Reviving the Church: How God Restores His People
Revival is more than an event—it’s a move of God that brings the spiritually dead to life. Ezekiel 37 shows how God restores, renews, and awakens His people. Are we ready for Him to breathe life into us again?
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2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath[a] to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
Christ Methodist Vision Statement
In Fall 2024, we entered a teaching series on the new Christ Church Mission Statement:
Christ Methodist Church exists to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.
However, we have also adopted a new Vision Statement. What’s the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement? Our mission statement is the cutting edge of what Jesus has called us to do. A Vision Statement is what we aspire to as we live into our mission.
The Christ Church Vision Statement is:
By the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered community who magnifies Jesus Christ as we worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly while serving the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized, spreading scriptural holiness in our city and to the nations for the spiritual awakening of all.
As we expand upon the sections of our Vision Statement we previously covered, “By the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered community who magnifies Jesus Christ as we worship passionately, loving extravagantly, witnessing boldly, while serving the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized, spreading scriptural holiness in our city and to the nations…” In this blog, we’ll examine “for the spiritual awakening of all.”
The Context of Ezekiel 37
When Ezekiel received the vision shared in Ezekiel 37, it was so shocking and unnerving that he was left speechless.
Ezekiel 37 was written to the people of God in exile in Babylon. It’s almost unthinkable to imagine that God would allow their enemies to triumph over them, but that’s exactly what happened. However, it happened because they had lost their way and begun to worship the gods of other nations. They were called to influence the culture, yet the culture discipled them.
The Assyrians had scattered the northern kingdom of Israel, and then Nebuchadnezzar invaded the southern kingdom. Additionally, Judea and Jerusalem had been captured. Ezekiel was looking at the results of this scattering of the Jewish people, many of them yanked from their homes, never to see their loved ones again, while others fled any way they could.
The Jewish people were scattered all over Judea, Egypt, Babylon, and other parts of the Middle East. They were in exile for at least 12 years and were incredibly discouraged and hopeless. Everything seemed to be lost. To express their hopelessness, they used the term “cut off.”
Then, God gave prophecy.
Dry Bones Come to Life
“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. 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.” Ezekiel 37:1-2
Envision what Ezekiel saw: a valley of dry bones. It sounds like something out of a horror movie. God showed him a picture that was so bad and overwhelming that when God asked him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know” (Ezekiel 37:3).
What would you say if asked that? Imagine the soberness in Ezekiel’s response. Can these bones live? It’s highly improbable.
God gave Ezekiel this vision so that we might understand that a struggle happens within each of us. In Ephesians 2:4-5 the Apostle Paul wrote, “We were dead in trespasses and sins, but God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even while we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.”
God already prophesied in the previous chapter, Ezekiel 36, that He would take away the hearts of stone of His people and give them hearts of flesh. God also shared that He would give His Spirit to them. Then God told Ezekiel: “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:4 (NASB)).
God is sharing something of great significance here, which we see explained in the next verse.
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: ‘I will make breath enter you, and 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, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ’” Ezekiel 37:5-6 (NASB)
Remember, Ezekiel didn’t understand this. Regardless, he prophesied as he was commanded. That’s important because it is not his business whether they hear/agree/like him or not. The Lord instructed, and Ezekiel was faithful to His command. He preached the word, standing over the remains of what could be, what used to be, and what is supposed to be.
As he prophesied, suddenly, “There was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.” Ezekiel 37:7
In other words, God brought things together that had fallen apart in places where restoration and reconciliation seemed doubtful. He put the right bone in the right place and brought things together that fit, moving everything toward what it was supposed to be connected to.
Then, as Ezekiel watched, “Tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them” (Ezekiel 37:8).
God had raised His people to not only redeem a people but to demonstrate His glory, love, holiness, and the reality of God to the unreached (the nations) around them. But in the context of that verse, their neighbors thought God’s people were finished and believed they’d never get back on their feet again. However, as they begin stirring, moving, and shaking, the Lord declared, “I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:6).
Those dry bones were shaking. They were very dry, but God was shaking it together. So, God said to Ezekiel a second time, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live” (Ezekiel 37:9).
Verse 11 shares an interpretation of the vision. As we’ve seen, the bones are the whole house of Israel, but see what they say. They’re in exile and say, “Our bones are dried up. Our hope is lost. We are indeed cut off.” So the people of God are in exile in Babylon under the covenant rebuke of God, and to them, it’s a kind of death. They feel that they have no hope and are cut off from the land, people, and ultimately, blessing.
However, nothing and no one is beyond revival.
What Does Revival Look Like?
Ezekiel prophesied as God commanded him: “And breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army” (Ezekiel 37:10).
This is a picture of God’s power to bring a people back to life. Sometimes we call that revival, but you can’t revive unless there’s been vivere (life). Revival is characterized by God’s sustained, manifest presence, where people are exposed to His holiness and love and turn back to Him.
Related to revival is the topic of awakening, which is when the revival of God’s people spills out into the surrounding cultures as the manifestation of God’s presence. It touches the lost and moves into an awakening of a culture. This is much deeper than when a church puts a street banner out that says “Revival this Weekend” because revival brings awakening.
However, any time there’s a sustained manifest presence of God in a way that it revives His Church, two things happen:
Many people, the critical mass, come alive in Christ.
Critics offer stiff opposition.
During revival, people enjoy God’s presence, sense His love, and love one another at deeper levels. Ultimately, people get right with God, and Christians begin to repent.
If revival broke out in your church this upcoming Sunday morning, the entire church would overflow by 5:00 PM that evening. Word would get out, and within a week, people from all over the city would try to get inside. Within 10-15 days, people from around the country and the world would show up to get inside.
I’ve never experienced a sustained manifest presence of God that would be characterized as a sustained revival. But I have had a small taste.
While pastoring a church plant in Huntsville, Alabama, we had services at 9:30 and 11:00 AM. No one planned this, but God made a heaviness during the 9:30 AM service, and His glory became known. The service never stopped, and despite people arriving for the 11:00 AM service, people continued to worship; they couldn’t stop. Those waiting in the lobby also began to experience God’s presence. No one had to explain what was happening; they immediately understood.
During that service, I watched people go to one another to share in forgiveness and reconciliation. Repentance was overwhelming. People were getting right Jesus and everything said, praised or done transcended us. The moment lasted from about 9:30 AM until about 1:00 PM when God’s presence lifted. It was just a small taste of when God chooses to make His presence manifested and sustained in the power of the Holy Spirit.
What happens to a person when you experience something like that? Is it ruins you. We’re all hungry, and I’m referencing a deep hunger. It’s a hunger that knows what God can do, and when we experience that, people lose track of time. People who’ve been in those moments have given testimony that they look at their watch thinking it’s been 10 minutes only to realize it’s been three hours. It’s a time of reconciliation unlike anything we could experience.
An Invitation to Renewal
LORD: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house 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: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel” Ezekiel 37:11-12
People are reading this, and I believe God wants to breathe on you so that you can get your life and hope back. Some of you have been knocked down and may feel like you have never been lower. You will get your life back, and everything will be restored, but you’ll need to let the Word of God and the Breath of God do its work.
God is up to something, and as the Word of God builds you, the breath of God breathes into you. Your faith stirs the flame of the Holy Spirit in you. Fan the embers into flame through the Word of God. In other words, the bones, the tendons and flesh, and the skin covering them, that all gives you the structure, gets God’s people fully alive and back up on their feet.
Remember, the Word shares, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
I want to encourage you to believe the Lord that His flame is coming back! His strength is coming back. You will rise out of this valley more than a conqueror through the person of Jesus Christ. After all of that, the Holy Spirit says:
“Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from 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.” Ezekiel 37:13-14
Recalling our reference to Ephesians 2 earlier, I have to wonder if when Paul was inspired to write those words, he was thinking about Ezekiel 37.
“We were dead in trespasses and sins, but God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even while we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4-5
By taking our sins to the cross, Jesus made us alive by grace. You didn’t earn it. By grace, you’ve been saved from the wrath and judgment. We want to make much of that. It’s time to come alive. Come to Jesus.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered community who magnifies Jesus Christ as we worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly while serving the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized, spreading scriptural holiness in our city and to the nations for the spiritual awakening of all.
God, work in us. Lord, work in me. Bring us to life in Christ to be fully alive for your glory.
