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“…the
eagle mounts up…and makes its nest on high…It dwells on
the rock, and resides on
the crag of the rock and stronghold. From there it spies out the prey;
its eyes observe from afar."
Job 39:27-28).
She
began the upward climb to the eyrie with the prey
encaged in her strong talons.
She had three hungry eaglets awaiting her return and she would not be
deterred in her homeward flight. The eaglets had not
yet fledged, so they were totally dependent on their
parents for survival. Home is a nest that may have been
used again and again, being repaired so that it may be
as much as nine feet in diameter and weigh as much as
two tons.
Her beak
will be used to slice the prey into serving sizes for
her babies, but it is delicate enough for
grooming and for feeding her dependent family. She and her mate are
protective of their territory
of up to one to two square miles. They have mated for
life and together care for their growing
family. They are so protective that they will ball
their talons while on the nest to protect their
young--the same razor talons what have caught their dinner in their
grasp.
God’s
care for us has been likened to the eagle caring for its
young. Like the infant eaglets, we are helpless to save
ourselves and are totally dependent on God’s redemptive
care for us.
His judgment is fierce toward those who reject his Son,
as the talons of the eagle; but He is equally tender and
protective of His own, nurturing us, feeding and
providing for our individual needs.
We are totally safe in His “eyrie” as we grow in Him and
“fledge” to maturity.
In about
ten to thirteen weeks, the day will come when the
eaglet’s down will be replaced with
feathers. It’s time to fly. The parent eagles will fly to the nest with
food as the babies call
for their meal but will fly on by the nest just out of
reach without dropping the prey they have
caught. The young will beat their newly feathered wings
and scream as the parents come in
closer but move away to encourage them to fly. Until
they are brave enough to fly, they will look around the
nest for old scraps of carrion and pull off strips of
the dried carcasses. They might
find a beetle or some dried up leftovers to try to avoid taking flight for
food.
Sometimes, God allows us to feel deserted to encourage
us to venture out into the unknown that
He has called us to. We don’t like the uncertainty and
newness. We like our comfortable nest
where we are being hand fed and need to take no chances
on what lies just beyond the door God
has opened for us. We look around and see everything is so familiar and
we don’t want to leave it,
so we just feed on scraps and miss the banquet. Those
who truly seek to follow the Lord, however,
will try their wings with confidence in their flight instructor.
Airborne
at last, lifted by the wind, sailing across the valley
and making a clumsy landing, the
fledgling finds that the parent eagle has dropped it a
morsel of food. A reward for its efforts and
an encouragement to try again when it needs to take
flight. Christians don’t just jump out of the
nest into great success. Most of us would not know what
to do with instant success and wouldn’t
know how to handle it if it happened. Our lives are made of one flight at
a time--“line upon line, precept upon precept”--as we
learn how to stand on the Word and trust God for our
early flights.
While
learning the principles of flight and gaining wing
strength, the eaglets will stay close to
the nest for a month or more while venturing out on
short flights as their feathers grow stronger,
still being fed mostly by their parents. They are
learning how to hunt by watching their parents.
They have all the instincts but haven’t developed the
skills needed to be on their own.
Moses
had the instinct of a leader forty years before he had
the skills needed to lead the
captive Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage. He thought he
was ready and presented himself to his brethren who were
not ready for him. After killing the Egyptian for
abusing one of his enslaved brothers, he had to flee to
the desert which was God’s training ground for him for
the next forty
years. God knows when we are ready to undertake what He has called us to
do. We may “feel
the urge” long before we are ready to embark on the
task. That is God’s way of luring us to
prepare, to hone our skills and talents He has given us
to complete the job – in his time.
It took
time for the young eaglets to produce seven thousand
strong, flexible, hollow feathers that
they would need for prolonged flight and protection from cold and heat.
The adult feathers were essential to trap layers of air
that they could open or close as needed to adjust the
temperature
of their bodies. We learn as God teaches us from His
Word how to develop our abilities He has
given us to “fly.” We learn how to turn on and how to turn off our
emotions so that we are sensitive
to Him but not motivated by them. He has our flight pattern and will
reveal it as we mature and
learn by watching, listening and applying every lesson
we have. Some of our lessons come to us through our
mistakes, but they are valuable if we use them properly.
Some
eaglets don’t survive their first flight. They don’t
develop the skills needed to fly or to hunt. Some
Christians quit when the going gets tough, instead of
learning and pursuing the next
experience. God will never abandon us! Some of us need
more lessons and more time to reach maturity than
others. And God knows that. He doesn’t have a “clone
machine.” We are
individuals that He watches over individually with much
grace and mercy in Divine patience.
Eagles
don’t migrate to warmer temperatures, only for food. We
can’t be ready to jump ship if the atmosphere doesn’t
suit us. We just need to follow the food. Our agenda
isn’t necessarily God’s.
If we prepare our agenda and lay it out before the
Lord for His approval, He may or may not
accept it. We don’t quit using our minds, but we do
surrender our thoughts and aspirations
to His will. Then we can take up His agenda and fly to heights never even
imagined.
Eagles
know how to ride thermals and can do so up to 30 miles
per hour. They ride the rising
currents of warm air and updrafts. The mature long,
broad wings are suited for soaring. Their
creator took everything into consideration that they needed for flight.
To help reduce turbulence,
the wing tip feathers are tapered and widely separated. To assist them as
they soar, they use the thermals and use very little
wing flapping, conserving energy. When traveling for
long distances,
they climb high in a thermal, glide down to catch the next thermal and the
next, etc.
It is
wonderful to soar with God’s “thermals.” When we are
walking in the anointing of the Holy
Spirit, it just seems that whatever we do is easier. If
we stay there too long, we would be
tempted to think we had achieved our own success. Many successful
ministries have fallen into
that trap and “their” ministries plummeted into a great
fall and disgrace. When the thermal gives
out, God lets us drift downward to realize that it is He
who provided the “thermals” that allow
us to soar.
When
early settlers came to our shores, the eagles ruled the
skies. Eventually fishermen and
fox farmers claimed that the eagles were robbing them of their livelihood
and the territorial
legislature put a bounty on them in 1917. It was repealed in 1953, but
128,000 had been killed;
and finally in 1973 they were protected by the Endangered Species Act.
When our forefathers
settled in this country, they “ruled” it with the rod of
God. Over time, organizations like the
ACLU have tried to strangle the very name of God from
our country. We have become an “Endangered Species” as
more of us have taken a back seat and allowed God’s
Commandments
and prayer to be eliminated from government and
schools. The “anti-Christ” spirit in this
country has entered the godless with claims that their freedom has been
threatened and
robbing them of their right to reject God. Christian
“tolerance” and complacency have shot
down Christian principles that once reigned over America; and we, with a
bounty on our heads,
will be subject to legal repercussion if we persist in
putting God first and allowing His
kingdom’s laws to reign over us.
The Bald
Eagle Protection Act of 1940 protected them from being
shot down, but pesticides
destroyed their eggs. By 1960 only about 400 breeding
pairs were left. There is a
definite Satanic move to “destroy our eggs” – our children. With drug and
alcohol use invading younger and younger children, as
well as promiscuity among younger and younger children,
our next generation is about to become an “endangered species.” Laws have
been passed to
protect the eagle from man’s destruction while “spirits in high places”
are breaking down every protective act God established
for the nurturing of our “eggs (children).”
Due to
the laws protecting the eagles, there are now 6,000
pairs of breeding eagles. Isn’t it time
that we instituted God’s laws and enforced them to
protect the next generation from the aftermath
of Spiritual lawlessness? Just as the eaglets observed
and learned from the behavior of their
parents, the youth of today need adult role models in
the home, in the schools and in the
churches—and, yes, in the government--that they can
cling to and survive to maturity and soar
the way God intended.
An
example from the “Blue Letter Bible” commentary give
this example: An interesting
illustration is thus recorded by Sir Humphrey Davy. “I
once saw a very interesting sight
above the crags of Ben Nevis. Two parent eagles were
teaching their offspring, two young birds,
the maneuvers of flight. They began by rising from the
top of the mountain in the eye of the sun.
It was about mid-day, and bright for the climate. They at first made
small circles, and the
young birds imitated them. They paused on their wings, waiting till they
had made their flight,
and then took a second and larger gyration, always
rising toward the sun, and enlarging their circle
of flight so as to make a gradually ascending spiral.
The young ones still and slowly
followed, apparently flying better as they mounted; and they continued
this sublime exercise,
always rising till they became mere points in the air, and the young ones
were lost, and
afterwards their parents, to our aching sight.”.
“But
those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not
faint.”
(Isaiah 40:31 NKJV)
God will
honor His Word. He wants us to honor Him. He reminded
the Israelites that
“I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself”
(Exodus 19:4 NKJV).
“As an
eagle stirs up its nest [making it uncomfortable],
Hovers
over its young [as it ventures out to learn to fly],
Spreading out its wings, and taking them up
[protecting],
Carrying
them on its wings [until its wings are strong enough to
carry itself]”
(Deuteronomy 32:11 NKJV).
A
rancher, who had been hunting in the mountains of West
Texas, came across an eagle’s nest
up high on a cliff. He took one of the eagle’s eggs back to his ranch and
placed it under one
of his hens sitting on her eggs. Eventually the eagle’s
egg hatched. The mother hen took care
of the eaglet along with her baby chicks who hatched at the same time.
The eagle made its home
in the barnyard along with the chickens. It ate, slept
and lived just like the chickens. One day an
eagle from the nearby mountains swooped down over the
barnyard in search of prey. Trying to
get her chicks and the eaglet to safety, the mother hen squawked loudly.
As the great eagle
swooped low across the barnyard he also let out a harsh
scream—a scream made only by eagles.
The young chicks heeded their mother’s warning, but
the eaglet responded to the call of the eagle.
He took flight and ascended, following the eagle to
the mountain heights. We belong to God
and our hearts cry “Abba Father!” when He calls to us.
(From “Breakfast with God”)
He is
calling. Will we hear and heed His call to us or will
be become an “endangered species”
and our “eggs” destroyed by the poison being sprayed by
individuals and organizations
determined to remove God’s name from the earth?
It is
said that eagles shed feathers in the early spring and
with fresh plumage assume the
appearance of youth....Arise! Molt! Be renewed! Protect the eyrie! Soar
to Divine heights!
Delores
Adams
Copyrighted. All rights reserved.
September 27, 2003
As An Eagle Notebook
Alice's Legacy
Remembering Alice
The "Handkerchief" has been
anointed and prayed over by several believers who care
about
you and want to help you realize your full potential in
Christ Jesus Our Lord.
~The
Ten Commandments~
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