Saturday, April 28, 2007

Live, damnit, live!!


For a few months now, I've been feeling like I needed to be prepared to "speak life". I was drawn to a chapter in Ezekiel, where he was called to prophesy to dry bones. He stands before a valley of bones and prophesies that they will once again be attached to tendons, flesh and skin - and that God would breathe life into them. Then he is called to prophesy to the wind to breathe life into the bones. When the bones come alive, they stand united as a large army. These bones are a picture of Israel's dead hope, and separation from God.
Ezekiel 37:14 " I will put my Spirit in you and you will live..."
As I've prayed about my place in all this, I've come to a startling realization that we are surrounded by "dead people". People who have yet to know Christ, and people who know who He is, but are walking around like zombies, thinking they are alive, but have yet to experience God's living breath. There are a million different ways this scenario can be played out, but I think there are people and places who need an infusion of God's breath every single day. Some of them are as simple as a friend who needs an encouraging word reminding them that they are loved, more deeply today, by God, than by any other at any other moment in time. Others will be "touch and go", and the situation will be desperate, there won't be time for intimidation - I will have to be ready and willing to speak the truth of God's living Spirit.
I'm reminded of tv moments where someone is not breathing, the situation is dire - the Dr. becomes angry (partly because they are afraid the person may be lost, and partly because they have done all they know to do) - Resuscitation begins, and as the Dr. pounds on the patient's chest, he screams "live! Damnit, live!". Appropriate or not, this is the desperation I'm feeling. A burden for those who are in "critical condition" whether they recognize it or not.
" So, I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them."
..."This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live."Ezekiel 37:7-9

1 comment:

Tommy said...

i love this posting - wish i'd ready it earlier but it's still good... still relevant... still speaks of His truth. good job speaking truth.