July 9, 2026

Heaven’s Announcement Over America

Yesterday I shared a post from Larry and Mercedes Sparks’ new book, The Fire that Forged America. This powerful book will help us prepare and pray for the emerging revival. Today, I am sharing from their book again.

In Ezekiel 37, God both asks the prophet a question and gives him clear instructions:

“…Can these bones live? …Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:3-4 ESV)

There is a lie that has lingered too long in the imagination of American Christianity — and I want to confront it head-on today. The lie goes something like this: America is too far gone. The culture has drifted past the point of no return. The moral foundations are too crumbled, the institutions too corrupted, the next generation too lost.

And so, if we believe America as a nation is too lost and too broken, we narrow the lie down to our zip code: this city is too secular, this campus is too hostile, this region is too dark. Either way — national or local — the verdict is the same. Written off.

Can these bones live? Yes… If there are voices that agree with and announce what Heaven says about them. When the Word is preached with clarity and the Spirit is welcomed with hunger, we see Book of Acts results such as those in Ephesus: “the Word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (Acts 19:20 ESV). It was true in Ephesus, it was true in colonial America, and it is true right now.

God Places His People in the Valley

There are territories throughout the earth that are written off as too hard and dark. And tragically, this can influence believers in those very regions, causing them to live under the deception that the forces of darkness are somehow stronger than the Spirit of the risen Christ living inside them.

Notice that God placed Ezekiel right in the middle of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1).  I am convinced that if God has sovereignly placed you in a spiritually challenging territory—whether that be a neighborhood, a city, or a nation bearing the weight of cultural collapse—He has an assignment for you there. And it is not simply to announce how dry or dead the bones are. Like Ezekiel, your assignment is to prophesy life, breath, and wind over exceedingly dry bones. God often positions His people in dark, “written-off” places so He can move through their voices, prayers, lives, and influence.

Let’s walk through what Ezekiel’s encounter reveals about our assignment in America.

Three Things Dry Valleys Teach Us

First: dark places do not take God by surprise. Whether you live in a spiritually resistant city, serve in a post-modernized institution, or simply feel the weight of a nation that seems to be losing its way—your location is not random. He placed Ezekiel in the valley, and He has placed you where you are.

Second: God is not intimidated by dry places. I remember when a pastor told my friend and revivalist Miriam Evans that a certain city was a “graveyard for churches.” Instead of agreeing with that pronouncement, she went to prayer. The Lord gave Miriam a dream of an Angel of Awakening so massive she couldn't see beyond his feet into the Heavens. This mighty angel stepped onto the Southeast coast of the US, into the very city marked as a cemetery for churches. What had been spiritually dead was now pregnant with awakening. I believe the same angel of awakening is advancing across America right now.

Third: our responsibility is not to agree with the bleakness of the valley, nor to abandon it for greener pastures, nor to retreat into silence. We are called to release God’s Word into what seems irreversibly dead. Joel 2 and Acts 2 make it clear: in the last days, God’s sons and daughters will prophesy. That is not limited to preachers behind pulpits — it is the assignment of every Spirit-filled believer. When God places you in a hard place, He is not punishing you. He is trusting you to be His voice to dry bones.

The Gospel and the Glory Always Prevail

Surprisingly, I am more hopeful about America than most headlines would justify. Not because I'm naive about the darkness, but because I’ve studied what God has done in America before, and I know that America's history is not a story of spiritual decline without recovery. It is a decline followed by divine interruption. Every time America has drifted toward moral collapse, God has answered—not with abandonment, but with awakening.

Jesus never told us to avoid the gates of hell—He told us those gates would not prevail against His Church. The enemy doesn’t get to write the final headline of cities, states, or nations. God does. He is not intimidated by graveyards; He simply deposits prophetic voices into these places to declare His life and awakening over them.

The key is prioritizing the Book of Acts strategy to spiritually transform territories: the gospel, demonstrated by God’s power and glory. A clear proclamation of Christ crucified and risen, then confirmed by the manifest power of the Holy Spirit: supernatural gifts in operation, demons cast out, bodies healed, atmospheres transformed. Unchurched people are not offended by the raw demonstration of God's power—if anything, those curiously visiting our Sunday morning sanctuaries are crying out for the authentic display of the supernatural.

Hard Places That Became Harvest Fields

Consider two “hard places” that became harvest fields throughout Scripture.

Samaria (Acts 8) was defined by centuries of paganism and idolatry, yet when Philip preached Christ, demons shrieked, the sick were healed, and there was great joy in that city. God wants to fill broken cities with joy.

Ephesus (Acts 19) was a headquarters of idolatry, immorality, and occult power—home of the temple of Artemis, which set the spiritual atmosphere for the entire territory. One could rightly call it a hard and dark place. Yet, the word of the Lord prevailed mightily, and revival came to the city. If Ephesus can experience this, any modern city can—and so can America.

These examples don’t just confirm that revival is possible in hard and dark places—they should provoke us to agree with Heaven’s announcement and objective. According to Joel 2 and Acts 2, God wants all flesh to experience the outpouring of the Spirit. Is America part of “all flesh?” Yes. So we boldly announce: “America, it’s time for another great outpouring!”

Pray with me:

Father, forgive us for believing lies concerning “hard and dark” territories. Our standard is not to be how sinful a nation appears; our standard is Your Scripture. And Your Word invites us to believe that violent and oppressed cities will be filled with joy, entire territories will be transformed by the Gospel, and nations will be born again in a day. We commit to come into agreement with Your Word regarding America. Not the news. Not the naysayers. Not the negativity. 

We pray as the church in Acts prayed: “And now, O Lord, give us great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30). Your Word says dry, dead bones can live, and so we declare: America, come alive in the name of Jesus!

All of this we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

You can find out more about Larry and Mercedes Sparks at LarrySparksMinistries.com. Their book, The Fire that Forged America, is available on Amazon.

Click on the link below to watch the video.