Can These Bones Live?
Blog, Can These Bones Live?, Cleanse, Confess, Erik Garthe, Forgiveness, No Longer Conformed, Prayer, Preparation, Righteousness, Sovereignty, Unrighteousness, Willing Hearts
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Can these dry bones live again? Only God knows for sure if it is possible for His people to be revived. The prophet Ezekiel acknowledged this fact in his writing (chapter 37). The psalmist proclaimed that revival is of God, from beginning to end:
“You have been favorable to Your land; You have brought back the captivity of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin. You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger.” (Psalm 85:1-3) It is God who chooses of His good pleasure to pour the blessing of revival on His people. There is nothing we can do to force God’s hand. However, we can prepare our hearts to receive a true spiritual revival. Again, in Psalm 139, the writer says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (vv. 23-24) The apostle John proclaimed the willingness of God to cleanse our hearts from sin, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) While we cannot bring revival by our own efforts, we can be ready vessels to receive it as God chooses. And we can preach and teach revival—“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: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.”’” (Ezekiel 37:4-6) If you read the rest of Ezekiel 37, you will find that God breathed revival on those dry bones of Israel … i.e. God’s people. There was a rattling; flesh and skin covered those bones; the breath of life entered them; and they stood up as a great army. The Lord can bring revival! Pray for it and prepare to receive it.
Sin cera, Erik
Erik O. Garthe is Associate Pastor at Canton Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland.
