Defeating the Message

 “Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.’ He arose and ran for his life…” 1 Kings 19:2

For 3 years Elijah had been the powerful and confident mouthpiece for God. He had accomplished one spiritual success upon another living and moving through intense adrenaline. Just at the moment life was at its highest, the message he received from his adversary sent him crashing down in fear, disbelief, and paralyzing discouragement. His life changed in that very instant and he lived by the queen's threat for the rest of his life. Most likely she knew where he was but cunningly, she understood that the threat does much greater harm than the actual revenge.

We have all been there! Running on adrenaline…just trying to get through the present set of circumstances…believing in the best-case scenario. And then the worse-case scenario settles into our lives and the enemy begins talking to us. Satan chips away at our vulnerable mind and heart…he slithers around in our emotions with the message that God is bad…God doesn’t care…God isn’t loving. And because we were for hungry for a different outcome, we feast on the bait just like Elijah did. I wonder how many nights he laid awake recalling the words of the message. I wonder if he fully believed that he would never experience joy and peace again.

A few thousand years might separate us from Elijah’s story but the same enemy connects us. Our most fragile and vulnerable emotions come when the adrenaline has dissipated. We are guaranteed of a major let-down after the experience is over. ‘We’ll crash. We’ll spiral into an emotional tailspin… crippled by insecurity, giving into overindulgence, loneliness, and even paralyzing sadness. This vulnerability is what can become a gateway for further issues…It can crack open a door that gives the enemy unique access to our heart and mind, to the driver’s seat of our soul’ Elijah – Faith and Fire, Priscilla Shirer, p. 194. Elijah’s predicament was the same as our predicament may be. If the message can make us afraid enough, we just might forget what God has previously done for us.

What message is being told to you in your vulnerable state? Are you believing the message that you will never find a job…never find a mate…never be healed…never be happy again? Don’t give Satan a foothold in your mind and heart. The Word is full of the beautiful promises of what God does on our behalf and we must replace the enemy’s message with God’s truth.

‘Defeat the message, and you’ll defeat the messenger!’ p. 198