We are going to look at a few passages in Ezekiel. Ezekiel is referred to as a major prophet like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Whereas the minor prophets are like Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah. The reference to major and minor isn’t about importance, it is more about the length of each of the books. Major prophets are longer and minors are shorter in length.

Read Ezekiel 36:26-27- 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Because of the brokenness of the fall, we will get to in a few weeks. God is recreating in us and he is doing it by putting a new Spirit in us, a life source to follow his ways.

Pause, as you spend time in the presence of the Creator, how is he giving you a new heart? Is your heart, the posture of your heart the same as it was a few years ago, a few months ago, if it is, then you are still in control and you are living with a hard of stone; immovable, impenetrable. Ask God to soften your heart and put a new Spirit, a new life in you.

Look at the imagery he gives us in the next chapter,

Ezekiel 37:1-10- The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.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, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

The visual that God gives Ezekiel is so powerful. The dry place, the desolate place, the lifelessness, even to the point that there can be the appearance of life, but without breath, they are still lifeless.

God’s intention at creation was to bring life. He did this through water and breath. Which means, today, you need to wrestle with a few of these questions.

What gives you life? Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullest.” Which means we have an adversary that wants to rob us of life, dare I say, give us a mirage of what life is. How have you been settling for a mirage of life? OR how have you, like the woman at the well, have been searching for life in all the wrong places hoping it would satisfy?

Seeking God, as the source of life, is orientating your life according to what gives life and his purposes. Time with his presence, following his way, doing the things of Jesus. Depending on his wisdom (get to that next week), His love, His direction.