Breathe

 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” Ezekiel 37:9 "We are trying to blow inspiration into the church. We are trying to draw out what is not in them.....We cannot exhale what we've not inhaled." Vance Havner

I think any pastor will tell you that what is the most exhausting and frustrating aspects of ministry is trying to get church members to actually, you know, behave like members of the Body of Christ. Nowhere can this be seen more than in the constant pleadings for people to be involved in some part of the ministry of the church. There are never enough volunteers, which in itself is a testimony against us, and we have to resort to a multitude of different means to try and convince, exhort, and even push people into actually joining in the work of the Kingdom. Something that ought to be pure joy, is too often seen as at the mildest, an inconvenience, onto being a total invasion of their lives. I spent years of my ministry trying to do just what I write about here. I experienced first hand all the frustrations I speak of. I was doing exactly what Havner speaks of; I was trying "blow" with my own breath, the inspiration and desire for the people to step up and into the needed ministries. The results were sad indeed. There were always those who had a heart and spirit to help, to minister, but they were never many. Those that I did "succeed" in getting to take on needed roles, did so out of guilt, or were resigned to seeing it as a duty. Their hearts were never in it, and soon, I was back to trying to get people involved in the business of God. The day finally came when I ceased "blowing" and began to realize the futility that I, and almost all other pastors have been engaged in. I began to see the only solution being that I had to stop trying to breathe life into His church, and seek instead that He would do so.

In the above chapter from Ezekiel, God asked him if he believed that dry bones, dead bones, could live. Ezekiel was smart enough to answer that only God Himself could answer that. If only it didn't take so long for His pastors and leaders to realize the same. Only God can do the work that so much of the church has been trying to do for Him. Not just the raising up of laborers, but the very raising up of a sleeping, oftentimes dying church. Evangelist James Robison has said that so many pastors are standing in their personal "sailboats" blowing with all their might in trying to get their boat to move. Only the wind of God can do that, but we seem so impervious to realizing it. We say we look to God, but then enter into countless and lengthy strategy sessions that are preceded by a few minutes of shallow prayer. We're trying to exhale His breath when we've never inhaled it in the first place. If we haven't, how can we expect His people to have done so?

Havner, who was a homespun country preacher, said that a bucket can only bring up what's in the well. We've had empty buckets for far too long. I believe the Spirit of God is hovering over all the dry bones of His church here in the west. I believe He is asking pastors the very question He asked of Ezekiel, "Can these dry bones live?" We must know that only He can answer that, and He will, if we will renounce all our man-made efforts, all our empty blowing, and from our knees, cry out for the breath of God to come fill His Church. To come and fill us. Have we had enough of breathing in the decay of the valley of dry bones? Let us breathe the air of the Kingdom. The air of heaven. Let us breathe it. Let us breathe deeply.

Blessings,

Pastor O