In the life of praying for a dear prodigal, the valley of dry bones is often discussed, but let us look at it quickly.

“The hand of the Lord came upon [Ezekiel] and brought [him] out in the Spirit of the Lord” to a valley full of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1 NKJV). The Lord tells him to prophesy to the bones, and he did. They came together, making full skeletal bodies; and sinews, flesh, and skin came on them. He was then in the middle of a valley full of completed dead bodies! (vv. 4-8).

Then the Lord told him to prophesy again, and he did, “and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army” (vv. 9-10).

Yes, I love the part that they became “an exceedingly great army,” but this time I want to talk about the process.

We can clearly see the parallel between this valley of dry bones and the great number of spiritually dead people we know—prodigals, once spiritually alive, and now spiritually dead. Some of them may seem as hopelessly dead as these deteriorated bodies seemed to Ezekiel, but when the bones started rattling, the return to life began. No, there was no breath or heartbeat, but the process was launched!

That is where we are with our prodigals. When the bones start rattling, and the agitation starts, the good work of the Lord has begun, and we are “confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in [them] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

Every prodigal is in a different phase of the resurrection. Many are still in the bone-rattling phase, but others are in the bones-coming-together phase. Even more praise reports come in as they move to the sinews-recreated phase, and then the flesh-appearing phase.

When skin finally is in place, we recognize the person we used to know, changed, but still recognizable.

But … then … when they confess their sins, ask forgiveness, and make Jesus the Lord of their lives, and the Holy Spirit breathes the breath of spiritual life into them, they stand up, part of that “exceedingly great army.”

The point I want to make is that our prodigals are in process, and we don’t take that for granted. We are grateful for everything our Lord, their Lord, is doing in their lives!

When they are part of that great army, what rejoicing that will be! I can hardly wait!