Ezekiel's Experience in the Valley of Dry Bones Proves It's Stupid to Try Having a Revival Without God's Holy Spirit at Work

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I was listening to the very recent sermon of Pastor Paul Tabanao who is a missionary to Cambodia. It had me thinking of how Cambodia still shakes my very bones with the sad history of the Khmer Rouge. How many percent of the victims were saved? How many of them right now are even tormenting Pol Pot in the very pits of Hell? Hell will be more than hot enough for Pol Pot's depravity. Out of this tragedy came the Khmer Rouge museum which displayed the bones of the many victims and this is where he brought the preaching to Ezekiel 37:1-14.
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O LORD God, thou knowest.
4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
5 Thus saith the LORD God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the LORD God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the LORD God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14 And shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

This is one lesson that should think over. I dare people to preach to dead bones. You can yell at the skeleton, hit the skeleton, speak gently to it and guess what - that dry skeleton is unresponsive. This is the reality when Ezekiel is taken to the valley of dead bones. This is the reality that God asks Ezekiel if the bones can live again. Ezekiel can only say to God, "Only you know LORD!" That is the reality that a pastor can face. He should never rely on his power for a call of a revival.

Notice that every time God commands Ezekiel to prophesy that it's not the power of the prophet but the power of God that is at work. Ezekiel saw the dead bones gain muscles and flesh but there was no life in them. Who put the life in them? It was definitely God and not Ezekiel. The problem is that no matter how good the preaching is but spiritually dead people are like dry bones. They are unresponsive. This is the reality that must be faced. Pastors cannot rely on their own personal power, knowledge, theology and eloquence in order to lead to revivals and preaching of multitudes.

An application of this would be Peter on the Day of Pentecost. Acts 2:1-13 tells us of the empowering of the Holy Spirit. When did Peter begin to preach again and open his pulpit? Only after the Holy Spirit empowered him can he win multitudes to God. Luke 24:49 has Jesus telling the Apostles to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit empowers them. That's what Peter and his staff did. They did as God commanded that they are not to do anything without the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, Christians can ask for that power and should ask for that power at a daily basis.

Remember the state of Israel? I would think so many in that crowd that Peter preached to were just like dead bones. Remember how the crowd shouted "Crucify Him!"? Peter was bringing them to conviction but it was not him at work. The Holy Spirit was there at work that brought three thousand people saved in one day. Would have Peter relied on his own self then I doubt it that the mass multitude would have been truly converted.

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