Where are the young pastors and young people or old people who are captured and carried by God? Where are those in the church today who are set down right in the midst of dry bones? Where are the people of God that are not nodding in the pew but noticed by God and used by God?

The blessing of dry bones has to begin with us being a blessing. We are to be captured by God, carried and set in the middle of the dry bones, and we are commanded to preach to the bones. Ezekiel was told to do the same. We are to “tell forth plainly.” Instead of being tossed on a dry dead bone heap, we are told to preach plainly to “them there bones.”

When we listen and we tell plainly, then a miracle will happen. The dry bones began to find moisture, life, and begin to stand up. Instead of being famished, they become fat. They march around speaking of the resurrected Lord. Oh the sound of awakening will be heard in your village if you will listen and then tell. God specializes in graveyards. It is just a affirmation of allowing Him to capture us, then carry us, and command us to preach to the bones. Watch for the breath of God to blow!

One More Night With The Frogs

 
“Moses said to Pharaoh, ‘I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for these that remain in the Nile.’ “Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.'” (Exodus 8:9-10).

Frogs everywhere. The nation of Egypt was in trouble with toads. Everywhere! The bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, playgrounds, school class rooms, on the ground, in the sink, by the river, everywhere they went it was frogs between the toes.

Pharaoh had the opportunity to rid the nation of the frogs and he wanted them gone but can you believe he said, “Tomorrow.” So many people are like that. We do want to get right with God, just not yet. We would rather drown in our misery one more night. Stay like we are just one more night. The Bible, God’s Word, oh, we will read it another time.

It is a sad indictment upon the human race and heart to live one more night with the frogs. Just one more night and then…. tomorrow. Well, tomorrow may never come. Our families will suffer, our churches will suffer, and our nation will suffer because we don’t want to admit we are stubborn and prideful.
 
One day the frogs will disappear. But it will be too late. When we stand before the Lord to give account of our lives we will see the folly of saying, “Tomorrow.” When our children could have been for God, when our families could have impacted a world, and when we could have allowed the Good Shepherd to lead us into green pastures and by still waters, the words, “Tomorrow” will sting, and we will feel the toads beneath our feet once more. Don’t say, “Tomorrow” but say, “Today.”

Prayer that gets past the living room ceiling is prayer that recognizes first and foremost that God is Sovereign Creator and man is the servant. Proper prayer places God above all and man at His feet. Prayer recognizes that God is seated and He cannot be unseated. He is not a genie that we get three wishes if we rub hard enough on the prayer lamp.

When we learn that God desires holiness then we will seek Him. Prayer is not about our having our way with God–it is God having His way with us. Prayer is God guiding us to do His will. Again, God is not a doting grandfather who has lollipops in His pockets for spoiled children.

We do not pressure God to do anything in our praying. We allow God to pressure us and to press us into His will. God cannot be bribed, cajoled, convinced, or impressed to change. God is unchangeable. Prayer changes nothing of God but everything of us. Therefore, if we do not want to be changed, we will not be praying prayers that effect change.

What is it about our praying that matters? God controls all and yet if He cannot control our actions and attitudes then our praying will be in vain. God moves us to surrender but if we continue to live in our own weather pattern then the storms of life will continue to pour out upon us because of our own lack of reverence and order. God is merciful but we must recognize His sovereignty over our lives. True praying brings us to God!

One can be driving on the interstate and before becoming aware, the driver could be swooped into a direction they never intended to go. Uninitiated drivers, flying along faster than they really want to go in the farthest right-hand lane, can suddenly look up in dismay to see the interstate dividing into two. Just in a blink or two, one is swept along in another direction, toward another destination.

Could this be…her time, her release? Could this be the EXIT she had longed for all those years? Was this the one exit sign that read “HEAVEN”? Was this God’s plan? Is this God’s itinerary of being taken to a destination that calls out to Heaven? This is what Joni Eareckson Tada wondered when she realized she had breast cancer.

Friend, all of us are on a plane that is loading and unloading passengers. We might get off of one plane in this city or in that destination, but eventually, for those who know the Lord Jesus there is Destination Heaven. Twenty-four hours before you are humming down the interstate and you miss the turn, for there is no going back, you find out for sure this is your destination–Heaven. This is it; life on earth is about to end from the way you used to know.

I will never forget what a gentleman said to me some years ago. I was asked to come by and visit for his days were numbered. He said to me, “Joking about death is funny until it’s about me.” You see, the speedway had split, and he was heading at a different destination than what he thought he would be on for that day just twenty-four hours ago. There was no going back, no turning around, the destination was set.

Remember what Alan Redpath, a British pastor and author, had written. “There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with great purpose.”