Fri Sep 5

Listen up, little ones

Listen for the word prophesy.

Reading

Ezekiel 37:4-10—Prophesy to These Bones

Keys for kids

• God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the dead bones.
• God can make dead bones live—and he did!
• The Spirit of God brings life.

Questions

1. How do these bones live?
2. How do dead souls live?
3. How should we pray for those who are dead in their sin?

Notes

(See last day for authors)

All today’s notes are from Derek Thomas

How do these bones live again? God uses three means to accomplish it.

1. The preaching of the Word Ezekiel is told to ‘prophesy’ (37:4; literally: ‘preach God’s Word’) and does as he is told (37:7).
2. The prayer of God’s servant God urges Ezekiel to call upon the ‘breath’ to come and breathe into the slain (37:9). As we have already seen, the passage uses the words ‘wind,’ ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’ interchangeably. Even though God may have promised something, he invariably links the promise with the prayers of his people.
3. The power of the Holy Spirit ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life’ (37:5; for ‘breath’ we can read ‘Spirit’).

These are the ingredients of any work of revival by God. It is the explanation of what occurred at Pentecost, when 3,000 people came to faith as the result of preaching (Acts 2:14–39), prayer (Acts 1:14) and the powerful work of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:18, 38).

Swedish Method questions

Praise

Psalm 119o, 119t

Prayer

1. Commit yourself and your family to pray for dead souls to live.
2. Pray for the hearing of God’s word preached this Sunday.
3. Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.