Careful now, they might really find out what's on the inside that you're struggling with what you go through. And this is what I'm going to target today, and I'm gonna pull it out. God does not want you isolated. He does not want you wearing a label of rejection. He does not want you being labelled in any other way than the daughter of the King.
When Elijah is going through hard times, he just had an incredible victory. You see, we can experience incredible things in God, incredible victories and then flipped over into another moment when those deep insecurities resurface again. We see Elijah in the same predicument. He has just turned the entire nation of Israel back to God and yet with one threat of his life, he ran to the wilderness. Where is that? Isolation! He left his servants behind and he went out in isolation. And this is exactly one of the plans of the enemy to isolate you. Wherever you're at right now, there is a plan of the enemy to pull you apart from the crowd, to pull you apart from the body of Christ and isolate you. Because that's where he can talk to you, that's where his lies can come and thorn you and affect upon you. Instead of being in the body and being able to say, 'You know I'm struggling with this thought, I'm struggling with this attitude, I'm struggling with this heart condition, can you help me?'
When Elijah is in the wilderness, his thoughts went crazy. His mindset went weird. He wasn't thinking right. In isolation, you don't think right. You don't have the right mindset. You don't really have the mind of Christ in isolation, in the wilderness. And that's exactly where the enemy would like you to go. This isolation separates you from nurture and care that would really help you grow. You need the body, you need the brothers and sisters-in-Christ. But the isolation can sometimes be daunting, it can sometimes be so powerful that this isolation can get under your skin and it makes you become like an orphan.
You know for an orphan there's never enough. For orphans, there's holes in their buckets. They can't get enough to be satisfied. Why? Because they were orphans. They were rejected and isolated from a very young age. And that's our natural tendency as people as human beings tend to forge out without our emotional intact. If we forged away forward by shutting down our heart, and protecting ourselves so we don't really enjoy life. We just sort of put our little toes in and think 'oh, that's nice' rather than experiencing this fullness of life and joy that God has for us. And we become independent. We think 'we'll be okay. I don't need the love of my husband. I don't need the love of my children. I don't need all that kind of thing. I'm gonna make my own way. I'm gonna make my own success.' We are trying to forge our way like an orphan desparate to survive.
Even in a meeting like this, when we worshipping and the presence of God is here, we can come with a heart of reserve. "Oh God, I don't know. Should I really give my all now? I gotta keep some of me in reserve. Should I really praise? Let me keep in reserve, because maybe it'll run out." Why? Because we've been isolated in an area of our lives, we've been drawn away in an area of our lives. And there has been a wounding of our heart and so we became really good at protecting. "I'll give a little bit but I won't give all cos' what happen if I give all? I get disappointed again and I get rejected again. And I get hurt again and isolated again." And we never get into this fullness of that love, that joy, that grace, that acceptance that is ours as His daughters."
