LVC 06/01/2013 Breath of God Ezek 37:1-14
1. Breathing is the most obvious sign of life. No breath = no life. Holding a mirror to the mouth.
2. Job 27:3 ‘as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils’,
3. In the Hebrew of the OT a frequently used word for breath is ‘Roo-akh’. Also means wind and also spirit.
4. Similarly in the Greek of the NT a word for breath is ‘pnyoo-mah’ more commonly used for spirit.
5. Today a passage of scripture concerning the Breath of God. I have wanted to preach on it for 3 decades but have not been released to… until now.
6. EZEK 37:1-14 <Read>
7. The people of God had rebelled and as a result been conquered and taken into captivity first by the Assyrians and then by the Babylonians.
8. The temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed and the land left sparsely populated and barren.
9. Ezekiel was one of the priests exiled in Babylon and had prophesied many times to the Israelites there about their spiritually dead condition – this vision is the last in a series of prophetic messages concerning the Restoration that God was planning for them.
10. It is about the Breath of God reforming and reviving the children of God.
11. Before I expound on the passage I need to ‘breeze’ through the scriptures to demonstrate the significance of the concept of the Breath of God.
12. Let’s start right at the dawn of time when God created by speaking the universe into existence.
13. PSM 33:6 ‘By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.’
14. Now listen to how the scriptures describe how God created the first human being GEN 2:7 ‘The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.’
15. When subsequently people created in the image of God died it was said that they ‘breathed their last’ or ‘expired’ GEN 25:8 ‘Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man full of years.’
16. Movong on to the NT we find Jesus explaining to an old man, Nicodemus, how we need to be born again of the Spirit in order to have spiritual life. He said; “The wind (Pnyoo-mah) blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (Pnyoo-mah)’ JN 3:8
17. A few years later, after the Lord had died and risen again from the tomb He commissioned his disciples with these words; ‘“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” And with that he breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit”’ JN 20:21-22
18. Then, just weeks later, after Jesus had ascended back to Heaven, Acts 2:1-4 records how the Breath of God blew mightily into the lungs of the newly-born church and it rushed out into the streets proclaiming the glory of God in supernatural tongues.
19. Then, right at the end of the Bible, In REV 11 we find a graphic visionary description of the church pictured as two witnesses who speak with authority and have huge spiritual power.
20. But then the world system overcomes the church and kills its witness and the world gloats and celebrates the demise of the church.
21. But then in REV 11:11, ‘But after three-and-a-half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them’.
22. A picture of the church gloriously revived by the breath of God. A picture foreshadowed in Ezekiel’s vision which we will now go back to and unpack.
23. Vs 1. ‘The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones’.
24. The Lord takes the initiative – all revivals are initiated by the Holy Spirit, not by man. Revival comes not because the church deserves it but because the church is in desperate need of it; a valley full of dry bones.
25. The valley in the vision represents the nation of Israel and the bones the OT people of God. The church is todays equivalent and we, the children of God, the members of the church, are the dry bones.
26. The first part of Ezekiel’s visionary experience was an inspection of the condition of the people of Israel where he noted that (a) there were very many of them, and (b) they were very dry.
27. Over the past 10 years or so God has taken a number of modern day Ezekiels on an inspection tour of the church:
28. George Barna surveyed the USA church and found that Christians in general are no different to non-Christians in that they behave in the same way.
29. Frank Viola assessed the church and concluded that in general it has fallen far below the pattern and standards of the church of Acts.
30. Len Sweet diagnosed the church as suffering from Jesus Deficit disorder.
31. And there are several other prophetic voices to the church of our day – N.T.Wright, T Austin-Sparks, Alan Hirsch and others.
32. The overall conclusion of their inspections of the church are that the bones are many and they are very dry – the church needs to be revived.
33. As Elders of this church we too have inspected the valley and the bones and concluded that we too need revival.
34. Q If you inspect your spiritual life, what will you conclude? If you hold up the mirror of God’s word to your mouth how strongly will you detect your spiritual breath?
35. Vs 3-5. God asks Ezekiel if he thinks the bones could be revived, could live again. The prophet wisely answers that God alone can make that judgement… and God said that He did believe the bones could be revived because He told Ezekiel to prophecy – and He says that the church of our day can be revived.
36. Vs 6. The prophetic word in the vision proclaimed a two-phase RESTORATION of the people of God (1) First God would REFORM the nation; put flesh and sinew and skin on the bones – note that God would do this, and (2) Then He would breath his breath into them and REVIVE them.
37. This applies too to the church of our day; to Restore us God first has to Reform us and then he can Revive us.
38. Vs 7-8. Ezekiel prophesied on God’s instructions and then God showed in the vision how He would fulfil the prophecy.
39. Two years ago God sent two Ezekiels to us, two prophetic witnesses to say that God was going to restore the church to the glory of the church of Acts and beyond that even.
40. Then He gave us direction for Reforming our local church and we have been trying to be obedient to this :
(a) Focus on Jesus-centeredness in what we preach and what we do.
(b) Bones coming together on Monday nights to align with what God is saying and doing.
(c) Shaking the dust off our bones – sin issues, relationships, financial issues… we have had a lot of shaking these last two years.
41. Now what about you? Have you been undergoing God’s reformation process in your life? I do hope so because Reformation precedes Revival.
42. Vs 9-10. Then in the vision Ezekiel was instructed to prophecy a second time to announce the 2nd phase in God’s restoration programme… the coming of the Breath of God…. Revival!
43. The prophet spoke and God sent the winds of heaven, the Breath of God, and revival came
44. About 15 months ago at a Monday night meeting someone read from Ezekiel 37 and I wrote the following in my prayer journal; ‘The time is near when the Spirit will call on us to prophecy to the church and then we will see revival life entering into the Body of Christ.’
45. We received a prophetic word that night which was “The time is coming and has now come.”
46. Q Do you believe that the time has come for the church to receive the breath of God? Is it time to prophecy to the winds of heaven to blow with power into the church?
47. Here is the thing – God instructs the prophet to speak and I cannot honestly say that I have heard this directly and clearly from Him…for the church at large.
48. But I do believe that He expects us to declare our readiness and need as individuals for a fresh breath of His Spirit.
49. So, as we stand at the start of 2013 are we ready to expect and receive the Breath of God?
50. As we play a hymn written in 1878 ‘Breath on me breath of God, stand if you are ready to receive and remain standing afterwards for prayer.. [Play Hymn]
51. [Pray] “Holy Spirit, blessed Breath of God, come now in Jesus name and fill us with life anew.”