#419 The Jesus Trip, The Spirit of Prophecy

#419 The Jesus Trip, The Spirit of Prophecy
By: Zach Sloane

(Sermon Notes to print & PowerPoint Slide links at the bottom of the page)

Recap: Last week: “The Face of Glory, we saw that the glory of God had departed the Temple (Ezekiel 10:18), and the glory left Jerusalem (Ez. 11:23), but even in Exile the glory was with Ezekiel.  

Ezekiel 1 “On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God … This is what the glory of the Lord looked like to me…”

It like God was saying “even when you are far away, even when you are in the worst spot you could imagine, in a hell, exile or imprisonment  of your own making… my glory is there with you… Its’ not confined to places of religious institution like you would believe.  

So Ezekiel sees the glory and he describes it, as summed up by Pastor Karl as a glory that causes us to “to manifest His Glory with excellence (Eagle) as we serve (Ox) in relationship (Man) by the power (Lion) of our union with Him.” 

God wanted the people to know that the glory is for them, God’s presence is with them, wherever they are, even in exile. That His plan is for that glory to be in them, something far greater than just being in a temple.  

But.. they had a problem… the people and the glory were incompatible. 

Ezekiel 23:8 (NLT)
“For when she left Egypt, she did not leave her spirit of prostitution behind…” 

So God says, “no problem… I will fix you.” 

Ezekiel 36:25
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.”  

The blood of Jesus purged us from our sins and made something else possible… a washing of regeneration and renewing by the holy Spirit.

Titus 3:4-5
“…according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,” 

The blood destroyed our sin and paved the way for us  to become something totally new.  

Ez. 36:26
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 

2 Corinthians 5:17-18a
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God” 

All things means allthings. You are new. Not in part, not one part of you.
That why Paul said:  

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
Now [may]the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. 

To preserve means to keep something the way that it already is. The content that passes through your mind might be dirty, the things you do with your body may sometimes not be righteous, but you… body, soul and spirit, God has made new. 

Ezekiel 36:27 (NLT)
And I will put my Spirit in you so that you willfollow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. 

In other words… it’s going to be by my Spirit. I think this is mind boggling for Ezekiel and so God gives Him a picture in Ez. 37 (Valley of Dry Bones) as to what this will look like.  

Ez. 37:2-3.  He gives Ezekiel an object lesson. He says (my paraphrase)  “hey… Ezekiel, you’re probably troubled and don’t know how this can come to pass, well, watch this. See these dry bones… do you think they can live?”  

To which he replies “Lord God, you alone know.

Ezekiel 37:4:10
Then he [the Lord] said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! 6 I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” 7 So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. 8 Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” 10 So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army. 

Ezekiel prophesies of a coming wind that would regenerate a valley of dry bones, putting dead things back together and giving them life, even turning them into a great army.  But to really understand this and bring it into a new covenant reality, you have to see that whatever prophetic license these stories give us, they are rooted a grounded in the finished work of Jesus. 

All scripture in the law and prophets was fulfilled in Him. If we take Jesus seriously, this story points to and finds fulfilment in Jesus, and is not primarily about our own dry, hopeless situations. 

Matthew 5:17
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 

The wind did come! At Pentecost there was the rushing sound of a mighty wind… 

Acts 2:2-4
“…and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.” 

Not saying that these verse doesn’t show us that we too can partner with God to prophesy hope and power and life into dead and dry and hopeless situations. Of course we can. We must…  

I take hope from passages like this one… Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones. There is no situation that can’t be resurrected and have life. But, not because it teaches me I too can prophecy like Ezekiel… I don’t want to prophesy to the wind like Ezekiel… I will prophesy to the wind but not like Ezekiel did.  

These are two reasons why I have even more hope and am activated to prophesy even more when I see this passage already fulfilled in Christ Jesus and at Pentecost, and not as an object lesson for how I too can prophesy life like Ezekiel. 

If I see the Valley of Dry Bones as an experience pointing to Jesus and His pouring out the Spirit at Pentecost: I can see that to experience and receive the blowing wind of heaven, the Holy Ghost and his fiery presence in my life… I don’t have to qualify, clean up my act, fast, pray, tarry, wait in Jerusalem,  or jump through any hoops. 

Acts 2:32-33
“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.” 

Jesus received the promise, qualified me to receive the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit has not come into my life in degrees… a little bit now, a little bit later. Jesus baptizes me in His Spirit, from the inside out. 

John 7:38-39
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” 

Now He is glorified. The Spirit doesn’t move in our lives when we get cleaned up and somehow pump up another Pentecost, or make ourselves new.  

This has always been the problem for Christians. 

Galatians 3 (NKJV)
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith..?  Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— 

You don’t need to have someone prophesy over you how you need to get your bones aligned, you need to get cleaned up, healed up. You don’t need the word to come and put you right and make you right. We are on the other side of that.  You need a word that helps you see that you have been made right already.  

Know you are qualified, you can prophesy. Prophesy and call forth the reality of the new heart and spirit already provided for humanity in Christ Jesus.  

Secondly: if I see the Valley of Dry Bones as an experience pointing to Jesus and His pouring out the Spirit at Pentecost: when I do prophesy I am  not prophesying as if we are trying to get God to move from heaven. I am not calling God down, or conjuring Him up. I am not calling Him forth from the four winds to come do something that he  resides in me to do.  

In the prophetic proclamation of the finished work… the wind doesn’t come from the four corners of the Earth … the wind resides in me… my union with Jesus is so complete that when I speak a faith inspired, anointed, rhema word,  when I open my mouth to speak the breath that launches that word is the very breath of God, the breath he breathed into humanity but Adam lost, won back by Jesus and given back to us in power at Pentecost.  

So the Valley of Dry bones… You might be in a dry dead situation… Speak to it! But speak the testimony of Jesus. Call forth new creation, new covenant realities. Align our proclamations with the finished work of the cross. 

Don’t put your hope or the hope of those you prophesy over in a future act of God… prophesy and bring into reality now the preset reality of Who God is what he has done for us in Christ… call it forth… because it already exists and is provided for in Christ.  

Don’t embrace prophesy that adds to or mitigates the power of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection… let the spirit testifying of Jesus be the breath in your prophetic declaration.

Revelation 19:10 “It is the testimony of Jesus that is the spirit of prophecy”and the testimony of the resurrected one will bring resurrection life to every dry bone.  

All of heaven and the Third Person of the Godhead stand ready to back up our prophetic declaration.  

Prophesy the testimony of Jesus, loose the wind within, speak! Declare and call forth new covenant realties… 

Sins are forgiven… and it’s power broken at the cross.  

Bodies were healed by his stripes… 

Devil is defeated and disarmed… his power is stripped.   

God is with man… Emmanuel is a reality… 

The kingdom of God is at hand, it is within, it is not coming,  it has come…  

You are a new creation, you have a new heart… prophesy it, don’t try to get it!  

God has been revealed in Jesus…  

Qualification for every blessing and inheritance already secured in Christ… 

Reconciliation has happened… 

There is a great army already… let eyes be opened to realize it.

The Jesus Trip, The Spirit of Prophecy, Sermon notes to print, PDF

The Jesus Trip, The Spirit of Prophecy, PowerPoint Slides, PDF

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