Ezekiel 37:3
And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. [KJV]
When Mary met with angel Gabriel, and was told that she was shortly to bear a son, she asked, "How will this be, seeing I know no man?" When Sarah heard that she was going to bear Isaac at the age of 90, she laughed and asked, "Will an old woman carry pregnancy?" When Gideon met the angel of the LORD and was told he'd lead the children of Israel from captivity, he asked, "How can it be, yet I'm the least in my family which is the least in my clan, which is the least in our tribe, which is the least in Israel?"
I'm currently at the onset of a multi-million Kenyan Shillings ministry project and all I can ask is, "How shall this be, seeing I know no man?" I find myself saying, "Many of my peers are done with giving birth and now have grandchildren, will Nesh also give birth in old age?" I am bound to ask, "How can I be the one, yet I am the least, and my clan and tribe (my support base) is currently seemingly at its least ever?"
But I hear a voice telling me that David was incomparable to Goliath in all possible ways. He was not a proffessional fighter, like Goliath was. He was not as big as Goliath was. He was not even as talkative as Goliath was. He was not as famous as Goliath was. Yet, victory was in his hand.
The race is not to the swift, battle is not to the strong, bread not to the wise, favor is not for men of skills, but time and chances happen to them all. This means that no man can do what God can do and what man can do, God does not need to do; He let's the man do all by himself or with very little interventional help from Him. It also means that when God joins hand with the seemingly weak, the weak will always win the battle over the seemingly strong. When God joins hand with the seemingly foolish, the fool with God will get the bread before the wise without God. It means that a person who is not skilled when favoured by God will always surpass the skilled who feels they can go at it alone.
What we need therefore is not strength, what we need is not speed, what we need is not skills or wisdom as much as we need more than anything else, God. The Bible says, "Time and chances happen to them all". This means that both the weak and the strong, both the wise and the not so wise, the skilled and the ignorant, all of them are given a chance by God to choose Him as a partner on their side. They are given time by God within which they can choose to incorporate God in their dealings.
The scriptures say that, "Seek the LORD while He may be found" (Isa 55:6). This does not mean that there is a time that God goes into hiding or travels and you can't find Him at home. No! It means that God gives you time and chance for each and every opportunity. Say for instance you are planning to get married. The moment you conceive the idea, at that exact moment God has given you time and chance, to either do it with Him and incorporate Him in every of your step or go it alone with minimal help from God. How great would it be, if a fast man, a strong man, a skilled man a wise man would decide to have God as a partner before they make any step! But that rarely happens, the fast will run first and fast, then when they lose, they'll say, "It was the will of God" for them to lose. But was it really the will of God for them to lose? God does not will anybody to lose! Now, if you decide to go at it alone, then along the way after hitting hardship you decide to bring God in, it will be harder to bring God into a thing which He did not initiate or was not involved in its conception.
When you become a parent to a child you didn't give birth to or sire, you become a step-parent or a foster parent. This means that no matter how much you try, there will always be a certain degree of disconnect and discontent on both sides; of the step-parent and of the step-child. My grandmother told me that, "No matter what a step-mother does, she will never satisfy the step-child as the real mother would". This is not because the real mother does anything different, some times the step-mother may be doing more that even the real mother would. But there is always that disconnect and discontent that naturally arises, whether you're a step-parent made in heaven or against a real mother made in hell.
I was raised by a step-mom, between 1993 and 1997. After this I ran off and went to my real mother and for two years I was under my real mother's care. I ran off from my step mother because I felt she was mistreating me and my sister; may be she was, may be she wasn't. However, when I went into my own mother's hands, I had to run off again because what I found there was worse than what I had ran from, from my step-mother.
Yes, my step-mom would outrightly deny us food, but my mom made me sell stuff after school and work other hard menial jobs to get to eat that food. She even gave off my sister at the age of 12 years to work as a house maid and she'd get the salary as she worked and got nothing. I would come from school at around 4, immediately knead flour to make samosas and after they were ready, go into the dens of illicit brews to sell them up to beyond midnight sometimes and go to school the following day by 6:45 am. Sometimes, police would raid the dens and I had to hide or run to avoid jail (I've never been arrested for your information). These and other issues like hard farm work, that I may not type here made me seek a better place to leave, away from my real mother, who in my ideal world was supposed to be better than my step-mom.
What I am saying is that making God a step-parent in a thing that you conceived without Him may not be in the best interest of either God or that "child" you want Him to co-parent! God wants to be involved from inception to conception to delivery up to the time the child is old enough.
If bones will live, they will only live if God is allowed to be the lead and main consultant of the miracle. This is why, when Ezekiel is asked, "Can these bones live?" He says, "It is only you LORD that can know that". The moment God asks you a question or suggests something or gives you an idea and you think you can do it using your prowess, you have failed. If God asks you, "Can you do this business?" Your answer should be, "Only you God knows". If you say yes I can do it, I have a degree in business administration, etc" You have failed, becsuse you have shown God that He has very minimal role to play in the execution of the matter. God does not choose you for anything based on you CV! Even if what He has called you to do fits your CV word for word, do not try to play the expert; play the service man, play the delivery guy, who only does what God wants done, how God wants it done, when God wants it done and where God wants it done. Whose prowess and skill and power and wisdkm and knowledge only serve to make your service and delivery easier and not make them the decision makers.
When you want dry bones to live, you have to let God be the judge of the matter, the jury of the matter and the executioner of the matter. Yes! I know you have scripture backing! Yes! I know if God is asking you, He knows they can live! But you have to let God know that it is not your will, but His will that must take preeminence in the matter.
Jesus told the Father, "Not my will, but your will be done".
Many times God will ask you a question which you may think needs a simple, short, direct another from your expertise. But when you know God, you will discover that what He needs from the answer is not to know, or to know if you know, nor your opinion on the matter, but to see if you know that it is His will and nobody else's that will prevail. That it is His power and nobody else's that makes things turn or stand.
A very wise man, Bartimaeus, was asked by Jesus, "What can I do for you?" (Mark 10:51) He was clearly blind, everybody could see he was blind. This question was not asked because Jesus did not know what the man wanted. It was asked to see if Bartimaeus knew that Jesus could give him back his sight. A leper came and knelt before Jesus and said, "If you are willing, you can cleanse me" (Matt 8:1-3). This is not a prayer of a man who thinks that God is evil and so He can just let him continue living with leprosy, but a man who knows that the way to God's heart is to show Him that it is all about Him. Some people say "God, let your will be done", but what they mean is, "It's like God derives joy from seeing me suffer!" God does not enjoy to see you suffer, so, His will is always to see you happy and remove anything that btings you grief and bring in what will give you joy! Saying your will be done should be, "God! Only you can do this! Only you have the answer to this! Only you can change this situation!" When Jesus was saying, "Not my will but your will be done", he was not saying, "Father, it looks like my suffering will bring you more joy than my joy, so, I accept to die to make you happy", no! It was, "Father, it is you that knows all things, plans all thing, makes all things successful, I leave the final word to you on this matter."
Every time you pray and make God look as if He enjoys your sufferings, you fail in prayer; you pray amiss. Some people even fast, because they think God loves them when they hurt themselves with hunger. The prophets of baal would cut themselves until they bleed, because, the devil enjoys to see his servants in pain and hurting. Why do devil worshippers sacrifice their children? Do you think it is easy to sacrifice a loved one? But in the kingdom of darkness, the king of that kingdom enjoys to see his subjects crying in pain and regrets! But God is not like that! When we say let your will be done, we know His will is our happiness, our promotion and our deliverance, so, we say let your will be done to say, "We subject ourselves to your wisdom on how you want to see this executed!"
Some people ask, "If God already knows what we want as recorded in Matthew 6:8, then, why do we even need to pray?" We do not tell God what we need because He needs to know, we tell Him because of something called in politics, "power-play". Do you know there are some people who can get you aressted, just so that you know they can do it? Others do nasty things to affect your life, not because they derive any pleasure from it, but just so you know they have the power, ability, machinery and privilege to do it. Now, what wise people do in the presence of such mighty men is turn the tables and show their host that they know how great they are even without the need to be told or shown. When you do so, the king, or the boss is so happy to do anything for you because he sees that you know your place and you acknowledge his power. Whenever you show a mighty man that you don't acknowledge their power, they start to resist you. This is why the Bible says, "God resists the proud, but exalts the humble" (James 4:6). I assure you, it is better to fight the devil, than to be resisted by God. If the devil fights yiu you can run to God, but if God resists you, where will you run? This is why we pray, this is why we tell God our needs. Prayer is a way of you showing God that you know, He knows and it is only He that has the power, the ability, the machinery that is needed to have all your needs met in Christ Jesus.
Now, can these bones live? Only God knows! May God bless you, keep you and lift you higher than I am. Shalom and keep the faith.
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