THE PROPHETIC WORD (2)

“Again he said to me, PROPHESY to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the WORD of the LORD!” – Ezekiel 37:4

Revival and Restoration are other fundamental purpose of the PROPHETIC WORD: “Again he said to me, PROPHESY to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the WORD of the LORD” (Eze.37:4). The passage begins with the role of the Spirit of God in the Prophetic: “The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the SPIRIT of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones” (v.1). God took Ezekiel in the Spirit to a valley full of very dry bones, as far as the eyes could see. God then asked Ezekiel a pointed question, “Can these bones live?” That is, “Can things change here?” Ezekiel threw the ball right back in God’s court: “Lord, You know”! The Lord’s response was instructive: That it was up to Ezekiel to do something about the bones and see to it that they live (vv.4-6).

God was teaching His servant how to change things through prophecy. Ezekiel saw that as he prophesied to the dry bones, something began to happen, so he prophesied some more as God taught him (vv.6-7). Every true prophet must pass the test of Ezekiel 37. In the present valley of dry bones, those without vision only see doom and death. But true prophets can see in even the driest bones a great army and will prophesy life to those bones until they become what they are called to be. This is the ultimate purpose of the prophetic ministry given to the church – to call the church forth to her destiny. True unity will happen as we all behold the One who holds all things together “by the word of His power” (Heb.1:3). The prophetic sees beyond the way things are to the One in whom everything in creation will be summed up.

Believers that are prophetically aligned are never frustrated by the seemingly depressive state of Christendom, knowing this to be a good ground for divine interventions. Such situations are, in fact, the greatest opportunities to grow in the prophetic. Not only did Ezekiel prophesy with such anointing that the dead came back to life, but he started the process by prophesying to bones until they became bodies and then spoke the life into them! The greatest prophetic vision is to be able to see even the driest bones as an exceedingly great army. The greatest prophetic anointing is to be able to prophesy to those bones until they become what they are called to be!

The prophetic is not just about telling the bones how pathetically dry they are. The driest bones are an opportunity for the greatest miracle. Prophets are not just called to prophesy, but to synergize with the builders so that destinies – individual, family, and corporate – are built.