GET OUT Of THE CAVE!

Sunday was the last One Church service until September. It can be amazing watching people’s reactions when you are in conversation with Christians and mention that as a Church we are having a Summer Sabbath!

People often have that pitiful look that tells you that they think it’s because ‘we have come to the end of ourselves’ and just need a break. This absolutely tickles me as the truth is that myself and Simon were at the end of ourselves before we had ever preached our first sermons ha ha. To us, we wouldn’t have it any other way as it makes us rely on God so much more! We have needed Him to turn up week after week. We have constantly cried out to Him for wisdom and direction. We know all too well that our words are meaningless and hold no power but His words through us can change everything.

I personally have never felt so close to God yet at the same time I have never needed Him more! I have so much faith for the Church as it is God that builds it, not us but there are often times when I have become disillusioned. When I examine these times, there is always a recurring theme! It is always when things don’t turn out how I expected them to turn out! For me it’s when I have prayed for change, for healing, for restoration yet nothing has shifted. It is like sadness just comes over me that I really struggle to shake off! One of the biggest things for me is when I see people suffer and if I narrow it down further, it is when I see those who have been really zealous for God suffer through illness whether that be spiritually, emotionally or physically.

It’s almost like ‘Why God? They gave you everything God?’ I just don’t understand and I don’t understand why my heart just sinks and sinks and sinks! I know the truth; that God is good and that He is faithful but the noise of situations often takes over my thought pattern. I find myself crying out things like “I did everything right and it hasn’t turned out alright” or “I prayed for that and I fasted for that and nothing has changed, in fact now it is devastating!”

I am not sure if you have ever felt this way; I am almost positive that it can’t just be me! I think at times we all feel one of those ‘depress’ moments that leaves us utterly dispirited or dejected.

Proverbs 13 v 12 says “Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life”

It is not wrong to hope but when we feel like it is deferred, it will make us sick! God really has been challenging me that I need to see Him at work in everything; yes, that includes even in the saddest of situations. It seems too simple but I do believe that by being in His presence, we can overcome the mind sets that infect our hearts! It is always God’s presence that changes things. It is His presence that changes the way that we hope and the way that we expect him to turn up. It is His presence that realigns ourselves to Him and gives room for Him to speak!

I love the character of Elijah in the Bible and I especially love an extract from his life that is found in 1 Kings 19. At this point in his story, he was someone who felt ‘let down’. Things hadn’t turned out the way that he expected them to turn out. Elijah was doing everything right, he hadn’t stopped praying, he was actually still seeing miracles but what he longed for, he wasn’t seeing! Elijah was in a cave when the Word of the Lord came to him.

1 Kings 19 v 11-12 goes on to say

The LORD said, '“Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

This passage of scripture has really started to transform me. I really believe that God is calling us to spend some time out of the cave so that we can encounter him in a fresh way. Our own personal cave can be anything but I do believe that it is a place where we tend to believe ‘that is the place where God’s presence is because God’s presence can be found everywhere!’ We can even think that Church is the only place He speaks and therefore that becomes our cave.

With Elijah, God was literally saying ‘Get away from your cave and just get with me’. It’s simple but it is so powerful because our circumstances may not change but the very essence of ‘who we are’ changes. We allow God to reposition us by experiencing Him in a new way! We are really hoping that there is great testimony to using the Summer Sabbath in this way!

One of the most spiritual things we can do to be in the presence of God is to take a walk with God. We often see this as a bit of an ‘out there’ thing but in reality it is such an ancient biblical principle. If you know the origin story of creation then you will know that before sin entered the world, God was simply taking a walk with Adam and Eve in the garden. Every day God would visit and spend time with them and them with Him.

Can I encourage you to find spaces in your life to reconnect your spirit with Jesus? Maybe for you, it’s not a walk, maybe it’s a drive or maybe it’s as simple as going into a different space in your home than you are used and having one purpose only which is to draw closer to God. Get rid of the distractions and just listen for that whisper. He is a good God and He wants to speak to us far more than we think! It is the noise and the busyness of our lives that often drowns out the softness of His voice when He chooses to use a whisper to us! We need to draw close and pretend we are back in the era before phones or devices existed, it will bring so much freedom to our soul when He is our only focus.

Get away from the things that are trying to distract you from His presence. Everything around us wants our minds and our time. The enemy always wants us to live in the noise but our God wants us to live in the presence, His presence! One of the most fulfilling experiences for me is when I look up at the stars at night, there is something that just causes me to pause in His presence and no matter what I am facing, I become so thankful to our creator. For Simon, I know it is mountains and the beauty of God’s nature that stops him in his tracks.

Everywhere we look in our day can have such a powerful effect on our minds and faith if we allow ourselves space to see the presence of God in everything. Even the simplest of things can shout out the greatest personal sermon to us if we simply refocus our efforts. We over complicate things sometimes! We think it has to be in a Church setting; we think it has to be in a large gathering and this causes us to not look or listen.

Let this summer be different for all of us.

Let’s be an Elijah and come out of the cave of where we always are and experience the resurrection power in a new way.

by Valda Rushton Wed 2nd August 2023