Two Laws of Revival

By Tes Stewart

Text: Ezekiel 37:1-10

The devil is already defeated - there's nothing he can do to change that fact. Still, there is a great need for personal revival.

David said, "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me." His personal testimony confirms this. He knew what he was talking about; otherwise, it would have been David, the adulterer... David, the murderer.

Samson had greater victory after personal failure than in all the time before.

Jonah, the runaway preacher, had the greatest revival on the other side of his personal failure.

Corporate revival is well and good and needed. But corporate revival is built on individual, personal revival.

We're in a battle, a spiritual war! The entire spirit man may be killed. Other things can also be killed in battle; joy, peace, confidence, passion, enthusiasm, burden, love, etc.

God breathes new life into every area of your life. If you lose your peace in battle, you can pray until your peace is restored. Like a starfish, you can regrow what the enemy has destroyed. "I am the LORD that healeth thee!"

God showed Ezekiel how bad it was - a valley full of dry bones, and they were very dry! He asked Ezekiel, "Can these bones live?" 

• Law #1 - If it lived once, it can live again!
• It doesn't matter how dead, dry, withered, or how long dead...
• For the widow of Nain - Jesus said, "Stop the funeral!"
• Lazarus - dead for three days, "stinketh" - they had given up and entertained Jesus where they were (in the house)
• Jesus said, "Take Me to where Lazarus is."
• Remember - "The promises of God are yea and amen!"
• We need audacious faith - God said...!
• Speak to the bones!
• Miracles: the bones came together
• Bone to his bone...
• sinews and muscles cover the bones...
• skin covers the whole
• Still no breath! - just a body back together again but no life
• New command - "Speak to the wind!"
• Law #2 - It's not revival til it lives again!
• Too often we settle for the "miracles" when we desperately need "New Life!"
• Go back to your first love - if you were a Sunday School teacher before, you can be a Sunday School teacher again.

Those bones went into that valley as an exceeding great army. In the valley they lost their life. They came out of the valley an exceeding great army.

In true revival, God restores everything. They came out with everything restored - plus a testimony!
That revived soldier was a testimony - a living epistle!

Settling for the miracles without the life being restored makes for a lifeless cycle. The miracle is subject to decay and will revert to being dry bones again.

Ezekiel was told to prophesy to the wind. It came and brought life to the dead bones waiting there in the valley. On the Day of Pentecost, that wind blew again, bringing life to waiting hearts and birthing the church. We need that revival wind to blow again today. These dry, dead bones need the life giving power of the Holy Ghost to raise us to live in His sight and to fulfill His purpose in and for us.

Editor's Note: Tes Stewart is the son of Bro. & Sis. Albert Stewart, UPCI missionaries to Liberia, Africa. Currently serving as an evangelist, based in Houston, Texas, these are sermon notes from a message preached here at New Life recently. His ministry was a blessing to us all. Many souls filled the altars and one made her decision to be baptized in Jesus' Name!