What does the word “revival” mean to you? To those who are my age and older, you will remember that twice a year, in the spring and in the fall, churches held revivals. This was a series of meetings, (years ago they were even two weeks long) usually a few days long for the purpose of building the Kingdom. We would book song evangelist(s) and an evangelist and open up the church every night of the week. It was not uncommon for everyone to bring friends (even those who didn’t go to church) and those friends may even end up “born again.” It was not uncommon for believers to experience the “second work of grace” during these revivals. Minnie’s Chapel is planning on having a revival this week. Unfortunately, the revival has fallen on hard times in these days. While there are churches that still have revivals, it is more of a name thing. What do I mean? I mean that they call it a revival, but very little reviving of the heart is happening.

Over the past several weeks, I have noticed a theme emerge. It was not something that I had planned, but I feel it is something the Holy Spirit had in mind. Have you noticed the topics over the past few weeks — A hardened heart and spiritual blindness? This week is no different; we will continue on the same them. Why do I say that? We want to take a look at the idea of revival. This is a Christ follower’s topic. In order to be revived, you have to have been alive in the first place. In order to have a hard spiritual heart, you once had a soft spiritual heart. In order to have spiritual blindness, you once would have had to see – at least as we looked at last week in Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus.

To start looking at this topic of revival, let’s look at Ezekiel 37:1-14:

1 The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. 2 He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. 3 Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”

“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”

4 Then he 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.

11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ 12 Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord. 14 I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”

Now that’s what I call a Holy Spirit filled revival. Not only did Ezekiel go to a valley of dry bones, but those dry bones grew flesh and then the breath of God was breathed in them and they became alive again. Some of you are probably wondering what does that have to do with us. Like I already mentioned, this is something that we have been looking into for the past several weeks. Call it by several names; spiritual dryness, spiritual blindness, hardness of the spiritual heart – whatever you want to call it – the facts remain the same. All of us go through times of spiritual dryness. John of the Cross called it the dark night of the soul. There are times – no matter what we do – no matter how much we pray – no matter how much we read our Bibles – no matter how many songs and hymns we sing – no matter how much we come to church – our lives – our spiritual lives become dry and almost appear dead. I know, I have been there – and not too recently I might add. Sometimes, we might even use these as a gauge of our spirituality. During those dry spells, we don’t feel very spiritual – we may not even feel like being around other spiritual people, because they make us feel inferior. Let me repeat that there is nothing wrong with spiritual dry spells. We all have them – including preachers and if you ever hear a preacher say that he or she hasn’t, they’re probably lying. Mother Teresa of Calcutta admitted in her diaries that there were many times that she did not feel close to God. So there is nothing wrong with spiritual hard times or spiritual dryness. We will have those times. My concern is when we get to those times and nothing can bring us out of it and we begin to think to ourselves that it is the norm to be spiritually dry and that there is nothing we can do about it. That’s the point of today’s message.

As we have already seen, Ezekiel is brought to a valley of dry bones. Now in order to have bones, they must have one time been alive. Bones are a product of life. In our passage, they are dry. God asks Ezekiel the question, “Can these bones live again?” Ezekiel replies rightly that only God knows the answer to that question. Then God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones to come to life and they do except that they don’t have any breath in them. God tells Ezekiel to speak to the bodies and when he does, the breath of God fills them. There in the valley of dry bones there was a real revival.

I don’t know where you might be spiritually this morning. That’s the thing about heart matters is that it is tough for others to figure out how you are doing. You may look like you have it all together on the outside but inside you are falling apart. You may look like everything is falling apart on the outside, but you’re as cool as a cucumber inside. It’s hard for me as your pastor to make those judgments. I can only see the outside and I can only see the fruits. I can only see how you act. I don’t know how you are feeling this morning. Only a thorough examination by yourself through the work of the Holy Spirit, will let you know where you are spiritually.

One of the things that I like about this story is what I already mentioned – in order to have bones, they must once have been alive. This story gives all of us hope. Even if we think we are in the driest of deserts spiritually, we can have new life breathed into us. We are never without hope.

But let’s take this a step further. Paul writes to the church in Romans, chapter 8:

5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

This takes us a step beyond. Not only do we have hope when it comes to living a spiritually dry life – this is not the life that God intended us to live. He intended us to live a Spirit-filled life – a life full of living in Christ. Perhaps if you feel that you are not pleasing God, you are not under the control of the Holy Spirit, but still under the control of your sinful nature. This also can be a cause of spiritual dryness. Again, Paul is writing to believers, not non-believers. It’s too bad that some believers feel as Popeye used to say, “I am what I am and that’s all I am.” This really is not the way the believer’s life should look like. There is a transformation that comes from a life lived full of the Holy Spirit.

The other night on the van, one of the younger students said, “You shouldn’t be talking like that on the church van.” It was interesting because she jumped in before I could even say a word. Here is a young life that is living life according to the Holy Spirit. She’s absolutely right. When we come to Christ, there should be something different about us, we should want to serve God, we should want to please Christ, we should want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Church, we are in need of revival – no, not a series of services, but a change in our hearts – we need new hearts – unblended eyes – and lives that are filled with the Holy Spirit – nothing less than holiness. Paul reminds us if we live by our sinful nature, we will die, we will only live if we live by the Holy Spirit. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. Are you His child this morning? Can others tell you are being led by the Spirit or are you being led by your sinful nature.