In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing the spiritual deadness of unbelievers. He shares a story about a young Jewish boy who passionately shares the gospel with his friends, despite facing opposition from his mother. The speaker highlights the need to pray for unbelievers and asks the audience to consider how they can become channels through which God can bring spiritual life to the spiritually dead. The sermon concludes with a reminder that unbelievers are blind to the things of God and are in danger of eternal separation from Him, emphasizing the urgency of sharing the gospel.

Now my main scripture tonight is in Ezekiel 37. It's a fascinating passage of scripture and I can remember when I was a teenager there was a quintet in the Christian Missionary Alliance. They traveled all over the world, fantastic music. They were all black men and great voices, just a colored quintet they were called and they were wonderful, wonderful. I still remember as a teenager how they blessed me and how I always was thrilled when I knew they were going to sing. And they had two songs they sang out of Ezekiel. One was about the wheels of turning. You know, saw the wheels of turning way up in the middle of the air, the little wheel run by faith and the big wheel run by the grace of God. And one of them was playing a mandolin and he would go around with a wheel like this and play it. It was fantastic. They're great musicians. And so I never forgot that. And then they had the other one about the bones. Eat bones, eat bones, eat dry bones, eat bones, eat bones, eat dry bones, eat bones, eat bones, eat dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Some of you have heard that. It was, it was a great song. I wish I had them here tonight to sing for me before, because I really am messing it up, but before I preach, you know, so that you could be blessed hearing them sing the word of God. But I'm going to read the passage Ezekiel 37, the first 10 verses. You've already had the scripture from Ephesians, which is a New Testament version. And then your passage in Ezekiel is illustrative of that truth, which was to come much later. Ezekiel 37, one to 10, the hand of the Lord was upon me. This is Ezekiel speaking. And he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord. That is, he didn't really bring him out literally physically, but in the spirit, he brought him out. So he had a vision and set me in the midst of a valley. It was full of bones. Now a war had taken place there and a great army had been slaughtered and just left to rot and their bones to bleach in the sun. And so he recognized this valley. It was a Israelite people that had been slaughtered. He led me back and forth among them. And I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, son of man, can these bones live? And I said, Oh, sovereign Lord, you alone know. Then he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones. I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord. So sounds wacky, doesn't it? So I prophesied as I was commanded. Here's this valley full of dead, dry bones and God says, prophesy to them. So he says, all right. Oh, ye dry bones. He's talking to these dead skeletons. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. So now they're, their bodies complete, but dead. Then he said to me, prophesy to the, to the breath. Now, first he prophesied to the bones. Now he's to prophesy to the breath. And so it says, prophesy son of man and say to it, that is to the breath or the wind. This is what the sovereign Lord says, come from the four winds. Oh, breath, breathe into these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them and they came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast army revival, a vast army, thousands of people coming alive and marching as the army of the Lord. Hmm. Yes, that's what we want. Amen. That's what we want. Now the task of the soul winner is not hard. It is impossible. It's not hard. It's impossible. And the reason it's impossible is that he's called upon to raise the dead. Now only God can raise the dead. It is true. He did do it through Peter. When Dorcas was raised, he did do it through the apostle Paul when the young man fell asleep while he was preaching and fell out of the upper story and was killed. And it was brought back to life through the apostle, but it was still God that raised him from the dead, right? Not those men. For this reason, the soul winner must know how to make himself a channel through which God can work to raise those who are dead in trespasses and sins. And our purpose this evening is that Christians might get a picture of this. It might get into our souls. It might take a hold of us in such a way that we would become the channels through which God can raise the dead. Now, the first thing that I see in this vision is that we must pass by them. God, in a vision, took him to the valley, showed him this valley full of bones, and he walked up and down in it, through it, among the bones, and looked at them and saw their condition. We must see men as they really are, not as they appear to be in the natural, but as they really, truly are. Hand of God was upon Ezekiel, and by the Holy Spirit, he was given a vision of a great multitude of dead people. If you do not see them, ask God, the Holy Spirit, to open your eyes that you may see. Sometimes Christians, real Christians, born-again Christians on their way to heaven, saved for sure for eternity, do not really see or have a vision of the lost around them. And if we do not, we need to ask God that by his Holy Spirit, he will open our spiritual eyes in such a way that we may really see and have a vision of people the way they are about us lost. We must become acquainted with them. We must walk up and down in the midst of them. We must pass by them. We must allow ourselves to be touched by them. One of the problems with becoming a Christian is that not long after we become Christians, even if we're saved and we're adults, many of you were saved when you were adults. How many of you were saved when you were adults? See, that's a lot of you, and many are saved when they're adults, and at first, they're very excited about it and want all their friends and relatives and family to come to the Lord. But after a while, they get absorbed into the church, and they reach the point after a few years where the only people they really know are Christians, and they don't really have a sense anymore. They know it's true in their heads, but they don't have a deep and passionate sense of the lostness of the people around them that they touch day by day. And we need to ask God that by his Holy Spirit, he will open our spiritual eyes and make us deeply aware of the lostness of the people about us. How many of you, and you don't have to answer this just in your heart, how many of you have five, just five, non-Christian acquaintances that you actually know by name and in a somewhat personal way who are non-Christians? Now, some of you do, and that's wonderful. Some of you really would not be able to name five such people tonight. And I'm not accusing you, please don't, that's not the point. I'm not being critical either. I know how easy that is to get like that without ever meaning to, without ever intending to, just being part of God's people. And not really wanting to be involved in the world and its sin and everything, how easy it is to let that happen in your life so that you just become unaware of the lostness and deadness of people. But we must see the multitude without Christ as truly dead. Now, they seem so nice. I tell you, I know some people who are known by their names who are so nice. And it just doesn't seem possible that they could be dead. They don't look dead, don't act dead. They treat me really nice. They seem to even like me for some reason. They're just really nice people. They're good living people, moral people, kind people, decent citizens, you know, not down in the slums or anything, they're not alcoholics or drug addicts or murderers or thieves or anything. They're so nice. How could they be dead? They're dead. They're dead. I don't care how alive they look. They're dead. You read tonight, as for you, you were dead. You remember? You were saved as adults. Remember how dead you were? You were spiritually dead. You were not alive to God or the things of God. They didn't mean anything to you. You weren't interested in them. You were interested in the world and yourself and your sin. You didn't care about God or any of that stuff that you love now, right? You were dead. That's what it says. You were dead in your transgressions and sins. Remember that. Think about it. Think of your hopeless condition if God hadn't come to you and breathed on you and touched your heart and opened your poor dead eyes and helped you to see. And he has made us alive with Christ even when we were dead. It says it again. It is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 4 18 says they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God. I'm going to talk about that in a minute. That's what it means to be spiritually dead. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Their hearts are hard. Their spiritual eyes are blind. Their minds are darkened. They do not understand the things of God. They are not interested in the things of God. They have no concept of the things of God. They don't know they're stumbling on the brink of eternity in hell. They don't understand they're going to face the judgment of God. They do not know that they are dead, but they are dead. When we really see men and women and young people and children as dead, it will change our attitude and approach in winning them to Christ. I tell you what, when it really gets totally into your soul how dead an unsafe person is to God, it will cast you upon God in a way that never before. And you'll find yourself crying out to God and saying, I'm helpless. I can't do it. Oh my God, if you don't move and breathe upon them and open their poor blind eyes, they're going to hell for sure. I can't save them. Amen. And somehow God has to get that into our souls. And the people we pass and the people who live next door to us and the people we speak to and the people in the store. And I said yesterday in the grocery store to a lady who was trying to be cheerful with everybody. It was early in the morning because we didn't come back from being gone to our district conference and we didn't have milk and stuff for breakfast. And I went over early and so you could get right through, you know. And so I got her name before I got to her and she said, good morning. How are you? And I said, I'm fine. How are you Debbie? And she's surprised at that. And so, you know, I was cheerful with her. And then when we were done, she said, thank you. And I said, thank you, Debbie, and God bless you. And all at once she was touched by something alive. And she was startled and smiled and looked at me. I think, oh God. Touch these dead people. Touch them. They don't know they're dead. Something happens, you know, the Christian who really looks, who really passes by, who really looks, who really takes the time to look at lost people and think about their deadness and the terrible condition. Something happens to the Christian who really passes by and looks. It is said of Fred Curtis, a missionary to Japan, that before he went to the field of Japan, he expressed in a meeting his reason for going. He said, woe is me if I preach not the gospel to the heathen. Immediately, one of his friends arose with this remark. I know what is the matter with Curtis. He sleeps under a missionary chart on which there are 856 black squares representing 856 million heathen and 190 green squares to represent 190 million inhabitants. Any man sleeping under such a chart must have decided to become a foreign missionary or have a nightmare every night in the week. I know it's a matter with Curtis. He's been looking and thinking about the lost. He can't even go to bed at night because he's got these charts up there, and he can't go to sleep without thinking about these millions of dead people falling into hell, and if he tries not to, he'd have a nightmare. See, he was serious about it, wasn't he? And he ended up out there winning the loss to Jesus. Well, you don't have to go to Japan, you know. Are there any dead people around here? Even some in church, you know, or at least they seem to be. Anyway, God said to Ezekiel, I want you to see this. Look, look, say, God, look. Dr. Walter Wilson was a great soul winner. He tells of how he was called to conduct a funeral service for a poor family. The day of the funeral was rainy and the roads were muddy, so he asked the undertaker if he could ride with him in the hearse. As the two were riding along, the preacher asked the undertaker whether he ever read in the Bible the verse that says, bury their dead. There's no such passage in the Bible, the undertaker said. If there is, it must be a wrong translation because it does not make any sense. How can a dead person bury another dead person? No, it is not a wrong translation, the doctor said. These words were spoken by the Lord Jesus himself, who always spoke words of truth. Well, what does a passage mean? Asked the undertaker. Well, said Dr. Wilson, you say you are not a Christian, so you are a dead undertaker in the front of this hearse, driving out to the cemetery to bury this dear dead friend in the back of the hearse. That friend is dead to his family and you are dead to God. He does not respond to their caresses, their calls, and their commands, neither do you respond to the love and call of God. And a few minutes later, Dr. Wilson led that undertaker to Christ. See, he couldn't even get in the hearse to get a ride through the mud to the cemetery without thinking about the fact that the man next to him driving the vehicle was dead. May God give us such a disquieting approach to life. There are three kinds of death. Really, death just means separation. That's all it is. Death, that's all it ever is. Death is separation. Now, physical death, we all understand, is the separation of the spiritual man from the physical man. And the spiritual man leaves the physical body and, as the scriptures say, goes back to face the God that created it. The man doesn't cease to exist. The woman doesn't cease to exist. They go right on in a perfectly conscious, alive state as far as the spiritual man goes, but they are separated now from their physical body and the physical body is dead. And so that person is considered dead because there's a separation of the spiritual man from the physical man. Understand that, don't we? Don't we? The rich man died, said Jesus, and was buried. His body was put in the ground, but the rich man was in hell and he was conscious and knew what was happening. So, that's physical death. Paul says to be absent from the body is to be, what? Present with the Lord. Wonderful. So, when a Christian dies physically, his spiritual man leaves the body and immediately, instantly goes into the presence of the Lord Jesus in heaven. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, double, triple hallelujah. Okay, that's physical death, the separation of the spiritual man from the physical. Now, spiritual death is the separation of the spiritual man from God and he's separated by the hardness of his heart, his unbelief, and his spiritually dead state. It doesn't mean that he doesn't have a spirit. He does have a spirit. He is a spirit, soul, and body. It doesn't mean that his spirit isn't functioning. His spirit is functioning, but it's separated from God. Therefore, he's dead to God and he's considered spiritually dead because, indeed, he is spiritually separated from God. So, he is dead spiritually, even though his spirit is functioning. Now, eternal death is for the spiritual man to be separated from God forever. And the scriptures say that hell has enlarged itself without measure and the wicked are turned into it. So, spiritual death is for the spiritual man to be separated from God forever. Eternal death. That's what eternal death is. What's eternal life? To be united with God, spirit, and body forever. That's eternal life. Now, the second thing God said was that he should prophesy upon them. He says, Ezekiel, now you've seen them. You've seen how dead and dry they are. He said, can these bones live? He said, only God knows. I don't know what to say to that. Only God knows. So, he said, all right, they are going to live, Ezekiel. They are. They are. Now, but there's something I want you to do. There's going to be two things before he's done, but there's something I want you to do. First of all, I want you to prophesy to the dead bones. Say to them, hear the word of the Lord. Arguments will not raise the dead. You can argue with the dead until you're blue in the face. It won't accomplish a thing. Remember when I was a young man trying to learn to witness, I loved to argue. My father said I was sure to become a lawyer because I loved to argue with him. Unfortunately, though I never disobeyed him, I feared him too much. But my friends, I never, I won a lot of arguments and didn't win any souls. Don't argue with unsaved people. You'll never win unsaved people by arguing with them. It won't work. You need to say, hear the word of the Lord. That's what they need, you know. The word of God is a living seed, which when planted in dead soil can bring forth life. Amen. You can't try to get a dead person to be a Christian. I talked to somebody recently and a whole bunch of people told this person they were a Christian. I said, nobody has a right to tell you you're a Christian. I'm not going to tell you you're a Christian. I'm not going to tell you you're not. I don't know whether you are or aren't, but if you don't know, you probably aren't. No, argument won't bring people to life. How? You can't argue with a dead person. Can you? I mean, they can't hear you. They're dead. But the scriptures say in Hebrews 4.12, the word of God is alive. This is alive. I hold in my hand something alive with the life of God. Amen. I have total confidence in the life of the word of God. The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joint and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and motives of the heart and all things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. I tell you, you need to say, hear the word of the Lord. If you want to see people come to Jesus, give them the word of God. Don't argue with them. Don't plead with them. Give them the word of God. And they may say, I don't believe the word of God. Don't worry about it. Just give them the word of God because it's alive and it's powerful and it can pierce and it can do the work of God and it can bring life to a dead soul. And Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Amen. No matter where you go or who you give it to. In 1 Peter 1 23, we read, For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God. James 1 18, He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created. Jesus spoke directly to everyone He raised from the dead when He walked the earth. Did you ever notice that? Absolutely. He spoke directly to everyone. For instance, Mark 5 41, the little girl, Jairus' daughter, who was dead, he went in, he took her by the hand and said to her, to her, say, but she was dead. She was dead. Why would he speak to someone who's dead? But it says, he said to her, little girl, I say to you, get up. Did it work? And she got up. He brought her to life. He spoke the word of God directly to her. Anything Jesus said was the word of God, right? He was the word in flesh. When he opened his mouth, he spoke the word. Luke 7 14, the young man that he raised from death, who was the son of a widow. Then he went up. He along came the coffin and the funeral procession. He went up and touched the coffin and those carrying it stood still. And he said, young man, I say to you, get up. Well, Jesus, that's stupid. He is dead. But when Jesus spoke to him and said, get up, he came to life. Are you getting it? Jesus spoke to each one when he, even with Lazarus, who had been dead in the two and buried for four days, and they rolled away the door, the stone from the tomb, and he went and stood. And when he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice because he was back in there in the tomb, Lazarus, come out. But Lazarus is dead. Jesus has been dead four days. It's a little stupid to talk to him. Nope. Jesus, speaking the word of the eternal God directly to the person that was dead, brought him to life. Christian, go speak the word of God to dead people and God will use it to bring them to life. Jesus went personally and spoke the word of God to them. Jesus never raised the dead at a distance. Personal involvement is necessary. And I want to say something now that really is a burden to me. You see, I've been a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance all my life, and I grew up in a missionary organization. Its middle name is missionary, Christian and Missionary Alliance. As a child, we always had missionaries in our home. As a pastor, we always had missionaries in our home. I've preached in 11 of our mission fields. I believe with all my heart in foreign missions. Now, I don't want to be offensive tonight, but I have such a burden about this. I'm going to speak the truth. Are you listening? Please don't get hurt at me. Will you promise me not to get hurt at me? It seems to me a kind of hypocrisy to be all excited about foreign missions and people that are lost thousands of miles away and not to have any concern for the lost people all around you. I'm sorry. I don't get it. It's fraudulent, and a church can be proud of itself and say, we're a great missionary church. Great. God bless you. But how can you be so excited about those people that are lost far away and not be excited and concerned and broken-hearted about the dead people all around you that need Jesus? They're going to the same hell, and they're going to stay there forever, the same as the people in Africa or anywhere else. Unless God brings great revival, North America won't be long until there'll be more Christians in some foreign countries than third world countries than there are in America. In South Korea, there are 38% evangelical Christians, and in Canada, what, 6%? Where are the heathen? So I can't help but say that, you know, and I say that the best way for a church to become a truly missionary church is to become a soul-winning church where it is. And if it becomes a powerfully soul-winning church where it is, really, really concerned about the lost till the Christian people in it are really out there bringing their friends and praying for them and talking to them and giving them the word of God and loving them and seeing them come into the kingdom on a regular basis, the church will never accomplish what it should as far as foreign missions is concerned. And in Campbell River, within, I think it was two years, that church became the number one soul-winning church in the denomination and the number one missionary church in the denomination and the fastest growing church in the denomination because it became a soul-winning church. And I want to tell you that central needs to get awake to the need to win the lost. So I hope you still love me because I love you, but if you don't, I can't do anything about it. When Elisha would raise the widow's son from the dead, he sent Gehazi. It wouldn't do. Nothing happened. He had to go and breathe his own breath into the child. He had to go out and we do too. Jesus said in John 5 24, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He is crossed over from death to life. The Reverend Joseph Taiga, outstanding pastor of the Cameroon West Africa, came to America for special study at Princeton Seminary. He didn't know it was a cemetery. During the Christmas vacation, he underwent an operation in Presbyterian hospital, New York city. While in bed recuperating, he found himself between a cynical Jew and an equally cynical graduate philosophy student, a foreign diplomat's son. What a mess. As Mr. Taiga was reading his Bible, the graduate student remarked, do you believe that stuff? It's foolish. Whereupon Mr. Taiga replied, says right here, the philosophers will call it foolish. Good for you. Whereupon Mr. Taiga replied, it says right here, by the week's end, both the graduate student from Europe and the American Jew had accepted Christ as Savior through the witness of the African student. You say, how could he win two people that dead? Because God can bring life. He couldn't, but God's word and God's Holy Spirit through an African man who believed God and who wouldn't be put down and shut up by some brilliant philosopher won both of them to Jesus. Don't let him back you down. I bearded a man one night in Regina has 13 doctorates and stopped him cold in a public service with 11,000, 1100 people present. And I'm not that smart. Don't let them put you down. Give them the word of God. It's powerful. Well, prophesy upon them. Oh, you dry bones hear the word of the Lord. Now, number three, persevere with them. Ezekiel 37, one and eight, he said, so I prophesied as I was commanded to prophesy means to declare the word of God. That's all it means. So he did that. And as that's what I do every Sunday, that's what I'm doing right now. I'm prophesying. I'm saying hear the word of the Lord. That's what it's about. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together bone to bone. I looked in tenants and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Them good things are happening. You know what some people are that people think are Christians are just awakened sinners. They're not saved yet. Never be satisfied with a shaking, a noise, a coming together, even sinews and flesh or skin. Nothing will do but life. Never be satisfied if they look better, act better, go to church, talk better, sing the hymns, pray the prayers, sound like a Christian. If they're not a Christian, they're going to hell and they're either dead or alive. Amen? Dead or alive. A better appearance or movement is not enough. When Elisha stretched himself upon the widow's son the first time, he became warm, but that wasn't enough. That didn't stop him. We often quit too soon. Have you gone once? Go again and go again and go again. There may be a great deal of religious noise and warmth and movement and good appearance without life, but we want life. Jesus said in John 3, 6, and 7, the flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. Don't be surprised if I said you have to be born again, and the flesh can produce beautiful religion, right? The flesh can produce everything that looks Christian, and it may be as dead as it can be. So 1 Corinthians 15, 50 says, I declare to you brothers that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. No, no. I don't care what it looks like. No, it has to have life. So God told Ezekiel, prophesy again. Don't give up. If you've just done it once, do it again, and then do it again. Sometimes you say, well, I've told them, and they didn't respond, so I guess that's that. No, it isn't that. He said, go back and prophesy again now. They look pretty good, but they're still dead. Now go back and prophesy again. A little Jewish boy joined up with the school bag gospel league. He was so pleased with the gospel of John that he hastened to headquarters to get one of the other gospels. Before leaving, he gave his heart to the Lord and prayed this prayer, O Lord, I want to know the truth. A little later, he came to headquarters with 22 cards signed up, 22 other children, and asked for 22 more gospels for them. When he went home with him, his mother asked, what makes such a bulk in your pocket? On his telling her, she took the gospels, all 22, and destroyed them all, giving the boy a severe beating and leaving him with cuts on his forehead and cheek. Well, what do you think he did? He went and signed up two more children, then returned to headquarters to get 24 gospels of John. What a missionary, this little Jewish boy. Now, the last thing, pray for them. Pray for them. Pray to God. Call for the Holy Spirit to breathe upon them as Ezekiel did. He called for the four winds or the fourfold work of the Holy Spirit in raising the dead and making them God's child. God said, pray, call upon the four winds and say, come, O winds, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. Well, that's prayer because he's calling it now upon the Spirit of God to come. First, he was speaking the Word of God directly to the dead. Now, he is calling upon the Spirit of God to come and breathe life into these dead people. And so it happened. In John 16, 8 to 11, we read when he comes, the Holy Spirit, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment, in regard to sin because men do not believe in Jesus, in regard to righteousness because Jesus was going back to the Father, they would see him no longer, and in regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned. So there were the three winds of conviction. Have you ever tried to convict somebody of sin? You can't convict them of sin. You know, it just doesn't work. Like you can say to somebody who's not a Christian, yeah, but look at all the sin in your life. I say, what sin? I'm no worse than anybody else. Maybe they aren't. Maybe they're even better than some other people. You cannot convict people of sin. Don't go around wasting your time ranting and raving about all the sin in the world. Christian, don't. Don't waste your breath and energy and strength going around talking and talking and talking about all the evil that's going on in the world. It isn't going to change it one bit. It's not going to convict anybody. It isn't going to change anybody. Only the Holy Spirit can convict people that they are sinners. My boy, he can sure do it. So when we cry out in prayer for the Spirit of God to come, he convicts of sin. He convicts of the righteousness of Christ and what he has done on the cross. He points to Jesus and shows him as a Savior. He convicts them of judgment and the fear of judgment. Paul said there's no fear of God before their eyes. He can't make people afraid, but God can. God can bring the fear of judgment into their hearts. So the Holy Spirit works in those three ways. And then the fourth wind of the Holy Spirit is the wind of conversion and regeneration or the resurrection of the dead. Titus 3.5 says, he saved us not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. As Ezekiel claimed the word of God in prayer, for this is what he did because God had told him what to pray when he prophesied to the breath of God. The breath of God entered into them and they lived and stood on their feet, a vast army. Can these bones live? You better believe it. They can live. You know, this is really a repeat of creation. And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and there he was, a complete body, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, plural, and man became a living being. See, he created Adam, but there he lay, a beautiful man, perfect in every way and dead. And then God Almighty, who created him, breathed into him his breath and he became alive. So here are people, no matter how good they look, they're spiritually dead as they can be, totally dead, but we give them the word of God and we cry out to the Holy Spirit and he comes and he breathes his breath upon them and they come alive. How wonderful. As we see their dead condition, as we give them the word of God, as we persevere, as we pray in faith, claiming God's promises, God's breath will enter into them and they too will live. My son was away from God, prayed for him a number of years, cried out to God, and when the Holy Spirit finally came upon him, convicted him so much, he told me he cried for three weeks straight, repenting of his sin. I couldn't do that. Dr. Wilbur Chapman, one of the great preachers of the past, wrote to a friend, I have learned some great lessons concerning prayer. He's a great evangelist. On one of our missions in England, the audiences were exceedingly small, but I received a note saying that an American missionary was going to pray God's blessing down on our work. You have to really know that you're going to get an answer to say that, don't you? He was known as Praying Hyde. Almost instantly, the tide turned, the hall became packed, and at my first invitation, 50 men accepted Christ as their Savior. As we were leaving, I said, Mr. Hyde, I want you to pray for me. He came to my room, turned the key of the door, and dropped on his knees, and waited five minutes without a single syllable coming from his lips. I could hear my own heart thumping and his beating. I felt hot tears running down my face. I knew I was with God. Then with an upturned face, down which the tears were streaming, he said, Oh God. Then for five minutes at least, he was still again. And then when he knew that he was talking with God, there came from the depths of his heart such petitions for me as I'd never heard before. And I rose from my knees to know what real prayer was. We believe that prayer is mighty, and we believe it as we never did before. I read that, and I thought, I wish he weren't dead. I'd like to get Mr. Hyde to pray for me. Wouldn't she? Well my friends, all around us, what are there, 320,000 people in Victoria? Most of them are dead. I mean the vast majority are dead. Just a very tiny percentage are alive. God can raise the dead, of course. He can and he will do it through you and me if we'll let him, if we'll pay the price, if we'll give up our selfishness, and our worldliness, and our preoccupation with our own pleasures, and our own plans, and our own things, and our own stuff. They are very many, and they're very dry. But God's Word and God's Spirit will bring them to life.