When you have no hope.

WHEN YOU HAVE NO HOPE.

Imagine foreign armies unite and suddenly attack the United States. Surprisingly, even rural northwestern Ohio is included in the attack. Specifically, YOU are personally among thousands that are captured and deported thousands of miles away to the Middle East.

As if learning a foreign language and eating strange food wasn't bad enough, you receive credible news that Ohio is among the U.S. regions that have been virtually annihilated.  You have reached your breaking point. Family members and friends are verified as being lost, never to be seen again. All hope is gone.

In the midst of all of this tragedy, a fellow refugee, a pastor from Toledo, starts telling you and the other refugees that he has “heard from God.”  Zeke says that God has not given up on you.  He makes wide promises… God is going to bring a new leadership, a restored land, rebuilt cities… and on and on the promises go.

How would you respond? In the midst of your grief, would you even listen to him?

Almost 2,600 years ago, Jewish refugees found themselves in this kind of scenario.  For ten years they had been refugees in Babylon, listening to the prophesies of a man named Ezekiel.

Take a few minutes to read Ezekiel 37:1-10.

In this passage we learn that God has indescribable power to transform death and hopelessness to life and victory.  This is good news since today, 2,600 years later, we are still being surrounded by death, but of a different kind.

The people that we rub shoulders with are crying out for hope. Heroin use is at an all high in our community. Racism is rampant. We hear that the recession is over, but personal finances seem to be tighter than ever before, as the number of people under the poverty line increases. Church attendance is at an all time low.


SO, HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND?!

• DON’T ASSUME GOD CAN’T ACT. 

Ezekiel 37:3, “He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” (NIV)

This is God’s miracle! When transformations take place in front of our eyes, it’s not because of you and me… It’s because of GOD’S grace!

• SPEAK TO THE DEAD THROUGH PRAYER. 

Ezekiel 37:4, “Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!” (NIV)

I believe that this is done through intercession and prayer.  We must learn the power of prayer again. Parents, speak the Word of God over your kids.  Employees, speak the Word of God over your work places.  Students, speak the Word of God over your schools and classmates.

• CRY OUT FOR GOD’S BREATH, WIND & SPIRIT. 

Ezekiel 37:9, “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 from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”

We need to cry out to God for this generation. "God, we’re knocking on the doors of heaven, asking for you to pour out your Spirit… breathe on us. We’re dead without Your wind."

We must BELIEVE that the hardened heart can be warmed and broken. We must choose to believe that regardless of the depth of spiritual depravity, God can create armies for His glory.

Imagine a groundswell of transformation… dry skeleton bones coming together… meat on the bones… and the breath of God!  Let's pray for this!