Ezekiel’s bones.

A very unexpected reflection on spiritual growth

Contents

Intro - where i yak about myself but point out why look at ezekiel’s ‘bones’

Them bones

Regrowing the body

Bringing the bones to life

Ruach entering

Messiah entering

Wrapping up

Intro - where i yak about myself but point out why look at ezekiel’s ‘bones’

Some of you may have gotten to know me a bit since i’ve come onto this site.

And you may shake your head at some of the things i say, but i do hope you see that i have one characteristic above everything, i base what i say on the Word and the Word only. If i see things which no-one else sees, ok, but i’m only talking about what i see in the Word, as defined by the OT and the NT, the generally accepted understanding of what that is, neither adding other books, nor taking away any.

I base my logic on God’s grace and power.

His grace, that He would make His Word available to all, and not to some select few, so that, in the common denominator of general acceptance, the OT and the NT, everything necessary to come to understanding is there.

His power, that, despite all attempts by the adversary to the contrary, nothing of the Word has been altered through all these years, understanding we’re talking about what is known as the interlinear version of the Word, the original, or oldest available, texts in Hebrew (mostly, for the Tanahk, the OT), and Greek (for the NT). 

How those writings came about, well in my opinion none of the authors of the books ever spoke their own words, this includes later ‘additions, amendments etc’, that’s to keep the scholars occupied, it’s always been God speaking. But that’s a discussion about the origin of the Word, i’m talking about the Word itself, once it had been ‘solidified’.

I say this because, quite simply, i believe, and have faith in God, and His Son, His Word.

If you wish, those ‘controversies’ on a scholarly level, plus the divisions that God allowed to occur inside the church organisations, councils, dogmas, translations etc, were all intended to produce diversion so that the adversary would, being the author of these diversions, think he’s winning his rebellion, sowing confusion and doubt, and so he thought there was no necessity to actually change the Word itself, or probably God simply didn’t let him, and the Word, which seems so vulnerable, like a sitting duck, came down through the centuries unscathed.(man, i like the way God works - Glory!).

So it should come as no surprise that i’ve never belonged to a church, or placed myself behind a movement, or way of thinking. I acknowledge nobody between me and the Father except the Son (the Word) and the Spirit (Ruach), and on this point, they do not stand between so much as in support, as an Elder Brother (said in full acknowledgement of supreme status and intercessory role - my King, Priest and Saviour) and a Mother.

Apart from them, i listen to everybody, i defer to none.

I do not desire to hear someone telling me to ‘know the Lord’, i desire the Word to be inscribed in my heart.

I work towards what i call (for the Bible tells me so…) ‘those days’.

And i think everyone should.

I’m NOT busy telling you to ‘know the Lord’, i’m busy imparting how does this circumscribing work. This inscribing in the heart.

And so, here’s where it hurts, because this is where you could cancel me, ghost me, switch off on me. i love you guys, i respond to your sincerity and effort, but i cannot say i am a torah-keeper.

Not because you’re wrong, not at all, but because you don’t go further. Everything you say, within generally accepted constraints, we all go off-topic on our own trajectory sometimes, has basis, but only while you live. 

And we’re supposed to die. That what we all aspire to ONLY happens when we die (i’m talking about that wonderful ‘impossibility’ (for us) of ‘to ourselves’, why impossible? Who of you, and i include myself, will comment hey henk, been there done that? Not sinning anymore are we? No clever arguments, please, this is serious.

So, the answer lies in ezekiel’s bones. Those bones! This is a matter of timing and feeling. I’ve felt the need to talk about this for a while now, and enough subject matters have been raised for the timing to feel right to broach the bones and weave in many things.

A cup of coffee or tea is a good accessory…

Them bones

Let me start quoting the Word now. Ezekiel 37, and that valley of dry bones.

I’m really going to go step by step on this. Please follow me, because let me tell you, you are NOT hearing what i’m going to say from those accepted as leaders of sheep in whatever form (not knocking them as much as they don’t see what they’re not looking for, i wasn’t either). 

*** Ezekiel 37 (everything BSB translation)

4And He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and tell them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5This is what the Lord GOD says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will come to life. 6I will attach tendons to you and make flesh grow upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath within you so that you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

7So I prophesied as I had been commanded. And as I prophesied, there was suddenly a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8As I looked on, tendons appeared on them, flesh grew, and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.

9Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and tell the breath that this is what the Lord GOD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, so that they may live!”

10So I prophesied as He had commanded me, and the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet—a vast army.

11Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’

12Therefore prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘O My people, I will open your graves and bring you up from them, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13Then you, My people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.’”

***

So, in an interesting twist, verse 11 tells us these dry bones are the whole house of israel.

Dead men walking. from the spiritual perspective, people still alive to the world are in reality dead. The dead components of their bodies are joined and (re-)grown. But, still dead, lacking breath.

and the Spirit (Ruach) must come to get them to live.

But first, how does this regrowing work? 

Regrowing the body

Let’s go to the NT, Colossians 2.

And no, i’m not going to go anti torah-keeping here, it’s just that paul’s confusing statements regarding torah-keeping are intertwined with what i now want to show you. Focus on verse 19. I do apologise for putting you through this.

*** Colossians 2

16Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. 17These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ. 18Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you with speculation about what he has seen. Such a person is puffed up without basis by his unspiritual mind. 19He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.

20If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations: 21“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”?

***

Verse 19 is describing how the spiritual body is (re-)growing, ezekiel’s dry bone regrowing.

And verse 20 mentions IF, very important that, one has died with Christ.

Again, i’m not going anti torah-keeping, although i will say that what is being said here must be included in one’s understanding of God, you can’t ignore pieces you don’t like.

So here obviously much deeper digging is required to figure out why it looks like the Law is being disrespected. It isn’t.

but right now we’re working on that new spiritual body.

So, joints and ligaments regrown on the dry bones, but lacking breath. Not alive yet.

Bringing the bones to life

Now it gets really interesting.

How does the breath come into the dead spiritual body?

*** Romans 8

9You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

***

Well, the Spirit of God needs to live in you, says verse 9, and then it says without the Spirit of Christ one does not belong to Christ (remember Col 2:20 mentioning IF one has died with Christ).

(Yes, i am saying the Spirit of Christ is not the Spirit of God. the Spirit of God is IN Christ, and therefore in the Spirit of Christ too. Read carefully, and go look at the only other mention of the Spirit of Christ.)

Verse 10 says that once Christ, ie His Spirit, is IN you, then your spirit is alive, ie, now the Spirit of God also lives in you.

(So this makes a distinction when the Word talks of the Spirit only (and apart from those two mentions of the Spirit of Christ, all mentions of the Spirit are referring to the Ruach), and when it talks of the Spirit ‘living in you’.) 

How does THAT work?

This first part should be familiar territory, so i’ll skip quotes.

Messiah tells us we can’t enter the Kingdom unless we are born a second time.

This happens when Father calls us out of egypt, and we are baptised by Messiah’s baptism, the baptism of the Spirit (of God, Ruach, not of Christ).

So, we have now been spiritually born, OF the Spirit, but the Spirit does not live in us yet, in fact the stage we’re going through from birth is the dead bones having the joints and ligaments being regrown to make the, as of yet, dead body whole. No breathe yet.

The only person on whom the Spirit descended and remained (living IN Him) is Messiah.

What i’m starting to say here is that a huge part of our walk in the Way, our very growing  in the Spirit (which we do understand we are experiencing), is happening BEFORE we live in the Spirit, we are still growing Ezekiel’s dead bones, joints, ligaments, flesh, skin etc.  

And so, one can understand better why, while we know we’re growing in the Spirit, we still have such a problem rejecting the world, a problem dying to it in fact. Because we are still alive to it while we grow our spiritual body, because it, while growing, is still dead, no breath.

THIS is what no-one is looking for, to hear this.

Your spiritual body only comes alive once fully grown.

In a beautiful mirroring, physically at birth the Breathe of life (Ruach) is breathed in us, and we grow to our fullness, our adult bodies. And then spiritually from birth we grow to our fullness, and then the Breathe (Ruach) ENTERS us. At last it lives IN us.

Ruach entering

Let me show you something.

And at the same time, settle the argument which came first, the chicken or the egg?

*** Genesis 2

7Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being

***

So the Ruach breathes the breath of life in us. Dig a bit and you’ll see that the word ‘breathed’ in this passage refers to the action happening via the Ruach. Now as the very first man, we presume adam was fully formed, that the very first formation was a full one, kickstarting mankind, as it were. But he was fully formed from dust of the ground, not living flesh and blood till the Ruach breathed life into him. the chicken came first. but when they made children, they came out as eggs, sorry, babies, receiving the breath of life (as embryo or with the first lungful, doesn’t matter, life comes first) and then growing. Only adam and eve did not as such need to grow. This is presumption, as Genesis simply does not go into detail about this. But we do know how babies are made.

And now careful reading shows something. Back to ezekiel’s passage. Zooming in.

***Ezekiel 37

9Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and tell the breath that this is what the Lord GOD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, so that they may live!”

10So I prophesied as He had commanded me, and the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet—a vast army.

***

Super-interesting, because in verse 9 God commands the Breath (Ruach) to BREATHE into these slain, in the same manner as adam was brought to life.

But in verse 10, seemingly in disobedience to God’s command, what happens? The Breath ENTERS them.

And to quickly still the incredulity that could engender, verse 14

***

14I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.’”

***

Phew, God is now telling ezekiel to prophesy to His people, and confirms the Breath, the Ruach, the Spirit of God, DID do what God wanted after all, because He wants His Spirit IN His people. (it’s worded like this precisely so that one has to work at understanding, at first one doesn’t even see anything strange)

It takes careful reading and a desire to know to get to this. Do please remember, it is always only opening the ears to what the Spirit, our Helper, is whispering to us.

The question is, did we WANT to know this, that our growing spirit does not yet live?

Well, if you want to understand how things work, yes.

But this was still prophecy, to ezekiel. The Messiah had not yet come. But now He has, and i’ve explained that what’s needed is for Him, having the Ruach in Him, to now enter us.

Messiah entering

Why does it require Ruach to enter via Messiah?

*** Jeremiah 31

 33“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, declares the LORD.

I will put My law in their minds

and inscribe it on their hearts.

And I will be their God,

and they will be My people.

***

In jeremiah Messiah, as the Word, the fulfillment of the Law, or the fulfilled Law, is ‘what’ God is promising to put in our minds and inscribe on our hearts. Not Ruach, which is what ezekiel is talking about. And the NT is showing us both things working out to fulfill God’s Word. 

Our spirit coming to life, occurring after our spiritual growth, happens as close as it can be to the end of the Way we walk.

And that is when the Word talks of it happening.

Now i have to place an emphasis on the nature of the Spirit of God. i have written about this in other places, so i’m not going to get exhaustive about it (i hear the sigh of relief) but, in short.

The Spirit of God is a seven-fold Spirit. When we are born spiritually we get born OF that seven-fold Spirit IN its image, ie we are ourselves a seven-fold spirit. The occurrence of 7, as it pertains to us, is always referring to our spiritual nature.

Understanding that, and looking at the seven churches of revelation, i say we’re talking about exactly that growth we’re going through in each message to each church, or aspect, of our seven-fold spirit. And it is only in the message to the last church, laodicea, that He says, 

*** Revelation 3

20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me. 21To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

***

Right at the end, either as last step before overcoming, or once having overcome, He knocks, and if we open the door, He comes IN.

Our bones come to life at last.

and here we also see that it is not WE who take the step that brings the Spirit into us to make us live, but Messiah initiates it. As it should be.

And now, placing an emphasis on the topography of the Way, again, in short.

The Way takes us through 4 areas, known through the israelites journey as egypt, the wilderness (or assyria, but i’m keeping it short), canaan (later renamed israel) and jerusalem.

The characteristics of these areas are what impact on us as we walk through them on our Way. and, for clarity, they impact in turn on the respective parts of our seven-fold spirit, built up in the four-fold description - 3 pairs and one. Go look at isaiah’s depiction in ch 11 of the seven-fold spirit, and exodus 25’s depiction of the menorah.

Now, the 4 Gospels are reflecting these 4 areas too.

While we live in a dead, growing spirit body (weird to think of like that, i know) the three synoptics enjoin us at the Last Supper to take the bread and drink of the cup, which luke tells us is to remember Messiah, because He’s not in us yet.

But john, depicting the Last Supper, drops any requirement to remember Him, it’s not needed, once He’s LIVING in us. Us, we, LIVING spirits now.

Wrapping up

People, i was not looking for this, an understanding that we are still dead while we spiritually grow. Some of  you noticed i recently came across a new thing (the distinction between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ) and was blown away by it.

This is why, because this last piece of the puzzle made me look at something i was NOT looking to see. You might as well say, wanting to see.

But, if you can see what i’m talking about, and think about many other things, things start falling into place.

Let me mention a last something, because it’s important.

God the Father chooses who He calls, our first election (of israel) . We then choose how our walk goes on the Way that we enter, once elected. how, if, we grow. But we don’t get to choose if the Spirit lives in us or not. That choice Messiah makes there at the end, our second election (of revelation). Of course He’s not in disagreement with the Father in this.

Keep in mind, 

*** Matthew 7

22Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!

***

Are you sure they weren’t initially called?

I have given AN understanding of how does this circumscribing work.  Thank you for your attention.

This article could not have been written without Ruach.