THE WIND, THE BREATH, AND THE SPIRIT
Three things were related to the prophesying: the wind, the breath, and the Spirit. Although in English these are three different words, in Hebrew they are only one word, ruach. Verse 9 uses the word "wind" several times and it also uses the word "breath." But according to the Hebrew text, both the wind and the breath are the same word, ruach. In verse 14, there is the word "Spirit." This word is also ruach. It is difficult for the translators to decide whether to translate ruach into the wind or into the breath or into the Spirit. It depends upon the context and it depends upon the understanding of the translator. Let me illustrate the difference to you in this way: when God blows upon you, that is the wind; when you breathe the wind, it is the breath; when it gets into you, it is the Spirit. First comes the wind, then the wind becomes the breath, and eventually you have the Spirit. When Ezekiel prophesied, God blew the wind and then the breath. The people received the breath, and the breath became the Spirit. This is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).
A NOISE AND A SHAKING
Ezekiel prophesied twice in this chapter. The first time is in verse 7, and the second time is in verse 10. In verse 7 when he prophesied, there was a noise and a shaking. I like these two words, "a noise" and "a shaking." Some people say to us, "Your meetings are too noisy." My answer to them is that if you go among the dry bones, they are really quiet. There is no noise and no voice—just quietness. In that valley all the bones were in a good order. Because they were all buried in the graves, they were quiet and they had no problems. But when Ezekiel came and prophesied, there was a noise and a shaking and the bones all came together. I cannot explain to you why there was a noise and a shaking and then all the dry bones came together. But we do know that according to our experience, when we come to the meetings and make a lot of noise, we are really one.
Suppose we all come into the meeting and sit quietly for thirty minutes. Soon we will be critical of one another, and eventually we will lose our oneness. But when we come in and we make some noise, shouting joyfully to the Lord Jesus, calling on His name, praising His name, we are one! It may not sound nice to you or look nice to you, but the more noise you make, the more you will be one. If you will call on the Lord Jesus strongly for a time, you will be crazily one. You will forget everything. You will forget the brothers, the sisters, the heavens, and the earth. You will be crazily one. We do not need religion, we need the noise and the shaking.
THE BREATH COMING IN
After the noise and the shaking and the coming together, sinews, flesh, and skin came upon the bones. This covered them, causing their appearance to be much better. Formerly, they were only dry bones. But now there is a dead body gathered up, joined together, connected, and coordinated. I say it is a dead body, because it still has no breath. According to our experience, this is right. All the dead bones must first come together, and then the breath will come into them. If we will not gather together, we will not receive the breath of God. It is not that we wait until we have the breath of God, and then we come together to be one. No! We must first come together with a noise and a shaking and then the breath of God will be breathed upon us. When Ezekiel prophesied again, God sent the breath to get into those dead bodies. Then they all stood up, not on others’ feet, but upon their own two feet. In Christianity, many people stand on their pastor’s feet or on others’ feet. But there all the revived ones stood up on their own two feet.
When they stood up they became an "exceeding great army" to fight the battle for God. First there came a noise and a shaking and then the dry bones came together; the breath of God came into them and they stood up on their feet—a great army (37:7, 10).
(The Visions of Ezekiel, Chapter 15, by Witness Lee)
