Post by Les Brewer on Jul 3, 2012 14:39:20 GMT
“THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!” by Pastor Robert Oliver
Ezekiel 37:1 says~ "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!"
Oh My Beloved Believers, What an ‘Amazing’ Passage of Holy Writ we Have today to Examine! It was My ‘Privilege’ just Yesterday Morning to Preach On this Very Text, at a Country Church up in Washburn, Maine, and Oh How The LORD ‘Blessed’ HIS WORD! A Number of Things Really ‘Stand Out’ Here to me:
First, Notice Ezekiel's Great "SECRET!" The Prophet says~ "THE ‘HAND’ OF THE LORD WAS ‘UPON’ ME!" Oh Glory to GOD Beloved, THE ‘HAND’ OF THE LORD "IS" Every Servant of GOD'S GREAT SECRET! Listen now, You ‘CANNOT’ Accomplish Anything Apart From THE ‘HAND’ OF GOD BEING "ON" YOU AND "WITH" YOU!!! Did You ‘Hear’ Me? Believers We Need to Intentionally “RECOGNIZE” that When Something Gets Done for GOD'S GLORY, it is ‘NOT’ BECAUSE OF YOU OR ME, but it's BECAUSE OF “GOD'S OMNIPOTENT HAND” UPON YOU OR ME!!! And the Beautiful Part is, that “NOTHING” in the Universe Can ‘STOP’ You when THE HAND OF GOD IS “UPON YOU!!!”
Ok But Secondly, Observe the "STATE" of the Prophet ‘When’ this Vision Came! He says~ I was "IN THE ‘SPIRIT’ OF THE LORD!" Aha, Here We Find the Biggest ‘KEY’ of All, that is, that Ezekiel was “NOT IN THE FLESH, BUT IN THE SPIRIT!!!” Listen ‘Carefully’ Dear One: You “CANNOT DO ANYTHING FOR GOD” in the FLESH, because You'll “FAIL” Miserably! But ‘IF’ You Will “WALK IN THE SPIRIT”, Become “FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT”, and “YIELD TO THE SPIRIT”, and “OBEY THE HOLY SPIRIT”, then ‘YOU TOO’ Will Succeed in Ministry as Ezekiel Did! Let me Make a Statement Church: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE ABSOLUTE “KEY” TO ALL VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIVING!!!
But Thirdly, Notice "WHERE" GOD Put Him! Ezekiel writes~ "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!" What? Did You ‘Hear’ that??? Wait a Minute Now LORD, It seems there’s Been Some ‘Mistake’ here, I “Thought” I was Going to Do a Great Work for You? Oh My Goodness Saints, Did You ‘Hear’ That? Ezekiel ‘Opens’ His Eyes and Finds Himself in the “MIDST OF A DEEP DARK VALLEY!” Now Listen to me, ‘GOD’ Had to Bring Ezekiel "DOWN" Before HE Could Bring him “UP!” Beloved One, Do You Know "WHERE" You're Going to “MEET GOD” in an Intimately “DEEP WAY?” Shhh, I Don’t want to Say this Too LOUD, but, It's “IN THE VALLEY'S OF LIFE!!!” Hey, When You ‘Find’ Yourself "DOWN" IN THE VALLEY OF DESPAIR, “DOWN” IN THE VALLEY OF REJECTION, ‘IN’ THE VALLEY OF SUFFERING, ‘IN’ THE VALLEY OF LONLINESS, THE VALLEY OF SICKNESS, THE VALLEY OF PERSECUTION, Just Stop and Realize "WHO" IS “WITH YOU” IN THAT VALLEY!!! Beloved Brethren, Our SAVIOUR “KNOWS ALL ABOUT THE VALLEY'S OF THIS LIFE!” The BIBLE says that HE IS “TOUCHED” WITH THE FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES!!! I Love that Song that Says~ “YES I MUST GO ‘THROUGH’ THE VALLEY, TO STAND UPON THE ‘MOUNTAIN’ OF GOD!!!”
Alright But Fourthly, Notice the "OCCUPANTS" of this Valley! The Prophet says~ "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!" What? Wait a Minute, ‘What’ Did Ezekiel just say? That's Right, GOD ‘Put’ Him Into a VALLEY “FULL OF BONES, DEAD, DRY, BONES!” But Why??? “Why” in the World Would GOD "PLACE" Him HERE? Listen Carefully: If You ‘Want’ GOD To “USE YOU”, then You Better Be “WILLING TO GO ‘WHERE’ HE SENDS YOU!!!” Christian, YOU Must Be ‘WILLING’ TO "DO" WHAT HE TELLS YOU TO DO! To ‘LIVE’ the “WAY HE TELLS YOU TO LIVE!” TO ‘THINK’ THE “WAY HE TELLS YOU TO THINK!” But Notice Here, that the Prophet Finds Himself "SURROUNDED" BY ‘DEAD BONES’ IN THE VALLEY!!! Beloved, the ‘Picture’ is Crystal Clear: GOD Has ‘Placed’ You & I very Strategically, In the Very ‘Place’ Where HE “WANTS US TO BE”, in order for Us to BRING “NEWNESS OF LIFE" TO THE “DEAD BONES!!!” Oh I Beg You to ‘Hear’ Me Dear One, Because No Matter ‘Where’ We Go, We are “SURROUNDED” BY DEAD BONES! They’re “ALL AROUND US!” Ezekiel Could Have Reached Out his Hand and “TOUCHED THEM!!”
Ok But Fifthly, and Finally, Look at the “SUCCESS” Of Ezekiel's Preaching! Verse 10 says~ "SO I PROPHESIED (PREACHED) ‘AS’ HE COMMANDED ME, AND THE ‘BREATH’ CAME ‘INTO’ THEM, AND THEY ‘LIVED’, AND STOOD ‘UPRIGHT’ UPON THEIR FEET, AN EXCEEDING ‘GREAT’ ARMY!!!" Did You ‘Catch’ that??? A “Resurrection” Took Place! “LIFE FROM GOD” CAME ‘INTO’ THE BONES AND THEY “LIVED!!!” Oh Beloved, Let Me Say this: “If You & I are Willing to ‘Allow’ GOD To WORK ‘Through’ US, We too, Shall See ‘GREAT SUCCESS’, Even an EXCEEDING GREAT ‘ARMY’ OF CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, TO THE GLORY OF GOD!!!” Blessings to All, and Shalom…
Ezekiel 37:1 says~ "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!"
Oh My Beloved Believers, What an ‘Amazing’ Passage of Holy Writ we Have today to Examine! It was My ‘Privilege’ just Yesterday Morning to Preach On this Very Text, at a Country Church up in Washburn, Maine, and Oh How The LORD ‘Blessed’ HIS WORD! A Number of Things Really ‘Stand Out’ Here to me:
First, Notice Ezekiel's Great "SECRET!" The Prophet says~ "THE ‘HAND’ OF THE LORD WAS ‘UPON’ ME!" Oh Glory to GOD Beloved, THE ‘HAND’ OF THE LORD "IS" Every Servant of GOD'S GREAT SECRET! Listen now, You ‘CANNOT’ Accomplish Anything Apart From THE ‘HAND’ OF GOD BEING "ON" YOU AND "WITH" YOU!!! Did You ‘Hear’ Me? Believers We Need to Intentionally “RECOGNIZE” that When Something Gets Done for GOD'S GLORY, it is ‘NOT’ BECAUSE OF YOU OR ME, but it's BECAUSE OF “GOD'S OMNIPOTENT HAND” UPON YOU OR ME!!! And the Beautiful Part is, that “NOTHING” in the Universe Can ‘STOP’ You when THE HAND OF GOD IS “UPON YOU!!!”
Ok But Secondly, Observe the "STATE" of the Prophet ‘When’ this Vision Came! He says~ I was "IN THE ‘SPIRIT’ OF THE LORD!" Aha, Here We Find the Biggest ‘KEY’ of All, that is, that Ezekiel was “NOT IN THE FLESH, BUT IN THE SPIRIT!!!” Listen ‘Carefully’ Dear One: You “CANNOT DO ANYTHING FOR GOD” in the FLESH, because You'll “FAIL” Miserably! But ‘IF’ You Will “WALK IN THE SPIRIT”, Become “FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT”, and “YIELD TO THE SPIRIT”, and “OBEY THE HOLY SPIRIT”, then ‘YOU TOO’ Will Succeed in Ministry as Ezekiel Did! Let me Make a Statement Church: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE ABSOLUTE “KEY” TO ALL VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIVING!!!
But Thirdly, Notice "WHERE" GOD Put Him! Ezekiel writes~ "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!" What? Did You ‘Hear’ that??? Wait a Minute Now LORD, It seems there’s Been Some ‘Mistake’ here, I “Thought” I was Going to Do a Great Work for You? Oh My Goodness Saints, Did You ‘Hear’ That? Ezekiel ‘Opens’ His Eyes and Finds Himself in the “MIDST OF A DEEP DARK VALLEY!” Now Listen to me, ‘GOD’ Had to Bring Ezekiel "DOWN" Before HE Could Bring him “UP!” Beloved One, Do You Know "WHERE" You're Going to “MEET GOD” in an Intimately “DEEP WAY?” Shhh, I Don’t want to Say this Too LOUD, but, It's “IN THE VALLEY'S OF LIFE!!!” Hey, When You ‘Find’ Yourself "DOWN" IN THE VALLEY OF DESPAIR, “DOWN” IN THE VALLEY OF REJECTION, ‘IN’ THE VALLEY OF SUFFERING, ‘IN’ THE VALLEY OF LONLINESS, THE VALLEY OF SICKNESS, THE VALLEY OF PERSECUTION, Just Stop and Realize "WHO" IS “WITH YOU” IN THAT VALLEY!!! Beloved Brethren, Our SAVIOUR “KNOWS ALL ABOUT THE VALLEY'S OF THIS LIFE!” The BIBLE says that HE IS “TOUCHED” WITH THE FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES!!! I Love that Song that Says~ “YES I MUST GO ‘THROUGH’ THE VALLEY, TO STAND UPON THE ‘MOUNTAIN’ OF GOD!!!”
Alright But Fourthly, Notice the "OCCUPANTS" of this Valley! The Prophet says~ "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!" What? Wait a Minute, ‘What’ Did Ezekiel just say? That's Right, GOD ‘Put’ Him Into a VALLEY “FULL OF BONES, DEAD, DRY, BONES!” But Why??? “Why” in the World Would GOD "PLACE" Him HERE? Listen Carefully: If You ‘Want’ GOD To “USE YOU”, then You Better Be “WILLING TO GO ‘WHERE’ HE SENDS YOU!!!” Christian, YOU Must Be ‘WILLING’ TO "DO" WHAT HE TELLS YOU TO DO! To ‘LIVE’ the “WAY HE TELLS YOU TO LIVE!” TO ‘THINK’ THE “WAY HE TELLS YOU TO THINK!” But Notice Here, that the Prophet Finds Himself "SURROUNDED" BY ‘DEAD BONES’ IN THE VALLEY!!! Beloved, the ‘Picture’ is Crystal Clear: GOD Has ‘Placed’ You & I very Strategically, In the Very ‘Place’ Where HE “WANTS US TO BE”, in order for Us to BRING “NEWNESS OF LIFE" TO THE “DEAD BONES!!!” Oh I Beg You to ‘Hear’ Me Dear One, Because No Matter ‘Where’ We Go, We are “SURROUNDED” BY DEAD BONES! They’re “ALL AROUND US!” Ezekiel Could Have Reached Out his Hand and “TOUCHED THEM!!”
Ok But Fifthly, and Finally, Look at the “SUCCESS” Of Ezekiel's Preaching! Verse 10 says~ "SO I PROPHESIED (PREACHED) ‘AS’ HE COMMANDED ME, AND THE ‘BREATH’ CAME ‘INTO’ THEM, AND THEY ‘LIVED’, AND STOOD ‘UPRIGHT’ UPON THEIR FEET, AN EXCEEDING ‘GREAT’ ARMY!!!" Did You ‘Catch’ that??? A “Resurrection” Took Place! “LIFE FROM GOD” CAME ‘INTO’ THE BONES AND THEY “LIVED!!!” Oh Beloved, Let Me Say this: “If You & I are Willing to ‘Allow’ GOD To WORK ‘Through’ US, We too, Shall See ‘GREAT SUCCESS’, Even an EXCEEDING GREAT ‘ARMY’ OF CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, TO THE GLORY OF GOD!!!” Blessings to All, and Shalom…
