Dem dry bones

THE DRY BONES - SCATTERED AND IN CAPTIVITY - ARE RE-GATHERED BY GOD’S WORD

Ezekiel 37:1 God took a hold of me. God's Spirit took me up and sat me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them-- a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain-- dry bones, bleached by the sun. He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "Master God, only you know that." He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones:' Dry bones, hear the word of The Lord! '" God, the Master, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!" I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound of a shaking and a rattling! And the bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them. He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath,' God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, Spirit, breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life! '" So I prophesied, just as he commanded me. The Spirit entered them and they came alive! They stood up on their feet, a huge army.

This message to a scattered and fragmented Israel is also a message to a scattered and fragmented church, the Body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (NKJ)

The shaking and the rattling can be painful and noisy; things being put back in place after being dislocated. We need to be located somewhere with other someones, doing something in love that has purpose and meaning.

Ephesians 4:13 Until we all share that one faith reality, understanding and experiencing the partnership with Jesus that matures us into the full corporate expression on earth of what Jesus plans from heaven.  

14. When this starts to happen we won’t be like children thrown every which way by each new tasty teaching, because of human agendas. These teachers load the doctrinal dice so that the teaching works out prospering their own ends and ambitions.

15. But when truth is proclaimed and it is empowered by God’s love it causes us as a body to grow and develop in alignment with Christ who is the head of that body. 

16. From this alignment of the body with its head, which is Christ, comes the perfect synergy of a completely balanced and effective body, which coordinates fluently, as each part contributes the best it has in the best possible way so that the whole body resonates with the expression of God’s love. (CAV)

Again, we need to be located somewhere with other someones, doing something in love that has purpose and meaning.

1. First locate yourself - in the presence of God. (Where are you Adam?)

2. Then bring yourself in that presence into another person’s presence.

3. Listen and respond, allowing God’s presence to be part of what is happening.

GOD BREAKS DOWN EVERY WALL

Ephesians 2:14 14. Jesus has unified all of mankind by becoming one with all of us, and so there now exist no barriers of any kind from God’s point of view.

God breaks down the walls of partition and we find ourselves in one another's space standing in our exposed and frail humanity – in God’s love, the love that allows us to cover one another in the same love. The walls will come down because it is Gods time.

The sinews are bonds of support for proper freedom of movement

The muscle is for strength to do what needs doing.

The skin presents to the outside what is on the inside. 

The Spirit comes from the four winds – a global outpouring of The Holy Spirit.