The Valley of Dry Bones — David Wilkerson

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P .O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771 or calling 903 -963 -8626.

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Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones

Just leave Ezekiel 37 open on your lap and join me in prayer now that the Lord will help me to convey the mind of the Holy Spirit here tonight. Heavenly Father, I desperately need you. I need your touch and your anointing.

Lord, you're trying to say something in this service tonight to all of us and I yield my body and I yield myself to you and I ask you to come with a special anointing and give us ears to hear what the Spirit has to say.

Lord, sanctify me. Purge me. Let me be a vessel of honor to your glory. And Lord, what we hear tonight, let it not just be something that stirs our emotion, but something we take home and long remember.

And it could be something that will change our lives. Touch me, Jesus. Quicken us. Pastor Carter needs a touch. Touch him in his body also tonight. Minister to him. Now Lord, take this word. Use it for your glory.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Ezekiel 37. Let's read the first three verses. The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which is full of bones and caused me to pass by them round about and behold, there were very many in the open valley and lo, they were very dry.

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord, thou knowest. The prophet Ezekiel was taken into a vast valley with nothing but bleached bones as far as the eye can see.

That's New York City. You see, we're not talking about physical bones. We're talking about spiritual death. We're talking about spiritual dead bodies. This is the valley of vision of dry bones. And most of us have heard about this.

There was a song years ago. Them bones, them bones, them dry bones. The hip bone connected to the thigh bone, the knee bone. How many remember that? It was taken from this very chapter. And some preach that this chapter speaks only of the restoration of Israel because Israel is mentioned here.

These bones are the whole house of Israel, Ezekiel said. But folks, we're talking about the spiritual Israel, and I can prove it because in verse 24 it says,. And David my servant shall be king over them.

That's after they're resurrected. And they all shall have one shepherd. They shall all walk in my judgments and observe my statues and do them. King David had been dead years. You see, this is King Jesus.

This is the church of Jesus Christ. Now, there is a restoration of natural Israel, but this is talking about something spiritual having to do with the body and the church of Jesus Christ. Verses 21 to 24, beginning to read at verse 21, Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen.

Whether they be gone, we'll gather them on every side and bring them into their own land. Now, folks, that is speaking not only of the restoration of Israel as we've seen it since 1948, but coming into the land here is coming into the fullness of Jesus Christ, coming out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

It's a spiritual vision that Ezekiel is talking about. My servant David shall be their prince forever. That's in verse 25. I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forever. That is not natural Israel.

That's the church of Jesus Christ. Verse 27, My tabernacle also shall be with them. Yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. That's speaking of Jesus Christ alone. Beloved, the valley of dry bones is still with us today.

New York City as a Valley of Spiritual Death

When Jesus, the Holy Ghost, called me back to New York City, it was ten years ago now. How quick that time has gone. It just seems like yesterday, arrived in this city with the burden to start a church here in a Times Square area.

But what a wonderful thing we've seen the Lord do. But it's a valley of dry bones. It's a valley of dead people who don't know Jesus Christ. Because any man in sin, the Bible said, is dead. He's dead in trespasses and in his sins.

I want you to listen to a note I got from somebody. They said, Brother Wilkinson, you see the negative thing of everything. In fact, this lady referred to me as a doomsday preacher. Because you see, when Jesus commanded disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Ghost, they thought that this was going to be the restoration of the kingdom.

That was it. They were going to go back to Jerusalem, Jesus was going to come back from the dead, and he was going to come marching in as king. He said, will thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?

And there are people right now trying to resurrect this dead nation through politics, that the church should get more involved in politics. I believe that Christians should vote. I believe that we should be concerned.

I believe we need to pray about it. But listen to what this woman says. She had read one of my prophecies about the last days of America, and she wrote and said, Mr. Wilkinson, how hopeless you are. You need to visit some of the television evangelists and get a vision of the coming kingdom.

Don't you know that America is about to be rescued? Pastor so-and-so, she mentions his name, has got thousands of people praying. And a woman just got a vision of a black cloud that was about to fall on America, but she chased it away.

That's what she said. She chased the black cloud from America. And because of that, God showed her America is now safe from judgment. We are electing Christian mayors now. We are getting Christians into the arts.

We're getting very, very strong in politics. Soon we will be in command. Another vision is that God has secured all our borders. Our borders are secured, the north, south, east, and west. Through prayer, we have secured American borders so that judgment can't proceed.

Brother David, don't be so sad. Please don't talk so gloomy. The kingdom is coming, Mr. Wilkinson. Rejoice. You know what Jesus said? Jesus said to them, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father put in his own power, but you shall receive power.

After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me. It's the preaching of the gospel that changes lives. It's sticking to the preaching of the gospel. You will be witnesses to me.

You will reign later. Right now, you witness. You will reign later with Jesus Christ. Now, God put Ezekiel in the middle of this Holocaust scene. It must have been an incredible sight as he walked through.

In fact, in the Hebrew, it says, he caused me to pass round and round. In other words, he caused me just to walk back and forth through all of these bones. And what an incredible thing. I have a hard time walking through a cemetery with the bones underground.

He's walking over dead bones. Everywhere, there's nothing but bleached bones. There are skulls, and there are leg bones, and arm bones, and fingers, and toes. Everywhere, it's just a valley of bones out, bleached, out in the open in this great valley.

And what a tour it was, because the Bible said there were many bones, and they were very dry. Have you ever been to a church like that? Full of dry, dead bones? America's full of churches like that. You can't say that about what you saw and heard here tonight.

It's not just the noise or anything else, but it has to do with that intensity of love for Jesus Christ and the moving of the Holy Spirit that draws you out of yourself into his presence. Here stands a holy prophet of God.

The Bible says the hand of God was upon him, and he's led by the Spirit. Now, get this, please. He's a holy man, and he's being led by the Holy Spirit into a very dry place with many dry bones. He's put right in the middle of it, the middle of death.

Moving Beyond Diagnosis to Action

And he didn't turn to Ezekiel. He didn't say, Ezekiel, how did they get so dry? How did they die? How did these people get like this? Let me make a confession to you. The first ten years of my ministry, I had such a burden for the church, and I saw the ruin.

And I spent a lot of time, and I wrote a few books I'd like to call back. And basically, not because it was wrong, but because I became so good, I was like a specialist doctor who knew how to diagnose disease.

There are doctors like that. They can't heal, they can't operate, but they can diagnose. They can tell you what's wrong. I became a spiritual diagnotician. I could tell you why America was suffering, why America was brought to ruin.

The prophet Ezekiel was not asked, how did this ruin come about? And it doesn't pay us. And I learned this, and I thank God that he taught this to me, that it's not enough just to go around preaching about the destruction and the ruin and how it happened.

Sure, we kick God out of our schools, there's no more prayer. You know all of those things, but that doesn't solve anything. It still leaves us in ruins. It just tells us how we got there. And Ezekiel is not told a thing.

He's not told anything about analyzing the situation. There's only one question. Ezekiel, can these bones live? Can these bones live? What's he supposed to say? What would you say? Well, Lord, what's the plan?

I look at this city. I live on the 30th floor, a block from here. And I have a view of downtown. I see the Statue of Liberty. I see all downtown. And I look at these buildings. And you know, some of these, there are certain projects that have at least 30 ,000 people in one set of projects.

As big as some towns in America. And I look at these projects. And I look at these buildings. I say, oh God, they're dead. This is a city. And some people have come to me, some loving people. They weren't correcting me.

They were saying, Brother Wilkerson, please. I was saying, when I look at these high rises, I see tombstones. Because they're full of thousands of dead people, spiritually dead. And one lady comes to me and said, don't say that about this beautiful city.

These beautiful towers and beautiful city. Yes, but they're still tombstones. The people inside are dying. And I stand there and I said, oh God, how do we reach them? We have a city. The greater metroplex here, including all of the metroplex of New Jersey and areas of Connecticut, there are 17 million people in this greater metroplex.

17 million. And, you know, even if we had 25 ,000 in this church, that's one project. You know, it's staggering. It's absolutely staggering. And sometimes I feel like Ezekiel when I walk these streets.

I see dry bones. I see dead, bleached, dry bones everywhere. You go to apartment houses where you have a concierge perhaps or you have a doorman or just your neighbors and you talk to them about Jesus and they're so dead, they don't understand what you're talking about.

There's a death on the job around you. There's a terrible death. There are dry bones on your job. You're working with corpses. Spiritually, they are dead. You don't have to analyze them. You don't have to tell them how they got that way.

They know where they're at. But he says, Ezekiel, can these bones live again? Look at the death. Look at the emptiness. Look at the stench. Look at the utter hopelessness. Ezekiel, how are we going to resurrect them?

How are we going to bring life to this death situation? And, oh, I stand, been here 10 years now. Thank God for what he's done. Thank God for the many people who have been saved here. Ever since we came here, these altars have been opened by the Holy Spirit.

Literally hundreds and hundreds have been saved. Thousands have been saved, in fact. Every service, people are saved. I thank God for that. The church is packed to capacity. Thank God for that. But we're not trying to pack these pews.

We're in a city of dry bones. And I don't think we can just come to church week after week and just get a little blessing for ourselves and enjoy ourselves and shout. That's wonderful. We've got to give God praise and honor and thanksgiving.

But, folks, when we stand before the judgment day, we have to give an account. That there be no blood on our hands. That we enjoyed his salvation. We enjoyed his gospel. And we did nothing. God put us in a valley of dry bones.

Like it or not, I have been planted right in the middle as a pastor in one of the biggest valleys of dry bones on the face of the earth. And the Holy Ghost comes and says, Pastor Dave, Pastor Carter, what are you going to do about these dry bones?

Do you believe these bones can live again? Oh, that's a big question. Lord, does that take faith and understanding of the ways of God? God knows how. He has all the power. He knows how to resurrect the city.

But I'll tell you what, he has to use people. He has to use individuals. He has to use his own people. The death is going to hold on until God's people do something about it. And God said to Ezekiel, prophesy upon these bones and say to them, hear the word of the Lord.

You know, he could have stood there, a God man, holy, righteous, broken hearted, because he loved Israel. Ezekiel had a heart for Israel. The spirit of God was upon him. He had a broken heart. He could have walked among those bones and cried and bawled 24 hours a day.

He could have got down on his knees and prayed, oh God, break my heart over the lost condition. But all his tears wouldn't have done it. All of his pleading wouldn't have done it. Because the Lord commanded these words.

Prophesy unto these bones and say to them, hear the word of the Lord. Only truth itself is going to set people free. Only the truth. He said, you're going to preach the truth to these bones. Now folks, that takes a lot of faith for a man to preach to a congregation like this.

There's no orchestra. There's no brass band. There's no choir. Nobody's raising their hands. Nobody's wiggling their toes. Nobody's smiling at him. Nobody's saying praise the Lord because nobody has a voice yet.

This man is told, preach to the wind. Preach to the air. Just preach. I say, where are you going, brother? Just hang on. Follow me. At this time that he's told to prophesy, Israel had ceased to be a nation.

They were in slavery. They were living in captivity. There was despair. All the prophets of peace had told them just before the Holocaust came, the nation of Israel and Judah was filled with prophets of prosperity.

They were saying the temple is here and the temple is going to protect us because God made a promise he'd never abandon his temple. And as long as the temple's in Jerusalem, the walls are secure, everything is fine.

There was nothing but the preaching of prosperity and everything was going to be fine. There'd be no judgment. There'd be no enemy armies. And then when the Assyrians came in and destroyed and burned the city to the ground and took all the false prophets off to Babylon, and now this is the devastation that remains that the prophet Ezekiel is being forced to look at.

God is saying, Ezekiel, I'm commanding you to tell these bones that they're going to live again. I'm going to bring life out of death. I'm going to bring life out of death. It's going to take that kind of faith and obedience in the church of Jesus Christ of this last day, it's going to take that kind of obedience to the Lord to go out on the streets, to go on your job, to go into your home with the message that you can live, that there is life.

This is the message, the only message that the world is going to receive today. They've heard nothing but death. They get death everywhere. Their music produces death in them. Their pleasures produce death in them.

The only hope, the only sound of life, the only hope of life is to have somebody full of the word of Jesus Christ, the word of resurrection. Only life produces life. And God wants his church to be so full of the life of Jesus Christ that every word you speak on the job and everywhere you go, you produce life.

You produce hope. And when you look at somebody that is so dead, they look so hopeless, that there's no hope. God says, no, don't look at their condition. Don't look at their dryness. Don't look at the death in them.

Go with hope. I thought after Israel and Nicky Cruz got saved, I'd never doubt God again. Then I meet a man who murdered 11 people, cut off the heads and hands of three of them, because he was with the mafia.

And I listen to this story, and my heart's sinking. And I'm thinking, well, I don't think I want to spend much time because he's hopeless. I don't know if I want to even witness to him because he's hopeless.

And you kind of back away. No, you don't back away from anybody. You don't leave that valley of dry bones, say they're too dry, they're too dead, it's too hopeless. Nothing is impossible with our God.

That husband of yours, he's not too far gone. I don't care what condition he is. You may not know it, but sitting right by you, in front of you, behind you, some of those wicked sinners that New York ever knew.

And they're sitting here now, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. If you only knew who you were sitting there. If you only, right? How about it, fellas, how about it? What God has done. Come on, tell me, didn't some of you think you were hopeless?

Yourself? You're too dead, there's no way you could be resurrected from that death. But you know what amazes me? Some fellows like those from Timothy House here and Sarah House and others, they get saved and they're resurrected, and then when they meet a hard case five years later after God's using them, they get that same doubt, I wonder if God can do it.

And they forget what God did for them. Don't ever forget the pit God dug you out of so you have hope for everybody else. You know why God's saying to Ezekiel, preach to those dead bones? He's trying to show him that nothing was impossible, that you never give up on Israel, you never give up on anybody.

You don't give up. Doesn't matter how dead they look, doesn't matter how hopeless it looks. Preach to them. Witness to them. Hold on, pray for them. Oh, hallelujah. I think everybody in this house knows somebody that looks absolutely hopeless.

I met recently with the director of Macaulay Mission. Macaulay Mission is about 150 years old. Jerry Macaulay, the founder, backslid 99 times. It was the 99th time, I think it was he got saved for good.

And everybody said it'll never work, he'll backslide again. God got a hold of him, and that mission's still going on strong for God here in New York City. Amazing. You don't give up. There are some of you here need to backtrack a little bit because there's somebody you know you gave up on.

Is it a brother, sister, husband, wife, a child? I don't care if your son is out right now in drugs. I don't care if your son is a homosexual and you've given up on your homosexual son or daughter. Don't give up.

You keep giving the word as God gives you the wisdom and the knowledge and you do it as sweetly as you can, anointed in the Holy Ghost, but never ever give up. This church should believe God for absolute miracles of the impossible.

You know, we're talking about God being able to heal cancer and AIDS and every other problem. Folks, but in the spiritual realm, regarding salvation, don't give up. There's a brother, Mark, who works with me down at Isaiah House.

He has a burden for a man. I see every time, in fact, you can see him right up here near Columbus Circle, right on Broadway. He's a little fellow. I don't think he's more than 60, but he looks about 90.

He's got this flowing hair and flowing beard. You cross him, he'll spit on you. He'll curse you. He will try to chase you. Poor little guy. He's an alcoholic and he's crippled. Mark, every time he goes by him, just goes over.

If he's cold, he'll pull the blanket over him. He'll just try to talk to him, be nice to him. He's got a burden for that guy. It made me feel a little bad because I didn't have that burden for that man.

I went by that man and looked at him and said, oh man, he's three weeks from hell. He's three weeks from hell. Because, you know, I don't like to be spit on. I don't like to be cursed. And here's Mark.

He's not even pastor of Times Square Church. And he's going over there and he told me, I love that man. And where's the thing? He loved the man. He wanted to help him. He's got a burden for him. He's praying for him.

He's not giving up on that man. I went past him yesterday. And as I went by, I walked a little further away from his spitting projector. But I showed God. I'm going to pray with Mark that God help Mark to get through to him.

He could be a jewel. What a testimony he could be for the glory of God. I think that man's been sleeping on the street for 40 years. Looks like he's been sleeping there for years. Oh, don't give up. I've got to move on here.

The Holy Spirit Brings Life Through Proclamation

As I prophesied, as I was commanded, there was a noise. And behold, a great shaking, and the bones came together. The Lubavitchers had a rebbe or a priest, Rabbi Schneerson. And Schneerson, is it Schneerson?

He passed away. And you'll see their mobile units all over the city. And they ask you to come in there and be told about this man. This priest is going to be resurrected from the dead because he's the Messiah.

They had a march recently in Brooklyn. The Lubavitchers had 10 ,000 of these Orthodox Jews saying, Messiah now. Messiah now. You know what's happening? The noises are beginning. There are noises. He said there was a noise, but there's a shaking.

You see, there's a hunger for the Messiah. There's a hunger for some reality. And that's why people are going to New Age. They're going to all of these things because there's a hunger driving them. People are so empty now.

People are so dry. This is the valley of dry bones. And people just reaching to anything. Can you believe the stuff that people are reaching out trying to find a little bit of hope? Just a little bit of hope.

And he said, as I prophesied his command, there was a noise, and behold, a great shaking, and the bones began coming together. I want you to read Ezekiel 37, 8 to 10 with me, please. Go back to verses 8.

Let's start with verse 7. So I prophesied as it was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and skin covered them above, and there was no breath in them.

Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet in exceeding great army.

This is the end of side one. If you will please. The wind of God is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is often exemplified as the wind in the Scripture. Prophesy to the wind. Say to the wind, Thus saith God, Come, breathe upon these slain.

Now that is nothing short of spiritual authority. Spiritual authority. Faith in the power of the Holy Ghost. And he was told to prophesy to the Holy Spirit. Prophesy, speak to the Holy Spirit. It's not that he's commanding the Holy Spirit as some kind of superpower.

He's not doing it out of arrogance. But because this is where the hope is, this is where the life is. The Holy Spirit himself was going to come into that valley, and he was going to cause life to spring up, bone coming to bone.

What a sight. Now this is just a vision. But he's standing there watching. Can you imagine the noise of the rattling of the bones? And every bone is coming to the proper part of the body. And there's an order coming.

It had been disorder, and now there's order coming. And wonderful things are happening. And flesh is coming on. Sinews and muscles are beginning to appear. And things are beginning to happen. Because one man, one man is speaking to the Holy Spirit and saying, Holy Spirit, come and breathe.

Prayer for Revival Rather Than Human Programs

Now this church has been in a 30-day, 24-hour-a-day prayer chain. This is the third week. We've just concluded the third week. We go into the fourth week now of a 24-hour prayer chain around the clock.

I'm asking you in this last week to pray in one specific way. I want you to pray the prayer that the Lord commanded his equal to pray. I want you to speak to the wind, as it were. I want you to speak to the Holy Spirit.

And I want you to call to the Holy Spirit along with your pastors and say, Oh, Holy Spirit, come to this valley of dry bones. He alone knows how to reach this city. There's no use. Most of what we do is going to be in vain.

When I came to New York City the first year here, pastors of various churches that have been here for years came to me. The first thing they were going to have when I came here was a Jesus march in Central Park.

And I said, Well, what are you going to do? And the man who was directing it said, Well, we have balloons that say, Jesus loves New York. And we've got hats and T-shirts, Jesus loves New York. And I said, Wait a minute.

You're going to march and you're going to release balloons? And you're going to sell T-shirts and hats, Jesus loves New York? Yeah, we're going to march and we're going to sing. I said, And? And? He said, Well, that's it.

It's called a Jesus march. I said, I'm sorry. I said, We'll not have Time Church involved. How the devil trembles at balloons. Can't you imagine every demon running when they see the T-shirts? I'm not trying to be facetious, but folks, what kind of thinking is this?

It's all over. We've got marches for Jesus. I'm not against those things if they're just done to give our young people something to do. As long as they march in and spread out to the crowd and get down on their knees with them and get a hold of people and say, Jesus really loves you.

And here's where it is. It's right in John 3 .16. And let me take you to the rest of it here and show you the rest of the story. If the Holy Spirit is, you know, every young pastor I meet now, I have every week, I have a young pastor who started a ministry and writes me letters on the phone.

We've got some terrible needs in our ministry. I said, What are they? We need a computer so that we can network. What do you mean network? Well, if we can get this, we can get on the network and we can network with all the other ministries and find out what they're doing.

We'll get all the best ideas and we'll exchange these ideas. And these ideas are flowing all over the airwaves. Ideas and reams and reams of paper. You want to see the beautiful ministries I see on paper for color.

Beautiful pictures and no life. No life. The bones are still bleached. There's no noise. There's no moving of the Holy Spirit. But there's a lot of computers clicking. We don't buy computers for people.

If you're looking for a computer, don't come near my office, please. Not against computers. I've got a whole office full of young computer whizzes. But they're using it for missions in a different way.

That's not what I'm talking about. Please understand I'm not being facetious. But how is Wall Street going to be warned? How is the theater district going to be warned? Folks, some people say, well, Brother Dave, you talk about God sending you.

You said God sent you to this city to raise up a holy remnant and to warn the city of coming judgments. And that hasn't been done yet. How do you do it? Folks, if you ask me what our plan is, we don't have one.

We don't have a plan. The only thing I know to do is what God told Ezekiel to do. Say to the wind. Say to the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost, come and breathe life in this valley of dry bones. Go into the subways.

Go down to Wall Street. We will pray. Listen, He only gives the Holy Ghost to those who ask. That means prayer. The Holy Ghost is given to no one unless they ask and pray for it. And the Holy Ghost will not come down on any city unless it's prayed for in and by and through the Holy Ghost.

Folks, there's a praying in the Holy Ghost. This man prayed in faith. This man spoke to the wind. He was speaking to the Holy Ghost. Oh, Holy Spirit, come down. I have no plan. There's no way. How in the world humanly could this man do anything about that valley of dry bones but believe that God had the power, God had the plan, God had the method, and the Holy Ghost had the life.

The Holy Spirit’s Power in Evangelism

And you know what? I feel so much better since I laid my burden down, my burden of trying to reach this city, my burden of trying to figure out what kind of literature. Folks, I have walked around my apartment and I've prayed and prayed.

Oh, God, we do it this way, do it this way, because I'm a good idea man. If you want ideas, I can get in the flesh and give you all kinds of good ideas that won't get you anywhere. And the Lord says, No.

You begin it. You ask all my people in Times Square Church, this next week when you pray, and then you're praying from now on, I want you to pray to the Holy Ghost. First of all, if you don't know how to pray, just open your mouth and let the Holy Ghost pray through you because you don't know how to pray as you ought anyhow.

But say, Oh, Holy Ghost, help me. I speak to you, Holy Ghost, come and pray through me that you bring forth your spirit into this city. You begin to convict people on Wall Street. Do you know God can do that?

God can just breathe like that right into the stock exchange and suddenly a spirit of emptiness and despair like they've never known. And it will probably come on a day when the Dow goes down 500 points.

And they begin to think, What's this all about? And they begin to think of the emptiness and everything else. Sometimes that's how the Holy Ghost breathes. And if you've got stock, you're saying, I hope he doesn't breathe like that now.

Well, folks, if you've got your faith in the stock market, let it breathe. I don't know how he does it, but when his breath comes, I've told you, and I'm going to close soon, I know when the Holy Ghost comes to this, comes to the meeting.

Now, he's always here, but I know when he's moving. And you that walk in the spirit, you know the very moment the Holy Spirit begins to breathe in the house. There's a sense of his presence. There's a breathing.

There's a moving. There's a drawing. There's a wooing. Something happens in the meeting. Please don't come to this church, if this is your home church, till you have prayed, Oh God, breathe in this house tonight.

All through every song service, every worship course, every praise song, I sit here now breathing. If I'm standing, if I have my hands up, I'm breathing. Holy Spirit, come to this meeting. Holy Spirit, breathe on this congregation.

Find every empty, hungry person. Resurrect every dead person, dead in their sins tonight. Breathe on them, Oh God. I pray that. I speak to the wind. You speak to the wind about your unsaved family. You walk home, some of you walk home to a valley of dry bones.

You walk into a, almost like you're walking into a tomb. Because there's death all around you. I talked to a dear lady today, 89 years old. Saint. She just, Jesus just comes out of her life. Full of Jesus.

She has no family to speak of that really cares. She's the only one. She was talking to me about her departure to be with the Lord. We had a wonderful time talking about how soon she's going to be in the presence of Jesus.

And it just thrilled my heart. And I saw life. Just absolute life pouring out of her because she's given her all to the Holy Spirit. She's given her all to Jesus. Folks, let me tell you. Let me tell you what I believe is coming to this church.

A Soul-Winning Church

And then I'm going to close. We have ministered in this past year, especially, to hurts. We've ministered to you about justification, sanctification. We've ministered to you about the doctrines of the church.

We've tried to build you up in the faith. We have laid before God. I tell you this past year, there's never been a time that I've stood in this pulpit without a broken heart. And I know Pastor Carter the same way.