The power of the resurrection

From the book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, I clarified to the brothers in the morning service that I have never preached on this passage. I have used it in references but it is such a well-known passage and I have never used it as a starting point for a preaching.

But this week when I asked the Lord for something new, different from the typical Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday, this passage from the Valley of Dry Bones came to mind, one of the most interesting and graphic passages in all of Writing.

Chapter 37, Ezekiel, and the prophet Ezekiel says; “The hand of the Lord came upon me and he took me in the spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley that was full of bones. And he made me pass near them all around, and behold, they were very many on the face of the field and indeed, very dry.”

He doesn't want to lose that idea that those bones were very, very dry. "And he said to me, son of man, will these bones live?" And I said, "Lord Jehovah, you know." He then said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and tell them, dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live, and I will lay sinews upon you and bring flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and know that I am the LORD .”

So I prophesied as I was commanded, and there was a noise while I was prophesying. And here is a tremor. And the bones came together, each bone to its bone, and I looked, and behold, sinews were upon them, and the flesh came up, and the skin covered over them, but there was no spirit in them. And he said to me, "Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit, 'thus says the Lord GOD, spirit come from the four winds and blow on these dead and they will live.'

And I prophesied as he had commanded me, and spirit entered them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. And then he said to me, “Son of man, all these bones are the house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried up and our hope perished and we are utterly destroyed. Therefore prophesy and say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD, behold, I will open your graves, my people, and I will bring you up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and bring you out of your graves, my people, and I will put my spirit in you and you will live and I will make you rest on your land, and you will know that I, the Lord, spoke and did it, says the Lord.

May the Lord bless his holy word. What a beautiful read. And I believe, brethren, that the Lord has chosen this particular Scripture for us on this resurrection Sunday. And I wanted to clarify, as I said a moment ago, as important as this text is and as used throughout the centuries by the church, I have never devoted a specific sermon to the content of this text.

And certainly, I actually hesitated a bit before choosing it as the basis for my meditation on a Sunday like today, Easter Sunday, because it would seem like it doesn't lend itself to what we normally do on Easter Sundays. We read texts that are a little lighter perhaps, they talk about the resurrection but they are more directly concerning Christ and his resurrection. But here we have a text from the Old Testament that is a bit strange and even graphic.

But if we look closely at the content of this passage, this text does talk about the resurrection. And resurrection in the broadest sense of the word. We must always remember that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not simply important in itself, but also has implications for us. I want to clarify what I mean by this. It is clear that the primary consequence of the resurrection is that through it, the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus defeated death and the powers of hell. We cannot lose that fact. The resurrection of Christ is a thrust directly into death itself. The Lord rose and when he rose he gave death a deadly blow. Jesus killed death on the cross of Calvary.

And upon resurrecting, it became clear that death had been defeated. Through his resurrection Jesus achieved a kind of judicial triumph over death. And we must not always forget that. That is the first and the primary significance of death. That is why the Apostle Paul says, “O death, where is your sting? Where, oh grave, your victory? Since the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, more thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Amen.

That is the great meaning of the resurrection. But the resurrection of Jesus also assures us that one day we too will rise again. It is not only the individual drama of Jesus defeating death, but there is also a secondary implication that through the death of Jesus we too can aspire to our own resurrection. That through the resurrection of Christ, we too can aspire to the resurrection. When we die we do not die definitively but we enter the presence of the Lord, says the word.

So the death of Christ is not only a defeat of death itself, but also a promise that we too will rise one day with Christ Jesus. That is to say, that two consequences, death defeated and we aspire and enter into our own resurrection.

But there is also a third consequence that we cannot forget about the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ released a power in history for us to live in victory through his resurrection so that we can live a victorious life.

That is why Paul speaks of loving Christ and knowing the power of his resurrection. It is like when the atom was released. In World War II, when there was that atomic explosion, what happened there is that humanity had figured out a way to release the power that was locked up in the atom and to break the atom and allow that energy to come out with all its destructive power. that the atom had He was locked up but had not been released.

And so it is with Christ. When the body of Christ was broken, broken, divided, from his life and from his death a power was released against all that is the fall, the sin, the darkness of this world. And now the Lord Jesus Christ, through his resurrection, released power so that we can live that victorious life that overcomes all the inertia of the world, everything destructive, everything dark, everything gloomy.

Christ releases power for us. That is the third consequence of the resurrection. And that is why Paul says that he wants to know Christ and he wants to know the power of his resurrection. In other words, he wants to live in that power. I want you to know, my brother, when you accept, my sister, when you accept Christ as your Lord and savior, when you decide to live your life under the banner of Christ Jesus, there is a power that descends on your life, power to overcome , power to live a victorious life, power to overcome your limitations, power to become all that God wants you to be.

And I believe that many times we do not live in that power, in that victory because we are not using the power that God has placed in our hands. The Apostle Paul says in a passage that he prays for the Ephesians to understand the inheritance they have received, the greatness of power. He says it is the same power that raised Christ from the dead.

That is, that you have that power in your life. And you live in resurrection power, if you want to use that power. So we see that this passage in Ezekiel also talks about the resurrection. And I want to get its meaning out of it. Because this passage from Ezekiel 37 that we just read has various applications and various interpretations that have to do precisely with the power of the resurrection and how it also wants to take us to another level of effectiveness and power in our lives.

This passage from Ezekiel 37 has several interpretive layers, several levels. In the first place, it is a passage that has application in the strictly historical sense. That is, this passage speaks of the restoration of the people of Israel after having been exiled by God because of their sin.

Ezekiel is a prophet from exile. And he was appointed by the Lord and assigned to speak to that captive people that was in Babylon. The Lord exiled the Hebrew people. The Lord always punished the Hebrew nation for their sin by removing them from the land He had promised them. The land was for the Israelites the very essence of their identity.

And the Lord had warned them, "If you continue to offend me, I will drive you out of your land." And so it was, there came a time when after centuries of sin and patience on the part of the Lord, Isarel was exiled and spent 70 years in exile in Babylon. And it would seem that the Hebrews themselves already believed that there was no hope for them. And in fact, the prophet Jeremiah also wrote to these exiled people promising that one day the Lord would bring them to the land.

In other words, this passage shows us there in that valley of dry bones, Ezekiel is writing at that moment to that nation that is in exile and God is saying to them, “I am going to raise them up. You are now a valley of dry bones. They are dead, but I am going to bring them back to life. I am going to return them to their land.” That is, Israel is seen here as that valley of dry bones that God wants to bring back to life.

Now, it's interesting that this prophecy, this passage from Ezekiel 37 is fulfilled twice in history. Once, when the people of Israel were returned from the Babylonian exile, but a second time, how many know? It refers to the return of the Jewish nation in the 20th century because when the people of Israel rejected Jesus as messiah, crucified him, divine judgment was brought about a second time, centuries after the first exile.

And again, the Hebrews rebelled this time against the might of Rome, were defeated and were exiled. And Rome declared that the Jewish people could not return to their land. They were expelled from Jerusalem, they were expelled from the land, and for practically two thousand years, the Jewish people wandered through all the nations of the world.

You know about the wandering Jew, that expression. Israel ceased to be a nation for two thousand years. And the Lord called his people again in the 20th century and miraculously, Israel became a nation again. In the year 1949 Israel was again declared a nation. They had to fight for their identity, but unbelievably a nation that had not been a nation for 2,000 years had retained their identity and now God calls them from different parts of the earth and they become a nation again. And he brings them together in that little piece of land, very small compared to what the Davidic, Solomonic empire was, Israel becomes a nation again.

And that valley of dry bones was reunited again for the second time in history. In other words, there are two interpretations of this passage from Ezekiel 37 that has to do with resurrection. The resurrection of a nation through history assembled by God.

But I want to add another possible explanation to this extraordinary passage. There is also a general application that has to do with the universal church, we, the church of Jesus Christ, which is a kind of spiritual Israel. The church of Christ is also a spiritual nation, an extension of the Hebrew people.

Now, by this I do not mean that the church has replaced Israel. God has very specific purposes with his people. God is not done with Israel. Israel is in something of a historical hiatus right now. God has them soaking in there, waiting for a day when they, too, are going to be dealt with by God.

Now, we are in the time of the gentiles, we, the non-Jews, the gentile church are in control, in a sense speaking of the divine plan. But one day, Israel is going to be called again. Now, we in a sense, the things that apply to Israel in the Old Testament apply to us, the church of Jesus Christ in modern times.

And in that sense I think you would agree with me that much of the church today is like that valley of dry bones that Ezekiel saw. Much of the church today is also dead and powerless. It must be said with pain in our hearts and without any kind of pride. The church is divided, it is scattered everywhere, like the dry bones in Ezekiel's vision. A bone here, another there, another there, it was no longer known which bone belonged to which other bone and to which body. Everything was separated and divided.

The modern church, and God wants us to recognize this, brother, and God wants to bring us to a point of acknowledgment of our present spiritual poverty, not so that we get depressed, not so that we condemn ourselves, but so that we come to a point of despair so that we can once again be restored by the Holy Spirit.

God wants us to recognize that we are, to some extent, like a valley of dry bones, but there is hope for us. Today's church is full of false doctrines, of false practices. The church, unfortunately, has become, to some extent, worldly in many quarters. The church has been deeply affected by the culture in which we find ourselves.

In many ways the modern church is rather a projection of culture, despite what the Lord said in Romans, where he says, “do not be conformed to this age, but rather be transformed by renewing your understanding."

But the church has conformed to this world, to a degree, and we have to recognize that this is a state we must escape. We have abandoned many of the most basic doctrines of the Bible at this time. Perhaps we, who are part of the Latino people, do not understand to what extent many have distanced themselves from the church in the world, the European church, the North American church.

There is a part of the world, called the Third World, the Asian, African, Latin American world, which for the most part still retains sound doctrine, but even there we are also mixed with a number of things. So we don't… Amen, amen.

Let's not pride ourselves too much. We too need a renewal in many ways. The modern church needs a sanctification, it needs a touch of the Holy Spirit. The church around the world finds itself powerless as the world around us becomes more corrupt and more people go to hell without knowing Christ as their Savior.

We have to recognize that the voice of the church, to a certain extent, in the world is very weak, that most of the world is often not interested in what we have to say. When they're not furiously contradicting us, they're just kind of uninterested, and they're not very interested in hearing what we want to say.

Indeed, the modern church is like that valley of dry bones that Ezekiel contemplated. This text makes it clear that the situation at that moment seems hopeless. The bones says, "they are really dry," that passage says that "the bones were very dry," which means that they have been lying for a long time in that valley, and that they are the very embodiment of death and dryness .

I don't know how many have seen a human bone at times in places where there are hospitals or morgues or things like that. A dry bone is hard as a stick right? It's practically a stone, it petrifies and that's how those bones were in that valley, extremely dry.

And the Lord asks Ezekiel a rhetorical question, He asks, “Son of man, will these bones live?” And obviously there is a human level the answer is no, it is impossible. Ezekiel understands what the Lord is saying to him and says, "Lord, only you know, only you know if they will live or not."

I believe that sometimes the Lord wants to take us to an extreme, brothers. Sometimes the Lord wants to bring us to a point where we have to admit that we don't have what we need. Sometimes God wants to bring us to a point of humiliation where we understand that we cannot do what God needs. And I believe that God is bringing the church to that point. We understand that this world right now can only be changed by a visitation of the power of God in our lives.

He knows that sometimes God humbles us to make his glory shine. He humiliated Peter to the point that this man, convinced of his own piety and his love for God, betrayed the Lord. And Peter is completely disqualified, and the Lord asks Peter a similar question when he rises. Peter is bitter, desperate, humiliated and thinks that there is no restoration for him anymore, and the Lord asks him, "Peter, do you love me?" And the Lord has obviously taken him to a point where Peter can no longer respond with the same arrogance as before, "Even if everyone leaves you, I will never leave you." And Peter tells the Lord, on his third time asking him, “Lord, only you know. Right now I'm not sure if I love you or not, really, after what I've done."

He knows that God only uses men and women after he humiliates them, after he disqualifies them. Over and over again one sees that in the Scriptures, that God needs unqualified, desperate people, who recognize their poverty. I believe that God has wanted to bring us to that point at this time in history, in which we know that we have offended the Lord and that only He can perform the miracle, that this world needs something different and only He can provide it.

I think of the Gideon passage, for example, where the Midianites rise up against the people of Israel – 330,000 I think it is, or something like that – hundreds of thousands of Midianite warriors want to destroy Israel. And Gideon, called by God to liberate the nation, can only raise an army of 30,000, 32,000 I think it was, something like that, hire 300,000 or so. And when Gideon is kind of there thinking, well, at least we have a critical mass that we can use, the Lord says to him, “Look, Gideon, there are too many of them.” All those who want to go home, all those who are afraid, and want to be at home, let them go. And they left and 3,000 remained, I think it was against 300,000 or so and God told him, "Gideon, there are still too many."

Because? Because the Lord does not share his glory. The Lord likes us to see that we cannot do what is needed. And that's why he tells the prophet Ezekiel, "Go around, look and see that those bones are too dead and too dry for anything to give them life except Me."

And I believe, brothers, that God wants to bring us to that point of despair. And I want to tell you that I have reached that point of despair myself in my own life, that I need to see the glory of God fall on the nations. Only a powerful visitation from God can do what this nation needs. The world has become too corrupted. God has pushed us to the extreme of our strength. And we have to get to a point where we despair with ourselves and say, “Lord, only you can do the miracle that this culture needs.” God wants to bring us to the level of our powerlessness.

At the center of this passage is this idea that the only thing that can give life to these dry bones is the power of the Holy Spirit, a visitation. And the Lord makes that very clear. The only one who can resurrect dry bones. And I'm going to apply that between us in a little while as well. The only one that can perform the miracle that is needed is the power of God, the visitation of the spirit of God. This is the central message of this passage.

Brethren, if the church of Jesus Christ is to emerge from its present state of death and impotence, it will only be possible through an infusion of the power of the Holy Spirit in our midst. God wants us to cry out and seek his face so that he can move as he wants in this time. I tell you, brothers, that I am clear on one thing and that is that we are ripe right now for an unprecedented visitation of the power of the Holy Spirit on earth.

God wants to revive his creation. I personally do not believe that God still wants to raise the church from the earth. God is waiting first for a great harvest of souls, a great visitation of the Holy Spirit, a worldwide revival where entire nations will fall at the feet of Jesus Christ. And then the second coming will come, but first, the Bible says that God, Christ comes to look for a church without spot and without wrinkle. And brothers, what we have the most are spots and wrinkles at this time, and even some warts as well. So we need to, first, function as God has designed his church. I do not believe that the Lord comes looking for a weak and defeated church. God wants to find a powerful church. God wants us to measure up first. And that is why I believe that there is a last visitation.

Then I want to refer you to the passage from Joel, chapter 2 where it says that "in the last days God will pour out his spirit on his church, the young will see visions, the old will dream dreams, there will be great things."

And I am holding on to the fact that God still has a great Pentecost, which is what the church needs to carry out the miracle of the conquest of nations. And that is why my great agony sometimes, because I know that none of us have seen that visitation. We have read about when God falls like that, but I feel that we have to cry out to the Lord and not give up until the Lord restores that power in his church, even for a moment, that the church shines in the sky like God He has designed it to do. We have to cry out to the Lord. We have to ask that those dry bones be revived.

Brothers, I believe that the church is already tired of Sunday sermons and here I am, preaching one of those sermons. But frankly, I myself sometimes get bored with myself, to tell you the truth. I believe that we need less declamation and less poems and more swords exercised in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring lives, defeat the power of the devil. We need more manifestations, more signs, more wonders, more healings, more impartations of the spirit, more filling with the Holy Spirit, more converts to the Lord, more consecration of our lives. The effective demonstration of the power of God in the midst of the church, that is what we need.

More paralytics rising up, more lunatics converted to rationality, brethren, more healing from the devil's oppression on earth, more addicts brought to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, more depression fleeing souls, more anxiety running out, howling from people, plus effective power of God. Brethren, that is what we need. It's good when we come and jump and cry and the bow falls off. Well, okay, but we want the power of God. Hallelujah!

"Only by hearsay I had heard you, but now my eyes see you." We mean that, brothers. I want to see that in the midst of my people. And we have to cry out and we have to accept the fact that right now, compared to what God wants to give us, we are like a valley of dry bones. And that doesn't dishonor the Lord, that doesn't dishonor what he's doing, but when you know there's so much more, you have to thirst. God wants to take us to a level of despair, of clamor, of acceptance, that we need that grace of God in our midst.

And what I want is to awaken in you hunger, thirst, how I feel it and how I am feeling it at this time in my life. I love what God is doing in León de Judá. On Friday we had a big celebration here on Good Friday. How nice to see African-Americans and Latinos, whites, drug addicts in restoration, homeless people, young people, children, the elderly, all worshiping the Lord as one great company. Praise God for that. That fills me with joy. God is doing very nice things in León de Judá.

I think we are in a very special moment. On Wednesdays we have had visitations from the power of God. And many brothers are turning on the light and saying, "I'm going to go on Wednesday." It's good to see you like this. When there are so many churches, and I say it God knows, without any kind of pride, how good it is to see a town, right now when there are warnings that COVID is returning, here we are, defying COVID. Glory to God.

By the way I tell you, look, if you want to wear your mask. Amen. That's good. It is necessary. Glory to God. If you want to use it, use it, if you don't want to use it too, there is freedom. But don't stop looking for the place of worship. God wants a people… if we are being blessed, I think it is because we did not give up two years ago. We continue to worship the Lord. We keep coming back to the house of God. We keep giving. We have honored the Lord and God is honoring us too because we have defied, to some degree, cowardice. I know that there are many brothers who don't, who have their illnesses, or are their age and are fine. We do not want to put any more burden on you. But I tell you, brothers, that God loves it when a people defies fear and says, “I will present myself in the house of the Lord. I am not going to give God a sacrifice that does not cost me anything. I am going to give the Lord my body, my praise, my presence. I will not stop congregating.” That honors and glorifies the name of the Lord.

God wants us to pay a price so that He can visit us as He wants. But I am convinced that even within everything that God is doing up to now, I am convinced that if we are going to have any impact in the city of Boston, in the community that surrounds us, I believe that God has even more than that for us. we as a church God wants to use this church of humble immigrants.

And always know, brothers, that the ministry in English is an extension of this Latin ministry. Some Latino brothers felt a little suspicious, perhaps years ago, and said, "Well, we who have given so much and now they are going to take away from us and they are going to bring these gringos here too so they can take over our space."

Brothers, it is a privilege that a church of immigrants like this… generally, Latinos are an appendage of the American churches. Here, God has used us to bring another generation of North Americans, African-Americans, from other countries, and God is using this church as a matrix to produce something very interesting that is also taking place in the ministry in English. And God wants to do something totally powerful. God wants to use these two English and Latino communities as an explosive bomb that will do great things in this nation and in this city of Boston as well. I don't know if I will see it, but I know that you are going to see it, some of you who are here too.

So it is important, brethren, that we continue to press for God to do that work. The needs of this city of Boston are so great, so massive, for us to pretend we can fix it with anything other than the technology of the Holy Spirit. If we are really going to change what is called the Methadone Mile into what we often call the Miracle Mile, if we are going to change the Methadone Mile into the Miracle Mile, we are going to need the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. When I see, brothers, those people sticking a needle into any little hole they can, in their necks, in their stomachs, not to mention their arms, desperate for that dose of death, when I see them crossing the streets as if they are completely stunned, not realizing that there are cars crossing. When I see them lying on the floor, dancing a macabre dance under the influence of drugs, I say, "That is a valley of dry bones, only the power of God, the Holy Spirit can break that."

I long for the day when so much strength and power come out of here that hundreds and thousands of those addicts come to receive liberation by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is my desire and that is the vision that I have. Glory to God that God is bringing on Sundays, brothers, in the 9 o'clock service in particular, there are many of those people who are coming to church. And God is doing something very nice, but that is just a drop in a desert. There are many dry bones that need the power of the Holy Spirit.

And God wants us not only to preach to dry bones, but God wants us to prophesy with the power of the Holy Spirit. There is a difference between preaching and prophesying. Prophesying is when the Holy Spirit gives you a "kairos" word, a "rhema" word for a person and you in the power of the Holy Spirit declare something over their lives. And we need like Ezekiel a quickened word from God to bring that healing, to say to the lame, "Get up." Let him tell the paralytic, "Get up on your feet and walk," let him tell the mute, "Let your tongue be loose and speak." Let him tell the demoniac, “Be released in the name of Jesus.“That is prophesying. That is declaring the power of God.

And we need that power in our lives. We need that power as a congregation, and that means the miracle has to start with you and me. Like Ezekiel, we must find ourselves ministering under direct direction by God's command, because we are so intimate with him that our words reflect his will and are strengthened by his spirit.

Ezekiel had that blessing of hearing God tell him, “Do this, do that, prophesy, say this, say that.” And I believe that we have to ask the Lord, "Lord, give us that intimacy with you that we also listen."

Many times when I, before going to sleep, I ask him, “Lord, give me revelation tonight. Talk to me in a dream. Reveal your will for my life and my ministry.”

One of the verses that haunts me at this time is the word of a psalm. He says, "I will make you understand and I will tell you the way in which you should walk." And we need God to direct us specifically as a congregation, to tell us what He wants, to send us to such a place, like Philip, to take us and take us to the desert where the eunuch is and to give us a word to convert him, to may he then go and evangelize his nation as he did Ethiopia.

We need the power, the direction, the specific word of God in our lives. We have to prepare. You have a call from God, young, adult, old, God wants to do something in your life. This morning a young man came who I don't know if he's still here, and he told me, "Pastor, I was at home, I heard you preach this morning and so I decided to come to the service." A young Latino. And he talked to me a little more, I told him, “Look, that's what God wants. God wants to use you. God wants to call you. God wants to use you as a spearhead. God wants to activate you so that you go and preach to others and testify to others.

A young African American man this morning also came to me and told me something similar about his life. A person who has been struggling with drug addiction. You look at it and it would seem that it doesn't have much of a future, like a dry bone. I told him, “Young man, God has something for your life. God wants you to be a witness of his restorative power. Believe the Lord and fight for your deliverance. God wants to use you greatly. God wants to give you a new identity. God wants to use you for his glory. And God wants to use each one of us who are here. God wants to use us as a powerful company.

And I think that part of the problem is that many of us, our self-esteem is very low. And we do not believe that God can use me and you and that is why we come to church, as people from whom not much is expected, but if you understood that you are like a bullet that, inserted in the divine rifle, can do great things. things for God's people. But you need to take yourself seriously. You need to cry out to the Lord. You need to pray more, fast more, seek God's presence more, confess more, get rid of all the things that afflict you and that hold you back in your run. Strip you of all weight, as it says, that besieges you. Everything that reduces

Take yourself seriously. It is an urgent time. It is a key time in the history of humanity. I believe that the Lord wants to do something and that He is moving behind the scenes, setting up an incredible scenario that one day there will be talk about what He will have done, and that you are involved in that mysterious and sublime narrative of God and not You know. But you need to pay the price, you need to search for the Lord in your life.

Brothers, we have to get rid of many things. We are too comfortable in the 21st century. The truth is that we have everything, we have our computers, we have the television with 400 channels, we have the iPhone that entertains us at any time, we have the refrigerator, despite all that is said about inflation and all that, our refrigerators are full of food, brothers. We have our dishwashers, our automatic dryers, our cars with all the buttons there are and will be, and we are fed up, we are satisfied. We are full, we do not need God.

God wants to create in us hunger and thirst. That we get up early in the morning to look for his face, that we take time out even 4 hours a day, and say, you know what? Today I am not going to eat until 12:00 noon. Take a little juice over there to calm down the rumblings in your stomach a bit, and use that time to cry out to the Lord. May your prayer be a prayer in effect, fasting, searching for God. Go to bed a little later and pray 10, 15 more minutes. Take time at work, seek the presence of God. Confess your sins. Free yourself from many things. Pay the price. Crucify yourself in the Lord and cry out to God and He will visit us with His great power.

I'm looking here for the passage in James 4, where James says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

Brothers, when we get closer to God, He gets closer to us. He has promised it. “Seek me and you will find me. Seek me and you will live." I want to do that more and more. And you, I want you to want to do the same too.

When León de Judá collectively understands that God wants to give life to dry bones, that God wants to use us for something wonderful and that this is the time, this is God's moment. He knows that it is not only that we cry out to Him and knock on his door, but also that it is the precise moment that God wants. And sometimes God takes time to do certain things, you know?

Sometimes God puts a sense of calling in our hearts and we experience it, but then He is falling in love with us and waiting for us to reach the peak of despair and then He acts.

The Bible says that the Hebrews were crying out to the Lord. When that Pharaoh who didn't know Joseph came and put him into slavery, the Hebrews cried out, “Lord, deliver us. We are under oppression. We are in slavery." And he says that one day the Lord heard his cry. Not to say that I hadn't heard it before, but that was the precise moment that God wanted. And I feel, brothers, that we are very close, if we are no longer in it, to that moment in which God wants to respond to our cry. And He says, "not only answer but before you cry, I will be there."

This is the moment, people of God, and God wants to give life to those dry bones. God wants us to prophesy to dry bones. God wants us to die to many things. I tell you, brothers, that until we recognize our spiritual poverty, I wish on this day of Resurrection that we understand that we also need our own resurrection. That the Lord wants to give us life and use us to give life.

God is brewing a powerful moment and God wants us to grieve our own spiritual poverty, our lack of power, our lukewarmness, the impurities within us that weaken our authority and our ability to hear from God. We need to individually cry out for God to come down and pour out his power, his spirit, on us. We have to sanctify ourselves, brothers. And sometimes God drives us to the point of desperation to do that work in our lives.

People of God, we have to cultivate the Holy Spirit more and that is what I believe is at the center of everything. God is telling us, “My people, come close to me, and I will come close to you. I want to visit you with my power.” And I wish, brothers, that in these next few days, when we return to our homes, after all the mess and all the noise of Holy Week has passed, that we create our own holy weeks. That we return to our homes with the purpose of recognizing that God wants something with me. God wants to use me. And that you begin to cry out to the Lord.

Don't let anything separate you from what God wants for you, for your life. Do not allow anyone to disappoint you, discourage you, because Satan likes when he sees someone who is crying out to the Lord, he wants to kill, steal and destroy and he wants to destroy that love. No, keep crying out to the Lord. I want many of you to accompany me in this search for a new identity, a visitation of the power of God.

I want you to lower your head where you are for a moment. May God bring you to that point where you can say to the dry bones, "Dry bones, live in the power of the Holy Spirit." There is much that we have to get rid of, brothers, there are many here who are perhaps visiting us today and we need you to give your life to the Lord.

The first thing I want to do is call like that. If God is speaking to you, you want to come forward and say, "Lord, I give my life to you." I want to invite you now to do that. Go ahead here. Or raise your hand, however you want. Amen, amen, brother, so we are going to do it in the name of Jesus. And if there is someone else here, if God is calling you this afternoon, I want to invite you to give your life to the Lord. God needs you. God wants to do something special in your life. If you are a young man, a young woman, full of life and promise, it is not too early to give yourself to the Lord.

If you have strayed from God and need to get closer to the Lord, this is the moment, do not fear, this is a safe place. You are in the family of Christ and God wants to be intimate with you. And if you come close to Him, He will come close to you. There is a price to pay, brother. Many times we feel like no, I don't want to reveal my intimacy or my privacy. And you have to pay the price, you have to dare.

I know there are others this afternoon. If God has brought you here it is because He has a purpose for your life. There is a hymn that says, "How the Lord Loves Us." You don't know how much God loves you and how much God values your life. If you're up and you want to go down, don't worry, there's time. If you brought someone this afternoon and they came with you, invite them. If you want someone to come forward with you because you feel more comfortable, do that too. But let's not stop God's call this afternoon.

Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, Holy Spirit, Spirit of God. What a beautiful time than today, Easter Sunday, for you to break before the Lord and give your life to Him. Go ahead. Come in.

I believe that there are still entire families that can come to the feet of the Lord. There are young people, there are old people that this afternoon God is calling them and it is a wonderful moment. And I want some brothers to come and accompany these young people, these brothers and sisters, this family, come here and sponsor them in a sense and cover them with your prayer.

Young girls here, I'm so glad to see you guys. The younger kids around. That's great. You know, God loves you. God is so in love with you, children, so very special to Him.

The Lord is desperate to do something wonderful in his people. This is a time of love in León de Judá, it is a time to give our lives to the Lord. Young people, do not underestimate, whoever you are, do not underestimate the importance of this moment. If someone else, there is still time. And I bless your life, I bless your life. If you have come forward in response to that initial call, I declare that the Holy Spirit falls upon your life. God does something special in you. God rips off your outer covering and gives you a new identity.

I declare healing over your mind, I declare healing over your home, I declare the power of God helping you in your battles. Don't worry, the Lord is a loving God. He won't hit you when you fail, He will love you more, but hold on to Him and let Him do His work. I declare that this is a sacred moment where God does things in you. Stay in prayer. This is not a show, but a moment of intimacy with God.

I declare the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. I declare the annointing of God. I declare that yokes are broken in the name of Jesus.

Ties are broken in the name of Jesus. The power of God falls on your life. We rebuke every work of the devil, every yoke of the enemy, every false claim of Satan on your life. We declare him defeated in the name of Jesus. Purposes of God being released. Life of God descending. And if there is someone else who needs to come here, come this afternoon. God wants to do something in your life. God wants to heal yokes. God wants to break spiritual ties.

And if you want to sanctify your life, give yourself up, this is a second call to those who want more from God, come here and receive... the anointing of the Lord is here at this moment. God is doing things. If you want to come, consecrate your life to the Lord, ask him to make you one of those weapons, instruments, you want to free yourself, you want to break yokes, you want to sanctify your life, come forward too and seek God this afternoon.

We are going to take time to cry out to the Lord. Hallelujah! God is here. God is moving. God is doing things in our lives. The Lord loves you desperately.

People of God, if you want to get up there in your seat, and say, “Lord, use me. Lord, cleanse me. Lord, sanctify me. Lord, heal my life. Lord, enlighten me." God is calling you this afternoon.

Lion of Judah, this is a time of consecration, this is a time to cry out to the Lord, this is a time to tell Him, “Father, here I am. Pick me. Send to me. Call me. Use me." Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Oh God, take us where we need to go, Lord, we're not where we need to be yet. On this afternoon we confess that we need you, Lord. Come over here, there's room here. Come this way. Hujieres, accompany our brothers. Look, there's room over here. Let them feel free. If someone else wants to come, there is space on this side, here. Anyone who wants to come there is time. Stay there in the Lord.

Present yourself before God as a living sacrifice. I am there with you. We are offering ourselves to the Lord on the sacrificial altar. God is working in the soul of his people. He is calling us. Father, we consecrate ourselves to you. Lion of Judah is placed on the sacrificial table. What you have started, Lord, finish it. The work, Father, that you have begun, complete it.

We lift up the Lion of Judah, Lord, we lift up the Lion of Judah before you. Oh, Lord, if you do not visit us, we will remain barren. Adorn us with your gifts. Adorn us with the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We consecrate ourselves to you, Lord. Behold, this community that you yourself have raised, Lord, you are the owner of it. You have invested so much in this town, there are so many good things, Lord, that we could put at your service, and we want to put at your service, Father.

Take advantage of your inheritance, Lord, this afternoon. Take advantage of what you yourself have created in this place. And don't leave us as we are. We need a visit from you. I bless this town, Lord, I bless this spiritual family. Keep crying out to the Lord. Let's take a few minutes, brothers, there's time for anything after we get out of here. But that is what God wants, that we give him priority, that we give priority to his courts.

Come this way, brothers, hujieres, this way. Lead me people, there is space here. Pass them in front. If you can give him space there, that is. help them. Guide them. Cry out to the Lord. Cry out to the Lord. We need you, Father. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

If there is someone else who needs, there is time. There's time. We cry out to you, Lord. Touch your people, Father. Receive the touch of the Holy Spirit. Receive the touch of the Holy Spirit. Say, “Lord, baptize me. I receive your spirit. I receive your power." Receive the fire of the Holy Spirit. I declare baptism, the filling of the Holy Spirit in your life. God touches you God infuses his power. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank you.

We dive into your waters, Lord. We dive into your waters. Father. Visit families. Touch families. Touch men and women. Fill us with the Holy Spirit, Lord. Oh, gosh, we want more. We want more of you. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thanks God. Thank my Lord.

You have to cry out to the Lord. You have to cry out to the Lord. "Call to me and I will answer you," says the word, "and I will teach you great and hidden things that you do not know."

Thank my Lord. We praise you. we bless you Thank you Jesus. Thank my Lord. Amen, amen, amen. Thanks God. Maintain that relationship after you leave here. Pay the price. Keep looking for God. Keep looking for God. This is the beginning. This is the beginning only. A total consecration of your life is what God is looking for.

Stay there and let the Lord deal with you. Let the Lord saturate you with his strength. I bless this town, Lord. I bless your daughters and your sons. Power of God descends. Power of God. Power of God. Power of God descend, visit your people, visit your people, Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!

Thank my Lord. Yes sir. Yes sir.

[Song]

Brethren, before we finish, the Lord has put an impulse in me. I want to ask you, take the liberty, the prerogative of asking you to extend your hand towards me and pray for me now, pray for me, please. God wants to get things done and I, as your lead pastor, need a special touch from the Holy Spirit. Bless me now at this moment, brother, please I humbly ask you. Pray for me, I need a touch from God. Pray.

Because I know that what God wants to do needs leaders touched, impacted by the Lord. I need that prayer, that intercession from you. I humbly request it.

Father, please, Lord, do your work. Do your work, Lord. I need that touch, Lord, of your spirit. Daddy, come over here. Angel and Miriam, just pray for me.

For the glory of the Lord, I give myself, I consecrate myself to the Lord. Pray for God to do the work he has to do.

Father, in these moments we present your servant, shepherd and leader, God the Father. We know, God the Father, that you are going to be covering and he asks, God the Father, that in these moments as a congregation we unite to intercede for him, to pray for him, so that you continue to descend the power of your spirit on his life. Father God, give him a word, continue to give him powerful words, words, Father God, so that he too can be edified by what you are putting in his life. God the Father, take care of him, every step, take care of him, God the Father, in every place.

Holy Spirit, in these moments, we ask you God the Father, an anointing, a power, a power, Father, special over your servant in these moments. Father God, we know that your presence is with him. God, take care of him, protect him, God. Hallelujah! The power of God is in you. The power of God is in you. Release the word that God has given you. Praise God. God has given you a feeling. God has touched you. God has given you a new renewal in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. God the Father, take care and continue to use him, God the Father, not only in word, but in everything, God the Father, in everything, in everything your powerful hand continues with him, Jesus. Thanks God. Hallelujah! I thank you God in Jesus name.