When Lost Dreams Stir Miracles

What if the dreams, desires, and hopes you thought were lost can actually be the setup for miracles in your life? Journey with us into Ezekiel 37, as we marvel at the story of the resurrection of dry bones and reflect on our own 'dry bones.' We stir hearts as we draw intriguing parallels between the biblical story and our lost dreams, desires, aspirations, and hopes, discovering how losses and hurts can be stepping stones for miracles that could transform our lives.

Let's pause and reflect: Are our past hurts merely setbacks or set ups for bigger miracles? Continue this exploration with us as we consider that with God, what once seemed dead can come back to life. We conclude the episode with a heartfelt prayer, expressing our gratitude for God's sovereignty and His unfathomable plans for us. We invite you to join us in this contemplative journey, where we find healing and hope amidst the dry bones of our past.

Song:

• I Thank God - Maverick City Music

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hi and welcome back to HFC. This week we're looking at Ezekiel 37, and it's the resurrection of dry bones, starting in verse 1, the Valley of Dry Bones. The hand of the Lord was on 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. He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, son of man, can these bones live? I said, sovereign Lord, you alone know. Then he said to me prophesy to these bones and say to them Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones I will make breath into you when you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you when you will come to life, then you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, and say to it this is what the Sovereign Lord says Come breathe from the four sorry breath from the four winds and breathe into the slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them. They came to life and stood up on their feet in a vast army. Then he said to me, son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone. We are cut off. Therefore, prophesy and say to them this is what the Sovereign Lord says my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up for them, I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord. When I open your graves and bring you up for them, I will put my Spirit in you and you will live and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and I have done it, declares the Lord.

Speaker 1: 2:25

I honestly feel that, at the very basis of what this story is, or what this moment in the Bible is. It's a miracle. You have the fact that he's literally raising bones to life, and this message actually came to me two weeks ago. I guess I was just honestly just been very busy and sick, but the message that God shared with me was and it's honestly not new, it's something that I feel like we've all heard, but the idea that this is one of the greatest miracles. To me, this is even greater than Lazarus being risen from the grave, because Lazarus was dead a few days. These people were dead years. They were dead to the point where they were just bones.

Speaker 1: 3:25

It says that the tendons had to reattach, the muscles and skin were reformed. It's just weird to imagine that it wasn't just one person. It was tons of people, enough to form an army, to form the people of Israel not the person of Israel, but the people. And so I feel like sometimes we get so caught up in the miracle of what just happened and because it was miraculous, this was one of the biggest miracles. Like I said, tons of people raised from death, from bones, to life, where the breath of life was re-entered into them. And yet something that I think gets skipped over and something that I think doesn't get enough attention is. There was one other huge miracle that we don't even recognize the very fact that this valley was full of dry bones, that there was a place where God could do this miracle. And I know it doesn't sound like a miracle because of the connotation that it's tied to the fact that these people died, and they died because they rebelled against what God said. But this, I believe, goes to show just how amazing God's timing and planning is, that all things work together for the good of those who love God, because Elisha, who loved God, was led to this moment only because of previous actions where these people had died out in this valley, and it was only because this happened that God was able to do this miracle, that this miracle was only capable because of what had previously happened, the negative that had previously happened.

Speaker 1: 5:04

So what I guess I'm trying to say is, when I was thinking about this, I was thinking about how many times we happen to have dead dreams, dead hopes and dead wants and desires and things that we think were just. You know, oh, my God, I lost so much. I lost so much. Here are the bones of what I wanted to be. Here are the bones of what I desired to be. Here are the bones of the dreams that I could never reach. Here are the bones of my happiness, of my joy, of my peace, of my marriage, of my friendships, of my family. These are the bones of which I can do nothing with. These are all the things that I've lost and we find ourselves feeling like we're just surrounded by baggage, by the things that we have lost, by the things that have been taken from us. End of clip.

Speaker 1: 6:02

The thing that I'm trying to say is, in this moment, elisha wasn't like, oh wow, look at all these bones. Wow, god, you couldn't protect them. God, you couldn't do this. God, you couldn't do that, god, you couldn't do all these things. When God tells him to speak to these bones, when God tells him to prophesy life and breath into them, he listens, and I guess what I'm trying to say is we forget that sometimes there are negative things that come around.

Speaker 1: 6:31

How many of us have lost dreams, desires, hopes, and it seems helpless, it seems hopeless for certain things and we kind of get used to them and we just oh yeah, that's from when I wanted to be this or when I wanted to be that, but it didn't work out, and we kind of leave it as like a broken thing, not realizing that sometimes those things are gone for reasons so that in a future tense it can happen, something can be resurrected, something can be brought back to life for the glory of God. And I guess the thing that God was sharing with me is that sometimes we focus on the resurrection of the bones and the resurrection of those people, not realizing that the placing of those people in that area, the placing of the dead in that spot, was for a specific reason, that if it weren't for the past hurt and pain and loss, that the current miracle wouldn't be possible. And so what God was telling me was that if it weren't for all the losses and things that we endure, if it weren't for all the ways that we hurt and we ache and we lose, that it wouldn't be possible for these miracles to happen. It wouldn't be possible for us to experience such a miracle without all of that loss, without all of that pain. That, in a honesty, pain and loss are a fact of life. Everybody loses, everybody dies, but it's only through God that we have eternal life, it's only through God that we experience rejuvenation, resurrection, restoration, that without God these things stay dead, but with God, these things that were hurt and were pain and grief and loss become something more, that God uses this thing that we thought couldn't be anything to become something. And so when I think of this story, I think, yes, the resurrection of the bones was a miracle, but the placement of those bones in those valley, in that valley, was also a miracle in itself. Even if we can't see it in that moment, elisha was able to see it in his moment, and so I guess sometimes what we have to realize is that what hurt one day might not hurt, sorry. What hurt one day might benefit us in the next, and if it's not us, then it might benefit someone else, someone we care about, someone we love, someone that God has a plan for, someone that God loves, and just it kind of adjusts the point of view, it gives perspective to that kind of thing. People who are gone, decomposed entirely, became part of a miracle. Much, much later on.

Speaker 1: 9:05

Anyway, as always, let's go ahead and pray. Dear God, first off, thank you for your sovereignty, for you being in charge and not us, because it would not be pretty if we were in charge. Thank you for the extensive plans and things that you do, the things that we can't see or understand, the things that we'll never be able to understand until we're up there in heaven with you. Once again, I thank you, Lord, for the love and peace and mercy that you give us. Would, I pray to you, open our eyes and maybe we don't see it, but just open our minds to being receptive to the idea that you're doing something, that you're working on something to help us to move past something and focus on you instead of our losses or our grief or things like that.

Speaker 1: 9:58

Lord, lord, I pray that you forgive us of all our sins, lord, lead us down into temptation, lord, and help us to just meditate on this part of the Bible. In the name of Jesus, amen. Hi, and thanks for listening to this week's episode of HFC. This message is honestly really tied into a song that I'm going to link in the description. Make sure you listen, it's really powerful. Yeah, thanks for listening. Have a God bless week. Bye.