The Power of Hope

HOPE IN THE VALLEY OF BONES

“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

And caused me to pass by them round about: and behold, there were many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry.

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered O lord GOD, thou knowest.

Again he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD

Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; behold, I will cause breadth to enter into you, and ye shall live.” Ezekiel 37:1-5

 Adversity is part of the human journey. Whether it is dealing with the loss of a loved one or facing the reality of an uncertain future, we all sometimes face some crisis that pushes us to the brink.

Ezekiel 37 featured one of the most powerful scenarios where God demonstrated His immense power and ability to bring life out of dry or hopeless situations.

In this story, God called out Ezekiel into a valley full of dry bones, and these bones were the remains of dead Jews.

In verse 3 of this passage, God asked Ezekiel if the dry bones he saw in the open valley could ever live again.

His answer was: “O Lord God, thou knowest.”

The dry bones in this story represent hopeless and impossible situations that we all sometimes find ourselves in.

It could mean the loss of a job, divorce, chronic ailment, loss of a loved one etc.

The same question God asked Ezekiel, I believe He’s asking us today: “my son, my daughter, can these bones live again?”

The story of the dry bones was indeed a true story of the nation of Israel.

At the time Ezekiel received this vision from God, a large number of Israelis were refugees in nations across the known world.

They were taken into captivity because they refuse to honour God and change from their evil ways.

The whole nation of them was scattered and journeyed as far as Africa, India, and other parts of the world.

Israel was the scorn of the world; a byword among many nations. Even in their prosperity in captivity, their host nations did not spare them from persecution.

In our recent history for example, it was the only nation that suffered so much humiliation and hatred to the point of total annihilation.

During Hitler’s reign of terror in Europe and Germany in particular, more than six million Jews were executed in gas chambers.

The Russian pogroms also saw many thousands of Jewish people killed and their properties destroyed. Many children were rendered, orphans.

The shame and disgrace of God’s people were unimaginable! There was little hope of returning to their homeland in Israel.

 Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

 Therefore, prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the lord GOD; Behold, O my people I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel”. Ezekiel 37:11-12

According to verse 11, the nation of Israel had completely lost any hope of ever returning to their own country. They said” our bones are dried and our hope is lost.”

Are you in a financial or health situation that looks like any hope of restoration or recovery is non-existent? Keep your eyes on the Lord. He is your everlasting hope.

In Verse 10 of Ezekiel 37, the Bible says: “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great Army.”

GOD IS A RESTORER

It’s so amazing how God leads us on the path of restoration. God’s plan and intention are for us to grow up as sons and not slaves.

His intention is not for us to remain babies who only depend on milk for our survival. God wanted Ezekiel to be part of the process of the impossible becoming possible.

He challenged him to speak in faith to the bones so they would live again. God has the power to restore, but he can’t do it without our participation.

The process of restoration begins with confession. Your declaration is the first step to the impossible becoming possible.

What you see in the physical should never take away what is possible in the Spirit. As Paul encourages us in the following verse:

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”2 Corinthians 4:18

We’re human beings filled with the Spirit of the Living God. “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

Psalm 146:5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,

Psalm 42:11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

When we fix our eyes on God and not on the problem, hope rises within our hearts.

Ezekiel, in spite of his feelings obeyed the Lord and prophesied as God commanded. The bones came together, flesh came over them.

Ezekiel also prophesied breath into the bones just as God commanded him. Motivated by the first miracle, he refused to let his emotion overcome his faith.

He spoke life into the dead and dry bones and just as he spoke, life came into them; they stood up and became a mighty army. Hallelujah!

THE REBIRTH OF A NATION

Thousands of years after the vision of Ezekiel, a miracle took place in New York. On the 14^th of May 1948, during a unanimous vote in the United Nation general assembly, Israel was declared a nation.

All the Jews scattered across the globe began a mass exodus into the holy land.

On the eve of the declaration of Israel’s independence, Arab nations of Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia surrounded Israel in a brutal War but were miraculously repelled and subdued by Israel.

Thousands of years before Israel became a nation in 1948, God opened the eyes of Prophet Ezekiel to see what we are now seeing with our eyes today. He told Ezekiel to prophesy on the dry bones of Israel.

When he prophesied as God commanded, flesh came on the dry bones. Life was restored into the bones; they rose up and became a mighty army as Ezekiel prophesied.

Today, Israel is no longer the shame of the world. Although many countries in the Middle East still refuse to recognise and work with Israel, they simply cannot deny her immense power and place in world affairs.

Recently, many Arab countries that were once enemies of the Jewish nation are beginning to form ties with Israel. In 2022, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, Morocco Jordan and more have diplomatic ties with the nation of Israel.

When the LORD takes pleasure in anyone’s way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them. Proverb 16:7

 Israel possesses one of the most powerful military might in the world. Apart from her military strength, Israel’s Technological prowess and ingenuity are sought after by many heads of state, including Muslim nations around the world.

Indeed, God can restore hope in dead situations. What seems hopeless and dead in your life right now can receive the breath of God if you can see through the eyes of the Father.

 WHAT IS HOPE?

 An Oxford learner’s dictionary defines hope as a belief that something you want will happen.

Jeremiah 14:22 NIV

²² Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, Lord our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this.

 The cause of hopelessness in our world is rooted in unbelief in the living God.

Oxford dictionary defines hope as a belief that something you want or desire will happen.

Who should we believe or trust to make things happen for us? God. When we move our eyes away from God, and we trust man, we descend into a bottomless pit.

Sky themselves don’t just send rain as a result of precipitation. Who created precipitation? Our Hope should be in God.

Disappointment can trigger hopelessness. When you take your eyes away from the Lord and make a man your source, you’re heading for disappointment.

The word of God warns us against putting our trust in people.

Jeremiah 17:5-6

⁵ This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶ That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

HOPE VS TRUST

It is absolutely impossible to understand the concept of faith and its operations without first understanding the subject of trust.

Hope, as revealed in the definition above is a belief that something you desire will happen.

Trust on the other hand is a FIRM belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.

Hope mixed with trust in the living God is a sure way to win life battles. Trust never happens overnight, it takes time and patience to develop.

The reason you won’t open your door to strangers is because of the risk of being hurt.

We must invest in our relationship with God to get to that level of absolute trust in the Lord. For example, I know that no matter where I go on the face of the earth, God will always be with me.

I gave my heart to Him in 1990 when I was only 15. Ever since I have never turned my back against Him.

I’ve been in South Africa since 2008, away from my family and everything I know. God has never failed to protect and provide for me.  I’ve been through a lot of difficulties, but He always brought me out of them. I trust Him, because He’s always faithful.

INVEST IN YOUR TRUST ACCOUNT

I mentioned earlier that trust takes time. So, if there’s any time to start building your trust account with God, the time is now.

Spend time with Him, get to know Him, and learn how He does His things. Have a divine expectation whenever you come before Him.

Just as any marriage relationship can’t survive without trust, walking with God will not survive if you don’t learn to trust Him.

For example, if someone is of marriageable age and is trusting God for a marriage partner, there will be an expectation in his or her heart that one day he or she will meet the right partner.

The way he or she will dress, speak and comport him or herself in public, and his or her body language will make everyone suspect he’s on a mission.

FAITH VS. HOPE

Faith is like a gravitational force or magnet that pulls a man from his current reality into a future he already hoped for.

Faith is the missing link between desires and reality. In my opinion, hope and faith are inseparable allies. Hope is the destination, whereas, faith is the transport that takes you there.

Automobiles or any other means of transportation invented by man, however fast or slow are useless without any destination in mind.

In fact, destinations are not created for vehicles, but vehicles are invented to take us to our destinations.

In the same vein, Faith and hope are God’s divine invention that enables us to achieve unimaginable heights in every endeavour we may choose.

In Hebrews 11:1 The Bible says

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Another word for substance in this verse is material, matter or body etc. Things hoped for are our desires. For Example: house, cars, job, marriage, etc., are all desires.

So, in paraphrasing Hebrews 11:1 we can say “faith is the body, matter or material of cars, marriages, money, house etc., hoped for.

Metaphorically speaking, if hope is the image or picture stored in your computer, faith is the printer that helps produce the hard copy of the image.

Without the image, the printer will produce nothing! Without a printer, the image will remain data stored in your computer memories.

You can see it on the screen, but you can’t hold it in your hands. Faith substantiates and produces evidence of what you see in your inner mind.

Without things hoped for, faith is unnecessary, it’s irrelevant and unneeded. You cannot have faith in a vacuum. You’ve got to have faith for something. You have got to expect something.

If you are jobless and lack money to pay your bills, you have to first envision a debt-free you. You have to create a mental image of a successful man who is not burdened or handicapped by lack of money.

Solomon said, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” What you see and think about yourself is important for your faith to act on. The moment hope comes alive, faith will swing into action.

People don’t commit suicide because they lack faith, a lot of suicides happen because men lost hope. They are mentally blank, completely enveloped in the darkness of hopelessness and despair.