John Gray - It's In The Bones
I want you to know that you are sitting in the middle of a pregnant moment. You are sitting in the middle of a pregnant moment. The moment is pregnant. I know some of y'all saying I ain't having no more babies. I don't receive this. Where is this going? That is not the word of the Lord. I said the moment is pregnant which means there is potential in the atmosphere for you to push forth something unusual, supernatural, necessary, essential for the Kingdom of God to be further established and the name of God to be lifted higher. Your life as I've said a number of times is a glory story and there are people that are waiting on the thing inside of you to get to the next level.
Do you understand that you are the miracle somebody else is looking for? Amen to the 26 people who believe that. No, no, no. I don't want to clap. I want you to receive it. I really do. I want you to hear what I'm saying. I know you're saying I don't feel like a miracle. You haven't seen my cupboard. My cupboards are bare. You haven't seen my bills. You haven't sign my life. But you're alive, and every breath that you breathe in and out is a miracle. You are someone else's miracle. And if you can just push through the trials and push through the pain and push through the tough areas and push through the developmental moments you are going to see just how much somebody else needs what you carry, and not only what you carry, just who you are. This is a season where who you are carries value. This is a free one.
In this season, stop trying to be something to please people. This is not the season of performance. This is the season of position. This is not the season for you to tap dance to please those in your external circle. This is the season to stay planted and say take me as I am or please move out of the way. This is that season. I'm the enough for the people that God has called to my life. If I'm not enough, then find somebody else, but I'm not changing who I am to fit who you are or what you think you need. I'm moving in the direction that God has called me to.
Either walk with me or move, devil. Get out the way. Get out the way. Get out the way. I've been complacent. I'd like to confess that through the busyness of life and through all the different things that have kind of been hitting me from every angle, I've gotten complacent in my, in my spiritual aggression. I've become a little dormant. Dare I say almost muted. Certain things that have been happening, oh, that's just life or it's just another infection for my baby or another round of antibiotics or oh, this nagging ache and pain. I guess that's been there for a while. I guess that will stay. Oh, there's another one. Oh.
Okay. Well, I guess that's all right. I am 40 so after all, and then well, okay. Now my wife is not feeling so hot. It's just a change in the weather. And God is saying, wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up! And understand John 10: 10. The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. You know the only one that doesn't take time off is the enemy? He stays on task. It's the people of God that take breaks. He never clocks out. And we attempt to anesthetize our pain, and I understand the nature of pain, and I understand the nature of turmoil, and I understand the nature of stress, and we are not different from people who don't come to church. We just have an anchor that they are not yet connected to.
So many people attempt to anesthetize their pain. I'm not saying that it's okay, but I understand why people drink, to try to alleviate their sorrows. I understand why people use drugs, to medicate pain. I understand why people step away from their relationship in hopes that they can find something that they're not getting at home. I didn't say I agree, but I understand it. There's no judgment here. We all have something that the enemy is trying to press on, but in this season no more medicating the external thing and let's get to the root of the thing so we can get free indeed because that's what Jesus promised according to his word. Does anybody believe that tonight?
I am a product of a praying mother and a praying grandmother. I am the product of women of faith who believed beyond hope that God could redeem a family through one seed that would serve God. I am the product of somebody who was relentless in prayer, times when I would try to go out and hang out and try to fit in which, by the way, doesn't work. And if I'm talking to you, I want you to hear me. You've been trying to fit in. You 43 just in the club. You look so out of place. Would you go home please? You don't even know the dances no more. You just in there, with a girdle on just in there. Would you please go home?
You are trying to be something you were never called to be. You stick out because you were always called to stick out. You're different. You're distinct. You peculiar. You're beautiful. You don't fit in. The people who try to talk to you are not even on your level. You have to stoop down emotionally just to get what they're saying. I'm talking to somebody in here, but I understand why we do what we do because after all, after we're just human. The songwriter declared we're just ordinary people. We don't know which way to go. We're just ordinary people, we don't know which way to go...
But I'm tired of medicating my pain. I'm tired of running from the root issues. Jesus didn't die for me to have anesthesia. He died for me to be free. Jesus is not novoCaine because even if they numb the pain, the root is still there. I need somebody to do surgery at the root so that when I leave here I know I'm free. There are miracles in this church tonight, and I'm prophesying that there are miracles in this church. There is healing in this church for that man right there. There's full healing, not medication, healing. I'm talking miracles.
I'm talking to somebody other than him that needs to hear tonight there is healing for you. I'm not encouraging you. I am prophesying full restoration in mind, body, and soul. No more medicating the pain and no more just treating the external. I want and I believe that tonight is a night of breakthrough miracle healing at the very foundational level of your cells.
I shared at the beginning of the message, I want to reiterate it again, I'm going to be a little more aggressive in my vocal cadence tonight, and I'm not speaking to you. I'm speaking to the thing that's fighting you. You know, after a while you've gone through things and you've gone through pain, it's hard to whisper devil, I've had enough. You leave me alone right now. I'm not playing. Weren't you saying God is fighting for us. What? God is fighting for us. Lighting up the darkness. Lighting up the kingdom. That can not be shaken. In the name of Jesus. Enemies defeated and we...
Now here is what's funny. God is fighting. We shouting. Talk to me, Jericho. I didn't push the wall. I just shouted. God knocked the wall over. So you're telling me that my voice, my tone of voice, my posture, my position can literally move things in the spirit? Are you telling me that in this moment tonight right now in the next 15 minutes that the posture of my faith mixed with the words of my mouth and the power of the living God can turn my situation around?
Do you think that I'm going to sit quiet while the enemy has been loudly beating up my family, beating up my body, attacking my marriage, attacking my children? Do you assume that I am concerned about whether or not you think I'm crazy when the enemy is trying to steal my peace, my joy, my mind? Every now and again God requires for us to mix with his power the words of our mouth. This is not an external word. I want this word to get in your spirit. Have you ever been in love? Ah. Clearly she's single. She was like oh, with Jesus! I love you. Talking about with another human that's here. You know what I'm saying? Jesus takes me to the mall. And we walk around and he buys me clothes.
That's my Jesus. As a matter of fact, it's baby Jesus. I put him in a stroller and he speaks to the store. Stop. Y'all laughing. I don't have a lot of time. Played too much. Have you ever been in love? Whose been in love, just like love? Remember the first time you were in love like when you were a teenager and it was that one person. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. They walking passed my locker. Shh. Here they come. I want this word to get in your spirit. I want this thing to get deep down in your soul because there are some things that the enemy has laid waste to that because of his attack you thought it was over. You let it go. You buried it. But I'm going to take you to Ezekiel 37 because tonight I want you to know that if there's any part of it left, it's about to become alive.
I'm tired of bills winning. I'm tired of debt winning. I'm tired of drama winning. I'm ready for that stuff to die, and I'm ready for the thing God has declared to live. Am I the only one, do I have some people that believe that the Word of God is for you and active on your behalf? I want you to go to Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37. It says this, "The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley: and it was full of bones".
Ain't nothing like the valley, and I heard pastor Joel say a few weeks ago, "God only brings you to the valley to take you to a higher mountain". And I thank God for the higher mountain, but sometimes the valley is so hard. I know I'm not the only one but I'm gonna tell you I've hit some valleys. I've been in the valley. I know what it's like to say God, how are you going to fix this? How are you going to get me out of this? God, help. Sometimes that's the only prayer you can get out. You know, I almost tonight I wanted to get to doctor Paul. I'm like, just pray for me, but I didn't want to do it because I was like people are going to be like, what's he need prayer for? What did he do? Did he fall?
Listening, stop worrying about what I did. Just know I'm man enough to know I can't do it alone. And I want to encourage every other man. A lot of times man suffer in silence. Men of God, find somebody you can trust. Find accountability partners, men you can't lie to, men that can look you in your face and you're like hey, man, I'm blessed. I'm highly favored. Man, quit lying. You're right, man. I'm tore up. I can't do it. Oh. Find some people that you can't lie to. Find some folk that will walk with you and keep you covered. In this season, you need people who love you, who have discernment and who also have discretion. This is not the season for leaky friends.
"Set me down in the middle of a valley: it was full of bones. He led me all around them: there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry".
They weren't just dry. They were very dry as in parched, as in drought, as in no moisture, as in water is life. There's no water, there's no moisture, there's nothing. It's just bones. It's dry. The meat is gone. You ate the ribs. Short end sandwich with the white bread with the sauce on it if you know what I'm talking about. All there's left is the bones. There's nothing. It's dry. It's over. It's finished. The relationship is through. Y'all broke up. Don't call here no more. Love don't live here anymore. Don't call. Don't write. It's over.
Sir, this report is irrevocable. There's nothing medicine can do. It's over. I'm sorry. The growth is out of control. It's a tumor we can't operate on. It's over. I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do. There are no more positions to be filled. It's over. I'm sorry. Your children will not be able to come back to this school. You haven't paid the bill in six months. I'm sorry. It's over. Let's get that car back. You haven't paid it in three months. Now you're hiding the car at your cousin's friends house on your daddy's side because they don't know that address.
If anybody knows what I'm talking about, holler at your boy. It's over! In the middle of a valley of impossibility, God asks an astounding question. Son of man, can these bones live? And Ezekiel's response is, oh Lord God, you know. That was a nice one how he just threw it back. He was like, you know because I don't. Watch God's response:
"Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: 'o dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!'"
If you're reading from the new King James, there's an exclamation, pastor Nick. There's an exclamation after that sentence that God told Ezekiel to speak. When there is an exclamation, that means there is emphasis on those words. That means your volume is elevated. That means you are more emphatic. You are more direct. You're not scared when there's an exclamation and a direct statement. Maybe if it was a question, maybe there could be a little fear, but a direct statement from God? He said hey, I want you to prophesy to the impossible, and I want you to say to it, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! And this is what you need to get in your spirit.
Why did God tell Ezekiel to say, oh dry bones, hear? Because the last time I checked ears are made of cartilage. But he said tell the bones to hear which means your bones have ears. The thing that's laying dead in the valley can hear you. I feel the Holy Ghost on a Wednesday. It doesn't look like it should be able to respond to you. It's been dead too long. Huh. It doesn't look like it should get any better. It's beyond repair. Huh! But it only looks that way. God said, son of man, prophecy to the bones and say hey! Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! And the bones that don't look like they have ears somehow perk up. I know you want to act right because you don't want to scare your neighbor. I don't blame you. Hold on for just a second.
"Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live: and you shall know that I am the Lord".
I haven't given you my title and my sermon is almost over. My title is "It's in the bones". I'm talking to any dreamers in here. It's in the bones. Yo, Patrick, I'm talking to the business owners. It's in the bones. You say well, my business failed. You're still a business owner. It's in the bones. It didn't fail. It's just dormant in the valley. It's in the bones. But they ran off with my portion of the money. No, no, no. That was a seed. The harvest has to come back. It's in the bones.