As With The Eagle, So With Us
Isaiah 40:28-31
28Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding 29He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Last Sunday we began our study on the Eagle and the Spiritual symbolism attached to concepts of Eagles in the air. They have such strength, courage, bravery and skill. And, how they can soar above the storms of life and the turbulence, and, in that, you and I, too, have a choice; we can soar. We studied about the keen eyesight of the Eagle, also about the eating habits of the Eagle and how finicky this bird is about what it eats and how we should be careful as to how we fill our bodies and minds, how we can, as the vulture does, fill its body with garbage and trash, but our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
We studied about how the nest is prepared, for comfort, for safety, free from other prey.
PROMISES OF GOD
Proverbs 3:23-24
23Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. 24When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.
Matthew 17:20 (Jesus speaking)
Jesus said unto them, …If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Psalm 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Proverbs 10:29
The way of the LORD is strength to the upright…
Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Ephesians 1:7
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
We are trophies of His grace, redeemed by His blood! We can sing songs of redemption that the angels cannot sing. They can’t experience what we have.
2 Timothy 4:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me, a crown of righteousness,… unto all them also that love his appearing.
1 Corinthians 15:52
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
In the twinkling of an eye…that’s 11/100 of a second. Jesus may come today. Are we ready should He come today?
COURAGE
Proverbs 28:1
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Proverbs 3:26
For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.
Ephesians 3:20-21
20Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
OUR AWARENESS OF GOD’S DISCIPLINE
Job 5:17-18
17Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there by any praise, think on these things.
THE WAY OF THE EAGLE IN THE AIR
The Eagles are some of the most industrious and some of the most intriguing creatures that have ever lived. There are several facts I’d like for us to think about regarding Eagles. I pray that the Holy Spirit will apply what we study to our hearts and help us to learn what He would have us to learn from observing the Eagle. I have felt such a burden since we finished the Book of John that God would have us to learn some characteristics of the Majestic Eagle before we continue our study in the 1, 2, 3 Epistles of John.
GOD’S EAGLES
Not just because the bald eagle is the official emblem of the United States, however, its picture is on the Great Seal of the United States, the President’s flag, and some coins and paper money.
The eagle is the most frequently mentioned bird in the entire Bible and it has spiritual symbolism attached to concepts of eagles in the air. Eagles are made to fly. The eagle stands for strength, courage, bravery and skill. There are eight types of eagles.
Soar: An eagle has certain characteristics that are natural for her to do; one of the most beautiful things is that she can soar above that thing that could drag her down.
An eagle has the ability to fly above the storms and the turbulence in life. They can fly 8 to 15,000 feet high. There’s where she is comfortable. She leaves the turbulence to where it is peaceful. We too, have a choice, in the turbulence of life: We can climb higher, get deeper in the Lord so that the burdens and trials and heartaches of life don’t upset us, and we become full of fear.
The born again, blood bought, son or daughter of God is also made for something other than just receiving from the hand of God. You and I are made to soar, to sit together in Heavenly Places and to soar above all the winds of adversity, but to do that sometimes God has to stir up our nest and to get us out of the comfort zone.
When God stirs up our nest, it’s because He loves us and He sees that potential that He has given to each of us, being wasted. We older Christians, who have weathered the storms of life and have proven that God has kept His Word, and is faithful, we can be an example to new Christians and to our youth.
We have royal blood flowing through our veins. We are the King’s children, a daughter of God, a son of God, so let’s let that royal blood flow through our veins, for we are more than conquerors through Christ.
EAGLE’S EYES
Job 39:27-30 (God speaking)
27Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? 28She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. 29From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. 30Her young ones also suck up blood; and where the slain are, there is she.
An eagle has lenses in its eyes that can see eight times stronger than a human eye with perfect vision. The eagle’s eyes are about the size of our eyes, but the difference is the eagle has a telescopic capacity. It can zoom in, and see its lunch miles away and decide if he wants to take that lizard for lunch if he’s hungry, maybe something larger.
God wants to give us a keen eyesight, and to become a finicky person as to what we fill our bodies with. We can fill ourselves with trash or garbage, or we can fill ourselves with the pure things of life.
Even though we still live on this planet earth with all the pollution and all the problems, and although none of us is perfect, (but we will be when we get to Heaven, at our final graduation; we shall be like Him), we can allow our circumstances to destroy us, and not allow ourselves to walk on a mountaintop experience or we can climb to a level in Christ where we can accomplish something for God. Think of when we were converted, the joy that was ours. Has is waned? If so, God is just where we left Him, for He will never leave us.
Everyone has turbulences, pressures, tension, heartaches and we’ll all stand before the Lord, one by one. Are we ready should He come or call?
EATING HABITS
An eagle chooses her diet: fish, squirrel, chicken, rabbit. An eagle will never eat anything that is dead. An eagle takes his food home and looks it over to see if it’s just right to feed its young.
Some eagles are big enough to take an antelope that is traveling with a herd or a monkey or baboon, knocking it from a tree, sweeping down behind an unsuspecting victim and flying away with it.
VULTURE
A vulture will feed on things that are dead, highway casualties. A vulture will overeat with gluttony, saturate itself with dead flesh, blood and garbage until it becomes prey. It cannot lift itself above the circumstances, so loaded down with trash and dead rotting garbage. National Geographic photographers have watched a vulture watch a highway casualty up to four hours to make sure it is dead.
After the courting season of the eagles, they fly different places looking for a place to build their nest, looking for the perfect place, to be not only healing for the Mother Eagle, but birth and life for the babies.
In the book of Jeremiah we learn that they find the location in the crevice of a rock, high
on a mountain.
Jeremiah 49:16 (God speaking)
Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.
Three more months they build their nest. It has been known that an eagle has carried her weight, matched her weight with a large branch and even more weight because they have carried heavy logs and branches earlier in their lives, practicing for these days.
The nest lasts for fifty years, but they have to add to it, because of the previous births, and the storms have weathered it also.
Sometimes our nest gets affected by our storms in life. Sometimes you might be burdened or going through the worst turbulence ever, and you might cry in every room. We love our nest, our home. Why? Even though something has ruffled it, upset it, it’s still our nest. It’s still where we can keep our shoes on or go barefoot. It’s home.
The female eagle at a certain time will stay up there and the male eagle will continue to bring the materials to her and she weaves it altogether to make it sturdy and to complete the bottom part.
When the nest is finished the female eagle (and she knows the right time), she sits in the middle of the ten to twelve feet wide nest. Eighteen inches is the brooding pen area, and four feet deep is the base of this log-twig-made nest and she sits in the middle and she allows her body to molt and that takes 3 weeks to 3 months. In her molting she is restoring her energy. She makes her nest so cozy for her young. The male molts while he feeds her.
Deuteronomy 32:11-12
11As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. (Note: “Him” in this verse is Moses.)
God never turns His back on His children. You might think He has, but in the storms and tribulations He is there. God watches us and He watches how we handle these turbulences.
An eagle never migrates. She sticks with the stuff. In the winter of your life (and you may be going through that now) you can go through the storms for Jesus is there. God says, “Bring it to Me.”
NEST
Eagles will literally flutter over the nest of their young, much in the same position as the hummingbird. She is demonstrating for these young eaglets that those curious wings on theirs shoulders are made for something practical and useful. They are made for flying.
All the demonstrating usually doesn’t work. The Mother Eagle realizes that she has to stir up that nest. The eagle’s construction and ability are absolutely wonderful to ponder.
She not only builds a comfortable nest, but usually where critters cannot get to the nest. Some have tree branches interwoven into a large nest, in lofty, high places. After the large and strong materials are woven together and secure, because of where it is, then she puts leaves, straw, grass and feathers to make it warm and comfortable for her young.
I have read where one nest took 2 wagon loads of material and was 7 feet high and 6 feet wide on top, high on a cliff.
Baby eagles will not leave the nest until they have to. After all, why should they have to fly, they’re safe and secure and all their needs are supplied by the Mother and Father Eagle, so why leave the comfort zone? That little eaglet must grow up and fly as God intended it to do, so they must be forced from the nest at the right time in their lives before they ever even try to leave.
At the right time the Mother Eagle will stir up the nest, and it is always at the right time. She starts taking out some of the leaves, some grass and straw, feathers and the softer aspects out of that nest, until the thorns and thistles will stick through and it’s not nearly as comfortable as it used to be.
Then the Mother Eagle will get into the nest and if eagles could talk (I’m sure they can to each other), but if humans could understand, I can almost read the thought of the first one she chooses and selects and the little eaglet probably thinks: I’m glad Mom’s here, but something doesn’t feel just right and all the while that Mother nudges that little eagle over to the edge of the nest; there at the right time she just nudges him out of the nest.
He will fall, cascading, head over heels and probably thinking: Mother, why did you do that? I’m falling. And all the time that Mother is watching, never takes her eye off her offspring and if that little eaglet doesn’t catch hold of something or learn to fly the first time, the Mother Eagle will swoop down and catch him on her shoulders and take him back up and deposit him in the nest again, and she’ll repeat the process over and over again until it finally gets the idea that eagles are made to fly. They are built by God to fly. They are not made to stay in the comfort zone and in the nest all of their lives.
STORY
A story is told of a baby eagle that found its way into the yard with a group of baby chicks. As the eagle grew and the chicks grew and the eagle was shunned by the other creatures in the barnyard and what the little chicks found easy to do, scratching around and plucking up worms and seeds, the eagle found tough to do. With its pointed beak and sharp talons, and what the little chicks found hard to do, like flying over a log, the eagle found it easy to do, because he was made to fly. The little eaglet didn’t seem to know where he belonged.
One day a Mother Eagle flew and perched in a nearby treetop and gave that distinctive call of the wild. Restlessness stirred within the heart of that baby eagle and he knew he wasn’t comfortable. He knew that he was made for something better than living in a barnyard, but he didn’t know what it was.
Day after day the Mother Eagle came repeatedly and called that call of the wild and finally the baby eagle could take it no longer and he flew over the little fence and the Mother Eagle began to nurture that little eagle and teach it to fly, although it didn’t have the privilege of being in a nest.
An eagle does a beautiful thing before sunrise. She prunes her feathers. She takes every feather through her beak and exhales air through her beak and cleans each feather so that which was yesterday’s pollution will not contaminate her today.
Two great ways to refurbish our spirits in the Lord Jesus Christ is to get alone before the sun rises to gain strength for today by spending time with God in prayer or reading God’s Word.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
DEATH
Eagles always have a premonition of their death and they’ll fly away to some rock, always a rock, and they will fasten their talons onto that rock with a death grip and they’ll face the sun, the rising or the setting of the sun. Eagles die with their feet ON the rock and their face TOWARD the sun.
We can’t die as an eagle if we haven’t lived as an eagle. John Wesley said of the Christian people in his day, “Our people die well.” You don’t have to be old to die. Death doesn’t respect any age, but God makes it possible to die well through the “new birth”: the surrender of one’s heart through confession of sin. The A B Cs of the Gospel is ASK, BELIEVE and CONFESS.
Psalm 23:4-6
4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
MIRACLES
Abram/Abraham was one of God’s “eagles.”
In Genesis Chapter 12 God told Abraham to leave and go to a new country. In Genesis 13, he was one of the wealthiest men in the Orient.
Genesis 12:1-2 (God speaking)
1Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Genesis 13:2
And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold.
God had also told Abraham and Sarah that they would have an heir. Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah 90 years old. They could hardly believe it, but when the great “I AM” speaks you can circle it on your calendar. It’s going to happen. With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Mark 9:23 (Jesus speaking)
…all things are possible to him that believeth.
Mark 10:27 (Jesus speaking)
And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
You might think that it’s too late for your prayers to be answered. Never give up. God performs miracles, and He answers prayers.
There are “mountain top experiences” in our lives, as well as valley experiences.
Eagles build their nest on a mountain. I want to share with you some of the “mountain- top experiences “ that God has allowed the people in the Scripture to experience.
At Mt. Sinai God told Moses to remove his shoes. Moses later delivered the 10 Commandments. Joshua built an altar to the LORD on Mt. Ebal, Elijah on Mt. Carmel. Jesus preached, prayed, was tempted and died on a mountain.
The eagles live on the high mountain but they cannot get what they need up there. They have to get it somewhere down here on earth: twine, leaves, roots and return and to the mountain, go through the turbulence, rise above it and live where God wants them to live.
It is the going up and the going down in life and the Holy Spirit saying I want to lift you up, but you have to go down. Pride must go, and sometimes we might feel that we’re carrying a heavy beam or log, and you might think How can I ever carry that? but you’ve grown in the Lord.
KEEPING OUR EYES ON JESUS
In the events of the last couple years if the Holy Spirit is telling us anything, I believe He’s telling us to keep our eyes upon Jesus…”Look full into His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the Light of His glory and grace.”
“God’s eagles” can sense things and perceive things that others cannot see and perceive. God has not promised us exemption from trials and from storms but God has promised us a safe landing for those who trust in Him. When you get weary in well doing, and you don’t know what to do, get alone, get secluded, away from the humdrum things of life, alone with God and renew that strength and you’ll mount up with wings as eagles.
Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.
Yes, there will be wind and there will be storms, but the “wind” of life and the “storms” of life cannot destroy God’s children.
We should be aware of God’s love and care.
Psalm 33:18
Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
Matthew 10:29-31 (Jesus speaking)
29Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
The Mother Eagle teaches her young how to fly and become mature. She swoops down to catch the little eaglet if it doesn’t learn to fly the first time and it falls and she takes him back up and repeats the process over and over until he learns to fly, because he was made to fly.
Jude 1:24-25
24Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Notice how the Eagle will not turn its back on its mate or little ones, and how our Lord tells us in
Hebrews 13:5-6
5Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 6So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
