Dry Bones Training
/I am a history nerd. I’m fascinated by the stories behind all of the names and dates. Pulling on that love of history, as a teenager I took a trip to Gettysburg, PA with my grandpa (as 18-year-olds so often do). A holy reverence hung over the rolling Pennsylvania hills where the horrific battle in the American Civil War was fought. As we walked in President Lincoln’s footsteps, I felt his words echo through the silence—the “brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated [this site] far above our poor power to add or detract.”[i]
Imagine walking through Gettysburg a few years after the battle. Whereas now time has buried the conflict’s relics—the bullets, artillery pieces, and even human bones—beneath layers or soil, sand, and grass, then they would have been on the surface, a poignant reminder of the conflict.
Now imagine in that setting God speaks to you: “Son of man, can these dry bones live?”
His voice reverberates within you. Clearly the answer must not be the apparent one or God Almighty would not have bothered to ask.
“You alone know, O Sovereign Lord,” you manage in response.
A whisper now, gentle and full of promise fills the quiet, “Prophesy. Speak life to these bones that they will live.”
Quietly at first, but with growing force you begin to speak as commanded: “Bones, come together, bone to joint, joint to bone. Ligaments, tendons and muscles regrow. Skin cover it all. And the very breath of life come. Come alive and glory in your God!”
Responding to the word of the Lord on your lips, the bones begin to move. Several bones shake. As you continue, a few bones stand upright. Slowly, like instruments in a symphony building to a crescendo, a thunderous noise resounds from the battlefield. A mighty army rises to take the place of a land once marked by death.
We are in a dry-bones training season.
In that famous Old Testament story, God brought the prophet Ezekiel into a valley full of dry bones, commanded him to prophesy life, and a mighty army awoke (See Ezekiel 37:1-14).
God is currently teaching his church to see the pile of bones in front of us (dead and lifeless circumstance) through his eyes, and speak like he does. He is asking us to see from his perspective instead of through our limited one tied to time and place. He is beckoning us to see, think, and speak like our heavenly Father who declares “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10) and “calls into being that which does not exist” (Romans 4:17).
The training regime laid out in Ezekiel 37 is pretty straightforward:
Ask for God’s Spirit to rest upon you—not just in you, but upon you (v. 1; Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3; Acts 2).
Go wherever he leads—even if he leads us into valleys (v. 1).
Be honest about what you’re seeing; don’t pretend the problem/challenge/impossibility doesn’t exist (v. 2). We don’t ignore a problem, but we are committed to seeing through the problem to the solution available in Jesus.
Know that if God leads us there, he’s got something up his sleeves (v. 4).
Listen and say what God says—nothing more and nothing less—even if it offends our understanding or logic (v. 5).
If you’re following Jesus, you will run into impossibilities. It probably won’t be a valley of dry bones, but It very well could be a dried-out marriage, economic uncertainty, a prodigal family member, or cancer. (You may even find yourself in the middle of a global pandemic, riots, dust storms, or what feels like some other chapter of Revelation.) Good news: Impossibilities don’t bother Jesus in the slightest. Whether an incurable disease, a deadly storm, or death itself, impossible bends the knee to Jesus Christ.
God’s Kingdom realm is greater than our earthly one. We are citizens of that Kingdom and are now the access point for all that’s present there—the righteousness, peace, and joy of his Kingdom—to come to earth.
God has intentionally placed you in the very time and place you live (Acts 17:26). Why? Because there are impossibilities around you that need his breath of life. God is calling you to conquer impossibilities, which means he will lead you into the heart of scenarios where this is no logical way out. And that’s exactly where you’re the most dangerous.
In this Dry Bones Training Season, we are learning to be a people who can see beyond the physical reality into the divine Truth where divine solutions are available. We will be a people who see a pile of dry bones and get excited about the mighty army about to awake. This is our hour.
[i] “The Gettysburg Address,” Abraham Lincoln Online. June 28, 2020. http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm.