Victory: Assembly is Required

One way to have victory in our life is we sometimes have to get back to the basics. We sometimes have to get back to understanding God all over again. There is a song by Andrea Crouch that said

Take me back, take me back dear Lord To the place where I first received you Take me back, take me back dear Lord where I First believed

It’s that take me back that Mr. Crouch wrote that will set us up. That will cause us to reflect where we are in our current state.

David pinned in the book of Psalms.

King James Version (Psalm 51)

9  Hide thy face from my sins,

And blot out all mine iniquities.

10  Create in me a clean heart, O God;

And renew a right spirit within me.

11  Cast me not away from thy presence;

And take not thy holy spirit from me.

12  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;

And uphold me with thy free spirit.

13  Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;

And sinners shall be converted unto thee

This is one of my favorite Psalms because it let’s you know how deep the human frailty is when we are succumbed by sin or a situation that we are in. This is the point where you feel like you have failed God but no matter what you have done, there is always a way back to God. There is a time of reflection. A time for renewal.

King James Version (Psalm 51)

Create in me a clean heart, O God;

And renew a right spirit within me.

It’s when we get to this point where God can use us. Further down in this passage David writes

King James Version (Psalm 51)

17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:

A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

God can really get into your inner self when you have a contrite heart. When there is brokenness. When there is a point where all you have in your life is to depend on HIm. When you are at your wits end. When there is nothing left in the tank.

I used to be in dentistry and saw the doctor tell patients that they had a cavity. They had a few options. Get it filled, get a root canal and put a crown on it or if it was too bad, they had to pull that tooth out. In order for God to move in your life, you have to let Him clean out the cavity. he has to use the drill to ream out the bad part in order to put the filling in it. But sometimes, God may have to go a bit deeper in your life. He has to take that tooth and pull the nerves out of it. When there nerves are out, the tooth is officially dead. Then God can put a cover on you. He has to put a crown on the tooth to protect it. Finally, if you are still stubborn, then God has to pull the whole thing out.

Let me tell you a story about an ex-girl friend. She was very toxic to me. I thought she was fine and good looking. I thought I was in love. But one thing that turned her away from everyone is that she had a bad demeanor about herself. She was nasty and rude. I knew that she wasn’t right for me but I insisted on making this relationship work.

Explain the accident.

When you find your self dead spiritually and emotionally, there is something that will make you come back to life. There is something that will make you stand up and fight. Any of our sports players know what I’m talking about when I say “I got my second wind.” When you are playing a sport and something comes about you and give you that extra push. It’s like you are not tired anymore and you just got shot up with an extra boost of energy.

That is the same way with God. When you feel down and out, God comes in and breaths on you.

This takes us to our text for today.

King James Version Chapter 37

37 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, 2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open cvalley; and, lo, they were very dry. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. 4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8 And when I beheld, lo, mthe sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. 9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and othe breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, sI will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 And ushall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

The Ruah of God.

Ruah is translated by three primary words: wind, breath, and spirit. Context determines the translation, but Ezekiel will at times use both in the same context. In other words, we will see that the terms are interrelated.

If you want to have victory, if you want to turn your situation around you have to let the Ruah of God into your life. Many of us don’t understand this principal. First of all, Ezekiel was taken out in the spirit of the Lord and sent down to a valley. God sometime places us all by ourselves to get our attention. There is too much going on and God is trying to talk to you but there is a lot of things you are doing. To much activity too many distractions. You have this going on and that goin on. God just wants you by Himself. God wants to talk you back to where it’s just Him and you.

Ezekiel walks around and sees all these dry bones and God began to question him. “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel finds himself in a particular situation. He responded back to God “Wait a minute God, you should know.” He instructed Ezekiel to go ahead and prophesy to these bones. So obviously, it seemed like either God knew Ezekiel had some down in his heart or he was testing Ezekiels faith.

We find ourselves in situations that we don’t believe that God can get us out of. We use our own understanding to try to get out but then we realize it will fail after the fact.

God told him to prophesy to the bones.

1. Hear the word of the Lord.

2. Breath the Ruah will enter into you.

3. The the Bones will live.

4. The sinews, the tendons or ligaments will be layed upon the bones

5. Flesh will begin to cover the bones

6. Put breath in you

7. Live

8. Know that I am the Lord

Ezekiel did as he was told but there was something about the breath that he noticed was not present in the bones. He just couldn’t use any ordinary breath from his surroundings. He had to go out and get it. The air or the wind around him was too common. It probably had some sand particles in it. It had decaying and foul smells in that wind. But most importantly, it had the smell of death in the air.

God told Ezekiel to prophesy wind and come from the four winds, the north, the south, the east and the west. It was this wind that created life in these bones. It came from all four directions to represent the totality of the world. It was this wind that was refreshing enough that it was able to make these fleshly covered bones stand up again.

You want victory? Allow God to get you out of your situation. Stop breathing the common air. Let Him put some fresh air in your nostrils. Let the Ruah come in and fill your lungs. Lady’s you know what I mean. Some of you all probably remember the movie ‘Waiting to Exhale.” Exhale the bad air and inhale Gods breath. Gods wind. Let it come from the North, the South, the East and the West. Let him fill you up.

It would be a bad thing if you were trying to do something and your weren’t assembled properly. You were missing parts. Let God heal you. Let God mend you back together. So many of us can’t get the victory because we aren’t willing to breath again.

But oh what a joy went we do get that second wind. In the book of Acts the second chapter it talks about the Greek word for wind which represents the spirit.

We had to move from Gary.

Victory in Living

What good will you be if you are not assembled properly.