In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of knowing what we are doing for the Lord. He shares a personal experience of preaching in Europe and encountering a pastor who was unsure of his purpose. The speaker advises the pastor to spend time in a cave, seeking vision for his congregation. He then references the story of Elijah, who experienced transformation and impartation from the Holy Spirit while in a cave. The sermon concludes with the message that we need to be like "cavemen," shutting ourselves in with the Lord to receive His word and go forth to do exploits.

After Elijah ran from Jezebel, he must have been devastated, full of guilt. He prayed a prayer in the desert, Lord, take my life and know better than my father's. He'd let the Lord down, he'd failed. But an angel came and brought him some food, some water, and the angel said, arise and eat because the journey is too great for you. You know, when sometimes we feel the journey is too great for us, the Lord will send a word, the Lord will send comfort, the Lord will give us a ream of word, the Lord will do something supernatural and say, I'm here to help you on. And that's what he did with his wonderful prophet. So he sent him to the mountain, which is called Horeb, it's also Sinai. Horeb means the mountain of separation or Horeb means sword or something that's been cut off. So in first Kings chapter 19, it said he arose and ate and he went on the strength of that food 40 days and 49 and came as far as Horeb, the mountain of the Lord. And there he went into a cave, in Hebrew it's the cave, not 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? Now let's look at this picture. Here is the prophet discouraged, hungry, has failed the Lord after so many great exploits he's done for the Lord, had not confronted Jezebel. He comes to Horeb and it's the mountain of where the covenant was given, where the Torah was given, where Moses had put up the 12 pillars at the bottom of the mountain. Maybe he was at the exact same place. So he's coming to the mountain of covenant. God does not break covenant. When we return to him, the covenant kicks in and we have all the power of the new covenant at our disposal. And so this poor prophet climbing up the mountain and he comes to a place and goes into the cave. Many ancient rabbis believe because it says the cave and not a cave, it was the very place where Moses had tucked himself into the cleft of the rock when the glory of God passed by. So Elijah goes into the cave, the secret place, the cleft of the rock where we need to spend time with the Lord day by day. And in the cave, cave in Hebrew, it's a wonderful word. It means stripped down. It means transparent. And it also has the sense, the root has the sense of an awakening. So we need to get alone with God. You may not have a literal cave. We have an Elijah prayer cave underneath our congregation where it's just for prayer. People are in there praying all the time. But I have places on this mountain where I pray or I have a prayer closet at home. We need to get alone with God and be stripped down of our defenses. Elijah poured his heart out to the Lord. He said, I've worked for you. I've done everything you've told me that people still haven't turned to you. He was crying out of his deepest, deepest part of his heart. He was stripped down. He was transparent. Only when we're alone with God and transparent will we find out who we really are and who he really is. And so the Lord speaks to him and he says, what are you doing here? What was he doing in the cave? And I would like to say to you, what are you doing here? What are you doing on the planet? What are you doing with your life? What are you doing with your marriage? What are you doing if you're a single person? What are you really doing? What are you doing for the Lord? One time I preached a message in Europe on what are you doing? What are you doing here? People came forward, ministry. Afterwards I was with the pastor and he turned to me and he says, Pastor David. I said, what? He said, I don't know what I'm doing here. Do you have any advice for me? I said, yeah. Spend some time in a cave. You know what he did? He went on a retreat to really get the vision for his congregation. Elijah was in this secret place and the Lord was speaking to him. He goes out to the mouth of the cave and he sees all these tremendous displays of the power of the Lord and the judgments of the Lord. A hurricane hit the place. A hurricane hit the mountain. The wind was blowing. Boulders were flying around. The fire came down. The wind was whistling. It must have been terrifying. He sees the magnificence and the glory and the judgments, the righteous judgments of God as he's standing there in the cave. Then he goes back into the cave and after the fire and after the wind and after the storm and after the hurricane, he hears something else. You know, I think there was a holy hush. I think this prophet was in a place of breathless anticipation. The prophet is back in the cave. He hears this small, quiet, calm whisper. It's the voice of God. And God was in the cave with him because it says he spoke to him. I believe it was a theophany. I believe it was Jesus. He was in this intimate, deep place with the Lord. And he hears this small whisper. Brothers and sisters, we need to hear the whispers of the Lord. We need to hear the whispers from Elijah's cave. This is the way. Walk you in it. Don't turn here. It'll change your life when you clearly hear the voice of the Lord. He heard because he was shut in. He was shut in with the Lord. He was in the cleft of the rock and Jesus is the rock. Hallelujah. And the Lord said, go out and stand in the mouth of the cave. He went out and he stood in the mouth of that cave and he wrapped himself in his mantle. Prophets in those days wore these short kind of hairy prophet mantles and you knew they were a prophet when you saw a man doing it. Very simple, sandals and so on. And as he wrapped himself in this mantle, he was hearing the voice of the Lord. And the root in Hebrew for the word for mantle or cloak, Elijah's cloak, the root is glory. The forlorn prophet who wanted to die in the desert is in the presence of God. Transformation was taking place in the cave. Impartation from the Holy Spirit was happening in the cave. He was wrapped in the anointing or the glory of God. And this is what we need. We need cavemen. We need God's end time cavemen who are shut in with the Lord, who get the word of the Lord, who go forward to do exploits. And as he was wrapped there in the glory of the Lord, the Lord starts to speak to him and says, I have another commission for you. He was being commissioned in a cave. God wasn't finished with him. And He told him what to do. And one of the things He told him was to go and find a young man named Elisha. And he lived at a place called Avel Meholah. In Hebrew that means, he turns my mourning into dancing. Here was the old lonely prophet who was getting a new commission. And the Lord said, there's 7,000 who haven't kissed, bowed, haven't bowed the knee to bow. There are 7,000 out there waiting for you. You go and get this young man. You go and get Elisha. You get him. You put your cloak on him. You anoint him. And the two of you with the anointing and the glory of God will go forth and bring a revival to northern Israel. And it's because a man got in a cave, poured his heart out and heard from the Lord. And they went out and did it. Schools of prophets all over northern Israel. Mourning came in the cave. Jesus was gone. But Elijah had a new commission. Elijah had heard from the Lord. Elijah had a new destiny that he didn't know anything about. I think he saw that sun come up. It was a new day. It was a new era. It was going to be a new era for Israel. He worked his way down that mountain. I think he came off that mountain. He started up the Jordan Valley. He was going to go past the Dead Sea and up toward the Sea of Galilee. And I believe as he came out of that desert, the windy, the sandy desert of dryness, there was a new energy in his step. I'm going to get my spiritual son. The two of us together, we're going to raise up Bible schools. We're going to raise up schools of ministry at Gilgal, at Bethel, at Carmel. And as he went, he goes to find his spiritual son and he leaves the dryness and he comes in the place of celebration. Caves in the Bible are burial caves. Jesus was buried in a cave and was raised from the dead. And the Apostle Paul says this, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Get in a cave, die to yourself and walk in Cano's new, fresh, pure word and power of the Lord through Jesus our Savior. Amen.