Bridgeway Community Church

Senior Pastor Dr. David Anderson

October 31, 2021

I Hear the Sound of Revival

I SEE IT I HEAR IT I HAVE IT

Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”

We just completed 30 hours of revival that started Friday at 6pm till midnight Saturday.

“There is a turning that God is doing. There is a pivoting that God is doing in the life of our church and my life, and I believe in your life as well.”

In this story of the dry bones, we are going to see an amazing progression of God using his prophet Ezekiel: He Sees It, He Hears It, He Has It

“Sometimes you see something before you ever have it manifest in your life. Sometimes you hear something before it ever comes to pass. But once you see it and once you hear it, the next step is now for you to possess it.”

He commands the prophet, Ezekiel, to prophesy (or speak) to dry bones in a valley.

This valley was desolate. This valley of dry bones must have a story. The dry bones had to get there somehow. There must be a story.

If there are dry bones, that mean that life once existed but somehow, some way, death has taken over and life is gone.

Ezekiel 37:1-3 NIV84
The hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

THE HAND OF THE LORD (God’s Anointing)

When the Hand of the Lord is upon you, that means that the blessing of God is upon you. That means the touch of God is upon you. The power & purpose of God is upon you.

This isn’t the first time we see the “hand of the Lord” language in Ezekiel’s book

Ezekiel 1:2-3 NIV84
On the fifth of the month –it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin–3 the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the Lord was upon him.

Ezekiel 3:14 NIV84
[Ezekiel speaking] The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit with the strong hand of the Lord upon me.

Ezekiel 3:22-23 NIV84
[Ezekiel speaking] The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, ‘Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you. So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the Lord was standing there like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River and I fell facedown. Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet. He spoke to me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your house.

“There are some of you…who have the hand of the Lord upon you. You have the annointing of God upon you and stepping into that anointing and being able to say like Ezekiel…”the hand of the Lord is on me.” It’s important to be able to step into what God is doing.”

“But it doesn’t stop with God’s anointing. You need more than that. If you simply have the anointing of the Lord, that does not eﬀect change on the earth.”

Ezekiel 37:1-3 NIV84
The hand of the Lord was upon me and brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?

THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD (God’s Activity)

Ezekiel 3:14 NIV84
The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit with the strong hand of the Lord upon me.

Ezekiel 3:24 NIV84
Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet.

“While he had the anointing of God on him, now it’s the Spirit of God that’s the activating force to empower him to go where he needs to go and to show up where he needs to show up…in order to do what God is about to tell him to do.”

“You can be anointed in your house, but unless the Spirit of God takes you where you need to go, your anointing won’t be in the right location. For some of you, it’s not that you’re not anointed, you’re just not in the right location.”

“What you need is the hand of God on you, but the Spirit of God working with the anointing of God will get you to the destination you’ll need to be when it’s time for you to do what God has called you to do.”

Ezekiel 37:3-4 NIV84
He [God] asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!

THE WORD OF THE LORD (God’s authority)

“We all speak words, but some speak words with extra authority because of who sent them, who empowered them to speak. There’s a lot of words out there but doesn’t mean there’s a lot of power out there.”

When you have anointing and when you have the Holy Spirit’s activating force mixed with the combination of the authority of God’s word…that which is dead can now come alive.”

“Some of you are living in the midst of dry bones. You’re living in the midst of death and dryness in some area of your life. What you need is the anointing of God and the power of God and the authority of God to take that which is has been dying inside of you so that it will live again.”

When God speaks a word, His authority is behind it. When God speaks a word, His power is behind it.

Proverbs 18:21 NIV84
The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Genesis 1:3 NIV84
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

John 1:1 NIV84
In the beginning was the WORD and the word was with God; and the WORD was God.

John 1:14 NIV84
The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us.

Jesus Christ is the very WORD of God in the flesh.

When the nexus of these 3 Forces of God coming together, LOOK OUT!!

When the nexus of God’s anointing on a person; the Spirit’s activating power, and the authority of God’s word come together, it is a powerful combination! Such a combination was what showed up in this valley of dry bones.

Question: How did those dry bones get there.

Answer: God’s judgement

Ezekiel 6:5, 14 NIV84
[God speaking] “I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars…And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah—wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’ ”
Ezekiel 7:17, 19 NIV84
Every hand will go limp, and every knee will become as weak as water… They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be an unclean thing. Their silver and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the Lord’s wrath. They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it, for it has made them stumble into sin.

Sermon in a sentence: Even when the judgement of God has allowed calamity, the grace & goodness of God ushers in revival.

Ezekiel 37:4
Then he [God] said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

“From being broken apart to a joining together, God says, “Once I send a prophet who speaks for the sovereign Lord, I can take that which is broken apart, put it back together again and breath life into it…there’s a lot of stuff that’s broken part in our world.”

“Yet God is a God of reconciliation. He can take relationships that are broken apart, ethnic groups that are broken apart, countries that are broken apart, churches that are broken apart, denominations that are broken apart, families that are broken apart, and he can adjoin them together again when they come under the authority of God’s word.”

“I declare that God is taking that which is broken apart in your life and he’s beginning to join it back together again.”

“I declare that God is moving someone from being hurt to being healed, from being fractured to being made whole, right now.”

“Someone is unstructured and disorganized like the dry bones, but I believe that God is lifting you to a level of consciousness where you’ll be operating within a sense of structure and organization…You are moving into a season of order, organization and alignment.”

THE COMMAND

God Commands Ezekiel to speak 3 times.

FIRST – PROPHESY TO THE BONES, v. 4

SECOND – PROPHESY TO THE BREATH, v. 9

Ezekiel 37:9-11
Then he [God] said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. 11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’

“Some of you feel that verse right there [verse 11]. You feel like you’re cut oﬀ from God. You feel like you’re cut oﬀ from other people. You feel like all hope is gone. Well, God sent me to tell you this morning that there’s still hope and that there’s still life and that you’re not completely cut oﬀ from God when he sends in a prophet with a word. That’s to remind you…that when God sends a prophet to you, that is his way of loving you to let you know that there is hope, that there is life.”

“One of best prayers you can pray for your son, for your daughter, for your grandkids, for your unsaved parents, is ‘God! Send a word! Because when you send your word from heaven, it will accomplish everything it was intended to do and it can get to the very crevasses of my loved one’s heart. Send a word God.’”

THIRD – PROPHESY TO THE BODY

Ezekiel 37:12-14 NIV84
Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”
Ezekiel 37:7-8 NIV84
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

“Sometimes before God manifests something, he lets you see it and he lets you hear it before you can have it…What God is saying to somebody is that you’ve been seeing visions for a long time. You’ve been hearing the sound for a long time. God’s been speaking to your heart for a long time, but hang in there because once God sends his word, he will bring you back. He will bring you up. He will pull together everything that you saw and that you heard.”

The people of Israel were missing something. Israel came back together, but they were missing one thing! What ONE THING was Israel missing?

They had the BONES
They had the BREATH
They had the BODY

ANSWER – THE BLOOD!!!!!!!!!!!

“What Jesus did was he came and he shed his blood that those of us who are not Jews, when we receive Jesus Christ, we come into the body but it is because of the blood. It’s the blood that cleanses. It’s the blood that covers. It’s the blood that gives you life and keeps you sustained.”

Matthew 26:28 NKJV
For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

One of the diﬀerences between Jews and Christians:

Jews are waiting for the Messiah to come the FIRST time Christians are waiting for the Messiah to come the SECOND time

Romans 1:16 NIV84
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

1 John 5:12 NIV84
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.