Desert seasons. We all dislike them. The times when your life feels like a dry and barren wasteland. The times when the hot sun is beating down on top of you and the desert seems endless as you look around.
Dry bones
To be honest, right now I feel like my life is like the cracked and dry bones described in Ezekiel 37, that were sitting lifeless in a valley. All the dreams I once held are like a pile of dry bones. Nearly everything I wanted to happen and waited for in my life so far and even believed for, has not happened yet. I feel powerless and like those dry bones in the story – I need God’s breath to bring resurrection power to my life.
Promises
Each dry bone in my valley is like a representation of a promise God has given me. Do you resonate with this at all? My wife and I have several of these promises which we cannot achieve without God’s miraculous touch. Some are in the area of health and the natural body and some are promises for our future ministry ventures and land to build upon.
It can feel so stretching and frustrating at times when God gives such amazing promises which can literally only happen if he miraculously intervenes.
God’s word
The challenge for me is to believe that God’s word is literally the highest authority out there. That His promises and words to me are eternal and true and although they may take years to manifest, that eventually they will – because God cannot lie (Numbers Chapter 23 verse 19).
Believing
God challenged Ezekiel in verse three: ‘Son of Man, can these bones live?’ Likewise this is my challenge – do I believe that God can do the miraculous in my life?
In Verse 4 God asks Ezekiel to ‘prophesy to these bones and say to them, Oh dry bones, hear the word of the Lord’. This tells us that we have a part to play – it is through our mouth and declarations of God’s word that we can partner in bringing God’s life and transformations to our dry bones.
But it takes faith to do this, and this is hard when you feel all dry. Deep down, I know that this is true – that the word of the Lord has all the life that I need. That He is the only one who can bring me and my dreams back to life.
Lastly, God asks Ezekiel to command the breath of God to come from the four winds and breathe into the dead, to bring the bones to life. We read in Ezekiel 37:10 that as Ezekiel obeyed, declared and prophesied – that the bones came to life and became a mighty army.
Jesus
And so as another week goes by for me in the valley, I remember my Saviour and how God’s power resurrected Him on the third day.
I remember that Jesus also had forty days in the desert, of tests in Luke 4. Jesus also used his mouth here too, to declare scriptures against Satan.
I remember how I gave my whole life to Jesus and have chosen to trust him, no matter what.
I remember that my journey has taken me deeper into Christ, through death to self and I have found a real relationship with my God who is my daily help. And I remember that I have wanted to become more like Jesus.
If this valley of dry bones season for me is somehow going to give God glory, then it is all worth it. For I live for Him and not me anyway. I gave my life to Jesus and that won’t stop now, even in the valley of dry bones and impossibilities. He is my hope and so I must trust Him.