Dry Bones by Lisa Burkhardt Worley

We have a couple of potted plants in our backyard that I thought were dead due to the heat, but with a little extra water they have miraculously turned from brown to green. The dead came back to life! In the same way, I am consistently amazed at how God can bring what was once dead in us back to life as well.

In Ezekiel 27, the LORD whisks the prophet Ezekiel away to a valley filled with dry bones where He instructed Ezekiel to speak a prophetic message to the bones so they’d become animate again. The Word says, “The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons” (Ezekiel 27:7 NLT). Muscles and flesh also formed over the bones and skin covered the bodies but they still had no breath in them. So Ezekiel was told to speak another prophetic message to the winds: “O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again” (Ezekiel 27:9). And they did come back to life—the dead bones stood up on their feet, appearing as a great army.

According to this passage, the bones represented the people of Israel and provided them with a message of hope even though God’s chosen ones had been exiled to Babylon and felt like they had become old, dry bones with no hope. God was saying they would enjoy life again and return home to their land.

It is a word for us as well.

I am wondering, what dry bones have come alive in your life recently?

Conversely, is there an area of your life that feels dead, without hope?

Your Creator specializes in bringing the dead to life.

In my own world, he has resurrected a television career that I thought was six feet under. I didn’t have a desire to return to the small screen nor did I ever dream I’d have the opportunity, but God had other plans and dry bones came to life.

After finishing seminary, I said I’d never return to school, but the LORD put skin on those bones, and yesterday, as I was able to actually read Hebrew words, I became emotional. It’s been a dream of mine to learn Hebrew and God has not only provided the opportunity, He has breathed new life into my learning.

And Hebrew roots that I thought were dried up because my Jewish father died before I was born, are sprouting leaves like never before. It has resulted not only in a pursuit of a Doctor of Ministry degree in Messianic Studies, but also a new book designed to reach Jewish people, The Root that Never Died, now available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Root-That-Never-Died-Christian/dp/B08FP6F77P/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-drs1_0?cv_ct_cx=The+Root+that+Never+Died&dchild=1&keywords=The+Root+that+Never+Died&pd_rd_i=B08FP6F77P&pd_rd_r=4d0a6800-0fd4-4274-bc9e-d606a516268f&pd_rd_w=izTaE&pd_rd_wg=tiLZZ&pf_rd_p=f3f1f1cd-8368-48df-ac69-94019fb84e3f&pf_rd_r=NHXGZMBZGZ8RA102SJ51&psc=1&qid=1598958383&sr=1-1-f7123c3d-6c2e-4dbe-9d7a-6185fb77bc58

It has been an incredible adventure that only my heavenly Father could cultivate.

What I’ve learned over the years is that we are to never give up on anyone or anything.

If your marriage is failing, keep praying.

If there’s a bad habit you struggle to break, don’t stop asking for ways to overcome.

If your health is declining, call on Jehovah Rapha for a miracle.

God doesn’t want us to settle for dry bones. He is a life giver and still has the ability to raise the dead, just as He did with his Son. We have to have faith that He can do it in our lives as well.