July 20, 2010
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Ezekiel 37 by Pastor Don Moore
Friday Bible Study notes from June 18, 2010
God is going to save the House of Israel in the Last Days, we need to read the heart of His message. God is speaking about a time in the future after the dispersion (there is a near and far prophesy in this passage). It may not look in the natural the way God is describing it, but in the supernatural God is calling the Jews to return. There will be a remnant in Israel. There has been a move of Christianity over the whole World, but there will come a time when Jews will go to Yeshua and say that He is their Messiah. We are ingrafted into the vine of the Jews, but one day all will be on the same vine as ONE NEW MAN.
Ezekiel 38 speaks of the nature of the Islamic people, marshalled supernaturally against Israel, and God’s judgment upon them.
The dry bone scenario reflects spiritually to Israel, but there is a parallel for the Church, for the Church is also dry.
Ezekiel is instructed to SPEAK to the bones, we need to speak more, for God moves on those who hear His voice – you can’t hear His voice if you are not speaking it out loud. We don’t need to think more, we need to SPEAK God’s Words.
Be careful about deciding who we think will be going to Heaven or not. Look beyond the name over the door and outward appearances. Why stay “dry” when food and water (Word of God) is served.
Someone asked about cremation, and Pastor Don said that he would answer but did not want people panicking over historical choices that were made by themselves or other family matters. No matter what decision we made in error before we knew the facts, there is nothing impossible for God, and if someone was cremated, there is no reason why God cannot restore their bodies in the rapture. Don’t forget that some people have died in fires, were martyred in fire, buried at sea, etc. and God can restore them. But with knowledge and a chance to choose, we may want to make a different decision regarding cremation. Here is what he said. The Judeo-Christian religion buried their dead, not cremated them. Only evil people got burned. Pagans and idol worshippers got burned. Jews and early Christians buried their dead and after a year, when the body decomposed, the bones were dug up and put into a bone box and stored in a crypt. Joseph requested that his bones NOT remain in Egypt.
Pastor Don continued, we did not make our bodies so we have no right to destroy them. We want to avoid cremation, and choose burial. Right now there is a push to cremate, and most people choose cremation because of financial reasons, it is cheaper. People did not remember that cremation was a pagan thing. But with knowledge that we have, choosing burial is the right thing to do. But God can find anyone, with just a tiny piece of DNA. And God will find those lost at sea, and however their bodies have been destroyed. Nothing is too hard for God. But we are responsible for what we know, and God expects us to take action accordingly
We have a blood covenant with God. The devil wants us to take authority over our bodies as if we are God. While there is no place in scripture that specifically denies cremation or specifically states burial as a law we can see what was done in the past and act accordingly.
Pastor Don then continued with Ezekiel 37 saying that today the church is dead, for they are not operating under the Word or the power of God.
Acts 1:5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
The Baptism of the Holy is not about being born again. After the Baptism of repentance which was the Baptism of John, we have other baptisms available to us. There are five: Baptism into faith (born again), Baptism into Christ, Baptism in the Father, Baptism into the Body of Christ, and Baptism of the Holy Spirit. (Pastor Don taught on these in another Bible study. You can find this study at this link.)
The baptism of John and the baptism of the Holy Spirit are different.
The Bible is its own dictionary. The Word of God is the Water of God.
The amount of light is based on your obedience and yielding. This means you need to suppress part of your natural life and yield to receive something from the Spirit that you may not understand.
Baptized means whelmed, immersed.
Obedience = you yield your decision process, yield to the unknown, not know where or when.Acts 1:6-7 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
Jesus is not talking about restoring the kingdom at that time, it has to do with yielding obedience and seeing the supernatural situation, the big picture. Focusing only on the natural weapon causes us to stop receiving from God.
Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
It is not only focusing on the theological issues, but stepping out in obedience. We will have power. This is not the Greek word “exusia” which means authority, but rather “dunamis” which implies power, dynamite power to enable us to do what God has commanded.
Pastor Don gave the example of a policeman in a uniform stopping traffic. His uniform provides exusia, or authority, which causes the traffic to stop. If a car decided to not obey the authority of the policeman his uniform would not protect him from injury, but the authority that the uniform represents is what exusia is.
The word “exusia” is used in John 1:12 NKJV But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
John 1:12 KJV But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name
The word “right” and “power” is exusia.
The problem is that exusia and dunamis were both translated indiscriminately as power or authority, which obscured the real meanings of some of the verses.
John 1:12 speaks of “as many as received him.”
Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
This word “power” is “dunamis”. Everyone has the Holy Spirit when they are born again, but that doesn’t mean that they have the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus wanted them to become witnesses to the Lord, and that comes with “dunamis” or power. Jesus demonstrated power through what He did in signs and wonders.
When we are born again we realize that 100% of spiritual/physical attacks are demonic and we need to apply our faith. God will not put sickness on a person, but He can take away His hand of protection and permit satan to affect a person. God gives life and gives it more abundantly. We also open the way to sickness and death when we disobey God or sin, for then we open a way for satan to attack us.
Acts 2:1-4 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, andone sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The sound of the mighty wind of Heaven
The first outpouring of the Holy Spirit came to 120 members in the upper room – male and female. Women were included, even though women were not accorded much respect in Jewish tradition – they could not testify in court, etc. The fire that came upon those people was powerful, and most of them were martyred. When we ask the “fire of the Holy Spirit” to fall, we need to be careful, for the fire on the heads of the 120 were the ones martyred. The fire would have appeared like heat waves. The fire was purging them of the leaven of the Jews and the churches grew, and the biases.
Acts 2:17-18 (see above) speaks of the sons and daughters prophesying – speaking forth the word of God. Prophesying can be either preaching the Word of God or speaking of the future. This happened also to the men and maid servants.
For prophesy to be accurate, it must be accompanied with the renewing of the mind and confidence in the power of God.
God gives us an anointing to give us power to have the authority to go to the next level. There is a transference of the anointing.
God certifies and equips us to do what He wants us to do.
If the Church is doing stuff that is not what God called the Church to do, God will not provide the anointing to do something other than what He wants the Church to do.
In Acts we never see the experience of the tongues of flame again.
In the 1930′s a major church meeting in Munich had a similar experience and many of the members were martyred.
After a vision and experiences the 120 in the upper room were empowered to do what God wanted done, if they did not have that power from God they would have failed.
What is important is obedience and yielding.
To obey you have to yield then you can receive. To yield we have to bypass our carnal nature.
Luke 3:16-17 John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Spiritually this is the same fire, but literal, not the same experience as the Apostles had in the Upper room.
The Holy Spirit is the source of equipping of the saints. the Holy Spirit experience is the same even if you don’t see flames, for it is the purging fire of the Holy Spirit. We need to be aware of everything that gets in the way of the Holy Spirit to do His will with you and through you.
For the Holy Spirit to trust us with power to be effective, we need to not only talk the talk but walk the walk. We may not understand or like what it is that we are to do, but we want to obey Him. We have the same power down here that is in Heaven.
Galatians speaks about grieving the Holy Spirit. We can also refuse to yield and obey what God is telling us to do.
There are things (sinful or distracting us from God’s purpose) that we can do when we are born again, that once the Holy Spirit comes within us, we can no longer do. We are convicted of things that before God had not shown us needed to be changed. (Note from Heather, a few summers ago I got addicted to doing Sodoku puzzles – the number puzzles. I found myself doing them far too many hours of the day and neglecting the reading and writing that I should have been doing for God. The Holy Spirit convicted me of stopping doing those puzzles. I threw out all the books and increased my productivity, while not sinful, it was a distraction.)
Pastor Don spoke of it as, “New level, new devil.” Every uncleanness has to go as we move to new levels. More will be required of us as we advance in the Kingdom.
Someone asked Pastor Don about the demoniac of the Gadarines, wondering why Jesus put the demoniac spirits into pigs, then the pigs ran over the cliff and drowned in the water. Pastor Don explained that pigs were considered unclean animals by the Jews, they were scavengers who ate anything left out for them. The sons of Gad asked for land on the side of the Jordan opposite of the Promised Land. They did not cross over to occupy. As time went by the tribe of Gad began to raise pigs, unclean animals according to the laws of God. The demons asked Jesus if he had come before His time, for they knew that their time on earth was limited. Jesus was not coming as God, but as man, so he commanded the demons to leave the man. The demons 5000 to 6000 demons were in this man, and they asked to be put into the pigs, for demons want a body to inhabit. But once they inhabit a body they seek to destroy it. So the pigs went over the cliff and died. Demons seek to kill and destroy whom they can. The Gadarines asked Jesus to leave the area.
Jesus sent them a powerful message of lining up with the will of God, but they refused to do so.
I love our Bible studies because we are free to ask questions and discuss what we have learned. They are awesome studies and we always come away filled with so much information from the Word that we can apply to our lives.
I pray you are abundantly blessed today.
Heather
Comments (3)
Very interesting, when I was a teenager my Dad died, he was Hebrew and didn’t like Yashua at all. He told me once all the problems are related to Jesus and once that the Romans were paid off to say He had risen. After his death my Dad came to me in a dream, he told me he was wrong about Jesus (I don’t like calling him a nickname) and the numbers, three, seven, shaky bones; I had no idea but understood their was more to Yashua. I found “shaky bones” in Ezekiel and they are in the 37th chapter. I think the verse is very important;looks like Pastor Dan does too.
Shalom
@ONEVOICEtalk -
Yes, I had not heard the term”shaky bones” but dry bones. I am going to check out my concordance to see if that is part of the definition of the word used. They are very important. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years until all the youth were adults, and the ones that did not believe God about the Promised Land died. God can revive those, and will in the Last Days, nothing is too difficult for Him. I pray your father found Yashua, and was blessed, it is possible, for we do not know what happens in those moments before death. And he was right, the Romans were paid to say that his bones were stolen, not that He was risen. Yes, we have spent many weeks on Ezekiel 37, it is prophetic for our time. Peace to you as well. May Yashua bless you abundantly!
Heather
I think more than the single word if you read the context of the story, I’m sure Dad was pointing me to that promise. Funny you should say that, actually, hours before he died he asked to see my older sister, he told her he was leaving with Jesus, told her he could see him waiting for him; she never told the rest of us, until she was saved, 20 years after his death. Thank, have fun, the end is near, Keep looking up!