“And there (Elijah) 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?’” (1 Kings 19:9).

It is interesting that “the word of the Lord” was not a promise or direction, but a question. God did not need information from Elijah, but He was setting him up for revelation (often it will be a revelation of what we truly believe). Great influencers ask powerful questions. Some penetrating questions in scripture are:

• Who told you that? (Genesis 3:11)
• Do you want to be made well? (John 5:6)
• Who do you say I am? (Matthew 16:15)
• Can these bones live? (Ezekiel 37:3)
• What do you have? (2 Kings 4:2)

Elijah responded to God’s question by telling God how bad things were and saying, “I alone am left; and they seek to take my life” (1 Kings 19:10). Even though he was a greatly anointed leader, he had a faulty belief system that regularly came out when he was tired and under pressure. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

Elijah was in a physical and a spiritual cave. The symptoms of being in a spiritual cave are this: what you think is true is not true, even though it feels really, really true. Because of tiredness, disappointment, and spiritual warfare, Elijah gave into the temptation of having a skewed view of reality

Just because something feels true, does not make it true. Feelings don’t validate truth, they validate what we believe to be true. Elijah renewed his mind with the lie that he was the only one left. He believed things were hopeless, but God gave him a perspective upgrade by telling him there were 7,000 others who had not "bowed the knee to Baal" (I Kings 19:18). In other words, there were 7,000 times more God was doing than what Elijah thought. I believe this is also true today. Things are not hopeless



As I think of Elijah, it encourages me to see who God used in the Bible because it gives me hope for myself and others. (Earlier in chapter nineteen, Elijah was even suicidal.) If God can use people like Elijah, He can use you and me.

“What are you doing here, Elijah?” This question helped lead him out the cave to impact three key people to fulfill their most significant “God assignment”. Like Elijah, our renewed hope is not just about our personal happiness, but more importantly, it is about the people we will influence who will go on to change the world. Truly, our hope level determines our influence level.

In conclusion, let’s realize that sometimes God’s word to us is a question for us to ponder. His questions to us will lead us to revelation of what the truth really is, and it will lead us to be the main person who unlocks the history in the lives of key people in this hour.