The vision you have for your life is crystal clear. You know that you know God has called you for a specific purpose to fulfill. The vision that is the essence of your divine destiny.

But somewhere along the way of pursuing the fulfillment of the dream, you fall into the dry valley and experience total defeat and discouragement.

I feel so strongly that this is a message for today and one the enemy does not want shared. This word encompasses the keys to help you make it through today’s headlines of financial upheaval in our nation’s economy, and to help you make sense out of it so you can fight your famine. Even as I type, my wireless keyboard stops working.

The little techy squirm bug of the devil is not going to stop this message of hope and victory . So I plug in my USB keyboard and continue!

So here’s the scenario. See if you can relate.

You get a vision, an idea, a clear picture of what you know you are assigned to carry out. This vision has your passion coupled together with your God given gifts and anointing. It might be your music, your preaching, your ministry….And you know the end result is people’s lives being powerfully impacted and changed. You also realize part of the picture involves your own growth in prosperity. Prosperity as defined by:

“…the aptitude to use God’s ability and power to meet the needs of mankind-regardless of what those needs may be.” (Dr. Jeffrey Burell, Kilough Church By The Lake)

If you are providing a service (ie ministry) or a product (could be your music cd) or information (the Word!) of value, which someone needs, you will be rewarded financial. That’s a basic marketing principle.

If you are planting seeds in other people and ministries at the same time in the pursuit of your dream, you will reap a harvest. That’s a basic Biblical principle!

But somewhere from the vision you fall flat into the valley of dry bones which is your personal famine. Your finances might be dead, your marriage may be crumbling, your kids are in a state of rebellion, or you just heard the bad report from the doctor.

What are the keys to go through the valley of famine to the place of victory in walking out this divine destiny?

Some clues can be found in Ezekel Chapter 37.

In verse one we read how Ezekiel was “set down in the midst of the valley” that contained dry bones. It was a picture of total devastation and death.

In verse 4, God commands Ezekiel to prophesy the Word, to speak life. Part of the definition of prophesying is to speak!

• Obedience To God’s Word

Notice Ezekiel obeyed this command. He didn’t whine or ask questions. I can imagine a picture of an exchange that could of taken place:

“Lord! Don’t you see these dry dead bones? This is an impossible situation”

“I can’t! I don’t have the ability to do that. I’m not ‘called’ to speak to dry bones.”

“You want me to do what?”

Any of these phrases sound familiar. I’ve been there…said that…

Notice though, what happens when Ezekiel obeys and speaks, prophesies, to the bones:
The bones started to rattle, it got noisy and the bones were put back together.

Obedience brought about a change. Obedience to the Word of God to speak life activated a higher level of God’s Spirit into the place of death, desolation and famine, and things were shook up for the better.

If it’s noisy in your life right now with discouraging circumstances, desperate feelings, but you are obeying God.
Take heart. Your breakthrough is coming!

• Speak the Word By Faith To Your Dry Places

This is not some name it and claim it mumble jumble. This is one of the most powerful principles of God! It is a pivotal key to your vision. Ezekiel spoke the Word to those dry places. He spoke life and the skeletons went from petrified lifeless bone beings to living flesh and blood! So, find scripture that matches your need in the valley and speak! You may have to tell your checkbook: “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree…”

Or tell your body, “I am healed by the stripes of Jesus…..”

You might feel awkward at first. You may feel stupid. But as Joyce Meyer has said, “Better to feel stupid than be stupid”.

For every place of famine, find Scripture that speaks the truth. Call those things that are not as though they were, as it says in Romans 4:17. Spoken words can carry God’s anointing and power to break the chains of poverty, to literally heal your body, and to put into action the promises of God’s Word into this natural realm to bring you out and through the valley to victory!

• Remain In Faith

We know from Scripture that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. The Word is the source of the power to cause what it says to come to pass. Kenneth Hagen once said, ” “Faith begins where the will of God is known.” If you keep your faith in God’s Word, and use it as God intended for you to use it, then the Word will begin the process of bringing you out of the valley.

Remain in faith means staying in church where the Word is preached, stay in connection to God’s principles of sowing, and stay in motion walking out what you profess. Jentezen Franklin, a anointed preacher from N. Georgia, says you fight your famine by getting back to the Father’s house. “God blesses where His reputation is safe, ” Franklin states.

Like the prodigal son you may have to return to your Father’s house. Return from the cesspool of the flesh of the world’s ways, to the fatted calf of provision and robes of glory found in God’s ways.

Finally, as you go from that vision to the valley, something amazing can happens. God uses the fire of your trials to purify you. Your flesh, doing things in your own strength, gets pruned. Parts of the “old you: die and the new anointed you rises up.

You experience a suddenly, as in Ezekiel 37:7, where your circumstances start to turn around. You know then that your journey from the vision down to the valley is coming up to victory! You go through the famine and come out more blessed. You go from dry empty bones to life full of joy.

God’s victory for you amidst the fulfillment of your vision maybe coming as an opportunity, an invitation,
a new strategy, or a previously unknown or unidentified association. Remain obedient to His principles, keep speaking the Word in faith, and watch expectantly for the ways which God may choose to deliver the victory to you in His due season.

It may be today!

For more encouragement with your God given destiny, feel free to visit the Ministry Marketing Strategies home page.

Isaiah 7:1-9

Today is a special day to the Catholic youth who are celebrating “World Youth Day.” Pope John Paul II initiated this occasion 23 years ago as a way of reaching young people with the message of the Gospel. Since that first World Youth Day, millions of young people have been touched and transformed by the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit through this event.

Reading about this today made me think of this point.

The young people of our day are under attack by a vicious enemy that looks to warp their minds and steal their souls. If you are a parent, one of the main battle grounds of the enemy is his precarious plot to kill your seed.

Whether you have children or not, we all have those war zones where we feel the heat of the fire, from the enemy, by our own poor choices, and from the struggles that come with life.

But there is hope! The promises of God are yes and Amen. The Word will not fail us.

I took some notes from Isaiah 7:1-9 which strengthened my heart.

In this passage, King Ahaz is under attack by the Rezin, King of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah. They wanted to to take over Judah to strengthen their own coalition against Assyria.

Because Ahaz, the ruler of the Davidic throne at this time, had no faith in God, the heart of the whole royal court shook–“moved with the wind.” (Isaiah 7:2)

Can you relate? I know I can. Many crushing issues from family to financial matters, have made me fearful resulting in my faith being paralyzed.

Back to this Scripture:

So God sent the prophet Isaiah to Ahaz with a powerful word to strengthen their faith. (Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God).

I believe this word is for the young people of our day, for parents who see the warped attack for their children’s hearts, and for anyone facing terrible circumstances which seem to never end.

Check out the words God gave to Isaiah to speak in verse 4 of Isaiah 7:

“Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria…..

The instructions are clear:

Take Heed – Be careful, be calm no matter what your senses see or feel.

Be quiet – The power of life and death is in your tongue as Proverbs says. Don’t just talk about the problems, have a plan of action and DO something.

Do not fear – Nothing kills faith quicker than fear.

Two Smoldering Stubs – The two enemies appeared to be like firebrands (something that can be used to start a fire that destroys). But these firebrands were merely smoking, about to die out completely.

Yes, the plan to walk through these shaking times are clear. So are God’s promises.

In this passage God has HIS Word on the line as He had foretold that Judah was HIS Remnant which would always be faithful to Him, and secure God’s Messianic promises to Abraham.

The final word from Isaiah to King Ahaz concerning the attack from these two enemy forces is the same word for you. Whether you are fighting attacks on your children, your family, your finances, your healing, or any insurmountable problem:

“Thus says the Lord God: It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass.

That has got to make you SHOUT! (Or at least run around the house a few times).

So look beyond what you see, even if your “senses give you no assurance.”

Continue to dream and believe that the Youth of today will be won to the Lord, that you will have your healing in your body or family, that you will get out of debt, that you will——(you fill in the blank).

Keep dreaming and walking to what God has ordained for you.

“To dream is not the phantoms of our brain but the outline of our divine destiny.”
–Jesse Duplantis, JDM Ministries–