Heart Tracks - Truth In The Valley

"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." Ezekiel 37:1......"He brings us to the valley of dry bones not to discourage us, but to show us something amazing. It was the Spirit of God who took Ezekiel to the place of despair, and it was to show him that despair wasn't true.....When you see dead, dry bones, trust the One who showed them to you." Chris Tiegreen....."It's impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his helper is omnipotent." Jeremy Taylor

For those who truly follow Him, there is something sure for the future. You will come to your own valley of dry bones. You will come to that place where all appears to be death, which means the absence of life. But as Tiegreen puts it, "Where God is concerned, death doesn't mean very much." That is the hope of the real believer. Death is not final, not now, not ever. We who are His are held, not in the grip of death, but the grip of life. When we come to our own valley of dry bones, that truth must be burned deeply within our hearts. God did not bring Ezekiel to that valley for him to sink into hopeless despair, but to be lifted by an Almighty hope. His hope.

I've a wise friend who likes to say that it is not what we feel or think in such times that is real. It is what He says, His Truth, that is. Our great problem is that we so easily fall into the trap of filtering His Truth through what we feel and think. There is a saying that perception is reality, but it is not. He and His Truth are reality, and that reality will transcend whatever we feel, think, or are experiencing. The Father brought Ezekiel to that valley to prove to Him just that. He would show him that his despair wasn't true. What he was feeling wasn't true. What the enemy screamed into his heart and mind wasn't true. God was, and is. His Spirit was, and is. His Word was, and is, and will always will be.

When we come to our own valley of dry bones, it is so easy to buy the devil's lie that the Lord is not with us, has abandoned us. His plan is to have us stay in that valley, die in that valley. The Father's plan is to make those dry bones live....in the valley. Our first desire is to get out of the valley. His desire is that we see that there is no valley so deep, no amount of dry bones within it, that can stop His resurrection power in the midst of it. God brought Ezekiel to that place in order that he would know that. He made those dry bones come together, breathed His Life into them, and a valley of death became a pinnacle of Life. He will do no less in our own valley's of despair. Joy out of sorrow. Hope out of despair. Life out of death. This is Truth. Is it your Truth?

Jesus came to Martha and Mary three days after their brother Lazarus had died. According to Jewish teaching, that meant his death was final. There was no coming back from it. Martha, Mary, all those who loved Lazarus, were now living in their own valley of dry bones. Jesus had allowed it all to be so. Into their valley He came, and in that valley, called one whose death was supposed to be final, forth unto life. For the sisters, joy out of sorrow. Rejoicing out of despair. Life out of death. God did it again. He never tires of doing it again. Their despair wasn't true, and neither is ours if we trust Him....even in the valley of dry bones.

If you've come to your valley of dry bones, if you're living there right now, trust not in what you might be feeling, seeing, even thinking. Trust in Him who is True, who is Reality. He makes dry bones live. The dry bones of relationships, loss, failure, and unrealized dreams. From all of them He calls forth life. And He calls forth life for you, for me, now. He is Truth. May He be our Truth. Your Truth.

Blessings,
Pastor O