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.

What do you say to someone who is facing a tragedy.

What do you say to someone who’s prayers go unanswered?

I start my work day (from home) today with word of a friend whose 20 something year old son died in a motorcycle accident.

Right after that call, another one from a friend facing another month, another year with no answer to her prayer to have a baby.

What do you do? Rather, what do you say?

I know there is only so much you can say without sounding trite or abrasive. My brain wants to pummel them with verses from the Word. My heart wants to reach out and just comfort them.

I believe a combination of both, minus the pummeling, can help. God’s Word does not return void.

So to the friend who lost his son, I ask him if I could pray for him right at that moment as I talked on the phone. I said a quick prayer with the verse “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34). He sobbed and said “thank you.”

I can only trust God that was enough.

For the friend who was longing for a child, listening was the best course of action. And then a gentle word simply re-assuring her that God does know the desires of her heart. She said she could relate to Abraham and Sarah in the Bible. That brought an opening to share Romans 4…specifically encouraging her to be like Abraham…”Who did not waver at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strengthened by faith knowing that He who promised was able to accomplish what HE had promised….”

In times like these, I am so thankful for the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

For with His Word and His Spirit, we can be broken bread and poured out wine. We can weep with those who weep. We can be “Jesus with skin on” to a lost and hurting world, or simply to those around us.

My encouragement to you?

As you face the punches of life, and the unfair curve balls that hit your gut, learn to allow the “God of all comfort” be your source of hope and solace amidst your pain.

I know “soaking in His Word” during those terribly painful times have been my only hope. The Word can be like the “Balm of Giliad”, which not only takes the sting away but also makes the wound whole again.

So as you allow God to comfort you, you in turn are able to comfort others.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

Be Jesus with skin on to someone today.

A song of hope amidst devastation. You can climb out of any pit and find something worth living for….