Breath of life: Think Life
Breath of life • Sermon • Submitted
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Series over the next 3/4 weeks: Breath of Life
Theme verse
Bible Memory:
Jesus’ words
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
I am afraid that many times we have been offered life but we are still living as the dead
we can learn from a vision and prophecy that God gave to Ezekiel
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 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. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 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.”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had 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 the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”
“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”
Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”
So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.
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.’ ”
So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’ ”
The first thing that I see in this passage and what I want us to understand today is to
THINK LIFE
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
But his heart is not with you.
We become what we think
if you think that you are a child of God but your not living as you are alive but as you are dead then you are missing it
need to learn to control our thoughts because You can change the way you feel by changing the way you think
You don’t have to think about everything you feel, but you will feel everything you think about.
So many of the struggles come from our feelings, but to a surprisingly large degree we hold the reins on our emotions through what we allow in our mind.
reins on our emotions through what we allow in our mind.
How you fight your inner war determines how you fight you external battles.
"Before battle of fist must come battle of mind.” - Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda
Write this down:
**Negative thoughts can not lead to a positive life.**
Where the head goes the body must follow.
no one wakes up and says, I want to have a bad day
but we all have woken up and allowed ourselves to think the kinds of thoughts that lead to a negative day
negative day
Ezek 37:
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 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. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
Allow the Lord to give you an out of body perspective right now to look down upon your life to see what is alive and what is dead
examples
Anxiety
Moodiness version of you you don’t want to be.
Suicidal thoughts
Over-eating
Other Numbing agents (drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, social media)
Distraction
We do things every day that are not good for us
maybe we have allowed what was meant for life & good to become dead:
relationships
now you are bitter and angry
habits
dreams/plans
we have been called to have life and to live it abundantly
when we are not living that way we are living as though we are dead - without life
Step 1: Identify the areas of our lives that we are not living abundantly
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Not saying the answer for every problem is: mind over matter
I am saying what happens in your mind really does matter.
Positive thinking is not a replacement for God, it is a response to Him
Step 2: Identify what God considers abundant life
We will get this by spending time seeking to know God & His will
The other problem with negativity is that it begets more negativity
**What you look for you will find**
Stanford professor Arnold Zwicky called the “frequency illusion.”
That will make you see more and more negativity
There are two well documented processes at work: selective attention and confirmation bias.
Selective attention: Think about the last car you bought. Everywhere after. the number of those cars didn’t change. But, you focused your attention on that particular car and your subconscious mind basically took it as a command to pay attention to that variable in your environment and voila! You see them everywhere.
cars didn’t change. But, you focused your attention on that particular car and your
subconscious mind basically took it as a command to pay attention to that variable in your
environment and voila! You see them everywhere.
The more you think about and talk about all the things that are going bad in your life, the more you’re going to see those things in your life.
you’re going to see those things in your life.
Once you’ve flipped the switch of your attention to focus on the negative thing (or whatever thing), you’re going to see (a lot!) more of that which will CONFIRM your BIAS to the negative.
thing), you’re going to see (a lot!) more of that which will CONFIRM your BIAS to the negative.
You’ll see more negative stuffand then tell yourself, “SEE. Told you. It’s all negative. Story of my life.” Then your subconscious basically got a pat on head and a good boy! For finding what you were looking for and work harder for MORE of the negative which will feed the vicious downward spiral.
ff
and then tell yourself, “SEE. Told you. It’s all negative. Story of
my life.” Then your subconscious basically got a pat on head and a good boy! For finding what
you were looking for and work harder for MORE of the negative which will feed the vicious
downward spiral.
You may be stuck in a rut because you have allowed your mind to be fooled into thinking that you are living a the valley of dry bones
But God’s truth says that you can arise and have new life
Anxiety or maybe even suicidal thoughts
read matthew 6 about how God cares for the flowers and the birds
how much more God cares for you and will take care of you — you need to hear that this mornign
Over-eating or Other Numbing agents (drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, social media) or distractions or habbits
The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols.
Other Numbing agents (drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, social media)
We do things every day that are not good for us
maybe we have allowed what was meant for life & good to become dead:
relationships
now you are bitter and angry
dreams/plans
no matter the struggle
no matter what area of your life has no life
GOD’S WORD will lead our minds to know the truth
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
you can be set free
receive the breath of life in areas of your life that are not living abundantly
but you won’t know that
Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”
“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”
They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
so as you look at your life and see if things are full of life just ask God if they can be brought back to life… HE KNOWS