The Ministry of Impossibility

In Ezekiel 37:1-14 Ezekiel was faced with an impossible situation. Delay, distress, discouragement may have been turned on to make your marital breakthrough appear impossible…

When you face an impossible situation or what seem as such, what are you expected to do? Leave it in the hands of the Specialist! Refuse to calculate. Refuse to doubt. Refuse to work it out by yourself. Refuse to worry. Revert the situation to your Maker. Say to God the creator; I cannot handle this. It's impossible to me, but you said in Luke 18:27 that the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

If you buy an essential oil diffuser that won’t work, you don’t sit around and fiddle with it, you return it to the manufacturer! Unfortunately what we do to God is that we try every other thing and when they fail, we now send our mess to God and plead for His mercy. What should have been our first call becomes our last point of call. We dump our mess on our Maker; The One who owns the manual of our lives.

Pastor Charles Swindoll, an evangelical Christian preacher and educator who is waxing strong in the Lord at 80, is quoted as saying “Don’t let your self-confidence prevent God from doing what He specialises in.”

We are so confident in our Adamic nature, which is sinful and our righteousness, which is like a filthy rag, that we try to fix what is broken instead of calling The One who made us and said I will give you the desires of your heart. My thoughts for you are thoughts of good and above all, I wish that you prosper and be in good health!

Don’t try to fix, what is broken or impossible, return it to the God of impossibilities

Matthew 13:15 (KJV) gives us insight into what God expects of us, “For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

In essence what are we supposed to do in impossible situations? Fix ourselves! Fix our sense of sight (eyes), fix our sense of sound (ears), fix our heart of understanding. Revert to our original identity in God. With that, we switch on the healing mode.

Matthew 6:25-34 asks us not to be worriers but worshippers. The last two verses read: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Tommy Walker in the song below reminds you of God’s assurance:

I have a Maker

He formed my heart

Before even time began

My life was in his hands

[Chorus]

He knows my name

He knows my every thought

He sees each tear that falls

And He hears me when I call

I have a Father

He calls me His own

He'll never leave me

No matter where I go

There are so many things God has done that you aren’t thanking Him for. Like Ezekiel, we are seeing the present dry bones not the fact that God was in the journey to Babylon which was caused by Israel’s sinfulness. Ezekiel was not seeing the deliverance of Hanania, Mishael and Azaria (whose slave names were Shedrach, Mesach and Abednego) from the fiery furnace and the fact that God’s glory fell and His name became honoured because of the miracle in the land of captivity.

Ezekiel gave a doubtful response, “Thou Knowest”. Short of saying in Pidgin English parlance, “Na you sabi.” This was the same Ezekiel whose name mean, “May God strengthen him", and was born into a priesthood lineage. This was the same Ezekiel that had a glimpse of God and Cherubim. The same one that prophesied; witnessed the fulfillment of his prophecies concerning Jerusalem and went on to serve as a prophet for over 20 years. What happened?

Discouragement. Dejection. Dismay. He was in captivity having been exiled by Babylonian armies along with 3000 Jews on the orders of Nebuchadnezzar II who deposed King Jehoiachin of Judah in 597 BC and had lost his wife 9 years into exile.

His response in the valley of dry bones may very well be your own response. But the God who knows your name understands your discouragement. Instead of saying to Ezekiel, if you don’t believe after all the time you’ve spent with me then forget it. Rather what did the loving God say? See verse 4: Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

God saw beyond Ezekiel’s words and gave him directions; divine directions. Ask God to divinely direct you. Imagine the gymnastics Ezekiel would have gone through to prove his mettle as a prophet if it was totally dependent on him to make the bones live!

Nick Vujicic, of the “No arms, no legs, no worries” fame, getting married was an impossible situation. A woman without a womb having a child was impossible. Not only is Nick married with 2 children, last year, God through medical science made it possible for a woman who lost her womb due to cancer treatment to have a child via the transplanting of her own mother’s womb into her! I have seen the lame walk, I have seen sickle cell patients live beyond the 21 years traditional lifespan…

What impossible situation are you in?

Even if like the Israelites you brought this upon yourself… Dry bones of what used to be a great army in a valley signify the army made a wrong judgement. Soldiers stay in elevated places to fight their enemy. For this army to have been ambushed and killed in a valley shows that someone somewhere made a wrong strategy decision and they all paid with their lives. Yet, God said in Isaiah 49:25

“… Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.”

Perhaps your delay is caused by your own error in judgement despite being a Christian; you may have a closet filled with dry bones yet you are like Ezekiel. Today, turn it over to God. Your God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think. Reach out to him. Speak to him. Turn over your brokenness and impossibilities to the one who makes a way in the wilderness and rivers in dessert (Isaiah 43:19), the one who said in Matthew 19:26 With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. 

Different versions with the same title was first preached by Pastor 'Yemi Osinbajo in April 

and by Deacon Bola Omoteso in August. Dr. Omolola Omoteso is a minister 

who is passionate about sharing God's words for the healing of souls.