Can Our Dry Bones Live?

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old boy whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry.” 

On Wednesday, October 4, 2000, God somehow powerfully touched my heart with His, and for three and a half hours, God allowed me to help Him cry over our nation.

Though I have often asked God for His heart toward America, I was in no way ready for the intensity with which it came that night. As I felt God’s aching heart for America, I thought my own heart would break in two. I didn’t know it was possible to weep from so deep within. It was not from my head or my emotions; it was from deep in my heart. 

An important result of my experience was a fresh awareness of the incredible passion of the Lord to save. I already knew God desired to save America. He had been challenging me for the past few years to believe Him for the saving of this nation, for genuine revival and a great harvest of souls. But on this particular evening, it was different. I literally felt God’s breaking heart aching to save and heal America.

In my prayers for our nation, the Lord has often led me to Ezekiel 37. In this passage He uses a graveyard of dry bones to reveal Israel’s spiritually dead condition to the prophet Ezekiel. As the prophet gazed upon these dry bones, the Lord asked him an interesting question: “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel, not knowing how to respond, simply said, “Oh Lord God, You know” (see Ezek 37:3). God’s response was to have Ezekiel prophesy to the bones, declare to them, and later to have the wind of Holy Spirit breathe life into the bones. In the vision, the bones came together, and the wind – or breath – of God’s Spirit came to them, bringing life.

As I said, God has often led me to this passage. It seems I am prompted with the same question about America that God asked Ezekiel regarding Israel: Can these bones live? I have always tried to summon faith and believe America will indeed receive a revival resulting in Resurrection life. But I must admit, there have been times of wavering in which I’ve found it difficult to believe. 

However, on that aforementioned evening, something changed. I actually felt God’s passion to save our nation. I identified with His aching heart so strongly that my faith was lifted to a new level. I knew beyond any doubt that the dry bones of America could live, because God desperately wants to save this nation.

I am fully persuaded that millions of people will be saved in America over the next several years. As God comes to bring salvation to our nation that salvation, however, will come one individual at a time. Those born again will be our fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, friends, neighbors, and leaders. They will have names and faces known personally by God.

I want to encourage your faith that God really does want to save those dear to you. I want your faith to be lifted to a new level. I have found that where faith for the salvation of the lost is concerned, unbelief controls much of the church. We ask God to send revival and save people but deep in our hearts find it hard to believe. Perhaps it’s because we’ve prayed and waited so long we are no longer convinced God really will do it.

I want you to be so convinced God will save the one for whom you pray that you would be shocked if they didn’t get saved. I want you to believe God is so passionately in love with people that when you cry for those you love, you realize you’re really helping Him cry.

Pray with me:

Father, we thank You for Your heart to save. You are gracious, so kind and it is not Your will for any to perish. You loved the world so much that You gave your Son to save us. And Jesus, You loved us so much that while we were still sinners, You died for us. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

We pray for those who do not yet know You. We are certain You want to save and heal them. Even those who are enemies of Yours, You love them and want to save them. We ask You to send Holy Spirit, draw each of them and open their eyes. We ask that angels be sent to minister to them. We pray to the Lord of the harvest that He would send laborers to them, just as You instructed us.

We refuse to believe that You cannot do this. We also refuse to believe that You cannot save our nation. We have already aligned ourselves with Your decree: America shall be saved. And now we ask You for signs, wonders, and miracles to begin in order to awaken this nation. Give us a great, great wave of supernatural manifestations of who You are. Demonstrate to the world the truth of who Jesus is by healing, working miracles in His name. We thank you for these things, Father, and we believe them. In Jesus’ name we pray them. Amen.

“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.’” 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. (Ezekiel 37: 9-10)

Our decree:

We decree that God is coming to save millions of people in America, and a billion people around the world!