Week 23
Scripture Reading: – Ezek 37 & John 20
Topic: – God brings life to dead situations.
We all experience difficult times and go through challenges during our lifetime. Times when we have no answers. Even times when nothing we do works and it even feels like God is silent!
If we look at how God showed Ezekiel the future, hope and outcome of Israel, we can learn a lot from the history of the Old Testament. Ezekiel is looking at a very dry, dead and hopeless situation and God asked him the question in Ezek 37:3 And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” 4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
Ezekiel answered God,” yes Lord You know”, because he knew that God can call the dead alive! And God gave Ezekiel the key to victory!
On several occasions in this passage, the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy [Speak] to the situation he sees before him.
- Vs 4 ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
- Vs 9 “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 this slain, that they may live.”
As he was ① obedient to God and ② opened his mouth and spoke the Word of God, he started seeing the Awesome Miracle of God! You see it is the Word of God IN YOUR MOUTH that will bring the breakthrough and miracle into your life. Even Jesus said to satan that, it is WRITTEN.’ Jer 23:29“Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Remember, that it is the Word of God IN YOUR MOUTH!
Ezekiel had NOTHING but a WORD from God! He was obedient to God’s Voice! God does not look at and is not limited by the DROUGHT or SITUATION in your life. God hears what comes out of your MOUTH! Your words mean NOTHING unless it is God’s Word within your MOUTH! The prophet must also have trusted that the Holy Spirit of God would bring LIFE! When God told Gideon to go to battle, He told Gideon to say these words, “The Sword of the Lord and the Sword of Gideon”! That is the powerful effect of the Two-Edged Sword of the Lord! Judges 7:16-
But then God reminds us of the Scripture John 20 and the period [Saturday] between Jesus’ Crucifixion [Friday] and HIS Resurrection [Sunday]! John 20:1 now on the first day [Sunday] of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb [early], while it was still [dark], and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
Friday – Jesus is crucified. Saturday – He is in the tomb! What a terribly quiet day it must have been, especially in the lives of the disciples. All hope was gone. Jesus was dead and they hid in houses for fear of what would happen to them! It was a very quiet and terrible period in their lives. Mary arrived at the tomb early Sunday morning. It was still
Maybe you are on such a Saturday of your life. Dark. God does not hear you. You feel abandoned and alone and it feels like nothing wants to work or improve in your life!
But on Sunday the Light broke through for Mary and all the disciples and so also for you and me! But the dark times had been a reality for them and so also for you. In our lives, we all go through these dry, lonely and dark times from time to time. But it is so wonderful how God teaches us and warns us from His Word about what we should do when we experience these ‘quiet’ and ‘dark’ times!
It’s when ALL your PLANS stop working and you may have nothing left, that God intervenes! It is in our weakness that God’s POWER is revealed! 2 Cor 12:9 and He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.
Numbers 14:28 God Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do unto you. Matt 8:8 and the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak only a word, and my servant shall be healed. Remember what the Word of God says in Prov 6:2you are snared by the words of your mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth.
Be careful what comes out of your mouth, you are the ‘prophet’ of your own future!
Remember, It is not over till God says it’s over! Say what God says, and see how the dry, dead and impossible situation comes alive in Jesus’s Name, Amen.
The Author: Pastor Johan Venter
From: Impact Pentecostal Ministries
Pastor Johan Venter was born in 1961 and grew up in Odendaalsrus (Freestate) where he matriculated. Whereafter he attended the Police Force College for 2 years in Pretoria and served in the Army for 2 years during which Johan met his wife Charmaine.
Between 1997 and 1999 Johan and Charmaine completed Pastoral training at the Christian Revival Church Bible School under the leadership of Pastor At Boshoff. Over the years they both faithfully served in various Ministries until 2019, when God led them to ‘step out of the boat’ and start the “Impact Pentecostal Ministries” in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal.
They currently host the Church service at La Gratitude Home for the Aged every Friday morning. They are truly blessed and grateful for God’s Grace and are excited to see what God is going to do for the ministry in the future.
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