on every side, so that, the increase of His government there will be no end and by that increase His Body.
Why are there many dry bones? Because, men keeps building the graveyard for dead bodies, holding all kind of endless programs for them which cannot bring them back to life.
The antidote has always been, like Jesus said to the Church of Sardis “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God”
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The antidote is “The Seven Spirit of God”.. In fact, in my reading the book of revelation 2 and 3, the Church of Sardis was the only church that Christ went straight to the point. A dead man need not elongated speech/programs or “7 diets that will make him live long” or “Eating well and exercising” rather, what a dead man needs is the quickening Spirit and this was what Christ did to the Sardis’ church by introducing himself As the seven spirit of God (meaning the perfect life they need for their deadness)… how earnestly do we need this in this generation.
I pray for all the saint, wherever they may be that the Spirit Of Christ will breathe on us, bringing refreshment and life to every deadness and rottenness so that this mighty army may arise and do what God wants. Amen
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How deeply we need the Breath of God to breathe on us in this hour! It will happen only as the result of a divinely inspired and divinely enabled prophetic intercession unto “the Wind.” Let us be seeking Him earnestly for this!
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I agree, Allan. Thank you for writing.
Michael
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Excellent teaching Michael Clark, if the life of the natural man is not completely dry … God’s life in us not flow. May God open the understanding to His ekklesia in this hour of darkness both for those who have not understood these truths.
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Patricia, Thank you for your comment. Yes, Father will truly open the eyes of those who what to see His face and are making their relationship with Him first and foremost. David said, “Your face oh God will I seek.” Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart (not double minded, but singular in motive) for they shall see God.”
In His love,
Michael
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Such an encouraging word for myself and others who feel like dry bones in the desert (drawn out of Egypt/churchianity by the Lord). Thank you Michael. The picture of God creating Adam out of dust, then Eve out of Adam’s bone, also comes to my mind… just like Ezekiel’s bones, Adam was nothing but dry dust before the creative acts of Father and Spirit. Does this mean anything to you?
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Thanks Penny. Yes, when God brings forth life He always uses His breath to establish that life. His Spirit wind is the breath of life. But I am sure that there is much more to see in your comparison of Adam and Eve with Ezekiel 37. I will be praying about that. The following verse came to mind as I read your comment…
“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit. But that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, made of dust: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1 Corinthians 15:45-49 KJ2000)
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Powerful message! thank you!
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Yvonne, you are welcome. Thank you.
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