CAVE TIME
1 Kings 19:9 And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
Why do we find Elijah the mighty prophet of God hiding in a cave?
We find the answer in
1Kings 19:1-4
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah,
saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I
make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. 3 And (when he saw that), he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
Elijah goes from the mountain top, to a Juniper tree and from there Elijah’s next stop is a cave
Why is Elijah hiding in a cave?
The answer is fear.
The bible says Ahab told Jezebel what Elijah had done, how he slew the false prophets and called down fire and rain from heaven, then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with the message that She was going to kill him
The bible says 1kings 19:3 (when He saw that).
this means Jezebels words painted a picture in Elijahs mind and in his heart, Just as faith cometh by hearing, so does fear come by hearing, driven by fear Elijah finds himself in a cave.
There are all kinds of reasons that people find themselves in a cave
It could be divorce, it could be an abusive situation, It could be a financial disaster, It could be ministry it’self, then it could be broken dreams.
I don’t know all the many reasons for finding yourself in a cave, I just know if it could happen to a mighty prophet of God like Elijah, it can happen to you and I.
It also happened to David while he was running from Saul.
1Sa 22:1 David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him
I know as soon as you mention the word cave we shudder.
Why? Because People dread the thought of a cave experience,
Why? Because to us the cave is a dark, dismal, confusing, cold and lonely place.
While I must admit that is a fair description, I must also add that you are only looking at it from one aspect.
I have come to believe that at some point in our lives every one of us will come to a cave experience, From my estimation it’s not a question of if, Only when.
If I am going to come to a spiritual cave in my life then it is of utmost importance that I know what to do, and equally important is knowing what not to do.
The first thing I would say to you is don’t despise your cave,
The cave may very well be safest place you could be.
There was a man named Obadiah who hid 100 of the Lords prophets in a cave and sustained them with bread and water, and saved them from Jezebels hand, her plan was to destroy every prophet of God from the land.
I am sure this was hard for these prophets because, prophets are not generally the kind of people to hide, they are usually in your face with (Thus saith the Lord).
But the fact is sometimes God says show thyself, and sometimes God says hide thyself, and the truth is the hide thyself time is just as, if not more important than the show thyself time, In fact had Elijah not obeyed the Lord and hid himself at the brook cherith He would have never shown himself on Mt Carmel and called fire down from heaven and turned the nation of Israel back to God.
It’s interesting to me that Elijah comes to the place called the Mountain of God and finds a cave there.
1Ki 19:8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
1Ki 19:9 And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
Everybody won’t know what I’m talking about, but somebody knows what it feels like to be in a cave, to come to the mountain of God where there should be glory all around, where there should be unspeakable joy, where you should be enveloped in the presence of God, but instead you feel like God is a million miles away.
It seems like every one around you is experiencing heaven come down, and you can’t even feel God.
You question your experience, you question your calling, you question whether you’re really anointed or not, you question if you’ve missed God somewhere,
Have I been disobedient, did God turn right and I turned left. I can’t understand it, what is happening to me?
It could be that you are experiencing what Elijah experienced (A Cave).
For somebody this is going to be good news, (no you are not backslid, no you have not been disobedient, no God hasn’t forsaken you, Yes you are still called, yes you are still anointed, and No God has not changed his mind about using you.
It’s just a temporary condition called the cave.
I am convinced that the cave was exactly what Elijah needed at that point in his life.
Why is it that we dread the cave?
Lets analyze the cave for a minute.
A cave is a dark place = no vision
= a lonely place
= a confining place
= a dead end
I am convinced that a cave is a very critical place in the Christians life.
I believe that when you find yourself in a cave you are actually in process of transition.
The cave is a potential Tomb
Or the cave is a potential Womb.
You can either die in the cave, or you can actually be transitioned to a whole new level.
Ministries die in the cave or ministries are birthed in the cave, and it all depends on the way you conduct yourself.
Our first tendency is to despise the cave, to fight against it, to try to keep going, to keep on trudging forward, pretending like everythings fine, until we can’t pretend any longer and we give up the charade, (notice I did not say give up the fight).
The cave represents a place of darkness, = no vision, can’t see where you’re going, ( when you lose your vision you lose your sense of purpose) and when you lose your sense of purpose you lose your passion.
Here is where we begin to learn the blessing of the Cave.
Though No one wants to lose their vision, and their sense of purpose and their passion, it seems that at some point it happens to most people if not everybody,
The cave is the place where we are forced to stop, it is the place where we are left alone to wrestle with God, it is the place where we are forced to examine Ourselves, and take inventory,
It’s where we have to answer the questions ( am I moving with the anointing or just going through the motions?).
(am I moving in a word from God?)
(Have I lost the vision?)
If we respond correctly the cave will become the womb of a brand new vision, and a brand new anointing, You will come out with a renewed sense of purpose and a unquenchable passion for God.
What looked like Elijah’s tomb, where his life and ministry would end, actually became the launching pad for the next phase of Elijah’s Ministry.
What can we learn from Elijah’s Cave Time?
#1 Don’t despise the cave (before Joseph was promoted to the palace he spent time in the pit and the prison).
#2 Stop (Wait on the Lord)
#3 Listen
#4 Quit looking back (Elijah was so overwhelmed by what was behind him that he couldn’t see what was in front of him.)
As far as he was concerned, his ministry was over.
What was it that launched Elijah from his cave into the final phase of his ministry?
(It was a word from God)
When The word of the Lord came to Elijah, It brought a new vision, a new sense of purpose, and a new passion.
Elijah left that cave with a new anointing.
The fear of Jezebel was gone, Elijah was no longer looking back, but now he was consumed with taking this anointing to the next generation.
One word from God turned a potential tomb, into a womb and his ministry was reborn, he was a man on fire.
The cave is a place of two anointings, it is the place where we either transition into the anointing for the future, or we resign ourselves to the anointing of the past.
When Saul was pursuing David, it just so happened that Saul decided to rest in the same cave where David and his men were hiding.
1sa 24:3
And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a CAVE; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the CAVE.
Davids men encouraged him to kill Saul but he would not put his hand against the Lords anointed
1sa 24:6 And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.
Here in the same cave there are two anointings, there was yesterdays king with yesterdays anointing.
Saul was a king and he was anointed, and he had been used of God, and he had done some great things in the anointing, but Saul had failed to make the transition.
Then there was tomorrows King (David) who represents the transition to the fresh, the new, and the future.
In every cave there are two anointings, and there are two kings
There is the old and the new
And it’s up to you which one comes out of that cave, (You can either come out transitioned into the new and the fresh) or you can come out resigned to yesterdays anointing, ( If you do you will live the rest of your life looking back, talking about how it used to be, what God used to do, How God used to move.
At some point we will all come to this place, it is here that we must decide whether we are going to transition into the new or we are going to resign ourselves to the old.
The old was not bad, it’s just time to change.
Saul had a genuine anointing but it was time to change
Elijah had a great anointing but it was time to change.
The cave is the place of change
When Elijah left that cave he was a new man, he was fearless, Jezebel meant nothing to him anymore, (He wasn’t looking back anymore, he had a new anointing .
What changed?
Did Jezebel change, did Ahab change (No nothing changed outside the cave)
the change took place inside the cave, Elijah changed, he transitioned from the old to the new and because he made the transition he was able to pass it on to Elisha.
Maybe like Elijah you feel like you are in a cave, like your life and ministry are at a dead end, I’ve just come to tell you that it’s not a tomb it’s a womb, and it’s not the end it’s just the beginning of a brand new chapter.
And God hasn’t taken his anointing from you, it’s just time to transition to the new anointing.
In actual fact the cave is one of the greatest blessings that you could ever know.
The caterpillar would never make the transition into the most glorious and beautiful butterfly were it not for the dark confines of it’s cocoon.
And you and I would never make the transition to the fresh and the new if it wasn’t for our cave time.
I may be in a cave right now, but this is just a temporary condition because I am in transition and like Elijah I am coming out slinging oil, I am coming out with a fresh fire, a fresh vision, and a new passion, and a new sense of purpose.
And the very thing that ran me into the cave is ultimately going to be responsible for pushing me to my next level.
