Winds of Change

BE. THE. CHANGE.

I’ve had some interesting mornings lately. Today is no exception. God drew me into a gathering of women this morning. The topic of discussion really should not have surprised me. I had to laugh when I heard the title of today’s discussion, “Agents of Change”. Of course that’s what we were talking about!

Earlier this week I was sitting at my desk praying. Music was playing in the background and I heard one solitary line as though it was amplified through a loud speaker. I replayed the line over and over to let the words resonate deep into my spirit. I knew this was God speaking to my heart. Something was shifting as the music played. As I write today, I play the song again…

“…in a world gone mad…love is breaking through…I can feel the winds changing…” (Breakthrough, LZ7)

God reminded me of a text a friend had sent me on Sunday. A pretty funny text… A picture of a pasta sauce bottle! What does this have to do with “Agents of Change” and “Winds of change” I hear you ask! I’m so glad you asked! Well… the pasta sauce was called, “Seeds of Change”. Haha! As the words of the song washed over me like a deep soaking rain, I knew God was saying the seeds of change that I have sowed over many years were about to break through. God’s Spirit Wind is changing up the season. This is a season of harvest. As I talked about these seeds of change and God’s answers to prayer this morning, I looked down and sitting on the carpet was a seed. I picked it up and saw that it has started to open. As I held it in my hand, God showed me that the seed is about to sprout. In that moment God showed me a little green shoot coming out of the seed. It’s in my pocket now. I pull it out and sit it in front of me as I write. I find myself thinking about my prayer time last Tuesday. Can I share it with you?

Change.

It’s Tuesday. Tuesday morning has become my newly designated prayer-walking time. In times gone by I have walked different parts of my city, but in this season I am drawn to my city centre. Today I find myself walking to the library. I walk past a bakery and see the sign saying, “Winner of best vanilla slice 2018”. Vanilla slices are my favourite and I feel myself being drawn in to the sweetness on offer, but I continue on. As I walk past where I prayed last Tuesday, I remember that God had asked me to declare that the city would  “taste and see that the Lord is good and that every person in the city who trusts in Him will be blessed” (Psalm 34:8).

I walk past a now empty shop space and am reminded of our recent house sale. I thank God for His more than, more than. I thank Him that He hears our every prayer and our every dream and shows up in His super abundant grace to pour His unmerited favour into our world. I thank Him that it’s according to the power that is at work within us that His glory is revealed and I find myself opening my heart to Him again so that He can search and try me, to know me and to speak to me.

I continue walking and the many empty shop fronts fill my heart with sadness. As I walk past shop after shop, I ask God, “What are You doing here in this space?” Unexpectedly, I feel an excitement rising up within me. I hear God whispering quietly into my heart, “Into what looks like death, I will breathe my life”. I realise as I walk through this space that there is music playing and the lyric I hear in that moment is “dry bones coming to life”. I so love the passage in the Bible about the dry bones! In Ezekiel 37 it records a conversation between God and Ezekiel. The wind of the spirit picked Ezekiel up and landed him in a valley of dry bones and the Lord says to Ezekiel, “Can these bones yet live?” to which Ezekiel responds, “Oh Lord, You know!”

As I think about it now, as I sit here at the library, I find myself praying “Lord you know! You are indeed Lord... Lord over my life. I pray that this city would also know you as Lord. And. Lord. You are the one who knows it all! You know the beginning from the end and all that takes place in between. You hold our every moment in your hands. Lord, you hold every moment of this city in your hands.”

I understand now why I’m sitting here praying in the library. I knew God was wanting me in the city’s “centre of knowledge” as I prayed today, but it’s because God wants our centre of knowledge to be found in Him… first and foremost. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6) Jesus must be Lord. 

I thank God for the library. I thank Him for all the knowledge contained on the shelves of this place. I thank God for every author of every book. I thank Him for the staff and the volunteers and the patrons eager for truth and knowledge. I ask God to fill those who hunger for knowledge… that they would hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness and find His blessing flowing in their lives (Matthew 5:6). I thank God for the life humming in this space. I thank Him for the baby crying and the children clapping as they explore books together in the kids session. “Thank you God that you know every one of these people by name. You created them...to love them... You have chosen them... they are Your people... may they know how very much You love them... that You gave Your son so that all who believe in Him will know everlasting life.”

As I listen to the eager singing of the lively children... “…there are four in the bed and the little one said... roll over, roll over...”, I return my thoughts to Ezekiel 37. There is a promise of life here that God has for this city today. You might like to read with me God’s response to Ezekiel’s admission of “Lord you know” regarding whether the bones before him could yet live...

“Eternal One:  Actually, I do. Prophesy to these bones. Tell them to listen to what the Eternal Lord says to them: “Dry bones, I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. I will attach muscles and tendons to you, cause flesh to grow over them, and cover you with skin. I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. After this happens, you will know that I am the Eternal.” God is not only the Creator of life, but He is also the Restorer of life. So I did what God told me to do: I prophesied to the bones. As I was speaking, I heard a loud noise—a rattling sound—and all the bones began to come together and form complete skeletons. I watched and saw muscles and tendons attach to the bones, flesh grow over them, and skin wrap itself around the reforming bodies. But there was still no breath in them. Eternal One:  Prophesy to the breath. Speak, son of man, and tell them what the Eternal Lord has to say: “O sweet breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these who have been killed. Make these corpses come alive.” So I did what God told me to do: I prophesied to the breath. As I was speaking, breath invaded the lifeless. The bodies came alive and stood on their feet. I realised then I was looking at a great army. Eternal One:  Son of man, these bones are the entire community of Israel. They keep saying, “Our bones are dry now, picked clean by scavengers. All hope is gone. Our nation is lost.” He told me to prophesy and tell them what He said. Eternal One: Pay attention, My people! I am going to open your graves and bring you back to life! I will carry you straight back to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Eternal One. I will breathe My Spirit into you, and you will be alive once again. I will place you back in your own land. After that you will know I, the Eternal, have done what I said I would do. So said the Eternal One.” Ezekiel 37:4, 6-12, 14 (The Voice)

I can’t help but respond with prayer. I know that these words were a specific promise to Ezekiel for a specific people in a specific time in history. BUT. I also know that the Bible says the word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). I also know that the Bible says that we are to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of the testimony (Revelation 12:11). I know that the Bible itself is the testimony of God, speaking of His goodness and faithfulness... the story of how Jesus came to bring abundant life (John 10:10). I know that the Bible is God’s story of redeeming love... broken into two books... the Old Testament and the New Testament. I know that the Bible says testimony is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). I know this means that what God has done before, He wants to do again. I know that by sharing my story of God’s goodness and faithfulness, it opens a door for others to step through and to experience God’s goodness and faithfulness also. I know that the word of God does not come back empty... His word completes the assignment given to it... it always produces fruit and prospers everywhere God sends it (Isaiah 55:11). 

So as I pray, I know that this is also God’s word for our city today. I know that God wants me to take hold of the promise given to Ezekiel through this vision of the dry bones and claim it as a testimony of God’s victory and resurrection power to bring His life into empty spaces. I know God is wanting to breathe His breath of life into this city. I choose to speak God’s words over my city today. I think about how God has already been reminding me of His sweetness this morning and like Ezekiel, I respond to God’s invitation to speak to God’s sweet breath to come and breath His life and His hope into our city.

As I walk back to the empty shop fronts to speak God’s word, my eye is drawn to a sign in the shop window before me...

You can Change the World!

Yes God! You can change the world! You can bring change through me as I speak Your words in this space. I sit before the empty shop fronts and I pray:

“God, you know if the empty spaces in this city, as represented by these empty shops, will yet live. According to Your word, I prophesy to these ‘bones’. I tell them to listen to what the Eternal Lord says to them: “Dry ‘bones’, God will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive… God will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. After this happens, the city will know that God is the Eternal.”

I speak life into this shopping precinct. I speak life to every family who owns businesses in this space; every family represented by those who work in this space; every family of those who shop and gather in this space. I speak to every lifeless and hopeless and empty space in every person in this city and I ask you God to breath your breath into those spaces. I ask that Your word will be spoken in every home in this city and will bring life. I declare that Your word will bring Your fruitfulness and Your prosperity, Your sweetness and Your blessing.

God you are not only the Creator of life, but You are also the Restorer of life. I declare protection over every unborn baby and over every child in this city. I declare that You will restore broken relationships and broken hearts. You will restore every broken bone and bring health to every frail and diseased body.

Like Ezekiel, I prophesy to the ‘bones’. I come before You Lord, with my testimony of the ‘more than, more than’ grace and power at work in my life and my house sale and I believe that You will bring Your unmerited favour into our city… for Your glory. I feel again Your invitation to dare ask in prayer for Your ‘exceedingly beyond’ and I dare to dream with You.

As I speak Your word, I dream with You and I hear Your spirit wind moving... I hear a loud noise—a rattling sound—and all the ‘bones’ beginning to come together and form complete skeletons. I ‘watch’ and ‘see’ muscles and tendons attach to the bones, flesh grow over them, and skin wrap itself around the reforming bodies. I watch Your reformation as it takes shape. And just like You said to Ezekiel, I will prophesy to the breath. I will speak and tell the breath what the Eternal Lord has to say: “O sweet breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these who have been killed. Make these corpses come alive.

Father, I will prophesy to the breath and I will ‘see’ You at work even before I see it come to pass with my physical eyes. As I speak, I will see breath invade the lifeless. I will see bodies come alive and stand on their feet. I will see my entire community, my entire city rise up as Your living army. Where there have been dry bones picked clean by scavengers; where all hope has been gone and our nation has been lost, I declare Your word that these people are Your people. These people will hear Your word and pay attention. These people will be brought back to life. Godly family legacies will be restored and returned. I thank you Father that we will know that You are the Lord. We will know that You are breathing Your Spirit into us, and we will be fully alive and radiant once again. I thank you that You will place people in the land that You have promised and destined for them and our city and our nation will KNOW that You the Eternal, have done what You said You would do.”

I invite you to join with me in praying this prayer into the empty spaces in your world. Those spaces that have felt demolished and hopeless and lifeless. Let us spend time with God and bring those hopeless spaces before Him and allow Him to speak His resurrecting words. Allow him to sing His song over you. Listen to the sweet breath of life that He is breathing into your circumstances. Taste and see that He is good and watch as these dry bones yet live!

I thank God that by His power… He is at work. In my life. God is at work. In my family. God is at work. In my church. God is at work. In my community. God is at work.

Today… I especially thank God that by His power He is at work in my city. I thank God for His seeds of change. His winds of change. His agents of change.

Thank you God, that as I surrender and make You Lord of my life…speaking when You say to speak… going when You say to go… and loving the way You love… I become Your agent of change.

May the glory of God resound through the church and through Jesus…. throughout all our generations forever and ever! Amen! (Ephesians 3:20)