Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.
i challenge all of you to read psalm 119
the longest
chapter in the bible it’s all about one
subject the word of god
and david says this word of god is my
life
here’s why because the spirit
of god here it is only works
in his fullness in concert with the word
of god
don’t miss that if you want to breathe
if you want to hear peace be unto you
because you’re scared no matter what is
causing that fear
the spirit of god who is the breath of
god
will only give you the oxygen you need
not because he doesn’t want to but
because
you’re not breathing the right stuff you
got too much smog
in your life you’re not
taking advantage of the word of god so
to help you out here
i want to take you to another passage
that i can only summarize
but i don’t want you to miss this it’s
in the book of ezekiel
the book of ezekiel chapter
37. it’s the famous valley of dry bones
now when you get a chance read all 14
verses
meditate on it because it puts it all
together so that you can breathe again
if you have the holy spirit in you you
have the oxygen tank
it’s already in there
but you can have an oxygen tent and not
use it
so you can be huffing and puffing and
not having peace
that the breath of god who is the holy
spirit offers to believers
he says in verse 1 the spirit of the
lord
sent me to a valley full of dry bones
what was the problem with these
dry bones he says
can these bones live again they’re so
dry
they are lifeless it was so bad
all that ezekiel could say is at the end
of verse 3
oh lord god you know
i can’t answer that question because it
looks real bad
are you in a real bad situation are you
are you having a spiritual asthma attack
because everything around you is causing
you to
causing you to be constricted in your
soul
and you’re wheezing
trying to breathe with all the chaos
that’s surrounding you
he tells the prophet verse 4 prophesy
over these bones oh dry bones hear the
word of the lord so
give them some bible prophesy over them
give them the word of the lord in their
situation
now watch verse 5 thus saith the lord
god to these bones
behold i will cause breath uh-uh there’s
our word
to enter you that you may come to life
hello the spirit of the lord leads him
he says listen to the word so i can give
you breath
breath is the holy spirit as you’ll see
i’ma cause
breath to enter so verse 7 i prophesied
as i was commanded and the bones begin
to rattle
uh oh the bones begin to shake and bake
then he said verse 9 prophesy to the
breath
to the spirit prophecy
son of man and say to the breath the
spirit
thus saith the lord god come from the
four winds
the spirit from everywhere all breath
and breathe on these slain that they may
come to life oh this is getting good and
good
he’s prophesying to the bones but then
he’s prophesying to the breath
the breath is the spirit coming from the
four winds it’s the air it’s the air we
breathe
so the the bones that are dry hopeless
helpless
they’re desperate he says prophesy to
him
tell them bones it’s time to to live
it’s time not to
not to fake it no more time not to be
just going to church
and living in your dryness but then
prophesy
to the breath the spirit
why am i prophesying to the spirit
because the holy spirit acts in concert
with the word
so when you get the word of god
and you are speaking the word of god the
spirit of god attaches to it
and when the spirit of god attaches to
the word of god
something begins to happen
so i prophesied verse 10 as he commanded
me
and the breath came to them and they
came to life
and stood on their feet an exceedingly
great army
let me read a little bit more verse 11.
then he said to me son of man
these bones are the whole house of
israel or to put in the new testament
word
it’s the whole church behold they say
our bones are dried up and our hope has
perished
so how do you know you have no life
because you have no hope when your hope
leaves
your life leaves he says our hope is
gone
we are completely cut off can’t find god
nowhere
but then he says prophesy and say to
them verse 12
thus saith the lord god behold i will
open your graves
and cause you to come up out of your
graves my people
and i will bring you into the land of
israel
then i then you will know that i
am the lord when i open your graves
and cause you to come up out of your
graves my people
i will put my spirit within you verse 14
and you will here it is come to life
and i will place you on your land
you will know that i am the lord and
have spoken and has done this
declares the lord did you did you see
that
he said i’ma take you out your grave you
feel like you’re dying
because you know when you’re dying
you’re losing your breath you can’t
breathe
you feel like you you’re in crisis
you’re
the world is in crisis the culture’s in
crisis the church is in crisis
we’re in crisis and god says it’s time
to breathe
why is god allowed all of this stuff to
take our breath away
crisis after crisis chaos after chaos
conflict after conflict
why this divine disruption that you will
know i am the lord
it’s not by might it’s by my spirit
says the lord it’s not because you come
up with a new program
or because you elect a certain person to
a political office it’s not because of
that
i’ve interrupted all this stuff it’s not
because of your money it’s not because
of your clout
it’s not because of your notoriety no if
you don’t have my spirit
you can have all that and be in a
graveyard
you know what he’s trying to do god is
trying to wake up the church this is all
about
waking up to church because we can’t get
them to live out there if we digging our
own graves in here
he says i want to give you life and how
do you know you have life
he says because you’re going to be
commissioned
for spiritual impact whoever sends you
remit they will be remitted he says in
john 20. he says in other words you’re
going to make a spiritual impact
you know what the world is waiting for
spiritual impact you know why we’re not
having spiritual impact
because we’re six feet under we’re in
our graves
we’re saved we’re on our way to heaven
but there is no life and he says there’s
no hope
that’s when when hope is gone then being
alive
as it was meant to be spiritual life is
lost
you and i have a plan that
god has given us to make a spiritual
impact in the world
but if god can’t even make a spiritual
impact
in the aisles of our church why do we
think he’ll make a spiritual
impact in the isles of congress or in
the streets of the city
when there’s a graveyard in the
sanctuary
so it’s time to come alive and that’s
based on the breath
but not breathing occasionally breathing
the holy spirit
as you connected with the word of god
you should now be running to the
scripture
running to the bible running to find out
or get someone to help you find out
where do i go and we’re going to help
you do that
by giving you scriptures to run to and
talk to the holy spirit all day long as
you go from this situation
to that situation as you’re feeling
hopelessness bring him in on it
so that he can breathe life into you and
me