FaithVenture

How Is God changing your church through you today?

Normally, I don’t bring my sermons into my Tipping Points, but I couldn’t resist this insight God gave me related to Ezekiel 37 during the Sonrise prayer time yesterday morning.  While it may be something you have heard before, it is so powerful,  we need to hear it again for it literally has the possibility of breathing new life into any church.

As I have been praying and meditating over Ezekiel 37:1-4 these past days, I have been struck by what happens in verses 7-10.  In this passage, God has taken Ezekiel into the valley of dried bones, which represents the hopeless felt by the Children of Israel as they some are living in captivity in Jerusalem and Judah, and some are living as exiles in Babylon.  As Ezekiel is seeing this valley of dead, dry bones, God asks Ezekiel, “can these bones become living people again?” (v.3)   God then proceeds to call Ezekiel to prophesy that the bones be brought back together and become human bodies again. (v.4-7)

But here is the interesting picture that happens next “as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. The skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breathe in them”  (v.8)  These bones became bodies, but did not have life in them.  They still laid there, on the floor of valley.  They had everything needed to appear to be human, but they were still dead. 

Why?  Because they did not have the breathe of life, ruach, the Holy Spirit in them.  It was only after God tells Ezekiel to call the four winds of the earth to bring the ruach that the bodies came to life.  It was only when the ruach came that these bodies “came to life and stood up on their feet – a great army of them.” (v.10)   It was only when the Holy Spirit of God came and filled the bodies that they truly came to life.  It was only once they became filled with God’s Spirit that they were able to move forward as an army and change the world.

So here becomes my tipping point question for reflection:  What about your church?  Which of the three images is your church? 

Is it just a valley of dried bones; dead, decaying, lacking any sign of life, of hope?  People still living the captivity of sin or as exiles, seeing what God wants them to be, but not willing/able to move, to change?  Believing the “good ole days” are gone, and we are just “holding on `till glory.”

Or is it just flesh and bones? Having a shell – a place to meet/gather;  having ministries and activities, and structures that give the appearance of life, but nothing “spiritual,” life changing is really happening there?  Doing what we have always done even though it doesn’t seem to do any heavenly good – no lives are changed, marriages/families restored; prisoners of sin been set free. Lacking a sense of being alive, of a life being present?

Or is your church filled by God’s Spirit, alive, standing, and ready to move as God’s army?  Is there a real sense that God has brought life to those who attend there and is able to resurrect the hopeless, the dead – physically, relationally, emotionally, even spiritually dead?  Is there a belief that God’s Spirit is raising up an army that will rescue the perishing, free the captive, and defeat the evil and sin that kills and destroys?

If you want to be part of the latter type of church, if you want to be part of a church that is alive, that is like and army, changing the world by the power of God, then . . .

then . . .

then . . .

then look in the mirror, and ask yourself, which type of Christian are you? 

Are you one who is spiritually dead, hopeless, lacking in faith?  One who struggles to believe that God really changes lives because you have seen all those “believer” come and go but never really change?

Are you one who does the things which make others think you are spiritually alive – go to church, sing the songs; are involved in a small group or Bible classes; serve in an area of ministry; but your life doesn’t really show the fruit of the real life change God desires to bring.  You have the form and structure but not the spiritual life and vitality?

Or are you filled with the Spirit of life, and though life may not always go the way you desire it to, you press on in faith, in hope, in love, believing God will bring good; God will bring change; God will bring life as we faithfully obey and humbly seek the infilling life of the Spirit?
If you want to be part of a church that is alive, you better check your own pulse?

Seeking to be fully alive in the Spirit!

Pastor Tony J.