FMF: Breathe

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 on these slain, that they come to life.”’”

So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
(Ezekiel 37:9-10, NASB)

The Valley of Dry Bones.  It's a great section of Scripture to be studying this time of year.  It screams Halloween.  

Ezekiel is shown a vision of a valley of bones - just bones - that have been left unburied and have become dry. God instructs Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones.  Now, I don't know about you, but I've always wondered if the prophets were at all uncomfortable with their jobs.  We know that Jonah was.  He so detested the people God told him to prophesy to, that he went as far as he could the other direction.  For him, "as far as he could" turned out to be not very far because he ended up in the belly of fish that spit him up on the shores, having received time to repent and allowing him to go where he was supposed to go in the first place.  But I digress.

Ezekiel's vision didn't even have him speaking to people. He was told to prophesy to bones. Ezekiel was faithful.  In his vision he called out to the bones and they began to rattle.  They came together with layers of life until finally they appeared to be bodies.  Yet, something remained missing.

So God told Ezekiel to call the breath back into these bones, and God breathed on them.

God explained to Ezekiel what he had just seen. The bones represent God's people, and they are without hope.  Their divided nation would come back together, and God would live among them again.

Indeed, God can do miracles where there appears to be no hope, a word I need to hear today.

For anyone who feels like they are in a valley of dry bones today, pray with me:

Breathe on me, Lord. Amen.

This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.

Spirit

What do you know about the Holy Spirit? No, it’s not a trick question. What do you know? If you are anything like me, you might be having a hard time answering. Maybe you have some ideas but you can’t formulate the right words. I was reminded today that the Bible holds answers for our questions about God, so I am taking this time to reflect on what the Bible says about the Spirit. Seeing these verses, I know two things: I love who the Holy Spirit is, and I need more of the Spirit in my life.

1. The Spirit of God lives in me.
“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16, NASB)

2. The Spirit provides me the ability to live the way God wants me to.
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:27, NASB)

3. The Spirit raised Jesus from the dead and also gives my body life.
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11, NASB).

4. The Spirit guides me.
“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (John 16:13).

5. The Spirit brings me the hope of God.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

A reflection on... reflection.

About a week ago, I took a long walk at the beach one night. From past experience I knew it was about two miles from where I was starting to the pier and that along the way there were quarter-mile markers painted on the bike path. As I started walking I noticed I was at the .25 mile marker. As I walked, I was curious how far I had gone. Since my normal walking path was only a total of two miles I didn't feel the need to go all the way to the pier. Strangely, I didn't see any of the mile markers and before I knew it I was at the pier.

As I turned to walk back I noticed the 1.75 mile maker. Funny, I thought. I hadn't seen it before. And then, even more surprisingly I noticed almost every single quarter-mile marker as I walked back. Some were more noticeable than others, but had I really been that oblivious?

I began to think about how many of us live our lives this same way. We start out with no particular goal in mind, just a general destination. Before we know it we've gotten further from where we started (and read me here, not necessarily in the direction we first intended), seemingly unaware. If we can take a moment to look back at what has brought us to where we now are, the signs seem very clear - even stupidly clear.

On Sunday morning I was thinking about this as Pastor Josh shared Ezekiel 37, the fascinating story of the Valley of Dry Bones. None of those bones were created dry and left in the desert. It was a process. The body the bones once belong to were first brought to the desert (whether by means of work, war, capture, maybe all sorts of reasons), then killed (again, whether by natural causes, nature, murder), and then left there. Then, over the course of time, the bodies rot and all that is left are the bones. Sorry for the visual, but follow me. If this were the end of the story, it'd be pretty sad. Instead, God takes the bones, attaches tendons and flesh, and then breaths life into the bodies. Miraculously, God has taken nothing and made it something.

If I can take a moment to reflect on who I am, will I see that God can restore anything and everything I may have lost over the years?