You Were Made for MoreSample

The Connected

Message

I’m guessing most people know the outcome of this Bible story. The Valley of Dry Bones lived. Ezekiel was so connected to God that he could speak to dead decayed bodies and bring them back to life. Being connected, particularly being connected to powerful people, can make the impossible possible. When we studied the unicorns that we’ve placed over the years, we noticed that they had an uncanny bent toward being connected to a whole lot of people, and to people at a deep level. Our research also showed that most of us don’t focus our time and energy on connections. Most of us fall into friendships that we’ve always had, but don’t intentionally spread our network or deepen our existing friendships.

Returning to the story of Ezekiel and the dry bones, I read the story many many times, but it was only this year when I realized how dynamic a conversation this was between God and Ezekiel. God tells Ezekiel to look at the dry bones and say live and they will live. And they lived, but they didn’t have breath. So then God says to Ezekiel, speak to the winds. He basically told Ezekiel to command the winds to put breath in these bodies. Wind is one of the most common metaphors for the Holy Spirit in the Bible. And I think that’s exactly why it’s the prayer Ezekiel offered. But think about how connected this dynamic of raising a valley of bones is. God‘s connected to Ezekiel so Ezekiel has God‘s word in his heart, as prophets did. God tells Ezekiel to speak life into dead bones. God needs breath to enter those bones, just like he did in Genesis. But rather than doing it himself, God instructs Ezekiel to speak to the Holy Spirit and instruct the Holy Spirit about what to do. That’s kind of mind blowing that God is using Ezekiel to have a conversation with himself about raising a valley of Dry Bones.

It’s a great insight into the unicorn nature of God. He will never ever work alone. In the beginning, He was always working as a triune God. As He works through salvation history, He is relentlessly committed to using everyone who follows Him as part of His plan. That includes you.

Steps

If you want to form a habit that will lead you to greater things, I’d suggest you focus on being more connected with more people. Here’s an action plan:

1. Plurality brings probability

Friendships are often a balancing act of quantity and quality. We ask ourselves if we should have a whole lot of connections that aren’t very deep, or a few lasting friendships that are deeper than any others?

Both are correct. The unicorns we studied showed that they are intentional in increasing their number of connections and the quality of connections. So if you’re an introvert and are hiding behind that as an excuse not to meet people, sorry to tell you, God always does things in community. He is always looking to include more people. And we are made in His image. Make a goal of making four new friend connections in the next four weeks.

2. Proximity brings power

The quantity of our friendships can raise the probability of knowing the right person at the right time. But knowing people at a deep level is where the real power of connection lies. Ezekiel never would’ve been able to speak to the dry bones if he weren’t intimately connected with God. If he were someone who only showed up on the holidays and took a little time for prayer whenever there was a health crisis, he wouldn’t have much power to his prayers.

Did you know that for every inch a microphone moves away from your mouth, it loses 50% of its amplification power. So think about the converse: the closer you are to the source of the noise the more powerful the microphone is. In other words, proximity brings power. If you know people really, really well and are connected at a deep level, those connections will yield more fruit than 100 shallow connections. So it’s not an either/or. Rather, it’s a both/and.

Prayer

Lord, you asked us to love deep and wide. So help me do both this week. Help me deepen friendships and make more connections in a way that can help others, and help others know about you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.