Can These Bones Live? Prophesying Over Dead Places

The Spirit set Ezekiel down in a valley full of bones — and the text is emphatic: they were "very dry." Not recently dead. Not mostly dead. Very dry. And into that valley God asks the question that hangs over every dead marriage, every barren ministry, every prayer that feels long buried: "Son of man, can these bones live?"

Ezekiel's answer is a model of humble faith: "O Lord GOD, thou knowest." He does not presume and he does not despair. He hands the situation back to the only One qualified to judge what is possible with bones.

Speak to the bones, then call the wind

God commands the prophet to do two absurd things: preach to skeletons, then summon the wind. "Prophesy unto the wind... say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain" (Ezekiel 37:9). The Word reconstructs; the Spirit resurrects. Ministry that has one without the other produces either noise or corpses. Both together produce an army.

The bones did not argue. They came together — bone to his bone — at the sound of the Word of the Lord.

I don't know what looks very dry in your life today, but I know what the Lord says over it: "I will put my spirit in you, and ye shall live" (Ezekiel 37:14). The question is not whether the bones can live. The question is whether we will prophesy. Open your mouth. The wind is waiting.