This was written January 29, 2006, two days before the confirmation of Justice Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. We believe that it would be wise to pray into this word now.

America is in desperate need of life.  Our spiritual condition parallels our natural condition.  Both conditions have experienced much death in the last few decades.  In order to be renewed, we need God to breathe life into us.

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God Brings Life Through His Breath

God is the same today as He was in the beginning.  He always brings life the same way – through His breath.

Since creation God has always brought life through His breath.  In Genesis 2:7, “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”  Today, God still brings life through breath.  Jesus Christ explains in John 3:1-21 that we must be born a second time of the Spirit of God, by way of spiritual breath.  In verses 5, 6, and 8 Jesus speaks of birth by the Spirit.  The Greek word for “Spirit” is pneuma, which is translated:  “breath, or a current of air.”  The root word pneo literally means “to breathe hard.”

In the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel, God shows us that He brings life to a nation in the same way that He brings life to a person – by His breath.  In verses one through fourteen, God takes Ezekiel in the Spirit and puts him in the midst of a great valley of dry bones.  Our situation in American today is similar to the situation that Israel faced:  “Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off.”

Ezekiel walked in the midst of the valley of dry bones and then God asked Ezekiel whether the bones could live.  In short, God asked Ezekiel whether he believed that God was able to make these bones live.  Of course, the correct answer should have been: “Yes Sir.”  But Ezekiel – like many of us – lacked faith and bashfully answered:  “Oh Lord God, you know.”  Americans, like Ezekiel, have had their faith weakened by their experience.  We have walked a long time through the death and dryness of this nation, and we should guard against having bashful faith in the ability of our God.

God wants to perform a “dry bones” level miracle in this nation.  He is able and the time is ripe, but He has ordained to first move His people to pray for the miracle in faith.  We are praying for big miracles in America.  It is one thing to ask God to perform a miracle and heal a virus; another to ask Him to heal cancer; another to ask him to raise the dead; another to ask Him to raise the decaying dead like Lazarus.  But the situation that Ezekiel experienced was far worse;  he was asked whether God could breathe life again into not just one person but a whole nation of people that were dead, whose skin, flesh, and sinews had decayed to dust, and whose bones were scattered together in a valley.

In verses four through eight of the story, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones:

Again, He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!  Thus says the Lord God to these bones:  “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.  I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live.  Then you shall know I am the Lord.”’”  So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the boned came together, bone to bone.  Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.

In these verses God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and tell them that – in the future – God would cause breath to enter them.  God said:  “I will (future tense) cause breath to enter you.”  Ezekiel obeyed God and at the conclusion of verse eight, the bones, sinews, flesh and skin have come together.  Like in Genesis 2:7 there is a body, but that body is still without life, because the breath of God has not yet entered the body.

In Ezekiel 37:9 God tells Ezekiel to prophesy (present tense) to the breath to enter the body and bring life now:

Also, He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God:  “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’”  So I prophesied as He commended me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet an exceedingly great army.”

God brings life through breath.  America needs life and so America must pray for God to breathe life into our dead situations.  In many instances, our dead situations have entered in through the wickedness that has been sanctioned through the Supreme Court.  But God has called His people to pray over these dead situations and – like Ezekiel did in verse seven – they have.  But now God is calling us to pray in the present tense – like Ezekiel did in verses nine and ten.  God is asking us to pray the breath forth from the four winds to breathe into this nation and into this Supreme Court so that these slain may live.

The Name “Alito” means “Breath”

It is significant that we are now in the midst of the appointment, confirmation and the coming investiture of Samuel Alito into the United States Supreme Court.  The Court through its decisions represents the areas of this nation that are most in need of the life of God.  We need God to breathe life into the Court.

Judge Samuel Alito’s name is interesting.  He is Italian and in Italian the name “Alito” means “breath.”  While it seems that Samuel Alito will be a good justice, like all of us – he will have his good days and his bad days.  Of course, God is not telling us to put our hope in any man, but rather He is telling us that now is the day that He wants to breathe life into the Supreme Court and this nation.  God is bringing renewal to this nation and He is bringing it through judicial renewal at the Supreme Court.

God is directing us to pray now for the breath of life to enter the Court.  God wants to send the breath, but He is asking us – like he asked Ezekiel – to tell the breath of life to enter this dead situation.  We should pray now against the powers and principalities that have ruled over the Court and, according to Ephesians 6:12, we should pull them down in the spirit now.

History has its contrasting seasons of laboring and victory.  Reagan endured a season of labor and spoke the fall of the Berlin Wall before it ever happened, but there came a day of victory when it actually fell in the now.  Likewise, generations labored against the Soviet Union, but there was a moment in time when it fell in the now.  For over a generation we Americans have prayed for renewal in American and for life to enter the Court – and our day of victory in the spirit is now.  Now is the day that God desires to breathe the breath of life into the Court and for the day of victory in the natural to come quickly.

The prayers of the saints have inflicted a devastating toll on the spiritual forces have held this nation in bondage by ruling over the Supreme Court.  The spiritual forces of wickedness that have reigned over this Nation through the Supreme Court are reeling like a dazed boxer.  The round after round after round pressing of intercessors has worn these forces down to the point that they are ready to fall to the canvas.  Now is not the time to fight as we normally fight.  Now is the time to go for the knock-out.  Now is the time to pray with ferocious force and confidence.

The Name “Samuel” means “Heard by God”

Judge Samuel Alito’s first name “Samuel” literally means “heard by God.”  In the Old Testament book of First Samuel, chapter one, there was a woman named Hannah whose womb was barren and without life.  Hannah was not satisfied with this curse of death and she asked God for life in her womb.  God heard her prayer and gave her a child and she named him “Samuel” because this name literally means: “heard by God.”

In America, we have been praying for renewal in this nation and like Hannah we have been praying for life in the womb.  We too have been “heard by God” and He is sending life to the womb and renewal to our nation through the Judiciary.

Conclusion

God is directing us to pray now for the breath of life to enter the Court.  Again, God is not telling us to put our confidence in Samuel Alito – but God is telling us to go for the victory in prayer now.  God wants to send the breath, but He is asking us – like he asked Ezekiel – to tell the breath of life to enter this dead situation.  We should pray now against the powers and principalities that have ruled over the Court and we should forcefully and with confidence pull them down now.

God is breathing life into America, and He has given us the honor of praying it forth.

(Used with permission from Judicial Action Group. Article by Phillip L. Jauregui. Photo Credit: Unsplash.)

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