As Elijah sat in the cave amongst the mess of his life, he couldn’t see God in his circumstances. God wasn't doing what Elijah thought He would do.  His cave was not just a geological place but a spiritual and mental place God never planned for him to be in. Elijah didn’t think that God saw him as valuable. He had even asked God to end his life. He had gone into a cave but God would not leave him there. " And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

The great honour of God speaking was lost on Elijah and he blurts out his depression, paranoia, and hopelessness. “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.”  (1 Kings 19:8). The prophet Elijah felt ineffective and a failure. Sometimes we get our sense of worth from the perceived value of our effectiveness and circumstances. We are tempted to derive our worth from our busyness or profile in the body of Christ, but we are valuable to God because we are His special creation.  When we realise that we were created on purpose for a purpose, we can be assured that every situation we are in, is crafted by Him or will be used by Him, even if others have made it hard for us. 

Friend, you are of great value to our Father, and both your and your circumstances are part of God’s workmanship. Don’t equate your value with your circumstances. Jesus’ life was strewn with difficulties and trouble, yet he was loved intensely by His Father. So are you, and every trouble Jesus endured brought him a step closer to the crown and the joy that was set before Him. God brought Elijah and Jesus out of their cave into their purpose and He will do the same for you. Listen is He calling you to come out?

Shafts of light fell through the small hole in the wall of the prison and John shifted his position on the floor to be in the sun. It felt good and, in his heart, he worshiped his King. Suddenly he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.   “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:” Rev 1:10  

Being in the Spirit brought supernatural change to what John saw and heard.  John was imprisoned on Patmos Island, but God took him into the Spirit and showed him how things truly were. Things he could not see with his natural eyes.  He saw Gods victory even though his circumstances were confining.  He could see that while he is limited, God works without limitation. Though John was isolated, he saw Jesus in the midst of the church. He saw Jesus moving even when his situation looked static.

In the Spirit, you can see that God is working everything together for good for those that love God.  It means to be able to see or hear what Father is saying in your situation or in spite of your situation.  We can be going through a loss and still see that God is adding something to your life; Have a really bad day but still see the blessing of God and good coming our way.  He was in prison but in the Spirit on the Lords Day. In the Spirit, it's always the Lords Day!

Friend, go into the Spirit today. Jesus is speaking to you there. See that God rules in your life, not your “prison guard or your prison walls”.  See the King sovereign and unshaken in His purpose. Being in the Spirit always trumps being in the prison.

Everybody gets disappointed at some stage. Disappointed with their husband, boss or their children, it’s just part of life. People are not perfect, and we almost expect to be disappointed. But what if you feel disappointed with God?

Naomi in the book of Ruth went down to Moab because there was a famine in Bethlehem. Then while in Moab, her husband and her two sons or died. When she returned to Bethlehem, she told everybody to call her Mara, as she felt that the Lord had made her come back empty. “Call me Mara for I'm bitter”.  Her sadness was understandable, but wasn’t aware that God was making an appointment for her with destiny. She was about to become the great grandmother of King David and part of Messiahs line.

We are mostly disappointed because we don’t yet have perspective. The disciples were disappointed when Jesus went to the cross, they had no idea it was His appointment. Joseph was extremely disappointed as he looked back at his brothers from the camel’s back. Young alone and now sold to traders by his family, a huge sense of betrayal, fear and wild ideas about the future filled his mind. How could they do that a brother and where is God?  It would be years before Joseph would ascend the steps of government and see that his difficult past, was the necessary path to His appointment.

Friend, many times, when we can’t see the disappointment as His appointment, it’s only a matter of time and perspective. Perhaps someone or the devil meant it for evil, but God means it for your good. Stay patient and trusting until your appointment appears.

The disciples were sitting on the floor for the meal, when Jesus stood up and took the towel to wash their feet. The feet of travelers were normally dirty from walking on roads littered with dung, left behind by passing flocks of sheep and other animals. At meals people would recline on the floor around the food, their feet not far from the other guest’s noses. I can imagine trying to fellowship with Jesus and the brothers, but all you can think about is your bad smelling feet near your closest table guest. You hope nobody notices but you are a little embarrassed.

The disciple’s feet may have been washed already, but either way Jesus is making a point. I am washing your feet, so you can forget about where you have been and enjoy where you are. I’m washing away the effects and any shame you feel abut your past walk. I want you to be Son conscious not sin conscious. While you are conscious of the past, you’re not able to hear what I’m saying to you now.

Friend, our acceptance with God is not based upon our performance but His, and our fellowship is entirely the result of what He has done, not what we have done. Why not turn our eyes upon Jesus and let everything we are and everything we aren’t, grow dim in the light of His wonderful face.

Two weeks ago I took our boat out first time this year. We got away from the ramp and out towards the beautiful islands in the Gulf.  Anneke said that she smelt petrol and when I looked the bilge was awash with petrol somehow. I thought that doesn't look good, so I asking the Father to get us back to the boat ramp without blowing up my wife and me. Fortunately we got back to the boat ramp to our desired Haven. It reminded me of Psalm 107:29  “Those in great storm in life  call out to God in their distress  He calms the storm, So that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet; So He guides them to their desired haven.”  God has a desired haven for us and it is always Him.

Once when the disciples were on a lake in the midst of gale, Jesus walked on the water toward them, Peter wanted to walk on water too but once he got on the water he began to sink. Jesus held him up and they got back into boat, “And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God.” ( Mat 14:32-33) .

It wasn’t about faith or Peter water walking or the wind would have stopped when Peter sank. The wind kept blowing until Jesus was in the boat with them. He brought the calm, they worship Him and the lesson is over. He is the Haven. When we have met Him, God has had His way in the storm.

Sometimes He is not taking us anywhere but He is showing us something. There are some things about God you’ll never know until He shows up in your storm and He speaks to us in the midst of a storm. We can only know more of Gods ability in a situation that is beyond your ability and in which we have never been before. In a flood we can come to experience him as a rock higher  than us.

It doesn’t matter what storm you are going though in matters who is with you in the boat. It is not what we go through that counts but who we are going through it with. God used the storm to reveal himself and His power to the disciples.  The title is from the verse in Nahum 3:2 ”God has His way in the Storm.”

Friend you might be in a storm right now or maybe there are storms coming your way in 2022. It may feel powerful but remember, there is someone more powerful with you in your boat and God always has His way in the storm!

 As David lay back in the grass he became so aware of the feelings in his heart. He sought to find words that could express the sense of destiny and security that He felt in the hand of His God…. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…” Divinely inspired words that mean today, tomorrow and next week there will not be one moment when God’s goodness and His mercy is not following us as well. That means right now, the goodness and the mercy of God is following you. The word actually means to pursue relentlessly and run someone down. 

We have to ask why God would cause His goodness and His mercy to follow us, rather than go in front of us and “fix” thing for us, before we walk into situations in life?

He never stopped Adam (or us) from sinning, but after he sinned, His goodness and His mercy moved to restore Adam again to himself. (Adam now understood how good and how merciful God is). He didn’t stop Abraham from abandoning his wife, but three days later His goodness and His mercy caught up with Abraham and Sarah was delivered from Abimelech, who sent Abraham out with many flocks. (Abraham was now humbler and understood the graciousness of God). Of course God goes before us as well but if He changed every difficult thing before we got there, we would never get to see His power and amazing love.

Even when God give us a promise, it usually takes time to manifest. We have to wait for His promise to catch up to you. Moses had been told by God to lead the people out of Egypt into the Promised Land.  When he got to the Red sea, it seemed impossible to cross but God said stand still.  As Moses waited, he looked back and saw the Egyptians hordes following him, but that was not all.  The goodness and the mercy of God were following Moses too, and it soon caught up with them. The whole nation was delivered as Gods power moved.

Friend, if it seems to be a hard time in your life, stand still, stand in faith and wait for Gods goodness and His mercy to catch up to you, because it will.

Israel stood on the edge of Canaan and although they saw and heard of the beautiful fruit of the land, they could not rise to the opportunity God gave them. They still saw themselves as slaves from their previous identity and they could not take the Promised Land with the mindset of a slave. We also can see a Promised Land before us but if we do not see ourselves as one who is able to enter it, we won’t.  Corinthians tells us that we are new creatures in Christ; a brand-new species and our potential is totally different from all of our family members before us. It’s not your haircut or clothes or address that changed, but you, your potential, your future and even the impact of your past.  You see differently at every level now as all of your life is new. Your perception of God has changed and how you see yourself must change too because how you see yourself is more important than how you see your future.

People do not necessarily grow into their potential; they only grow into what they think they deserve or what they think they are capable of.  The most important vision is not what you see ahead of you but what you see inside yourself. Israel had trouble in their thinking. They saw themselves as small and incapable. When we see ourselves correctly, we know we are more than able to drive out our enemies.

The problem is not with God. He can do exceedingly abundantly above what we can think, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” (Ephesians 3:19-20).    The problem is with us.   Can we think about ourselves differently and about what God can do in us differently?   Have we neglected opportunities provided by God or left ministry dreams and ideas to somebody else because we never saw ourselves as able? Have we allowed enemies to be thorn in our side or vex us day after day?  

Friend, the fact is that if you see yourself rightly a new future, authority and freedom will appear.  God is able to make us able and if we want to inherit the future He plans, we need to see ourselves correctly.

During the Viet Nam war the phrase “The Eye of the Tiger” was coined– which referred to the fierce gaze of a soldier once wounded in battle who later comes back to fight. They were different. The fierceness of a recovered soldier is phenomenal. Perhaps you have been wounded in the battle. 

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13). 

Although we have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness, the devil still tries to attack us, intimidate us and bring his darkness around our heart and mind.

The reason Paul says that we wrestle against our enemies (Ephesians 6) and not box or kickbox is that wrestling is the only form of combat where you never lose physical contact with the adversary. And it is the only one that strengthens you as you fight. Have you seen the All-Black rugby team do this in training?  While they are trying to wrestle each other to the ground, they are getting stronger.  Our wrestle against darkness is creating in us the strength and spirit of a warrior. When Satan attacks you, he is unwittingly developing your fierceness and strength in God.  Satan may think he has your measure now, but he doesn’t reckon on who you are going to be in the future. 

 Perhaps the greatest threat to Christianity is not attacks from the enemy but a time of ease - when everything is quiet and there is no need for weapons or strength. The Philistines closed all the blacksmith shops in Israel to weaken them and stop them making weapons. A blacksmith shop may seem a dark place where Someone is stoking the flames. It might even look like hell but the sound of hammers hitting and striking are forming weapons in the fires of adversity. If the “blacksmith shop experiences” were taken from the church, we would have fewer weapons. 

If we have never been attacked, we cannot gain the “eye of a tiger.”  We develop “the eye” when we go through and grow through his attacks. 

Friend, the enemy has tried to intimidate you. Wrestle through the heat of the battle and you will soon find that you have a new strength and weapons that will intimidate him.