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Destined To Be Eagles The Lord created us to "rise up on wings like the eagle" (Isaiah 40:31 NASB). Yet many people end up living their entire life as chickens that endlessly scratch out a limited existence in a chicken coop. Years ago I discovered the following story that poignantly captures what can happen if we don't embrace our destiny and we lose our freedom to be eagles…
Once there was a man who found an eagle's egg and put it into the nest of a prairie chicken.
The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All of his life the eagle,
thinking he was a prairie chicken, did what prairie chickens do. He scratched in the dirt for
seeds and insects to eat. He clucked and cackled. And he flew in a brief thrashing of wings
and a flurry of feathers, no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that is how
prairie chickens were supposed to fly. It is profoundly sad to consider that the Father's sons and daughters can live and die and never experience living like an eagle. What is life like for people who live in a chicken coop? They just survive. I find it interesting that in the world of nature, eagles are called the king of birds. Yet the Bible also refers to us as royalty because we are a "kingdom and priests to our God who will reign upon the earth" (Revelation 5:10 NASB). And royalty don't scratch around on the ground and settle for the bare minimum of life. They don't just survive. People who live like they are confined to a chicken coop have no vision beyond the everyday necessities of life. So they face each day without a rewarding sense of purpose or passion. They wander aimlessly (Proverbs 29:18 NASB). What makes life worthwhile dies a slow death inside of them. They also don't slow down and wait to see which way the Lord is going or how He is leading them. They are so driven to move on to the next place where they think they are supposed to be, that they dash here and there, just like chickens do. In doing so, they miss God's best for them. What are eagles like? They rise far above the ground and see life from a broad perspective. They also know how to wait for the right moment to soar. For this reason the Word tells us that those who wait for the Lord will find new strength. They will rise up on wings like an eagle (Isaiah 40:31 NASB). I once watched an eagle on a branch that was high in a lofty tree on the shore of Orcas Island. For one hour I carefully observed it. Much to my amazement, it didn't move except for a slight turning of his head. His piercing eyes gazed regally at the late afternoon sky and the placid waters of the Puget Sound that stretched before him far below. From that place of calm and rest, where not even his wings fluttered, he eventually caught a wind current and glided effortlessly up into the sky. One of the greatest skills an eagle saint must learn is how to wait gracefully, peacefully and expectantly, like the eagle that was perched on that high place. Therefore how encouraging it is to ponder this statement…
"Waiting does not diminish us any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are
enlarged in waiting. We don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we
become and the more joyful our expectancy" (Romans 8 MESSAGE). Another characteristic of eagles is that storms don't intimidate them. They actually use the turbulence to their advantage. Catching the wind currents with their wings, they rise up far above the turmoil below them. The great missionary statesman, E. Stanley Jones, once had this experience while he watched an eagle in the high Himalayas of India…
Jones had hiked up to an eagle's nest that was built high on a rocky crag. As he watched an
eagle perched there, Jones noticed a fierce storm working its way up the valley. He wondered
what the eagle was going to do. What E. Stanley Jones experienced is exactly what happens to us if we live earthbound like chickens, rather than rising up on wings like an eagle. We are mercilessly buffeted by every disconcerting wind and battered by every troubling storm. There is also an agelessness about eagle saints. People who think like those who are in a chicken coop are old at twenty. They are quick to say, "I can't." So they don't even try. They are bound by their narrow view of life and are resistant to the Spirit of the Lord challenging them to reach for higher and better places in Him. They hold on to what is safe, what makes sense and what is comfortable. Yet those with the perspective on life of an eagle are young at eighty. In the face of challenging stretches, they are quick to say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13 NASB). Due to this eagle mindset, their "youth is renewed like the eagle" (Psalm 103:5 NASB). They readily yield to God changing them "from glory to glory." No matter how difficult it may be at times, they are willing to go beyond what they are accustomed to when the Spirit of the Lord challenges them to stretch and grow. Any price they must pay is worth the "prize of their upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14 NASB). When the Father sees us thinking like a person living in a confining, death-producing chicken coop, He urges us to go beyond the familiar and the comfortable. This prodding is not from a harsh taskmaster who demands of us what we can't do. He doesn't expect so much that He discourages us. The nudging from the Lord to soar to new heights in life is from a kind, caring Father who loves us more than anyone else ever could. He's a Dad who wants the absolute best for us. All our lives the enemy of our soul tries to do whatever he can to keep us confined to the limiting, defeating chicken coop. The devil knows that when we grasp the glorious destiny God has for us as eagle saints, he is decisively defeated in his attempts to kill God's plan for us. All the demons of hell are very much aware that once we are set free to soar like an eagle, we will do irreparable damage to the kingdom of Satan and we will be used mightily to advance the Kingdom of God. In the face of such determined opposition to our destiny, the Lord comes along "like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young. He spreads His wings and carries us aloft on His pinions" (Deuteronomy 32:11 NLT). Safe on His wings, we have the courage to soar with Him like an eagle in flight. In that place of rising up, we are revived in our confidence that we can reach for the impossible. On the wings of the Lord we are inspired because He "encourages us and gives us the strength we need" (Psalm 138:3 NLT). The following quote by Theodore Roosevelt captures another difference between the eagle and the thinking of a person in the chicken coop… "Far better it is to dare mighty things and win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." Eagle saints are risk takers. They are willing to "dare those mighty things" even when it means they may fail. They will not allow the fear of failure to rule their lives. They cling to the grace of God and this frees them to try new things. What if we put our whole heart and soul into a direction and it doesn't work? Whenever we move forward with our dream, that is the risk we have to be willing to take in order to live as one who rises up on wings like an eagle. And whenever we are tempted to pull back and not even try, the following anonymous quote is well worth considering…
"I would rather attempt to do something great and have it not work, Noah was a risk taker. He invested one hundred and twenty years building a huge houseboat in a place where there was no body of water and it had never rained. I can't imagine how devastating it would have been for him if nothing had happened after over a century of trusting God for what didn't make sense. Yet, Noah was willing to take that risk and his inspiring story is now etched for all time in the history of mankind.
Peter was another risk taker.
He said yes to Jesus when the Lord invited him to get out of the boat and come toward Him. Peter's leap of faith didn't fully succeed. He did look down and sink and he needed to be rescued. Yet it is far better that he tried, even though he sank, than be unwilling to try because he didn't want to face the possibility of failure or take the chance of looking like a fool in front of the other apostles. The worst thing that can happen to us is not that what we attempt doesn't work, but if we don't try at all. We also can't lose if we try and we don't succeed. Whatever we learn from taking that courageous step always enriches our life in the next place where the Father takes us. Whenever I have struggled with attempting something due to the very real risk that it might not work out, I have reflected on this true story that I heard years ago…
A survey was taken of people in a home for elderly people. Each of them knew that their days
of living on their own were over. There was no backing up for them to what life used to be and
they all knew it. This was their last stop before life ended for them. The message of this story has often compelled me to press forward, rather than shrinking back from the possibility of something not succeeding. The sobering reality is that those elderly people would give anything to be at an age again when they could try the things that they didn't have the courage to pursue when they were younger. As for me, when I get to the end of my life, I don't want to be someone who is haunted by that irreversible regret. I don't want to feel that I passed up any opportunities to be a Kingdom Risk Taker because I decided to cling to the safe familiarity of life in the chicken coop. And when my life passes before me, I want to find comfort in knowing that I lived life to the fullest as an eagle who learned to soar. If you long to live your life more like that eagle, then the Spirit of the Lord is speaking these same challenging words to you that He ministered to me years ago when I was tempted to retreat from freedom and walk back into the chicken coop…
"My child, draw close to Me and totally cast yourself upon My grace. |
