When God Whispers.

When God Whispers.

1 Kings 19:1-4NKJV

Introduction: A fifty-five-year-old woman threw herself from her fourteenth-floor apartment to the ground below. Minutes before her death, she saw a workman washing the windows of a nearby building. She greeted him and smiled, and he smiled and said hello to her. When he turned his back, she jumped.

On a very neat and orderly desk she had left this note: "I can't endure one more day of this loneliness. My phone never rings! I never get letters! I don't have any friends!"

Another woman who lived just across the hall told reporters, "I wish I had known she felt so lonely. I'm lonesome myself."

You and I are surrounded by such people who experience loneliness and despair. The person living unknowingly in a crowded city. The foreigner. The rich and the poor alike. The divorcee and single parent. The young and old person. The business executive, and the unemployed, and even pastors.

No one is immune from loneliness. Even godly men and women sometimes experience loneliness in their pilgrimage through this world.

Elijah stands out in the Old Testament as God's most dramatic, forceful prophet. He stopped the rain, challenged a king face to face, produced fire from heaven, ordered 850 false prophets executed, and accurately predicted the day when a three-year drought would end. Yet in the New Testament we read, "Elijah was a man just like us" (James 5:17). He also experienced times of loneliness and despair.

Listen to today’s text, I Kings 19:1-4NKJV And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” 3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs 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 broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

Elijah amygdala (?'migd?l?) had been working in overdrive, Elijah was emotionally drained, with little to no adrenaline left.

There is a little almond-shaped part of our brain called the amygdala (?'migd?l?).

The amygdala is responsible for emotions and survival instincts. When you're afraid, the amygdala lights up like a pinball machine, producing a fright or flight respond. The amygdala deploys a tsunami of adrenaline, preparing the body for action. That's a good thing if you hiking a trail and come across a poisonous snake poised to strike. You need to get out of its way quickly the amygdala did it's job.

1 Kings 19, Elijah a prophet of God that accomplished 8 major miracles in his ministry. Elijah, a slayer of hundreds, Elijah, a provider for a widow and her son. Elijah, God’s man.

1 Kings 19:3-5TM  When Elijah saw how things were, he ran for dear life to Beersheba, far in the south of Judah. He left his young servant there and then went on into the desert another day’s journey. He came to a lone broom bush and collapsed in its shade, wanting in the worst way to be done with it all—to just die: “Enough of this, God! Take my life—I’m ready to join my ancestors in the grave!” Exhausted, he fell asleep under the lone broom bush.

Suddenly an angel shook him awake and said, “Get up and eat!”

Once while I was traveling south bound on I-75 going into Atlanta, a ladder-truck was in front of me, we were all traveling over 75mph, and all the sudden one of its ladders came soaring into the air coming straight into my windshield. My amygdala did its job. As I braced myself, the ladder went from soaring in mid-air, to straight down, as my car jumped over it. It was a miracle.

Needless to say, I exited my car, got out in the medium, with a young lady behind me, we both were very shook-up, with my hands and legs shaking uncontrollably.

The problem is that the amygdala is not objective—The way it responds to a ladder floating in midair, is the same way it responds to a hurtful conversation.

The way it responds to a noise letting you know a burglar has broken into your house, is the same way it responds to a notification letting you know your bank account is overdrawn.

So, what do I do; So, what do you do?

Again, What do we do?

Think of your Amygdala (?'migd?l?) as your twitchy, amped-up, over caffeinated, overstimulated, always on edge, high blood pressure cousin.