Long Version Stop Holding a Funeral for Something God Is Not Finished With Yet!
Dead to You Does Not Mean Dead to God
Introduction
In the short Dominion narrative that preceded this deeper teaching, I wrote;
“Stop holding a funeral for something God is not finished with yet!”
That statement deserves more than a short discussion.
There are times when what we see with our natural eyes appears absolutely finished.
The marriage looks dead. The dream looks dead. The ministry looks dead. The opportunity looks dead. The relationship looks dead. The calling appears buried beneath years of disappointment. The prayer has seemingly gone unanswered for so long that we quietly stopped praying it. The promise seems impossible because circumstances have moved in the exact opposite direction.
And sometimes, if we are truthful, we have already held the funeral.
We stopped expecting.
We stopped praying.
We stopped believing.
We stopped speaking life.
We stopped looking for God to move because somewhere along the way we decided that what we were looking at had become too dead for resurrection.
Then Ezekiel walks us into a valley, not a garden, not a sanctuary, not a place overflowing with visible possibilities.
A valley full of bones.
And God asks Ezekiel to stand in the middle of what looks completely finished and listen to what God says about it.
That is the confrontation of Ezekiel 37.
The issue is not whether the bones are dead, they are.! The issue is whether their present condition has greater authority than the Word of the living God.
Believer, there is an enormous difference between acknowledging that something looks dead and deciding that God cannot breathe into it again.
There are situations God may call us to release, there are doors God Himself closes, there are seasons God Himself ends. Biblical faith is not pretending that every lost opportunity, relationship, plan, or personal desire must be resurrected simply because we want it back.
This teaching is about something deeper, Do not pronounce the final sentence where God has not given you the final word.
Now Let’s Eat Some Meat!
Ezekiel 37:5 (AMPC) “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live;”
Read those words carefully, “I will cause...”
God does not ask the bones how they feel.
God does not ask the bones whether they believe they have enough strength to get back up.
God does not consult their history.
God does not evaluate whether there is enough remaining biological evidence to make restoration reasonable.
God simply speaks.
And notice what He speaks to, “these bones.”
Not people who were merely tired. Not wounded soldiers who needed medical attention. Not weak people who needed encouragement.
Bones!
And when we read the surrounding scripture, the condition becomes even more extreme.
Ezekiel 37:2-3 (AMPC) “And He caused me to pass all around among them, and behold, there were very many [human bones] in the open valley or plain, and behold, they were very dry. And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, You know!”
They were not simply bones, they were very dry bones, time had passed. Whatever life had once occupied them was long gone. From the natural perspective, the situation was beyond repair.
Then God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?”
I love Ezekiel's answer. He does not pretend, he does not manufacture spiritual bravado, he does not say, “Of course they can!” simply because that sounds religious, and neither does he say, “Absolutely not!” based upon what his eyes are telling him.
He says, “O Lord God, You know!”
In other words, God, I refuse to allow what I see to make me speak beyond what You know.
There is great wisdom in that response.
Some believers have buried things God never told them to bury because they interpreted delay as denial, difficulty as death, silence as abandonment, and impossibility as finality.
Ezekiel teaches us something different.
When you do not know what God intends to do, leave room for God to be God.
The Context of This Teaching
Ezekiel 37 is larger than an inspirational statement about personal dreams.
We must respect the context. The valley of dry bones represented the house of Israel in a condition of national devastation, exile, hopelessness, and apparent ruin.
God explains the vision Himself.
Ezekiel 37:11 (AMPC) “Then He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost; we are completely cut off.”
Listen to their language, “Our bones are dried up.” “Our hope is lost.” “We are completely cut off.”
They had not merely experienced devastation. They had allowed devastation to become their conclusion. They were describing their circumstances as though those circumstances represented the final chapter.
Yet heaven had not finished speaking.
That distinction matters.
Israel said, “Our hope is lost.”
God essentially responds, No. I am not finished.
Their assessment was based upon what had happened.
God's declaration was based upon what He intended to do.
This is why believers must be extremely careful about turning present circumstances into permanent theological conclusions.
You can accurately describe your pain without declaring God powerless.
You can acknowledge that something has fallen apart without declaring that God cannot restore.
You can admit that you do not know what comes next without deciding that nothing comes next.
God Told Ezekiel to Speak to What Looked Dead
Ezekiel 37:4 (AMPC) “Again He said to me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them, O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.”
This is almost offensive to natural reasoning and logic
Talk to bones?
Bones cannot hear.
Bones cannot respond.
Bones cannot reason.
Bones cannot cooperate.
Yet God tells Ezekiel to say, “O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.”
Why?
Because the power was never in the bones' ability to hear.
The power was in the Word they were commanded to hear.
Some of us have spent too much time studying the bones and not enough time listening to God.
We examine every reason it cannot happen.
We rehearse every disappointment.
We replay every failure.
We calculate every obstacle.
We remember every person who walked away.
We catalog every reason the situation is impossible.
Then after conducting our investigation, we announce, “It's dead.”
God may look at the exact same valley and say, “Speak My Word.”
That does not mean we command God to resurrect whatever we personally desire. It means that when God has spoken, circumstances do not possess veto power over His Word.
Something Can Be Dead to You Without Being Dead to God
This is where the subtitle becomes important, Dead to You Does Not Mean Dead to God
Human beings judge possibilities according to available resources, God does not.
We ask;
“Do I have enough money?”
“Do I have enough time?”
“Do I know the right people?”
“Am I young enough?”
“Am I healthy enough?”
“Do I have enough influence?”
“Has too much damage already been done?”
“Has too much time already passed?”
Those are understandable questions.
They are also questions rooted in human limitation.
God's question is different, “Can these bones live?”
And the safest answer remains, “O Lord God, You know!”
Stop telling the Author how the story has to end simply because you cannot imagine another chapter.
Relevance to Today's Believers
This teaching is desperately needed in the Body of Christ today because many believers have learned how to attend church while quietly burying their expectations of God.
We still worship.
We still pray publicly.
We still quote scripture.
We still encourage everybody else.
Yet privately, there are things we no longer believe God can touch.
We have spiritual graveyards.
There are prayers buried there.
Dreams buried there.
Assignments buried there.
Hopes buried there.
Expectations buried there.
Sometimes even our willingness to believe again is buried there.
We may never say, “God cannot do it.”
We simply stop asking Him.
That can become unbelief wearing the clothes of disappointment.
There is another danger we must confront; sometimes what we want resurrected is something God actually told us to release.
That is why this teaching cannot become, “Anything I want back, God will bring back.”
That is not what Ezekiel 37 teaches.
The bones came alive because God declared His purpose over them.
The authority rested in God's will, not Ezekiel's preference.
So the question is not merely, “What do I want God to resurrect?”
The deeper question is, “Lord, what are YOU not finished with?”
That changes everything.
Faith does not demand that God endorse our plans. Faith submits our plans to God and refuses to call hopeless what God has called unfinished.
Supporting Scriptures
John 11:25-26 (AMPC) “Jesus said to her, I am [Myself] the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live; And whoever continues to live and believes in (has faith in, cleaves to, and relies on) Me shall never [actually] die at all. Do you believe this?”
Jesus does not merely say that He performs resurrection.
He says, “I am...the Resurrection and the Life.”
Resurrection is not merely an event Christ can produce, resurrection power resides in Who Christ is.
Martha was looking at a tomb.
Jesus was standing in front of her as Resurrection Himself.
And then He asks the question that reaches across the centuries, “Do you believe this?”
Not, “Do you understand how I am going to do it?”
Not, “Can you explain the process?”
Not, “Does the situation look promising?”
Straight and to the point, “Do you believe this?”
Believer, faith is not confidence in circumstances.
Faith is confidence in Christ.
John 11:39-40 (AMPC) “Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, exclaimed, Lord, by this time he [is decaying and] throws off an offensive odor, for he has been dead four days! Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you and promise you that if you would believe and rely on Me, you would see the glory of God?”
Martha immediately presents Jesus with the evidence.
Four days, decay, odor, and mortal finality.
Everything she says is naturally reasonable.
Then Jesus redirects her attention from the condition of Lazarus to the promise of God.
This is where many believers struggle.
We keep explaining to God why the situation is impossible.
He already knows how long Lazarus has been dead.
He already knows what happened.
He already knows who left.
He already knows what failed.
He already knows how much money is missing.
He already knows what the doctor said.
He already knows how much time has passed.
The question is whether the evidence has become more authoritative in our hearts than the God standing outside the tomb.
Romans 4:17 (AMPC) “As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.”
Look at how Paul describes God, “Who gives life to the dead.”
That is His territory.
We specialize in explaining why something cannot happen.
God specializes in accomplishing what human strength cannot produce.
Abraham's faith was not based upon pretending that his natural circumstances were favorable, scripture makes clear that they were not.
His faith rested in the character and promise of God, “Who gives life to the dead.”
There is a tremendous difference between biblical faith and denial.
Denial says, “The problem isn't real.”
Faith says, “The problem is real, and God is still God.”
Romans 4:20-21 (AMPC) “No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God, Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised.”
This is the heart of the entire teaching.
Abraham was not primarily confident in what was promised. He was confident in Who promised it.
“God was able and mighty to keep His word.”
There it is.
If God has spoken, the question is not whether you are capable of making it happen.
The question is whether God is able to keep His Word.
And scripture answers that question repeatedly, Indeed He is.
Isaiah 43:18-19 (AMPC) “Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Sometimes God does not resurrect the old thing in the form we expected. Sometimes He does a new thing.
This is crucial.
We can become so obsessed with God restoring yesterday that we fail to recognize what He is creating today.
You may be staring at the grave of one season while God is opening the door to another.
Therefore, “God is not finished” does not always mean, God will restore everything exactly as it was.
Sometimes it means, God will redeem what happened and produce something you never saw coming.
Do not worship the form of yesterday so intensely that you miss the new thing God is doing today.
Philippians 1:6 (AMPC) “And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.”
Here is a place where we can say with scriptural confidence, God is not finished with His work in His people.
You may still have weaknesses.
You may still have areas requiring transformation.
You may still stumble.
You may still be growing.
You may look at yourself and become frustrated because you are not yet where you believe you should be.
Yet if you belong to Christ, God is still working.
Do not confuse unfinished with abandoned.
God's work of sanctification is continuing.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (AMPC) “We are hedged in (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but not driven to despair; We are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted [to stand alone]; we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed;”
Notice the distinctions Paul makes.
Pressed-not crushed.
Perplexed-not driven to despair.
Persecuted-not deserted.
Struck down-not destroyed.
Believer, stop putting a period where God has placed a comma.
Being knocked down is not the same as being destroyed.
Being confused about the next step is not proof that there is no next step.
Being wounded is not the same as being finished.
Experiencing loss is not proof that God's purpose has been lost.
Do not confuse what happened to you with what God can still do through you.
Reflection & Spiritual Insight
This scripture forces us to confront our private graveyards.
What have you stopped praying about?
Where did you stop expecting God to move?
What disappointment became so painful that you protected yourself by deciding never to hope again?
What did God once place in your heart that you buried because circumstances became difficult?
And perhaps the hardest question, Did God tell you it was over, or did disappointment tell you it was over?
There is a difference.
Some of us are asking God for resurrection when He is telling us to release.
Others are trying to bury something while God is saying, “Speak to the bones.”
Discernment matters.
We need the Holy Spirit to reveal the difference.
The believer's responsibility is not to manufacture resurrection.
Only God can give life.
Our responsibility is obedience.
Ezekiel spoke because God told him to speak.
The bones moved because God supplied the power.
That removes both pride and despair.
You cannot take credit when God resurrects something.
And you do not have to carry the burden of resurrecting it yourself.
Obey God and leave resurrection power to God.
Application to Modern Faith
Stop Making Permanent Declarations During Temporary Seasons
Do not let one terrible season become your prophecy over the rest of your life.
“I'll never recover.”
“I'll never trust again.”
“I'll never minister again.”
“Nothing good can come from this.”
“My opportunity is gone.”
“My best years are behind me.”
Be careful.
Pain is real, yet pain is not omniscient.
Pain does not know your future, God does.
Bring Buried Prayers Back Before God
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you whether there are prayers you stopped praying because you became discouraged rather than because God told you to stop.
Do not assume silence means rejection.
Do not assume delay means denial.
Seek God again.
Stop Trying to Manufacture What Only God Can Produce
Ezekiel could prophesy.
Ezekiel could obey.
Ezekiel could speak.
Ezekiel could not manufacture breath.
There are things only God can do.
Your responsibility is obedience.
God’s responsibility is the outcome.
Allow God to Decide What Resurrection Looks Like
God may restore.
God may redirect.
God may replace.
God may redeem.
God may transform.
God may close one chapter and create another you never imagined.
Faith does not dictate the method, faith trusts the Author.
Speak According to God's Word, Not Your Fear
Your vocabulary matters.
Stop rehearsing hopelessness.
Stop announcing defeat before God has announced completion.
Stop allowing fear to preach sermons to your soul all day long.
Five Checkpoints for Every Believer
Have I Declared Dead What God Never Told Me Was Finished?
Ezekiel 37:3 (AMPC) “And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, You know!”
Have I allowed disappointment to answer a question that belongs to God?
Sometimes the most faithful answer is not “yes” or “no.”
Sometimes it is, “Lord, You know.”
That response leaves sovereignty where it belongs.
Am I Looking at the Bones More Than I Am Listening to God?
2 Corinthians 5:7 (AMPC) “For we walk by faith [we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus we walk] not by sight or appearance.”
Has what I see become more authoritative than what God has said?
Sight reports conditions, however faith responds to God.
Never confuse the two.
Did God Tell Me to Bury It, or Did I Quit Because It Became Difficult?
Galatians 6:9 (AMPC) “And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint.”
Did I mistake weariness for God's instruction to stop?
There are times to release, there are also times when quitting five minutes before harvest means abandoning something God told you to continue.
Ask Him which one this is.
Am I Trusting God, or Demanding That He Restore Things My Way?
Proverbs 3:5-6 (AMPC) “Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.”
Am I trusting God's purpose, or have I already decided what His answer must look like?
True faith does not manipulate God.
True faith says, “Lord, I trust You even when Your method looks nothing like mine.”
Do I Still Believe God Can Breathe Life Where I See None?
Ezekiel 37:5 (AMPC) “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live;”
Has disappointment reduced my theology of what God can do?
This is where we come full circle, God’s words were, “I will cause...” Not Ezekiel’s, not the bones, God’s.
If your confidence rests in human ability, dry bones will terrify you.
If your confidence rests in God, dry bones become another opportunity to discover that death itself does not intimidate the very Author and Sustainer of life.
Summary
Ezekiel entered a valley filled with evidence that something was over.
Bones, dryness, death, and hopelessness.
Humanly speaking, there was nothing left to work with.
Then God spoke.
And that changes everything.
The message of Ezekiel 37 is not that believers can demand the resurrection of anything they desire.
It is something far more powerful, When God has declared His purpose, apparent impossibility cannot cancel it.
Some things truly end.
Some doors truly close.
Some relationships must be released.
Some seasons are genuinely over.
Some dreams were ours rather than God's.
We need enough spiritual maturity to accept that.
Yet we also need enough faith to recognize the opposite danger, burying something God has not declared dead.
So stop it!
Before you close the casket on that prayer...
Before you bury that calling...
Before you pronounce your usefulness finished...
Before you decide your best days are behind you...
Before you conclude that too much time has passed...
Before you allow disappointment to write the final sentence...
ASK GOD.
Because you may be standing in a valley calling something dead while heaven is preparing to breathe.
You may be looking at bones while God is looking at an army.
You may be looking at what was while God is speaking about what shall be.
You may be preparing a funeral while God is preparing a resurrection.
And hear me clearly:
STOP HOLDING A FUNERAL FOR SOMETHING GOD IS NOT FINISHED WITH YET!
Dead to you does not mean dead to God.
The condition does not outrank the Creator.
The valley does not outrank the Voice.
The bones do not outrank the Breath.
The impossibility does not outrank GOD!
When God says, “I will cause breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live”
then the dry bones do not get the final word, GOD DOES!
Two Questions For Today
What have you already buried because YOU decided it was dead, and when was the last time you actually asked God whether HE was finished with it?
Are you grieving over dry bones that God has told you to bury, or are you holding a funeral for something God is still commanding you to speak life over?
If You Have Ears To Hear, Then Hear It!
I pray for you each and every day.
All God's Best!
Karl McKinnie
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