A Great Company, Without Number
Grace Van Duzen September 14, 2002
I had a great compulsion to come to be with you today. And I'll start with this (lifting her book, The Book Of Grace: A Cosmic View Of The Bible) it's heavy!
“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 was full of bones.” That's the whole man–made world, which is full of bones—skeletons? You don't look like skeletons!
“And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley;”—population explosion!—“and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?” Can God's crowning creation survive in its present state on this planet? “And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” A little reproach in there maybe—you're asking me? But that's the only way it can be done. The Lord did not respond to that. “Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.” It's the only answer. “Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath”—symbol of spirit—“to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”
It wasn't until the breath came in that there was life in the body. It wasn't all the wonderful curves and sinews. Are you ashamed of your body? The Lord wasn't when He made it, or He wouldn't have made it the way it is. And I imagine when He got to certain points, wonderful curves, He said “Mmm–hmmm, it's all right!” But this skeleton had to come first. This is the formation, the bones; and if any bone is out of place, you know it!—the tiniest bone.
In the process of creation, it came “bone to his bone.” What does that mean? It means there's a relationship between every single part of your body with every other part of your body, and unless that relationship is right, it's not so good. Looking at this from the standpoint of the whole body, “bone to his bone” came together. And we're talking about this body, an example for the whole great world body, the open valley that was full of dry bones. In that whole body of mankind, bone comes to his bone. Is that a cosmic mate finding a cosmic mate? Well, praise the Lord! But it's every part of creation finding its right place in the body. The relationship with everything and everyone, with the dishwasher who is with you, with everything. And if there's division, separation in this body, you know the ultimate results are there—there is war. Do we look out there and say, “How awful, war!”? Better look at something much closer. Any little disagreement is monstrous in another setting.
Togetherness is the secret. There is a lot of attention, rightly, given to what needs to be changed in “me.” Absolutely! You're the only one; I'm the only one who can do it. But how about that whole body? And the Lord laid sinews upon it: “And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” YE shall know I AM the Lord. Only when the breath comes into it, not just when the sinews are there and the wonderful flesh and all the rest of it, and the skin. I emphasize the beauty of creation. Do we rejoice in it as much as the Creator must have, when He saw what was emerging? And His love is always there.
“So I prophesied as I was commanded:”—and there's the secret—“and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.” A noise and a shaking? That's not all peace, is it? Something was happening, a great thing. Disturbance? Well, I imagine that's an understatement here, but it all comes together. We're in a world where it is what it is—beyond description right now! But this is where we are, and this is what we need to do: that which is right at hand. And this wonderful harmony and peace, after the bone–shaking and the noise—we know a little of that, I think.
“And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.” A body can be formed according to design, a wonderful body, but unless it is imbued with the spirit it doesn't mean anything. “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,”—the Divine Design of Creation—“O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” Slain—dead to the spirit of God. And only the spirit can bring it to life. Everything else is an exercise in futility. “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”
“Army” is simply the name given to a great body in those days. An exceeding great army—this planet full with those imbued with the spirit. Their breath came into them. Here's this great body filled with the spirit of God. And they lived, and what happened? They stood up! It's the first time you hear of anything standing up. Here it is: they stood up, an exceeding great body. The commission received by Ezekiel is that which is given to everyone who comes into this world: to so live that the radiation from the Lord contributes to the regeneration of the human race. The breath, the Spirit of God, fills the valley of dry bones with living flesh standing upon its feet, an exceeding great body without number.
Now I go back, way back in this book. This was prophesied by Abraham: that the seed which he planted would indeed grow and cover the face of the earth. The similarity that I'm pointing out between these two is that it covers the face of the whole earth. The whole earth is included in what we're doing here, right here in this magnificent circle this morning. An exceeding great body fills this planet. And that was said about Abram in a different way.
“The Lord said unto Abram… For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” It includes this whole body. And what is meant by his seed? Just his son and then his grandson, his great–grandson, his great–great–grandson, great–great–great–great–great grandson? It's more than that, isn't it? The seed. Well let's look at the seed in relation to this beautiful planet Earth. I know you all love it as I love this planet. But do you ever think how unique it is? What about the seeds we plant? Thank you for these gorgeous roses! A seed had to sometime be in the ground of this planet before it could be a flower. It was all contained in the seed. Every bit of that beauty, everything about it, was in that little seed.
And the seed of Abram—he was the great, great pioneer. He was the first one to change the worship from death to life. Remember he listened to the commandment of the devil to take his son up on a high place, as high as he could get—it was the highest act of worship—and kill his son. Up to that point, that was the habit, highest form of worship. I don't think the world has come very far from that, do you? God decrees that His son be killed in order to save the world? I think this world of dry bones needs to take a good look.
But Abram, strong and faithful and wonderful, did that. So the seed of that victory shall cover the face of the earth. Here is another wonderful promise with regard to the planet. This whole planet—thinking of the physical seeds again, we couldn't have flowers, couldn't have vegetables, couldn't have those gorgeous trees, without seeds. That's true of Earth. But what about the other planets? You couldn't grow any of our wonderful things on them, unless you took some of the Earth's soil with you, dressed up like an astronaut, because you couldn't put it in the ground of another planet—it wouldn't grow. This belongs to this planet, this Earth. How wonderful that is! And do we ever think of it? It's a unique part in the Lord's great Cosmic Home. And I love it, and you love it. Every little thing that comes out of the ground is so absolutely precious.
Abram was told to “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre ... and built there an altar unto the LORD.” Abram had already sensed a mission that surpassed any earthly vision, when he departed from his father's house: “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Could we say that? That's what this body is here for. All families, not just inhabitants of one little part of one country, of anything. All families of the earth. Abram realized there was no limit to his work in letting the Lord again have control in all the earth through himself. Here was a promise—not just as far as he could see but in every direction—he was told to look north, east, south, and west—the beginning of a New Earth, with himself as the focus because of his understanding of the enormity of the commission. There's an enormity of commission here in this Body, the greatest possible: New Earth.
The “seed” of Abram was to be “as the dust of the earth.” The state of man when he became identified with the “dust” was to be changed into the “seed' of Abram.” The dust of the ground is first referred to at man's Fall, when his mind was likened to a serpent that would crawl on the ground. It would never see anything but the dust, or eat anything but the dust—the material level. But here it was changed with Abram and the promise to his seed—and within his seed was all victory, this largeness of vision which surpassed anything human—all contained in this seed. When it is put in the earth, what comes out is gorgeous. Well we are the seed, planted in Earth's wonderful ground.
We have all the wonderful story of Abraham, how he turned from the worship of death. It was the worship of death: the son had to be killed. It was the highest form of worship. And he had the knife in his hand. He had his son bound, a young man, maybe in his teens. And he asked his father, “Where is the sacrifice? We have all the things to make a fire, but no lamb. Where is the lamb?” And his father said, “The Lord will provide the lamb for a sacrifice.” So he tied him up, put him on the pyre, to burn him after he killed him. What did that boy go through, and Abraham? And he had the knife ready. And he heard the word of the Lord: “Abraham, Abraham.” And he gave the perfect answer: “Here am I.”
Here am I. No matter what the circumstance, no matter what, here am I, Lord. And He said, “Touch not the lad.” And what joy there was in his releasing his son, both in father and son, for this whole world.
So it's been done, many times—victory. This is what we are here to portray, to give our lifeblood so that the beauty of creation is more than bones. But isn't it interesting that a skeleton has taken on a Halloween nature? It's like a devil—death, worship of death. It's all around. And yet it's the foundation. This body is far beyond just bones—far beyond that! But there are many steps. There are the sinews that bring the bones together. There's the flesh that makes the utter beauty of the human body, and skin. Skin is an organ, not just a cover. So there's everything pictured here. And I love to join with each one of you in it.
There's one word I cannot tolerate, in myself or in my environment, and that's “failure.” There's been so much victory through the ages—and failure. So which are we going to identify with? In a way, we don't have a choice. It's all working. But I want to be part of it, don't you?
© emissaries of divine light
