If you have ever been in a cave, you will quickly realize that cave living in no way resembles living in typical comforts afforded most of modern day americans.  Caves smell bad.  Caves are in distant and remote areas. Caves have scary creatures dwelling next to you.  Caves are designed to hide us in times of distress.


But caves also represent a place of fulfilling the purposes of God in our life.  So then, caves become the womb of "blessed" preparation by becoming the place of birthing men and women of God who engineer powerful advances in the expansion of G-d's Kingdom on the earth.


Before David was brought into his destiny as king of Israel; he was chased into many caves and very treacherous situations.  Some of you may be thinking with me that caves are not the place of blessing, you might say, give me a 5000 sq. ft. house on a peaceful grassy hill that would be my chosen destiny as a faithful follower of Christ.  


The thing is when we take the right path in our walk before Him; we receive more then some philosophical or esoteric victory.  When we endure extended cave time, we advance our understanding of heaven’s glory and Christ’s kingdom on the earth.  The sooner we go into the cave at the Lord’s leading; and the longer we stay, dictate the level of glory we experience in this life and the life to come.  


*Note: God’s glory is mostly experienced in the soul, mostly not in the public adulation of men!


But our God deems it best to allow us to be chased into smelly, rotten, lonely, cold, damp, and spooky caves to train us to be heirs of His immensely beautiful Kingdom.  Can you imagine a God who actually stirs up a spirit in those around you and over you so as to inspire them to afflict you, his precious child?  


The Lord sent an evil spirit to King Saul to afflict His anointed one, young David, the shepherd boy.  Don’t believe me, just read carefully I Sam. 18:10-11:


“Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved in the midst of the house, while David was playing the harp with his hand, as usual; and a spear was in Saul’s hand.  And Saul hurled the spear for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.”  But David escaped from his presence twice.”


If Saul would have obeyed the Lord by smiting and destroying all of the Amalekites (I Sam.15), the Lord would not have sent the spirit of evil to Saul.  When we sin against the Lord with a high hand, we open up a door of judgment that allows evil spirits to penetrate our heart.  What a terrible place to be!


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To have earthly sorrow because we are following Christ means that we trade present comfort for future blessing.  If you and I could only know which of the saints of God are most blessed in heaven, we would not be so quick to chase after the spotlight in ministry or a nice comfortable materially-laced lifestyle.  


Why would Jesus forgo all the pleasures of heaven to come to earth?  Why would Moses leave the palace in Egypt to become a shepherd in Midian?


Trading a great reputation for the reputation of a fool is not a bad trade in the economy of God.  If you could prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that your present poverty or destitution as a servant of Christ is working for you a far exceedingly great weight of glory, wouldn’t you make that trade?  In an instant?  


It’s like a trader on Wall Street trading a really suspect stock in a company that has no plan or any real leadership for Microsoft stock before they went public.  Or trading some iron for the gold of Ophir.  Or crystal zirconium for the best diamonds the earth can produce.  


In each of these instances we are giving up something that really isn’t worth anything for something that has proven and lasting value. In the spirit world, where heaven and hell mark our future boundaries, we must know that there is a right and wrong way to look at our present day circumstances as those who claim Christ as our Lord.  


When we transact present discomfort and distress gleaned from publicly aligning ourselves with Jesus by releasing our faith and hope to a world that never passes away wherein dwells perfect righteousness, we have made the most valuable and amazingly smart trade imaginable.  


To inherit a glory far beyond what we could humanly describe in words or pictures for some beatings, setbacks, scorning, deprivation, or any other horrible flesh withering circumstance, we have made the RIGHT and eternally blessed decision, more wise then words can describe.


The apostle Paul made point very clear in 2 Cr. 4:17-18:

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are seen are eternal.”


Oh for the Grace to love our trails!  The greater the supply of grace, the greater the needs we have.  Our destiny in God guides us to places where nothing in this life matters.  We would not trade the entire world’s wealth for our soul.  


Jesus made this so clear that for a man to trade his soul for all the wealth of the world; that man would have made a very bad and foolish exchange.  Do you remember Jacob’s brother Esau; he made the worst exchange possible.  Esau traded his inheritance for a pot of porridge just because he was hungry.  Esau was very short-sighted.  We will never be greatly used of God in this life if we take short position in the exchange of the commodities of grace and virtue for earthly treasures and human glory!  


That is what most of the Christians, so called, are doing in our material world.  They have placed undo emphasis on the present satiation of their wants and desires, rather then drinking at the well of living water that never runs dry. Once we get to the place where nothing in this world can tempt us to move away from our God, we have just started on the path that Paul has described in 2 Cor.4:17-18.


Sometimes the Lord wants us to park our minds for a little while and have us focus on this truth in more intense fashion then we have in the past.  If we obey the Lord’s leading in this way, this powerful truth of a proper exchange, eternity for present earthly blessings, is driven deeper into our soul realm.  Allowing this prepares us for glory and usefulness here.


Why? So when things turn around in our circumstances we will still have these lessons clearly emblazoned on our hearts.  Christ’s sufficiency becomes so powerful in our hearts that we actually become transformed by the absorption of its reality into the deep recesses of our hearts.


Satan tempted our Lord, after He was 40 days in the wilderness, Satan asked Jesus to turn stones into bread to satisfy His hungry stomach.  The Spirit of God, right after Jesus baptism in the Jordon, led Jesus into the wilderness where there was no food and water, His only companions were the wild devouring beasts which gathered around Him seeking to knock Him off His plan to perform all of the Father’s will.  The angels of God only showed up after the 40 days to minister to His needy body and heart.


Satan came after the 40 days were complete.  The Word of God tells us that after Jesus did not drink or eat for 40 days, after this time of dedication to His Father in Heaven, He was hungry and thirsty.  In His raging thirst and hunger, Jesus tells Satan that making a rock turn into bread would not satisfy Him, that eating every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God was more important then satisfying urges of the flesh.


Choosing the hard way is not natural, but the testing of God proves us and trains us to think on a higher plane.  Choosing the dark dingy cave over the nice comfortable house is not in our nature.  Yet when we study the decision that Jesus made carefully; we understand that Jesus could have lived anywhere on His planet, He chose to live in Nazareth, a blue collar town where most of the common people lived in houses formed out of caves.


When David was in the forest of Hereth (I Sam.22:5) the Lord was there with him sustaining him and guiding him to safety.  When David was in the wilderness of Ziph (I Sam.23:14) hiding from king Saul, Jesus was there with David in that stronghold.  


When David was in the caves of En Gedi, Jesus was restraining David to keep him from jumping too quick to take the throne that was promised him (I Sam. 24:3).  David was so deep in that cave that Saul didn’t even know he was there.  David knew the voice of God, David did nothing during this time of affliction without first consulting the Lord.  


When we come through our time of testing and go forward into place of prosperity we realize then how we prayed in the cave.  How we loved God even though we had nothing but our daily bread and maybe a couple of perks.


Jesus while here on earth went personally to the places that He had been before His Incarnation to sustain those who established faith in Him.  Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, and the prophets stood in places of great need and at times experienced devastating circumstances and isolation to obey God rather then man.  In so doing they carried out the mandate to establish the fame of Yahweh in the earth. I want to thank the throngs of the faithful in heaven right now!  Thank you saints of God!


Caves and prisons are not ideal living quarters but they have housed so many great men and women who are right now are experiencing the bliss of heaven’s glory.  Let us follow in their train!



In His Name,


Jonathan