Focus: In The Valley of Life (Pt.1)

Text: Ezk.37:1

"The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the VALLEY which was FULL of BONES."

God granted Ezekiel a vision, and in that vision the Lord took the prophet on a visit to the valley where he saw in the spirit the true condition of Israel. Ezekiel met a lamentable situation in that valley.

I never forget preaching a message entitled, 'Lamentation for the Situation', from Jeremiah's book of Lamentation. You cannot read that little book without lamenting. The book depicts a time of trouble for Israel, and it has to do with the Babylonian Captivity of Judah. Daniel and his three friends were among those taken captive to Babylon in the prime of their lives. According to Ezk.1:1, Ezekiel too was among the captives, who in the middle and madness of the captivity saw visions of God. I believe it takes seeing God's visions to survive this life and stay sane in the valleys of this world.

In the land of captivity the people of God remembered Zion and wept. Is it not ironic that we take things for granted until we lose them? They hung their harps upon the willows. They didn't feel it was right to sing the songs of Zion in a far away land. According to Psalm 137, Babylon really "wasted" Judah. Even babies were dashed against the stones.

Sadly enough, Edom, that is, Esau's children desired for Judah's downfall and threw a party as they watched it happen. That is a blood brother seeking for and celebrating his own brother's downfall! Christians are doing the same thing to themselves. Blood-bought saints quarrel over nothing. We tend to ignore the fact that, as Christians, we are of the same blood of Christ and belong to the same family of God.

Abraham's words to Lot still ring in my head. He says simply to Lot, "We are brothers." "Blood," they say, "is thicker than water." Let's not kill ourselves over property. It doesn't make sense. Blood is stronger than anything that wants to tear us apart."

The church is plagued by unforgiving spirit and is guilty of the sin of unforgiveness. Faith has lost its power because love is missing. Paul tells us that faith works through love, and the last time I checked, unforgiveness is not the fruit or effect of love. Unforgiveness is a cancer that has eaten deep into the members of Christ's body. We need the Spirit's surgical procedure to excise it.

A point we must note is that we have a lot of Esaus in the today's church, people who are devoid of the Spirit and have no respect for our most holy faith.

Another point is that one can be a Jacob, but behave like Esau or manifest his kind of spirit. It is like being an Esau in Jacob's body, or like feeling the hand of Esau, but hearing the voice of Jacob, which actually got Isaac confused and deceived.

The world is being confused and deceived by the double dealing of church members. James was alarmed by church members. He asks, "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not" (Jam.4:1-2). Tell me how a church like this can have peace and flow in love and power! Can an individual believer like this be a true reflection of Christ to the world?

Another sad situation is having Esaus on the pulpits of the church as ministers. Their gods are their belly and their fame. They merchandise the anointing. They stay only on the fringes of the sacred and the supernatural. They are shallow-minded. They do not fathom depths. They are afraid of launching into the deep for a catch. They are experts of the lettered word, but novices in the matters of the Spirit.

I read long time ago that in Greece Christianity was turned into a philosophy. In Rome it became an institution. In Europe it had become a culture. In America, Christianity has turned into an enterprise - a big business. Africa and Asia were not mentioned by the writer, and so I decided to add them. In these two continents, Christianity is seen as a magic wand or talisman. O Lord, save us from counterfeit Christianity!

For a radical change to happen in our lives, we need the heat of the Spirit of God and the light of the word of God. In Gen.1:2, we see the heat or warmth of the Spirit, and in verse 3, we see the light of the spoken word of God. There will be no real heaven-sent revival until the Spirit and the Word come together to effect a divine revolution in the earth.

(To be continued tomorrow)

by Bishop Moses E. Peter