Sunday, March 27, 2011

Unity & Restoration


Ezekiel37:1-14 The first half of Ezekiel 37 is familiar to most of us.  It gives us an example of being obedient in speaking out what God is telling us to speak and how He
wants us to speak it.  In Ezekiel’s obedience he prophesied healing, breath and life into what started as dry dead bones in the desert. The result of his obedience was an army was raised and we received a promise from Abba of
having His Spirit placed in us.


Following this healing, restoring of life and filling of the Spirit, God tells Ezekiel to prophecy unity, that His people would be brought back as one.  The twelve tribes that had been divided into Judah and Israel would again be one people.


The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah and the people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ And join them one to another into one stick that they may become one in your hand. And
when your people say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. (Ezekiel 37:15-22 ESV)

In reading this Scripture this morning, I felt like God was telling me that He wants there to be unification in his body.  His desire is to have his body healed; that life be prophesied into the dry bones; that the lifeless bodies that are standing with their armor on; that have been given what they need to go into battle, but have “No life in them”; that the breath of God be prophesied into them, so that He can fill them with His Spirit so that they can move forward in their destinies.

He wants to pour HIS SPIRIT out onto His Church, His Body. He wants centuries of division eradicated. He no longer wants mindless disputes over doctrines of man to blind His people; He wants them squashed so that all people will see Him for who He is.  In His true identity being revealed, we can walk out the one commandment that Jesus gave us: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31 ESV)  When we can come together as one body, speaking one
language, having one heart that is corporately focused on one God there is nothing that we cannot do (Gen. 11:6).

The Church, His Body, needs to move forward with a unified heart, so that we can accomplish all that He has for us.  He wants to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh as the Prophet Joel spoke in Joel 2:28.  We are being called as frontrunners, to be culture changers so that world is prepared for the coming of its King.  It is time fo the proclamation of Joel 3:9-21 to go forth. It is time for His body to move forward with one heart.  There is an ever growing urgency for Jesus’ gospel to be preached: “that the Kingdom of God is at hand”. We need to grab on to His kingdom we need to let it be on earth as it is in heaven.

So LORD by your prompting I prophesy life into the dead parts of Your Church, that doors and portals will be open.  That the churches that deny or hide from Your Spirit would be rocked to the core by that which they deny or are hiding from; that the shackles of fear propagated by the doctrines of man will be shattered. That there would be a great awakening as life is prophesied into the dead soldiers. I also prophecy that there will be nothing, no structure built by man to try and control Your flow of the Spirit and Your movement among the people.  That any attempt to build a cistern to contain Your outflow would be utterly destroyed. Instead You will provide us
with the means to ride Your flow, You will guide us into the right flow for  what it is You want us to do.  That as we ride these flows together we will fulfill the mission and purpose that you have for us individually and we will see how that works together in Your corporate unified body.  Amen

Sunday, March 20, 2011

A foretelling of what salvation looks like

Ezekiel 36:33 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. 35 So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ 36 Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it.”   

So at the time our iniquities are forgiven or cleansed, we are immediatley able to dwell in God's kingdom, it doesn't take any special works it only takes belief in and confession of Jesus as the Son of the Living God and our Savior sent as the last sacrafice for our sins.  We are given immediate access and ability to function in the Kingdom of God, we can enter into His presence and come before His throne boldly.

In fact this restoration brings us back to the original intended design vs 35 above says "what was desolate has become like Eden."  He brings us back to the originally intended relatoinship (remember Adam and Eve walked in the garden with God, the spent time together).  It says in:
2 Corinthians 5:17 (Amp) 17Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

God was revealing to His prophet Ezekiel not only the restoration that He was getting ready to make for his people Israel in Ezekiel's time, but He was also revealing a picture of the coming restoration and salvation coming for all of creation through Jesus.