It's Up To You!

It's Up To You!


Throughout the Scriptures, God reveals to us just how important and powerful prophecy is. One of such portions of Scripture is found in the thirty-seventh chapter of the book of Ezekiel:

"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, 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. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest" (Ezekiel 37:1-3).

God took Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones. There were dead men's bones everywhere, as far as the eyes could see all over that open valley. And in Ezekiel's description, the bones were very dry indeed. Then God asked Ezekiel a pointed question, "Can these bones live?" In other words, "Can things change here?" Ezekiel looked around and probably thought to himself, "It looks really bad here, I doubt that they can," but he replied, "Well, Lord, Thou knowest!"

He was telling God in other words, "You only know if they can live or not. It's up to you to decide! If you want them to live, they'll live. If you don't want them to live, they won't." He threw the ball right back in God's court! The Lord's response was very instructive. He told him, "It's not up to Me, Ezekiel; it's up to you to do something about these bones and see to it that they live!" God then told him what to do. He said,

"…Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:" (Ezekiel 37:4-6). God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and tell them, "Oh ye dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. God's going to cause breath to come into you and you shall live!" God was teaching Ezekiel how to change things through prophecy, and He taught him exactly what to say in his prophecy.

"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."

Ezekiel saw that as he prophesied to the dry bones, something began to happen, so he prophesied some more as God taught him and gave him words to speak: "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" (Verses 6 & 7).

Can you picture this! Imagine this huge heap of bones with each bone shifting around, searching for its members, and joining together until they all formed human skeletons! What a great noise they must have made in that open valley! Understand what God is talking about here. He's letting you know you can prophesy to the things you want changed. You can also prophesy to God Himself.

Observe what He said: "Prophesy unto the wind." That wind represents the Spirit of God. He said, "Come from the four winds, O breath." The original Hebrew word rendered "breath" here can also be stretched to mean "breath of life," which is synonymous with the Holy Spirit of God.

Ezekiel 37:10: "So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath (of life) came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army."

Prophecy: The Spoken, Revealed Word of God
Prophecy is the spoken Word of God; it is the revealed Word of God by which He leads and guides His people. The man who prophesies speaks with the ability of God's Spirit.

When God said in Joel 2:28, "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy," He meant that everybody in the Kingdom will have this ability of God to prophesy, to speak forth God's Word and cause it to come to pass. We'll all be able to bring about changes that will affect our lives and the lives of others around us positively.

What power, what great knowledge this is! How exciting to know you're not at the mercy of life's circumstances. If the life you have is not appealing to you, you can change it. You can control your destiny by the power of God made available to you through prophecy!
Some people don't believe this but it doesn't matter whether they believe it or not. God didn't say they must believe it; He says the one who believes is blessed but the one who doesn't is damned. So the choice is yours to make.

If you say you believe, what have you done so far with what you've believed? If you haven't done much with it, what you need to do is believe even more and make up your mind to put what you believe to work.