God Has Found Where Hope Is Lost

Sep 06, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Dry Bones and Divine Breath

The valley of dry bones isn’t just ancient history—it’s where many find themselves today: spiritually parched, emotionally scattered, wondering if life can ever stir again. Ezekiel didn’t deny the bleakness but anchored his honesty to God’s sovereignty. Hope begins when we name our desolation while clinging to the One who breathes resurrection into dust. This isn’t wishful thinking; it’s faith that God sees what we cannot. Where bones lie brittle, His breath still hovers. [54:04]

Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” I replied, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know the answer to that.” (Ezekiel 37:3, NLT)

Reflection: What “valley of bones” feels lifeless in your life right now? How might naming it honestly while whispering “You alone know” shift your perspective?

Day 2: Speaking Life to Dead Places

God didn’t just think revival over the bones—He told Ezekiel to declare it. Our words aren’t magic, but when aligned with God’s promises, they become conduits of His power. To call “life” over addiction, broken relationships, or despair isn’t denial; it’s defiance. The same God who formed galaxies from chaos still speaks through His people. What we repeat—His truth or our fears—shapes what we expect to rise. [01:01:08]

Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! Look, I will put breath into you and make you live again.’” (Ezekiel 37:4-5, NLT)

Reflection: What negative phrase or label have you repeated over your situation? What Scripture could you speak instead as an act of holy rebellion?

Day 3: Rattling Bones Aren’t Resurrection

The bones rattled, muscles formed—but breath came later. Partial progress can trick us into settling or doubting. Like adopting a child, miracles often unfold in phases: paperwork, waiting, first meetings, lifelong bonding. Don’t confuse early stirrings with final victory. God isn’t rushed by our impatience. When progress feels incomplete, keep praying, “Breathe again”—He finishes what He starts. [01:11:29]

As I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones came together, but they still had no breath in them. (Ezekiel 37:7-8, NLT)

Reflection: Where have you seen “rattling” progress that still feels incomplete? How can you trust God’s timing without resigning to half-hearted hope?

Day 4: The Breath That Brings Revival

Ruach—the Hebrew word for breath, wind, Spirit—is God’s signature move. Just as He animated Adam, He resurrects dead dreams through His Spirit. Our role isn’t to manufacture revival but to invite the Wind. Financial provision, healed marriages, or renewed purpose aren’t about our effort but His exhale. When circumstances suffocate, pray not for better odds but for the One who breathes life into graves. [01:13:32]

Then he said, “Speak to the winds. Say, ‘Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” So I spoke, and breath came into them. They all came to life. (Ezekiel 37:9-10, NLT)

Reflection: What area of your life feels like it’s waiting for God’s breath? How might surrendering control make space for His ruach?

Day 5: God’s Track Record in Your Valley

Ezekiel’s story ends with a reminder: “You will know I am the Lord.” Every miracle—the adoption, the $500 jacket surprise, the dry bones—points to His faithfulness. Our valleys become altars where we rehearse His past victories to fuel present trust. When hope feels lost, trace His fingerprints in your history. The God who kept promises then is writing your next “then you will know” chapter. [01:15:10]

“You will know I am the Lord. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home. Then you will know I have spoken and done what I said.” (Ezekiel 37:13-14, NLT)

Reflection: Where has God shown His faithfulness before? How can that memory anchor you as you face today’s uncertainty?

Sermon Summary

God’s love meets people before they get cleaned up, fixed up, or able to explain how they got here. God loves people out of hell, but He also loves the hell out of them, refusing to leave them where sin, shame, addiction, fear, or hopelessness has taken root. The church lives surrendered to Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, speaking truth and living truth in love so people who are not here yet can meet Him.

God’s mission does not hand the devil a holiday. Love goes into neighborhoods, Halloween events, jails, online spaces, and every other place where people need Jesus to be known. God’s purpose reaches people through ordinary invitations, generous service, and a church family willing to put skin in the game.

God’s provision can arrive in powerful, unmistakable ways. The adoption story shows that when God calls people to obey, He can provide what looks impossible, even down to the money needed to bring a child home. God’s faithfulness, though, does not always look like immediate breakthrough. Faith often grows in the waiting, when obedience remains steady but the miracle has not yet shown up.

Ezekiel 37 puts a man in a valley full of dry bones and makes him face what is actually there. The valley is not denied, prettied up, or called something it is not. Ezekiel answers, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know the answer,” because hope begins when reality is handed back to the One who knows what nobody else can see. God has found where hope is lost, even when His presence feels absent.

God tells Ezekiel to speak His word over the bones. The contrast is between rehearsing problems and repeating promises. Negativity can become its own kind of prophecy when people keep speaking death, failure, labels, and worst case scenarios over themselves. God’s words say that He supplies needs, finishes the good work He began, works for good, and restores, supports, strengthens, and places His people on a firm foundation.

The rattling bones show that movement is not yet resurrection. God may let a person hear a rattle before breath comes, but the rattle is not the finish line. God breathes ruach, His Spirit, wind, and breath, into what is dead. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead brings resurrection power into people who believe, changing more than circumstances by bringing life from the inside out.

Key Takeaways

1. Face reality, then hand it to God [56:43] Ezekiel does not pretend the valley is full of living people. The bones are dry, scattered, and completely beyond human fixing. Hope becomes possible when reality is named honestly and then placed in the hands of the Sovereign Lord who alone knows the answer. [56:43]
2. Repeat God’s promises over your problems [01:09:57] Problems become louder when they are rehearsed all day in the mind. God’s promises interrupt the labels of addiction, failure, divorce, diagnosis, and fear. His Word does not deny pain, but it refuses to let pain become the final word over a life. [69:57]
3. Do not confuse rattling with resurrection [01:12:27] God may start moving before the full breakthrough is visible. A little movement, a changed conversation, a fresh desire to pray, or a door cracking open can be a rattle in the valley. Faith keeps listening and obeying until God brings breath and life. [72:27]
4. God’s Spirit breathes life into dead places [01:14:15] Ruach means breath, wind, and Spirit, tying Ezekiel’s valley back to God breathing life into Adam. The Spirit does not merely improve dead bones or patch up broken circumstances. The Spirit creates life where life could not exist apart from God.

## [74:15]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[37:27] - God Loves the Hell Out of You
[40:03] - A Church Family on Mission
[41:18] - Reaching People Every Day
[43:25] - God Has Found Where Hope Is Lost
[44:26] - Adoption and God’s Provision
[50:27] - Faith in Waiting Seasons
[52:54] - Face Reality With Hope
[54:36] - Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones
[61:08] - Speak God’s Word Over Problems
[69:57] - Do Not Stop at the Rattle
[73:32] - Ruach and Resurrection Power
[75:51] - Respond to the Holy Spirit
[82:07] - Putting Faith in Jesus

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Ezekiel 37:1–14
“The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones become living people again?’ So I spoke this message as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. 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. Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, “We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.” Therefore, prophesy to them and say, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!”’”
[54:36] [01:01:08] [01:11:11] [01:12:42] [01:14:41]

Philippians 4:19
“And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”
[01:07:37]

Philippians 1:6
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
[01:07:40]

Romans 8:28
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love

Sermon Clips

55s

#SpeakPromises

“Speak over your problems, these truths. When we see this in the scriptures, god is saying, breathe. I'm gonna breathe life into them, into these dead bones. He's gonna he's saying, I'm gonna do now what I did back at creation and breathing life into Adam. I'm gonna create life from lifelessness. And so god tells Ezekiel, repeat this prophetic word over the dead bones. Don't repeat your problems over your problems. Repeat god's promises over your problems. Stop rehearsing and repeating the problems. Begin rehearsing and repeating the promises of god. We have to get out of our heads and into his words.”

49s

#HolySpiritPower

“And it's that same holy spirit that God promises to all believers who put their faith in Jesus. Romans eight tells us, if you put your faith in Jesus, you have received the spirit. And that spirit, just like back then, is bringing new life. Where do you need the resurrection power of the holy spirit in your life? The scriptures tell us in the New Testament the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in those who believe. We have this strength, this power over hopelessness living inside of us.”

56s

#FindHopeInGod

“Faith doesn't require you to deny reality. Can you realize that? Faith doesn't require you to pretend. In fact, the lord himself is telling Ezekiel, tell me what you see. And is there hope? Reverse what you see in reality by putting it back on god and saying, god, you're the only one who can do something about the hopelessness that I'm seeing right here. So number one, when hope is lost, reality with hope. But how do we get the hope if the hope is lost? You find it. I don't know whose voice that is, but you know who I'm talking to. You find it in the presence of god. He's there. He's never not.”

34s

#NeverHopeless

“Here's here's the thing. Some of you have given up in the third quarter, and you just think there's just nothing else that's gonna turn around. God doesn't play that way. There is no situation that's hopeless. There's no situation that God can't turn around. It may feel like God's absent in the valley, but god's present. He may be the one who's pointing, hey. Let's face the reality that this isn't great.”

30s

#TrustGodsPlan

“You don't get hopeless if you already know god's gonna do what he says he's gonna do. You end up losing hope. You end up losing hope because you don't know how it's gonna turn out. And so when that happens, you can find hope by facing reality, but then putting it back on god and saying, god, you're the only one who knows how this is gonna work out.”

56s

#StopPropheticNegativity

“when you speak god's words over your life, you are prophesying the future because you got it from the truth. However, some of you prophesy all the time. You don't even realize it. You have the gift of prophecy. Some people say they got the gift of prophecy. You have the gift of prophecy, only it's negativity. You you can imagine every possible way this could go wrong. I'm not I'm not negative. I'm realistic. Right? You can imagine every and so you begin speaking prophetic negativity over your future. Instead of what god says over your future, you've replaced it with your own voice. I'm not gonna give the devil credit for your own foolishness.”

44s

#RuachBreath

“but we don't get there settling for the rattle. We have to look carefully at what this says here because I want it to this is there's a lot going on here, you're like, god doesn't do that anymore. Maybe not in the same exact way. He can do whatever he wants, but I know that whatever is dead in your life, his breath can breathe resurrection into. In fact, that word for breathe, breath, wind, all three of those is the Hebrew word ruach. Don't say it because you'll spit on the person in front of you. But is the same word, wind, spirit, breath.”

39s

#GodKeepsHisWord

“Part of what's speaking over your problems, what has been spoken over you, is just repeating what the Lord has already said. And we can be sure that God always does what he says. He's a long track record of doing what he says. The only part of the track record we can't see is the present, the immediate future, right, and the distant future. But all you have to do is look back, and God is promising you I will do today what I did back then.”

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