1The 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;a it was full of bones. 2And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breathb to enter you, and you shall live. 6And 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.”
7So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling,c and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8And 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. 9Then 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.” 10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11Then 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.’ 12Therefore 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.13And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14And 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 theLORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”
I don't normally post such a large portion of Scripture, but this passage has really been life giving these last few days. (Pun not intended, but it is pretty good!) What I say today will be brief as the Scripture speaks plainly.
What we say matters. What we speak over our lives matters. What we speak over our marriages, children, health, finances, spiritual walk, etc, matters. When my husband and I were picking out names for our children we were very careful to find names that had meanings that we wanted to speak over our children. We believed that every time we would speak our child's name, we would be speaking their destiny over them. For example, our oldest son's name means "Who is like God?" "Defender of men". Every time we call for him, we are declaring a reminder "who is like God?". It's a perspective that we are providing for him. And his middle name means "Defender of men". He is our oldest son. We desire that he will be a leader and defender of his younger siblings and even the world. Our twins are "Jehovah is God", "Double portion blessing" and "Helper", "One who Supplements or adds to."
Your life becomes what you declare over it. If you are cynical and continually talk about your problems, that's all you'll ever have. Once you shift your focus and train your tongue and start speaking to the problem, speaking life over death, healing over pain, blessing over cursing, love over hate and joy over depression, your life will be transformed. When you "Prophesy to the dry bones", they will come alive and they will create an army that will fight for you! An army that will fight for God's people! An army with a purpose.
Practice this with me. Let's change the world!
