The Lord told me to release this verse, and what really encouraged me is that after He told me this, I heard several other people who were given the same revelation in the same time frame. I want to explain it a little so you can release it as well. But please read this verse yourself and when you feel the Holy Spirit moving you, release it into your sphere of authority for it has to do with the calling of the Body of Christ into maturity to posses the land of inheritance — the Kingdom.

This prophecy in Ezekiel 37 is very memorable and mentions forming an Army from a pile of dead, dried up bones. The verse says this is the whole house of Israel, which we, those who abide in the Lordship of Christ, indisputably belong to. It also says in verses 12 and 14 that this is to bring the people “back to the land of Israel,” to their “own land,” which is quite plainly the “land of promise” which we now know “only those with faith can enter.” So we are plainly not talking about a physical land that even those without faith can enter, although the physical is an important parallel of the spiritual. We are instead primarily talking about the spiritual land of inheritance, the Kingdom of God, within which all of the Lord’s promises to His people are available.

There are five elements in this verse that explain the process the Body takes on this journey from death to life.

The Lord first tells Ezekiel to prophesy, “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life,” and says He will attach tendons, flesh and skin to the dry bones. Ezekiel prophesies this, and this is what happens:

1. The bones are joined by tendons or ligaments that connect them together.

2. The bones then form flesh or muscle.

3. Then a skin forms that covers the bodies.

These three steps turn the dry bones into fully formed bodies, but Ezekiel sees that although formed, they are still not alive.

4. The Lord says several times again to let His Breath come, His ruach, which is His Spirit. The body is ready in form but only when the Spirit enters does it come alive and become … wow, an Army!

5. Then the Lord tells Ezekiel to call them out of their Grave.

What do these stages mean?

I believe the tendons or ligaments are people called to work to unite and correctly place or ‘activate’ the body’s diverse members and pieces. I think it is likely that they are bridge builders and networkers which the Lord raises up to start the body’s formation process. But this also must surely refer to the raising up of prophets and apostles to help the various parts of the Body step into their individual callings and functions. This is key to the body’s formation and maturing as mentioned in Ephesians 4:16.

The flesh or muscles form next which would give the body strength, and an ability to act or move. In Christ our strength comes as we find His joy, a source of encouragement, hope and assurance of victory in our struggles. As we mature we learn that our human strength is insufficient, since it cannot guarantee us spiritual victories, nor can it be the guarantor of heavenly, spiritual promises. This is why our natural human strengths rob us because we if we think we are strong we rely on what is ultimately unreliable (ourselves) — instead of seeking, and so finding true strength in the Lord — rather it is the Lord’s strength given to us — which only the naturally weak always do. So our strength is really our weakness, but our weakness is our strength in the Lord. In any case, at this step strength comes to the Body.

Then skin covers, just as love covers, which I think is the right parallel. The sections of Scripture that discuss diverse gifts and functions in the body of Christ (Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4) first mention the diversity, complexity and variety of gifts, ministries, and functions, but then they all mention the need for love to join everything together.

This also touches upon the issue of spiritual unity, an important topic that I cannot discuss here in length. What we learn when we mature is that the unity of man’s natural, social world is not real unity. If a group of men decide they should work together to achieve plans they agree upon, they may have concert of purpose, a common goal, or some form of alliance or allegiance based on honor, duty, fear or profit… but none of this is the Unity the Bible refers to.

The unity that the Bible refers to, the Unity of the Spirit, is when an individual has discovered personal unity with the Father through the Holy Spirit because of the Son’s sacrifice. When this happens, all those who have also found unity with the Father will be of like mind, soul and spirit. This is the unity the Bible talks about and this is this shift that the Body made from a pile of bones is about to discover.

As you read this verse in Ezekiel notice the gap of continuity at this moment. The body has been formed but Ezekiel stops when he realizes that it is still dead. The Lord repeats His first statement, that He will send BREATH to make it live, just as He breathed into Adam to make him live after forming his earthly body. I believe this word “breath” is the same word we use as “spirit” so this means God will send His Spirit, His Breath into this body to give this Body life. This is an important revelation. I have to stress again that the body of people was formed but was still not “alive” until the Spirit came into it. If this is a picture of the Church, then we will come to a stage of uniting people from various denominations into a large cooperative group and will enjoy a time of group effort and collaboration — but this is not enough to enter our destiny or find real Life. Having a universal church that follows man’s ideas (or worse) is not a victory. The need for God’s Spirit to inhabit these bodies was repeated several times in this verse before it actually happened and brought the bodies into their calling to function as an Army.

This Spirit entering the Body will become its life force and be the heart of its mind, will and emotions, directing its energies, resources and movements. This suggests the shift we will start to witness at this point in the maturing process is a shift from the Body of Christ following its own plans, ideas and goals into a community having consensus that God already has a plan, and we will find it and follow it, even if it makes no sense to us.

We see that it is only being inhabited by this Spirit that will bring the Body into its destiny, foretold throughout Scripture, as the overcoming Bride, which is the fifth step ... for only then is God’s call to overcome spoken, enabling her to rise and finally win her destined victory over all the forces of death, hell and the grave!

Edward Johnson

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