God says ‘I am like an eagle that carries you on wings of deliverance.’ (Ex. 32) Isaiah says “those who hope in the Lord… will soar on wings like eagles (40:31). Some eagles’ wings can be nearly 7 feet across. The ‘bald eagle’ rides on columns of rising air and can average speeds of 30 miles per hour. With wings like that, isn’t it obvious eagles were born to fly?
There is no bird more dissimilar from the eagle than a barnyard chicken. Chickens are quite content being earthbound and confined. Even when a chicken tries to fly, he barely gets more than a few feet off the ground! Since we possess a ‘heavenly’ spirit, there is something wrong if we are satisfied with the comfort and familiarity of earth. Created to fly like eagles, we cannot be content unless we soar in the wide-open spaces of the heavens.
Jesus said “I am from above.” Even so, we too are “born from above” and possess an innate desire to soar above the earth. I know what someone is saying right now. In your circumstances, it seems like God has clipped your wings and cooped you up. But if you will set your mind on things above and stop thinking about things on earth (Col. 3:2), you will soon be soaring like an eagle.
Greg,
ReplyDeleteEagles are not above consuming chickens if their normal diet is scarce. They are, after all, bird of prey. So chickens have an innate fear of any large bird flying overhead (an eagle's size obviously fits).
The enemy of our life has played "bait-and-switch" with many of us who have become fearful of what it means to soar like an eagle. In the captivity of our own making--our romance with our flesh, the world, and the realms of darkness--we find ourselves in a kind of "hall of mirrors" in which our enemy has inserted an image of a chicken, with sound effects and everything to convince us of our "chicken-ness." And we buy into it. Even the thought of becoming an eagle again is threatening because we know that eagles might eat chickens. (We forget that chickens will peck each other to death when the stress gets too high!...go figure)
But we ARE eagles that are made to look like chickens in our own eyes! We are designed to soar in the upper altitudes, above the clamor of the barnyard, making our home in heights of the mountaintops! In our need to see the reality of who we are in Christ we truly needs our eyes, our ears, and our heart to be re-oriented to the image of what God sees we are--EAGLES!
2 Cor.10:4,5 gives a glimpse into the process we need to open ourselves up to for our transition from chickens to eagles. We get to participate in this process; everything that can be done for us has already been done! Now we must engage our minds to receive the truth of our true identity!