We have often heard the expression "It's not you." Sometimes people say that of us when we wear a certain color clothing. Sometimes people say it about us when they see us behave differently. Other ways it is expressed are "He's not himself" or "She's not like that." Such expressions have tripped off a deep reflection in me about the Charismatic Renewal. I often hear it said, "It's not like it used to be" or "We've lost so many people" or "People are taking more than they give." Such a perspective is very well expressed in the "dry bones" imagery of Ezekiel 37:1-14. Let us examine it and apply the imagery to the Charismatic Renewal.
In the imagery of Ezekiel, the prophet is led out on the plain and sees dead bones strewn all over the place. These dead and useless bones are witnesses of lives that used to be. He prophesies over them and they become fully alive. This is very similar to the state of the Renewal although in the reverse order. Most would agree that the Renewal is going through a "dry bones period." Such a period is good because we are faced with two options. Either we can sit up and find our way back into the heart of the Charismatic Renewal. Oddly enough, Ezekiel faced the same dilemma. He lived about 597 B.C. and was sent to prophesy the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. This was inconceivable. Nobody at the time would have believed that. Jerusalem and Judaism were enjoying an unprecedented time of prosperity. Yet ten short years later the inevitable happened; Jerusalem fell and the people were taken into exile. The dry bones time had arrived. It is in the midst of this exile that Ezekiel once more appears prophesying a time of renewal and restoration even better than before.
The very same course of events is happening in the Charismatic Renewal. We need to call on the Spirit of God to breath back new life into the faithful remnant. "I rejoiced when I heard them say, `Let us go unto the house of the Lord.'" (Ps. 122:1) There is a second and even stronger call. It is even fresher and newer. "I will open your graves..." (Ezk. 37:12) "Greater things than these will you perform." (Jn. 14:12) How will the Lord do this? Let us return to the dry bones one last time. In the midst of their grandeur and splendor they had wandered far from Yahweh their God. Similarly the Renewal has wandered. Recall your introduction to the Charismatic Renewal. It was captured in one all-embracing triumphal acclamation of "Jesus is Lord." Little else mattered, only that Jesus was Lord of your life. "I have turned my life over to Jesus" and "Jesus is my number one" were key expressions. To sum it up, we had come to a living experience of Jesus as Lord. Not only had it been taught to us, but now at last we had experienced it. Honestly we could say that "I have come to know that you are Christ, the Son of the living God." (Mt. 16:17) This was the central, essential, and key experience of the Renewal. It could never be replaced, renewed, or even released. We could not substitute for it or supplement it. It could not become a memory or phase; it had to be ever present. If it did not, then the dry bones period was upon us with a vengeance.
`Jesus is Lord' was soon turned from a saved life into a slogan. The gifts were substituted for the Giver. Healing supplanted the Cross and community yielded to the individual. The Renewal faced more danger from the well wishers and problem solvers within than it did from criticisms and condemnations without. It was left as "dead bones." Scripture says that "God can raise up worshippers from these very stones." (Mt. 3:9) Our greatest gift is that we know that Jesus is Lord. Rather than be deterred by the dry bones we should be encouraged by the fact that we can recapture the New Jerusalem of Jesus Christ. Let us return to our first love and live again our baptism in the Spirit. It is time to relive, reform, and renew our prayer groups in their initial charism of the Charismatic Renewal. It is time to concentrate on our source of power-Jesus as Lord. Many prayer groups have been overly concerned with solving problems and personalities instead of providing, creating, and fostering an anointing atmosphere where we can together experience the Lord. Some have traded teaching and healing for praise and worship. Even the Lord turned away from healing to proclaim the Good News; "Let us go to the nearby villages for I must preach there also." (Mk. 1:38) Sometimes gifts and ministries have replaced the true foundation of the Charismatic experience, and rather than flow from their source, which is the baptism in the Spirit, they have dried up for lack of source.
How then do we breath new life into the Charismatic Renewal? Simply by allowing and permitting the same sovereign move of God in our time to reign once again. We have been there and we know. The praise, worship, singing, and celebration of Jesus has to come to the forefront. The whole community has to surrender their personal needs (for example, healing) and praise the Lord together. More time has to be spent on Jesus than on each other or on problem solving. Holy men and women, speakers and ministers may come and go but no one can replace Jesus. Jesus lives now. Even though there is only a remnant or a few, it is not good for a prayer group to lose their identity as a prayer group by joining others or sharing ministries or meetings. It is better to become a community again and pray for the full outpouring of the Spirit. It may even do a prayer group well to repent of past excesses and focus anew on the Lord. It is time to prophesy over the prayer group, and to breathe new life into it; through Him, with Him, and in Him, Jesus Christ, our Lord.