Tag Archives: David in the cave

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“RESONATE”Crawling out of the cave #3

“Where the WORD OF A KING IS, THERE IS POWER: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?” Ecclesiastes 8:4

We know the word of God, His voice brought Elijah out of the cave, even though he did not change his mind about leaving his earthly ministry.

David kept his sanity and held onto to what he had been promised while waiting out in the cave.

When we sometimes find ourselves in caves, either of our own choice or being forced to flee due to circumstance.

We are surrounded by hard stone, darkness, and discouragement.

It is then that we must be open to that still, small voice that spoke with Elijah, we have to hold onto the word as David did, remembering those words and encouraging our own souls with them.

God will never leave us and He will never forsake us and scripture teaches that no matter where we make our bed or find ourselves, even in the deepest hell, HE KNOWS right where we are. 

Psalm 102:2 “Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.” 

So listen to His words as they resonate inside that cave and let his promises lift your heart until as David put it “theses calamities be overpast.”  Because the cave may be dark but once you make it outside that sun will shine on you again, bad days don’t last forever and with rain comes rainbows.

Isaiah 55:11: “So SHALL MY WORD be that goeth forth from my mouth: it shall not return unto me void (unfulfilled), but IT WILL ACCOMPLISH that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

Isaiah 55: 14-16: “In  righteousness shalt thou be established, thou shalt be far from oppression;

for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.

BEHOLD, ( old English for listen closely and watch) THEY SHALL SURELY GATHER TOGETHER ( your enemies) BUT NOT BY ME (God did not send them against you)

WHOSOEVER SHALL GATHER TOGETHER AGAINST THEE SHALL FALL FOR THY SAKE.

BEHOLD, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST THEE SHALL PROSPER; AND EVERY TOUNGE THAT SHALL RISE AGAINST THEE IN JUGDMENT THOU SHALT CONDEMN.

THIS IS THE HERITAGE OF THE SERVANTS OF THE LORD, AND THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OF (from) ME, SAITH THE LORD.“

That is GOD telling us that we ARE His and our right standing is OF HIM, but that they will come and we will be talked about but that NONE OF IT IS FROM HIM and HE WILL TAKE CARE OF IT ALL.

Psalm 107:1-10,18-20: ” O Give thanks unto the Lord for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

And gathered them OUT of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.

They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary (desolate) way; they found no city to dwell in.

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

Then THEY CRIED UNTO THE LORD IN THEIR TROUBLE, and HE DELIVERED THEM OUT OF ALL THEIR DISTRESSES.

And HE LED them forth BY THE RIGHT WAY, that they might go to  a city of habitation.

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

SUCH AS SIT IN DARKNESS AND IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH, BEING BOUND IN AFFLICATION.

Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat (too down to even eat); they draw near unto the gates of death.

THEN they cry unto the Lord IN their trouble, and HE SAVETH THEM OUT OF THEIR DISTRESSES.

HE SENT HIS WORD, AND HEALED THEM, AND DELIVERED THEM FROM THEIR DESTRUCTION.”

So let his word resonate in you today let the “reason” in that resonation of the word  fill your heart, your mind, your soul.

Find YOUR scripture and quote it and keep quoting it.

Psalm 17:4 ” Concerning the works of men, BY THE WORD OF THY LIPS I HAVE KEPT ME FROM THE PATHS OF THE DESTROYER.“

Φλογιζω NBJ 2016 Original post:01/22/2016 Revisited 05/28/202*Also forgive the capitalization, it is not meant to shout, it’s for emphasis ❤️

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“CAVES” Part 2 “Cavin’ with Dave”

“He that is our God IS the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues (escapes) from death.” Psalms 68:20

As the Lord asked Elijah what he was doing, and Elijah answered, the Lord called him out of the cave, where He then showed a magnificent display of His power, I believe to try to snap Elijah out of it with the remembrance of WHO was truly on his side.

He spoke to Elijah in a quite soft voice asking him again (1 Kings 19:13) ” What are you doing here?”

Elijah again word for word gave him his reason and it is so clear the main reason he became discouraged was the solitude.

He became so distraught and discouraged that he could no longer see the majesty, the power that would slay his enemy.

He KNEW it he just lost his ability to continue the fight.

You will notice with these passages that God asked TWICE and after that he gave Elijah instruction for turning over his assignment to Elisha.

God will not override our wills, it was not his idea for Elijah’s work to come to this end and He showed extreme mercy in how He dealt with him.

This can be proven through the account of Jonah, who just bucked on God and decided he just was not doing what God had commanded him to do and after he found himself in the belly of as he put it “hell”. He found it to be in his best interest to do as he had been asked and even by the end of the book he was still all mad at God and I have never found anything else on what finally became of him.

So you can see there was a complete difference in what was going on in these guys by the difference of how God dealt with them.  

As we all know Elijah did not die, he was taken and in my personal opinion, just a little rest, a little reprieve until time to come back to this earth as one of the two witnesses described in Revelation.

His work has not been completed.

It does prove mercy toward our messed up worn out human minds and half broken spirits.

And that we can make OWN ON DECISION to “die” in the cave.

David also did some caving, like Elijah he felt mortal fear. the very real threat of King Saul trying to kill him. Whereas I think Elijah just didn’t want to deal with Jezebel, I think he was tired of fighting the whole bunch.

{Complete unrelated side note here, I do love what Jesus said about Jezebel in the book of Revelation, He refers to her as “That woman, Jezebel” and notes that He gave even her a chance to repent, she just evidently did not accept it.

Worth thinking about when the devil tries to tell people that they have been too “bad” to be saved.}

Back to David, here he is, he has already BEEN anointed to be King over Israel but as it looks now, if he dares show his face, he will never be King because Saul is very intent on “making a memory outta him.” 

Now the funny thing about caves is that sometimes what your hiding from can end up in that cave with you!

 1 Samuel 24:3 : “And he (King Saul) came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a CAVE; and Saul went in to cover his feet ( attend his needs): and DAVID AND HIS MEN REMAINED IN THE SIDES OF THE CAVE.”

Now David’s men were ecstatic and told him this was a divine appointment to take out his enemy but David saw it an a chance to sow some mercy and trust the Lord and would not kill Saul.

Instead he cut off a piece of his clothing to prove to Saul just how close he had been and that if he wished him harm he could have nailed him right there.

But even in doing that he felt guilty, because vengeance IS God’s and sometimes that is hard for us to remember but David passed this one.

Now, how he got through his cave experience, he REMEMBERED what God tried to make Elijah see and he thought upon these things and this was his daily bread.

This is some of what he actually wrote while in the cave.

Psalm 57: 1-3  “BE MERCIFUL UNTO ME, O GOD, BE MERCIFUL UNTO ME: 

for MY SOUL TRUSTETH IN THEE: 

yea, IN THE SHADOW OF THY WINGS WILL I MAKE MY REFUGE, UNTIL these calamities be overpast (passed by).

I WILL cry unto God most high: unto God that performeth all things for me. HE SHALL SEND FROM HEAVEN, AND SAVE ME FROM THE REPROACH OF HIM THAT WOULD SWALLOW ME UP. SELAH. GOD SHALL SEND FORTH HIS MERCY AND TRUTH.” 

His strongest assets were that he KNEW the power of prayer and praise.

Even though we view him as someone who was so close to God (and he was) who could kill lions and bears (and he did) and someone who could hit a giant head on and take that head, someone who walked in the anointing and presence of God, but still he was exactly what we are, HUMAN and he also became afraid, troubled, and discouraged but here is his cry, let it be ours:

Psalm 55:1-8: “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn (wander) in my complaint, and make a noise; BECAUSE of the VOICE OF MY ENEMY, BECAUSE of THE OPPRESSION OF THE WICKED: for thy cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.

MY HEART IS SORE PAINED WITHIN ME: AND THE TERRORS OF DEATH ARE FALLEN UPON ME, FEARFULNESS AND TREMBLING ARE COME UPON ME, AND HORROR HATH OVERWHELMED ME. And I said, oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I FLY AWAY AND BE AT REST.

LO, THEN WOULD I WANDER FAR OFF, AND REMAIN IN THE WILDERNESS. SELAH.

I WOULD HASTEN (SPEED UP) MY ESCAPE FROM THE WINDY STORM AND THE TEMPEST.”

Yeah, KING DAVID, the mighty warrior to end all warriors, who throne IS established FOREVER, whose words written in his place of anguish still shine as a mighty light THOUSANDS of years later.

He was scared, he was tired, and he very much wanted to run away to escape all these things and NEVER return again.

Sometimes so do we. Next time we will listen closely and try to hear the words of the KING OF KINGS as HIS voice resonates into our own caves, as He calls us out, our souls feeding on the bread of life, His word and His promises. 

Φλογίζω NBJ 2016

Original post date: 01/16/2016 *Revisited 06/27/2019* And  05/23/2033

by

CRAWLING OUT OF THE CAVE #1

“But he answered and said, It is written MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.” Matthew 4:4

Not only as Christians but just as humans we go through many seasons in life and all these seasonal changes can often leave us  disillusioned, drained, despondent and the most dreaded and deadly of the “D” words, discouraged.

It rains on the just and the unjust and that is THE “go to” scripture for all who are weary and when winds blow and the devil wants to convince us that if we were right we wouldn’t be going through this.

But again we all know that he IS the liar of all liars and everyone born upon this earth will suffer heartache whether they choose to follow Jesus or not.

As a watchman who no longer has a tower and now sits perched upon a precariously wobbly wall only hoping that the shouts reach the ears of those for which they are intended, I can more than ever relate to all of the above. 

January 2015 my Dad was hospitalized and it really did not look like he was going to make it, before going to visit him one morning I got prayer and I had never before nor have I since received a word at that particular church.

Of course my nerves were a whole new level of shot and after the service a man came back and told me that when they had been praying he had received a word for me, and it was that 2015 WOULD BE a good year for me, I knew by the delivery of the message and the eyes of the messenger, that it translated to this, there would be NO time during the coming year that it would FEEL good and that NO MATTER what IT looked like or how trying it became that somehow in the spiritual realm it would be working for a greater purpose and all in all in the book that God keeps of all our lives that it would be recorded as a positive.

I think we tend to look at prophecy sometimes as we wish to see it and not so much as what GOD IS TRYING TO TELL US!

It is often something we may not want to hear but had we not known it we have lost hope and the dreaded “D” word would lead us straight back out into the world under bondage to the other “D” word.

I thank God for the word he sent me, it kept my eyes focused through an extremely painful year.

My Dad had also received a word at the worst of his illness that his work was not quite finished and had he not received that, he may have not had the will to go on.

But still sometimes enough wind, enough rain, and just enough cold from feelings of disconnection can turn us to cave dwellers.

We like to believe it is a place of shelter, a place of rest, and most of all a surrounding to block out all those nasty attacks and the only way they can get us is head on and we will be able to see that coming.

Right? Well, no, Not quite. Caves are very dark, isolated, and filled with bones of whatever had made it a prior shelter and never made it back out, and your not going to get much rest if you have to always keep watch for fear of what is going to come through that “door”.

Elijah tried it.

1st Kings 19, God had already done mighty, mighty works through Elijah, really think about seeing this with your own eyes, FIRE FALLING FROM HEAVEN, PROVISIONS THAT WOULD NOT FAIL, A HUMAN FED BY  RAVENS,THE DEAD RAISED TO LIFE.

And yet even he, who had absolutely NO DOUBT anywhere in him concerning the power of God, ran for his life, he had became so weary that he just wanted it all over and just wanted to go home.

God always patient and merciful sent an angel to feed him and strengthen him, showing us as always God knows right where we are, even when he did not send us in that direction and even though he continued on his emotionally self propelled journey God provided for him.

Once he made it through the forty day journey and found the refuge of his cave the Lord asked very point blank “WHAT DOEST THOU HERE ELIJAH?” 

After Elijah gave his reasoning to the Lord GOD CALLED HIM OUT OF THE CAVE.

Now God gave a rather majestic display of His power and might over all the universe, and sometimes we also could use a refresher course.  

ALL POWER IN HEAVEN AND EARTH.

Psalm 97:1-6 “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof.

Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation (FOUNDATION) of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.

HIS lightnings enlightened the world: THE EARTH SAW, AND TREMBLED. THE HILLS MELTED LIKE WAX AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD OF THE WHOLE EARTH.

THE HEAVENS DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THE PEOPLE SEE HIS GLORY.”

ISAIAH 45-5-7 “ I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me:

I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

THAT THEY MAY KNOW FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN, AND FROM THE WEST, THAT THERE IS NONE BESIDE ME.

I AM THE LORD, AND THERE IS NONE ELSE. I FORM THE LIGHT, AND CREATE DARKNESS: I MAKE PEACE, AND CREATE EVIL (CALAMITY):

I THE LORD DO THESE THINGS.” 

ISAIAH 54:16  “Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument (weapon) for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.” 

This is the power that created the universe.

The voice that spoke everything into existence.

The one who named the stars and flung the into existence. The sun and moon will cower in His presence and the very mountains will flee from before Him.

Heaven is His throne and earth is but His footstool.

And all nations and people will bow before Him and the same small voice who spoke to Elijah is still that same voice that speaks to us today.

He is calling us out of the caves and His word is the way.

Please join me next time, Lord’s will, and we’ll look at David’s caving and follow up with that voice and the word of his promises that will help us see a brighter day OUTSIDE of the cave.

Φλογιζω/ NBJ 2016

Revisited 05/19/2023

Original post date: 01/14/2016 to read the remainder of this series, please check out: “CAVES” Part 2 “Cavin’ with Dave”

“RESONATE”Crawling out of the cave #3

by

“RESONATE”Crawling out of the cave #3

“Where the WORD OF A KING IS, THERE IS POWER: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?” Ecclesiastes 8:4

We know the word of God, His voice brought Elijah out of the cave, even though he did not change his mind about leaving his earthly ministry. David kept his sanity and held onto to what he had been promised while waiting out in the cave. When we sometimes find ourselves in caves, either of our own choice or being forced to flee due to circumstance. We are surrounded by hard stone, darkness, and discouragement. It is then that we must be open to that still, small voice that spoke with Elijah, we have to hold onto the word as David did, remembering those words and encouraging our own souls with them.

God will never leave us and He will never forsake us and scripture teaches that no matter where we make our bed or find ourselves, even in the deepest hell, HE KNOWS right where we are. 

Psalm 102:2 “Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.” 

So listen to His words as they resonate inside that cave and let his promises lift your heart until as David put it “theses calamities be overpast”  because the cave may be dark but once you make it outside that sun will shine on you again, bad days don’t last forever and with rain comes rainbows.

Isaiah 55:11: “So SHALL MY WORD be that goeth forth from my mouth: it shall not return unto me void (unfulfilled), but IT WILL ACCOMPLISH that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” 

Isaiah 55: 14-16: In righteousness shalt thou be established, thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. BEHOLD, ( old English for listen closely and watch) THEY SHALL SURELY GATHER TOGETHER ( your enemies) BUT NOT BY ME (God did not send them against you) WHOSOEVER SHALL GATHER TOGETHER AGAINST THEE SHALL FALL FOR THY SAKE. BEHOLD, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST THEE SHALL PROSPER; AND EVERY TOUNGE THAT SHALL RISE AGAINST THEE IN JUGDMENT THOU SHALT CONDEMN. THIS IS THE HERITAGE OF THE SERVANTS OF THE LORD, AND THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OF (from) ME, SAITH THE LORD.”

That is GOD telling us that we ARE His and our right standing is OF HIM, but that they will come and we will be talked about but that NONE OF IT IS FROM HIM and HE WILL TAKE CARE OF IT ALL.

Psalm 107:1-10,18-20: ” O Give thanks unto the Lord for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them OUT of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary (desolate) way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then THEY CRIED UNTO THE LORD IN THEIR TROUBLE, and HE DELIVERED THEM OUT OF ALL THEIR DISTRESSES. And HE LED them forth BY THE RIGHT WAY, that they might go to  a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. SUCH AS SIT IN DARKNESS AND IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH, BEING BOUND IN AFFLICATION. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat (too down to even eat); they draw near unto the gates of death. THEN they cry unto the Lord IN their trouble, and HE SAVETH THEM OUT OF THEIR DISTRESSES. HE SENT HIS WORD, AND HEALED THEM, AND DELIVERED THEM FROM THEIR DESTRUCTION.”

So let his word resonate in you today let the “reason” in that resonation of the word  fill your heart, your mind, your soul. Find YOUR scripture and quote it and keep quoting it.

Psalm 17:4 ” Concerning the works of men, BY THE WORD OF THY LIPS I HAVE KEPT ME FROM THE PATHS OF THE DESTROYER.“

Φλογιζω NBJ 2016

original post:01/22/2016

by

“CAVES” Part 2 “Cavin’ with Dave”

“He that is our God IS the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues (escapes) from death.” Psalm68:20

As the Lord asked Elijah what he was doing, and Elijah answered, the Lord called him out of the cave, where He then showed a magnificent display of His power, I believe to try to snap Elijah out of it with the remembrance of WHO was truly on his side. He spoke to Elijah in a quite soft voice asking him again (1 Kings 19:13) ” What are you doing here?” Elijah again word for word gave him his reason and it is so clear the main reason he became discouraged was the solitude. He became so distraught and discouraged that he could no longer see the majesty, the power that would slay his enemy.

He KNEW  it he just lost his ability to continue the fight. You will notice with these passages that God asked TWICE and after that he gave Elijah instruction for turning over his assignment to Elisha. God will not override our wills, it was not his idea for Elijah’s work to come to this end and He showed extreme mercy in how He dealt with him.

This can be proven through the account of Jonah, who just bucked on God and decided he just was not doing what God had commanded him to do and after he found himself in the belly of as he put it “hell”. He found it to be in his best interest to do as he had been asked and even by the end of the book he was still all mad at God and I have never found anything else on what finally became of him.

So you can see there was a complete difference in what was going on in these guys by the difference of how God dealt with them.  As we all know Elijah did not die, he was taken and in my personal opinion, just a little rest, a little reprieve until time to come back to this earth as one of the two witnesses described in Revelation. His work has not been completed. It does prove mercy toward our messed up worn out human minds and half broken spirits. and that we can make OWN ON DECISION to “die” in the cave.

David also did some caving, like Elijah he felt mortal fear. the very real threat of King Saul trying to kill him. Whereas I think Elijah just didn’t want to deal with Jezebel, I think he was tired of fighting the whole bunch. {Complete unrelated side note here, I do love what Jesus said about Jezebel in the book of Revelation, He refers to her as “That woman, Jezebel” and notes that He gave even her a chance to repent, she just evidently did not accept it. Worth thinking about when the devil tries to tell people that they have been too “bad” to be saved.}

Back to David, here he is, he has already BEEN anointed to be King over Israel but as it looks now, if he dares show his face, he will never be King because Saul is very intent on “making a memory outta him.”  Now the funny thing about caves is that sometimes what your hiding from can end up in that cave with you!

 1 Samuel24:3 : ” And he (King Saul) came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a CAVE; and Saul went in to cover his feet ( attend his needs): and DAVID AND HIS MEN REMAINED IN THE SIDES OF THE CAVE.” Now David’s men were ecstatic and told him this was a divine appointment to take out his enemy but David saw it an a chance to sow some mercy and trust the Lord and would not kill Saul. Instead he cut off a piece of his clothing to prove to Saul just how close he had been and that if he wished him harm he could have nailed him right there. But even in doing that he felt guilty, because vengeance IS God’s and sometimes that is hard for us to remember but David passed this one.

  Now, how he got through his cave experience, he REMEMBERED what God tried to make Elijah see and he thought upon these things and this was his daily bread. This is some of what he actually wrote while in the cave.

Psalm 57: 1-3  “BE MERCIFUL UNTO ME, O GOD, BE MERCIFUL UNTO ME:  for MY SOUL TRUSTETH IN THEE:  yea, IN THE SHADOW OF THY WINGS WILL I MAKE MY REFUGE, UNTIL these calamities be overpast (passed by). I WILL cry unto God most high: unto God that performeth all things for me. HE SHALL SEND FROM HEAVEN, AND SAVE ME FROM THE REPROACH OF HIM THAT WOULD SWALLOW ME UP. SELAH. GOD SHALL SEND FORTH HIS MERCY AND TRUTH.” 

His strongest assets were that he KNEW the power of prayer and praise. Even though we view him as someone who was so close to God (and he was) who could kill lions and bears (and he did) and someone who could hit a giant head on and take that head, someone who walked in the anointing and presence of God, but still he was exactly what we are, HUMAN and he also became afraid, troubled, and discouraged but here is his cry, let it be ours:

Psalm 55:1-8: “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn (wander) in my complaint, and make a noise; BECAUSE of the VOICE OF MY ENEMY, BECAUSE of THE OPPRESSION OF THE WICKED: for thy cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. MY HEART IS SORE PAINED WITHIN ME: AND THE TERRORS OF DEATH ARE FALLEN UPON ME, FEARFULNESS AND TREMBLING ARE COME UPON ME, AND HORROR HATH OVERWHELMED ME. And I said, oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I FLY AWAY AND BE AT REST. LO, THEN WOULD I WANDER FAR OFF, AND REMAIN IN THE WILDERNESS. SELAH. I WOULD HASTEN (SPEED UP) MY ESCAPE FROM THE WINDY STORM AND THE TEMPEST.”

Yeah, KING DAVID, the mighty warrior to end all warriors, who throne IS established FOREVER, whose words written in his place of anguish still shine as a mighty light THOUSANDS of years later.

He was scared, he was tired, and he very much wanted to run away to escape all these things and NEVER return again. Sometimes so do we. Next time we will listen closely and try to hear the words of the KING OF KINGS as HIS voice resonates into our own caves, as He calls us out, our souls feeding on the bread of life, His word and His promises. 

Φλογίζω NBJ 2016

Original post date: 01/16/2016 *Revisited 06/27/2019*

 

by

CRAWLING OUT OF THE CAVE #1

“But he answered and said, It is written MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.” Matthew 4:4

Not only as Christians but just as humans we go through many seasons in life and all these seasonal changes can often leave us  disillusioned, drained, despondent and the most dreaded and deadly of the “D” words, discouraged. It rains on the just and the unjust and that is THE “go to” scripture for all who are weary and when winds blow and the devil wants to convince us that if we were right we wouldn’t be going through this.

But again we all know that he IS the liar of all liars and everyone born upon this earth will suffer heartache whether they choose to follow Jesus or not. As a watchman who no longer has a tower and now sits perched upon a precariously wobbly wall only hoping that the shouts reach the ears of those for which they are intended, I can more than ever relate to all of the above. 

January 2015 my Dad was hospitalized and it really did not look like he was going to make it, before going to visit him one morning I got prayer and I had never before nor have I since received a word at that particular church. Of course my nerves were a whole new level of shot and after the service a man came back and told me that when they had been praying he had received a word for me, and it was that 2015 WOULD BE a good year for me, I knew by the delivery of the message and the eyes of the messenger, that it translated to this, there would be NO time during the coming year that it would FEEL good and that NO MATTER what IT looked like or how trying it became that somehow in the spiritual realm it would be working for a greater purpose and all in all in the book that God keeps of all our lives that it would be recorded as a positive.

I think we tend to look at prophecy sometimes as we wish to see it and not so much as what GOD IS TRYING TO TELL US!

It is often something we may not want to hear but had we not known it we have lost hope and the dreaded “D” word would lead us straight back out into the world under bondage to the other “D” word.

I thank God for the word he sent me, it kept my eyes focused through an extremely painful year. My Dad had also received a word at the worst of his illness that his work was not quite finished and had he not received that, he may have not had the will to go on.

But still sometimes enough wind, enough rain, and just enough cold from feelings of disconnection can turn us to cave dwellers. We like to believe it is a place of shelter, a place of rest, and most of all a surrounding to block out all those nasty attacks and the only way they can get us is head on and we will be able to see that coming.

Right? Well, no, Not quite, caves are very dark, isolated, and filled with bones of whatever had made it a prior shelter and never made it back out, and your not going to get much rest if you have to always keep watch for fear of what is going to come through that “door”.

Elijah tried it, 1st Kings 19, God had already done mighty, mighty works through Elijah, really think about seeing this with your own eyes, FIRE FALLING FROM HEAVEN, PROVISIONS THAT WOULD NOT FAIL, A HUMAN FED BY  RAVENS,THE DEAD RAISED TO LIFE. And yet even he, who had absolutely NO DOUBT anywhere in him concerning the power of God. He ran for his life, he had became so weary that he just wanted it all over and just wanted to go home.

God always patient and merciful sent an angel to feed him and strengthen him, showing us as always God knows right where we are, even when he did not send us in that direction and even though he continued on his emotionally self propelled journey God provided for him. Once he made it through the forty day journey and found the refuge of his cave the Lord asked very point blank “WHAT DOEST THOU HERE ELIJAH?”  After Elijah gave his reasoning to the Lord GOD CALLED HIM OUT OF THE CAVE.

Now God gave a rather majestic display of His power and might over all the universe, and sometimes we also could use a refresher course.   ALL POWER IN HEAVEN AND EARTH.

Psalm 97:1-6 “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation (FOUNDATION) of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. HIS lightnings enlightened the world: THE EARTH SAW, AND TREMBLED. THE HILLS MELTED LIKE WAX AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD OF THE WHOLE EARTH. THE HEAVENS DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THE PEOPLE SEE HIS GLORY.”

 

ISAIAH 45-5-7 “ I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: THAT THEY MAY KNOW FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN, AND FROM THE WEST, THAT THERE IS NONE BESIDE ME. I AM THE LORD, AND THERE IS NONE ELSE. I FORM THE LIGHT, AND CREATE DARKNESS: I MAKE PEACE, AND CREATE EVIL (CALAMITY): I THE LORD DO THESE THINGS.” 

ISAIAH 54:16  “Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument (weapon) for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.” 

This is the power that created the universe. The voice that spoke everything into existence. The one who named the stars and flung the into existence. The sun and moon will cower in His presence and the very mountains will flee from before Him. Heaven is His throne and earth is but His footstool.

And all nations and people will bow before Him and the same small voice who spoke to Elijah is still that same voice that speaks to us today. He is calling us out of the caves and His word is the way.

Please join me next time, Lord’s will, and we’ll look at David’s caving and follow up with that voice and the word of his promises that will help us see a brighter day OUTSIDE of the cave.

Φλογιζω/ NBJ 2016

Original post date: 01/14/2016 to read the remainder of this series, please check out: “CAVES” Part 2 “Cavin’ with Dave”

“RESONATE”Crawling out of the cave #3

by

“CAVES” Part 2 “Cavin’ with Dave”

“He that is our God IS the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues (escapes) from death.” Psalm68:20

As the Lord asked Elijah what he was doing, and Elijah answered, the Lord called him out of the cave, where He then showed a magnificent display of His power, I believe to try to snap Elijah out of it with the remembrance of WHO was truly on his side. He spoke to Elijah in a quite soft voice asking him again (1 Kings 19:13) ” What are you doing here?” Elijah again word for word gave him his reason and it is so clear the main reason he became discouraged was the solitude. He became so distraught and discouraged that he could no longer see the majesty, the power that would slay his enemy.

He KNEW  it he just lost his ability to continue the fight. You will notice with these passages that God asked TWICE and after that he gave Elijah instruction for turning over his assignment to Elisha. God will not override our wills, it was not his idea for Elijah’s work to come to this end and He showed extreme mercy in how He dealt with him.

This can be proven through the account of Jonah, who just bucked on God and decided he just was not doing what God had commanded him to do and after he found himself in the belly of as he put it “hell”. He found it to be in his best interest to do as he had been asked and even by the end of the book he was still all mad at God and I have never found anything else on what finally became of him.

So you can see there was a complete difference in what was going on in these guys by the difference of how God dealt with them.  As we all know Elijah did not die, he was taken and in my personal opinion, just a little rest, a little reprieve until time to come back to this earth as one of the two witnesses described in Revelation. His work has not been completed. It does prove mercy toward our messed up worn out human minds and half broken spirits. and that we can make OWN ON DECISION to “die” in the cave.

David also did some caving, like Elijah he felt mortal fear. the very real threat of King Saul trying to kill him. Whereas I think Elijah just didn’t want to deal with Jezebel, I think he was tired of fighting the whole bunch. {Complete unrelated side note here, I do love what Jesus said about Jezebel in the book of Revelation, He refers to her as “That woman, Jezebel” and notes that He gave even her a chance to repent, she just evidently did not accept it. Worth thinking about when the devil tries to tell people that they have been too “bad” to be saved.}

Back to David, here he is, he has already BEEN anointed to be King over Israel but as it looks now, if he dares show his face, he will never be King because Saul is very intent on “making a memory outta him.”  Now the funny thing about caves is that sometimes what your hiding from can end up in that cave with you!

 1 Samuel24:3 : ” And he (King Saul) came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a CAVE; and Saul went in to cover his feet ( attend his needs): and DAVID AND HIS MEN REMAINED IN THE SIDES OF THE CAVE.” Now David’s men were ecstatic and told him this was a divine appointment to take out his enemy but David saw it an a chance to sow some mercy and trust the Lord and would not kill Saul. Instead he cut off a piece of his clothing to prove to Saul just how close he had been and that if he wished him harm he could have nailed him right there. But even in doing that he felt guilty, because vengeance IS God’s and sometimes that is hard for us to remember but David passed this one.

  Now, how he got through his cave experience, he REMEMBERED what God tried to make Elijah see and he thought upon these things and this was his daily bread. This is some of what he actually wrote while in the cave.

Psalm 57: 1-3  “BE MERCIFUL UNTO ME, O GOD, BE MERCIFUL UNTO ME:  for MY SOUL TRUSTETH IN THEE:  yea, IN THE SHADOW OF THY WINGS WILL I MAKE MY REFUGE, UNTIL these calamities be overpast (passed by). I WILL cry unto God most high: unto God that performeth all things for me. HE SHALL SEND FROM HEAVEN, AND SAVE ME FROM THE REPROACH OF HIM THAT WOULD SWALLOW ME UP. SELAH. GOD SHALL SEND FORTH HIS MERCY AND TRUTH.” 

His strongest assets were that he KNEW the power of prayer and praise. Even though we view him as someone who was so close to God (and he was) who could kill lions and bears (and he did) and someone who could hit a giant head on and take that head, someone who walked in the anointing and presence of God, but still he was exactly what we are, HUMAN and he also became afraid, troubled, and discouraged but here is his cry, let it be ours:

Psalm 55:1-8: “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn (wander) in my complaint, and make a noise; BECAUSE of the VOICE OF MY ENEMY, BECAUSE of THE OPPRESSION OF THE WICKED: for thy cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. MY HEART IS SORE PAINED WITHIN ME: AND THE TERRORS OF DEATH ARE FALLEN UPON ME, FEARFULNESS AND TREMBLING ARE COME UPON ME, AND HORROR HATH OVERWHELMED ME. And I said, oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I FLY AWAY AND BE AT REST. LO, THEN WOULD I WANDER FAR OFF, AND REMAIN IN THE WILDERNESS. SELAH. I WOULD HASTEN (SPEED UP) MY ESCAPE FROM THE WINDY STORM AND THE TEMPEST.”

Yeah, KING DAVID, the mighty warrior to end all warriors, who throne IS established FOREVER, whose words written in his place of anguish still shine as a mighty light THOUSANDS of years later.

He was scared, he was tired, and he very much wanted to run away to escape all these things and NEVER return again. Sometimes so do we. Next time we will listen closely and try to hear the words of the KING OF KINGS as HIS voice resonates into our own caves, as He calls us out, our souls feeding on the bread of life, His word and His promises. 

Φλογίζω NBJ 2016

Original post date: 01/16/2016 *Revisited 06/27/2019*