For Christians who have spent recent years feeling hidden, exhausted or wondering whether they will ever recover what was lost, Wendy Alec has a simple message: it is time to come out of the cave.
The former GOD TV visionary and best selling author made the call during her return to public ministry on John Michael Redenbo’s Spiritual Intelligence Briefing, where she spoke particularly to prophets, seers and intercessors who she believes have experienced an unusually intense period of spiritual warfare.
But behind the prophetic language is an encouragement that reaches considerably wider.
Wendy knows something about disappearing from view herself. After two decades at the forefront of international Christian broadcasting with GOD TV, she has spent much of the past decade away from the public ministry for which she was once widely known.
Her return, she believes, is therefore part of the message. “For me to come out of the cave after what I’ve been through is a supernatural miracle,” Wendy said. “The Lord says it’s a marker. It’s a sign to follow.”
Wendy Alec’s ‘come out of the cave’ message
The image of the cave runs throughout the Bible. David knew what it was to hide in caves while fleeing for his life from Saul. Elijah withdrew to a cave after the extraordinary victory on Mount Carmel, exhausted and afraid after Jezebel threatened to kill him. Both were men called by God. Both experienced moments when circumstances drove them into hiding.
Wendy believes there are Christians today who recognise that experience. “It’s time to stop hiding. It’s time to come out of the cave,” she said. “The Father is saying to those of you who have lost so much, those of you who have been heartbroken, those of you who have been struck with infirmity, that you have a voice.”
Wendy directed much of her message specifically towards people with prophetic and intercessory callings, saying she believes they have experienced unprecedented spiritual warfare during the past six or seven years.
She described people losing marriages, experiencing illness and bereavement and becoming increasingly isolated through what they had endured. “The isolation, the loneliness, the heartbreak, the trauma that you have been through,” she said. “He needs your voice. He needs you, no matter what hell you have been through.”
When the cave feels safer
There is another aspect of Wendy’s message that may resonate with Christians who would not necessarily describe themselves as prophets or intercessors. Sometimes hiding feels safer than returning.
A painful experience in ministry can make another attempt seem impossible. Bereavement can change the way someone sees the future. Illness can reduce a previously active life to simply getting through each day. Disappointment can make hope itself feel dangerous.
Wendy spoke frankly about reaching places like these herself. She revealed during the interview that she had experienced homelessness, eviction and reliance on food banks. She also survived a diabetic coma which left her unable to speak for several days. “I’ve been in a lot of dark places in the past seven years,” she said.
That gives her call to leave the cave a different character. It is not simply an instruction from someone who has remained safely outside it. Wendy had to make that journey herself. “I have really been there,” she said. “Those are not just words.”
Making room for broken people in Church
Perhaps one of the most challenging parts of Wendy’s message was not about the world outside the Church, but what can happen inside it.
“In the Church there’s often a lot of shame if you go through hard times, if you’re not making it,” she said. “People have to put on church faces, a religious spirit, because they feel ashamed. They have had so much loss and so much trauma that they just can’t come out of the cave. So they stay in hiding and they feel stuck.” That is something worth hearing.
Christian testimony rightly celebrates what God has done, but there is a danger when testimony becomes a culture in which only the finished story feels welcome. Some people are still halfway through theirs.
There will be believers sitting in churches this Sunday who love Jesus deeply but are grieving. Others will be carrying disappointment they have told almost nobody about. Some may wonder what happened to the calling they once believed God had placed upon their lives. The Church should be one of the safest places for those people to be honest.
The Biblical story does not hide its heroes when they are struggling. Elijah’s cave is in the Bible. David’s fear is there too. So are Peter’s failure, Thomas’s doubts and the grief of those who stood at the Cross believing everything they had hoped for had apparently disappeared. God met people in those places.
‘He has not forgotten you’
Central to Wendy’s message was her conviction that God has not abandoned those who have spent years struggling. “The Father adores you,” she said. “He loves you extravagantly. He has not forgotten you. He has not abandoned you.”
Wendy described her own recent experience of discovering the Holy Spirit afresh as Comforter. “Something happened to me about three months ago,” she explained. “Of course I always knew the Holy Spirit. We get baptised in the Holy Spirit, we speak in tongues. But the Holy Spirit became my friend, my real friend, the beloved Holy Spirit.”
She said she began praying a very simple prayer each night. “Holy Spirit, will You swaddle me like a baby in a thousand blankets of Your comfort?” For Wendy, that experience of the Holy Spirit as Comforter has become an important part of her restoration.
“He truly is the Comforter,” she said. “He will comfort you and heal you. He’s our Counsellor, but He’s our Comforter, and at this stage we need His comfort. He will not let you down.”
Is it time to leave the cave?
Coming out of the cave will not look the same for everybody. For one person it may mean returning to ministry. For another it could simply mean allowing somebody to know that they are struggling.
It might mean praying again after a season when prayer became difficult, walking back into Church after being hurt or beginning to believe that God can still use a life which looks very different from the one originally imagined.
Wendy’s own return does not erase what happened during her years away. If anything, those experiences are becoming part of what she now wants to offer others. She believes this is a moment for Christians who have become hidden through trauma and spiritual exhaustion to begin emerging again. “It’s time to come out of the cave,” she said.
There is wisdom in remembering what happened to Elijah when God met him at his own cave. God did not pretend Elijah was not exhausted. He did not condemn him for reaching that point. But neither did He leave him there. There was still a future. There was still purpose. There was still work for Elijah to do.
For Christians who feel their best years, ministry or usefulness are behind them, perhaps that is the most encouraging part of Wendy Alec’s return. A cave can be somewhere God meets us. It does not have to become somewhere we remain.
Read our main story on the Wendy Alec ministry relaunch, including an edited transcript of her interview with Dr John Michael Redenbo.
FAITH • HOPE • LOVE. We aim to bring a fresh mix of inspirational reports, articles, stories and testimonies to encourage Christians across the UK and beyond.
