I believe most Believers
are familiar with the Prophetic Encounter of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel
37. I want to draw some things from that encounter.
Recently we hosted a Regional
Leadership meeting here in NJ, where we gathered Ascension Gift Leaders, both
men & women, from across the Region. During that meeting one of the
Apostles present quoted from this same familiar text, before prophesying to the
dry bones, that they would live and begin to come together.
Later in the meeting right
before we dismissed I called for Ruach (Breath of God, Spirit of God) to
breathe on us again.
I believe we are right in
the middle of these two simultaneously in our region. Bone is coming together
to bone, there is a rattle of bones as God brings us into alignment (Apostolic).
He is also breathing a fresh wind (Prophetic) of His Spirit into us in this
season. Fresh wind is coming to our dreams...even some of our old dreams that
we forgot about or gave up on.
Coming into alignment is
one thing...which we must do...but having the Breath of God is what will
empower and make the alignment have impact! We need both the Alignment &
the Ruach together! So often we in the church have settled for an either/or
mentality...where God wants us to have a Both mentality.
For years folks in the
church fought over whether we were "Word" people (we must be
sticklers for the Word, teach the Word, preach the Word) or were
"Spirit" people (we just want a move of the Holy Spirit). Why do we
have to choose? Why is it either/or? Why not both? Can't we teach & preach
the Word and have a move of the Holy Spirit at the same time?
In the text of Ezekiel 37
there was the time where Ezekiel was commanded to prophesy to the bones, that
they might come together. This is a picture of the Alignment that God is doing
in our day, which is an Apostolic Function. But after the bones began to come
together, they had no life in them, and Ezekiel was commanded to prophesy again
to the Ruach (breath, Spirit), that they might come alive. This is a picture of
the Breath or Wind of the Spirit which is a Prophetic Function.
If Apostles and Prophets
together are the foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20), how do we expect to
have a solid foundation, if we are arguing which function is more important…the
Alignment (Apostolic) or Ruach (Prophetic)?
Even now some are picking
sides over which is more important. The Alignment (Apostolic) or The Ruach
(Prophetic)...when the truth of the matter is we need both at the same time!
They were designed to synergistically work together! Let us not settle for
either/or and embrace both Alignment (Apostolic) and Ruach (Prophetic) at the
same time.
