THE HOLDING PLACE – The Womb, The Tomb and The Dry Bones

John 12:24
24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.

Ezekiel 37:1-13
37 The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. 3 And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. 6 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 that I am the Lord.” ’ ”7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 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. 9 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.” ’ ” 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. 11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. 14 I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’ ”

Galatians 4:19
19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,

Joel 2:1-11
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand:
2 A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations.
3 A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run.
5 With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained of color.
7 They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation, And they do not break ranks.
8 They do not push one another; Every one marches in his own column.
Though they lunge between the weapons, They are not cut down.
9 They run to and fro in the city, They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses, They enter at the windows like a thief.
10 The earth quakes before them, The heavens tremble;
The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars diminish their brightness.
11 The Lord gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; Who can endure it?

*All scriptures are in the NKJV unless otherwise stated.

Introduction
Our lives, by the workings of God, are filled with places of Wombs, Tombs and Dry Bones. A womb is a place of pending birth. It is water, warmth, blood and it’s dark. It provides life, separation and light. A tomb is the cessation of life, a place of transition to life, without water, warmth, blood. It is also the place of separation from the old for the new to come forth. Dry bones are a state of surrender, a state of being a dry tree and an eunuch who only births for God alone. Its the Golgotha Hill (The place of the skull) where all self is surrendered for the mind of God to be manifested.

Life in death, death in life and the framework of dry bones
Without any doubt, we are surrounded by various things and mysteries put in place by God, which are engineered in such a way as to activate thinking in us, and which are done to make us gain a deeper understanding of His mind. Things are kept secret just so that they can be revealed in their due time, for nothing is really hidden under the sun. All that are, have been before and nothing is new in a sense.
One of the most amazing mysteries that has ever caught my attention and thoughts is the mystery of life and death, death and life, sowing and reaping. It’s such an amazing expression of God that pushes one to understand how the end of a thing is actually the beginning of that same thing in a new dimension and how the birth of a thing is also the beginning of its end. The end of life is death and the end of death is life. I believe it shows us something about how eternity is set in a circle of endless cycles. Anything set in a straight line has an end, but whatever is set in a circle never ends. And if eternity is endless, then I believe it is set in a circle. However, I am curious to understand why men fear death and accept life, when life is not possible without death. It’s a mystery we all still don’t understand yet.
It was a bit difficult to put this topic together, not because there is lack of what to say, but because it was challenging putting the various strands together to create one whole thought that gives understanding and light to readers. But I am grateful to God for how much He allowed with this topic even though the surface has barely been scratched.

The holding place for life is the Womb, the holding place for death is the Tomb and the potential framework for this life is the Bone. These three all have something in common, which is, they are all expressions of the holding place that will birth the reality of the Son of God and His glorious army of sons of God on earth. Yes, Jesus is not in the tomb, for He is risen, but there is an expression of his holding place in us through which that which is hidden in God will be birthed on the earth. This is a puzzle that needs careful meditations and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
The expression of an holding place for God is not new. It happened with Mary as she carried Christ in her womb, it happened with Lazarus who was laid in the tomb as a tomb himself, through which the Spirit of the resurrection and the life of Jesus was manifested, and then it happened with the dry bones in Ezekiel 37. The expression of the Womb, the Tomb and the Dry Bones as holding places for God will in this age leading to the restoration of all things back to God manifest in such a way on the earth that will amaze all creation. And by manifestation, I mean that all that has been hidden in us and us in God will find unlimited explosion on the earth. There are eternal things and expressions of faith that have been hidden from the days of the fathers of faith, waiting for our day in order for them to be released on the earth. I believe these hidden things in holding places allude to that which will bring completion to the faith of the fathers through us. (See Hebrews 11:32).
These expressions have all been hidden in holding places of the Wombs, the Tombs and the Dry Bones of the sons and daughters of God up until now, having been subjected to limitations by God until Christ is fully formed within each one. These are the people scriptures refer to as “Those to whom the end of the age has come”, those who will manifest the things eyes have not seen, ears not heard and which have not entered the hearts of men. However, these people are few indeed, why? Not many want to go through the pain of being wombs for God, not many want to be tombs for God, carrying the expression of death in themselves and not many want to be dry bones or eunuchs that only birth for God and not for themselves. Such people are truly called The Overcomers.

Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel, God says to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37:11).

This is a picture of the overcomers in their present state while they wait for the adoption of the purchased possession, which is the redemption of their bodies by Him who paid with His blood. The beauty of this redemption is not just that the bodies of the overcomers will be changed, but that the redeemed body has a bigger purpose for God, that is, to manifest His wisdom to the principalities and powers in high places. For out of these wombs and tombs of the children of God, shall come forth the life of the Son of God. Golgotha, the place of the bones has only one purpose which is to be a link between the reality of the pre-crucifixion Jesus and the reality of the post-crucifixion Jesus, and the tomb as the holding place for the transformation. Except a grain of corn first falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But when it enters that tomb, it dies and out of this death must come life. I die daily means, I keep fitting into that tomb of death to self, so that Christ can be fully birthed in me.
It suffices to say that right in the wombs of those who will manifest the mystery of godliness, is a tomb that contains the dry bones which alludes to the seed of life by which new births will come. Jesus was in the tomb for three days, just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and after that which God was incubating was complete, the womb/tomb opened up and out came the beauty of the Son of Man. We are no longer in the days of revival as of the second day. We are in the days of being raised up to live in the sight of God as of the third day. (See Hosea 6:1-2)
This is the third day in which God will raise us up to live in His sight. You cannot raise up to life that which has never fallen or died. Our trials and tribulations, which we have in our flesh right now are tombs and wombs; periods in which the seed of the life of Christ is growing. If our mandate is to pick up our cross and follow Christ, then it must mean we will go through the death He went through and then be raised on the third day of the manifestation of the sons of God. This is the day and our graves and tombs will soon open. The bones, sinews, tendons and muscles which have come together in our valleys of affliction and separation will now receive the breath of the Spirit of God. For if the Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ quickens our mortal bodies, that same Spirit will raise us up and we shall come alive to be the glorious army of God that creation has been waiting for throughout the ages.

It is thus important to know, dear Overcomer, that the pain and frustration you feel within, that pain of limitations and those feelings of being stuck in your spirit are the signs of you in a tomb or you being a tomb where the fullness of Christ is been formed. It’s easy to want to walk away sometimes when the pressure gets too much, but you simply can’t walk away from your tomb or climb down from your cross of death. So, know this and understand that the choice made in you by God to be a firstfruit of eternal realities that will set creation free from futility, is that which brought you into this tomb where Christ is being formed in you. Sometimes it feels like a wasteland of barrenness. But the barren is admonished not to weep or say she is barren. For the children of the barren woman shall be more than the children of the married wife. Why? Her Redeemer (The One that changes death to life) is her Husband and He is strong to do that which He promised. (See Isaiah 54:1-5) For out of barrenness will come forth life. Ever wondered why God used the married wife as opposite of the barren woman? I believe it ties up with the phrase “her Redeemer”, who is God Himself. Meaning that those who are barren and eunuchs for God, who do not produce for themselves even though they have the ability to produce, see God as their true Husband. For like the woman at the well in John 4, they are bold and glad so say “I have no husband”, for the six husbands they have had, have not produced in them life and have not quenched their thirst. The reality of Jesus as the seventh husband is the reality of the seventh day of God and the third day of Jesus. In other words, our time to rise out of our graves of incubation has come and we will hear the voice of the Master calling us to come live in His sight.

So, dear Overcomer, you are the expression of both the womb that carries life, the tomb that bears the stench of death and the dry bones which are the framework of that which is imminent with God – the manifestation of God on earth. The mystery of godliness will be accomplished in you, in which God will be fully manifested in the redeemed man right here on earth. So do not mourn the loss of the world, do not weep over the pitiable state you find yourself in at the moment, do not try to wriggle yourself out of that grave, nor should you try to force a stillbirth. Let patience finish her good work in you and in rejoicing, wait for the coming of your Lord who will call forth life out of you. This mystery of godliness is hidden in God and will not fail to produce for Him.
God is faithful to His word. The womb of Sarah was considered dead, but it held the seed of the promise of God until it was time to give birth. The fountain of Abraham was considered dry, but it flowed with life when God wanted it to. Sarah the mother of us all is a symbol of the New Jerusalem, which we happen to be also. (See Gal 4:26 and Rev 21) Creation from the beginning was subjected to futility or death in the holding places of the wombs and tombs. We also were subjected to this futility and limitation which by the wisdom of God was meant to highlight that space (womb, tomb, valley of dry bones) that is meant to produce the mind of God.
In conclusion, you may be bogged down by various questions with no answer in sight. Questions like; Can this bone rise again? Can this dead womb bring forth life? Can this tomb produce a living Lazarus after four days of death? Yes. They will. For the power of an endless life is the power of the age to come. This will fill the entire earth with the massive glory of God. Do not lose hope or give up, for your womb will shortly give birth to life. I am confident of this very thing, for He who planned this is God.

God bless you.