Come Out Of Your Cave

Get out of your cave

By Dr. Fernando Cabrera

1. We go to our caves when…

a. We can’t seem to fix the problem (19:1-4)

i. Ramsack (“if I don’t make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow” v. 2)

ii. Rejected (“for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it” v.10)

iii. Run down

1. he had killed 450 prophets, prayed fervently for rain, confronted idolaters, fasted, ran about 20 miles (almost a marathon)…talk about fatigue!

b. We are emotional drained (19:4)

i. “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers”

ii. Have you been in an emotional overdrive lately?

1. we make ourselves open to depression when our “emotional bank” is on empty

c. We feel stuck

i. How quickly depression and despair comes when we feel there is no way out

d. We feel like a failure

i. When something short circuit our goal to achieve, there is a tendency for us to retreat into seclusion

e. We have a contention with God

i. Has your conversation with God change lately?

1. he had a hidden, silent frustration

2. How to get out of your cave

a. Reload (19:5-8)

i. depletion often leads to depression

1. have you taken time to reload your spiritual, emotional and physical batteries lately?

ii. You can’t give what you don’t have

b. Unload (19:9-18)

i. Twice we find God asking, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”(v.9, 13)

1. God was eliciting a conversation with his

servant so Elisha could release his hidden frustration

ii. Elisha needed to share his fear and know he was near

1. Fear is false evidence appearing real

a. Fear is based on a false belief

i. It become “an argument” in our minds

ii. Elisha felt that God was inactive, silent and had abandoned the mission (v.14)

1. God had already raised an army of prophets (v.18)

c. Upload

i. God was saying and is saying, “GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE”

1. Elisha needed to “upload” God’s new instruction: raise a new generation of difference makers (v.15-19