Ezekiel 37:1-14 (<----- click link for scripture)
Ever met someone who leaves out important parts when relaying a story or personal experience? To have a complete understanding of the truth of the situation, you need the full story. Our last devotional post entitled “I Can’t Breathe” emphasized not being able to breathe within the context of Ezekiel 37:5. However, that is not the full story. Ezekiel 37:1-14 is a passage about life, rebirth, and hope. Even though it may seem like you can’t breathe right now, I’m here to let you know that’s not how your story ends. Your temporary loss of breath is not the full story. I’m thankful to serve a God so awesome and powerful that the trials, disappointments, and losses I experienced were not my full story. Those things do not determine how my story ends. Revolution, revelation, purpose, destiny, and strength are birth out of adversity.
Ezekiel 37 depicts Israel’s resurrection and is a famous passage that records the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones. This vision takes place while Israel was in Babylonian captivity. Israel’s exile was more than just a crisis of physical suffering and communal identity. It also necessitated a crisis of faith. The key symbols of their faith had been destroyed, and the people questioned, and maybe even doubted, God’s sovereignty and faithfulness. I dare to say that we are not that far removed from the circumstances in Ezekiel 37. You may be experiencing a crisis of faith, suffering, and communal identity. You may feel defeated, hopeless, frightened, and like all breath has left your body. Be encouraged because there is hope. Your current situation is NOT how your story ends.
We are living in the age of a worldwide pandemic that seems to have no end in sight, a barrage of videos of unjustified killings and police brutality, a declining stock market, nationwide company layoffs, a crippling economy, and a litany of personal issues. While the chaos around us ensues, we continue to fight our internal battles, manage our day-to-day lives, and attempt to navigate the emotions and frustrations from lack of physical and social interactions from the four walls of our quarantine homes. However, in that same breath, we still experience joy, peace, revival, happiness, laughter, and freedom. As we try to reconcile it all, we may wonder if God is truly God, and if He really is faithful. Our circumstances do not change God’s character. Unlike man, God is true to His word and whatever He told you shall come to pass will happen. It may seem like it, but God is still faithful, and, God is still God. You. Can. Breathe.
I. Can. Breathe.
Like the vision God gave Ezekiel, you may feel like you are in a valley of dry bones. In the context of human anatomy, dead bones are dry and brittle, but living bones feel wet and a little soft. Dry bones represent something different for all of us. The dry bones in your life may represent seemingly dead relationships, friendships, marriages, jobs, finances, dreams, goals, purpose, health, life, family, children, hope, and so forth. The good news is that God is in the business of reviving dry bones to life. He gives breath to everyone and life to everyone who walks the earth (Isaiah 42:5). The same God who formed mankind from the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7) can give that same breath and life to your dead situation. You. Can. Breathe.
You. Can. Breathe
In Ezekiel 37, God asks Ezekiel if the dry bones can become living people again, and Ezekiel responds that only God knows the answer to that question (v.3). Then God does something amazing and tells Ezekiel to speak a prophetic message to the dry bones, and that He will put breath into them and make them live again (v.4-6). Many of us are waiting on someone else to come and fix our situation and God is saying we have the power within us to speak life into the situation and revive that thing.
The old adage “stick and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is a bald-faced lie. Words have power. “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose” (Proverbs 8:21). We have the power to speak into our own lives and the lives of others. The words we speak to ourselves have more power than any other words we will ever hear. As long as I keep saying I can’t, I won’t. Our words influence our thoughts, which guides our actions. Words have the power to follow us throughout our lives and affects our psyche. For this reason, many adults are still trying to navigate hurtful and demeaning words spoken to them as children, or inhumane words spoken to our ancestors passed down from generation to generation.
Gospel artist Myron Butler has a song entitled “Speak.” A portion of the song states, “I shall have what I decree, yes I believe it belongs to me. Speak into the atmosphere.” Think about that. The words we speak tell the atmosphere what we want, and what we believe we deserve. The words we speak become the house we live in, and the house we put others in. So, when you tell that that child they’re just like their father or mother in the negative sense, you’re telling the atmosphere that’s what you want. Newton's Third Law of Motion states, to any action there is always an opposite and equal reaction. So, when you speak racial epithets, ethnic slurs, sexist statements, demeaning comments, or just mean words about ourselves or others you are saying that’s what you believe, and that you desire for the person on the receiving ends of those words to receive whatever emotions, feelings, and generational pain attached to them. If I keep saying “I can’t breathe,” I’m speaking into the atmosphere that I can’t breathe, even though I have breath. Words have power. You. Can. Breathe.
We. Can. Breathe
Just to be clear, I am not stating that every issue in life can be cured by words alone. I am stating is that reviving something dead and dry starts with what we believe and the words we speak. When we speak words that are contrary to our actions and desires, we are being counterproductive. If you really desire to have a new relationship, but because you have been hurt by past relationships you continually say, “I don’t need or want a new relationship,” don’t be shocked if you don’t get one. If you consistently tell yourself you’re not valuable, unskilled, and no one wants to hire you, but you’re seeking a new job you’re working against yourself.
Sometimes we have to speak life, even if we can’t see it, don’t feel it, or don’t fully believe it yet. That’s why faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). I’m not advocating for people to turn a blind eye to reality. It is important to recognize and acknowledge the reality of a situation or condition. However, we have the power to speak life in spite of, and in the midst of, our circumstances. So even if we feel like I can’t breathe, it looks like we can’t breathe, and we believe we can’t breathe, we can acknowledge those feelings and beliefs as valid, yet choose to put the hope of breath into the atmosphere through our words. We. Can. Breathe.
I. Can. Still. Breathe
When Ezekiel spoke the words God gave him, those dry bones came together, attach themselves as complete skeletons, and muscles, flesh, and skin formed over the bones (v. 7-8). However, the bones still did not have breath (v.8). What do you do when you’ve done what you’ve been told to do, and spoken the prophetic words and there is still no breath? What do you do when your people toiled the land, endured oppression and slavery, fought for basic human rights and education, marched and protested, navigated systematic oppression and business loan redlining, and despite all that there still is no breath? What do you do when you forgave those who hurt you, raised the kids, build the home, supported the spouse and there still is no breath in your house? What do you do when you defeated the odds, survived the abuse, served the community, took the therapy, and there's still is no breath? What do you do? You keep speaking life into the atmosphere. You keep speaking to those dry bones and you don’t stop until you see life.
When Ezekiel spoke to the bones the first time, there was some change and evidence of life as the bones transferred into bodies, but there was still no breath. The valley was no longer a valley of bones, but a valley of breathless bodies. So, God instructed Ezekiel to speak a prophetic message into the bodies that the wind would come and breathe into the dead bodies so they may live again (v.9). When Ezekiel spoke that second time, breath entered into the bodies and they came to life and stood on their feet (v. 10).
Don’t stop speaking. Even if it seems like your words are not making a difference, believe me, they are. Your influence is greater than you even know. When we release words into the atmosphere, things happen that we cannot always see. Work is being done behind the scenes, and those things will manifest in due time. Don’t settle for breathless bodies. Keep persisting until you see life…until that thing has breath again.
We. Can. Breathe
We have the breath of life within us because the Spirit of God has made us, and the breath of the Almighty gives us life (Job 33:4). As long as our bodies have breath, we can breathe. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Ahmed Aubrey, Sean Reed, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Botham Jean, Alton Sterling, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Keith Childress, Stephon Clark, Aiyana Stanely-Jones, Walter Scott, Antwon Rose, Jr., Keith Scott, Jonathon Ferrall, Jordan Edwards, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Terrance Crutcher, John Crawford, Oscar Grant, Eric Gardner, Corey Jones, Rayshard Brooks, and Robert Fuller cannot breathe, but WE CAN.
As long as we have breath in our lungs, we have the power to speak life into our own lives and the lives of others. We have the power to show love through our words. We have the power to revive the dry bones in our lives that we have presumed dead. Our breath is a gift, a privilege, and a weapon. The choice is yours on how you choose to use it. When we fully recognize the power God has placed within us to literally shift the atmosphere, there is nothing we can’t do. We Are Breathing. We Can Breathe. We Will Breathe. We Will Continue to Breathe.
You. Can. Breathe
-Chan
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