Four years ago, I had an opportunity to be part of a Ten Days Outreach to Cambodia. Part of our cultural exposure to know the nation was to visit various historical places. One haunting place we visited, albeit horrendous, was the killing fields and mass graves where hundreds of thousands of human bones, some of it still exposed, reveals countless stories of pains and tortures. Indeed, Khmer Rouge regime was the darkest years of the Cambodian people.
When we talk about bones, we are certain that these lifeless mineral deposits are only remains of an already lost life. However, in Chapter 37 of the Book of Ezekiel, a vision showed of a valley full of very dry human bones coming into life. As commanded by the Lord, Ezekiel prophesied to the dry bones. The bones came together into human figures, then tendons and flesh appeared on them, become covered with skin, and breathed to life. And God revealed to Ezekiel those bones as the people of Israel, who suffered “death” of separation from the Lord because of disobedience.
Scientifically, being dry is being out of water or moisture usually after an exposure to a heat source. But dryness may also be of Christians even those who claimed to have known Jesus Christ for a long time. The circumstances of life, faced with so many trials and committed sins, a Christian can be a living dead – with physical body still functioning but spiritually out of breath. As the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10), a believer is risked to be caught into a trap of lies and deceits.
The heart that once worships and beats for Christ became numb. The fellowship in Church became practice of religion and not of a genuine relationship with God and fellow believers. Consequently, like the dry bones which cannot speak, the mouth that speaks praises was kept silenced by the agony and pain of unanswered prayers and circumstances that does not align to our plans. There will be no more hunger for prayer and worship because the spirit is dead.
But God is always sovereign that He can and is willing to revive His people from any dire situation they may be in. No science can explain a dead body that comes into life, how much more for a skeleton. Only God, powerful and capable to do the impossible, can breathe life to lifeless (Genesis 2:7). We can be sure that there is power in God’s word. The spoken words can give life to our circumstances and to our dead spirits. If we seek Him, we can be again refreshed by His breath of life. If you are in this valley today, all you need to do is to pray and ask our good Father to renew unto us a Spirit-filled-life. He is able and more than willing to give it to us so we can also speak this life to others who have been in the pit of death and darkness.
